God Of The Living

[0:00] Let's start by looking at the group that had confronted Jesus to begin with. Look at verse 18, and Sadducees came to him who say there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question.

[0:12] So Mark, for the first time and only time in his book, brings up this particular group called the Sadducees, and if you grew up in Sunday school like me, you were told they were sad, you see, because they did not believe in the resurrection. They're a small group, a small sect within Judaism, but they had considerable influence, actually. They were the wealthy aristocrats of the day, of Jewish society. They had many powerful positions within the priesthood, but then also in the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling body of the Jews. Many Sanhedrins involved in that, and it was through this power that they had that they controlled the happenings and the procedures around the temple and temple worship, including those franchises of merchants, the greediness of the money changers. It was the Sadducees that oversaw all of those processes. Remember in chapter 11,

[1:14] Jesus comes in and chases them all out. Well, it's the Sadducees that are the ones that are benefiting the most from that. Their teaching varied greatly from the Pharisees and from the dominant position of Judaism. They contended that only the first five books of the Bible were divinely inspired.

[1:34] The Pentateuch or the Book of Moses is how it's referred to here in this passage. They thought that everything else that we would consider as necessary and inspired in the Old Testament was not actually inspired. And so they completely dismissed any notions that could not be directly proven in those first five books. It's a common position that people even hold today. The argument is based on denial, that I can deny your argument just by denying the basis of your argument. So if someone were to say, well, we believe that there's a resurrection, they'd say, well, no, you have to go to these other books to prove that. And since we don't believe those other books are valid, then of course, we don't believe that your argument about the resurrection is valid. And it's a terrible way to argue, but it's the way that they positioned themselves when it came to this particular topic.

[2:24] Acts tells us that they also denied the existence of spiritual beings. They didn't believe in angels, they didn't believe in demons, and they didn't believe in a resurrection or an afterlife.

[2:35] They believed that the soul dies with the body, and therefore we face neither rewards for our good, neither do we face destruction or punishment for our evil, which naturally made them social and political opportunists whose loyalty lay with whoever benefited them the most at the time. So since they believe that it's only this life, this world is all that there is, what they pursued in this world was power and wealth and pleasure. So they were friendly to the Romans. They were friendly to whoever would allow them to have the authority and control over the temple, whoever was going to allow them to benefit from people.

[3:24] That's the way that they live their life. And it's in this way that the Sadducees are very much like modern people. Because modern Western thought refuses to believe that there's any purpose to this life or existence after this life. It denies that there is actually a holy God who will judge the world and everything in it so people live their lives for themselves. Because why not? If I'm going to deny that there is a God and I'm going to deny that he cares about me and I'm going to deny that he will judge me, then I am my own God. I'll live my life the way I want to live it and no one can tell me otherwise. So our loyalties typically lie with those who benefit us the most. And our pursuits are consumed with personal fulfillment and with power and with wealth. And the tragedy of all of this is the error of it.

[4:25] Because every one of these people will indeed face the judgment of their creator. And our only hope of vindication in that judgment is the death and resurrection of Christ.

[4:38] So the Pharisees and the Herodians in the last section, they had failed in their attempt to derail the Lord's influence. It's the Sadducees' turn now. They're going to give it their best effort. But as we read through, we find that the cleverness of men is no match for the Son of God. And Jesus' wisdom once again silences his enemies and leaves them speechless. But it's not the confrontation that is the main point here.

[5:08] It only serves as the context for a series of critical truths from Jesus. And here's what we learn. Here's the general thought of what we learn in this passage. God's covenant with Israel's patriarchs promises that there is life after death. And Jesus' resurrection secures eternal life for whoever will believe and follow him. All right? That's where we're going to go. Okay? But we're going to go verse by verse to get there. All right? Listen, I'm going to follow the same format that we did last week. And we'll do it with the scribe next Sunday as well. We're going to look at the challenge from the Sadducees. Then we're going to look at Jesus' counter argument here as well. So let's look at the challenge first. Verse 19. Here was the question that they asked. Teacher Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, he left no offspring. The second took her and died, leaving no offspring, and the third likewise.

[6:20] And the seven left no offspring. Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection then, Jesus, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her.

