Very good hymn, wasn't it? Great
words. Particularly that last line,
taken from, I'm quite sure, taken from 2 Timothy 1, where he says
he's brought life and immortality, abolished death and brought life
and immortality to life through the gospel. Alright, go with
me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Charles Spurgeon,
the man, had a great deal of wisdom. He's just a man, mind
you, not infallible. But he said one time, he said,
it's wise to deal with those things that everybody's thinking
about at the time. And I think that's wise. Around
Christmas time, we're not told in the scriptures to to know
where did anybody celebrate Christmas in Scripture and know where did
anybody celebrate Easter. Nowhere in the Bible does it
say meet together around Easter. It's a Bible word. It means Passover. But nowhere does it tell us everybody
gather at Easter and have a sunrise service. No. We worship a risen Christ every
time we meet. Every time Paul preached, he
talked about Christ risen, seated, reigning, and ruling. That's
what Peter preached at Pentecost, at Pentecost, Passover. We don't
observe the Passover. You don't observe a Passover.
To observe the Passover, you've got to kill a lamb. There is
no Passover without bloodshed. Why don't we observe the Passover?
Because Christ, our Passover, was crucified for it, was offered
for it. He shed by the offering of one,
by the shedding of His blood, there's remission of sin. So, we don't worship in a particular
way, in a particular day, we worship the Lord Crucified, buried,
and risen every time we meet. Every time we meet. Thankful
he was born every time we meet. God was manifest in the flesh.
We quote that a lot, don't we? So aren't you glad that you're
not under the law? Aren't you glad you're not in
modern religion? Aren't you glad you would have
had to get up this morning at 32 degrees and watch the sun
come up? And all you'd be thinking about was, I want to go home.
And now you're resting. See, we rest in Christ, don't
we? We don't go through all this stuff. Away with that flesh. We rest in Christ. We sleep. Wake up. Refreshed. Come to worship the Lord exactly
like He told us to worship. Preaching the Gospel. Preaching
the Gospel. Preaching the Gospel. First Corinthians
15. Paul says, moreover, brethren,
moreover, more of the same all over again. I will preach the
same thing you heard last Sunday and Wednesday, moreover, more
of the same all over again, the Gospel. Paul said, woe is unto
me if I preach not the Gospel. He said, I'm preaching unto you
that you received. Man can receive nothing except
to be given Him. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the power, the right, the privilege to become the sons
of God, which were more. More of God. Do you receive this
gospel? Do you love this gospel? Do you
embrace this gospel? That's what it means. Do you? More of God. You receive this,
He said, and wherein you stand, Where do you stand? What's your
stand? What do you stand for in this
world? Huh? What do you stand for? Martin
Luther said, here I stand on Christ the Sovereign. That's
my standing. I stand on Him. Stand in Him
alone. By which, verse 2, you're saved.
Saved by the Gospel. You see that over and over in
the Scriptures. It tells us that God's people
are saved by hearing the Gospel preached. There are no exceptions. I was. This preacher, Paul said
in verse 3, I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received. Paul didn't know the Lord until
Ananias came to him. He was blind. I just read that
again. He say he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, but
he was blind, and he didn't, couldn't see until God sent a
man down to Ananias, and he said, like scales fell from his eyes.
And Ananias preached to him, God chose you, Paul, to see His,
to know His will, and to see the just one. Now, arise and
be baptized. That's what happened, Paul. Paul
said, God sent me a preacher. And he was glad, so glad. Amazed that he himself became
one. Just amazed. He never got over that. But glad. He said, I preach unto you that
which I also receive, by which you're saved, unless I preach
to you, he said in verse 2, and your faith is vain. Now nobody
really believes Christ has vain faith. It's not vain to believe
Christ. It's salvation. But there are many who say they
do, and it's not. They don't. So he's just stating
the fact. And how you know is they'll eventually
leave the gospel, I tell you that. So he says, here it is,
verse 3, I preached unto you how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. how that Christ
died, why Christ died. Listen again. Let me, more over. Let me declare it one more time,
okay? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who had
died, who was crucified and buried and had risen from the grave,
appeared to two men on the road to, two men. What are they talking
about? He appeared to two men on the
road to Emmaus, and he preached to them. He said, Oh, fools and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
What? How Christ had to suffer to enter in His glory. And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expanded unto them, and all
the Scriptures concerning Himself. And He went on to say, These
are the things that I spoke unto you. the Law of Moses and the
Prophets, that Christ must suffer, die. The soul that sinneth must
surely die. We have a soul. We're sinners. What's going to keep our soul
from dying? One thing, Christ crucified. God made His soul
an offering for sin. Who shall lay anything the charge
of God's elect is God that justified? Who is he that condemneth? Christ
died. The law says you've sinned, die. But Christ came and says, I died
for their sin. Whoever he did that for, their
sins are gone. God is satisfied, they will never
die for their sin. They will never die, period.
