Let us turn again to God's Word. In the portion of Scripture we
were reading here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and I want to direct you with the
Lord's help to the words that we find here at verse 22 through
24. In 1 Corinthians 15, reading then, from verse 22 through 24, for
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his
coming, then come at the end when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father when he shall have put
down all rule and all authority and power. And really to say
something with regards to this final deliverance which is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says at verse 24, then come
at the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God's
even the Father. Some of you will recall out at
last Lord's Day evening we were considering those words in the
opening chapter of the following second letter to the Corinthians. And the words that we have there
at verse 10, who delivered us from so great a death and dot
deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. And we saw then that there is
deliverance in the past, deliverance in the present, deliverance in
the future. There are many deliverances.
The psalmist cries to God to send deliverances to Jacob. But there is also this great
deliverance that is spoken of here in our text this evening,
the end. when the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is of course the mediator of the covenant, the saviour of
sinners, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father. The last time we were thinking
about those various deliverances, and of course in the context
there, the previous ninth verse, quite a remarkable verse in what
he is saying, We have the sentence of death in ourselves. He speaks
of being delivered from so great a death or that sentence, that
answer of death in self that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raises the dead. Now the Lord God is the one who
must cause us to feel what that death is, the death that we have
naturally because we're those who are in Adam. He is the one
who is, of course, the head of the human race, and there he
stands as, in a sense, our covenant head and our representative head. And when Adam sins there in the
Garden of Eden, we all sin in him, and his guilt becomes our
guilt. and His fallen nature comes down
to generations. We're all those who are born
dead in trespasses and in sins. For there is death in Adam. As we're told here at verse 21,
by man came death. By man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. We see here then in this
portion of scripture the remarkable truth that Adam is really a type
of the Lord Jesus as Christ is the head of the church the head
of the whole election of grace so Adam is the head of all the
human race and we see how this is stated quite plainly in verses
that follow later here in verses 45 and 47 so it is written the
first man Adam was made a living soul The last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. Verse 47, the first man is of
the earth, earthen. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. There are two Adams, the first
Adam and the last Adam. There are two men, the first
man and the second man. Was it not the Puritan divine
Thomas Goodwin who said in God's sight these are the two men and
all other men, all other women, all other of creation. Men and women they are in either
the first Adam where we all are by nature or they are by the
grace of God found in the last Adam. Adam so much a type then
of him that was to come. Again when Paul writes there
in the fifth chapter of the Roman epistle he declares the same
truth, he speaks of Adam as the figure of him that was to come. Adam is that one who stands at
the head as I say and is seen imputed to us. Paul says there
Romans 5.12 for that all have sinned, or as the margin
says, for in whom all have sinned, referring to Adam, all sinned
in Adam. By one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous. Well, tonight as we come to consider
this portion of Scripture, these three verses that I just read
as our text, verses 22 through 24, I want to deal really with
two basic points. First of all, to say something
with regards to the death that is in Adam. For as in Adam all
die it says, since by man came death and that death is of course
a threefold death we were declaring the same truth really on Thursday
evening at the prayer meeting we considered those words in
the familiar 23rd Psalm the words at verse 4 concerning the valley
of the shadow of death. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, David says, I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me. And we sought to say something
with regards to that valley associated with death, the valley of the
shadow of death. And I want just to remind you
There are only a few of us present, I suppose, on Thursday, but just
to remind you of that death that is in Adam. It's threefold, isn't
it? It's a spiritual death. It's
the state of our souls as we're born into this world, though
physically alive. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. Remember what the Lord God says
to the man there in the garden? concerning the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. He was not to partake of that
one fruit. God puts the man as he were to
the test. He could eat of the trees of
the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And there was an immediate death
when Adam transgressed. We have the sad history of Adam's
sin in the third chapter. Eve's first in the transgression.
It's Eve who's tempted of the devil. And she partakes of that
fruit. She believes the lie of the devil.
Unbelief, the root of that sin, of course. She rejects the truth
of God. God said thou shalt surely die
and the devil comes and contradicts God and says thou shalt not surely
die and she embraces that lie and men still love the lies of
the devil we know that we see it all around us men embrace
the lie of evolution because they don't want to believe in
God and their accountability to their maker or the awful sin of of unbelief
it was there in that sin that we see the fall of our first
parents. And what was the consequence?
Death. They were dead in trespasses
and in sins as soon as they transgressed. And we see it in what follows.
