This morning will be our third and final message in this little series on the benefits of the benefits of redemption. As we saw in question 35, there are benefits of redemption that the born-again children of God enjoy. These are spiritual benefits, which are all part of the new creation. that we experience upon our redemption from sin and Satan and death. The moment we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we become the recipients of these benefits. The answer, you may remember, to question 35, was they that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them. In our justification, we are declared righteous. In our adoption, we are declared sons and daughters of the Most High God and fellow heirs with Christ. And in sanctification, the Spirit of God declares us holy and we become progressively more holy thanks to his influence and his power dwelling within us. Those are the benefits of redemption, and we receive these benefits as a result of Christ's work as our mediator. The Son of God became the Son of Man to live, suffer, and die to secure these benefits for us. When Jesus Christ battled Satan in the wilderness, what were the purpose of these temptations? He was battling Satan, not for his own benefit, but for ours. Remember that battle. Satan wanted Christ's ministry to fail. And so he would tempt him because the benefits of redemption for the people of God secured by Christ would mean a permanent hope for mankind and Satan's ultimate defeat. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 4 for a moment. Let us remember what it was exactly that Christ did to secure our redemption and the benefits of that redemption. This passage is known as the temptation of Jesus, and it can be compared to the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden where mankind fell. Satan has always tried to get mankind to break its communion with God, and he will stop at nothing to do that. And we know that Satan's temptation in the garden plunged mankind into slavery to sin and Satan and death. He derailed God's plan to have a holy and righteous people for himself. In the Garden Covenant, you might remember, Adam and Eve were to remain faithful to God, and God would remain faithful to them. That was their covenant with one another, and Satan knew that all he had to do to break that fellowship was to get Adam and Eve to break the covenant. And now fast forward to Jesus in the wilderness. Satan's temptation of Christ was aimed at the same destruction. Get Christ to break the covenant. Tempt him away from the work he was sent to do. cause him to fall, cause him to sin. But of course, this temptation, unlike that of Adam, was unsuccessful. And yet it was for a purpose. This was really a battle, a spiritual battle between Christ and Satan. It was also a battle between Adam and Satan in the garden, but Adam didn't even realize it. Christ was aware of it though, and he would stand strong, and he would accomplish the perfect and perpetual obedience in the wilderness that Adam failed to accomplish in the garden. This temptation was ordained by God. It was a test for the Son of God, a test that he passed, of course, with flying colors. And this was part of Christ's ministry, whereby he would live the life that you and I have failed to live, And this would be one of the righteous acts that would be counted for us in redemption. Because of the temptation in the wilderness, we have conquered Satan through Christ. When we say that we are conquerors, it is not so much that we have conquered sin or Satan or death in ourselves. It is through him. who lived and suffered and died to redeem us. It is Christ who has conquered. And we see this in the wilderness temptation. So again, let's read Matthew chapter four, starting in verse one. We are the beneficiaries of Christ's earthly work and his victory in the wilderness is our victory as well. Verse one. It says, then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward, he was hungry. Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, it is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you. And in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only. you shall serve.' Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him." This is a story about Jesus living the life of a man. If we think about that, he is God, and yet he has come to live as a man. He has come to earn eternal life as a man and for men. That's significant, I think, in understanding the temptation of Satan here. Satan, in the first of these three temptations, was trying to get the Lord to do what? To provide for himself, right? To serve himself, and to do it with his own divine nature. What's interesting is that I don't think that there would be anything sinful about that in and of itself, as God Christ could certainly make himself bread from stones and feed himself in the wilderness, right? Actually, as God, he could have caused himself to live without bread at all. But as a man, as the mediator for men, and as the one coming to live as a man and for men, Christ had taken upon himself the weaknesses of man, and the dependence upon God that man must submit to. And it was in this weakness that he was to earn eternal life for men. So it was important for him to trust God as a man. And so he fasted as a man. He remained hungry. He fasted for 40 days. Why? Why is it that we fast? so that he could give himself up completely to God, right? So that he could receive the kind of spiritual power that food can't offer, right? This was a spiritual preparation for the next three years of his ministry. And as a man tempted by Satan and in the physical pain of hunger, he would trust God to give him what he needed. He was teaching us to walk by faith. He was showing us how to be a man or a woman and to trust God. Often when we are in physical or mental or emotional anguish, we are more vulnerable to sin. We might even use that anguish to justify our sin. I know that's been my experience and even the Puritans wrote books about it. I'm not proud of that, I'm just aware of my own experience. But it's a sign of weakness. It's a sign of a lack of faith. And it's something to be overcome and resisted with all of our being. Sin is not more acceptable because life's circumstances have us weak. Instead, it's in those moments that our faith is tested. We who are in Christ It's demonstrated by who we are in the midst of affliction, and Christ demonstrates that here. We are to find our food in him. