“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.” And these are steps that every individual should take before he witnesses. First, “He is not here: for he is risen as he said.” Now there must be a conviction of that. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Have it settled in your own mind that Jesus died and rose again from the dead. And then we’re to go and we’re to tell. “And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.”

You and I today are living in what is called the Age of Grace or, actually, it’s the Age of the Holy Spirit. Because, you see, you and I are living at a time when God saves by grace, not by Law, not by keeping the Law, not by following a law. We’re not saved by anything that we do. Frankly, friends, you are not a Christian until you believe something; and that something is “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Now, that’s the gospel. That’s what saves you.

Now we’ve had the death and burial and we have the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both facts are essential to saving faith. He was delivered for our offenses; He was raised for our justification. He was “made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” The unique factor of the gospel, of course, is the Resurrection. All of the religious leaders have died. None of them died for their followers, but He did. And where are the founders of the other religions? They’re dead. And where is the Lord Jesus? Well, He’s alive at God’s right hand at this very moment.

“Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” At the death of Christ, several very notable things took place, and one was there was an earthquake. The other is that in the temple, the veil was rent. And that veil speaks of His flesh. And when His flesh was rent upon the cross and He paid the penalty for your sin and my sin in His own body on the tree, then the way to God was opened wide so that you can go directly to the throne of God as a sinner, through Christ.

“And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?” Every one of those men knew that he had it within him to betray Christ. Have you discovered that in your own heart and life? Friends, you and I are just that mean and low. Oh, you say, “I wouldn’t do it.” Are you sure about that? May I say even right now you ought to cry out to Him for mercy. I do it every now and then because I know He has to keep me. May He keep you and me.

We ought to live our lives in the light of the fact we’re to stand in the presence of Christ. And did you notice I didn’t say “in light of the coming of Christ.” Now I don’t care whether His coming is 100 years from today or 1,000 years, you and I are to stand in His presence. And whether you’re saved or lost, you’re going to stand in His presence. If you’re saved, you will have to give an account of your life to see whether you receive a reward. And if you’re lost, you’ll stand there to be judged. So, every person should live his life in light of the fact he’s to stand in the presence of the Lord.

God has never had but one way of saving men; that’s by the cross of Christ. Everything before He came looked to the cross of Christ; everything since He’s come looks back to the cross of Christ. How did it look forward? At the heart of the Mosaic system was the sacrificial system, and every person brought a little lamb. You see, the Law never saved; it was given to reveal that they were law breakers, that they were not obeying God, and that they did need to have a substitute, that a penalty had to be paid. And today that’s the only purpose the Law serves for us. My friend, you’re a law breaker; you’re a sinner. You need a Savior. That’s the important thing.

“Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” This is a new approach to service and greatness and, certainly, this is something that ought to be very clear in the minds of those who are engaged in Christian service. My friend, if you’re going to sing for the Lord, please, don’t try to walk over all of the other soloists. And then don’t try to push every other minister aside if you’re trying to be a minister of the gospel. May I say to you, our Lord’s made that clear. The way to be great and the way to serve for Him is to go take the lowest place.

Heaven is for the asking. You do nothing—nothing—in order to be saved. But, my friend, your place, your position, your reward in heaven is determined by what you do down here. Don’t forget that. That’s very important. Christians have lost sight of it. He says, “It’s not Mine to give; I will not arbitrarily give it. You will prepare yourself for that.” By the way, what kind of a place are you preparing yourself for? I have no ambition for the place to the right hand or to the left. I think I missed that one. But friends, all of us ought to work for a place up there, but you don’t work for heaven. That is by faith in Christ through His marvelous grace.

It’s not the amount of time that you serve or the prominence and importance of your position which determines your reward. It’s your faithfulness to the task God’s given you to perform regardless of how small or how short or how very insignificant it might appear. I’ve always felt that the Lord someday will call up some dear little lady. She never spoke to thousands like some evangelist or some preacher. She had one little boy. And that’s all God asked her to do; to be faithful, and she was faithful. He’s not going to reward you about the amount of work you’ve done; it’s going to be how faithful you were. Whether you did the job He called you to do.