The Second Resurrection

My wife nudged me as I was heading up here and said, please thank everyone for their prayers on her behalf regarding her eye surgery. She's still a week or two weeks away from the checkup with the doctor as to how things have gone. Eyeside has improved. He told her very plainly up front that she would never lose the double vision on the peripherals. The objective was to bring the forward vision back to a single, but out beyond about this far on the sides, that will remain double. Overall, things have been well. Please keep her in your prayers in regards to complete healing. That's going a little more slowly. One thing I forgot to mention regarding Linda French's doctorate is that her formal statement that I sent to all the church pastors in the Northwest, I have, and I will post that on the bulletin board. If you'd like to see the full statement, that will be on the board. It also has the email address for the survey if you wish to copy that off. We're going to try to make that easier and send it to you, but if you want to copy it off, you're welcome to do that also. All right. I said to the Bible Study Gang this morning that I don't want to beat a horse until all of you get tired of my flogging the horse. So I told them I would finish a particular line of preaching to you today, and I covered an element in Bible Study, and I want to cover one more element in the sermon, and then it's on to other things after that. The last two sermons that I've given you, we talked about the salvation of mankind through the vehicle of a second resurrection. Our point of those sermons was that the proof of its existence did not rest upon explicit scriptures, but rested upon an underlying philosophy, and we took considerable time explaining what that underlying philosophy was and what it looked like. We explained that the key components to the philosophy underlying the salvation of the majority of mankind through a second resurrection rested upon these things.

That God is a God of mercy, compassion, and love, and it has been stated explicitly that His desire would be, if they would comply, that all mankind would attain to salvation. He, in principle, doesn't want to see anyone not be saved. So in terms of principle, God's principle is, I didn't make you to destroy you. I made you because I want to see you attain to eternal life. Now, we all understand the realities. In a character-based world where you have to make the decisions and live the decisions, you're the captain of that ship. God gives you the captain ship of that ship. But He says, as you begin to sail the sea of life, I can tell you where I want you to go. I want you to go to eternal life.

But we also saw, not just as a one-off in some smaller book of the Bible, but we saw as a thread that ran through the Bible, that God has blinded man, and He has blinded them so they not be converted.

And with these two seemingly contradictory threads running through the Bible, the question is, how are they reconciled? The reconciliation comes in the understanding that God is keeping in His own purview, in His own power, the choice of the time in which to give man the opportunity for salvation.

If God reserves a time to allow all mankind to have an honest, legitimate chance for salvation, then what appears to be a contradiction simply evaporates away. And this is how we concluded those two parts of our series.

I want to conclude it today because there is one more thread, and in one sense it is a phenomenally powerful thread to this story.

It is in its own right an underlying philosophy, if you will, that plays into this matter. In fact, it plays into all times. You're not headed for the second resurrection. But this underlying philosophy affects your salvation today. It affects the salvation of every single solitary person called to the first resurrection, just as much as it does those called to a second. So in that sense, it is a thread that transcends the second resurrection.

To enter this area requires us to stop and ponder on an important issue.

How well do you really know God?

How well do you really know God?

Let me give you the caution, okay? And then you can weigh this caution against the question that I just asked.

When I ask the question of anyone, how well do you know God, there is as a teacher in my mind a flag that rises that says, here is the caution flag that says, you may not.

And it would be expressed in this form, have you cobbled together a God from his vast range of attributes which most appeals to you?

You know, when you look across the spectrum of denominations in Christianity, you can see the cobbling that takes place.

Those who want a warm and fuzzy God attend a warm and fuzzy denomination.

Those who want a straight-laced, stern, no-nonsense God attend a stern, straight-laced, no-nonsense denomination.

In the hundreds of denominations in Christianity, people have cobbled together a God to fit their emotional needs.

One of the greatest dangers of all ages is in man's ability to make God in his own image.

You know, the Father said to the Son in Genesis, let us make man in our image. And he did so. And ever since, man has been making God in his own image.