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This doesn't mean that the words of God will fill our stomachs, by the way, but it does mean that God will provide no matter how desolate the wilderness. God will provide the food our stomachs need and God will provide the food our souls need. The Son of Man had no need to turn stones into bread because he believed that the Father would provide for those needs in just the perfect time. And that should be our example. We live by the Word of God. That is the food of the spiritual man. He gives us life. He gives us strength. And he gives us the faith and encouragement to continue on, and he gives us the warnings and guidance to remain faithful in the walk of faith. We live by the word of God, and the word of God tells us that God will be our provider. And so even the son, in his hunger, in his ministry to us, didn't turn stones to bread, Because he was here to live the life of a man for men and by faith. Satan's temptation was to derail him from that mission to live by faith. That's exactly why Christ said no. Because the child of God, you and me, cannot turn stones into bread. And so he wouldn't either. He would subject himself to the weaknesses and limitations of men and he would earn a righteousness of his own on our behalf as a man and by faith. Christ is earning the redemption which we would benefit from. He is earning that righteousness that would be our justification and the basis of our adoption and our sanctification as well. That's what's happening here. Everything destroyed in the temptation in the garden is going to be fixed by Christ's victory in the wilderness. And it's the benefits of this victory that we've been studying in this section in our catechism. Next, Satan took him up into the holy city, it says, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And what did Jesus say to that? Jesus said to him, it is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. As God, Jesus certainly could have thrown himself from a building and commanded his angels to carry him safely down, right? There's no question about that. This is a man that walks on water, after all. But Christ, as a man who is charged with living by faith and waiting upon the Lord to provide for him, sees this temptation as a tempting of God. And Christ would have no part in that. And now we know that we are all surrounded by armies of angels. Think of the story of Elisha and his servant when they were surrounded by the enemy's armies, hunting them down to kill them. And the servant said to Elisha, what shall we do? And Elisha said, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And yet, as far as the servant could see, they were alone, right? It was just Elisha and his servants surrounded by the armies of the Northern Kingdom. And so Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray Open his eyes that he may see.' Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. The mountain was full of angels." Obviously the same was true, I believe, when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. The same thing was true when Christ was surrounded by darkness at the cross. The imagery was probably exactly the same in the wilderness temptation. This truly was a battle. And I'm quite sure that the Lord's armies were there. But the walk of faith is not one that calls upon angels to carry us down from rooftops. No, it is a walk that trusts God without ever tempting God, without ever testing God. And so Christ simply quoted the words of God and said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And once again, Christ submitted to that commandment as a man ministering to men, as a man earning righteousness for men. That's the Lord our God securing the benefits of redemption for us as a fellow man. It was often said that until the Lord is through with us, we are essentially immortal. In other words, God will not let anything happen to us until he is done with us and ready for us to go home. And yet we don't interpret that as an invitation to jump from the temple roof, and neither did Christ. When Christ needed God, God would be there, and Christ knew that. There was no need to tempt God. There was no reason to prove himself as God for Satan's sake. And so Christ passed the second test. Lastly, in Satan's temptations, we see the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him there, all these things I'll give to you, if you will fall down and worship me. And Jesus said to him, away with you Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. These are all the temptations Satan uses with men. He wants us to provide for ourselves, he wants us to test our God, and he wants us He wants to offer us all that the world can give, and he tells us that we can receive the benefits of these things if only we pledge our allegiance to him, our worship to him. He is offering Christ to all the kingdoms of the world if he would just bow down and worship him. Now just imagine the Son of God worshiping a fallen angel. Imagine the horror that would mean for the world. The Godhead would be divided. God would have been made sinful. That would have brought down the entire world, and it would have sealed the fate of every man, and it would have removed all hope for redemption. The kingdom of God would have been reduced officially and finally to ashes. This would have been a violation of the entire first table of the moral law by the very Son of God. But we see the Lord respond in faith. And that's what he did. He stood toe-to-toe with Satan like two enemy generals on a