Jim Elliot

Resurrection Sermon

delivered 1951, Radio Program The March of Truth, Cairo, IL

Audio mp3 of Address

It’s great to be back again, look into your faces, see some old friends. It’s good to be here to be able to proclaim the message of God from this platform once again. It’s gone out hundreds of times and I hope that we haven’t gotten over the thrill of its going out because after all we’re fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus Christ every time we preach the gospel. More than that, we are ourselves become directly responsible to God every time it’s heard and I hope that we’re like children still rejoicing in the awe and wonder of the love of God and his power. I hope we haven’t gotten over it like so many Christians seem to. 

For my own part, since I’ve been away from you, the Lord has been stirring me up as to just what the gospel is that should be preached, just exactly what twist a man should take when he stands in front of a 20th century audience and speaks to them. How much should he tell? What should he say? How far should he go? What should be his approach? And that exercise has driven me to the book of Acts for a fresh study of what the gospel was as it was preached by the apostles in the days of the Acts. And I have found that the gospel that they preached was indeed a simple one. I have found some strange and interesting variations in the gospel that we preach, for we call our gospel simple, but oftentimes I question whether that’s so. We say that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, taught to us through Paul in the book of Romans, is a simple gospel, but I’m not so sure that that’s true. At any rate, it’s not the initial thrust, it’s not the first few messages that was given, that were given by the apostles in the early days. 

They preached a message not of theory or theology, such as blood atonement, which required a great deal of understanding in the Jewish scripture and also a great deal of theoretical knowledge as to the nature of God and his holiness. They preached a gospel that was simple because it was based on recently occurring facts. They preached the fact primarily of the resurrection, they mentioned the death of Christ and then they enlarged upon the resurrection and the truths which they ­­ adduced to the resurrection were those that seemed to impel the audience. They were right there around them. They could say, "We are witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ rose and walked among us for forty days." And they say that over and over again. Peter says it. Stephen says it. Paul says it and the rest of the apostles. He says that these are alive and can bear witness to the fact that they saw a man who was raised from the dead, whom we called the Christ and whom you owe allegiance, in his preaching of the Gospel. He pressed upon them the claims of a resurrected Christ. They adduced not only truth to the fact that there were living witnesses, but they also brought to bear upon people’s consciences the Bible’s works that were taking place at that time. 

The spirit of God also, says one of the apostles, is a witness to the truth of, to the truth of what we say. And then, besides the miracles and the message of the Apostles they brought to bear upon the men of those days the very interesting proof of the Old Testament scriptures. Now, we agree to this and most of us are fairly well acquainted with the sufferings of Christ as were prophesied in the Psalms. Hardly a believer among us but what knows something about the 22nd Psalm and its prophetic application to the death of Christ. Hardly a believer among us who could not give us some interpretation of Isaiah chapter 53 and the [unclear at 3:42] Psalms as were prophesied in the scriptures. But I want to ask you if you are going to preach the gospel the way the Apostles preached it, how much are you to adduce the proofs of the resurrection in the Old Testament because I find them constantly drawing their allusions from the Old Testament prophecies to the resurrection; the resurrection they proved from the Old Testament and interestingly enough they didn’t prove it from the strange and rather difficult passages in Leviticus, in the typology, and the offerings. They drew it from the Psalms mainly and then in other instances from Isaiah, but they proved the resurrection not from the story of Abraham killing Isaac or being called upon to off/sacrifice his son Isaac, but rather from rather commonplace and familiar Psalms. They proved the resurrection as a thing prophesied years before it happened. 

To that end, I want you to turn to the book of the Acts where Paul is standing before King Agrippa in the 26th chapter and read a word that he has to say in his defense of preaching the gospel the way he did. Acts chapter 26 and we’ll break in in the middle of this defense, right after he’s given his testimony. And verse 19, Acts 26 verse 19. We’ll read through verse 23. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus first, and then Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God doing works worthy of repentance. For this cause the Jews seized me in the temple and assayed to kill me. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come,  how that the Christ must suffer and how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim life both to the people and to the Gentiles.

Particularly verse 22 and 23. Having therefore seen the help that is from God I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come, how that the Christ must suffer and that how he first by the resurrection from the dead should proclaim life both to the people and to the Gentiles.