Here is the man. He's made in God's image. He's
created after God's likeness. He's placed in paradise, the
Garden of Eden. And God comes into the garden
and God communes with the man and there's real fellowship between
the creator and his creature. But now when God comes into the
garden, what do Adam and Eve do? They hide themselves. Or
they try to hide themselves from God. Of course it was a vain
thing. God is omnipresent. God is in all places. He's omniscient. He knows all things. There's
no hiding from God. but they no longer are in a state
where they can commune with their God or they've transgressed and
they're dead in their sins and then at the end of that third
chapter our God drives the man out of the garden and there's a flaming sword at
the entrance man cannot go again into that paradise he's cut off
now your iniquities have separated between you and your God and
your sins have hid his face from you. All man's condition. And we're all the sons and daughters
of Adam and Eve. And we're all born dead in trespasses
and in sins. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. What are we by nature? Well, remember those solemn words
of the apostle in Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened,
he says. Alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness,
the hardness of their hearts. That's man's condition. That's
man's condition. His understanding darkened, alienated. Or the carnal mind. That is the
natural mind. the carnal mind's enmity against
God, not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be. We know the strength of the language
that is used here in Holy Scripture concerning man's state as one
who is totally deprived. It's one of the five points of
Calvinism, isn't it? We're familiar with that little
word, that mnemonic tulip. and the first of the points,
total, depravitant. We can do nothing to save ourselves,
we're so impotent. Our state is helpless. And so,
those points, they develop. How is there salvation? Well,
there's unconditional election. The love of God the Father choosing
the people. There's limited atonement, the
love of God the Son coming to pay the great price that will
redeem all those given to him in the eternal covenant there's
irresistible grace or that gracious work of the Holy Spirit who works
effectually in the soul of the sinner who is dead in trespasses
and sins there's the perseverance of the saints the whole scheme
of salvation and it all in that sense springs from what man's
condition is because man is dead dead in trespasses and sins.
That's how we're born into this world. And so God has to deal
with us and he deals with us here of course in terms of his
law. What is the law? It's the ministration of death.
It's the ministration of condemnation. Whatever things the law says,
it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. It shuts our mouths. We cannot
keep it. If a man should keep the whole
law and yet offend in one point, James says he's guilty of all.
It requires a full, a perfect obedience and not just obedience
with regards to the actions of a man's life, but it also governs
his speech and his thoughts. It's a spiritual law. And how
that self-righteous Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, learnt that solemn
lesson. He thought he was alive without
the law once, but then the commandment came. Oh, he saw the spiritual
nature of the law of God. The commandment came, sin revived,
and he died. He was condemned. The law is
administration of death. Paul says, the commandment which
was ordained to life I found to be unto death. That's the law of God. It shows
us our spiritual state. The law entered that the offence
might have bowed, but where sin abounded, Paul says grace did
much more abound. oh there's our comfort friends
the abounding grace of God and that's what we see here yes there's
death in Adam but there is life in the Lord Jesus Christ the
man's condition the state of his soul as he's born into this
world he's dead those lovely little babies that we like to
see We look at them and the wonder of God's creation has formed
that little one in the womb and yet all those little children
are all in that fearful state, dead in trespasses and in sins,
all needing to be born again by the Spirit of God. There is
death in Adam, there is spiritual death, but there is also physical
death. There is physical death. Spiritual
death, of course, there we have that separation between the creator
and the creature. There's separation, there's alienation,
there's enmity. And what is physical death? It's
another separation, isn't it? It's a separation of body and
soul. When the Lord God forms a man
out of the dust of the earth, we're told he breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living soul.
when he's made of body and soul and you know those words we've
referred to in Genesis 2.17 concerning the the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and the act of disobedience thou shalt surely
die it says in the text but the margin tells us that the Hebrew
literally says dying thou shalt die dying they shall die there
was an immediate dying there was a spiritual death in the
soul and in due course there would also be a physical death
Adam didn't die physically immediately in fact we're told aren't we
that Adam lived to the great age of 930 years and if we go
back to those remarkable opening chapters in the book of Genesis
in Genesis 5 and verse 3 Adam lived 130 years and begat a son
in his own likeness after his image interesting Adam was made
in the image and likeness of God his son now is made in his
own image and his likeness his son is dead in trespasses and
sins and he called his name Seth then
it says the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800
years and he begat sons and daughters and all the days that Adam lived
were 930 years and he died eventually he dies physically to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven
a time to be born and the time to die. We've already had that
time to be born, but there will come another time. Unless the
Lord return again before that time could come for us, there
will be a time to die. How solemn it is. We're mortal.