battlefield. And Christ's allegiance, even in the midst of his hunger and his earthly human weakness, stood strong for you and for me. His entire ministry on this earth was a ministry of faithfulness to God on our behalf. And he accomplished everything he set out to do. The benefits of redemption that we are studying are due to Christ's strength and Christ's faith as a man as he stood against Satan's attacks. These are the very temptations that Adam and Eve failed to withstand in their humanity, and so we are redeemed by Christ's faith in God in his humanity. Christ walked as we were intended to walk, even in the face of Satan's temptations. And then even in his death, the death of a sinner was laid upon the sinless Son of God, and so the Son of Man died for men so that we might live forever in him. All of this is Christ substituting himself for us. He stands where we stand. He lives for us as a perfect and righteous man, and then he dies for us to pay the death we owe. It is all substitutionary. We trade places with him in everything he did. That's why the saints are called saints, and that's why believers are called the faithful, and that's why we are called the righteous. Not because we are any of those things, but because He was and He did it in His humanity. That's how it's earned. That's how we receive the benefits of redemption. Justification is substitutionary. His righteousness is placed on our account and our sin is laid upon Him at the cross. Adoption is substitutionary. His Sonship given to us and our estrangement laid upon him again at the cross. And sanctification is substitutionary. We receive a new nature, a restored nature, and a resurrected nature, and he receives the curse of death, the consequences of our fallen nature. And that's the gospel. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. And this lays the groundwork for our study of the benefits of redemption. The benefits of redemption are justification, adoption, and sanctification, and these flow from the work of Jesus Christ. And so in our study, we're studying the benefits of those benefits, which the Catechism calls the several benefits which do either accompany or flow from them. That's justification, adoption, and sanctification. The past few weeks, we already studied the benefits of the benefits of redemption in this life. Then we studied the benefits of those benefits in death. And now we find ourselves studying the benefits of the benefits of redemption in the resurrection. The benefits of redemption in the resurrection. This morning, I'd like us to turn to question 41 in Keech's Catechism. And let's read that together before we begin. Question 41 asks, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? The answer is, at the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed, both in soul and body, in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. This is the pinnacle of our benefits in Christ. This is where all the benefits of redemption are joined together in complete and perfect harmony, in perfect blessing, and in the presence of God. Now, before we begin, let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for the Lord's day that we can gather together as the saints of God, the redeemed of God, the family of God, We recognize that the only reason that we are called and the only reason we are together this morning is because of Christ's work on our behalf. We thank you for that. We ask that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher this morning, that these important doctrines and thoughts would be laid upon our hearts, and that we might be edified by them, and that your Spirit would teach us to walk by faith, just as Christ did as he earned our way into eternal life. So we just thank you for these simple and yet very complex thoughts that are given to us in the catechism that we might look through these proof texts and really understand what your purposes are. and how it is that you've accomplished so much for us and the wonderful resurrection that you have in store for us that's even beyond our imagination. So we just thank you for these things. We ask your blessing upon our time. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay, so this morning we consider the resurrection as the pinnacle of our benefits in redemption. What benefits do believers receive at the resurrection? And the answer is, everything promised in the gospel that hasn't already been received in this life and in death. And as we will see today, what remains becomes the greatest of all the benefits. The resurrection truly is the pinnacle of our benefits, and it brings us to a state of existence that is better by all standards than anything we've experienced to that point. And that includes the experience that Adam and Eve had in the garden. The resurrection body and soul will experience perfection and security forever, unlike anything that had come before it. Now first, let's consider what the resurrection is. The catechism says it is a being raised in glory. To be resurrected for the believer is to be raised in glory. So we live, we die, and then we are raised from the dead to live again. That's the resurrection. Now at our death, we saw last time, that the soul actually never dies, right? No, it instantly joins the Lord in heaven and it never falls asleep or dies. The body sleeps, but the soul moves immediately to the presence of the Lord. The resurrection is when the body is raised in glory to join the soul in perfect holiness and in the presence of God. So this is where we finally experience that wonderful perfection that we look forward to as Christians. The body rejoins the soul for eternity in resurrection glory. Death gives way to life again, but this time it's a perfect life. And what are the events surrounding the resurrection? The final judgment, right? This is what we are resurrected for. We are given a body so that we might be rewarded or punished in the body. So the body is a really important part of the judgment. We will all stand on physical legs and feet before God in the body to hear our judgment. And so for the believer, that's what we're talking about in this message, by the way, we are raised in glory, in glory. There's something special going on here. