Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Podcast. The reason that we have church on Sundays is that we are meeting on Sunday mornings. So every Sunday when we meet, it is a celebration. It is literally us testifying of the fact that we are meeting on the first day of every week to celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. So this is what sets us apart. What makes us different is the fact that Jesus is not in the grave. He is alive.

And you know that. The first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher.

And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. Excuse me for the commercial here. But I guess about three or four years ago or two or three years ago when I was having so much issue with kidney stones. And for about a year or two I just kept having kidney stone to kidney stone. And I would go to the hospital.

I would go to the orthotripsy after lithotripsy and all those things. And one time I was at the house and just misery. And you begin to search the Bible when you have misery like that. I was claiming every verse there was. I mean I was claiming Jesus wept.

I was claiming whatever. I was like, God, I need some relief. And I literally claimed this verse, verse 2, and they found the stone rolled away. And I said, Lord, roll that stone away. There's a song about it somewhere.

Roll that stone away. And it didn't work. But anyway, look at verse 3. Verse 3, And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout.

Behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified. And the third day rise again. And they remembered His words, and returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.

And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Obviously our subject this morning, Why seek the living among the dead? Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Thank you for all that you've done. Thank you for our folks being faithful on a Sunday morning, and on Easter Sunday at that. Thank you, Lord, for really two good crowds. And we were certainly nervous about having the two services today, but you certainly blessed. We thank you for that. Lord, I pray that you would bless your word today as we try to rightfully divide it to those who are listening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

If you have your piece of paper, if you like to keep notes, you ought to write these things down. I think it'll make great conversation for you with folks at work, as I always say. Why seek the living among the dead? Number one, I want you to understand this, that literally the angels were looking at these three ladies, and they were somewhat perplexed why they were looking for Jesus here.

And the ladies were perplexed why that literally the stone was rolled away, and the body of Jesus wasn't there. And the angels looked at them and literally said, Why seek ye the living among the dead? And I want to ask you this question, and I would really like to ask literally anybody that could listen to me this question is, Why are we seeking for something living among the dead?

First thing I see here, number one, is this. You won't find a living God among dead religion. You won't find a living God among dead religion. And by the way, folks, there is a whole lot of dead religion out there. Look at verse five. They were afraid, bow down their faces to the earth, and they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

You know, there are many religious organizations and churches, and they're trying to introduce a living God to people through a dead religion. Folks, now listen to me. I made this clear in the first verse.

I'm going to make this clear again. Religion never saved anybody. In fact, all through the New Testament, it was the religious leaders that were always against Jesus. I think of the verse in the Bible that says, What is there of? And there's a lot of folks seeking for something that is lasting and something that is alive today. But I'm here to tell you, you're not going to find it in something dead. You say, Well, what makes a dead religion? Well, dead doesn't always just mean dry, although if it's dry, it's a good sign that it's dead.

That's what happens to a tree, you know, when it begins to dry up, it's dying. But I have some things that I'd like to give you today just so you can know what makes a dead religion. The first thing is this, that whenever any religion or belief puts tradition over truth, that's a dead religion. Now, as I said earlier, listen, there are a lot of traditions that aren't wrong. It's not wrong that we have these traditions. But whenever a tradition takes the place of a truth, that'll kill a person.

It's dead. Now, as we said, you know, we have church on Sunday nights. We believe it's the Lord's day, and we believe that we ought to make sure we gather, you know, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, but even more as the day approaches and all that. But I said you could use the argument that really, if you take that verse literally, we ought to be at church every night because we need to assemble even more and more. And if this is the Lord's day, maybe we should just stay at church all day long. And I would say, You know what, we could stay at church all day long, and it wouldn't hurt us. And we could have church every night of the week. It wouldn't hurt us at all. But you're not going to be here, are you?

And guess what? I'm not either. It's not wrong that we have the tradition of going to church Sunday morning and going to church on Sunday night. That's not a wrong tradition. It's not a wrong tradition that we sing songs or that we have a choir sing or whatever. Listen, that's not tradition. But I am here to tell you, none of those things get you to heaven. And nowadays, what we have is we have a movement that is so against tradition. But the problem is, in the middle sometimes, they're not even really given the truth. And I'm here to tell you that a dead religion always pushes tradition over truth. Number two is this, and you can write these down if you want, but number two is anything that puts the social over the spiritual is a dead religion. Somebody get with somebody else. Huh?