Here's the God that makes me comfortable. I'll cherry-pick out of the Bible the Scriptures that fit that kind of God, and I have my God. And somebody else says, well, your God doesn't make me comfortable, so I will cherry-pick over here, and I'll make me a God that makes me comfortable.

Caution flag.

As human beings, we are capable of making God in our image.

Every so often, a member will bring to me a book, and they'll say, the last time this happened, somebody said, you know, I found some interesting things in this book, and I found some things that seem to resonate with how we teach and what we say, and have you got any idea who's behind this book?

Last time I had that explicit conversation, I did a fan through the book, and I smiled at the person and said, yes, I can tell you who published this book, denominationally.

And I can tell you who published this book, not by looking at the publisher or the author or the school the author attended, or the introduction or the fly leaf on the book jacket. I can tell you who published it by the pictures of Jesus that illustrate the book.

I don't need to look at the publisher. I don't need to look at the author. I don't need to look at their credentials. I can tell you who published the book by the artwork, by the pictures of Jesus in the book.

It is fascinating that certain denominations, and in fact even families of denominations, have built a Jesus in picture that tells us who they are far more than it tells us who Jesus was.

I can identify three distinct different bodies of doctrinal belief by nothing more than looking at their religious artwork.

I'll tell you who that is. Because they have crafted Jesus and all the other people in the Bible in their visual image.

That brings us to the focus of the sermon, and that is the last underlying philosophy before we move on to other topics. This particular philosophy sits beneath the reason for the second resurrection, and it has to do with the personality of God.

The most important question we can ask at this time is, who does God say He is? Not who do we say He is, but who does He say He is?

How do you answer that question? Not only how you answer the question, because I think we can go to some of the Scriptures and say, well, here's a Scripture that says, but do you understand what's underneath that Scripture?

The majority of the Christian world will say God is love. I won't argue with that for a minute. Wouldn't argue with that? Wouldn't push back on that for a single solitary minute.

But I can argue with what your impression of love is.

So, if you say, God is love, I will say to you absolutely positively, but I'm not sure that your visualization of love looks like God's visualization of love.

Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. The entry of God into what He wanted to be a lasting relationship between Himself and the collective children of Israel.

As He began to lay out the terms of their relationship, the contract or covenant that they were to enter into with Him, He said this, Exodus 20, verse 1, And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

God is possessive. God is not willing to share.

When it comes to you and God, there is no middle ground.

He wants a relationship with us, and He does not want to share us with any other gods.

So right out of the gate, to get things started, He says very simply, You shall have no other gods before Me.

It is easy for us to look at before as a ranking. This isn't what He's saying.

Right now, with my peripheral vision, I can see out about this far on this side and this far on this side, and nowhere within that range do I want to see another God.

So before is in my sight where I can see. Now, since God is not limited by my peripheral vision, God is saying, anywhere on all sides, above, below, north, south, east, west, I don't want to see any other gods. Highly possessive.

Verses 4 and 5.

You shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the sea. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

So he says, I don't want to see you making any artwork depicting anything in this universe that you bow down to or that you serve.

Bible study, we went through a scripture in Isaiah that was just absolutely hilarious.

Maybe I hadn't seen it in a more modern translation, but God was absolutely mocking people, and he was doing it with the best qualities of the best stand-up comedian. He said, you know, you go out in the forest and you saw yourself a chunk of wood. And he says, you hack away on it and you shape it and you work with it and you form it. And he says, when you're finished, part of that wood, you put on the fire. It's a cold evening and you stand there and say, oh, it feels good. I'm warming myself. And he says, another part of it, you put on a hearth and you put your pot on top of it. You cook your meal. You sit down and say, oh boy, that's great. That was a great meal I cooked. And he said, and with the rest of it, you bow your head down and you worship and you say, this is the God that made me and that I worship and serve. And it was one of those, duh, wake up and smell the coffee. Half of it you warm yourself by, half of it you cook your food on, and the rest of it you worship. So he says, none of that nonsense. Why? For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

He is not only jealous, he acts on that jealousy.

