Growing in the Grace of God #09 - the Resurrection Covenant Part 1

Lord, we thank you for the great privilege you give us to come to you in prayer. And Lord, we all have great reasons, no doubt, I sure do, and no doubt all of us, great reasons to call upon your name tonight for strength, encouragement, direction, insight, comfort, cleansing, refreshing. And Lord, also burden on many of our hearts as we see families and cities all around us across the Southland devastated.

We lift up household units that have lost their houses, and loved ones who have, those who've been hit heavy like that, and others who are even threatened right now. And all the other things, Lord, that you know that nobody else knows that we need to seek you on. And we come asking you to do a wonderful work, Lord, just across the front, touching and working and encouraging where there's discouragement, humbling where there's pride, giving light and insight where there's darkness and confusion.

Above all, Lord, transforming your people to be more like you and equipping us to reach out to those who don't know you. And we know all of this, Lord, anchors into your heart of grace. And we pray now as we study your grace related to the resurrection, that you'll give us insight and even apply this strengthening life-giving truth to our hearts and lives.

Even tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, study number five, the resurrection covenant.

As we have been doing, we're taking time to look at major characteristics of this relationship of grace we have with the Lord in the new covenant. And again, the class is about growing in the grace of God. The grace of God is such a broadly applicable arena of truth.

And it touches some major areas of the new covenant. The whole covenant or arrangement with God is one of grace. There's some aspects of that covenant just stand out like last week, I believe it was the Holy Spirit covenant.

You take the Holy Spirit out of the new covenant, the whole thing is gone. Well, in this study, we're going to look at the fact that the new covenant is the resurrection covenant. It's just one of the characteristics of the new covenant.

It is linked into the resurrection. The new covenant gives us access to the divine, eternal life of our risen, victorious, triumphant living Lord. We'll take that basic truth and we'll apply it first, as we have done before, and we'll do again, apply it first to starting out with God.

In other words, we'll look at the resurrection and how it relates to justification. New birth through faith in Jesus Christ. It's all about God's gift of resurrected life.

Then we'll take this issue of the resurrection and the new covenant and apply it to going on with God, not just starting out with God, but the resurrection is critical and going on with God. Every Christian knows the resurrection is critical to starting out with God. No resurrection, no new life, no new birth.

But many, many Christians are not aware of, and sometimes if we're aware, we forget that the resurrection is also related to day by day living. The new covenant makes provision for the resurrection power of God to be at work in our everyday walk with God. We're not called upon to live a Christian life drawing on natural life, human life, even dedicated, zealous, committed human life.

God wants us to learn in the realm of walking by resurrection life. Resurrection in daily sanctification, in other words. The resurrection and how it has an impact potentially and is designed to in our walking with God day by day.

First of all, let's go to the first arena of the three we just suggested we'll look at. That is the resurrection and the new covenant. The resurrection is required in the new covenant.

It's essential to it. You can see it in so many places. We'll see a couple of them tonight.

Here's one basic one in the gospel. Luke 22, 14 through 20. When the hour had come, he sat down in the 12 apostles with him.

Then he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divided among yourselves.

For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. In this very central, fundamental time of the Lord Jesus Christ ministering to his disciples, revealing his mission again at a very, very special moment in the upper room, teaching of great things of the kingdom of heaven to come. He talked again about his suffering, talked about the cross.

He talked about his death. And though he was talking about his death, he used language like, I'll never eat this with you again until. I'll not drink this with you again until.

Strange language for someone dying, not if they're headed for the resurrection. It's just basic. It's just fits right into what the Lord was heading toward.

And then he spoke in this last verse we read at the sort of the climactic moment really of the Lord's supper at the last Passover that he instituted as the first Lord's supper. He spoke of the new covenant in his blood. The new covenant purchased for us by the blood of the Lord.

The new covenant of grace is how we relate to God. And it's based upon the reality and the work and the consequences of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that's woven in here, not in a necessarily systematic teaching, but some teaching of critical points, the bread and the cup, what they were about and his death coming.

And then the implied resurrection there just in the language the Lord is using right there. He's about to die. And he says, I won't do this again until the resurrection.

It's required for the new covenant to be what it is. As Luke 22 reminds us of the requirement, the necessity of the resurrection, Luke 24, verses five and seven, show us the resurrection accomplished. Luke 24, five through seven.

Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? These angelic messengers speaking to the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do you seek the living among the dead? There's a question to reflect upon in all kinds of directions. How many in this day and age are seeking the living among the dead? How many times have we gone searching for life in dead places? How much of the church world is seeking living things, but in an old letter of the law, dead way.

And just as you can't find the resurrected Lord in an empty tomb, you can't find life in dead places, whether it's human philosophy or ingenious psychology or dead religion. You just can't find it. Verse six, he is not here, but is risen.

One of the greatest pronouncements in all of the history of creation. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying, now they're being reminded of some of Jesus' teaching. The son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified.

And the third day rise again. And verse eight, and they remembered his words. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's living now in this point in the narration of the life of the Lord and the work of redemption.

He's living. He has risen. Verse six.

And they, they said to the followers of the Lord, remember, and then verse eight says, and they remembered his words. Often it's like that with us. We don't really remember sometimes what the Lord has been teaching us.

