He is Risen

The Resurrection of Christ, bringing lessons for each one of us in the four Gospels in which we find the Resurrection of Christ mentioned. We'll start with the 28th chapter of Matthew. It's remarkable in meditating on these passages, I believe we learn lessons for each one of us tonight as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I'd like to read just a few verses down to the 6th, end of the 6th verse of Matthew 28. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.

He is not here, for he is risen as he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Well, it's wonderful to see here the different truths that God brings before us. For instance, in our first verse, in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.

Well, how blessed to know here was the end of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day was now to be put aside, as Christianity was to be introduced, and we have the first day of the week. And if we read in the different scriptures, we'll see how God honored the first day of the week.

For instance, it was the resurrection day. The day the Lord Jesus rose from the dead was the first day of the week. Then we have, we believe, that the Holy Spirit of God came down from heaven on the first day of the week.

Now, in connection with the offerings of Leviticus 23, we have the connection with the offering that corresponds to Pentecost. They were to count seven Sabbaths. That's 49 days, and then on the next day, which is the 50th day, which is the first day of the week, they were to celebrate that feast that brings before us the day of Pentecost.

So we believe the Spirit of God came down to earth on the first day of the week. Then again, we have another thing about the first day of the week, and that is that the disciples broke bread on the first day of the week. Now, that's a wonderful thing because God doesn't leave us in any doubt about the breaking of bread, does he? There's no such a thing in the Bible, a breaking bread on the first Lord's day of the month or every quarter.

Why, if a Christian says to you or to me, how do you manage this? The 52 Lord's days a year, you break bread. Every Lord's Day morning, you break bread. We don't do that.

Well, all we have to say is, well, the Word of God authorizes it. We go by the Word of God. And so in Acts 20, verse 7, we find it was on the first day of the week that the disciples came together to break bread.

You see, the Bible has the answers. The Word of God doesn't leave us in any doubt as to when we should remember the Lord. Then we know another scripture, in 1 Corinthians 16, where the apostle speaks about laying aside as God has prospered us.

Now, in Israel, we know they gave a tenth. So if a man was to have a hundred dollars, he gave ten, a tenth. That was in the Old Testament days.

I think Jacob said that. Of all you give me, I'll give a tenth to thee. But now under Christianity, God tells us to give as he prospers us.

So we see how the first day of the week now takes the place of the Sabbath day. There are those today who tell us we have to keep the Sabbath and keep the law. But the scriptures don't agree with that, do they? The Word of God makes it very clear that the Sabbath has passed, and the first day of the week now takes the place of the Sabbath day.

We know that after the Church goes, Israel will again, we believe, keep the Sabbath day. But now we keep the first day of the week, which is the Lord's day. Now we find that these women came to the sepulcher.

They were attached to Christ. Oh, beloved, I wonder if you and I are attached to Christ. You know, it's a wonderful thing to know the person, isn't it? To have our hearts on the person, the eye of faith resting on the person.

This is very important. Young people say, well, you know, these meetings all the time, meetings all the time. It's very tiring.

But if we have our eye on the person, then we want to be where the person is and where the person would have us to be because we're attracted to the person. Man in heaven, in the glory, in eternity, we'll have that one person before us. We'll see the person.

But now we have to see the person with the eye of faith. Now notice this earthquake. It was a great earthquake.

Well, this is a wonderful thing because in the twenty-seventh chapter, we have on the fifty-first verse, the religious world was affected by the death of Christ. The veil of the temple was rent in twain. Then the end of the verse, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent.

Creation, or the physical world, was affected by the death of Christ. And then just down a little bit further, in the fifty-second verse, and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Well, this is a wonderful thing to think that the, first of all, the veil was rent, religious world was affected, the creation was affected, and the unseen world was affected.

And you know, I like to think of these people that came out of their graves. Well, they came out of their graves, and people might say, well, where did you come from? Well, we came from the unseen world, and the death of Christ has affected us. We came forth out of the grave.