You know what? There's one area in life, and it is an appropriate area in life, where the God that we first introduced, the God of love, and the God we're looking at right here who says, I don't tolerate any other gods. Do not worship anything but me because I am a jealous God.

There's not a one of us in this room who is an adult that has any trouble understanding that in one context. And it is the context in which he was operating. And that context is marriage. I am married, and I'm possessive, and I'm not the least bit apologetic. I am not interested in sharing my wife with anyone. I'm not interested in sharing her affections with any other man. If it did exist, I would be phenomenally jealous. I'm not a married man or woman here that doesn't understand that. You see, it isn't gender-specific. I had a ministerial assistant. In fact, my first ministerial assistant was a handsome young man. He had a feisty, redheaded little wife who was a spitfire. We had run the circuit one Sabbath. The circuit was 320 miles long. At the end of it, in the south, I'm not sure it was summer. So I can't say whether it was a factor. After 320 miles and two services, he and I were pooped. They had invited us over for dinner. So we drove up. She and Diane were busy preparing dinner. He and I came in, and we sat down on the sofa like the Colhain's. Both of us looking half brain-dead from the day and relaxing. The Sabbath was over, so we turned on the television set. Just to kill time until the you-who, it's time for supper. Well, the television came on. Of course, in 1966, you got ABC, NBC, CBS. You got three channels, and that's it. We happened to be on the channel that had Miss America. Neither of us knew what the log was for that evening. We turned it on, and there are the Miss America candidates. From out of the kitchen, as soon as the identifying music drifted from the TV to the kitchen, came a little red-headed spitfire that came in there, pushed that TV off, and looked at her husband with a glower. And I had to stifle a laugh, because I knew her well enough. She literally felt she had the most handsome man on the face of the earth. And she did not want any women looking at him, and she didn't want him looking at any women. They are now going on about 48 years of marriage. And I've never known them not to love one another. In fact, I found it quite amusing that with all of her very high-level energetic possessiveness, it never bothered him, it never offended him. Because in his own more quiet way, he was as loyal to her as she was demanding of loyalty to her. And so they made a very good couple, and they've had a long, happy marriage. This is God. There is no conflict between great, passionate love for us and phenomenal jealousy for himself. No conflict at all.

Exodus 34. As you're turning there, think back to his statement about no graven images of anything above the sea, below, the air, the land, anything. I would simply say, how many of you married men or how many of you married women? Because, as I said, this is not gender-specific. How many of you married men or married women would tolerate, on your husband or wife's desk, a permanent framed picture of a previous boyfriend or girlfriend? Not going to happen. There is going to be tension, and there's going to be friction until something is resolved. But you're not going to stand in front of a minister and give your vows and then put up with this demonstration of questionable loyalty. It eventually comes to either it goes or I go. Or, for the more aggressive, it simply ends up in the fireplace, and when it's missing, the pronouncement is made. This is how I felt about it, and this is what I did with it. Exodus 34, he says in verse 13, But you shall destroy their altars. I don't want those places where you go to remember your old flames. Break their sacred pillars. That one I won't even go into because that one gets rather obscene. And cut down their wooden images. You know, it's bad enough to have a picture of an old boyfriend, but if things went beyond propriety, then that picture is a hundred times more offensive. And this is where God is in verse 13. You not only have liked somebody, you've done things with somebody that should never have been done.

And he said in verse 14, For you shall worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.

So God isn't the least bit bashful about his jealousy. He doesn't apologize for it. He doesn't stam or stutter about it. He just says, here is the way it is. I expect 100% commitment. I give 100% commitment. And there is no middle ground.

Gil's commentary makes a beautiful statement about what I just read to you in Exodus 34.14. For the Lord, whose name is jealousy, is a jealous God. This is quote. You know, commentaries get hoity-toity with their language. So listen carefully because the language you have to put up with.