And still until the Lord takes us through the personal historic reality of it here, the resurrection he had taught and taught and taught about, you know, and they just missed it so often that it happened. It's like, Oh, that's what he was talking about. Really a resurrection.

Wow. You know, and often the Lord speaks to us, speaks to us, speaks to us. And we hear, and we, you know, we maybe get some of it or miss some of it.

And, and yet when he brings the pass, when he brings the bear upon our lives, that which he has been talking to us about, it's like, oh yeah, I remember those. I remember the Lord was talking to me about that for 20 years. Yeah.

So I remember that way and the Lord really has his ways, you know, of bringing home truth and reality. That's what the disciples were going through. They had heard along the way, resurrection was required here.

It is accomplished. Then in acts two, in that line of scripture, the resurrection is now going to be walked in and proclaimed, lived by and proclaimed. Acts chapter two.

Have you thought of this much, how much preaching and teaching there is in the book of Acts? Last time I was in Kiev in the Ukraine at Calvary Chapel, Kiev, there were a number of folks there out of the word of faith movement. And there were a lot of friends are trying to entice them into the kind of the charismatic churches in Kiev. It seems like they're everywhere in the world.

And the pastor wanted me to pray and speak into that. And I prayed about that. And what was on my heart was just to go through Acts.

And we must have looked at, I don't know, a hundred verses at Sunday mornings, a little bit of a marathon when you had to translate all of them, English to Russian, but just verses only that spoke of the word of God in the book of Acts. You know, think of Acts, you know, wind, fire, spirit, power, miracles. Yeah, absolutely a part of what God was doing as he was revealing himself there.

But, oh, the proclamation of the word, the spreading of the word and verses like, and the word of the Lord grew and spread rapidly. Well, what were they preaching and teaching all the time? The heart of it was the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter two, verse 24, speaking of Jesus whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

The preaching of the resurrection as they're now walking in resurrection life. Verse 31, he foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses, the proclamation of the resurrected Christ.

Chapter three, verses 14 and 15. But you denied the holy one and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses. And you shall be my witnesses when you receive power.

The spirit came and they start witnessing of the risen Christ. Chapter four, verse 33. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.

I love that verse. It sure fits our study. Great grace was upon them and it produced great power in their witness concerning the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

See, grace is not just an attitude God has of willingness to provide a way of forgiveness. Here's one of those verses that make it obvious. It's not just an attitude.

It's an enablement also. And great grace was upon them. That's language of empowerment from God.

Not a willingness to forgive, though we don't want to ever diminish that aspect of the grace of God. And by reminding that there's more, we don't want in any way diminish the glory of God's forgiving grace. But it's too easy to get in the mindset that that's only what His grace is about.

Not at all. That's just where it starts in our own personal experience and reality. Great grace was upon them.

That allowed them with great power to give witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 10. Look at one more.

Chapter 10, verses 39 and 40. Peter preaching at the home of Cornelius, a Gentile crowd gathered to hear the gospel of the Holy One of Israel. And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.

Him God raised up on the third day and showed Him openly. The bold proclamation. I mean, what a message.

Our Lord, our leader. It was prophesied. It was promised.

He spoke of it. He's risen from the dead. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

The resurrection is required in the new covenant. The resurrection was accomplished. Then the resurrection was walked in and proclaimed.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is basic. It is central to the gospel, which is another way of saying it's right at the heart of the new covenant. Let's look at First Corinthians 15.

Where we'll see some words about our resurrection victory as we relate the resurrection and the new covenant together. There's a resurrection victory available in the new covenant. But as we go into First Corinthians 15, let's let a few verses be added on this issue of the essentiality of the resurrection.

Verse 14, First Corinthians 15. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. No substance to faith if Christ is not risen.

Verse 17. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, pointless, brings nothing. You are still in your sins.

How many churches across the land, really around the world, talk about the resurrection as though it's just some sort of mythical story of hope and new beginnings. And they put, they chisel the name of Jesus Christ out in front of their building and marble or granite or some kind of stone. Well, what's going on in there, in that building is futile.

It's absolute vanity. It's talking about the one who can give resurrection life eternal. And yet speaking of him as though he never raised from the dead.

But, verse 20, now Christ is risen from the dead. That's our message and praise the Lord it is. Now in the end of this chapter on the resurrection, First Corinthians 15, 54.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, previous section of this chapter talking about the corruptible bodies that we have and the incorruptible ones will be given. When the incorruptible is put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Isn't that a great statement? Death is swallowed up in victory.

Death seems so enormous, so imposing, so overwhelming, no way to get around it, no way to deal with it. Well, it's swallowed up in the victory that is ours in Christ. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin.

It's sin that brings death. The sting of death is sin. It's sin that brings death.

And the strength of sin is the law. Why? Because the law says you sin. The law holds us accountable for that sin.

The strength of sin is the law. Because the law says you shall not sin, you shall be holy as God is holy. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God gives us his victory through the Lord Jesus Christ, our resurrection victory. Spiritual victory is a gift. It's victory over sin and death, particularly as described here in 1 Corinthians 15.

