No products in the cart.
Resurrection Day
Transcript
1 Corinthians chapter 15, let’s turn over there together. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, as we will today, Lord willing, be finishing up this great chapter on the resurrection. As you know, we’re going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the book of 1 Corinthians, and we come to the last major issue, the Apostle Paul is trying to fix.
Once again, 1 Corinthians is a letter written by God’s Apostle, Paul, to the church at Corinth. And in this letter he addresses one concern after another, that this church, the church at Corinth had made a mess out of. One of the messes, the last one we come to, was their understanding of the resurrection.
Now we do not know for certain if there was a significant number of people in the church at Corinth that were holding to false teaching about the resurrection, or if they were just beginning to be influenced by false teachers who were trying to give them heretical teachings concerning the truth of the resurrection. We don’t know which one, but we do know Paul spends a lot of time explaining the truth about the resurrection.
Now, generally as we’ve looked at this chapter, we’ve organized the messages under two main headings. One of them was the defense of the resurrection. The Apostle Paul spent a lot of time here defending the true doctrine of bodily resurrection. Secondly the Apostle Paul did a lot in the way of describing the bodily resurrection. And we had some messages under that heading. Now we come to a section that I believe is more of a summary conclusion and I’m going to entitle this morning’s message “Resurrection Day.” Resurrection Day.
As the Apostle Paul gets to the end of his teaching or exhortation on this subject, he’s going to give them some particular events that will unfold on that very day, Resurrection day.
1 Corinthians 15, let’s begin reading in verse 50. Paul continuing his writing to the church at Corinth says, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Resurrection day. First of all, notice an explanation. Paul’s going to give us an explanation here, now he’s been doing a lot of explaining about the resurrection, I understand that. But now he’s going to explain some of the key elements that will take place on that resurrection day, resurrection morning that is yet to come. Now he’s not going to tell us everything, but many of the things. Now first of all, under an explanation, notice a necessary change. He’s going to point out very clearly that it is of utmost necessity that these old bodies be radically and substantially changed or transformed when we leave this life, get our new body and enter into that new kingdom.
As a matter of fact, look at verse 50 through 51 there. He says, “now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable,” that’s our present bodies, “inherit the imperishable,” that’s the kind of bodies they’ll be after they’re resurrected. Verse 51. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Now jump back up to verse 50 and let’s look at this. First of all he says, “now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Here’s his point. These old physical bodies, these flesh and blood bodies, cannot inherit that new coming kingdom. You see, a sin cursed body cannot dwell in a sinless kingdom. There has to be an end to these bodies. These bodies do not fit our heavenly home. In other words, the Lord Jesus is going to dress us up before he takes us home. He’s going to make us presentable in that new kingdom.
You see the Bible teaches that all of us who are saved are a part of the bride of Christ. And there’s coming a day when we will be presented to Jesus as his perfected and glorified bride. And there’s no bride of Christ going to enter his glorious kingdom wearing a corrupt, weak, dishonorable, perishable, dying, decaying body. These bodies will have to be left behind and we’ll have to put on new bodies, because why? It will be a new day, we will be in a new kingdom, and therefore we will have new bodies. Now presently right now, those of us who are saved, the kingdom of God now dwells in our hearts. It dwells in our hearts. But the kingdom of God does not reign in our bodies. Right now the kingdom lives in my heart. Now when I say my heart, that’s a very general term, I mean the innermost part of me, the spirit man. When I was saved the holy spirit came into my spirit. That is what makes us different from animals, that is we have a spirit nature, we have the capacity to fellowship and commune with the holy God. Animals do not have that, the plant kingdom, they do not have that capacity. But we have a spiritual nature. The kingdom of God now does reign in my innermost being. But the kingdom of God right now does not reign in this old physical, fallen body. I didn’t say it doesn’t have influence, and I didn’t say it shouldn’t have the majority influence, and I’m not saying that it should not be the pattern of our lives to live under that influence, but as far as the kingdom of God, God having rule and dominion and reign over these bodies, he just does not yet. Now, not because he’s got a problem, just in his sovereign plan he hasn’t given us the new body yet. So it reigns in my heart, but not in my body. You see, my eyes do not always act like kingdom eyes. My ears do not always act like kingdom ears. My legs do not always take me the way kingdom legs ought to take or carry me. My mind does not always think like a kingdom mind.
My body down here is still influenced by my sinful soul. Now hang on with me, use your thinker. Now when I say soul, I mean my mind, my will and my emotions. My mind, my will, my emotions, my soul is very sinful. My mind’s very prone to think anti-God thoughts. My mind’s very prone to come to conclusions that are contrary to the teachings of scripture. Why do you think we need the preaching and teaching and memorizing and meditating of this perfect and holy book, because your mind naturally goes the other direction. This is a brain washer right here folks. That’s what it is. Don’t be afraid of that. Every time you turn on the discovery channel it brainwashes you in humanism. And evolution and other humanistic presuppositions, that are unscientific and unproven. That just constantly washing us.
For the for the first time in my life I saw literally about eight minutes of a show that features this lesbian whose come out of a closet. And I’m telling you, I was shocked, incomparably shocked, I could not believe that nationwide television would show two lesbians in a love relationship as normal, acceptable, wonderful, and even applaud it and advance it. Because I don’t watch shows like that, and folks, if you’re used to watching things like that, you’re already being brainwashed. Now I’m not saying you’re agreeing with it, but I’m saying the shock is gone. The shame is gone. Folks, nothing’s shameful any more. Nothing is shameful any more. You know the only creature God made that can blush is a human. I’m going to tell you, we’ve lost our capacity to blush any more. Just nothing matters. You know why? We’re washing our brains with the filth of the world, and they’re all polluted and we need to get in this book and wash them back out clean.