[6:38] So their question is really, the motivation behind it is no different than the Pharisees and the Herodians. This was not an honest inquiry on the part of the Sadducees. This was meant, as an intellectual trap. And the challenge here is pretty straightforward. It was probably a common one. Sinclair Ferguson said this is the type of question that every son of a Sadducee would have asked every son of a Pharisee in primary school. You know, we have those intellectual bullets in our holsters that we pull out. Just when we get someone at the right moment, we have this one question or this one statement that we believe is unanswerable. And this was one of those questions. This probably wasn't, they probably didn't come up with this in this moment. This was probably an argument that was necessary for every card carrying Sadducee in Israel. And so I'm certain that people had heard this before, but no one else apparently had been able to answer it adequately or satisfactorily.

[7:37] So they bring it to the Lord. And the hypothetical situation that they present is based on the laws of the law of marriage, which you can find described in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

[7:51] We're not going to read that today, but let me just give you the synopsis of how it worked. God commanded that if a married man died without children, then his widow was to be married by the next relative who was unmarried. Okay, so the next brother, or maybe if he didn't have any brothers, maybe it would be a cousin or whatever the closest relative was who was unmarried was then to take the widow of this man and raise up children in his name. So their first child, their first son would be named after the man who died. And what that did was it secured the family name in Israel. It secured wealth for that family, their land. It stayed in the family instead of passing on to other people. But then it also served as a protection for the widow.

[8:39] It was a protection for her who otherwise might have been rejected by any other suitors, would have been rejected by anyone else who didn't want to marry someone who wasn't a virgin. She would have been destitute. She would have no one who could provide for her and protect her.

[8:54] So God, in his grace, provides this law that the people were to follow. Now, I don't know how many of you have good relationships with your sister-in-laws, but you can imagine this could be problematic in some instances. But it was of God's will that they had this in Israel. And if someone didn't follow this law of leveret marriage, Deuteronomy 25 says that they were to be dishonored. And there was this whole procedure that you can read about that's somewhat humorous. But basically, it comes down to dishonor forever. For the rest of the man's life, he would be known as the man who abandoned his sister-in-law and who disobeyed the Lord's command. And of course, probably the most famous or well-known of these situations is in Ruth and Boaz. And you can go and read that and how that worked out.

[9:44] Well, the Sadducees' point here is not to discuss leveret marriage, but they were using it as a weapon to suggest that the notion of a resurrection or an afterlife was actually absurd. That's what they were trying to say to the Lord. And the reasoning went something like this. Why would God insist on leveret marriage knowing how complicated that's going to make things if there is an afterlife?

[10:13] Do you see the argument that they're trying to make? Why would God do that? He insisted on leveret marriage. If there's multiple men that have one wife and in eternity, what's that going to be? It's going to be a big mess. So clearly there's no such thing as a resurrection. Otherwise, God would not have instituted this law. And they really just made a mockery of the Lord's position. And their argument was reflective of common Jewish thought that the afterlife was really nothing more than a continuation of this life. And we're going to get to that more in just a moment. But the famous Jewish historian, Josephus, he wrote that the Sadducees were notoriously arrogant. They were dismissive of others who had differing views. And undoubtedly, their objective here with the Lord was to make a mockery of him and to treat him as a fool rather than a rabbi and messianic figure. But before we move on to Jesus's response, we need to think for just a moment about what it was that motivated the Sadducees' aggression.

[11:24] What is it that makes them want to come after Jesus at this moment? It doesn't seem like they're trying to accomplish the same thing as the Pharisees and the Herodians who were actually seeking for his death. The Sadducees, this whole thing wouldn't actually contribute to the death of Jesus.

[11:39] What is it that they're trying to do? Remember, these men are fundamentally opportunists. And they use their power to corrupt the temple procedures. They sold the franchises to the merchants. They sold the franchises to the money changers. They were the ones taking the cut off the top of whatever was made. They were the ones that were getting rich off of the superficial worship of the people. But when Jesus came to town, what did he do? He interfered with all of that.

[12:13] He chased out the merchants. He turned over the money changing stations. He refused to let that continue in the temple, which meant that their wallets are the ones that took the hit. They've lost their extra source of income here. And obviously, you hit someone in their wallet.

[12:29] They don't like that very much. And the Sadducees didn't appreciate that either. But on top of all of that, Jesus humiliated them by ignoring and denying their authority over the people.

[12:43] And they knew as long as Jesus and the people were following Jesus, they weren't going to listen to the Sadducees anymore. So what are they actually trying to do here? They're trying to make him look like a fool in order to diminish his influence over the people so that they might regain their influence over the people. They might regain their power and authority. And here we find this theme of authority coming to the surface once again here in this chapter. It's just everywhere here. We all want to do things our own way. None of us want someone else ruling over our lives or telling us what to do.