This is Gil's comment about that statement. His name and nature answer to one another. In other words, he is what he says. His name and his nature answer to one another. He admits of no rival or competitor in worship. He will not give his glory to another God or one so-called, nor his praise to graven images. And in this, he is distinguished from all nominal and fictitious gods who have many joined with them and are rivals of them.

If that didn't totally connect with you, simply study the Greek pantheon. They are nothing but the most dysfunctional of families. They squabble, they fight, they name-call, they throw things. He says God isn't there. He admits to no rivals and no competition, and he is not sharing with anyone else. Which gives them no concern because insensible. In other words, these gods aren't of any importance to him, because they're insensible, meaning they're dumb gods, as he calls them. But it is otherwise with the Lord who knows the dishonor done him and resents it, and is as jealous of any worship being given to another as the husband is of the honor of his marriage bed. For idolatry is spiritual adultery, as is suggested in the following verse.

So we have a God who says clearly that he is jealous and he will act on his jealousy. If you have a good, faithful, committed, and loving marriage, none of this is a contradiction to your understanding of what love is. So when I see a God describe himself one way and another way, and I look at the relationship because God likened his relationship to Israel as that of marriage. And in that setting, there is no conflict. There's no contradiction to a very hot jealousy and a very loyal love. We need to understand something, though, in addition to this. Not only is God jealous of his relationship with us, but he is jealous of his reputation. So his jealousy extends beyond the jealousy internal to the relationship. He is jealous of his name. And I'm not talking about the vowels and the consonants and which particular language those vowels and consonants occur in, but I mean he is jealous of his name in the sense of his reputation. Turn back to Nehemiah chapter 9. We're arriving fairly soon into the part of the year where you may choose to rehearse the first fifteen chapters of Exodus as a part of preparing for the Days of Unleavened Bread. You may wish to rehearse the burning bush, the call of Moses, the promise to free Israel from Egypt, the promises of miracles to make it happen, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. But if you stand back and look at an overview of those verses, do you know how God would describe that bundle of verses and chapters? Nehemiah will help you. Nehemiah 9 verse 9, Nehemiah is saying to his audience, You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their cry by the Red Sea. So Nehemiah is speaking to God, and he says, God, you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their cry by the Red Sea. You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and against all his servants and against all the people of his land. You knew that they acted proudly against them.

So you made a name for yourself, as it is this day. You know, the name that God made for himself when he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt is a name that he's never lost. Among people who believe the Word of God and believe in the miracles of God, the awe and the respect for the power of God demonstrated in the progressive miracles that took place leading up to that last Passover night, where the differentiator was between those with blood on their lentils and on their doorposts, God made a name for himself.

I think it would be an interesting exercise if you sat down one time with a piece of paper and a pencil and just began writing names that are meaningful to you for no other reason than the reputation that is identified by the name. Meaning, you don't know the person. They may not even have been alive in your lifetime.

If I say the name Adolf Hitler, that name has no meaning to you at all except because of reputation. Mother Teresa, polar opposite, the name is known and the feelings you have are based upon reputation.

Elvis Presley, Mickey Mantle.

You know, you could sit down and you could fill an 8.5x11 sheet with names that would not be on that sheet for any other reason than the reputation that you already know. Outstanding athlete, a person who made their name in music. I've seen on TV recently, I don't know when it's going to take place or if it's already taken place, but there was this reoccurring commercial about a tribute to the Beatles.

Reputation. I can give you a name that will whipsaw you.

And the only reason it will whipsaw you, you will identify immediately when I give you the name. How about a name like Lance Armstrong? To go from the highest regard of overcoming testicular cancer and winning more Grumpries than any person ever to being humiliated and defamed for doing all of that, according to allegations on steroids. Two time periods, same person, two reputations. We know all sorts of people by their reputation. People we've never met, people we've never seen, people who haven't even lived in our lifetime. God laid out for Moses in minute detail what he was going to do in extracting Israel from Egypt. And he went through Moses repeatedly that this minutely detailed plan for bringing Israel out of Egypt would give him a reputation and a name that would never be forgotten.