And somebody said one time, well, you don’t want to send your children to a Christian school, or you don’t want to home school your children because they won’t know how to function in society when they get out in society, well, they are going to be shocked. I want my kids shocked by this society. I don’t want my children comfortable in this society. We want them to walk out there and say this is wrong, something needs to be changed. And I’d encourage our young men, and as God allows our young ladies to look at going into law school and look at going into the judiciary because we need some judges in this land that believe some things are right and believe some other things are wrong.
Well, I’m chasing too many rabbits. But I want to tell you something folks, we’re right now, we’re fallen and these old bodies are still influenced by sinful minds and that’s why Paul said, this perishable cannot inherit the imperishable. It doesn’t fit up there. because when I get up there, I’ll have a brand new body, listen, and my brand new body will in totality be ruled by the Holy Spirit of God. This body right now in totality is not ruled by the Holy Spirit. Now I ought to be walking under it, I ought to be living under that influence, its sin and rebellion when I’m not but its just not prone to do that. But when I get to heaven, I’ll get a new glorified body and every molecule of that body will gladly rejoice and yield to the Holy Spirit’s leadership. So we’ll be in a new kingdom up there, and we’ll have new bodies. That’s why he says very clearly in verse 50, I say this, “these old flesh and blood bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God”.
Now, nothing good dwells in our flesh, the Apostle Paul says. That’s why they simply cannot be acceptable in that new kingdom. And if you would, look at verse 50, the last part rather of verse 50. “Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” These are perishable bodies. Folks in one sense the body you are wearing today is a disposable body and it fits a disposable world. But when we get in that new kingdom, we’ll be resurrected with new bodies and they will be eternal bodies for the eternal life of an eternal kingdom. These bodies don’t fit up there. There’s a necessary change that has to take place. Now look at verse 51. He says “behold, I tell you a mystery.” Now when you see the word mystery, particularly in the New Testament, it means a truth that was not revealed at least not clearly revealed in the Old Testament. He said, I’m going to give you a new insight, that has not been revealed yet. Alright, what is that Paul. Well he says it, last part of verse 51. “We will not all sleep,” now that means death.
When a Christian dies, the Bible says he doesn’t really die, he just lets his body sleep in the grave for a season. “We will not all sleep, But we will all be changed.” Now I’ve heard somebody say that that’s the theme verse for the nursery workers. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Its also true about us in the next life. Now Paul says, you don’t have to die to get your new body, but you do have to be changed. You don’t have to die to enter that new kingdom, but you do have to be changed to enter that new kingdom. The Apostle Paul is holding out that there is going to be a generation that are going to be alive when the Lord returns. And, and we’ll just rise to meet the Lord in the air. Now we will not precede those who will already have their bodies sleeping in the grave, they are going to rise first, and then we’re going to rise, and we’ll all have our new resurrected glorified bodies.
In other words he says, there’s two routes to get in that new kingdom. You can go through death and get you new body and be resurrected, or be resurrected and get your new body, or you can go through the rapture, if Jesus comes first, put on your new body and enter that kingdom. So you don’t have to die to get there, but you do have to change. You have to have a changed body.
So we’ve talked about the fact that it is a necessary change, because this body has to be changed before it can fit in that kingdom. Now secondly notice its a quick change. A quick change. Look at verse 52, we’ll begin looking at this. He says “in a moment.” Now the word moment there comes from a Greek word that has a significantly different meaning than the way we use the word moment. The word moment here means indivisible. He’s saying its an its a span of time that’s already so brief you can’t divide it any further. In a moment, that quick.
Then he continues. Verse 52. “In the twinkling of an eye.” Now you always can find great insights into what the Bible is saying by finding out how these Greek words were used in their day. This Greek word for twinkling in this day, was often used for the flapping of a bird’s wings. When a bird was in rapid flight, how quickly does that wing flap up one time, and then down again. It was used about the buzz of a gnat. Have you ever seen a gnat, how quickly can that little wing go back and forth. It was also used of the vibration of a harp string or the twinkling of a star. Here’s Paul’s point, instantaneous is going to be this rapid complete, or radical and complete transformation of these bodies into brand new different bodies. Instantaneously. Quickly.
Now notice he continues further “for the trumpet will sound.” Now we do not know if this is going to be an actual literal trumpet, that’s fine with me, or if this is figurative language. I believe its playing on this understood truth, and that is that trumpet sounds have always been used to indicate that one thing is passed away and a new thing has begun. Something’s ended, something else is beginning. For example, in the military, we’ve known for years that they have their wake up call with the trumpet sound. Now you may have been in military where they used something different, but us folks that watch TV have seen that. Or if the troops were going into battle, they would often blast the trumpet to signify the preparation stages has ended, now we’re marching forward into battle. Or the bells that you have at school. Now we have bells here at church. That bell signifies that is ended, now a new class. Or now its time for the worship service, that has begun. So the trumpet will sound. And what its going to mean, its going to mean the old dispensation is over, the church age has ended, the old bodies will be done away with. They are going to be consumed, if you will, in the birthing of the new resurrected body.
Now let me say I’ve given you all kinds of lessons, I want to do a little geology lesson for a little while here, and talk about the fact that God specializes in instantaneous change. God is a specialist in instantaneous change. Even changes that are radical and, and complete. God is a specialist at doing that. I get so re, it really irritates me, because I like National Geographics, I like the Discovery channel, I like those things, but those, those problems are so totally packed with secular, humanistic, atheistic politically correct nonsense. They’re just full of it. And I’m thinking about children growing up and that’s, those are some of the clean shows, so to speak, but the message in those shows I think is very damaging. Over and over again, they’ll come along, they’ll see this rock formation or something, and they’ll say now, now those rocks right there are 400 million years old. How do they know. Have you ever seen a 400 million year old rock. How in the world can you tell the difference between a 5000 year old rock and a 400 million year old rock. I’ve never seen a rock that didn’t look old to me. Have you. They all look old.