And we need to give thanks to God because he's the one who gives us the victory. And he does it through our Lord Jesus Christ. It isn't a victory we accomplish, it's a victory we receive and learn to walk in.

He gives us the victory. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. In light of who Jesus is and what he did, victory is available.

We don't accomplish it, we don't achieve it. We either believe it and receive it or doubt it and ignore it. I mean, we don't have a lot of options.

And if we believe it and receive it and learn more and more to walk in it, that victory will flavor our lives increasingly. If we're just battling through life and doing the Christian struggle on our own, we're not going to know the victory because it's a gift. It's not something you earn, achieve, or cause to come to pass.

It's one already won in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God's willing to give it to us, to share it with us. What a great verse. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory.

Victory comes to us through another person as a gift of the grace of God. Thanks be to God for that. Wonderful thing about that is every believer can walk in victory.

It's not some have a knack and some don't. Some just don't know how to get in there and fight, and others just get fought at. It's not that.

The victory is there for all of us. Thanks be to God who gives the victory. So really, no matter whether we feel as whipped as you could be, or as rambunctious as, you know, the flesh could ever get, ready to go, you know, tear down anything for God, still this victory is available the same way.

It's a gift from God to us through another person. And of course, the just shall live by faith, believing in that, counting on that. We'll talk more about that as we go along.

Second Corinthians 2.14 also speaks of this victory. Just a little bit further over in the next letter. Second Corinthians 2.14. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

Another thanks be to God verse. This is a great verse to tie in with 1st Corinthians 15.57. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

One, He's giving us victory to walk in. The other perspective is He's leading us in triumph. Thanks be to God.

Here's another reason to thank God. He always leads us in triumph in Christ. Now, that is, when we're letting Him lead, I mean, we can lead ourselves in all kinds of dead-end streets, you know, in doubt, fear, paying no attention to the Lord and what He said.

And there are times when we, like sheep, are taking over the guidance of our own path. And in those times, we're not being led in triumph. We're demonstrating how easily we can produce defeat.

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. Whenever the Lord is allowed to lead in our lives, whenever we look to Him to lead, here's how He does it. In triumph.

That is, in the resurrection victory that He achieved on our behalf through Jesus Christ the Lord. And we'll come back to this verse later when we start looking at characteristics of New Covenant living. We'll start up near here and go through a few chapters, verse by verse, in 2 Corinthians, the section that just concentrates on the New Covenant in this great epistle.

But it fits so well right here to get a picture. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

What glorious, victorious words. And they're all tied into the resurrection. The triumph that God leads us in is the resurrection victory of His Son.

Now, let's take these truths and perspective on the New Covenant. That is, it's a covenant of the resurrection. Our arrangement, our agreement, the arrangement God has made for us to walk in, is linked tightly into the resurrection.

The New Covenant, the resurrection, they go together hand in hand. You cannot separate them. Again, just like you take the Holy Spirit out of the New Covenant, the life is gone.

You take the resurrection out of the New Covenant, the victory, the resurrection life is gone. All right, now let's apply that to starting out with God. That is justification.

Then we'll turn and spend a bit more time on the resurrection and going on with God. Starting out with God, John 11. John 11, this great chapter on resurrection, the resurrection of Lazarus, but more critical, Jesus' declaration concerning Himself and this matter of resurrection.

Verses 25 and 26, you know, Martha had come to Him and was concerned about her brother gone and all if the Lord had been there and all that. And then verse 25, Jesus said to her, I am the one. Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

She had confidence the Lord could protect against death. And verse 22, she's kind of, you know, almost hinting that could you even do something about it now? But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Is it possible now, even a resurrection? And then Jesus says, your brother will rise again.

And she thinks verse 24, he's talking about the obvious resurrection everybody knows about. That's a true, you know, Jew. Martha said to him, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

And oh, this statement of Jesus. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Resurrection is not some point on a prophetic calendar.

Oh, God will display the fact that Jesus is the resurrection at different points on that prophetic calendar. But what a statement. I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Well, that's what the Lord always wants to ask.

Are we believing what he is saying? Are we believing what he has done? Simple little statement out of Habakkuk and then quoted in Romans, Habakkuk 2, 4. Then Romans and Galatians and Hebrews. Romans 1, Galatians 3 and Hebrews 10. The just shall live by faith.

Wow. Implications of that are enormous. And here it is again.

Here's the truth. Do you believe me? God does what is needed, tells us the truth about it and says, do you believe me? Will you count on this? Will you stake your all on this? I am the resurrection and the life. What a glorious statement.

Jesus is the resurrection. He's the victory over death. He is the life.

He's the life we all want to live. He's the life we're all trying. When we try our hardest, we're trying to achieve.

Say, I want to be like Christ. Well, how's it going to happen? It's going to be the genuine thing. It's got to be his life in us because it's resurrected life.

It's not just saying this and saying that and not saying this and not saying that. If you're going to copy Jesus, you've got to be able to be raised from the dead apart from him. You know, just you know, we need to tap into what he has done.

I am the resurrection and the life. And that brings eternal life to us. See, knowing Christ, being in Christ makes us partakers of resurrection life.

I am the resurrection and the life. That's who he is. Of course, what he did in history, he demonstrated that.

That he was a life. He was going to have a life to give to us. It was victorious over death.