Paul boasted that his Gospel had its roots in ancient writings. He said that this wasn’t a thing that was connected only with experience, as we hear preached so often today, none perhaps in the circles in which we move, but generally among Christians. They say that the reason the Gospel is true is because it works in a man’s experience. The reason the Gospel is true is because you’ve seen it, because you enjoy it, you, you get up and shout and sing loud and throw away your cigarettes and all the rest of that sort of thing. Well, that may be a very interesting phase of what the Gospel does in a man’s life, but isn’t necessarily a proof because a moral man could throw away his cigarettes, jump, hoop, and holler, and roll in the aisles and sing songs, songs, loudly without ever having been convicted by the Spirit of God. The Gospel that we preach is not primarily a Gospel of feeling; it’s a Gospel of fact.

It’s a Gospel based upon the fact of the resurrection, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the implications of those facts. I say more than just a fact because it’s possible for one to believe the fact and not to obey the truth implied by those facts. To really receive the Gospel is to receive the truth implied by the death and resurrection of Christ, i.e. that since Christ died, then we are all dead. If he died for all then we are all dead, and that they which live should henceforth not live anymore unto themselves but unto him that died for them and ruled again. That’s an implication of the death of Christ. An implication of the resurrection is that one which is given to us in the 17th chapter of this very book where Paul says the times of God -- the ignorant, God overlooked but now he commands all men everywhere to repent in that he has appointed a day into which he would judge the world in righteousness by the men whom he hath ordained. Whereof he offers proof to all men in that he raised him from the dead. The proof and the truth which we offer for the faith of men today is faith founded and totally fixed in the fact and nowhere else. If your salvation rests anywhere else but in the fact of the resurrection and the implications of that resurrection that is like the Lord Jesus said if I live you shall live also or because I live you shall live also. The implications of the resurrection are what make the Gospel real.

Now these men said very plainly. Paul says, in his defense to King Agrippa, that he preached absolutely nothing but what was in Moses and the prophets. He spoke unto that day speaking the things of the Old Testament. It’s fascinating to me how these men use the Old Testament in a way I should never dream of using it, in a way that seems awfully in many cases to stretch the original and since they used the Greek version of the Old Testament even to change words and sometimes it seems like they changed tenses of verbs. We’ll get into that maybe a little bit later when we get to the way Peter uses it, but Paul says here that he preached nothing except what Moses and the prophets preached, how that Christ should suffer and that he by the resurrection of the dead, notice he preached the resurrection from the Old Testament Scriptures should first show forth light unto the Gentiles.

We know the sufferings of Christ, as I said before, in the Old Testament. What do we know about the glory that’s to follow from the Old Testament, that is about the resurrection? Let’s take then, just briefly, a summary of how the New Testament treats the Old Testament Scriptures as regards this subject. In the first place, Christ generally spoke about his being a fulfiller of prophecy. It’s very significant that Jesus Christ was conscious constantly of fulfilling writings that were written of him. He could say all these things must come to pass that the Scriptures should be fulfilled. Or in another case, search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me. Or again, the Son of Man knoweth even as it is written of him, Jesus Christ was constantly sensible of the fact that he was fulfilling prophecy.

He walked in the light of the Old Testament as clearly as though there were sunshine to it. He took every step as confidently and as certainly as though he knew just exactly where he was going. In fact, he said that much. He says I know from whence I came and I know where I go. Jesus Christ always was aware of the fact that the things that were written in the Old Testament Scriptures were being fulfilled in him and not only Christ. If you’ll turn to the 13th chapter of Acts, you’ll find that the Apostle Paul also quotes scripture and says the Lord has commanded us in the words of Isaiah that I have set me for a light to the Gentiles. Paul found himself in the Old Testament Scriptures. Interesting, isn’t it?