We're mortal. And as we grow older, we begin
increasingly to feel how mortal we are. We're not what we were
when we were younger. Our faculties begin to fail now.
Oh, the mortality of men, and then the end. Then shall the
dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirits to God who
gave it. That's what the preacher tells
us there in the book of Ecclesiastes. When the end comes, the dust
returns to the earth as it was. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust. We were taking a funeral only
this last Friday and standing there at the open grave and you
look into the grave and the coffin and there's the body laid in
the coffin. How solemn it is, how we need
to remember that, that we might apply our heart unto wisdom.
Isn't that what the The psalmist says, Moses said in Psalm 90,
that we need to apply our hearts unto wisdom and be made wise
unto salvation when we remember how mortal we are. So there is
not only spiritual death, there is also physical death. And then,
the third death, that's the eternal death. That's the eternal death. body and soul condemned the wise
man again there in Ecclesiastes 11 says where the tree falleth
there shall it be all his state is confirmed you see at death
what we are when we come to die either in Adam or in Christ either
unbelievers or believers either still in dead in trespasses and
sins, or those born again by the Spirit of God, or where the
tree falleth, there shall it lie. All is confirmed. And there is that great gulf
fixed between the two places, heaven and hell. Remember how
the Lord tells that parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus,
the poor beggar, there at the gate of the rich man, and the
rich man just ignores him all his days, and they both come
to their appointed hour, they both die. And Lazarus goes into the bosom
of Abraham, the father of all them that believe, the place
where all the believers are. The rich man goes to his place,
how awful it was, and he would that some could come from where
Lazarus is that he might just be able to dip his tongue in
water. But no, says the Lord, there's a great gulf fixed. There's
a great gulf fixed. Awful to contemplate. Hell and
Heaven. The fearful, the unbelieving,
the abominable and so forth. have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death we
read in the revelation that is that eternal death man's final
condition terrible to think of really and that's what we are
that's what we have when we're in Adam but let us turn to the
positive part of the text the life that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own
order, Christ of firstfruits afterward, they that are Christ
that is coming, then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put
down all rule and all authority and power. What we read of here,
of course, is the general resurrection. The whole chapter is taken up,
isn't it, with that great theme, really, of resurrection. The
blessed truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
also it directs us to the general resurrection, at the end of time,
the consummation of all things. and it's spoken of much in scripture,
the resurrection it's very much the theme of the preaching of
the apostles in Acts 24 and verse 5 Paul speaks
of the resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust
a general resurrection of both believers and unbelievers and
remember how he preaches there at Athens in the 17th chapter
of the Acts Athens and all these wonderful minds, the Athenians
the great philosophers all the culture that was Athens and yet
a country or I should say a city that's full of superstition there's
an altar to the unknown God it's a remarkable chapter read it
through and what Paul takes opportunity here you see what opportunity
he takes he sees the altar and he declares unto them the unknown
God he preaches the true God and what does he say in the course
of his preaching he reminds them how God has appointed a day in
the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him from the dead." Oh, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus that is the guarantee that there will be
at the end of time a general resurrection of the just and
of the unjust. And so in this great chapter
the Apostle is bringing out that truth. All who are in Adam by nature
how they need to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and how
can they be found in the Lord Jesus Christ only by the grace
of God and what a grace that is what remarkable grace it is
and I think in some ways Isaac Watts does bring it out in his
in his paraphrase of the 72nd Psalm You remember that psalm bears
the title of Psalm for Solomon. Solomon, of course, is a type
of the Lord Jesus. He is the true Solomon. Solomon
means peace. And Christ is the Prince of Peace.
