Preached at Riverview Sunday Night August 6th at 798 Santa Fe Pike, Columbia, TN

Matthew 22:31-32 (KJV) But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Mark 12:26-27 (KJV) And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? [27] He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

The Pharisees were constantly attacking Jesus. You see them – over and over again – challenging His authority. But periodically the Sadducees would jump in and attack our Lord.

The Pharisees were religious Conservatives, but the Sadducees were religious Liberals.

The Pharisees studied the Scriptures but did not know the power of God.

The Sadducees studied humanity and ignored both the Scriptures as well as the Spirit.

God’s Word Must Be In You

One day after the unbelieving Pharisees tried to get Jesus and once more failed, the Sadducees “who say there is no resurrection” (Mark 12:18; Matthew 22:23) decided to try and trip up Jesus. Being liberals they didn’t use nor respect Scripture, but used twisted logic. You’ve heard weird logic used before by liberal unbelievers to try and disprove the existence of God. Statements like:

“If God is all powerful and can do anything, can He make a weight
too heavy for Him to lift? If He can, then He’s not all powerful.”

That’s a stupid argument. God is all powerful, and God can do anything, but God is not stupid. God wouldn’t make something that He couldn’t lift, because God is also all knowing and wise. So unbelievers come up with weird logic.

The Sadducees came to Jesus saying:

Matthew 22:24-28 (KJV) Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. [25] Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: [26] Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. [27] And last of all the woman died also. [28] Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

They thought they had Jesus with this weird logic. They could have just stopped at two brothers. The Law of Moses said that if a man died and left a widow and his brother were unmarried, the brother was to take the widow as his wife. God did this so that the line of that family would continue, for one day Christ would come of Israel. The Sadducees could have just stopped at two, then asked “which one shall she be married to in the resurrection”? But they sought to hammer our Lord, to mock Him, to drag Him down.

They were no match for Jesus! He simply replied with the truth.

Matthew 22:29 (KJV) Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

You cannot know the power of God if you do not know the Scriptures!

The Sadducees – like most lost liberals who reject God’s Scripture – know neither the Scriptures, neither the power of God.

It is through the Scriptures that we learn the power of God.
It is through the Scriptures we learn the Gospel.
It is through the Scriptures that we come into His Family.
It is through the Scriptures that we gain power for living.

It is not through politics or science or humanitarianism that we move toward the image of Christ. It is through the Scriptures.

Galatians 2:20 (KJV) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

You cannot be crucified with Christ unless His Word is in you.

You’ll keep spinning your tires in the mud hole of life until you bind yourself to His Word.

The Sadducees – like many who profess to be “Christian” today – know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. If you do not love and cherish the first you will never be empowered by the Second.

The Sadducees toyed with marriage to try and trip up Christ.
Marriage is not a toy.

God gave us marriage in this life to give us companionship. He placed Adam with Eve – forming Eve from Adam – to show that in this blessed union man is to lead whereas woman is to support. The union of marriage was established – one man and one woman – to propagate humanity.

Genesis 1:28 (NLT) Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

With marriage came responsibility.

With marriage came the responsibility to procreate, to dominate, but also to teach.

The child was to be taught Scripture, to bind Scripture to his or her life.

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (KJV) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [6] And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: [7] And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

The focus of marriage was not the joy of sex, though the Scripture declares:

Hebrews 13:4 (KJV) Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

The focus of marriage is unity and oneness with God. Following the resurrection (and there will be a resurrection) and the blessing of our glorified bodies Jesus said:

Matthew 22:30 (KJV) For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

You will know your saved spouse in Heaven, but you will know her (or him) as a fellow Child of God. There will be no procreation in Heaven, for there will be no need of it. Just as God replaces the sun and the moon – for His light shall light Heaven – our unity with God will replace our finite unity with our spouses.

Heaven is a place where the Living enjoy God forever. It is a place where the Scripture says:

Revelation 21:3 (KJV) And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Because the Living God will be in the midst of His Living People the Bible declares that:

Revelation 21:4 (KJV) And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

The Scriptures Tell Us God Loves The Broken

Matthew 22:31-32 (KJV) But as touching the resurrection of the dead, HAVE YE NOT READ that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

God comes to those who are broken. He is the God of the Living. He loves to restore life.

Job 33:4 (NASB) The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

God loves us. He reaches out to us, but often we do not hear Him until the storms come.
When we are on the mountaintops of life we often become our own gods.
God will not bless while we worship other gods, or while we wallow in sin.

But God loves to heal those who come unto Him.
He calls.

Psalm 147:3 (ESV) {God} heals the BROKEN HEARTED and binds up their wounds.

God loves those who come to Him broken, but the prideful He cannot help.

James 4:6 (NKJV) But {God} gives more grace. Therefore He says: God RESISTS the proud, But GIVES GRACE to the humble.

The first five Books of the Bible were written by a broken person named Moses.