How seldom we find ourselves there. How often we dispensationalize it so that we lose the power and the impact of many Old Testament prophecies. Now, I’m not implying that the church isn’t all found in the Old Testament. That isn’t the question. The questions is that the Gospel as it comes and its impact to any generation is a thing that was prophesied in the Scriptures and that’s why it’s so tremendously significant because the thing that I use tonight is the thing that was written before that I should do that the Gospel should be preached to the Gentiles is a prophecy of Jesus Christ and I confess tonight a glad living witness for the truth of that prophecy and so should we all because if Jesus Christ could save his own disciples after he had risen from the dead even as my father has sent me into the world so send I you. If the way Christ came into the world fulfilling prophecies is the way that I am to come into the world then I can exult and walk in the clear light of my path because I as a Christian, I don’t speak of myself as Jim Elliot, but I as a Christian and you as a Christian are stepping into the fullness of the blaze of God’s truth in order that we might know what it is to walk confidently having our, our minds and our hearts settled in fulfilling the Scriptures of God.

The Lord Jesus then having spoken generally that he was going to fulfill Scriptures spoke specifically about the resurrection of himself. You know the Jews believed in a resurrection when the Lord Jesus came to the town of Bethany after Lazarus had been dead for four days. He said to Martha, Martha your brother will rise again and Martha said yes Lord I know he will rise again in the last days. It was a general belief of the Jews that there would be a resurrection of the dead but Jesus Christ put it a little differently, rather than a general resurrection of the dead which the, which the Pharisees believed in. If you’ll turn over to the Acts, you’ll find that lots of times or once at least a very significant passage it distinguishes between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, in the resurrection of the dead as a general body they believed in a universal resurrection and it was the Sadducees who put that question to Christ about the man who, about the woman who had seven husbands and thereby hoped  to defy the fact of resurrection in the Old Testament by asking the question whose wife should she be in the Resurrection. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, nor the Spirit, nor the Angels. The Pharisees confessed to all three. So did Martha. But whereas they spoke of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ spoke of the resurrection from the dead, which is a different thing.

He spoke not generally of a great resurrection wherein everybody was going to be raised again, that’s plain enough in the Old Testament Scriptures. He spoke of the specific resurrection, spoke of himself for he prophesied during his lifetime that he would rise from the dead and of all those who believed on him. The hour cometh (a)nigh then, says he, when they that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. I think he’s referring definitely to the resurrection from the dead, that is those who are brought up out of death while there yet remain some who are dead. He’s prophesying Christian’s resurrection.

Then in his own case you remember, one time they came to him, the scribes and the Pharisees and they said we want to see a sign and he replied, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, but no sign shall be given to them save the sign of the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was a sign to the men of Nineveh even so shall the son of man be a sign to this generation. For, as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth. He told us that. He spoke of his resurrection.

Also, in that passage where he was called upon to clarify his position when he cleansed the temple you’ll remember that the people said to him, what right have you got to do this and the Lord Jesus said this about it. He said here’s the right I have you destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up again. He prophesied his own resurrection, having prophesied it and having said that it was in the Old Testament, in that reference to Jonah.  He found himself right in the middle of fulfilling prophecy and that, I think, gave power, it lent significance, it lent meaning sense to every minute of his life and it should be the same with us. How unfortunate Christians are so dull. We are so unattached to the Scripture that we fail to see ourselves presented in them, but we operate as the body of Christ, a thing foretold by Christ and how we are to act is a thing which was not only commanded but in a sense, since it was commanded, prophesied by Christ and his Apostles.

The Lord Jesus, then teaches us that the great lesson of the prophet Jonah which we have generally understood to be the lesson of a, a disobedient prophet getting next to his God is actually the lesson of the resurrection. The Lord Jesus saw in the story of Jonah the sign that he himself was to be to that generation in which he lived. When Jonah came up to Nineveh, although we don’t read this in the book of Jonah, we assume it from what Christ said himself, he was a sign to the people of Nineveh and what kind of a sign was he? He was the kind of a resurrected sign that Christ was. That is, Jonah came into Nineveh and he began preaching yet 40 days and this city God will destroy and the people of Nineveh repented and they began to ask questions. Who is this man?