And now we're in him. It's I am. I am.

What great statements. This is who he is. In line with that, he did what he did, but this is who he is.

I am the resurrection. I'm the resurrection you're looking for. One gives you victory over sin and death and ultimately eternal life.

And we'll see as we go along all other kinds of applications of it to daily living. Being in Christ, we are already partakers of resurrection life. This fits a glorious truth.

Something to think on. Think on the reality of this and think of the scriptures that teach this. The Christian life is a resurrection life.

The implications are it can only be found in a resurrected Lord. Here's another implication. It can only be developed following a resurrected Lord.

That's why Jesus, you know, know to self and death to self and come follow me if it's so perfectly here. Know to your own life. Put that thing you call a life on the cross.

Discount it dead and done with. That's why I died for you. Now follow me.

Why? For a new life, a resurrected life. The only way to get a resurrected life is to find in a resurrected Lord life that replaces your death. Can't find it any other way.

That's why I know to self and death to self is required. Who's going to accept a resurrected life if they think they've got one going already? So many Christians try to live a patched up life of reformation instead of a resurrected life. Yes, you exactly.

Yeah. Mark eight thirty six. Lose your life when you find it.

And Luke nine twenty four. The same. Let go of what we think is a life.

Let go of what we think is a life. Admit how dead it is and find a new life in Christ. Resurrected life.

The Christian life is a resurrection life can only be found in one who has it. Resurrected Lord it can only be developed while following a resurrected Lord. That's why all the Christian life.

That's why Jesus said daily in Luke nine twenty three. You want to follow me? You want to come after me? Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily.

Follow me. Know to your life and your resources. Take up your cross.

You know that that's your way out of this world and your death and then follow me for a whole new life. It's perfect here when Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life. I'm the resurrection you need.

I'm the life you're looking for. Then first Peter. Yeah.

Yes. Exactly. So so often it's death.

So often the cross is related. You know, well, you know, if you knew my next door neighbor, you know, oh man, oh, but it's just my cross. I got to bear it.

No way. Next door neighbor won't kill you. The next door neighbor will remind you how much you're alive your flesh is.

Oh yeah. You know, the chairman of the board of deacons, you know, he just he just got it in for me, you know, and just hard for me to make it in that church, you know, but, you know, just you got to take up your cross. Never.

Yeah. Not near radical enough. It's not letting Jesus say what he said.

The cross in the first century wasn't a heavy irritation. It was execution. It was death.

It was death. Absolutely. Ray Steadman had a great line.

He said, you know, resurrection life works best in a graveyard. That's where people are looking for it. You know, that's where it's needed.

Yeah. First Peter chapter one, verse three. First Peter chapter one, verse three.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again, caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From the dead. Well, you talk about the resurrection tied into starting out with God here.

What a powerful, powerful statement this is. Blessed be God. Oh, how we should bless God.

Eulogize God. Say great things about God. Give grateful thanks and praise as we exalt God.

Why? Because according to his abundant mercy and in line with his immeasurable mercy, his willingness to hold back from us what we deserve and give us something far greater, his grace. He has begotten us again, caused us to be born again. New life here, second birth, spiritual birth.

But notice what it's related to. Has begotten us again, caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living hope.

Now, hope in the New Testament is nothing like the English or American word. And we say, I hope so. Or, you know, I hope the weather changes.

I hope the wind stop. You know, I hope I'll get rich. I hope they'll stop persecuting me.

I hope, you know, it's kind of a crossed fingers kind of a hope, you know. Well, can you imagine this? The blessed hope? No, wait a minute. That doesn't fit.

There's no wishful thinking in it at all. Good synonyms for hope in the New Testament are words like expectation, confidence, sense of certainty, cause of guarantees. Those are synonymous words and phrases.

I mean, that's a powerful word of absoluteness in it, especially when you tie that confidence, guarantee, expectation into this. Born again to a living hope through the resurrection. Given new birth into an expectation, a confidence, a sense of certainty that abounds with life, a living hope, all based on the resurrection.

Boy, what a new birth we've been given. We have been given new birth into an arena of spiritual expectation that is based on resurrection life itself found in Jesus Christ. And though on the one hand, self-confidence is almost the scourge of the Christian community.

On the other hand, in a way the world could never understand and we need a new mind to grasp it, confidence is available to believers like no one in the universe. We can live with a confidence, a living hope, an expectation pulsating with resurrection life that just gives a sense of guarantee, a sense of certainty, a sense of anticipation that will not be unfulfilled because it's all anchored into the resurrection, an absolute eternal victory over sin and death that's ours. We've been born into it.

We were birthed into this victorious resurrection life. Let's read that verse again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again, caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The Christian life, the more we're willing to die to self, to say self is a lifeless existence, no real life, as Jesus said in John 6.53, you have no life in yourselves, that is innately, anything you can tap into or produce. We're willing to turn to this new life that the Lord is willing to share with us day by day that has been birthed in us by the Spirit of God, that is there to be walked in according to the Spirit, to go back to last week, but can be neglected if we walk according to the flesh. What are we drawing on then? Same old dead resources of Adam.

Human thinking, human willpower, human emotions, human reasoning power, and all of that. And it's death and it's defeat. But that's what people are trying to get confident in, you know, self-confidence.

