Title: John 20 - Resurrection
By: Todd Bevins
If you would open your Bibles to the book John’s gospel this morning. It is good to see each and every one of you here. It is good have my most favorite brother-in-law here, mother-in-law, sister-in-law. We appreciate them very much. All the others that here, we appreciate you too.
I want to talk to you this morning about the resurrection and we will do that here in just a few moments.
As we look at John’s gospel chapter 20, if you could, would you please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We are going to start in verse 10.
John 20
10 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Let’s pray. (Prayer)
Intro
Joseph had mentioned that a moment ago, and I had thought the same thing. If you are here today, then you are not here just mere chance. You are just not here because it happened that way. You are here because there is a God in heaven who orchestrates things, and He works things out, and He puts people where they need to be and when they need be there. Therefore, you are here this morning for a reason, whether you understand that or not. The things that I will say this morning—You don’t have to believe me. You don’t have to believe anything I say this morning. You can reject, but keep one thing in mind. There is one thing about it. What I am going to say, if you reject it; you can do that but know this, what I am telling you is truth whether you reject it or not. What you are going to hear this morning will be truth and nothing but the truth, and it is from the Word of God.
Christian Behavior
I want to take just a few moments and talk to you this morning about why it may appear that we are crazy. Christians are crazy. Why do they do what they do? Why do they go as often as they go? Why do they act like they do? Why do they stand up and raise their hands? Why do they cry? Why do they do all these things? To one that may seem silly that doesn’t know Christ. I can understand that. Here is what you don’t understand.
Let me tell you why we do what we do. Let me explain to you why we behave like we behave. I was thinking about friendship. I have had a lot of good friends over my life. I have had a lot that I can count on. I have had some that let me down. I have had some that has been there and some that said they wouldn’t be there and they weren’t. I’ve had all of that. I thank God for it. Do you know what? I had one friend that went way beyond what anybody could ever have done. I have one friend—do you know what he would do? I am going to tell you. I am going to use Chuck Swindoll, if you will, for just a few moments to describe you and talk to you about the words and how he describes Matthew 27:27-50 in just a few moments. I want you to listen about this friend of mine. He is not only mine, but all those that know Him, all those that have received Him; He is their friend too. He is more than just a friend. You are going to find that out. I don’t know of any friend that would go through the magnitude that He went, to make sure that I would be okay, that I would be taken care of, that I would know Him and know Him personally, and be able one day to go to heaven and be with Him forever.
Why?
Listen to what happens. I want to talk just a few moments, about what He did for us. First of all, we know Jesus came unto His own. We know that His own did not receive Him. Why did He come? Why was He born? Why did all of that take place? We know that man had a sin problem. We know that the fall of Adam and Eve from that time on down through the ages of time; man had a sin problem. Do you know what? If the sin problem wasn’t dealt with then guess what? Man would forever spend eternity in hell. He had no hope. There was no hope of getting away, no hope of being forgiven by a Holy and Righteous God. Praise God! Do know what Jesus did? Jesus was the very One that would come. The perfect Lamb of God that would come. Why? Why would He come? Because we needed a Savior. We needed a Redeemer. We needed somebody that could take away our sin, somebody that could be the perfect sacrifice who could not just take our sin away for a short time, but He could take it away forever. By the washing of His blood—I often say this. I have said it before and I will say it again. In speaking about Bryan Carmon, He used to say, “I don’t know how He could take a black heart, wash it with red royal blood and it come out white as snow. That is exactly what He has done.
We Needed a Savior
So, we needed a Savior. When He came, here is what I want you to understand; He wasn’t accepted by those in whom He created, nor was He accepted by the Jews. Even though they were told He was going to come, even though it was prophesied that the Messiah would come; they rejected Him. They were not interested. To them He was an imposter. Why was that? Because He taught against the way they lived, and the way they behaved. They did not like that. It brought in a new way and taught them. Do you know what? Mankind, as we looked at this morning in our Sunday School hour; mankind is to love each other. He is not to retaliate. He is not to hate. He is not to do all these things. They did not like that type of teaching. They said, “No, it is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.” Jesus said, “There is a better way to do things. It is through Jesus Christ. When He moves into your heart and life; you are able to forgive. You are able to move on. You are able to do the things that man can’t do within his own self.
Here is the thing, when you think about this; here He is. Here is what I want to talk about just for a few moments leading up to. We will probably just be an hour or two. So, hang in there. I’m just kidding.