You say, but we all got to die. That's not what the Lord called
it. That's not what Paul called it. What did he call it? Sleep. Let the soul that know Christ,
the one that's not in Adam, all die. But if you're in Christ, you're
made of that. You live. See, He is the resurrection. See, once He comes to you and
quickens you and gives you life, you're already raised from the
dead. And you'll not, your body, you'll lay your body down, it'll
sleep, you're going to join it again some day. But you're going
to go to the God, fly in a goblin, like a dove, on the wings, wings
of Eve. So that's what Paul said I preach. I preach that how that Christ
died, came into this world, was made a curse and hung on the
tree, crucified. He had to hang on a tree because
that's what the scripture said. He had to die as a sin offering. His blood had to be shed because
God said without the shedding of blood there's no remission
of sin. Because God said when I see the blood I'll pass over
you. The Lamb must be slain. Well, I'm here to tell you one
more time, moreover, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin. You have sinned? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Some of you have. Bless God. So he said he was
crucified and he was buried, verse 4. He was buried. See that right there does away
with cremation, doesn't it? completely obliterates it. Every
single child of God in the scripture was buried. Christ was buried.
That's what baptism represents. Buried. Buried. Why? Because
God said, you came from the dirt and you're going back to the
dirt. Put this soul in the dirt. Job said, the oldest book in
the Bible, man goes back to his earth. It goes back to the thing
He's made out of. The only thing we own on this
earth is six feet under the ground. We're going to have that a long
time, everybody. Dirt. Dirt. Cursed, the ground. But Christ
delivers from the curse. He was buried. When Adam sinned,
God said, cursed is the earth, cursed thorns, thistles, trouble,
misery and pain and sorrow, eventually death, death. It's just going
to be miserable, miserable. With some blessings and some
joy, but a lot of misery and curse, curse, curse, curse. Christ
came. made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem us from the curse, from the penalty. And Christ
was crucified and buried. Buried. He went into the earth,
you see. He was buried. We're going to
see in a minute. Like seed, buried. He didn't corrupt. But he was
buried. What does that show us? Because
we're going to go into the earth and our bodies are going to corrupt.
But what did he do when he was buried? He took our sins away.
Where did he go? Where was Christ for three days?
Well, he wasn't in that grave. His body was. Where was he? I think, and you can't prove
me wrong, that he went back to God and poured his blood on the
mercy seat. And then came back and assumed
His glorified body, which He had before He came. And then
three days later, just like He said, and just like He said about
us, He came walking out of that grave. He came walking out. Death had no power on Him. Nor us. And He rose again. You see, the third day, according
to the Scripture. Brothers, you see where Paul
started? The resurrection is glorious.
Nothing matters that Christ did or said if He didn't rise. Right? But He had to... The one thing
needful is that Christ die. That Christ be crucified. You
see why we preach that every time? Without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission of sin. You can't worship God. You can't come to God without
blood. You know that? You can't worship God without
worshiping Christ and Him crucified. The world of people will talk
about Him risen, risen, risen, risen. Risen from what? Why did He come? Why did He die? Who killed Him? Why did He kill
Him? Huh? Those are the questions, aren't
they? How Christ had to die. For what? Our sins. If He didn't die for us, we will. Simple as that. And Adam all
died. That's verse 22, in Christ all
be made alive. It's like that ark. Christ is Noah's ark. Who was
saved? Who was lost? Very simply. The only ones that lived were
in the ark. How'd they get there? God put
them there. How'd the animals get there?
Noah gathered them. And he brought them in. How'd
they stay there? God shut him in. We're shut up
to faith. We believe, Sister Sarah, don't
we? We believe. I can't help but believe. Don't
you? I cannot believe anything or
anyone else. Now, can you? Can't do it. I believe. So, who was lost? Everybody outside that heart.