And I suppose they probed Jonah with questions and it came to became known that this man was a man who had just come from the seashore where he’d been spewed up after three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish and as he was the sign of resurrection and he came to those people and they repented, so he -- he teaches us the lesson of Christ. It’s interesting that Jonah was unlike Christ in that when the people repented he was sorry the people of his generation were unlike the people of Christ’s generation in that they did not repent when Christ rose from the dead whereas in Nineveh the men of Nineveh repented when Jonah, in a figure, was lifted from the dead so that Jonah found himself in a happy circumstance and turned foul on it and the Lord Jesus found himself in a very different circumstance since the people didn’t believe in his resurrection and was sweet about it. But that’s the lesson of the prophet Jonah as interpreted by Jesus the Christ. He teaches us that the lesson of the prophet is a lesson of three days of death and then resurrection.

You remember the very sad story that is told in the 16th chapter of Luke concerning the rich man and Lazarus and after it’s all over and the man in hell has pleaded out that Lazarus should be sent to Earth, that Abraham gives that solemn and awfully final answer in which he says, no they have Moses and the prophets. If they will not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they believe though one be sent to them from the dead.

The Scriptures in themselves should be sufficient proof to the fact of the resurrection and the truth of Christianity That’s what that implies. They’ve got Moses and the prophets therefore a great sign such as a resurrection like Lazarus would be to those men who were the brothers of the rich man in hell a sign like that wouldn’t necessarily persuade them. The observance of single phenomenon is not necessarily productive of real faith.

People today say, "Oh, if we could only see like they saw, if we could only see miracles that they saw, if we could only see if the same thing would happen to us that happened to them" -- we’d be condemned by the things that we saw because no one rose from the dead, even according to Abraham’s word. Yet they did not believe but the Scriptures in themselves are sufficient argument, are sufficient proof of the fact of the truth of Christianity because if we take the words of the Apostles and go on we find that they as used from Scriptures written a thousand years before their time truth for what was happening before the eyes of their generation so ought we. Now, it’s constantly said generally in the Scriptures that the resurrection was prophesied like the Lord Jesus in the 24th chapter of Luke, you’ll remember he spoke to those that discipled on the way to Emmaus and he said o fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter into his glory? Then on in the 44th verse of that same chapter he remarked that these things have come to pass in order that the Scriptures should be fulfilled that Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead so that he speaks generally of the resurrection as it is prophesied.

Now turn to the 2nd chapter of Acts and we’ll find Peter with his enlightened conscious after the Holy Spirit has come upon him remarking on the resurrection as it is proved in the Scriptures. We’ll read from verse 22. Acts 2:22. Ye men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by writing works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you even as ye yourselves know him being delivered up by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God. Yea, by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay. Notice, there’s just about a sentence regarding the death of Christ and now he starts on the resurrection and spends a couple of paragraphs at it. Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death because it was not possible that he should beholden of it, now notice, he begins to bring in the Old Testament Scriptures proving the resurrection of Christ, for David sat concerning him and this is Jesus, the Messiah speaking now. I beheld the Lord always before my face for he is on my right hand therefore I shall not be moved, therefore my heart was gladdened, my tongue rejoiced moreover my flesh shall also dwell in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, neither wilt thou give thy holy one to see corruption. Thou madest known unto me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance.

Brethren, I may say unto you freely of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, notice, David was a prophet, not just a sweet singer he was a prophet. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne, he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ that neither was he left unto Hades nor to his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Now, casual reading of the 16th Psalm will make you very suspicious of Jesus’ interpretations thereof. If you read just plainly the words of the 17th Psalm, you’ll find that it starts out with a prayer of, of preservation: preserve me oh God, preserve me o God, yea I say in my soul I have no goodness that reacheth unto thee and it’s quite mystical to me that that actually applies to Jesus Christ cause in these verses right here Thou madest known unto me the ways of life that’s Christ speaking, that’s the Lord Jesus speaking who was instructed as a man through the Holy Spirit of God, yea he was caused to rejoice by the Spirit even as says the 10th chapter of Luke where it says as Christ saw his disciples returning from the preaching to...it says of him that he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is a man. Now these tendencies and fears of death but yet the Scripture says of him moreover my voice shall dwell in hope the Lord Jesus tabernacled among men in hope that the body which he had would be his forever. Moreover he says my voice shall tabernacle in hope, that’s the word. My voice shall dwell in hope. The Lord Jesus as he walked through Earth was able to say this of himself. My heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Why? Because I beheld the Lord always before my face. He is at my right hand, that’s Christ on Earth speaking. He is at my right hand. It can’t be Christ in Heaven because in Heaven God is at,  Christ is at God’s right hand. On Earth, God is at Christ’s right hand and the situation is reversed a few verses further on where we find Christ exalted to the right hand of the Father on High. Here we see Christ at, with God at his right hand. I beheld the Lord always before my face. Yea and therefore I shall dwell in hope, my voice shall rejoice. Why? Because thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.