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 43 that we read this morning, It says, speaking of death and resurrection, the body is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. This is the infinite improvement the body is going to experience in the resurrection. Of course, the sowing terminology here is referring to a seed that is sown or planted. Upon our death, the body is planted in the ground, It is buried like a seed and like a seed it will be raised again in glory. Death and then resurrection. And the seed is the metaphor. The seed is sown and is raised a flower. It can also be raised a fruit tree. And so the seed is placed in the ground to die so that it might be raised in glory. It's really a good illustration, right? There's more glory in the blueberry bush than there is in the seed. Imagine these bodies of ours with all their weaknesses and sin being compared to a seed and the resurrection body being compared to the fruit tree or the towering oak tree for that matter. The seeds themselves are not beautiful or significant. They're small and they're unattractive and they're insignificant. our bodies are being compared to a seed and when they die they are buried only to be raised again in honor and power like a seed that is raised to the beauty of a fruit tree or a towering oak and yet in a way the illustration falls flat because the difference between the earthly body and the glory of the resurrection body is infinitely greater than the difference between the seed and the glory of the towering oak. What we experience in this life is nothing compared to what we have to look forward to. And yet consider the beauty and the honor that God has bestowed upon us here. Human beings can hardly be compared to a seed, right? We are given such glory here. We are beautiful and intelligent and creative and complex. We are innovative and capable and we are given the very image of God as part of our creation. These things are glorious. And yet, compared to the glory to come, we are weak and we are without honor like a seed. This verse in 1 Corinthians 15 is showing us the great contrast we have to look forward to. What I mean by that is that this verse is not saying that there is no honor or power in the human in this life. It is saying that compared to the honor and power to come, we are sowed in dishonor and weakness. There is great glory in the human race. We are God's chosen people, created by him to serve him with honor and to enjoy him and to fellowship with him. This is a place of great honor. And we are given authority over the world. That's power. But compared to the resurrection, we are like seeds, simple, insignificant, weak, and without honor. But like the seed, the body is made to be planted and will be raised in greater glory. You see, what we have to look forward to as Christians is an improvement beyond our imaginations. And the catechism says, When these perfect, holy, and sinless bodies are reunited to our souls, we will then stand before God to be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment. I mentioned that we are resurrected just in time for the judgment, and it is at our judgment that we are promised to be openly acknowledged and acquitted. This is a benefit which flows from justification and adoption and sanctification again. And we will be openly acknowledged as righteous. Imagine that at your judgment day. Imagine the courtroom scene as we often do. We stand at the judgment to be openly acknowledged as righteous. That's in our justification. And we will be openly acknowledged as God's children in our adoption. The judge on the throne will not be some cold and hard master. He will be our loving father. He will openly acknowledge us as his children and greet us as his children and declare us righteous as his children. We will be openly acknowledged as holy as well. What we have in this life, the first fruits of holiness, that we experienced when we were born again, will now be a perfect holiness of both body and soul, and we will be openly acknowledged as such. That's how the judgment will be for the children of God, standing in their resurrection bodies. Imagine the rush, the physical rush and pleasure of our new resurrection bodies. Imagine that holiness. Imagine the rush of God's presence for the first time in our lives and the rush of God's holy acknowledgement in the presence of everyone there. That's the judgment for the children of God. And as we stand waiting for this judgment in our righteous and holy bodies, I don't believe we'll be standing there in suspense either. I really don't because we'll have already received our reward, right? This resurrection body will be our settled assurance that we are His. And so when we stand there, ready to hear Him openly acknowledge us, we're not going to be worried and stressed and in suspense. We'll be standing there in the perfect blessedness of a body and soul which have been made perfectly pure. Give that a moment to sink in. And it's here, as we are in this perfect state of sinlessness and happiness, that he will openly acquit us. He will say, my dear child, what a joy to see you in your glorified body. He'll be joyful for us. Come, join me in eternal blessedness. I acknowledge you and declare you innocent before all these witnesses. Remember Matthew 25 and verse 23, Jesus says of the righteous, his Lord will say unto him, well done. Good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. That's not a judgment to be fearful of. That's a judgment to look forward to. We will be acquitted in the judgment. We will be standing in our new and holy and glorious bodies. And then in that same day, the same day that we receive those bodies, we hear these wonderful words, you are righteous. You are my son. You are my daughter. You are holy. You are