In Adam, all die. The soul is dead. In Christ, all made alive. Made alive. Well, go on down. to verse 12. Paul heard that some were saying
there's no resurrection. There's a whole lot more now
saying that today. A whole lot of people think that
all this talk of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is a whole
world full of unbelievers and agnostics. They call themselves
atheists. Some that say they're atheists,
but you let them smash their finger and see whose name they
call. Huh? Why is that? God makes everybody
accountable. He makes them admit with their
mouth, God is. God's not mocked. He's the one
that doesn't mock and doesn't kill. Where am I? Oh, some said, there's
no resurrection. I don't believe that stuff. I talked to a man about the truth,
and you know what he said it was? Petty truth. I want to hear about your petty
truth. Jesus Christ is truth. And to
call the truth petty is to mean he's petty, that he's not worth
my attention. God made this whole planet because
of his Son, and every knee is going to bow down. Oh, how merciful
he's been to me, I bow down. I believe now. That's what Paul
said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. He said, I persecute
this way. I hated this way. I didn't believe
this Jesus, but oh boy, I do now. Why? He met him. And he went on to say, if Christ
is not risen, our preaching is vain. We're talking about God
doing this and God doing that. If God didn't do it and God didn't
say it, then we're just lying. We're liars. He said in verse
17, if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain. All that
you say you believe is worthless. Wow. It's a myth. It's a pipe dream. It's an old
tradition. It's silly superstition. It's mountain lore. It's a wives'
fable is what it is. That's what he said. And then
verse 18, they which are fallen asleep in Christ, those that
died believing in Christ, they're rotting like an old log. It's a bunch of nonsense. He went
on to say in verse 32, he said, I fought with men that were beasts. That's what he calls men that
don't believe God. John Calvin said, my apology to the beast. Birds sing their master's praise. He said, I fight with these people
and if the dead rise not, verse 32, let's just eat and drink
and be merry and, you know, this is it. This is it. Let's hope and pray we win the
lottery so we can be rich the rest of our lives and just eat
and drink like an animal. Like a dog, if that's all there
is, eating and drinking, a little bit of physical pleasure, then
grab all Augusto you can, because this is it. He said in verse 19, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. Miserable, but this is it. You know, I contend that most
people are miserable. Just won't admit it. Most religious
people. Like I said, they got up, had
to get up this morning, watch the sun come up. Had to. And
my dad used to say this, most people have just enough religion
to make them and everybody around them miserable. Do you like to
be around religious people? I don't either. You can smell
them. You can see them coming a mile away. They're not real. They're not real people. And I contend that most people
are miserable. The world is miserable. They
don't know it. They won't admit it. The world's miserable. That's
why everybody's looking for something. They're never satisfied. You
get a million dollars, it's not enough. You need two. Being a
millionaire is not enough. You want to be a billionaire.
Right? Well, I'm a billionaire, but
I've got to be president. People are miserable. Are you
miserable? No, I don't want you doing that.
I want you... No, what... Peter said this. Let me read
it to you. Now, you say you're contradicting yourself, that
the Lord makes us miserable. Yes, He does. In this world.
Yes, He does. But here's the thing, here's
what Peter said. He said, Bless me God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ according to His abundant mercy that hath
begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season ye need be. Brothers and sisters, I'm not putting on an act here.
Brother Scott used to say, I ain't just preaching, I'm telling the
truth. Do I change my voice when I get
up here? Do I act differently when I get up here? If I do,
go somewhere else. I'm a phony. I'm a fake. I'm
acting. I'm a hypocrite. Don't do it. I'm talking to you
about things that rejoice my heart. Why do you get excited? Why do you yell? Because I love
this. How about you? in whom you greatly rejoice,
though if need be you are in heaviness through manifold temptation,
and yet whom you haven't seen, you love. Though now you see
him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable." Full of
glory. How can you smile at the funeral
of your husband? Sister, You've got a great hope, how
and who, in a living Lord, that He's with this living Lord. This
ain't it. If this is it, see ya. But this ain't it. This is it. And that's all there is to it.
Everybody that doesn't believe Christ is calling Jesus Christ
a liar. And he's not trying to get people
to believe on him. He never did that and never will.
I'm not going around, won't you please believe on me. I'm standing
out to your heart. That is not the Jesus Christ of the Scripture.