We don't belong here. We belong into eternity. We're just here now after the death of Christ.

We came out of the graves. Wonderful thing, isn't it? And you and I as Christians are just like them. We have come out of the grave.

We don't belong to this world. God has raised us up out of the place of death. Dead in sin we were, lost and undone and blind, but God has raised us up, and now we've come out of the grave, as it were, and we're risen with Christ.

How blessed that is. Now let's look down to the fifth verse. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.

Well, when we seek Jesus which is crucified, then our fears vanish, don't they? Fear ye, fear not ye. Now here's another thing about this verse. Heaven knows exactly what we're seeking.

The angel knew exactly what they were seeking. I know. He didn't say I think, but I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified.

There was no doubt about it. They were seeking Jesus. They may have been other people named Joshua or Jesus in that day, but they were seeking the Jesus which was crucified.

They had their eye on one person. They were seeking the Jesus which was crucified. He was identified, the crucified one.

Now I want to ask you and myself too, for we all need this, what are you seeking and what am I seeking? What does God say about you tonight and about me tonight? For God knows and heaven knows exactly what you and I are seeking. Everybody's seeking. Everybody tonight in Vancouver is seeking for something, whether it be pleasure or money or fame or honor or promotion.

Every man, every woman is seeking for something. People are seeking for happy times and good times. Young people are seeking all the time, trying to find something, and God has the answer in this book.

And I want to say to you young people, and I know you'll pardon me for saying this, but we have this strange thing said today which I believe is true and yet it really is strange. They say, you know, the world has changed. Things are different.

Well, that's true. We agree with that. But you know, God has never changed his program.

Isn't that wonderful? You know, the devil does. The devil has to change his program. You know, the thing is, when I was first saved, when I was just a young man, in fact, before we were saved, there were very few people who had radios.

And then they started to come in by the hundreds and by the thousands. But people weren't satisfied. So the devil introduced the television.

But that didn't satisfy people. So now he's introduced the colored television. And he's going to increase, he's going to change his program all the time to keep his slaves happy in their chains.

So when they try to move, they won't hear the cackle of the chains. As they bang together, they won't hear them because the devil has to change his program. But God has never changed his program.

We turn back to the days of the Apostle Paul and say to God, what was your object for your people in Paul's day? He would answer with one word, Christ. Then we come down to the other ages, down through this Christian era of nearly 2,000 years. We come down to the Dark Ages.

What is your object for your people? Christ. Then we come down to the 19th century when many souls were saved, when great evangelists preached the gospel. What is now your object? Christ.

We come down to the 20th century, the ungodly century. In the beginning of the century, during the first war, after the first war, Christ was God's object. Now we come down to this age of ungodliness, lawlessness, evil, wickedness, corruption.

And we say to God, have you changed your program? Have you changed your program now to fit in with this modern ungodly age? Have you given us something different to keep the young people happy? He'd say, no. Christ is the only object I have, and that for eternity. And if the Lord doesn't come by 1980, it's going to be ten times worse than it is tonight.

But God's going to again say, Christ is my object for my people. I have nothing else for them. Because, you know, that's why in the Bible we're not told much about heaven.

If I was writing the book, I would have had page after page after page, chapter after chapter, telling about heaven, the wonders of heaven, the glories of heaven, the wonderful time we're going to have in heaven. It would be all about heaven. But you know, God doesn't do that.

He says to depart and be with Christ is far better. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. The Lord Jesus said that where I am there, you may be also.

How wonderful. A man said to me, a brother said to me recently, where will the church be in eternity? We said wherever Christ is. That's the answer to that question.

Wherever Christ is, the church shall be. That's where you're going to be, where I'm going to be, wherever Christ is. Because Christ is the object.

So he says, I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here. Oh beloved, the Lord is not here tonight as a man in this world.

He's not here. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said, come, see the place. Now no, it's not where Jesus lay.