[13:23] But you cannot be a disciple of Jesus without submitting to his lordship over your life. And think about this. Israel's conflict with Jesus was not ultimately about religious ideas.

[13:41] It was ultimately about personal authority. And that's the case for us as well. Our issues with Jesus are far less about what he says and more to do with the fact that he says them to us.

[13:55] It's less about his commands and more about the fact that he actually commands us. We don't like that. We're fine for someone to be different. We're fine for someone to have different ideas as long as they stay over there and leave me alone about it. But as soon as someone comes in and begins to exercise authority in our own lives, we start to get defensive and we get upset about that. We don't want to give up our own personal autonomy. And that's exactly what people do with Jesus. He comes in as the Lord of all and he begins to command us and he begins to teach us. And the problem isn't so much with what he's saying. It's the fact that he's saying it and that he's saying it to us, expecting us to follow it. And so this issue of authority comes up again. Well, let's look at how Jesus countered the men in verses 24 to 27. Of course, one of our favorite things about this section is Jesus just has a mic drop moment after mic drop moment, doesn't he? He silenced the Pharisees.

[14:54] He silences the Sadducees here as well. No matter how clever they got, they could not find a way to trap him. And so Jesus in this response is simple. He gives some reasons for their error. He gives some realities of the resurrection, some realities of what life will be like in eternity. And then he affirms the resurrection itself. I want to deal just quickly with the reasons for their error. And then I want to jump in and give us some time to be encouraged by what Jesus is saying about heaven here and about eternity. Let's look first at the reasons for their error. Verse 24, Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are wrong? Because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

[15:47] And don't you love how straightforward Jesus is here? He doesn't say, well, you know what? That's an interesting thought that you have there. And I value your opinion. He does know what he says.

[16:00] He says, you're wrong. Different from the politically correct compromise of the modern church, Jesus had no problem saying they were plainly wrong. Now here's what's interesting about it. We know Jesus. We've studied his life here.

[16:22] We know that there was no person to have ever lived or has ever lived since that is more loving than Jesus. We have all experienced that he truly is, as he said, gentle and lowly.

[16:35] That when we come to him, he gives us, he takes off the burden of religion and he takes off the burden of works and he takes off the burden of our sin and he replaces it with his light and easy load and he gives us rest. That's who Jesus is, right? He's gentle and he's lowly and he's loving.

[16:53] Modern thought asserts that to love someone is to agree with them. But Jesus proves that true love does not capitulate to error. True love exposes error. But here's where we go wrong sometimes.

[17:10] Jesus' aim in exposing their error was not to insult them. His aim was not to win an argument. His aim was to lead them to the truth. And that's where we go wrong sometimes, isn't it?

[17:27] We forget that the ultimate aim of standing on the truth and exposing error is to lead other people to that truth. But sometimes, man, you know, just get, if you're on social media, you can get so irritated, right?

[17:39] Or you're in that one conversation. Now it becomes less about leading these people to truth and it becomes more about embarrassing them for having such a foolish opinion. Or it becomes more about just destroying them and their character. It's not really about truth anymore. Well, Jesus never went there, but he was plain. And still, we need disciples who will lovingly and unashamedly stand for truth and righteousness in the world. Otherwise, we are salt that has lost its seasoning and we have become utterly worthless and useless in the plan of God. And so we see right in God's example, Jesus' example here, he just plainly tells them, you're wrong. And here's why. He gives two reasons.

[18:24] They were ignorant of the scriptures and they were ignorant of God's power. They dismissed the Bible and they ignored the fact that the God who created ex nihilo out of nothing, all that is, also has the power to create and transform life in the next life. They just ignored all of that. Jesus says, that's your problem, which was a particular blow to their egos because the Sadducees would have prided themselves on being experts in both categories. And the truth is, without fail, the root of our sin, the root of our false doctrine, ultimately comes down to a low view of God's word and a low view of God. A low view of God and a low view of God's word is going to lead us to sin and it's going to lead us to false doctrine and it's going to lead us to carnality. And if we're going to win people for Christ, we can't rely on our intellect for that. What do we do? We endeavor to show them the beauty and holiness of God along with the inerrant authority of the Bible.

[19:45] So Jesus points out right away, here's your problem. You don't know the Bible and you don't know God. Okay. Those are the reasons for their error. Secondly, here's where I want to park for a minute. The realities of the eternal state, the realities of the eternal state. Look at verse 25.