That I'll get better, I'll get stronger, I'll get wiser, I'll get more able to cope. What a trick, what a trick. And though to the world, you know, we must sound like we can't do anything, you know, well, you know, in me there's no good thing that is in my flesh, you know.

Apart from Jesus, I can't do anything, you know, and on and on and on goes the truth of it. A truth we need not fight, but it's a glory to embrace. It's the death.

Agreeing with the deadness that we might look only to the one option that'll work, that living portion, Christ in us, the resurrected Lord. And though, you know, the world probably thinks, hey, we're doomed to defeat, you know. They're prophesying their own self-fulfilled defeat, you know, they can't do anything, you know, they're down on themselves.

They need to get pumped up, they need self-esteem, they need self-confidence. No. No.

Yeah, we've had enough of that. Had more than enough of that, haven't we? Here's what we need. Just be born again and see what we're born again to.

A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Oh, how I battled to get a self-confidence where I could cut a path of accomplishment and success and all the rest in the world. Oh, how I battled.

And, you know, some days it seemed to be there and some days it wasn't. And even when you thought it was there, it would let you down real fast, you know. And even if you achieve, what did you achieve? I mean, the works of the flesh, whether they're successful or they go down in flames, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

What a tremendous, quiet, growing certainty can develop in our hearts when we see what's happened to us. We've been born again to a living hope. I know in the 30 some years now, 30 plus years, I've walked with the Lord, especially in the last, oh, 15 or 20, especially in the last 5, especially in the last 6 months.

Yeah, just this crazy to the natural mind expectation of God, able, willing, ready to do astounding things, you know. And I used to try to believe miles, and I'd be glad if I got inches out of it, you know. And with God, you believe inches and you get miles out of it, you know.

Wow! What a hope this is. I mean, there's a rock-solid expectation that cannot be shaken, cannot be taken away, really, if we'll just consider it. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

You know, take a verse like this, just chew on it, meditate it, minister it to one another. I tell you, hope rises, expectation grows, a sense of confidence. Our God is able, and we're talking resurrection life at work here.

That's victorious over sin and death. Even if we die, yet shall we live, you know. If we die, we just get more of what we're tasting of now.

I mean, how bad can it be? Tremendous truth. Starting out with God, justification, new birth, being declared not guilty, righteous in Christ, new start. It's all anchored in the resurrection.

Let's look at one more verse before we take a break, or one more passage, Colossians 2. Colossians 2, 12 and 13, speaking of Christians as those buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. We were raised with Christ.

What a tremendous set of verses. First buried with Him in baptism. Real baptism.

Identification. This word is not essentially a wet word, nor a religious ritualistic word. It's a spiritual word.

A good place to key in on that is 1 Corinthians 11 or 10, where Moses goes through the Red Sea. 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, 2. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

How could that be? They went through there dry, in the cloud. They were baptized with Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Yeah.

As Moses followed the cloud, and they followed Moses, and they went through the Red Sea following this deliverer, the type of Christ, they were identified with Moses. They entered into his mission and his ministry. Who got wet? Pharaoh.

The ones who didn't benefit. So this is not a word of whether you get wet or not, or how you get wet, or whether you stay dry. It's far more than that.

It's being joined to. Being united to. In fact, Romans 6, which talks a lot about baptized into Christ as well, and His death and resurrection.

One verse says we were joined together with Him in the likeness of His death and His resurrection. Joined to, identified with, made one with. We were buried with Him in baptism, through union with Him, identification with Him.

We believed in Him, the Lord made us one with Him, and that history of the cross became our history. That burial became our burial. That resurrection became our personal resurrection.

Buried with Him in baptism, in identification, maybe is a good synonym to use, in which you also were raised. Not only were we buried with Him by being identified with Him, we were raised with Him because we were joined with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. We were raised with Christ.

Past tense, already happened. Yes, if we die before Christ comes back, our bodies will be raised at that last resurrection to see a full redemption, body, soul, and spirit. But spiritually, we've already tasted of resurrection.

Why? Because He's the resurrection. In that sense, we're not awaiting a resurrection, though we know if we die before the Lord comes, our bodies will be raised, a full redemption. We were raised with Him.

Yes, that's to be our attitude daily. In fact, in Luke 9.23, Jesus even used the word daily. He said, if anyone would come after Me, here are the terms of following Me.

Here's what discipleship is about. Let him deny himself, know to, that's repentance, know to the self-life and what it can produce, and the filthy rags of unrighteousness, and the bankruptcy of the flesh and all that. Take up his cross, let that agreement with God that what's needed is death, not reform, but death, recognizing our death, and even here agreeing that that cross is our hope, that there we die with Christ.

And then He added the word daily. Then what's left? Gotta follow the one in whom alone there's life. And really, for many years, actually, just a little personal testimony, for many years, as I get up in the morning, I'd say now, I'm not perfect in it like I'm not perfect in anything.

But habitually now, almost as easy as breathing and groaning when I get up. It seems the older I get, the easier it is to think of this, you know, denying self. And I start talking to the Lord right on those very issues.

That's good. The spiritual armor is good. That's very much related.