He said, I know you seek Jesus, but he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. Why? Because Jesus is the Lord. How blessed that is.

God is so direct in connection with his beloved Son. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And they saw that bed, or wherever it was, where the body of Jesus had been, but he was risen from the dead.

The dead could not hold the Prince of Life. Now in the 16th chapter of Mark, we have another lesson. I think it's very encouraging.

We're going to read the third verse of Mark 16. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the supplicant? Well, here was a problem. Now I know there's Christians in this room tonight that have problems.

Everybody has their problems. Here these people were, they had a definite problem. There was a great stone rolled to the tomb of Jesus.

Who was going to roll it away? They wanted to see the body of Jesus. They wanted to anoint his body. I'd like to say here that Mary of Bethany wasn't among these women.

She never mentioned at the tomb. You know why? Because she anointed the Lord's body before he died. Before he died.

I'd like to say this to Christians here tonight. You know you're never going to break bread in heaven. If you're going to remember the Lord, you've got to remember the Lord here because we will not remember the Lord in heaven because he'll be with us then personally.

And so in connection with Mary of Bethany, she anointed the Lord's body before he died. These people came intending to anoint his body, but they never because he wasn't there. He was risen.

You see, they came too late. And as many Christians are going to come too late to the place where they say, you know, I should really have been gathered to the Lord's name. I really should have remembered the Lord.

But it's too late now. We'll be in the glory and there will not be any breaking of bread in the glory land. Now notice what happened here in the fourth verse.

And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was very great. Well, the problem was rolled away. You see, heaven had rolled the problem away.

The Lord had had one of his angels come down and roll the great stone away. The problem was gone. Oh, are you facing a problem tonight? Maybe this very night you're deeply concerned over a problem that faces you this week.

A great problem. Oh, let the Lord roll the problem away. Let the Lord roll the great stone away.

You can't roll it away. Those women couldn't roll it away. Neither can you.

But the Lord can roll away that problem that's facing you tonight. Then in the sixth verse, again these words, be not afraid. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified.

He is risen. Behold the place where they laid him. Oh, beloved, this was the angel of God, the angels of God.

I suppose the very angels that came out at Bethlehem to announce the news of the Savior's birth now announce the news of the Savior's resurrection. Isn't that blessed? I suppose these angels were thrilled to their hearts as they said, come see the place where the Lord lay. Death was conquered.

Never before had death been conquered. Now we know that people were raised from the dead. We know the Lord Jesus raised them from the dead.

But nobody really had conquered death because we believe that those who were raised probably died again like Lazarus and the young girl and the young man and the seventh of Luke. But here was one who not only was raised from the dead but he came out in resurrection life. And never to die again he had conquered death.

And you and I belong to a Savior who has conquered the most terrible thing, the most terrible foe that man has to face except the Christian. Isn't that nice that the Christian is never said to be dead but asleep. The body is put to sleep but never said that to say the Christian is dead.

The sepulchrant says the dead in Christ shall rise first but they're seen in Christ. Speaking about their bodies, the spirit having gone to be with the Lord. No such a thing as soul sleep, beloved.

No, the spirit we believe departs from the body and that's what death is. I'd like to say to you young people that you're going to have to face these things. I read in the paper in Montreal sometimes you know that people have died and then they massage their hearts and they're alive again.

But don't believe that. That's not true. They weren't dead at all.

Because the Bible gives the definition of death in James' epistle. And it says that the body without the spirit is dead. Now when the spirit leaves the body there's no doctor who might be the greatest specialist who might be the greatest man who ever lived in the medical world but he cannot bring the spirit back.

So when you read in the paper that a dead man was brought back to life you know it's not really true. The spirit is still in the body. I believe that's the truth of God, beloved.

You'll find that in James' epistle. Now let's look at Luke's gospel in the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel. And let us notice the fifth verse.

As we read the other part and the other. And they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth. They said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.