He goes about whom he loved, whom he chose, and finds them
through the preaching of the gospel, what I'm doing right
now. I said, believe! You say, I do. See me by faith. Rejoice in me. I am alive. That's what he said in Revelation
1. That's what he said to John. He said, John said, I heard a
voice. As in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, he said, I heard a voice. My sheep hear my voice. It's
the gospel. John said, I turned around to
see the voice and I saw him. What did he look like? He didn't
look like this imposter. You see that picture of him on
a rock, you know, one preacher said, that looks like wild Bill
Hickok, holding aces and spades, right before he died. That Jesus
needs to be mocked. That's not him. There's a description
of him in the Scriptures, Revelation 1, it says he looks like the
sun. John said, I'm fairly as mean
as a dead man. He's not lying in Mary's arms.
He's not hanging on a cross. He's not outside your heart's
door. He's sitting on the circle of the earth, reigning and ruling,
and you and I are in His hands. And God's people that know Him
and believe Him love it. Love it! Love it! I'm so glad. I'm so glad. You know what I'm
going to do tonight? Go to sleep. For thou only makest me dwell
safe. And when it's my time, ain't
nothing nobody can stop me. And I'm going to be glad. Real
glad. And no more pain. No more sorrow. No more death. How do you believe
that? Because Jesus Christ said so. Who are you going to believe? I told someone
one time, well, you can either believe God or take your chances. Either believe God or take your
chances. Which is it for you? God who
cannot lie has promised us eternal life, and this life is in His
hand. We're going to have the last laugh. But now, Christ is risen. Verse
20 says He's become the firstfruits of them that slept, Meaning he's
the first one to enter the grave and come out of it. You say Lazarus
did that. Well, I don't understand that.
But Lazarus didn't just walk out on his own. The Lord caused
him to rise from the grave. Before the Lord rose from the
grave, it says the bodies of many saints came and went into
Jerusalem. Did it say that? Explain that. I can't. I don't have to. But
it says he's the first fruit. And here's how he explains it. Here's how he describes it. Go on down to verse 36. Go down to verse 36. He says, You're foolish to think
that there's no resurrection, but that which you sow doesn't
live except it die. Now, our Lord used this same
illustration. He used it first in John chapter
12. He said this, except a corn of
wheat, before that, he said, the hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. It was His glory. See, nobody
took His life from Him. Something's going to take our
life. God's going to take our life. God's going to send something
to take our life. He said, no man take it from My life. Sin
is why we're going to die. Our bodies are going to die.
Sin. Sickness. Disease. Car wreck. Cancer. Heart attack. Something. God's going to send it to kill
us. Christ said, nobody can kill me. Didn't he? Nobody can kill me. He said,
I lay it down. I lay it down. I have this power. I lay it down. Christ said, I'm
the seed. I'm the seed. Except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if
it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. I started looking up and
looked down in our text, verse 37. What you sow, you sow not
what it shall be, but bare grain. It may be wheat or some other
grain, corn, wheat, beans. Every one of us have planted
something like that. Is not seed the most amazing
thing? John Chapman preaching on God's
glory and creation. He said, you know, man's mind
and all this, even the creation, all that is not as amazing as
a gnat. A gnat has a brain. It eats, it drinks, it sleeps,
it bites you. A gnat Or something, seed. Is that not the most amazing
thing in the world? Seed. You look at it, it looks dead,
doesn't it? Seed corn. You buy it, it's all shriveled
up. There's no life in that. Yes, there is. But what you got
to do? Put it in the ground. It's not going to live until
you put it in the ground. But it doesn't appear to be what
it shall be. Christ is the seed. The gospel
is the seed. Life doesn't begin in you and
me until the gospel seed is planted. Until the gospel seed is watered.
Until the Spirit of God moves and says, live, believe, look,
see. Christ is that seed. See, all
I'm doing is sowing seed. God's Word. Hoping God will plant
it. And He gives the inquiry. But
Christ is that seed, you see. The Word of Christ. The Word
of Truth. The Gospel of our salvation.
That seed is amazing. You put it in the ground and
you water it and you plant it. God, in time, in the fullness
of time, A root out of dry ground. Where have you read that before?