Here is the thing I want you to think about. Why we are so nutty. Why do you think we are so crazy? Why we are the way we are. Here He is. Here is the One. He has already been rejected. They have already determined that they are going to crucify Him. They made a plan. That is exactly what they are going to do. Jesus knew that was going to happen. He has tried to let the disciples know. He has tried to let the others know. However, they did not fully comprehend or understand all of that. I want you to think about and listen as I try to slow down because I want you to grab ahold of what our friend did for us. What our Heavenly Father did for us. I want to talk about the scourging that you will read about and you can do that in your own time. Maybe later you will do just that.
Matthew 27:27-50
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
30 And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.
33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
36 And sitting down they watched him there;
37 And set up over his head his accusation written, This Is Jesus The King Of The Jews.
38 Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.
39 And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
40 And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
44 The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
49 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Scourging
Before the scourging began, here is what they did. This is one of the cruelest ways a man could die; and Jesus did. Listen to this. Before the scourging began, they were stripped of their clothes. They were bent forward over a low thick stump or post. At the base of that post there were four metal rings in which the wrists and the ankles would be shackled. I want you to take note that there were two different kinds of floggings, or two different kinds of scourging’s.
Deuteronomy 25:1-3
25 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.
2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
You will find out in Deuteronomy chapter 25:1-3, for the Jewish scourging’s; they were not allowed to whip, or to do more than 40 stripes. So, a lot of times, as they would swing, and as they would make their scourging’s and their slashings, they would make sure they counted everyone so that they would stop at 39 and wouldn’t go over. Listen to this. To the Roman scourging there was no amount. There was no amount of how many stripes they could get. That was the Roman scourging. Do you know what they called it? the name of it was called haft-way death. This is what our friend did for us.
Listen carefully. The soldier that would perform this act; he was called a lictor, if I said that correctly. He was a professional in the grim art of scourging. The whip was like a wooden, almost like a paint stick on the bottom or a broom handle, if you will. It was only yea long. It was round. On that were leather strips, and on those leather strips were sewn pieces of bone fragments, pieces of glass, metal, and other things that were on there. You would find out, as I was listening to him and he was talking about this study. I couldn’t hardly listen very well because my heart just wanted to explode. I couldn’t think about the fact of all He really did for us.
Here is what happens. It paints a picture in our mind. Here He is, the Lord of all glory. Here He is the very one, the sinless Son of God. Here He is naked. He is strapped. He is here over this log. He is here over this place. Here is this Roman Soldier who has this whip. Some call it the cat of nine tails. Others call it other things. The study of history tells us that he stands approximately six feet back. He rears back and slings it. It comes around to the right side. As it whips, it begins lashing around Him. The whole point was that it would cause lacerations and internal bleeding and other things. Also, it would rip the flesh from the body. As he would do that, he would swipe and he would come with one. I was listening to Chuck Swindoll and he said it would make a big thud sound as it would hit the back of the rib cage, as it would wrap around him.
Mind you. Think about something. This man is going to do this because He loves us. He did not do anything wrong. Scripture says guile was never found in His mouth. He never said anything wrong. He did not do anything wrong. He is in this position because if He does not do it, you and I are in trouble. You and I are going to have no hope. Here He is. His mouth is closed. He is not arguing. He does not fight His case. Rather here He is and they lash Him.
I was thinking about Swindoll, what Swindoll said; it becomes as a smooth stroke as it just continues to whip. He does one then he goes higher. Then he goes again, again, and again until they beat Him beyond recognition. They beat Him in the face. They spit in His face. They pulled the beard from His face.
My friend, again, I repeat this. Why would they do such a thing? Because He was a guilty man? Absolutely not! Because you and I are guilty. You and I have sinned. You say, you don’t know me. Listen. I don’t have to know you. You were born from Adam and Eve. From them all of us has come. The Bible says all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everybody needed a Savior regardless of whom they were. Here is the great thing, even though He knew how they would behave. He knew how I would behave. He knew what would happen. Praise God! He stood there and took it anyway. He took it anyway.