Now that's a good question, isn't it? Why seek ye the living among the dead? Isn't that a good question for you and for me as Christians? You know when we come to Christ we have a new life, don't we? And everything is new to us. Our friends are new. In fact, I really believe that our brethren and sisters in Christ are far, far dearer to us, far more precious to us than even our brothers and sisters who are not saved and who are on the way to hell.

I really believe that. I really believe God would have it. We're more at home with our Christian brethren than we are with our unsaved neighbors, our unsaved loved ones, our unsaved relations, because why would we seek the living among the dead? And dear young Christian, the night you were here who know the Lord Jesus, if you seek your companions among the men of the world, now they may be good people, so-called, they may never swear, never get drunk, but if they don't know the Lord Jesus, then you are really seeking the living among the dead.

And this is what really brings young Christians down and discourages them, because the world takes away the joy that the Lord gives us. The world does that. Under the power of the devil, the world tries to drag the young Christian away from his or her Bible, away from prayer, away from Christian companions, and then you find sorrow.

You find a young man or a young woman, they meet an unsaved girl or an unsaved man, and you know, it looks very nice. And I want to say to you young people tonight, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived.

Don't let the devil fool you. There's many a young girl, a young Christian girl, who's wrecked her life because she thinks that marriage is the most wonderful thing under heaven. And I think it is.

It is, too, if you marry a Christian. But if you marry an unsaved person, you'll live a hell on earth. How many Christians have ruined their lives and gone through sorrow and weeping and tears and misery because they disobeyed the word of God, and they said to their mother and father, you know, and they warned them about it, they said, why, you know, he's a wonderful person.

Why that man has got you brethren beat a mile. He's so happy. He's so definite.

He's so real. He's so clever. He never gets drunk.

He never swears. He's an ideal man. Why, he's nicer than the brethren.

He's far nicer. And the young man says about his girlfriend, you know, she's sweet. She's lovely.

She's just like a real Christian. Well, is she saved? Well, she's not saved yet, but, you know, she's got you Christians beat a mile. Oh, beloved, the devil is clever.

The devil is clever. He knows exactly what to do to lead people into the trap of misery. And so here it says, why seek ye the living among the dead? And how many Christians tonight, this very night, are spending their evening among those who were dead in sin, dead spiritually, no life toward God.

They're choosing those kind of companions. Is there a young man tonight in this room or a young lady who's doing that? Your companions are the ungodly. Oh, dear young Christian, God calls you and me to separation.

And God is wiser than we are. He knows exactly what he says is true. And he knows that if you and I keep company with the ungodly, we're going to be dragged down.

We will not be able to go on with the Lord. We'll be dragged further and further away from the Lord. But isn't it nice that we really belong to him? You know, eventually the arm reaches out.

Did you ever notice in Luke chapter 24, this very chapter, in connection with the way to Emmaus, it's very nice to notice, God measures the distance. He tells us exactly how far Emmaus was from Jerusalem. He tells, why does he do that? Because he measures the distance where his people go from him.

Now, in connection with the prodigal son, you read that chapter and there's no distance given. It says, he was a great way on. It doesn't say how many furlongs he was away.

You know, the distance couldn't be measured. I like to think of this, on the cross, during those three hours of darkness, made sin and bearing our sins, the wrath of God falling on his blessed head, the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be his fearless name. He measured the distance.

We were away from God and he bridged the distance and he brought us into eternal blessing. What a Savior. He is not here, but is risen.

Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. Oh, how blessed. Oh, dear young Christian, let us not try to seek our friends among those who were dead before God.

Corpses, spiritual corpses with no life before God, but going down to hell. How solemn. You know, I often think when the Lord comes, what are these people going to say? What are my neighbors going to say about me? When they suddenly wake up and say, you know that man that lived right on our street, he knew this, he didn't tell me.

The Lord's coming. They talk about the end of the world. Now again I say that the modernist preachers tell them that.

The end of the world is coming. My dear beloved friends, the end of the world is not coming for a long time. At least a thousand and so many more years after because the Lord is coming first to take his people out of the world.