Isaiah 53. He shall grow up as a tender
plant, as a root out of dry ground. No form or comeliness. Well,
there's a sprout. What is it? Well, it's supposed
to be corn. I planted corn there. Is that
the way it always is? Anybody? If I'm the one planting,
the weed will come up. Corn won't grow. No pulp form will come, but when
it grows up, you're going to see. You're going to see. Now that one seed, they say one
ear of corn has 800 kernels. And each stalk has two to three
ears of corn on them, okay? And how many stalks in a field
of corn? Just from a seed. Oak. Oak is a seed in acorn. Isn't
that amazing? There's nothing more amazing
than Jesus Christ, the seed, who was crucified and buried. And what came of that? They thought
nothing's going to come of that. He's dead. We've just waited. It does not yet appear that you're
going to see a number which no man can number by virtue of one
man's death. Now let's look at this. Look
down at verse, and I'm going to close. He started talking
about the glory of the celestial. That's the heavenly. It's the
glory of the terrestrial. That's earth. Verse 41, look
at one glory, the sun, the moon, the stars, they differ. from
every other star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. Before I leave that thought,
the star. What star shines during the day? Oh, there's a star that shines. And
you can't see any other star. It's called the Day Star. That's who Christ is called.
The Son of Righteousness. When He is risen, you don't see
anybody else. The stars are out there. He's
obscured them all. His glory far exceeds all those
twinkle, twinkle little stars. That's the Son. That's Christ.
Okay? So this is the resurrection from
the dead. Christ said, I am the resurrection.
Sown in corruption, verse 42. Look at this. Sown in corruption.
Was not our Lord made sin for us? He knew no sin. He had to be. That's what it
said. The soul that sinneth. Well,
He didn't sin. Well, God made His soul an offering. took our
sins in his body on a tree. This is a mystery, but it's so.
Christ never committed one sin. He never thought one sin. But
somehow or another, some way, mysteriously, amazingly, mercifully,
God put all of the sins of all of God's people in him and on
him. And God justly killed him in
my stead. You see, I've never been without
sin all my life. I've never spent one day or one
hour that I didn't sin. In me is sin. But you know what
God says? Righteous. Righteous. Why? Christ crucified. Christ crucified. And that's
everything he did. Verse 43, sown in dishonor, raised
in glory. Oh, brothers and sisters, you
want to see what's become of man after the garden he always
created in the image of God, but he lost that image, completely
lost that image. Completely lost that image. Man
does not retain the image of God. We're going to see this. You want to see what sin has
done to mankind, go into a nursing home. God created Adam strong, upright,
brilliant, named every Adam on the earth. No shame, no sin,
pure, holy, spotless, loving, kind, beautiful, beautiful creature
in the image of God. Now look at him, all bent over. until he just dies and you've
got to put that body in the ground. If you don't, it'll start stinking
in 24 hours. That's sad. Well, I'm here to
tell you it's not sad for those in Christ. Death's the enemy. It's the enemy of everything
that we dream of and do and everything we accomplish and everyone we
love. It seems like it's the end. Death
is the end of man. Scripture says the last enemy
destroyed will be death. Death. And He said, and look
at this, this will be a blessing. He said, the first man, verse
47, is of the earth, earthy. That's Adam. The second man,
the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also as the earthy. That's us. We have a body, don't
we? Flesh and blood. Well, Christ came as the earthy,
made of a woman. He had flesh and blood, didn't
he? A body hast thou prepared me, just like us. Didn't take
the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, didn't it? The
seed of Abraham. Flesh and bone, flesh and blood,
just like us, didn't it? Touched with the feeling of our
infirmity. And when he died, all the blood was taken from
his body on purpose by God for the redemption of all of God's
people. And then he died. His body died, didn't it? And
they put his body in the ground. And they're going to do that
with us. They're going to take all the blood out of our body. All
the blood out of your body, if you're embalmed, take it all
out and fill it with something to keep you from stinking. So the life of the flesh is in
the blood. When Christ arose from the grave, he had a glorified
body, a spiritual body. It's the body he had before he
came to this earth, okay? They didn't recognize him. They'd
been with him three and a half years and they didn't know him.
They thought this is some young gardener. And Mary, who'd hung
on his feet all her life, three years anyway, said, you're the
gardener? What have I done with my little
one? Mary. She didn't know him. He had a new body. Then he appeared
to them when they were all meeting. The door was closed. The door
was closed. He walked through the door. He
didn't have to touch it. He opened the door. He walked
through the door, and they were all scared to death. Oh, they
thought to see the Spirit. He said, touch me, handle me. A spirit hath not flesh and bones,
as you see me have. Notice he didn't say blood. Flesh
and bone, because the life of the flesh is blood, but the life
of the Spirit is not blood. It's Spirit. Now I'm way over
my head right now. But we're going to have a new
body that can't die. No blood. No blood. Christ, all
His blood is gone. He poured it out on the mercy.