Now, Peter says, I can plainly speak to you about David that he died and buried, he saw, he was buried and we saw corruption and his tomb is among us 'til this day so that he couldn’t speak of himself because he did die, his flesh did see corruption but he was speaking of the Christ and he spake this of the resurrection. Now, I am thankful that Peter got this out of the 16th Psalm for I am sure I never would’ve. It’s very interesting that he brought this from a Psalm that on the surface of the thing doesn’t seem to indicate resurrection at all. And this it seems to me should be instruction to us as to how we can use the Old Testament, seeking more and more not through finding quaint little ditties and alliterating outlines there or figures of what we already know to be true mostly of, most of our Old Testament studies, at least I speak this of myself. Most of our Old Testament study is only, brethren, to find out illustrations of what we already know. When you read the Old Testament, just check yourself and see if you’re not really looking for some allegory which will illustrate some New Testament truth -- rather than using the Scriptures as they used the Scriptures to [unclear at 24:26] New Testament truth, to base New Testament truth upon, to realize New Testament truth from the Old Testament. We take old New Testament truths and force them into the Old. Now, I’ll grant the things work together but we have within the Old Testament a wealth of New Testament truths which we have never even fathomed, we’re not even looking for. Peter’s use of this now becomes a tremendous truth and if you’re not a saved man tonight, I want to challenge you with this proof.

Here’s a prophet, a man by the name of David who lived a millennium before Christ appeared on the face of the Earth and he says that the one who was to appear would not see corruption in his flesh, yea his flesh was to go about as though it were tabernacling in hope and he would never see corruption that he would not be left in Hades, that spoken a thousand years before Christ becomes exactly fulfilled in the New Testament. And understand it wasn’t something that the people of the day, of the day of the Lord Jesus were looking for because we find in the 20th chapter of John that when Peter and John had gotten there to the grave of the Lord Jesus they stooped down, looked in to see him but they did not yet know the Scripture, the Old Testament Scripture that he must rise from the dead. They didn’t know that Scripture yet, but it was true to them ultimately. They weren’t looking for it, but it came to them from the Scriptures.

Peter, therefore offers to us a great and wonderful truth that the body of Jesus Christ shall never see corruption and I want to warn you friend of mine, if you don’t know the Jesus of whom I speak tonight you will one day know him in precisely the same body that Thomas saw him and Christ, my Lord and my God before him in precisely the same body that [unclear at 26:12] when he breathed upon his disciples that resurrection body of his, in precisely the same body of which he sat happily [unclear at 26:19] for a spirit hath not precious bone that you see me having. You will behold that body for every eye shall see it and they also which pierced him. You will look upon Jesus Christ, the resurrected man, his body through 2,000 years has not seen corruption and never shall see corruption. His [unclear at 26:38] in hope that God shall sustain the atoms of his being, if so be that a spiritual body consists of atoms, shall sustain that body forever and this to me becomes a tremendous proof of the judgment of unbelievers. Those who receive that by Christ by faith one day shall receive him by sight in awful horror and angst. You shall confess before this one whose flesh is uncorrupted through the ages. Yea, if the Scripture says of him these things which thou hast made shall wax old as dusty garments and thou shall fold them up and they shall be changed, but thou art the same.

My friend, one day you shall face the same Christ that Peter faced. One day you shall see the same Christ that Paul saw. One day you shall see those same hands which were outstretched over the disciples to pronounce that final hallowed blessing. One day you, my friend, shall be called upon to praise the Son of God whose eyes, as a flame of fire, and before whom there is no standing. You shall be called upon to face him. How will it stand with you then?