And you know, he's not going to come down to the earth. The Lord Jesus doesn't come down and put his feet on the earth and then take us up to heaven. No, he comes in the air.

And I believe that's very important. I like to think of this. He comes in the air because Christ is not of the world.

He doesn't belong to this world so his people are going to meet him in the air, away from this Christ-rejecting world his people are going to meet him in the air. And how wonderful that is to think of that. We're going to meet him in the air.

He's going to take us into the Father's house. He's going to lead us into his Father's house. We can hardly understand, can we? The moment that will be when for the first time our eyes see the very face of Jesus.

We're going to see him as he is. What a wonderful moment when our eyes look right into the very face of the Lord. Isn't it wonderful? What a wonderful prospect and such a wonderful and such a poor dark world.

This poor world going downhill so quickly, so quickly you can hardly believe it. In ten years the strides the devil has made in this great world system. It's getting worse, Now, as far as this world is concerned you and I as Christians we're very pessimistic.

We can't be optimistic about this world that's going down to judgment. But we can be optimistic about our glorious future the blessed hope of being with Christ for eternity. That's where we can really look forward to that glorious moment which we believe is so very near.

Oh beloved, even the men of the world must be stirred as they read the newspapers today. They must be affected somehow. They must.

They tell me that the great leaders are saying what is going to happen? What is going to happen? All their plans are far from being They're crumbling. The great nations are falling down morally and spiritually. The Lord's day has given up.

The Bible has given up. Oh beloved, we're living just in the very last seconds before the Lord comes. He may even come tonight.

Someday will be the last day for us in this world and it may very well be tonight that the Lord Jesus may come and take us home to glory. Now our fourth gospel which I'd like to speak upon for a while because we find that they came to the tomb and the sepulcher and they went away and in the tenth verse we read, Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. Now listen, they went back to their own home.

John 20, verse 10. But notice the eleventh verse. But Mary, but Mary, stood without at the sepulcher weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.

Oh, here was a woman who had no home. The disciples had a home. Mary had no home.

This world had no home for Jesus and this world had no home for Mary. When she found the Lord was gone everything was gone. She was really attached to Christ.

You know, she was a great sinner. And I think in the seventh chapter Luke speaks about the creditor demanding that the debt be paid. One owed fifty and another owed ten thousand, whatever it was.

When they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Now remember once in Montreal, Clifford Brown telling us, that doesn't mean that the one who owed the fifty pence was a nice person who didn't commit many sins, who was upright and moral and clean, but still a sinner. And the other man, the ten thousand pence owner was a wicked, wicked ungodly wretch.

He said, no, it doesn't mean that. It means this, he said, the one that owed the ten thousand pence really realized what a sinner he was, how guilty he was. Oh, she realized what the Lord had done for her.

He had given his life for her. He had changed her life on the earth of misery and happiness, sin and wickedness and lust and passion. He had brought into her heart joy and peace and now he was gone.

And everything was gone with him in the eyes of Mary Magdalene. But notice now, Mary stood without the sepulcher weeping and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher and see two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Oh, these heavenly messengers, these heavenly angels, just imagine, one sitting at the head, one at the foot where the Lord Jesus had lain.

He was gone, he was risen. And there they sat there, these heavenly strangers and come down to earth to sit there. The Lord had gone, he had risen from the dead.

And they say in the 13th verse unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Who? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord. Didn't say taken away the Lord, taken away my Lord. It just seems as if she claimed the Lord all to herself.

They've taken away my Lord out of the sepulcher. I know not where they have laid him. Notice the person.

She was really after the person. Oh, beloved Christians tonight, are you and I after the person? It was the person who won our heart. It was the person that attracted our attention.

It was the person who had won Mary's heart. And in the 14th verse, And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing. Now, I'm sure if you and I had seen two angels, we would have indeed been startled.