[20:04] Jesus says, for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

[20:18] So before dealing with the central issue of the resurrection, Jesus made a statement here about the reality of what life is like in eternity. And of course, this is not exhaustive. He just points to one particular thing that related to their question.

[20:32] Now, remember what I said about Jewish thought. They believed that any afterlife was just a continuation of this life. There wasn't really anything more grand about it. It was just that we get to continue on how things are. And that was the context of the Sadducees' question.

[20:51] They assumed that the afterlife would mimic the current one, which was evidence that even the Pharisees didn't really know the power of God. Says Sinclair Ferguson, they had so small a view of God that they seemed to think the world to come would simply be a continuation of the world as it is.

[21:12] But if they had known the power of God to transform human life, they would have already known what Jesus was about to tell them. Now, here's where I want to pause for a second. Be honest.

[21:27] Does it bother you when Jesus says, there will be no marriage in heaven? You're neither married, nor are you given in marriage.

[21:42] Because if I'm honest, that bugs me a little bit when I first get to it, right? I love Julie so much. It's almost painful to consider that in heaven, I might not be as close to her or have the intimacy with her that I enjoy now on earth. But is that what Jesus is saying here?

[22:11] In eternity, will Julie and I be like strangers? I don't think so. There won't be marriage in heaven because there will be no need for marriage in heaven.

[22:25] Now, think about it. God instituted marriage to provide companionship on earth. Remember in Genesis, is it chapter two? He said, it is not good that man be alone.

[22:37] Therefore, he will make a helper that is suitable for him and he creates Eve. And together, he provides something in marriage that would cause the family on earth to flourish in the complementary roles of men and women.

[22:51] It was all a part of God's plan. It was necessary for life here. Necessary for this life. Marriage is also to be a shadow pointing us toward the intimacy that we will experience with God and Christ in eternity.

[23:08] Marriage was never meant to be eternal. If you spoke of an eternal bond at your wedding ceremony, you misspoke because Jesus says there is no marriage there.

[23:23] It was never meant to be eternal. It's meant to be a foretaste of the immeasurable glory of perfect union with God. Do you understand that?

[23:34] As wonderful as a companion as Julie is to me, Christ is far better. As wonderful as marriage is in this life, as much of a blessing as it is for us in this life to have someone to be with, someone to love, someone to continue on in life with, someone to bear your burdens with, someone to enjoy intimacy with, as much, as wonderful as a thing marriage is in this life, it cannot compare to the glory of being with God and being in personal and perfect union with Him in eternity.

[24:11] It doesn't compare. It's only meant to give us a foretaste of what will be far greater in heaven. James Edwards said, the glorious realities of the life to come can no more be accommodated to the pedestrian routines of earthly life than can butterflies be compared to caterpillars.

[24:33] Present earthly experience is entirely insufficient to forecast divine heavenly realities. We can no more imagine heavenly existence than an infant in utero can imagine a Beethoven piano concerto or the Grand Canyon at sunset.

[24:53] And we need to be careful. We don't think that what God has for us in eternity will be a disappointment if it doesn't include what we have now.

[25:09] You've heard of people that are so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good. I think for most of us, we're probably so earthly minded that we're no heavenly good.

[25:24] And we understand, right? Why do we feel that way? When we find goodness in this life, we cling to it. Why? Because this life is saturated with evil and suffering and destruction.

[25:42] and we find glimpses of goodness and glimpses of grace. We grab on and we don't want to let go even if it means that we might get something better.

[25:54] I want to encourage you to think for just a moment. Think about all the things that you love in this life. Think about all the things that you enjoy in this world. Your family, the beauty of creation, the blessings of God, the things that we love, just bring them to the forefront of your mind for just a moment.

[26:14] The things that you love the most in this life. And now I want you to recognize that the things that just came to the forefront of your mind, you enjoy in a fallen state. You enjoy them in the midst of a sin-cursed world.

[26:29] And think about the goodness and the grace and the beauty that God has provided in the midst of sin and in the midst of devastation. Now can you imagine now what awaits us in heaven where there is no sin, where there is no decay, where there is no disease, where there is no death, where there is no war, where there is no suffering.

[26:55] All the things that you love here now. Imagine if God can give you that kind of grace in this life, what can he give to us in the next life which is removed from all hardship and trial and tribulation.

[27:11] What a wonderful thought. You don't have to dread heaven. It will be far greater than this earth. That doesn't really answer the question I posed which is what will my relationship with Julie be like in heaven?