mine. You are innocent. enter into the joy of your Lord. All those things happen when we receive our resurrected bodies. And so as the catechism says, we are made perfectly blessed. This word itself, to be blessed, is a word which can literally mean to be holy. But not just holy, the catechism says perfectly holy. Both body and soul, This is an amazing part of the resurrection. I want us to think about our condition currently. Think about our bodies and our souls, which are not perfectly holy, right? Think about when Jesus says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. That's talking about the soul and the body striving against each other. The spirit, which is born again and willing and eager to obey its Lord, and serve and do good and love holiness, is in constant battle with the body of death. The spirit battles the sin nature that hangs on and prevents the soul from rest. That's our condition now, and that's our battle now. Day by day, you and I battle with our own flesh, with our own bodies. The spirit The soul is renewed, but the body maintains its strength against holiness. But in the resurrection, we will find our souls at perfect peace and in perfect holiness and in perfect agreement with the body. The mind and the heart and the soul will desire good, and the glorified body will desire that same goodness. will be perfectly matched, body and soul, for communion with the thrice holy God. We will be perfectly holy, both body and soul. That's a benefit of redemption in the resurrection. You might remember last time that upon our death, the soul becomes perfectly holy. Now in the resurrection, the body and soul are reunited and both are perfectly holy. That's what we have to look forward to. 1 John 3 and verse 2 says, Beloved, now what we have to look forward to, excuse me, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed at the second coming, in the resurrection, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What that means is that we will have bodies and souls which are glorified like our Lord's, and holy, in perfect union and communion with the Lord himself in that same holiness. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 12 says, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then, in the resurrection, face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. That's in perfect holiness, in perfect blessedness. We will be holy as he is holy. Once again, this is the promise of the resurrection, perfect holiness. That's why we can have what the catechism calls the full enjoyment of God, because the full enjoyment of God requires that holiness. Think about question one in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is the chief end of man? The answer is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Well, no matter how we try in this life, we don't fully glorify God, and we don't fully enjoy him either. That's a sad part of our experience. We are idle factories, as Calvin says, finding things to enjoy in the place of God every single day. But in the resurrection, in our perfect blessedness and holiness, We will once and for all glorify God and enjoy him perfectly forever. No longer distracted in the middle of our praying. No longer distracted in the middle of the Lord's Supper. No longer falling asleep in the middle of a prayer at night or struggling to stay in our Bible reading plan. no longer walking by faith with doubts and worries and plagued with sin just perfect holiness that's our hope forever first Thessalonians 4 verses 17 and 18 are one of our proof texts and it says of the resurrection then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Everything we have received will be for all of eternity. This is the blessedness of our hope, the holiness of our hope. God will gather us to himself and it will be a perfect and perpetual and eternal blessedness. And this is why we as Christians have a hope and a joy that is unspeakable. Because what we believe is that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and his person and work on our behalf has secured this wonderful promise for eternity. And the more we consider this, the more strengthened we will be to walk through this life in faith. God has promised from the beginning to be a God to his people. This is the culmination of that promise. And he has promised to gather all things together in one in Christ, and this gathering in one is the kind of communion that can only happen with resurrected and glorified and holy bodies. Everything that was destroyed by Adam's sin is not only reversed, it is infinitely improved in Christ. That's what was happening in the wilderness temptations, and that's what was happening at the cross. Sin was destroyed, death was destroyed, and the flesh was destroyed once and for all. And all that remains is perfect holiness in the presence of the Lord. And so finally, for the first time in humankind, we will be holy as he is holy, which is his commandment from the beginning, right? Be holy as I am holy. That is exactly where he brings us to, a perfect holiness established in the perfect Holy Son. God has given us everything he has required of us. Let us believe that and seek after that and enjoy that blessedness forever. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, these are such deep and powerful and moving thoughts and I thank you, Lord, for your word that presents these things to us so plainly. There are some things that can be debated and misunderstood so easily and yet the resurrection is such a wonderful, blessed gift that you have laid before us in these pages and I'm just so thankful for that and we're thankful for the opportunity to study these things and take a whole message just to think on the resurrection apart from Easter Sunday when it is so often considered. So we just thank you, Lord, for the blessedness of this and for your spirit who has preserved these words for us for thousands of years. You are faithful and we are so thankful for that. Bless us we pray in Christ's name. Amen.