We would have said, what a wonderful thing this is. Who are these people? Are you angels from heaven? Have you come down from heaven? But you see, Mary wasn't interested in angels. She had found something better than angels.

She had passed, the Lord Jesus passed angels, you know. And Mary passed angels, too. She had passed by the angels.

She had her eye on Christ. Christ was her object. Now notice what it says.

She saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? The very question the angel asked, why weepest thou? Oh, beloved, why weepest thou? What a joy to know that Christ is alive. What a wonderful thing to know that our blessed Lord is the man of the glory tonight.

Why weepest thou? Then he asked this question, which the angels didn't ask. Whom seekest thou? You know, in the first question, I think it was, what seek he? I know that she seeked Jesus, which was crucified. The Lord asked the two in the first chapter, John, what seek ye? But here he asked Mary, Whom seek thee? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him.

Now, I believe that there's many Christians who have the wrong idea that, and I speak with reverence, that the Lord Jesus is a gardener. He was really going to make this world a lovely place for us to live in. And they think that when they receive the Lord Jesus, that all their troubles are over, we're going to head towards heaven and we're so happy, no more trials, no more tribulation.

The Lord's going to make this world a garden. Now, I want to say again, and you'll pardon me for saying this, but the preachers are the ones who deceive the people. The preachers are the ones who tell them this.

And just as we go to the doctor and we say, well, the doctor knows his business, I go to the doctor and he gives me a prescription to go to the drugstore, I don't say to the doctor, I don't think you're right, I believe he's telling the truth, he's my doctor. And so the preachers are the same way. People say, well, they know their business, they were in college four years, they're educated men, they know what it's like, and when they tell the people, you know, the world's going to get better.

We're going to go around the corner one of these days, we're going to find a better world. Oh, they're deceiving the people. They're thinking the Lord's a gardener, and she thought that the Lord was a gardener.

She's opposing him to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the to be the gardener, to be the to be the gardener, to be the to be the gardener, to be the gardener, gardener, to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the gardener, to be the to be the And the moment Mary heard that, Mary, oh it must have been wonderful how the Lord said that, Mary, but just imagine how he said it, as she stood there beside him weeping, Mary, she turned herself and said unto him, Rabboni. Now you know Judas, he always called the Lord Jesus Master, that when the disciples said, Lord, is it I? He said, Master, is this word, I understand it means Beloved Master, Beloved Master. She didn't just say Master, but Rabboni, which is to say Beloved Master.

Oh what a moment in the life of Mary when she saw the one she loved alive, how blessed. She saw Jesus and he said unto her in the 17th verse, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father. Isn't that lovely? Now in Mark's, in Matthew's gospel, you know the disciples held the Lord by the feet.

Well I believe they allowed them because in Matthew's gospel he's the King of Israel, but here he is the Son of God. He's the Son of God. He was going back now to be known as a heavenly Christ.

The Son of God was going back to heaven and he says, 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. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and they had spoken these things unto her. Now notice what he says, I ascend unto my father and your father.

You know the Lord Jesus never called God our father till after his resurrection. He referred many times in the gospel of John to my father. In my father's house are many mansions.

I ascend to my father and so on. He said my father and you know in Luke's gospel, this passage, you'll notice the very first words the Lord Jesus spoke, the perfect man of Luke's gospel, the first words I think we have on record was this, wish ye not that I must be above my father's business. And then at the end of his life before he died he said, father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

Well it's nice to see the perfect man referred to God as his father, but now he brings you and me as Christians into the same relationship. He says I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God. Oh the God that forsook him on the cross is now our God, my God and your God.

Now this is a beautiful passage. This is a very lovely chapter to meditate on, but I want to bring before you something that I think is so blessed and so wonderful. Think of it.

Here was a woman standing in a garden, and notice if you look back at the end of the 19th chapter, at the end of the 19th chapter to prove this, in the 41st verse, now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. And in the garden a new sepulcher when was never man yet laid, there lay Jesus. Therefore because of the Jews preparation day for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.