A man named Moses grew up in the Egyptian Palace. Raised among the false gods of Egypt, when he came of age Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of his Hebrew brothers. Moses killed the Egyptian, hiding him in the sand (Exodus 2:12). When it became known what Moses did Pharaoh wanted to kill him, so Moses ran away. He went to Midian, married Zipporah, and had a child he named Gershom (meaning a traveler), because he said, I am a stranger in a strange land (Exodus 2:22). Moses was dispossessed. Broken. Lonely.

But God loved Moses.
God loves the broken.
He calls sinners to His side.

Luke 5:32 (ESV) I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Moses spies a bush burning in the desert of Midian. As he comes nearer God reveals Himself to Moses. He says to Moses:

Exodus 3:6 (ESV) … “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” …

This is what Jesus refers to today. Moses recorded the words of God. The God Who spoke to Him – and to us today – is not the I was God, but the Great I AM. He is ever present with His people. God watched Moses as he hid in the desert. God is the Living God.

Jeremiah 10:10 (ESV) But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

God has no beginning, nor any ending. God is I AM. He is eternal. And He is the God of the Living. Moses, you cannot stay hiding here in the desert. Follow Me, Moses, and I will bless you.

Matthew 22:32 (KJV) … I am the God of Abraham …

God is the God of Abraham.

He is not the God of Abram, but of Abraham.

Abram was a broken man. God gave us marriage so that we could procreate. I passed a car today that had a bumper sticker that read:

“I Support Planned Parenthood”

It could have just as well said:

“I Support The Murder Of Innocents”

How horrible the abortion industry is. How horrible that we fund it! Abram was a man who desperately wanted children. His line was going to die. His wife was well past child bearing years. Then God came to Abram in his brokenness.

Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV) Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

There were five “I wills” in the statement that God made to Abram,
FIVE is the number of Grace.

God in Grace reached out to Abram. “If you will follow Me, I will bless you. I will give you a family. I will grow that family to be a nation. And I will bless the whole world through you”.

God calls us all as Abrams, but will not leave us here. God is the God of the Living. He will not leave us broken, but will work out His blessing in our lives as we follow Him in love.

Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV) It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Abram feared at times, but he followed God as best he could, and trusted the Lord with all his heart.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

God will triumph. Abram became Abraham, and you will be blessed as well. You must just continue to follow Him.

Our Ever Living God Keeps His Promises

Matthew 22:32 (KJV) I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac …

Our God is the God Who keeps His promises. It took some time for Abram to turn into Abraham. Abram could not have a child. Abram was learning to trust God. Abram tried to help God out by offering one his servants to be his child. Abram tried to help God out by going into Hagar, having a child named Ishmael.

Genesis 17:18- (ESV) And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.

When time passes and the promise does not come we are often, just as Abraham did, seek to “help God out”. We say “Lord, I’ll do this with my hands because I know you’re so busy running the universe”. What we’re saying in reality is that we want God to bless our efforts and our mistakes. God does not need us to fulfill His promises. What He has said, He will do. The Apostle Paul preached at Athens:

Acts 17:24-25 (ESV) The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God loves us, but He does not need us. He promised Abraham a son, and God will deliver on that. God will choose when Abraham gets his son. God chooses when to bless. God calls us to follow Him if we want to be blessed.

God will not bless disobedience.
God will not bless faithlessness.
God will not bless sinfulness.
God blesses those who follow Him.

The Psalmist said:

Psalm 116:12–14 (ESV) What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

God wants us to follow Him. This is why God gave us the example of Isaac. After Abraham had Isaac God told him “Go and sacrifice that boy”.

Lay your Isaac down!

What did Abraham do? He laid his Isaac down, trusting that God keeps His promises. ALWAYS!

What did the Apostle say?

Hebrews 11:17-19 (NKJV) BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS TESTED, OFFERED UP ISAAC, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that GOD WAS ABLE TO RAISE HIM UP, EVEN FROM THE DEAD, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

God keeps His Word. God does not lie. The Scripture declares:

Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV) Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Our Ever Living God Calls Us To Life

Matthew 22:32 (KJV) I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

Our God is the God of the Living – He calls us to life. Jacob is a picture of every Christian who has ever lived. Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob was a sinner. Jacob was shiftless. But God loved Jacob, and called Jacob to follow Him.

And Jacob became Israel, the Prince of God.
God will make you His if you will come to Him by Christ.
God will make you royalty, a King and Priest unto Him, if you will follow Him.

But our God is NOT the God of the dead, but of the living. The living God rules a living people. Jesus said:

John 10:10-16 (KJV)   The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.   [11]   I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.   [12]   But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.   [13]   The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.   [14]   I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.   [15]   As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.   [16]   And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

God is the God of the Living. We are alive because Christ gave His life for us. We are alive because we receive Him as Lord and Savior. We are alive because we cherish His Word. We are Jacob, but will not remain Jacob. We are Jacob moving toward Israel because God does not leave His people incomplete. Our God is taking us to life.

Do you know Him?