I listened to Swindoll. When he talked about and mentioned this. He talked about that a lot of people wouldn’t even make it past the post. They would have died there. He said, not only—we don’t want to fail to mention this—that they would stand there. I thought about there have been times—have you ever been cold? You tried to get your teeth to stop chattering. He talked about how he says, there is no doubt, his teeth were chattering. His body was quivering and shaking. Why? Because He was getting beat like you and I would never understand. He was taking a whipping like you and I can’t even fathom and even possibly comprehend. After all of this, not only would they continue the mockery. Not only would they shove the crown of thorns on His head. Not only would they make fun of Him. Not only would they ridicule Him and do all of that but they would want Him to try to carry what we come to understand somewhere around 200 pounds, part of a cross; just the horizontal part, not all of it. History would tell us it is 450 pounds so man could not carry it all. So, do you know what Jesus does? He takes the horizontal part. He carries it as far as he can. That is approximately around 200 pounds. As I thought about these things they are pushing Him along. They are going where? They are going to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Why? Because it is there that they are going to crucify our Lord. Why? Because He did something wrong? Absolutely not! He did nothing wrong.
Listen. If you today do not know Jesus Christ then I want you to understand this. It makes sense to us why it makes no sense to you as to why we are crazy. It makes all the sense in the world. We know why we feel the way we feel. The brother said earlier; why is that? It is because He lives in my heart. I know the behavior I had. I know the language that I used. I know the life that I lived. I know exactly who I was. I know exactly who I am today. When I can look back to a man—again, remember I told you in the beginning; you don’t have to believe it. That is okay. You can turn around and go your own way. You don’t have to believe it. I will tell you this. It does not change the fact that it is the truth. Here is the thing I want you to think about. I have said this before and I will say it again. It is so important is this. You are willing to risk, and lay…eternity on it. Think about it before you just walk away.
Here is the thing. When I think about it and I look back at the cross, and I look back at all that He did, and I think about all those things; I can’t help but to stand up when she talks about and sings about, He is an awesome God, a mighty God. He created the heavens and the earth. One day He is coming again. I can’t help but stand and raise my hands. Why? Because I know who I was. I know what I was. I know who I am. I know what He did for me. You say, how is that? Because I believe in my heart that He is and was without question or doubt, the sinless Son of God. I was the one He was taking the beating for. I was talking to a man earlier this week and talking about some things. We got to talking about the Lord and how great that He was. I said isn’t it something how that He makes all of us feel so special. We all would say one to another; He has been better to me than He has been to anybody else. How can we say that? Because He is God, and He has been. We feel that way. In reality, He has been good to us all.
If you are here this morning and unsaved, guess what? He has been good to you, whether you want to acknowledge Him for that or not is irrelevant. The thing of the matter of it is this. He has still been good to you. Here is the thing. There is the introduction. I hope you enjoyed it.
Dan held me back for a few days. I was trying to figure out why. I guess he was winding me up so I could get ready.
Explaining John 20
I think about John 20. We look here. We have talked about why. We have talked about it. I did not cover it all. I just hit it in bits and pieces. I promise you. You go back and do some studying yourself. Listen to Swindoll and some of these others talk about what our Lord went through. If you can sit through that and it not bother you, and it not break your heart, or want to glorify God then listen to me. Something is badly wrong. Here is the thing. The thing of it is this. I am glad—I hate it had to happen that way. However, I am so thankful that it did. Furthermore, if it would have ended there then He would have just been a great man. He would have been a good guy.
However, it did not end there. He came with a purpose and He came with a plan. He came to fulfill all the jots and tittles of the law. He came to fulfill all that God had commanded with intent that one day when they would nail Him to a cross and bury Him in a tomb. He would rise again. Why? For the justification of our sins. That He might present to a Holy and righteous God the once for all sacrifice that would cover our sin eternally. Praise God. Regardless of nationality, regardless of color, kindred, or type, regardless of their conduct or who they were. He said, I am going to go for all of them. There is not one that will be left out. Guess what? That includes you. It is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I don’t care the life that you have lived. I don’t care what you have done. Christ died for you. I don’t care the behavior you have. I don’t care about any of those things. I don’t care about your upbringing. Christ died for you!
John 20:1
Here it is in John 20, the beginning part. I want you to think about this.
1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
The first thing I want you to notice is this. Mary Magdalene was at one time in her life and very sinful woman. Guess what? When Jesus passes by, He always makes a difference. He changed her life. She was not longer the same. Here it is. It tells us:
John 20:1-4
1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
John gets there first. Dan mentioned this the other night just briefly. He talks about John, how he gets there. However, John does not go in. I visualize Peter. There is a lapse in the age here, probably 20 years or so. I am not exactly sure. I thought my goodness, if I had to run; anybody could outrun me. Here they are. They run. They got the news that He isn’t there. I know Mary Magdelene—and John just focuses on her and that is what we are going to do. There were other women there. Here is the thing. She goes back. The first thing that comes to her mind is “He’s gone!” She doesn’t think about the fact that He has risen from the grave. She thinks somebody took Him. She thinks somebody has gone out to hide Him. Why? Because they had already said, “We have to get some Roman guards out there in case anybody tries to come and get Him. We don’t want them to do that and say, He’s Alive because He was saying He was King of the Jews. We don’t want any disturbance like that.