So the word of God tells us that the sepulcher was in a garden. And so in the garden stood the Lord Jesus and Mary. Now we go back to the third chapter of Genesis.

What do we find there? We have another garden. Oh what a garden that was, a paradise on earth. God's garden.

The very Lord himself planted the garden, and there he placed the man and the woman. Let us see the difference now in Genesis 3 and John 20, where there was a man standing in the garden of Eden. He had fallen.

He was a fallen creature, and there he stood. And standing beside him was his wife, the one whom God had given to him to be a helpmate to him. And there they were, fallen creatures, and there they stood in the garden.

But the Lord also was there. And what is the man saying? He said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me. Now isn't this a strange statement, the woman? In other words, he was going to blame the woman, but not only the woman, he was going to blame God and the woman.

He said, The woman whom thou hast given me. In other words, he blamed his wife, and he blamed God. Now you know the things that happened in the garden of Eden in connection with the fall of man are exactly what is happening today in this world.

The devil said, Yea, hath God said. He attacked the word of God. That's what's happening today, isn't it? The devil's attacking the word of God.

He says, Is God spoken? Is there really a revelation from God? Even the preachers say that there's not. The Bible's not true, they say. And the people are led astray by the preachers, again, who say the Bible's not true.

Yea, hath God said. I want to say that any man or woman who says this book is not true is speaking the devil's words. Anybody that dares to say this book is not the word of God, we can hear in their words the devil, the serpent's hiss.

That's exactly what Satan said. And when the woman dared to change and add to the word of God, take away from the word of God, she was a fallen creature. But here is this wonderful scene.

The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she blamed the woman, he blamed the woman, and he blamed God. But now in this twentieth chapter of John, again referring to the garden, we have the last Adam. Not the second Adam, but the last Adam.

There's only two Adams, you know. One is the first Adam. You and I were born into this world in the family of the first Adam.

We belong to that family of the first Adam. But when we received the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, through the new birth, we were brought into the family of the second, or the last Adam, I should say. The last Adam.

We now belong to a new family, and our father is God. God is now our father, and we are the very children of God through faith in Christ. But how different was this second scene.

The last Adam. What does he say to this woman? Go tell my brethren. What a difference, beloved.

The woman whom thou gavest to be with me. Go tell my brethren. What a wonderful Savior, beloved.

Go tell my brethren. What a wonderful tribute of the grace of God this is. Woman, woman.

The woman's seed of Genesis 3, verse 15, stands here in the garden. The garden where there was a tomb, and there was no tomb in the first garden. There was no death there up to that time.

But here there's a tomb, an empty sepulcher. Christ was alive. The last Adam had the bonds of death, and Jesus stood there, and he said, Go tell my brethren.

I ascend unto my Father and your Father. He uses this weak vessel, the one whom the devil attacked. You know, the devil came to the woman because she was a weaker sex.

And the devil didn't go to Adam. He went to his wife because he knew she was a weaker sex. He knew he didn't dare go to the man.

He went to the woman. But here the Lord honors the woman. He says to a woman, not to a man, but to a woman, Go tell my brethren.

Oh, the grace of God. It might well break our hearts, the grace and the goodness and the love of God that he would do such a wonderful thing to send a woman, this woman, to meet the disciples who went away to their own home. They went back to their own home, left the empty sepulcher alone, and left this poor woman, this poor sinner, saved by the grace of God, left her there to weep alone.

But you know, the Lord always comes to the weeping heart. Oh, beloved friend, tonight, you with your burdens and your troubles and your trials and your sorrows, Jesus comes to the weeping ones. There he came to this weeping woman, and he filled her heart with joy.

He presented to her not anything of the gold and silver of this world. He didn't present to her the riches of creation. He didn't tell her about the stars and the space and the moon and the sun and all these things.

He only had one thing to offer her, and that was himself, Jesus. Oh, beloved, he offered himself. He presented himself to the woman, and then she went with this glorious message.