Now personally I believe that the whole creation is only about 10,000 years old. I believe the scientific data when they’re honest, substantiates that. But to be honest about they they have to embrace a Creator God whose supernatural omnipotent. You see, and they are not going to do that. They do not want to embrace that, so they throw that out. They’ve got to find some pseudo scientific way to explain origins and the marvels of creation, without saying God had anything to do with it. So they come up with all these fanciful, unscientific presuppositions. But you may say now preacher, everything looks so old. Well, how do you know. You have to have been around hundreds of millions of years to know what something that old would look like. We don’t know what that old looks like. We just have no way of knowing. They will say, well, there, there are scientific ways that we can date things today, and and so they date these rocks and these fossils, and they can come up with their age.
Listen, that’s based on a totally unscientific improvable presupposition. They suppose that things like carbon, the element of carbon, has always depleted itself and passed out of something at the same consistent rate for hundreds of millions of years. So they say, okay, once something dies, if the carbon whatever is released, then we can study how its been released for the last 30 years and we’ll just assume that its always been released that way for over millions of years, therefore when we find out how much carbon is in something, we know the date of it. But that’s an assumption. Nobody knows if carbon or whatever element they’re studying has always depleted itself, or released itself from that object consistently over millions of years. We have no way of knowing, that’s a guess. really when they come on National Geographics, or when they come on the Discovery channel, or when you read in your textbook and they say now, if we throw out the divine supernatural God and creation, the best guess we can make would be that this could be a hundred million years old, that would be honest. But they don’t, they’re not honest. Its the most bold and blatant lie I believe in the world today.
That everything just had to have happened, gradually, slowly, over millions and millions and millions of years, because that way they can, can rule out any obligation to honor or acknowledge a Creator God. And that’s what its all about. No wonder the humanist religion—and the humanists have their own religion, they have their own doctrines—they strongly advance and embrace the doctrine of evolution. They have to, they need a pseudo scientific base for their secular conclusions.
Now I found a little statement here that I want to read to you about what’s called radio carbon dating, and that’s what most scientists look to to say hey, we know this stuff is old, we know there’s been radical changes from, from little one celled organisms, all the way up to the complex marvel of mankind and we know that happened over millions and millions of years, just slow transformation. And, and so they say, we’ve used radio carbon dating to identify some old fossils and this is what we think’s happened. But listen to what the assistant editor, Robert E. Lee, of the Anthropological Journal of Canada said in his article entitled “Radio Carbon Ages in Error.” Now this is in the Anthropological Journal of Canada, this is not a creationist, he’s not, I don’t even know if he’s a Christian, but he’s a scientist, fortunately he’s an honest scientist. Listen to what he says. “The troubles of the radio carbon dating method are undeniably deep and serious. Despite 35 years of technological refinement and better understanding, the underlying assumptions have been strongly challenged and warnings are out that radio carbon may soon find itself in a crisis situation. Continuing the use of the method depends on a ‘fix it as we go’ approach, allowing for some contamination here, fractionation there, and calibration wherever possible.” Now let me stop. He’s saying, in other words, when we date things, we get some wildly radical different conclusions, and so we factor in well, there must have been some contamination on that one, we’ll take a fraction of this other one, we’ll calibrate it different, so really they end up choosing a date instead of scientifically discovering a date.
Now listen, he says, “it should be no surprise then that fully half of the dates are rejected.” He said, if scientists were honest, they’d tell you, when we go out and we use our dating “scientific dating method”, we really have to throw out half the dates because they’re too bizarre, too far off. Then he says “the wonder is surely that the remaining half comes to be accepted.” He said, the real wonder of it all is that we keep half of them. Then he says, “no matter how useful it is though, the radio carbon method is still not capable of yielding accurate, reliable results. There are gross discrepancies, the chronology is uneven and relative, and the accepted dates are actually selected dates.” Now I believe that’s an honest, honest scientist. Now I believe in science, I thank God for science, as a matter of fact, if you’ll study history a little bit you’ll find the first scientists were men who believed there were a God, men who believed there was a Creator, and men who believed that God created the, the universe in an orderly, meaningful fashion and has given us some degree of intelligence therefore we can discover some of the things he did when he created it.
And then there came a new base for science, an atheistic base for science, and we have what Francis Schaeffer calls modern modern science. We had modern science, men who acknowledged and believed there was a God, now we have modern modern science that rejects any acknowledgement of God whatsoever. And they keep cramming their doctrine down our throat, and they use textbooks, universities, professors, all these things on television and they just come out with these blatant statements, 400 billion years old, 500 million years old, and there’s no scientific basis. There’s no proof whatsoever. But our God has not been a God as far as scripture teaches, that has let things change over gradual or gradually rather, over long series or periods of time. He’s a God from Genesis to Revelation who specializes in instantaneous, immediate, supernatural radical transformation of things.