But I think a good thing about doing what Jesus said to do daily is know to self and death to self, is it drives you to that armor, you know. And also, we know we're not adding that armor to some strength we have. So you got both the uncleanness of maybe our walk or whatever, as well as the inadequacy of our own resources.

And that know to self and death to self, oh yes, Lord, thank you for that armor. Follow you. What do I find in you? Well, one thing I find following you is armor, protection, provision, yeah.

I really believe the Lord wants us to think that way with Him. I think that's why He said daily, because though we can have crisis moments where these things just hit us and we're never the same thereafter, none of these things are to be a once and then we'll just, you know, coast on in the rest of the way. It's a walk.

Yeah, mercies are new every day, every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Yeah, amen.

Yeah, good question. I'm so glad you raised that, because it's a real valid thing to just kind of land on and think on. And I love to start talking to the Lord about that first thing in the morning, first words out of my mouth, first thoughts.

And I'm usually staggering from the bed toward the shower. What's your first thought? Do you just say, know to self and yes to Christ? Well, generally, generally, I'll give a little testimony. Okay.

I don't know how I got into this. I've never done this. When I get up in the morning, I speak to the Father and thank Him for another day and tell Him that in the name of Jesus, I want to live this day.

Colossians 3.17. Whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. That's so big. That really covers it all.

It's in His name, not my name. It's His resources, not mine. It's for His glory, not mine.

It's His name, which speaks of who He is, what He's done, and what He offers. And that's how I start. And then the very next thing is I just start talking with the Lord about these statements in the gospels that then get elaborated on in the epistles.

This day, Lord, I don't want it to be me. I want to say no to self, deny self. I don't want to be my thoughts, my strength, my goals, my plans.

In fact, Lord, I want death to all that. I want to agree that's dead. I want to agree that's what the cross was for.

I just want today to be just following You. And sometimes I sense great need at that moment. I realize things I'm facing, strength or decision.

I just start talking to the Lord about that. Lord, I'm looking to You today for the strength that's needed or this decision that's coming or peace in the midst of this tumultuous situation. Just start letting my life relate to those things.

And then often what comes to mind is something in the epistles that relates all of this to being joined one with Christ. Praise God, I don't have to live by my life. I'm a branch.

The branch depends on the vine. It just keeps building. And I praise God for that, too, because I'm not a mourning person.

If you had to go out on your own, I'd be a sitting duck. I'd be a dead pigeon for the enemy in the morning hours. But on the other hand, that weakness can kind of work for you, too.

It's just a reminder. Oh, Lord, this is what I need right back where you said daily. These are great verses that tie right into that.

We were buried with Him in baptism, in union, in identification, raised with Him. But look at this, through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. We were raised with Him through faith.

It's just trusting in the Lord that let us first tap into that. We were raised, this is speaking of our initial resurrection under new life, new birth. It was through faith in the working of God.

How did we get saved? How did we get justified? How did we get born again? Through faith in the working of God who raised Jesus from the dead. That's how we got born again. Now, we're going to look a little while.

We're to live daily by that same kind of thinking. What happens so often? We get raised from the dead through faith in the working of God. And now raised from the dead, it's almost like, thank you, Lord, I'll take it now.

Thank you for the boost. Oh, wonderful. I'll get back to you if need be.

And we're just headed for absolute certain defeat or sometimes even more deadly. A successful walk according to the flesh. That is something that we'll settle for or others will encourage us in or commend us on.

And in many ways, that's worse because that just entrenches itself. Better to bomb out by the flesh. Yeah, really, really.

And you've touched a chord there, brother Jonathan, I tell you. And you can sell a lot of those books in a church world that's very carnal, very self-helpish. You know, what's in it for me? I mean, you can hit the bestseller list quick with that sort of thing.

But see, here's what God wants us to be relating to. Things that are through faith in the working of God. Hold your hand right there and just remember this verse we've touched on.

Might hit it again because it's so strategic. Romans 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all to see. Key issue concerning grace is faith.

Faith. It is the work of God. It's a faith that it might be according to grace.

What fits with grace? I mean, how do you do grace? I mean, how do you, you know, how do you do grace? You believe. This is the work of God. You believe.

It's a faith. That's what fits. And what's our mentality so often? How do you earn it? How do you do it? What do I deserve? What can I do? I mean, that's the natural mentality.

Well, our minds get blown by the grace of God. Because what God is asking in grace is, Will you believe me? Will you trust me? Will you count on me? Will you depend upon me? Yeah, now, that produces the mighty works of God, or lets God produce these mighty works in and through our lives. It isn't that we're against good works, it's we're against works of the flesh, deeds of the flesh.

And grace, well, then what fits grace? And really, when I've been doing a seminar on growing in the grace of God, which covers half of this class, it doesn't even touch on the New Covenant. And early next year, by the grace of God, we're going to develop another six-hour seminar called Living by the Sufficiency of God. It'll be the companion with the Growing in the Grace of God.

And that whole thing will be about the other half of this course, which is the New Covenant. And when I go about teaching this Growing in the Grace of God seminar, it's amazing how about after the second study or so, folks are trying to formulate that question. You know, this is fascinating, this is exciting, but how do you... And a couple of times I said, how do you do grace? You know, I'll fill it for them, they go, yeah, no, no, no, yeah, no.

