West Salem Baptist Church

(John 11:25) “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” This verse was spoken at the graveside of Lazarus before Jesus raised him from the dead. It has been said that it’s a good thing that Jesus only spoke the words “Lazarus come forth,” for if he had only said “come forth,” all the dead would have risen up. 1) Jesus is the resurrection . For without him there can be no life after death. Ever since the garden of Eden, man’s body and soul has been cursed with death, and so the body must go back to the dust from where it came (Gen. 3:19) , but the spirit and soul back to the creator for judgment (Heb. 9:27). Life began with God, but death was brought on by man, and so only in Jesus Christ is there found eternal salvation. The resurrection from the dead is nothing more than the human body being brought back to life and put back together after death, by God. Until then the body sleeps here, while the soul

(John 9:1,3) “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth... Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”  In the above verses after the blind man was spotted, the apostles wanted to know if it was because of sin that he was born blind. Jesus very clearly went into the subject of blindness in the rest of the chapter. 1) Physical Blindness is not necessarily God’s judgment for sin. Sometimes people assume falsely that all physical imparities are due to our sins in this life. To that, Jesus stated in ( v.3) that this blindness had nothing to do with him or his parents but rather God’s will. None of us in this life will ever truly know for certain why things happen the way they do, so be careful not to prejudge these things when they happen. 2) Spiritual Blindness on the other hand is the result of sin! Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, a spiritual blindness has been upon the ears a

(John 8:3) “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery;... (5) ... Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: (7)... he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”  Under the Law of Moses the Pharisees were right, both she and the man were to be killed by stoning, but Jesus attempting to teach them about grace, challenged them all as to their worthiness of judging this woman seeing that they too were guilty of sin. 1) All judgment belongs to God. The Bible explains very clearly that God did give Israel capitol judgment in such cases of adultery, but in (Joh 1:17) “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” This means that before Christ there was no pardon for sin except by God Himself, but now in Jesus Christ, the most vile of sinners can find pardon. 2) Jesus desires that we practice grace first . Under grace the guilty sinner is to be loved to the full extent of God’s forg