So between now and Passover, read Exodus 6 through 14. Look at the number of times that God orchestrated. He said, I will hearten Pharaoh's heart. He'll listen to you for a moment and then we'll go right back to square one and I'll do another miracle. And there'll be applyability for an instant in time and then he'll go back to being implacable. And we will continue ratcheting up and ratcheting up to the place that when I take you out of this land, the entire world will know the awesomeness of the God that delivered this slave people.

Are you jealous of your reputation?

You should be.

You should seek to have the best possible reputation you can have and then protect it as long as you live.

Because once you die and go into the ground, the only thing that stays behind you is your reputation.

The greater the impact of a man on society, the longer his reputation lasts. But the only thing that stays behind you is your reputation.

So we've come to the what of the matter? If you've been following the thread, both of these traits, God's jealousy, and specifically his jealousy for his reputation and his name, are a powerful thread in Scripture.

What God is saying is that there's nothing else in the universe to worship, that is, admire and respect. Nothing else in the universe to imitate, except me. And I am insulted when you do.

I'm insulted when you admire something contradictory to me.

I resent it when you respect things that are contrary to what I stand for.

I am offended when you imitate those things that I find wrong.

Now let's look at how he deals with that, and how he deals with it in our lives. When I say our, in this case, I don't mean just our church members, but our humanity.

Reputation management is a big business in our world. Politicians spend a tremendous amount of time on reputation management. I found it interesting following the brouhaha in New Jersey about the bridge traffic between New Jersey and New York City, and the charges that the governor's office had orchestrated it, and then the response. And I thought, well, you know, it's classic. If charges are made that I'm a dirty scoundrel, the best way to deal with that is to paint the person who made the charge as an even dirtier scoundrel.

And I looked at some of the accusations going back and forth, and I couldn't help but grin because I thought, okay, reputation management in this case is, he is dirtier than I am, not I am better than he is. And I thought, well, you can manage reputation in more than one way. God, of course, doesn't need to go this direction because he has no flaws. He has nothing to cover up.

He doesn't have to throw dirt at somebody else to make him look relatively cleaner because there's no spot or wrinkle on him. God uses a different tool for reputation management. And since he got to design mankind, he mapped all of this out in advance, and he engineered you and me so that the tool that he used would be effective.

When we look at cart and horse situations, this is one of those where the tool that he built, he built genetically into us, so that tool would work. You know what that tool is? Drama. Drama. And the love of man for drama. I looked up on the Internet the answer to this question. The top ten grossing movies of all time worldwide. What are the ten movies that have grossed the greatest ticket receipts of all time by audiences around the world?

I'll read them to you, and you check off mentally how much drama drove the receipts. The top ten in order. Avatar. Titanic. Marvel's The Avengers. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. Iron Man 3. Transformers Dark of the Moon. The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King. Skyfall. The Dark Knight Rises. Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest. I arrest my case.

Man was engineered to respond to drama. And that's deliberate. It's not an accident. If you respond to drama, it's like, whoa, what's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with you. You were genetically built that way. It's why women love soaps and girly movies, and why men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and any other blood and guts and thunder that can come down the pike.

It's to each his or her own as to which drama they like. But we love drama. And we love it because God designed us to be impressed with drama, and He uses drama to affect us. He uses drama to enhance His name and His reputation. Israel coming out of Egypt is a study in drama. Why do you stop a second time to read the story of David and Goliath? Because of drama. Why do the walls of Jericho interest you more than the walls of all the other dozens of cities that Israel conquered to get into the land?

Well, because there's something dramatic about walking around a city for seven days. Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. On the seventh day, let's all toot together, and boom! The walls go down. There's something about watching the king of Persia say down a hole, Daniel, are you still there? And Daniel says, the lions didn't eat me.