How do you even say it? How do you relate to? And ultimately, I think what the issue is is how do you live daily by the grace of God? That's in the next lesson, you say. Yes. But we'll get to it.

We'll get to it here. Yeah, we'll get to it in this class a lot. But here's part of it right here.

What is man's response to grace? What's God looking for? Well, here it is, Romans 4.16, Therefore it is of faith. The working of God is of faith. That's what God's looking for.

He wants to develop faith in us because that is according to grace. See, faith isn't a work. Producing a work on your own is related to the law.

How well am I doing? Grace is something God has done and offers it and we believe it or we don't believe it. We count on it or we don't count on it. And faith is not a work.

Faith is a confidence in the work of another. It's tremendous how they go together. Just like the striving deeds of the flesh are measured by the law, grace is engaged by faith.

But we'll talk about that along the way. Let's finish these verses. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him.

See, we were raised with Christ through faith. You being dead, He has made alive together with Him. Why do we need a resurrection victory? Because we're dead.

I remember in this very study, one dear sister, I think she finished the Bible college. I remember she was sitting in one of these two seats and she was so attentive on this study. But she had this perplexed look on her face and at break time she said, Why do we need a resurrection victory? She says, Jesus died and He rose and I believe in that and I'm born again.

And she really was wrestling with it. And during the second hour, we got into some verses like this again. In fact, we might have broken before this.

And we got into these verses. It's just like, and you were dead! It's like her face just lit up. That's why I needed a resurrection.

See, no other kind of victory would be sufficient. Though we were existing, energetically perhaps, we were dead. And the only remedy for dead people, if they're going to have a life with God, is resurrection.

And you were dead, but He has made us alive together with Him. And we who were dead in Adam, when Christ was raised, and He is our Lord and Savior, the one we put our faith in, through union, baptism, identification with Him, we were raised. From those dead people in Adam to those with resurrection life in Christ.

Now, that's just about, that second section, just about the resurrection and the new covenant applied to justification. Though even that stirs great hope, doesn't it? Because you can get a sense already, hey, it's not going to be different in sanctification. It's not going to be, well I raised you, now you're just going to have to keep it up.

You want me to do everything for you? I mean, I raised you from the dead. Somehow it seems like we think that God has that attitude. You know? Because the shift in the mentality of so many of us so much of the time, from how God birthed us to now how we're going to grow up, it's like they're in two different kingdoms.

The birth, the justification, oh, totally by grace. Are you kidding? You think we're heretics? It's by grace. And then once saved, we're going to grow up on our own steam.

You know? Jonathan? Two resurrection stories. Jairus' daughter and Lazarus. As soon as Jairus' daughter was raised, Jesus said, give her something to eat, and she began to walk.

Lazarus, the next time you see him after the resurrection, he's sitting at the table eating. You feed that life. Yeah.

You feed life. God feeds that life. He doesn't turn around and say, I gave you life, now let's see you make it work.

Yeah, really. Amen. That's great.

Okay, let's take about ten minutes here, and we'll come back and study some more. Look at sanctification and resurrection. It's basic.

It is central to the gospel, which is another way of saying it's right at the heart of the new covenant. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 15, where we'll see some words about our resurrection victory as we relate the resurrection and the new covenant together. There's a resurrection victory available in the new covenant.

But as we go into 1 Corinthians 15, let's let a few verses be added on this issue of the essentiality of the resurrection. Verse 14. 1 Corinthians 15.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty. No substance to faith if Christ is not risen. Verse 17.

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, pointless, brings nothing. You are still in your sins. How many churches across the land, really around the world, talk about the resurrection as though it's just some sort of mythical story of hope and new beginnings? And they chisel the name of Jesus Christ out in front of their building in marble or granite or some kind of stone? Well, what's going on in there, in that building, is futile.

It's absolute vanity. It's talking about the One who can give resurrection life eternal, and yet speaking of Him as though He never raised from the dead. But, verse 20, now Christ is risen from the dead.

That's our message, and praise the Lord it is. Now, in the end of this chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, 54. So when this corruptible has put on in corruption, previous section of this chapter talking about the corruptible bodies that we have, and the incorruptible ones will be given, when the incorruptible has put on in corruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Isn't that a great statement? Death is swallowed up in victory. Death seems so enormous, so imposing, so overwhelming, no way to get around it, no way to deal with it. Well, it's swallowed up in the victory that is ours in Christ.

Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. It's sin that brings death. The sting of death is sin.

It's sin that brings death. And the strength of sin is the law. Why? Because the law says you sinned.

The law holds us accountable for that sin. The strength of sin is the law. Because the law says you shall not sin.

You shall be holy as God is holy. But, thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. God gives us His victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our resurrection victory. Spiritual victory is a gift. It's victory over sin and death, particularly as described here in 1 Corinthians 15.

And we need to give thanks to God because He's the one who gives us the victory. And He does it through our Lord Jesus Christ. It isn't a victory we accomplish.

It's a victory we receive and learn to walk in. He gives us the victory. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.

In light of who Jesus is and what He did, victory is available. We don't accomplish it. We don't achieve it.