[27:30] Will we be like strangers to one another? No, I don't think so. And I'm going to read to you a quote. It's a long one. It's just, it's written much better than what I could write it. It's by a man named Edward Donnelly.

[27:46] And I want you to consider this for a moment. He writes, we will certainly know one another in heaven. King David looked forward to being reunited with his dead son there.

[27:57] I shall go to him, he said. Paul urges bereaved Christians not to sorrow as others who have no hope for God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

[28:10] The reason for not grieving like unbelievers is that their parting is not permanent. They will meet again. And then he says this, we cannot know less in heaven than we did on earth.

[28:26] And so we will recognize there those known to us. And surely that is comforting. We're also told that many aspects of marriage will no longer be appropriate in glory where there will be no reproduction.

[28:41] The husband will not need a helper nor the wife someone to cherish her protectively. children will not require parental care. The relationship between Christ and his church will be so obvious as to render unnecessary a human illustration.

[29:01] But does this mean then that your husband or my best friend will be no more to us than anyone else among the multitudes of the redeemed? I don't think so.

[29:14] For every good thing will be better in heaven than on earth. If God has given you a Christian husband or wife parent or child brother or friend you can be sure that whatever the parameters of your future relationship with them may be the friendship will be closer there than it is now.

[29:39] you will know them more intimately love them more intensely delight in them more fully. It is impossible that we should lose anything good in that place where good abounds.

[29:56] We can look at Christians whom we love especially and praise God that we will continue to love them more and more forever and ever.

[30:07] Is that not awesome? Yeah Jesus says there's no need for marriage in heaven we won't be given in marriage in heaven but that doesn't mean I won't know Julie that means I will know her better.

[30:19] I will love her more she'll love me more our intimacy will be greater there than it's ever been before in this life why? Because we have stripped away all the sin all the decay all the destruction we are in the place of God's perfection where he pours out blessing after blessing after blessing can you imagine loving your wife more than you love her now?

[30:45] Don't answer that. Grandparents can you imagine loving those grandbabies more than you love them now?

[30:57] Mark can you imagine loving Adeline more than you love her now? Can you imagine that? You will you will be greater it won't be the same but it will be greater it will be better and the testimony of the church in history is that Christians have longed for heaven they've longed for eternity and we could use a revival of that longing today because we find all the things that we love most and cherish most on this earth and we think if this isn't in heaven I don't want to go we wouldn't say it out loud but we live that way that's why it's so easy for us to give up worship for a family day because we love our family more than we love worship it's why it's so easy for us to give up the things of

[31:58] God in order to have the things of this earth because we're clinging to things that will pass away and we're failing to recognize the beauty! that will be heaven the beauty that will be eternity and it will be real and it will be glorious and we need to pray that the Lord would give us a fresh longing for heaven finally let's look at resurrection affirmations here resurrection affirmations verse 26 as for the dead being raised have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush how God spoke to him saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he is not God of the dead but of the living and then he reiterates you are quite wrong the Sadducees assumed that one would have to cite books outside of the book of

[33:02] Moses to prove any form of future resurrection so Jesus proved it from Exodus chapter 3 a passage that they would have affirmed as divinely inspired two ways that this little verse in Exodus 3 affirms life after death and they're simple the first is this God uses the present tense rather than the past tense he didn't say I was the God of Abraham I was the God of Isaac and I was the God of Jacob no he says I am the God of Abraham I am the God of Isaac I am the God of Jacob simple yeah I know but there's a second reason Jesus used this text to emphasize the eternal!

[33:55] nature of God's covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob now think about this for a moment what would be the purpose in those glorious covenants made with the patriarchs those extravagant promises of progeny and prosperity and land and peace what would be the purpose of giving all of those promises extravagantly to these three men knowing that they would utterly cease to exist in only a few years it wouldn't make sense if there was no existence after this life why would God be so concerned about the lives we live here and now and the answer is he wouldn't William Lane said this it's inconceivable!

[34:44] God would provide for the patriarchs some partial tokens of deliverance and leave the final word to death if the death of the patriarchs is the last word of their history!