As a matter of fact, real quickly. Now I’m doing this because one of the reasons some folks have a difficulty embracing the truth. Look at Genesis chapter 1, if you would. One of the reasons that our flesh has a difficult time embracing this radical transformation that will happen when these bodies are totally changed into brand new unique and different bodies is because we’ve been so inundated with things that change that greatly have to happen over millions of years. Isn’t that true. That’s all we’ve heard. If something is going to change radically, its got to happen slowly over millions of years, or it can’t happen. As a matter of fact, I believe an atheistic secular scientist in one sense can accept the resurrected body. Folks, listen, if he could accept that there was one time a little amino acid, and a little protein, and a little one celled organism, that somehow evolved up to the complex man today, if he can accept that change, he shouldn’t have any problem with the new resurrected body. But he just say, well, if y’all every going to get, you Christians ever going to get that resurrected body, its going to take 200 million years, you understand that don’t you. You’ve got to evolve into that new body.
Well, God doesn’t have to do that, he doesn’t need to do that, look at, look at the evidence of instantaneous change in creation. I’m just going to sort of glean through here. Genesis chapter 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Now the word created means, came to existence out of nothing. He’s a God that can do that, the God who at one time, He, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit existed, then out of nothing he spoke matter into existence. Now as God began to make things out of the matter that he created, then out of nothing created other things, look at verse 3. “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’;” Now how did it come about. The Bible says he said it. Now when you look up this Hebrew word for said, all throughout the Old Testament, it always means to speak. It doesn’t mean anything else. Could there be other meanings there, possibly. But if you’re consistent in your theology and your interpretation is consistent, you have to say, well, every time the word “said” is mentioned, it means spoken. So in other words, God was there, he spoke, light came on, instantaneous. Radical creation.
And then look at verse 4, “and God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness” and in verse 5, “God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Evening and morning, one day, once again. Well, how long was this one day, could there not be geological ages in this one day. All I can tell you is the biblical data is every time you see the word day and an adjective defining the day like one or five or twelfth day, whatever, every time you see the word day, and some definition before day giving it a specific time, it always refers to a 24 hours period.
I believe God took different days after he created the heavens and the earth, after he created the, form, of what was, what is to become planet earth, I believe he took a day at a time and instantaneously throughout those days created things, because listen, God can do that. They say, how can you explain that, how do you explain God. Sure its faith. But these secular evolutionists who would try to cram down the throats of our children in school that they are the results of some one celled organism that somehow mutated and evolved to the present form, folks, that’s a quantum leap of faith. That’s faith too, there’s no proof of that. But notice the instantaneous change God can bring. Down in verse 6, “then God said,” instantaneous, “‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.'” “God made the expanse, and separated the waters.”
Jump down to verse 8, “God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.” And that day he created that expanse. Now what’s that mean. He created, he separated the water that covered the earth from a water canopy that he put above the earth. There’s the atmosphere in between. But originally planet earth was a perfect terrarium. There was a water band, and then there was the heavens, then the earth and all the water that was on it. Now just running through here, look down in verse 10, it says that rather verse 11, we have vegetation being formed, or created rather. In verse 11, then verse 13 says, that was the “third day.” Verse 16, God made the light holders. Now, back up in verse 3, he made light, but then down in verse 16 he made the light holders. You see, God can do that. He didn’t make the sun first, he made light first. Then he made the sun to shine the light. How do you explain that. Don’t have to, God did it. He specializes in things like that.
Now that was on verse 19 says that happened, the light holders were created on the fourth day. Verse 20 says, he made the birds. Verse 21 says he made the fish of the sea. Jump on down to verse 23 says, “And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.” Verse 25 says he made the animals that roamed the earth. Verse 26 says then he made man and then down in verse 31 says that happened on the sixth day. Here’s my point to you. All the biblical data if you interpret scripture according to any modern interpretative method, it all says God is the God who specializes in instantaneous radical transformations and creations. He’s that kind of God.
So friend, when we come to the resurrection, that’s just another thing God does. That’s not any big deal for God. its not any special spectacular unique unusual thing, from God’s perspective. Now God is just chosen to let there be several thousand years happen since the last time he did something that radical. In creation instantaneous, miraculous, supernatural event. And then at the recreation, the resurrection day, instantaneous, radical supernatural miraculous event. But God is a God who specializes in that kind of change. So its a necessary change, because your present body doesn’t fit that kingdom. And it is a quick change, a quick change, that is also radical. Because God is a God who does do that, who has done that rather, and who can do that.
Now my question to you this morning, are you going to be there. Are you going to be one of those God raises your body from the grave, transforms it, glorifies it, makes it fit for an eternal kingdom. The only way you can know that you’re going to be there, the only way you can know that that’s going to happen to you, is if you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Joining this church cannot get you to heaven. Being baptized cannot get you to heaven. Trying to do right and live right and stop doing bad things and do more good things, that cannot get you into heaven. The only way is to come before God and say, I’m unworthy, I’m worthless, there’s nothing good in me, I’m a sinner, and I embrace, I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sin, I believe he paid for my sin there, and I ask Jesus to save me and come into my heart and life and make me born again.
And if that happens to you, then you can know for certain, if the rapture doesn’t come first, you’ll let your body sleep in the grave for a season, your soul and spirit will go be with the Lord, and then on resurrection day, your body will be resurrected and transformed radically and you’ll have a new glorified body, you’ll live with him for all eternity. The Bible says its a place where there’s no fear, no pain, no heartache, no disease, no sorrow, yes, no death. Have you received Jesus. That is the imperative question for you this morning.
(Evening Sermon – 33:13)
Now let’s shift gears to new material, Roman numeral number two, notice the exaltation. Not exhalation, but exaltation. That means rejoicing, praising God, full of joy, so Paul hits on a note here where he’s talking about the great joy and exaltation if you will, of the truth of this resurrection day that’s coming. Notice first of all under that the victory. The victory. Now we see this in verse 54-56.