Listen: they didn’t know who they were dealing with. They were dealing with the one who was giver of all life. He was the One who was sustainer of all life, the source of all life. He was the One; if His life was taken then guess what? He gave it. If He did, He could raise it up again. He had that kind of power.
We find out here: is this. It says they run down there and they both run together.
John 20:5-6
5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
I like every time I have read that over the twenty-some years, I like to visualize old Peter just blowing right by him, and running on in there. Why? Peter wants to get a good look at what was going on. You see, Peter had a little bit of trouble and had some things happen. I am certain that he is probably troubled about them.
You see, he was told that he was going to deny the Lord three times. Do you know what Peter thought? That is not going to happen. That will never happen. The Lord knew him better than he knew himself. That is exactly what Peter did. I have no doubt that until he would talk with the Lord, there on that shore that Peter’s heart was troubled. He was bothered by what he had done. Little did he know that our Heavenly Father knew all about him. Little did he realize how loving and how kind our Heavenly Father was going to be.
That is the thing about today. Do you know what the problem is a lot of times with folks. They get hung up on where they have been. They get hung up on what they have done. They get hung up on the lifestyle they have lived, or the language they have used, or what they are not, or what they thought they should be. They look at all these things. Do you know what the enemy convinces them in their mind? God wouldn’t want you. God wouldn’t forgive you.
I am here to tell you this morning, that God does love you. God said you go ahead and chain me down here at this whipping post. You go ahead and do what you need to do. I will take the lashings for them because they are more than worth it. I love them that much that I will go through whatever it takes, even to the grave because they are worth everything that I will face, every weight of sin that will come upon me. He says, they are worth it all. I will take it all, and I will bear it all so that they might have a hope that reaches way beyond this veil of tears.
Kate mentioned not only us, but also others that have loved ones that are already over. I am glad for the promise. Had Christ not risen from the grave, we would go to the grave and that would be it. There would be no comforting of our sorrow, our grief. Praise God! There is a hope that reaches beyond this veil of tears because Christ said, I will come. I will do it all. Then praise God, I am going to play with that boy again. One of these days I am going to see my grandmother. One of these days you are going to see your loved ones, only if you know Christ as your personal Savior. If you don’t know Him, then you are not going. I would love to tell you otherwise. I would love to tell you that you could do this or that, or try this out, or try that. Friend, if you don’t accept Christ, hell will forever be your home. If you leave this world that way, that is exactly where you are going. You say, well that is not very nice. You are not very kinds. It is not my responsibility to be nice or to be kind. My responsibility is to tell you the truth. In the truth is kindness. In the truth is love. My friend, in the truth is exactly what we need. That is this: we need Christ and Christ alone.
As John goes in—I want to cover just a few more things. He says this:
John 20:6
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
When you read that word, seeth, in the King James version, when you read it in the original; it brings out the idea that Peter is in here and he is looking real intently. He is studying things. It looks a little off here. He is trying to figure it out. What is going on? As He looks around. John goes on to tell us in verse 7:
John 20:7
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Think about something just for a moment. Let’s think about how they embalmed Him. They would take spices, ointments and different things; they would wrap the body in this mummy-like clothing or thin-like cloth. As they would wrap it in layers, they would put those spices and different things in there. Do you know what you would find out? Over time, those things would harden. Over a little bit of time, they would harden. The embalming process had not been finished. What I want us to understand is this. It hadn’t been finished yet. This is why they are coming. This is why they are there.
Also, I want to say this quickly. The tomb wasn’t rolled back to let Jesus out. It was rolled back so we could see in. We could see in and see that He is not there. That is exactly what happened.
So, as they go in and see these clothes; He is looking things over. If you were going to go in and you were going to steal a body in this time—how in the world would you had even got the clothes off? Studies would tell us that it would have had to have been cut. Even if not, it would have been torn. It would have been taken off. It would have been taken off.
A lot of times—Katie gets after me so much—I take my clothes off, and swish, there they go. I just throw them down. You don’t worry about placement anywhere.