And I like the way Watts brings out the gospel in his paraphrase
of Psalm 72. It's not in Gatsby's, sadly. In most hymn books, of course,
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun, that his successive journeys
run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall
wax and wane no more. I'm sure we're familiar with
that paraphrase. But it has that verse, or those
lines in it, in him that is in Christ, in him the tribes of
Adam boast more blessings than their father lost. Well, that's
what we have in the Gospel. We have more than Adam had in
the Garden of Eden. We have more than Adam had before
ever he had sinned. That's remarkable. You see, where
sin abounds, Christ does so much more abound. What does the Lord say? Many times he speaks of the end,
when he's going to deliver up the kingdom to the Father. In
the course of his ministry in the Gospels he speaks of these
things. In John 5, 24, Verily, verily, he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation, but he's passed from death unto
life. Oh, those who are born again,
they have in them a life that can never die, a spiritual life
that carries them beyond the grave. The Lord says, my sheep hear
my voice, and I know them and they follow me and I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man is able
to pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them me
is greater than all no man can pluck them out of my father's
hand they have eternal life it is the gift of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the gospel and I ask the question tonight do you possess
that sort of life? or do you have in your soul that
eternal life? and you might say well I don't
know how can I know whether or not I have that eternal life
in me well there's something paradoxical here I'll tell you
where that eternal life begins it begins with that sense of
death. That's where it begins. When
the life comes, that's the paradox. When the Lord begins with us,
that's when we begin to feel what we are by nature. I like the lines of the hymn,
nor can he expect to be perfectly saved till he finds himself lost. We're not saved until we're lost. Christ says he comes not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. They that are whole
have no need of the physician but they that are sick. Or do we possess that eternal
life? I remind you again of those words
we were looking at only a week ago. Then in verses 9 and 10 of the
following epistle, in the opening chapter, we have the sentence
or the answer of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God's, which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death. Oh, the Lord makes us to feel
that great death. He makes us to feel what we are
in Adam, we're lost in Adam. and we're saved only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's where it begins, you
see. That sense of our complete and utter impossibility to do
anything. To feel that the case is hopeless. That we're shut up. And the psalmist
cries out, I'm shut up. I cannot come forth. He wants
release. But God shuts his people in,
you see, to what they are. Again, in that 90th Psalm of
Moses, the man of God, his prayer, he says, Thou turnest man to
destruction. That's what God does. He turns
us to destruction, the end of self. Thou turnest man to destruction
and sayeth, Return, ye children of men. Lord, we have to see
where salvation is. And the Lord shows it. if you're
brought to that, that you have no hope at all in self, you see
no help in self, you feel it, your impotence, the utter inability
that you could ever do anything spiritually good, you're altogether
cast upon the Lord, that's spiritual life, there's the mark of it
in some measure, or you want to know more than that, you want
to know some assurance from the Lord that there is forgiveness,
there is pardon, there is acceptance and it's all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, in order to give this
eternal life, it cost the Lord Jesus something. What did it
cost the Lord Jesus to give eternal life? He says concerning His
sheep, I give unto them eternal life. But in order to give that
life, It cost his life, he died. He died. Verily, verily, except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Who said that? That
was the Lord Jesus. And he's speaking of himself,
a corn of wheat falling into the ground, dying. I'm not much
of a gardener at all, but you know what you do. If you're a
gardener, you sow the seed. The wonder is, you sow the seed,
it dies in the ground and then it's life. It's evident. The
plant grows. And that's what the Lord is using
as a figure with regards to himself. He has once suffered for sins,
the just, for the unjust, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit." Oh, there's quickening in Christ.
There's quickening in Christ. What do we read here? Verse 20,
Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ. shall all be made alive. But Mark here, there's an order,
isn't there? That's what it says in the text. Verse 23, but every
man in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, afterward
they that are Christ's that is coming. Oh, there's an order
here. There's an order of time. There's
an order of time. there's what we read in Leviticus
concerning the the first fruits back in Leviticus chapter 23
and there in verses 10 and 11 and the first fruit is as it
were the the harbinger that there's going to be a full harvest there's
going to be a great in gathering but there is specific mention
made there of the sheaf of the firstfruits. Leviticus 23 verses
10 and 11. The sheaf of the firstfruits
which was to be weighed before the Lord. It's an offering to
the Lord but it's in anticipation of the full harvest. And that's
what we read here. We read just now verse 20. Now
is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of
them that slept. Here is a pledge of a general
resurrection and then the end. The end. Then cometh the end. When he hath delivered up the
kingdom to God even the Father. When he shall have put down all
rule and all authority and power. O the Lord Jesus. And how he
speaks of these things time and again in the gospel, he speaks
of God's will. In chapter 6 of John, verse 39,
This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day." All the words, those comforting words of the Lord
Jesus. His resurrection, the pledge
of a general resurrection from the dead, because I live He says,
ye shall live also. Thy dead men shall live together
with my dead body shall they arise. And it's not only a pledge
of the general resurrection, it's also a pledge of regeneration,
the new birth, the new birth. I know I I've many, many a time
referred to those words in Ephesians 1, but they're so striking. There
in Ephesians 1 at verse 19, the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who do believe, according to the working of His mighty
power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand. What is Paul saying there? Oh, it's not just power or great
power, it's the exceeding greatness of His power to believe us. This is what lies behind saving
faith. It's faith of the operation of
God. That's something a man can do
of himself. There are those who like to speak
of duty faith, duty repentance. But what can men do who are dead
in trespasses and sins? No, it's the exceeding greatness
of His power to ask what you believe and it's according to
the working of His mighty power it's in accordance with the working
of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand. You antiquicans
who were dead in trespasses and sins oh there's an order you
say there's an order in time there's a pledge of that general
resurrection at the end of time when the end comes but before
that there's a pledge here of what God will do in the day of
grace in the way of regeneration the new birth the sinner born
again the sinner born from a part The sinner born by the Spirit
of God, the sovereign working of the Spirit, the wind bloweth
where it listeth, though hearest a sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth, so is every one that
is born of the Spirit, says the Lord. There's an order then. But there's also an order of
type. There's an order of type. And
we see it later, verse 37, That which thou sowest, Thou sowest not that body that
shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some
other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him,
and to every seed his own body. Now there's an order of type.