There's something built into every one of us to wonder what it must have been like when Christ walked on the water, and Peter said, can I do it? And he says, come on out. And you say, hmm, would I have done that? And then the mind says, if I had done it, what would have it felt like walking on top of the Sea of Galilee? How does God describe the day of the Lord? A day the likes of which there never has been nor ever will be again.

The climax of man's rule of himself and the transitioning to the rule of Jesus Christ is ushered in by a day that God describes as like no day has ever been nor will ever be again. When God brings Israel back from captivity, he has worked Israel to the place that those who return are pliable.

There are people who are willing to listen, people who are willing to respond. But God puts the cherry on the top of the Sunday. Turn back to Jeremiah 23.

Did I say Isaiah? Jeremiah? Good. I said the right thing. Jeremiah. I was in Isaiah, and I thought, what did I say? Jeremiah 23. God wants to begin the millennium. He wants to begin a time when the Holy Spirit is available to all mankind with an audience that has been so completely riveted to Him by the drama of what they've been through, that they hold Him in absolute awe, admiration, respect, and love.

Jeremiah 23, verse 5, says, And Israel will dwell safely. Now this is His name, by which He will be called, the Lord our righteousness. And so he's describing the beginning of the millennium. Therefore, verse 7, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer say, As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. The place where Nehemiah says, God got Himself a name.

They said, they'll never look at that again, But as the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of a house of Israel from the north country, And from all the countries where I've driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land.

The drama of the return of Israel from captivity will be of such magnitude That people simply will no longer look back to Israel's departure from Egypt As the landmark event where God built His name. They will say, Awesome is the God who brought all of the captives back from where they were scattered And reassembled them in this land. You see, we're moved by drama more than anything else as human beings. I get tickled when I sit down and talk to my six-year-old grandson And all the normal, boyish fascination with the powers of superheroes And think it's just wired. Little guys are in awe of that power and that might.

We remember drama longer than anything else.

It imprints the deepest image.

And this brings us to the place where everything that I gave you in the last two sermons And what I'm giving you today, all meet and merge.

Here are the component pieces.

We have seen a God who says, I accept no competition.

In my field of vision, everywhere I look, do not put another God where I can see Him.

We stand with a God who says, you need to understand my name, and my name is jealous.

I am jealous of two things. I am jealous of our relationship.

And I am even more profoundly jealous of my reputation. We see from Jeremiah 23 that God is going to use high drama to bring man back to the place where he can work with Israel.

And in His description of the Day of the Lord, that it is a day unlike anything that has ever been nor ever will be, He will use high drama to both impress upon people no one has the stature that I have, and no one is to be worshipped except me. That brings us to the second resurrection.

The timing and the nature of the second resurrection is designed to use all these tools to create the best possible opportunity for mankind to be saved.

Is there anything in the death of every human being from Adam and Eve to the last individual that you can engineer that is more dramatic than for all of them to come out of wherever their death point was and their death circumstances were, and to realize, I am a living human being. I am a whole living human being. Every piece and part of me is here.

For every person whose last moment of consciousness was that fleeting second of realizing that the whistling bomb coming in would probably blow them into pieces so small no one would ever find them.

The person on the ship that goes down that as they take that last gulp of water before consciousness disappears realizes that they only have one location that they will land in, and that is the bottom of the ocean.

People of every walk, of every kind of death, in every kind of health situation, to rise simultaneously and to see and to understand that this is an event that has no equal and nothing like it has ever occurred, provides a drama that allows that body of people to begin their relationship with God where he asked Israel to start it.

No one is like me. No one equals me. No one is worth bowing to or respecting but me. God Almighty is reserving the majority of mankind for a day when drama will leave an imprint so profound that it will stay with them for a lifetime and provide them the best possible push in the direction of lifelong awe.

We need to understand that at the very lowest level of foundation, this is one of the most profound underlying philosophies of the Word of God.