We either believe it and receive it or doubt it and ignore it. I mean, we don't have a lot of options. If we believe it and receive it and learn more and more to walk in it, that victory will flavor our lives increasingly.

If we're just battling through life and doing the Christian struggle on our own, we're not going to know the victory because it's a gift. It's not something you earn, achieve, or cause to come to pass. It's one already won in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And God's willing to give it to us, to share it with us. What a great verse. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory.

Victory comes to us through another person as a gift of the grace of God. Thanks be to God for that. Wonderful thing about that is every believer can walk in victory.

It's not some have a knack and some don't. Some just don't know how to get in there and fight and others just get fought at. It's not that.

The victory is there for all of us. Thanks be to God who gives the victory. So really, no matter whether we feel as whipped as you could be or as rambunctious as the flesh could ever get, ready to go tear down anything, for God, still this victory is available the same way.

It's a gift from God to us through another person. And of course the just shall live by faith, believing in that, counting on that. We'll talk more about that as we go along.

2 Corinthians 2.14 also speaks of this victory, just a little bit further over in the next letter. 2 Corinthians 2.14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. Another thanks be to God verse.

This is a great verse to tie in with 1 Corinthians 15.57. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. One, He's giving us victory to walk in.

The other perspective is He's leading us in triumph. Thanks be to God. There's another reason to thank God.

He always leads us in triumph in Christ. Now, that is, when we're letting Him lead, I mean, we can lead ourselves in all kinds of dead-end streets, you know. In doubt, fear, paying no attention to the Lord and what He said.

And there are times when we, like sheep, are taking over the guidance of our own path. And in those times, we're not being led in triumph, we're demonstrating how easily we can produce defeat. But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

Whenever the Lord is allowed to lead in our lives, whenever we look to Him to lead, here's how He does it. In triumph. That is, in the resurrection victory that He achieved on our behalf through Jesus Christ the Lord.

And we'll come back to this verse later when we start looking at characteristics of New Covenant living. We'll start up near here and go through a few chapters verse by verse in 2 Corinthians, the section that just concentrates on the New Covenant in this great epistle. But it fits so well right here to get a picture.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. What glorious, victorious words, and they're all tied into the resurrection.

The triumph that God leads us in is the resurrection victory of His Son. Now, let's take these truths and perspective on the New Covenant. That is, it's a covenant of the resurrection.

Our arrangement, our agreement, the arrangement God has made for us to walk in is linked tightly into the resurrection. The New Covenant, the resurrection, they go together hand in hand. You cannot separate them.

Again, just like you take the Holy Spirit out of the New Covenant, the life is gone. You take the resurrection out of the New Covenant, the victory, the resurrection life is gone. Alright, now let's apply that to starting out with God.

That is justification. Then we'll turn and spend a bit more time on the resurrection and going on with God. Starting out with God, John 11.

John 11, this great chapter on resurrection. The resurrection of Lazarus, but more critical, Jesus' declaration concerning Himself and this matter of resurrection. Verses 25 and 26.

Martha had come to Him and was concerned about her brother gone and if the Lord had been there and all that. And then verse 25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection. Verse 21, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

She had confidence the Lord could protect against death. And verse 22, she's kind of almost hinting that could you even do something about it now? But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Is it possible now? Even a resurrection? And then Jesus says, your brother will rise again.

And she thinks, verse 24, He's talking about the obvious, the resurrection everybody knows about that's a true Jew. Martha said to Him, I know He'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Oh, this statement of Jesus.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Resurrection is not some point on a prophetic calendar. Oh, God will display the fact that Jesus is the resurrection at different points on that prophetic calendar.

But what a statement. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.

And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Well, that's what the Lord always wants to ask. Are we believing what He is saying? Are we believing what He has done? Simple little statement out of Habakkuk and then quoted in Romans.

Habakkuk 2.4. Then Romans and Galatians and Hebrews. Romans 1, Galatians 3 and Hebrews 10. The just shall live by faith.

Wow. Implications of that are enormous. And here it is again.

Here's the truth. Do you believe me? God does what is needed, tells us the truth about it, and says, do you believe me? Will you count on this? Will you stake your all on this? I am the resurrection and the life. What a glorious statement.

Jesus is the resurrection. He's the victory over death. He is the life.

He's the life we all want to live. He's the life we're all trying, when we try our hardest, we're trying to achieve. Say, I want to be like Christ.

Well, how's it going to happen? It's going to be the genuine thing. It's got to be His life in us. Because it's resurrected life.

It's not just saying this and saying that and not saying this and not saying that. If you're going to copy Jesus, you've got to be able to be raised from the dead, apart from Him. Just you.

Now, we need to tap into what He has done. I am the resurrection and the life. And that brings eternal life to us.

See, knowing Christ, being in Christ, makes us partakers of resurrection life. I am the resurrection and the life. That's who He is.

Of course, what He did in history, He demonstrated that. That He was going to have a life to give to us that was victorious over death. And now we're in Him.

It's I am. I am. What great statements.

This is who He is. In line with that, He did what He did. But this is who He is.

I am the resurrection. I'm the resurrection you're looking for. One that gives you victory over sin and death and ultimately eternal life.

And we'll see as we go along, all other kinds of applications of it to daily living.