Randy Hobbs, that's who it was, yeah, last Sunday night. He was talking about, you know, we become a glorified social club at church and all that stuff. And listen, the Bible says that we ought to fellowship and we ought to be around amongst believers and all those things. But listen to me, dear friend, never should the social of a church be priority over the spiritual of a church. That's dead religion.

It means it's not really accomplishing anything. Number three is this, that any religion or church that would push worldliness over godliness is a dead religion. Worldliness isn't going to help you, it isn't going to help me. You can't find anywhere in the Bible where God says to be worldly.

In fact, you'll find all through the Bible where he says not to be worldly, that we should live a godly, holy life. But you start preaching that nowadays, oh my goodness, we not only won't need two services, we won't even need one. That's a tough crowd today, you're a tough crowd. I thought the first service was tough.

Whew. I'm going to give them all a call, come back. Number four is this, when any time a religious belief or an organization or a church puts the seeker over the savior. Dear friend, listen, we ought to do everything we can do and we want to.

Glad you're here. People ought to be welcomed in. They shouldn't walk into a church and be judged. Let me tell you something, God's the judge, not us. People ought to walk into a church and feel like, hey, they're loved, they're accepted for who they are and we love them, we want to help them.

That should never be the case. I know it's hard sometimes in church, we're all busy, we dress up and we put our suits and our church clothes on and sometimes we just worry about getting our little seat and all those things. Folks ought to feel welcomed in love when they walk into this church. Never should a church be designed around what a seeker wants, it ought to be designed around what the savior wants.

I am here to tell you probably, we have some work to do with that. None of us are guiltless before God and none of us are perfect, but dear friend, whenever we start making the seeker more important than the savior, then we really don't have anything to offer to the seeker. Why do you look for something living among the dead? Dear friend, I'm here to tell you, you can't find a living God among religion. Religion won't save you and I've said this before that religion hasn't saved anybody but it has kept thousands from being saved.

They get into a religious tradition, they get into religious beliefs that's not even true in God's word and they get involved and they get active and they think that they're rituals and they think that this or that's going to save them and because I did this and I was faithful for this, but dear friend, religion won't save you. You can't find something living out of something dead. Salvation only comes through Jesus Christ. Don't go looking among the dead. Don't go looking for something that's alive. Number two is this, that you won't find a living savior in a dead tomb. Notice if you would in verse two, and they found the stone rolled away. Verse three, they entered in, found not the body of the Lord Jesus. Verse six, he is not here but is risen. You will not find a living savior in a dead tomb. If he could not save himself, how could he save you?

You've always heard me say this is what separates us. This is what makes us different is the fact that who we put our faith and trust in for salvation are what you would call religious leader. Ours is not a religious leader, he's God.

I don't care whether he's your leader or not, he's still God. But he is not in the grave. You can't find him.

He's alive. You can't find any other religious belief and any other kind of cult or anything else. You can trace back to their leader and you can find a grave where they were buried and you can find a tombstone and all those things. But what makes us different is that our savior is alive. And if a person is still in the grave, they're not a savior. Dear friend, if a savior would be dead now, how could he help you in the future? The religions are different things but if Muhammad couldn't save himself, how could he save you? We could go on down the line of religious leaders that have died and been buried but none of them rose again.

You will not find a living savior in a dead tomb. Number three, I want you to see in this passage this that you won't find the living word with deaf ears. I refer to these ladies and if you look at verse 10, this is who these ladies were. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the Bible says there were other women with him. Now, I got a little carried away in the first service and I shared a little too much info that when I was studying this this week, I kind of gave them nicknames. So Mary Magdalene would be Maggie obviously and Jojo is Joanna and Mae-Mae is Mary the mother of James.

Can you tell I have a six year old at home? You can understand that. Nobody is called by their name. They're called by a short version twice. You know, it's not Frank, it's Frank Frank or something like that. You know, something like that. Actually, we call Frank Francois is what we call Mr. Frank. My sister-in-law who was here at the first service, her name is Katie and so the kids called her. And that has gone over really well. All right. It's very embarrassing sometimes.

When your 13 year old still calls for that, it's bad. Anywho, look at verse six. The angels look at Maggie, Mae-Mae and Jojo and they say he's not here but he's risen. Remember how he spake unto you?

When he was yet in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered into hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. They literally look at these ladies and say he's already told you this. Look at verse eight. And they remembered his words.

Dear friend, listen to me. The ladies were somewhat perplexed because Jesus wasn't in the tomb and the angels were perplexed because they were looking for him there. Why would these ladies be looking for him here? He already told them that he was gonna rise again. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you that the truth is written in God's word but you'll never find the living word with deaf ears. Literally when Jesus told them what would happen, it went in this ear and came out this one.