Turn over now, if you will, to the 13th chapter for an illustration of how Paul preaches the resurrection from the Old Testament. I am sorry that I only have five minutes. This is a 50 minute discourse, just on Paul’s alone. We’ll have to cut down the reading of the Scripture a little bit. Beginning at verse 32. Acts chapter 13. I want you to look at three different scriptures that Paul uses to prove the resurrection. And we bring unto you good tidings of the promise made under the fathers that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children in that he raised up Jesus as also is written in the 2nd Psalm. This, this is a proof of the resurrection. Thou art my son; this day have I begotten you. I ask you, how does that prove the resurrection? Consider it for awhile. And as concerning that you raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he has spoken on this wise and this from Isaiah 53. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. How in the world does that prove the resurrection? Or this one which Peter used because he said also in another Psalm, thou would not give thy holy one to see corruption or David after he had his own generation serve the council of God fell asleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption but he whom God raised up saw no corruption.

And also he said it is written in the 2nd Psalm thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now, you all know the 2nd Psalm, at least I hope you do. It’s a great song of triumph. It begins with why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, the kings of the Earth set themselves and the rulers take council together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder, let us cast off their cords from us, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision, then will he speak to them and sore displeasure and utter to them in his wrath saying yet shall I set my king upon my holy hill in Zion then God having spoken back the Messiah answered with this word I will declare the decree the Lord said unto me Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, Jehovah said to, to Christ and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the Earth for thy possession.

Tell me frankly, would you have proved the resurrection from that Psalm? It would have been one of the last that I would’ve chosen and particularly the phrase that he chose. I could’ve proven it out of things from this phrase yet shall I set my king upon my holy hill in Zion although the heathen rage and although they want to pass away the cords of Christ yet God says yet have I set my king. You could imply from that the resurrection but the 7th verse is the one he uses from thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So then, now I know that many of us interpret that as a millennial song but that isn’t the way the Apostles interpreted it unfortunately. In the 4th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles you’ll find that why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing is a flag to Herod and to Pilate and to the Jewish rulers. It was, it named that they saw happening, they saw prophecy fulfilled right around them, and they picked out the Scriptures and played it back to God and said Lord in this very city the heathen rage, that is the nations, the kings of the Earth -- Herod and Pilate set themselves against your son and against your anointed.

The very, the very people of, of Israel were gathered together with them to say [unclear at 31:00] cast off their cords from us so that this Psalm is actually a Psalm concerning the death, rather to begin with the trial, the death and the resurrection of Christ. It begins with the anger of the nation, or rather with the, the anxiety of the nation the, the desire to cast off the cord of the Lord from them. They wanted to get rid of it and then there comes the anger of Jehovah saying yet with all your anger, with all your ire against my son, with all of your curious desire to be free from this bond yet will I set my king upon my holy hill in Zion. Yea, though you slay him yet will I raise him from the dead and establish him upon his throne and then comes the announcement of the Son. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son.

Paul says this proves the resurrection. How? Does it not prove? Because Jesus Christ was the Son of God and he could not see corruption he was the Son of God and as we often say and comment upon it you can’t keep a good man down, you can’t keep God in the grave my friend. Be it you might try and bury him and leave him there and pity us poor folks who go to church and whimper at the grave of our God as he says it but you cannot keep Christ in the grave because God is, has said that Christ thou art my son and the Son of God cannot see corruption. Thou art my son. Because of this person it’s impossible that he should see corruption.

Interesting to me is the 1st chapter of Romans where Paul says that he is a one selected to do the service of God in his Gospel concerning his son Jesus Christ who was of the seed of David according to the flesh but declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Notice that, Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power. When? At the resurrection from the dead. That’s what he was. Now, most people think that Jesus Christ proves his resurrection by his miracles; that’s not so. The devil can work miracles and Jesus Christ might have been a devil had he not been raised from the dead. It’s his resurrection which proves conclusively that he’s the Son of God. He was declared to be the Son of God with power. How? By the resurrection from the dead. It’s because he’s God’s son that he was raised from the dead and it’s because he was raised from the dead that we assume he’s God’s son.