Look at verse 54. He says, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.'” Now he says this perishable, mortal state that we now live in will pass away forever. That will never come back, you’ll never get that old body back, your new existence will be nothing like the old one. Just as a cake cannot go back to be unmade, once it’s made and baked. Just like a butterfly cannot go back to being a worm. Just like a plant and he used that illustration earlier, can’t go back to the seed it came from. And just as a child once born can never be unborn.
So the glorified, resurrected body can never be reduced back to its former state and therefore face death. Death suited the old life. Death suited the old body. But eternal life suits the new resurrected body. In other words, in the new kingdom, where we are going, God has a zero tolerance for death. It’s just not going to be there. Death will be unknown there. Now that’s hard for us to conceive. But if it were possible for you to even think of the idea of death in that new kingdom, if it were possible for you to even know the word death, and you were to go up to somebody and said, hey, what about death. They’d look at you and they’d say, never heard of such a thing in these parts. It would be foreign. Death has no place up there. Its anti-God.
Well, look at verse 54, the last phrase there. He says, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” On that day death is going to be swallowed up he says, in victory. Now when you swallow something and you digest it, we call that being consumed. And that’s the very idea in the text. That death will be consumed in the resurrection. From that point onward, death is an impossibility. We’ll never face death again, we’ll never hear of death again, isn’t that good news. For those of us who’ve had broken hearts over the death of a loved one. In that kingdom it will never happen again. Death is swallowed up, never to be heard from again.
Now, look at verse 55, just the ver, the first phrase there, and he says, “O death, where is your victory?” Now we’re talking about the victory here. And the first thing he says, he personalizes this thing toward death, he said death, where is your victory. Well, death’s been defeated. He has no victory any longer. I, love the story in the Old Testament about Samson when he went to the city of Gaza. And the Philistine soldiers thought, aha, we have Samson now, they wanted to kill him. And so Samson goes into the city of Gaza and the Philistine soldier said here’s what we’ll do, we know where the city gate is, that’s the only in and out of the city. What we’ll do, we’ll wait until just before daybreak, and we’ll go down at, right before daybreak and we’ll hide outside the gate of the city. And when Samson leaves, we’ll identify him, we’ll punch on him, we’ll kill him.
Well Samson aware of their plot didn’t wait til daylight the next morning to leave, the Bible says he got up at midnight and Samson, just to prove a point, went down to the gate of Gaza and the Bible says he tore up gate, post, bars and all, and hauled those things up on a mountain and threw them down and this in essence says, what do you think about that. You going to hide at the gate, there’s not a gate any more. That’s what our Lord Jesus did for us, to the old fortress called death. The Lord Jesus went down to the old fortress called death, and he went down to the gate that holds the bodies of God’s precious elect in and Jesus put his massive shoulders under that gate, tore up the gate, bars, posts and all, and hauled it off and thrown it down.
Death is now defeated. Death is a city routed and plundered. It lays crushed and defeated. The lingering dust of defeat settles in the street of death, like it must have settled in the streets of Jerusalem, after Titus and his Roman legends marched through in 70 AD and the Bible says, or rather history says nothing was left standing in Jerusalem. On that great resurrection morning, God will release, or rather death will have to release its claim on the bodies of God’s elect. The holy spirit commissioned by the omnipotent Christ will storm the graveyard of planet earth, he’ll open the door of death and raise the bodies of God’s church to new and glorious life. “O death, where is your victory?” “O death, where is your victory?” You don’t have any. Jesus has taken it away.
Listen to what Jesus said in John 5:25. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Is that not an awesome thought. The elect of God, dead in the grave, and they hear the voice of the Son of God and live again. It’s going to happen one day. Now look at verse 55. The last half and let’s go down through verse 56. Then he says “O death, where is your sting?” “The sting of death of sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Now what makes death so awful is that at the point of death you have to face God for your sin. That’s the sting that death has. When a man dies the Bible says in Hebrews, it’s appointed unto man to die once, and after that face judgement. That’s the sting of death. Leaving this old life isn’t all that big of a deal. This life isn’t all that great. But the point is, if you leave this life through the door of death, then you face judgement, that’s the sting.
That’s the stinger. It’s at the point of death that a man faces his full and just consequence of sin. That’s when you have to face that reality. All the unsaved have an appointment with judgement. And that judgement begins at death. All the horror, the horror of entering the door of death. To come face to face with the God of vengeance, wrath, and holiness. That’s the sting of death. He goes on in verse 56 and he says, “and the power of sin is the law.” Now because we’re sinners, that’s what makes death such a stinging difficult thing. Because when we go through death we have to answer for our sin before a holy God. Then he says, the reason why sin has such a power is because of the law. Now when he says the law, you could generalize that and say God’s ten commandments. It does mean more than that, but in a general way, it’s God’s ten commandments.
You see, the law is unalterable and negotiable, and we are all transgressors of it. We are all lawbreakers. And the law has been written out and we can see in that written law how guilty, how thoroughly we have transgressed God’s standards. You see the law is much more than words on a page. You see, the law is written so that it might expose our guilt before God and we are without excuse, every single solitary one of us, you have seen God’s ten commandments and you know that you know that you know, that you violated them. You’re without excuse. You’re guilty, when you die, that means you’re a sinner, and you’ll face a holy God for your sinfulness. That’s the sting of death. And the law is the one that says you’re guilty. God’s law stands and you’re guilty.