You know what still happens every Sunday? God's word is shared and kind of goes in this ear and comes out that one. You watch people struggle with the same things over and over again and I struggle sometimes with the same things over and over again. It's not because I don't know and it's not because God hadn't taught me. It's just our human nature. It's our flesh. So many times that you'll sit and talk with an individual and they're going through this and I need answers and be like, well you know last Sunday we just preached on this passage.

Oh yeah, yeah I remember that. Well then why are we here? Why are we going? You heard the truth. We know what God's word said but dear friend, I'm here to tell you that you're not gonna find a living word with deaf ears. You and I, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Lord is saying to us.

He's gonna look right at you and the words are there going in but they're not listening. We hear a lot of things but we don't listen to certain things. I was telling our church that when I was in Bible college I felt God leading me to work with the deaf and I began to try to learn sign language.

It would probably come back to start trying to work on it but I felt God probably called me to the mission field when I was in college, surrendered to do that, to go to Japan to be a missionary to the deaf. So I was trying to learn sign language and different things and began to be around deaf people some and over the years as I shared that there have been times I've seen individuals, deaf individuals at a store, at a grocery store and they're trying to communicate to the person that is taking their money and I found something working with deaf people and I don't work a lot with deaf people now. I could but I know one thing about deaf people, they are so appreciative for anybody that will try to communicate with them.

We're very intimidated by it because we don't really know how to but they just appreciate that you want to and that you're trying and they enjoy that. But I said that when I worked with deaf people and stuff I found that there is a way that they end arguments and it's very interesting because obviously they can get very intense, they can get very angry and you can go at it but when they have had it, when a deaf person, if you're trying to argue with them and you can say whatever you want to say but when they just are tired and they're not going to listen anymore, you know what they do? They just close their eyes. That's it.

You can keep going if you want to. You can let them have it. All they do is this.

Usually with a little smile. Now you know us, if I decide I'm not going to listen, hey somebody can still keep screaming at me and I can act like I'm not listening but I still hear it. Deaf people just... I told them I was like talk to the hand. They've had it. They're not listening anymore. It always cracked me up when I worked with deaf people. When they close their eyes, that's a bad sign. That means I don't want to talk to you right now.

You know what a lot of people do at church? I'm not really listening. Say all you want to say and the truth can keep coming out but I'm not listening. You won't find the living word with deaf ears, number four. You won't find living truth with dead faith. You won't find living truth with dead faith. Notice if you would in verse nine, the Bible says that he returned from the sepulcher, they returned from the sepulcher, told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest.

I mean here's what happens. They go back and the angels tell them he's not here, he's risen. Remember he told you this and then they remembered his words and so they came back and here's Maggie, Mae-Mae and Jo-Jo and they come back and they show up and they tell the eleven and everybody that was there that Jesus is not there, he's risen, he's alive. They were the angels and they believed them not. They were telling the truth. I mean what they were getting ready to share and what they were describing, look at me folks. Jesus had already told them and it was true and it was life changing but they literally said, you know what this word idol means? It means incredible.

It means that that's an incredible story. The Bible says they believed it not. Do you know what's interesting that in 2018, even on Easter Sunday, it is still a difficult thing for people to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. You know when you go talk to people and you try to share with them God's word and you say, listen Jesus came, he died on the cross for our sins and they can somewhat understand that part of it but when you say he was dead three days and then he rose from the grave, they kind of look at you like, really?

Are you sure? It's still hard to believe but it's still true and it's still life changing and I'm here to tell you dear friend that you can't find something alive looking around something that's dead and I'm here to tell you religion won't save you and tradition won't save you and a little prayer won't save you. Coming to an altar won't save you. Being baptized won't save you.

It's only through Christ. We can preach the truth all we want to but if an individual refuses to believe, then it does them no good. You'll never find living truth with dead faith. You know the Bible says that there's one thing that God cannot stand and that's unbelieving. In fact, the Bible says that there is no way to please God without faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. You and I, to do anything to please God, there must be faith exercised somewhere and faith is saying, I didn't see it and I wasn't there and it's hard to believe but because you said it Jesus, I believe it. That's where salvation comes from. Why seek ye the dead among the living?

It's a really good question. Let's bow our heads close our eyes. Thank you for listening this morning. Thank you again for your faithfulness on an Easter Sunday morning and as we did in this first service, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor today. I want to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I just would ask that you just not look around. We wouldn't want anybody to be embarrassed but if you're here this morning and you would say, Brother Daniel, either I've been in church or I've never been to church or I grew up in church or this is my first time or I know some about the Bible or I know a lot about the Bible or I've gone to the altar many times or I've never even been to an altar church.