Spirit. Look at verse 48. As the earthly such are they
that are earthly, and as the heavenly such are they that are
heavenly. We've borne the image of the
earthly, we'll bear the image of the heavenly. Well, what's
it like? What's it going to be like? Well,
you know, I hadn't been there, so I can't rightly tell you.
And this is all we got. But when our Lord appeared to
them, He said, Spirit, touch me, handle me. It's flesh. It
was Him. It is you, isn't it? Okay? And we're going to know
each other. They knew Moses. They knew Elijah, didn't they?
Didn't they? Nod your head. Okay. They knew them. We're going
to know each other. Look, there's Marguerite. There's her mother's name, Marguerite. There's Joyce. There's Ellen
at Virgin. Look, they're going to know me. Abraham's going to know me. I'm
going to know Abraham. Moses is going to know me. We're not
going to be any more glad to see anybody. The one person we're
going to be glad to see more than any other is Jesus Christ.
That's who we're all going to be talking about. Praise and
glorify. Our Lord said this. He said,
do you have any meat? Touch me. Handle me. And they
all did. You reckon? You reckon they touched him?
What do you reckon they did, Robin? Oh, they laid a hold on
him. Oh, Lord, I'm so glad to see.
Three days, Kelly, they were miserable. They thought their
Lord was dead. None of what he would preach.
Oh, man. Touch me. Hang on to me. Hug me. Did he do the same? Come here, Thomas. Come here. It's me. I told you. You see? Everything I told you
is true. Why? Because I'm true. I'm the
life. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. I told you. Smile. He kissed them all, fell on their
necks and kissed them. He said, do you have any meat?
They said, yes, we do. Right here. And he ate right
in front of them. He ate. Are we going to eat?
Yes, he did. He said, I'll not drink of the
fruit of the vine until the marriage center. Boy, are we going to
eat and drink then. Not to make our bodies live.
Not because we depend on that. No, the life of the Spirit is
Spirit. It's just going to be for enjoyment.
That's all. This corruptible, verse 52, I'll
show you a miracle. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, verse 52, the last trumpet. And he said, the trumpet
shall sound. You look forward to hearing that. I wish I had one right now. I'd
like to blow it. Well, the gospel's called a trumpet.
Anybody hear it? Sound good to you, Rahab? Hey,
Rahab! Gospel, you keep, every day you
keep blowing the same trumpet. Does this sound good to you?
Sweet to the ears. What's it mean? Going out. Salvation. The dead shall be raised. The
trumpet shall sound. The dead shall be raised incorruptible. We'll all be changed. This corruptible
will put on incorruption. This mortal will put on immortality. And when that happens, verse
54, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, this mortal
shall put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
same. Every saying that was said will
be brought to pass. Every single thing he said and
wrote will come true. Most of it has already. And this
saying will be brought to pass, the greatest thing we've ever
heard. Death is swallowed up in victory. No more death. Is not death the saddest thing
that you know of? What gives you more grief on
this earth than to see someone you love die and you don't see
them again? One more time, let me tell you. He said the last enemy destroyed
is death. He said death, where is that
victory? Well, we put him in the ground.
He ain't there. And don't you love the thought
over in 1 Thessalonians, he said, when Christ comes back, if we're
still here, everybody's coming with him. Don't you love that
thought? Huh? Your mother coming with
him. Look! Oh man, I love this. You see,
staying of death is sin. That's why it comes and that's
why it hurts so bad. That's why people dread it and
avoid it. Sin. Strength of sin is the law. The reason we know we're sinners
is the law. Everybody's got it written on their heart. So everybody's
scared to death of death. But thanks be to God. It's not the end. It's victory. Victory? You know, I can say
of Brother Mark and Sister Mary, they won. They finally won the prize. The prize of the high calling
of God in Jesus Christ. That's what we hope. I hadn't
won yet. I'm not there yet. I want to
be. You know what's going to happen?
If I'm still believing, and I die, and you lay my body in the grave
saying, victory. That's what Brother Walter said,
one of his dying words was, victory. Victory. Not this phony stuff
in religion, you know. You can have the victory over
Jesus Christ is the one who obtained this victory. He's the one. All right, let's sing a closing
hymn, number 51.
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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