Well, that’s an awful position to be in. We’re talking now about the victory, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him in verse 57. We have a victory, but we have a victory because there’s the victor. And his name is Jesus. Look at verse 57. Let me review. Even though verse 56 says, the sting of death is sin, and even though verse 56 says, the power of sin is the law, verse 57 begins with that conjunctive word, but, I’m glad there are some buts in the Bible. “But” even though that is true “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” we don’t attain the victory, he gives it through by the agency of, by the means of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now out in our mall area out there, purposefully we have God’s Ten Commandments. I wish I could think off the top of my head which one was positioned in which place, but they are all out there. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any graven image…” “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “Honor your father and your mother.” “You shall not murder.” “You shall not commit adultery.” Yeah, that one’s still in effect. Number eight, “You shall not steal.” “You shall not bear false witness.” Yes, that one still is in effect. And “You shall not covet.”
Now the Bible teaches that if you violate one of these commandments, either in your heart, by your attitude, disposition, desire, or in your behavior, if you violate one of them, one time, in your heart or in your behavior, then you stand guilty and condemned to eternity in hell. That’s what the Bible teaches. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, and he said, now you guys have taught that if a man commits adultery, he’s broken God’s law. But says, “I say to you, if you’ve lusted in your heart, you’re an adulterer already before me.” Don’t come up with some concocted weird thing that says, well, if I felt it in my heart, I might as well do it, no, that’s wrong. The damage it causes to others is minimized, but your guilt before God is equal. If you’ve done it in your heart, you’re just as guilty before God, but you may not have caused the damage to others, folks on earth, by only doing it in your heart. For God’s sake, if you’re going to do it, don’t let it go any further than it needs to go. But nevertheless, if you’ve done it in your heart, you stand guilty already.
James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” You work all your life, as hard as you can and to your best recollection, never one time in your heart did you ever commit any of these transgressions. never one time in your behavior you didn’t commit any, but one time at the age of 72 you broke one of the commandments, God says you’re guilty before me as if you broke them all.
God says you’re guilty before me as if you broke them all. Wow. And then you have to stand in judgement as a sinner before holy God and answer after death. That’s why he says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory” how? “through” by the provision, means, the agency of “the Lord Jesus Christ.” You couldn’t get the victory, you couldn’t earn the victory, you couldn’t buy the victory, you couldn’t work up the victory, you couldn’t achieve the victory, it’s through Jesus. He gives us victory through what Jesus is and has done. Romans 10:4 is a wonderful, wonderful verse. Listen to Romans chapter 10. Verse 4. It says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Now did you hear that. “Christ is the end of the law”, where did he say in our text, where was the power of sin in the law. But “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness”. In other words, God says there is an end to you having to achieve some sort of right standing by keeping the law. You never could to that. You violate that day in and day out, and you’re condemned by that. I put an end to man trying to obtain some righteousness before me by keeping my law, you can’t do it. I put an end to you doing that. But now Christ has done that for you. Christ fulfilled all the righteousness of God, and when Christ hung on the cross, he took the punishment you and I deserved as, as, as sinners. He took the just punishment the law demands that sinners receive. Therefore he’s done it for me.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. or you could amplify it, for a right standing before God. He’s the end of it. Isn’t that good news. Listen, you see that, I can’t hardly see it for these back lighting, you see that, that panel up there, or that canopy kind of over the baptistery, can ya’ll see that from down there. You know what I”m talking about, that blank space up there. I just thought it might be neat. You come into our mall and you see God’s ten commandments. They are everywhere, God’s standard. And rightfully that should put a reverence and an awe and a respect for God in his absolutes, and also it ought to tell us we’re all guilty. And then you come in and sit down after looking at those ten commandments, and you read up there, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful testimony.
We may do that, just in gold letters up there. That, does that mean the law’s bad. No, Paul answered that, the law is good. Just you’re bad. The law’s wonderful, you’re bad. You couldn’t keep it, so Christ kept it for you, and took the judgement you deserved for being a lawbreaker. So Christ is the end of the law as far as the law being a means or a vehicle whereby you might try to obtain some right standing, you couldn’t do it, I can’t do it, no one can do it.
Why don’t you turn real quickly to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, and look at verse 20. Just an amplification here of the victor and how he’s done it for us, and we can’t do it. Verse 20, Paul says to the church at Rome, “because by the works of the law” now, now I’m in Romans 3, verse 20, “By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight”; Now did you read that. You can do all the works you want, that will not justify you in God’s sight, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Far from the law being able to help you get right with God, the law shows you how you’re not right with God. The law illustrates to you how you’re guilty, the law shows you how you’re condemned before a holy God. Does that mean the law is bad, no, the law is good, it just shows you that you’re bad. Verse 21. “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,” That means there’s a way that, that we can be righteous before God apart from keeping the law. Because if we had to do that, we’d never get there.
Look at verse 22. “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;” Even the righteousness of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, when you stand before God, you’ll stand as righteous as God is righteous, why and how? Through what Jesus Christ has done for you. That’s why we have victory over death, hell and the grave, because Jesus is the victor and he has done it all for us.
Well, let’s move on to our third major point. The Apostle Paul, in summarizing things, and, and talking about this resurrection day that’s coming, the Apostle Paul has told us some very, very important things that we want to understand and that we want to remember.
He’s given us an explanation. He says, I want you to know its necessary that you have a changed body, your old body won’t fit up there. He said, I want you to know, its going to be a quick change, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Then he just sort of praises God. He talks about the, the victory we have over sin, death, hell and the grave, and he says, its all because of Jesus. We didn’t do anything, we don’t get any credit, its just going to be glorious and Jesus has done it all. And now thirdly, based on all the truths we’ve studied so far over these many, many weeks, he gives us the exhortation. There’s an exhortation about how we should live based on all the things we’ve seen.