You sow wheat and what do you expect to grow? You sow wheat you don't expect
a field of barley you expect a field full of wheat well so
too in a spiritual sense what a man
soweth that shall he also reap remember the words that we have
there in Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8 be not deceived God is
not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Well, what do we
sow, friends? Do we sow to the flesh? Do we
sow to the Spirit? how important it is we're not
to be deceived and you know when it comes to the end when it comes
to death well what the man is then in dying he will be in the
resurrection he'll be either saved or he'll be lost there's
no such place as purgatory there's no second chance in the place where the tree falleth
there shall it be. There is no work nor device in
the grave. Again, that's the language of
the preacher, the wise man there in Ecclesiastes 9.10. There is
no work nor device in the grave. All the preparation must be now.
Prepare me, gracious God, to stand before thy face. Thy Spirit
must the work perform, for it is all of grace. or there's an order in time,
there's an order of type. What we are when we come to the
end is what we will be for a never-ending eternity. And then finally here,
there's an order in the covenant. And we see that really in this
24th verse. Remember in the covenant, the
covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption, The eternal co-equal son of God
becomes the servant. That's the covenant, isn't it?
He is the mediator of the covenant. And in that he is the servant
of God. God says, behold my servant. The Lord Jesus is that one who
as a son is co-eternal with the Father, co-equal with the Father.
There's an eternal Father because there's an eternal Son. And there's
an eternal Spirit. And there are three persons in
the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. But in the Covenant, the Son
willingly serves the Father. And so He comes into this world
to do the will of Him who has sent Him. and to finish his work. And he must be about his father's
business. You know, many times we see it in John's Gospel in
particular. And it's all for the good of
sinners. Oh, that's the Gospel of the
grace of God. In this one, you see, we have
more blessings than ever Adam lost. The Gospel gives us more
more than what Adam had previous to his sin when he was there
in the paradise of God, we have more than that in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But ultimately, whilst it is
all for the good of sinners, ultimately it's all for the glory
of God. And isn't that what we see here
at verse 24? Then come at the end when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. And then again at verse 28, when
all things shall be subdued unto him, that is unto God, then shall
the Son also himself, the one who is the mediator of the covenant,
Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put
all things under him, that God may be all in all. Oh, this is
the great wonder of the Gospel. It's such a revelation of God. It's such a remarkable demonstration
of all that God is. God has revealed Himself. And
He's revealed Himself in these last days in His Son. What a
revelation we have in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ought to be in him. We're going
to come near the church, going to come to the Lord's table.
And what a feast it is. So simple the elements and yet
so rich the feast. Why? It's a service of communion.
And who do we commune with? We commune with God in in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we feed on? Oh, we
feed on the person and the work. We feed on the whole doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, are we those tonight who
know what it is to be in Him, to be in that Blessed One, as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But
every man in his own order cries the firstfruits afterward they
that are Christed his coming, then come at the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, or when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,
or that he might come then, friends, into your heart and mine and
subdue all our sins and all our iniquities and deliver us from
all our unbelief. and establishing in us that blessed
reign of His grace, that the kingdom of God might come to
us even tonight. Well, the Lord bless to us His
word. Amen.