Jesus Christ, Paul said, Paul says to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ born of the seed of David, risen from the dead. Remember him that way. Remember him risen from the dead. O I like it. There’s nothing, nothing compares to it. To understand that the Christ whom we lived, live for and love is a risen Christ. Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, born of the seed of David. Unto us, the prophet Isaiah said, a child is born. That’s what Paul said in Romans 1. He said that the one who, who was born of the seed of David, that was the child, unto us a child was born. He was born of the seed of David, unto us a son is given. He would be raised to the Son of God with power. He’s a child in Isaiah and he’s a son in Isaiah. In the New Testament, we find that Paul says he’s a child of David, the seed of David, but he’s the Son of God with power. According to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

So that could decree became significant and he declared decree the Lord has said unto me thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. What day? Christmas day? Not at all, but some would reply that resurrection day because it was the resurrection that we hear Christ spoken of as the first born among the dead. It’s a though the tomb in which Christ was, was laid away, became the womb from which he sprang forth the first member of a new race. To bring hope to the Gentiles as Paul says in the 26th chapter of Acts. He was to declare by the resurrection of the dead light for the Gentiles. Wonderful. Wonderful that God would raise his son from the dead and a thousand years before he even brought him into the world, say of him thou art my son and this day, resurrection day, is the day in which I have begotten thee. Wonderful and then, oh my I know that’s pretty impressive.

Let me finish this one point and we’ll go on. Alright? Yeah, alright, we’ll finish. Thank you.

Then he says now then, turning to Isaiah, he says in verse 34 and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he has spoken on this wise I will give you the holy and sure weapons of David. Now if you know the 53rd Psalm at all, the 53rd of Isaiah at all you know that it starts out ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters, come ye, buy wine and milk without money and without price. And to those same ones who thirst this word is spoken I will give you, if you’ll come to me, the holy and sure weapons of David. That’s in that very phrase. It’s about the 3rd verse of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. I mean the 55th chapter, excuse me. So the Lord tells us that the one who will come to Christ will receive the blessings that David received, those holy and sure blessings of David. This word you, here, is not spoken to Christ. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. It can’t be because it’s in the plural and since it is in the plural it refers to all those who thirst and this is a promise from the Old Testament which the Apostles had used to offer to men today, in his own day, that they could have the very same blessings that David knew that is the promise of uncorruption and so it says I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David because, the next phrase says, because he said also in another Psalm that he would not suffer they holy one to see corruption. Because Christ did not corrupt, even so it was given to the Christian today that his body shall be reframed and uncorrupted eternally and this is the promise which I have stated to you. Yea from the prophet Isaiah, through the Apostle Paul, now to all eternity that it is possible to present incorruption eternally in the human body because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is offered to you tonight as freely as a drink of water was ever offered.

Oh, everyone that thirsteth, do you seek incorruption, do you seek immortality, do you seek eternal life? Do you seek glory and honor according to the 2nd chapter of Romans. Then I declare unto you that there is true faith in Jesus Christ incorruption because he says in another Psalm thou wilt not allow thine holy one to see corruption and that very same, sure promise of David that was given to Christ is given to you extended through the Apostle Paul and the great word of God. O will you not receive tonight some of the blessings that come from Christ’s word in that he raised from the dead and now sits at God’s right hand forever incorruptible, forever eternal, forever glorious the great, high, mighty majesty that he is. Majestic sweetness that’s enthroned upon his brow and tonight he extends to you the greatness of incorruption. He extends to you the offer of immortality. In that body which he will perfect in which he will make himself known will you must submit to him tonight yea, for has not the Scripture said that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose for whom he foreknew then he foreordained to become conformed to the image of his son and if his son is incorruptible then there is incorruption for you because I live you shall live also.

Shall we pray? Again, Father, we feel like we cannot speak as we should like to speak concerning thy son. We only pray that thy word might have its effect, thine intended effect upon our hearts and that we shall see in the truth of the Old Testament Scripture, that we have our roots in fact and in history and in the tremendous truths of thy word. Help us O' God to walk according to it. We ask in the name of Jesus.

Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008)

Research Note: I am grateful to David Ream for identifying and correcting errors in this transcription (10/30/09).

Audio Source: SermonAudio.org

Image Source: Wikipedia.org

Further Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Elliot

Page Updated: 3/1/24

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