And we see that exhortation in verse 58. Let me read all of them. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Now the word “therefore” is a very important word. Here’s what Paul was saying, based on everything I’ve already taught you, based on all the glorious truths about the resurrection I’ve already given you, therefore you ought to do what I”m saying now. And then he says, “always abiding in the work of the Lord, knowing your toil is not in vain in the Lord”.
Let me review quickly what, what Paul has told us in the series of messages that I’ve given you from 1 Corinthians 15. In other words, he’s saying, therefore since you know you’re going to be resurrected, because remember the testimony of scripture told you there was going to be a resurrection. That was one of Paul’s early arguments.
He said, therefore, since you know you’re going to be resurrected and have a new life and a new body one day, because of the testimony of the saints who saw Jesus resurrected from the dead, that tells you there is a resurrection. Therefore since the the doctrine of the resurrection has been so prominent, he told us that earlier, every Apostle whose come your way, every preacher whose come with credibility, has had the resurrected as, as the central message of his preaching. So you know it has to be true. He says, therefore since Christ is the head, and he’s resurrected, well you know also the body, the believers will be resurrected also. He says, therefore since those who would reject the resurrection actually turn all of our faith into foolishness.
He made the point very strong and clear that, that if you reject the doctrine that we’re going to have a bodily resurrection, your faith is worthless. You might as well go place your faith in Buddha or somebody. He said, and those who reject the resurrection turn gospel preachers into frauds. He said, everything we’ve preached to you is nonsense, because we keep preaching the resurrection. He said, if you remember, if someone rejected the resurrection, that means all your departed saints, your departed loved ones who believed in Jesus are condemned and on their way to hell. He says, also that means that all believers, who believe in Jesus right now are still lost in their sins if you reject the resurrection.
He said, if there’s no bodily resurrection, you have no basis for joy whatsoever. It turns people that ought to be merry because of this truth into those who are miserable. He says, its the resurrection that gives true meaning to your profession of faith through baptism. If there’s no resurrection, the baptism ordinance is meaningless. He said, it is the resurrection which gives us reason, gives us motivation for serving Jesus, because we know this life isn’t the end. He said, its the resurrection that gives you a foundation for higher principles in your life. In other words, we live by the principles of a higher kingdom because we know we’re going to be resurrected and be in that kingdom one day. So right now we live by those higher teachings and those higher principles.
He said, we know that s, Christ is risen, we know there’s a full resurrection harvest coming, and we know there’s going to be the complete resurrection of the entire universe under the headship of God one day and we’re going to get in on that. He says, therefore, since God’s illustrated the truth of the resurrection through the plant kingdom, and since God’s illustrated the truth of the resurrection through the animal kingdom, and since God is illustrated the truth of the resurrection through the celestial world, and finally, therefore since you are going to be transformed out of these perishable, dishonorable, natural earthy bides, into imperishable, glorious, spiritual heavenly bodies.
Therefore if you believe what I’ve taught you, Paul is saying, if you believe it, and you’re just a little bit grateful, then the rest of what Paul says here is no problem at all. “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Now let’s break this down. He said, if you believe all those things are true and you have any gratitude in your heart for all that God is going to do for you, give you a new glorified body, no death, no disease, no dying, your sins are washed away through the victor, the Lord Jesus Christ, all those wonderful things are true I just talked about, he said, then you won’t have any problem with what I”m about to say. First of all he says, first thing you won’t have any problem with, he says “be steadfast and immovable”.
Now I believe that means about the teaching of the resurrection of the doctrine. In other words, what you believe. That phrase “steadfast and immovable” means firmly seated and totally immobile. It means man, you are like a rock. You’re not going to move. Kind of like some of those rocks those guys on TV want to tell us are four billion years old. Just stuck, steadfast, not going to move from what you believe. Now the point is, your doctrinal position must be settled. That is, you must believe in this bodily resurrection. Listen to what John McArthur says about the necessity to be settled and fixed that you believe that. He says, “if there are no eternal ramifications or consequences of what we do in this life, the motivation for selfless service and holy living is gone. If there’s no resurrection, there’s no after life, there’s no kingdom to live for above this kingdom, this world, then there’s no motivation for living right anyway. We might as well all, all eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. We might as well just lie and cheat and steal and be sexually promiscuous and all the other things the people of the world say that we ought to do. But he says, “if you’ll hold fast to this doctrine”, it will help you live right. Be steadfast, immovable on it.
Then he goes on and says, “always abounding in the work of the Lord”. Always, How often should we be abounding in the work of the Lord. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. You know you think, Paul this was going great while you were praising the doctrine, now you’re getting down to where the rubber meets the road. Now we’re getting down to brass tacks. Paul’s saying, do you believe what I said. Then you ought to be abounding in the work of the Lord. The, the phrase abounding means exceeding the requirement. How many of us try to figure out sort of what the minimum requirement load is and you somewhat reluctantly get in your minimum requirement. Paul is inferring this. If that’s your attitude, you either don’t believe what he’s taught, or you’re not at all grateful. You either just don’t believe it, or you’re just not grateful. Now folks, now you think with me for a moment. If all of this is true, sure we should work hard, sure you’ve got to take care of babies, sure you’ve got to keep your job, I’m not talking, but I’m saying, there ought to be in our heart attitudes, God, I’m not going to feel put out, I’m not going to feel frustrated, listen, when there is things to do for the Lord through my local church, I”m ready to go. Because I believe that’s true. I believe that’s true. And if its true, you can lost nothing, but gained everything by doing that.