And it tells us in the last verse we read, Mary Magdalene obeyed the Lord. She came. She left him, beloved.

She obeyed his word. Isn't it nice? She was told to go and tell my brethren. And when she had that message, like, you know, Philip the Evangelist, when he was preaching in Samaria, and the great crowd of people were being saved, and God was working there.

What a wonderful, a wonderful treat for the evangelist to see God working. But the angel of the Lord said, Philip, you leave this place a blessing, and you go down to the desert. Go down to the desert.

There he went. He left that great place a blessing. Why? He was obedient to the Lord's command.

And there, when he got into the desert, beloved, what happened? Notice it very, very carefully. When he got down the eighth chapter to the desert, the Spirit of God directed him to the chariot. Now, I know it's been often said the angel directed him to the place, but the Spirit of God directed him to the person.

But when it was that he obeyed the word of God, then the Spirit of God used Philip to take the gospel of the man on the chariot. How blessed, how wonderful. So this woman left the Lord Jesus and went and gave the glorious message.

And you notice this before we close in the 19th verse. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.

Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Now, notice, he showed them here, not like in Luke, he showed them his hands and his feet, all those beautiful feet of Luke's gospel. The feet of the man, Christ Jesus, who walked many miles around Palestine, he showed them in Luke his blessed feet.

But here in the Son of God, he shows them his hands. He was rejected by the world, the rejected Christ, the rejected Savior. And then he showed them his side where the precious blood was shed to take away our sins.

It's in John's gospel that he shows them his side where that precious blood was mentioned in the 19th chapter was shed from his pierced side. How blessed, how wonderful is the word of God. But just before I close, I want to draw your attention to this 19th verse.

The doors were shut. Now, what does that speak of? It speaks of separation. They were shut off from the world, the doors were shut.

Now, why were they shut? For fear of the Jews. Now, we haven't got to shut the doors tonight, thank God, for fear of the Jews, do we? We haven't got to shut the door for fear of the Communists or anybody, by the grace of God here in this country in which we live at the present time anyway. Well, they shut the doors for fear of the Jews.

And who do the Jews speak of? Religion, religion. And, oh, beloved, the world around us and the great camp, and I even speak of real born-again Christians. Thank God for all of them.

We love them all. We pray for them all. We can't agree with everything they do.

But, you know, the doors are shut for fear of them because they would introduce into the assembly of God the things that belong, we believe, to the Old Testament, to the camp around it, the organs and the pedals and the music and all these things that belong to the Old Testament. And so they shut the doors for fear of the Jews. And when the doors shut, Jesus came into the midst.

How blessed. He didn't open the doors. No, the doors were shut.

They shut the doors, but he came into the room. He was in the midst. There in the midst, he revealed himself.

Oh, beloved, in our last night here in this room, we present to you himself. Himself. Only Jesus.

Not Jesus and, but only Jesus. He loves us. He can't love us more, even though he's God.

He can't love us more. He said, as my father hath loved me, so have I loved you. If you could measure the love that God has for Christ, then you can measure the love that Christ has for you and for me.

Wonderful, isn't it? And so on our last meeting here tonight, may God bless the dear saints of Vancouver. May you go on, brethren. Don't let the devil hold you down.

Jesus is for us. He's in the midst. Don't let the devil try to fool you.

The Lord is with us. He has not forsaken his people, and he never will. Let us look to him.

Let us trust him. Let us be encouraged. How nice it is that the Lord would encourage you.

Encourage me. By what? By himself. Just himself.

Nothing else. We don't need anything else. We just need himself.

And if we've ever needed him before, we need him tonight. We need Jesus. Dear young Christians, people have told me if we only had a piano, a little bit of music, a little bit of something to pep things up, boy, the crowds would pour in.

I don't believe them. All we need is Jesus. Jesus.

The enjoyment of Christ. So the world around will take knowledge of us if we've been with Jesus.