Graveclothes
Do you know what? As you look at the graveclothes that were there, it was still in the same shape of His body. Do you know what He did? He just came right out of them. It was like He just evaporated right out of them. As he is studying this, and looking at this; He begins looking at the napkin or headpiece that was about His head. I want you to think about this. Here it is, the headpiece that was wrapped. They are looking and studying things over. You look at some of things; there are several different things here I want to mention about it. The orderly departure. When you are looking and talking about the headpiece that was wrapped, and there folded, set to the side; the neat arrangement of the linen clothes and the folded napkin suggests a deliberate and intentional departure, not a hasty one. This is consistent with the idea of Jesus’ resurrection being a purposeful and controlled event, not a chaotic one.
It is saying, when you look at this one of the things you can draw from this is talking about the orderly departure. This wasn’t just a mere fluke. He was in control all along. There was a time He could have called legions of angels and they would have come and got Him. There was never not a time that He wasn’t in control. When you pause to think about that just for a moment. Doesn’t that cause you, if you know Him as your personal Savior; to want to say, Lord, I love you so much.
You see, as He went through all of that, not one time was He unaware of what was coming, or what was ahead. Do you know why? Because He was in control of it all. He already knew.
Napkin: Symbol of the Return
Here is another one. Here is the symbol of the return, looking at the headpiece, or the napkin, if you will that is folded to the side. In some interpretations the folded napkin could symbolize that Jesus is not finished with His mission and that He will return in the future. This reinforces the Christians belief in the second coming of Christ. He is coming again.
Jewish tradition—the practice of folding a napkin after a meal can signify that the guest was not finished with the meal and was expected to return. Similarly, the folded napkin in the tomb can be seen as a sign that Jesus is going to return. Praise God!
Confirming Resurrection
The next two is this. Confirming the resurrection, the napkin is…the headpiece folded to the side; can also be looked at as confirming the resurrection. The folded napkin along with the empty tomb serves as further evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and His victory over the death. Jesus has been raised and He is alive.
Control
Here is the last one. Looking at the napkin, the headpiece folded to the side, can also be a sign of control. The orderly state of the tomb, including the folded napkin, suggests Jesus is in control and that His resurrection is a deliberate and purposeful act. In contrast with the chaotic and unpredictable nature of death. Jesus knew when He was going to die. When Jesus said it was time to die; that is exactly what happened.
He not only laid His life down for you and me; He gave of His life and He had the power to raise it up. He is alive and well today.
Answer to Why are we so different?
Therefore, to answer your question: Why are we so crazy? Why do you want to call us fanatics? Why do we cry? Why are we so excited? Why do we love coming together on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night; gathering together with other believers and congregating together, worshipping God? All because we think about what He has done for us. We know what He has done for us. We know. We believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is alive and well.
Only You can Choose
I will add this. If one does believe, and they find out when life was over that none of it was true; what do I have to lose anyway? He has still been good to me. I am going to tell you this. He is alive and well. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. Nobody can make that decision for you. Only you and you alone. There comes a time that you must forget about—I know it was true in my life—you must forget about what everybody else thinks.
I came to a point in my life that I said I don’t care what my brother thinks. Me and my brother was very close at the time in our lives. We were getting into a lot of orneriness. I had friends that I spent a lot of time with getting into mischief and being onery. There came a point when God brought about a series of events that brought me to a place where I said: I care less about what they think of me. I know where I am headed. If I die in this state, I am going to go to hell. I knew it. I knew it in my heart. The Spirit of God took the Word of God and began working in my life. It came to a place that I said; Praise God, I want you to be Lord of my life. Ever since then, I have never been the same.
I love what brother Dan says. I am going to use it this morning. I have never met a dissatisfied customer. Nobody has ever come to the Lord and regretted it. Nobody has ever come to the Lord and come to know Him personally and said, I wish I would have never done that. Nobody in their right mind has done that. Why? Because they found Him to be alive and well, and Him to be true and be exactly what He promised He would be. He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You tell me who you can find that would do what Christ has done for you. Number one, nobody could. I will tell you this. You wouldn’t find them even if it were possible. You couldn’t find them anyway. He is the One and Only, my friend, that do what He did for you and I.
Whether it is believed by all here in this auditorium this morning, or it is not; Christ is alive. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Whether it is believed by all or not; it does not change the truth. The truth is Christ died for all.
Come and be saved.