Now let me say something very frank to you, if you don’t believe it, have a ball doing your own thing. But its illogical to say you believe that and you’re just going to coast doing the minimum at your local church. Totally illogical and irrational. Always abounding. That word abounding there is the same Greek word that’s used in Ephesians chapter 1 when it talks about God, listen now, lavishing his grace on us. When God said, I’m going to have grace on my people, God didn’t say, okay, I”m going to give you the minimum forgiveness. I’m going to give you the bare minimum grace and mercy, I’m just going to do this much, and buddy, I’m going to watch you, God doesn’t do that, he lavished it on us. We’re drowning in a deluge of grace. Paul says, I want to use that word again, I want to use it now to exhort the believers in Corinth about how they should be working for the Lord in their local church. Lavishly poured on and work for God in your local church, if you believe those things. If you believe those things.
Now rest is important. Recreation can be good, these things can help restore our energy. These things can increase our effectiveness, but for too many of us, they have become the ends in themselves. Now he says another word there, and look at the verse again, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding” going above the requirement
in the work of the Lord. knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Now this word toil means to labor to the point of exhaustion. Labor to the point of exhaustion. I wonder how many of us could be guilty of that in the Lord’s work.
Now don’t misunderstand me, he’s not saying, that you’ve got to get up and eight hours a day, seven days a week, be down here at this church. God knows if you’re called into full time ministry or not, God knows, God gave you those children, ladies, God gave you a home to take care of, it takes a lot of hours to keep a home. Men, God gave you the responsibility of working and providing for your family, its not talking about that, but there are other hours and other times you can do things and you have choices in some of those areas. And Paul says, I just want you to know something, its okay when God’s doing something in your local church for you to get with it down at the local church to the point that you go home worn out.
Now there’s an ungodly, unbiblical philosophy that’s going around today that says man, make all these new baby boomers, now make them comfortable and welcome and at ease in your church, because if you tell them to do too much, or you offend them, or you, you preach to them about commitment, well, they won’t come back. Well, let them go. I believe this is true folks. I believe that’s true. And its okay for seasons and times and special events for me to work for the Lord through my local church to where I go home and I’m worn out. Toil. Its not in vain, in the Lord.
I was on a vacation with my family a while back, and we stayed in a condo. A condo means somebody else owns it and they charge you extravagant fees to stay in it for a week. While I was there I noticed that the carpet was just worn out, soiled and just worn out. So the next morning I got up and went to a local store and I bought carpet and carpeted that guy’s condo. And I noticed about the second or third day, that looking under the sink that the pipes, were, were messed up underneath the sink and it was leaking and had a smell and, and so I called a plumber and said, look, you know, we, I, you need to come down here and fix this guy’s plumbing so I paid for it that too, and came in and got the plumbing fixed. I also noticed that out front it just wasn’t quite as pretty as I thought it ought to have been, they needed some additional shrubs put in, and some landscaping done, so I called a landscaping firm and paid to fix the landscaping there. Made a sizable investment in somebody else’s property. Now you know I”m not telling you the truth, don’t you. I didn’t do that. You know why I didn’t do that. Wasn’t mine. Wasn’t my home. Didn’t belong to me, I was only there temporarily. But if you’ll go over to my house right now, we’ve got ten years of kids in our carpet. Oreo cookies, pizza, milk, milk’s a wonderful thing to get in the pad of your carpet. And Lord only knows what else. Can’t mention some things. And we have definite plans to pay to get that carpet changed. We have about eight small plumbing problems at my house. And one of them is under the kitchen sink, and, and we’re looking right now to find somebody we can pay to fix that. I’m just, I’m just scared to call plumbers, you know, they’re more expensive than doctors these days. And so I’m waiting to look at that. But I’m going to pay to fix those pipes under that sink, and there are some places in my landscaping that I need to put some shrubs in, I’m going to pay to do that. With no hesitancy. You know why. That’s my home, or it’s mine and the credit union’s home. And that’s what Paul is saying. Why wouldn’t you labor, even at times, it proper to labor to the point of exhaustion for your Lord, through your local church in building that eternal kingdom, because that’s your home. You’re going to get a body to fit in that home one day. That’s where you belong, that’s where your citizenship is. And then he says, “knowing” there, verse 58, “knowing”, not wondering or maybe, or I hope, knowing. “knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” It’s not vain, to throw some of the things aside and pour your life into serving your Lord through your local church. As a matter of fact, far from be, listen to me, far from being a vain thing to do, its the only thing probably that’s not vain. Cause it lasts for eternity.
Now don’t misunderstand me, you serve the Lord by being a good wife, you serve the Lord by being a good husband, you serve the Lord a, you ought to be abounding in that work. But Baptists, we sort of slack off when it comes to the church house. And I think what the Apostle Paul perhaps was doing to some of the folks at the church of Corinth and perhaps with the holy spirit of God is doing to some of you this evening is God is bumping some of you out of your comfort zone. You have worked out a comfortable Christianity. Let me tell you from my own personal experience, God doesn’t leave me in those places long. You’ve worked you out a little comfortable system. I promise you, God is about the business of nudging us out of our comfort zones.
Maybe he wants to do that to you. Now, now I’ll just share with you from my heart as your pastor, compared to most Baptist churches you are so far above average. But that’s like the folks down at the cancer ward comparing themselves to the folks down at the morgue. We’ve got a long way to go compared to God’s standards. Let’s tell the Lord tonight, Lord, we believe it. We believe the truths and the doctrine of the resurrection. We believe this life is temporary and passing. Its a life that’s full of corruption and perishing and dying and dishonor, we believe one day we’ll have glorified, imperishable, glorious heavenly existence, with you for all eternity. And so therefore Lord, we’re committing to take a strong step forward in laboring for you down here, abounding in that work for you while we’re here. Because we know its good in treasures for that eternal existence we’ll have up there.