[34:56] There has been a breach of the promises of God guaranteed by the covenant it is in faithfulness to his covenant that God will resurrect the dead he says still not convinced Sadducees wouldn't have been either not because the evidence is weak but because their hearts were so hard they didn't believe Jesus words because they didn't want to but this argument is not just Jesus opinion on Exodus 3 so how can we know that it's true how can we trust what Jesus says and think that the Sadducees are wrong or anyone else for that matter the ultimate guarantee of our resurrection is Jesus his own resurrection that's it his resurrection not only proves that eternity is a reality but only

[36:02] Jesus has the authority to provide eternal life to us the resurrection of Jesus changes everything you say how do we know that the Bible is true our first answer is because Jesus rose from the dead and Jesus affirmed it he affirmed the scriptures he was testified to by the scriptures they're true because he rose and he lives again how do we know that we can have life after death because Jesus has proven himself that he has life after death and he has power over death and he has authority over life now I want you to turn with me as we finish to I would encourage you to do that on your own the whole chapter is about this same subject it's the resurrection of saints because of the resurrection of Jesus and I want you to read with me beginning at verse 20 we'll go verse 20 to verse 26 1

[37:08] Corinthians 15 verse 20 but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by a man came death by a man comes also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruit then at his coming those who belong to Christ then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be destroyed is death what's Paul's point we will live on because Christ lives on we will have life because Christ has life we will conquer death because

[38:11] Christ has conquered death for us his resurrection changes everything it guarantees ours notice why stay there in 1st Corinthians 15 we're going to come back to it but remember what Jesus said at the very end to the Sadducees he is God of the living not God of the dead which begs the question as we close are you living or are you dead and of course we don't mean physically we mean spiritually do you have life or are you in the category that Paul talked about in Ephesians chapter 2 that you are dead in your trespasses and in your sins because if you're dead you receive no blessing from the God of the living to receive his blessing to receive his life you must be alive

[39:15] Daniel chapter 12 reminds us that not just Christians will be raised but so will unbelievers Daniel said many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall wake some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting content the truth is that we'll all spend eternity somewhere but not everyone will spend it in the perfect beauty and goodness of heaven some will be raised to eternal death separated from God in hell so how can we know where we go if there is an afterlife and if there's only one of two places that we can spend that time in eternity how can we guarantee that we go to the good place and not to the bad place Jesus said in John 11

[40:16] I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die Jesus is the answer he is the answer the bible says that it's appointed unto man once to die and then after this comes the judgment do you understand what that judgment is it is when the creator of all the creator of you judges you on the basis of whether or not you fulfilled the purpose for which he created you to fulfill you have a purpose given to you by your creator that purpose is his own glory and how do we glorify God kids by loving him and obeying his commands and laws the problem is none of us have done that none of us have loved him perfectly none of us have obeyed him perfectly so when we stand before him in that judgment we cannot possibly hope to receive blessing on the basis of the good that we have done

[41:36] Isaiah said our goodness to God is like a filthy rag it's worthless because his standard is perfect foolishness on those who think that their good outweighing their bad will somehow earn merit with God God is perfect how could you ever earn merit from perfection it doesn't work but you will answer to him that's why Jesus is so necessary Jesus as God's son lived the life that we cannot live he is perfect he loved God perfectly he fulfilled the law perfectly he lived the life that we cannot live and he died the death that we should die that is the death of facing God's wrath in eternity he took that for us why so that at that judgment so that at that judgment

[42:39] God the father can look at us and say I put your sin on my son so that I could put my son's righteousness on you that's why it matters so much your acceptance with God has nothing to do with you you will never be good enough you will never be faithful enough you will never give enough you can give everything you have to Val and Angela if you want and still go to hell because it's not about what you do it's not about who you are it's about what Christ has done it's about who he is and he says all who will believe me and turn from their sin the father takes their sin and puts it on the son and then he takes the righteousness of the son and he puts it on filthy sinners so that when we stand before the judgment it is not our own goodness that we claim it is that we claim the goodness of

[43:46] Christ because the sinless Savior died counted free for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me and this whole issue in Mark chapter 12 is all about eternity the Sadducees didn't realize what they were going to get from Jesus when they came prepared to mock him that day and they gave us something in their ignorance that day that is far more valuable than what they could have ever understood because of their foolishness Christ delivers for us in his word a wonderful truth of the reality of the resurrection and then he says that's why I'm here to make that resurrection a reality for you and if you will believe me and you will follow me your sins will be forgiven and this life will be yours but it takes all of you not apart it's not about your church attendance it's not about what you do in the church ministries it's about are you in

[45:02] Christ and is Christ in you that's the resurrection life now you're in first Corinthians 15 look with me at verse 50 we'll finish with this as an encouragement I tell you this brothers Paul writes flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality and when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on the immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your victory oh death where is your sting and he drops his mic here the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to

[46:30] God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