It doesn't really matter. None of those things save you anyway. But if you're here today on Easter Sunday, what we are concerned about and the most important thing to us is that you know you are saved and on your way to heaven.

You cannot base it on a tradition or on your works. The Bible says that the best we have to offer is filthy rags in the eyes of God because He's a holy God. Dear friend, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I'm asking you today before you go off and enjoy your Easter Sunday, do you know for sure that you're on your way to heaven? Do you know the living Savior lives in your heart? That's what's important. There's no one looking around.

No one looking around. I want to know today and I want to know how to pray as a pastor. If you're here and you'd say, Brother Daniel, I don't know for sure that fact. There's some things I'm confused about, but if you ask me do I know for sure I'm on my way to heaven, I don't think that I can answer that. If you ask me do I know for sure that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I don't know that I can answer that. Preacher, I would really appreciate it if you'd pray for me today.

I just want to know, I would never embarrass you. It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean we're going to come bother you or grab you or anything like that, but I just want to know how to pray. And if you're here this morning, you'd say, Preacher, just pray for me.

I don't know that for sure. Would you raise your hand up quickly and write back down, Thank you, sir. I see that hand. Thank you, young lady. Anyone else? Preacher, just pray for me.

I'm not 100% sure. I see you, young lady. Thank you. Preacher, just pray for me. I'm not 100% sure that I'm on my way to heaven. Thank you, sir.

In the balcony, I see that hand too. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. We've had five or six people that have been gracious enough to admit and to call it like it is. And to be honest, Preacher, I don't know for sure. And dear friend, I want you to know something that every one of us that do know for sure.

We had to come to a point where we raised our hand and we had to admit it. You can't get saved if you don't admit you're lost. Dear friend, I want you to understand what salvation is. Salvation is not just you're not following some act at a church and it's not joining a church and it's not doing some good work. Salvation is simply you being willing to admit that you're a sinner, because if we don't believe we're sinners, then we don't believe we need a savior. And I don't know about you, I have no problems admitting that I knew wrong. We start sinning from the moment we're born. We're born with a sinful nature. And if you're here this morning, I hope Christians are praying. If you're this morning you say okay I admit I'm a sinner second thing that's required is for you just to believe what God's Word says God's Word teaches that Jesus came he's real he lived here on earth he died on the cross for our sins and what we're celebrating today the Bible says he rose from the grave do you believe that you say well preach right that's a hard thing to believe well different that's what faith is all about but we can't get saved and give our heart to Christ if we don't believe that he is the Savior you say well preacher I have no problem admitting I'm a sinner and I do believe what the Bible says well dear friend the only thing left in salvation is for you to call upon him you say preacher what does that mean that word call well the Bible says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved that word call means that there's a distance I call somebody because I'm distant from them it means I'm distant from God because of my sin it means there's a distance it means there's a desire you don't call somebody that you don't want to talk to and that word call means literally that there's a danger that I realize I'm a sinner and I'm on my way to hell but there's a distance between me and God and I'm calling on him and and I'm praying saying God I'm asking you to save me I'm putting my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and dear friend if you're willing to do that the Bible says this that salvation is simply with our heads bound our eyes closed and prayer is just simply us talking to God if you would just simply say to God Lord I admit I'm a sinner I have no problem admitting that Lord I believe that you came and died for me and I believe you rose again and Lord I'm asking you to save me today Lord I'm putting my faith and trust in you Jesus saved me today dear friend we believe from God's Word that the heart that is sincere to call out to God in that fashion just got saved our heads are bound our eyes are closed if you say preacher the best of my ability I did that today and I'm asking you to pray for me as I try to grow as a Christian if you did that today would you raise your hand so that we can help you pray thank you sir thank you ma'am thank you sir preacher pray for me as I try to grow now as a Christian thank you I see four hands that have been raised thank you young lady two adult men two adult ladies a young lady I don't know about you but God still saves folks when we call on him for those of you that raised their hands we would never embarrass you but I want you to know as you leave if you go to an information desk or information as we have some information we'd love to give you we want to help you we'll come see you we'll talk to you we'll do anything we can do to make sure you fully understand what God has done for you and what you have done for God thank you for listening today we hope you received a blessing from our broadcast the Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville North Carolina you may also contact us by phone at three three six nine nine three five one nine two or via the web at Kerwin Baptist Church calm enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today god bless you