Crown Him, Crown Him, King of
kings and Lord of lords. Alright, 1 Corinthians 15. Read the first two verses again
with me. Moreover, brethren, or in addition to what he just
wrote, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which,
that is, the gospel also you say. If you keep in memory, if
you hold fast that confidence unto the end, if you hold fast,
keep in mind what I preached unto you unless you have believed
in vain. That is, unless this faith is
just a head knowledge and not heart faith. The faith that God
gives is never in vain. It's always effectual and always
saving faith. The Lord sent Paul to Corinth,
Greece, to preach the Gospel. And the Lord said Paul wanted
to leave there because when he first came, nobody heard him.
And he stayed there and he was trying to leave, and the Lord
came to him in a dream, if you remember, and said, if you stay
there, I have much people in this city. So Paul stayed there
for 18 months, a year and a half, preached the Gospel, and the
Lord saved many. revealed his son to many, and
the Lord raised up a church there through the preaching of the
gospel. Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is what God uses. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. Nothing else. Preaching
of the gospel. Preaching, per se, doesn't save. It's the gospel of Christ that
saves through the Holy Spirit. But this is the means that God
has used to speak to the sons of men through a preacher preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he said, I declared
unto you the gospel. The gospel is not... In modern
religion, let's talk about sharing. Let's share. Have a share session. No, the gospel is declaring.
A man standing up in the power of the Holy Spirit of God declaring,
thus saith the Lord. Declaring who God is. Declaring
what man is. his need of the Lord Jesus Christ,
declaring Christ to be the only way, truth, and life, the only
salvation, the sinner's only hope, declaring the gospel. And God uses that. God uses that
by His Spirit, the foolishness of preaching. It's out of vogue
today in the preaching. But God uses it, and He gives
new birth. And He said, You're saved, and many in Him. if not
most in here, were saved by this very same gospel that Paul preached
and the people of Corinth believed and were saved by. Saved. Saved. And so he says this is
the gospel, verse 3, for I delivered unto you. First of all, this
is the gospel. This is where it begins. That
which I also received. This gift. God, remember, Ananias
came and preached to him. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scripture. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scripture. This is the
gospel Paul said. How Christ died for our sins
according to the Scripture. That's the gospel in a nutshell. Substitution. Substitution. If you've said this once, you've
said this five thousand times over the years. That the gospel
is in two words. Substitution and satisfaction. Your dad, how many times did
you hear him say that? Substitution and satisfaction. Every gospel preacher, and this
is what Paul said to the gospel people, substitution. That Christ
came into this world to save sinners. The sinners substituted. Christ came here to die for our
sins so that we don't have to. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. God said that. He will by no
means clear the guilt. He cannot, and behold it, and
judge. So God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. Not every person, but all of
God's people. He's talking to believers here,
isn't he? He said, Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel.
Brethren, how Christ died for our sins. Christ said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. He said, some are goats. He didn't die for goats, but
he laid down his life for the sheep. And it's all according
to the scriptures. Like Paul said in Romans 1, and
there's not a clearer declaration of the gospel in Romans 1, he
said, I declare unto you the gospel, I'm separated unto the
gospel which he promised before by his prophets in the Holy Spirit concerning his son. that the
gospel is the gospel of the Old Testament. The gospel is what
God said in the Old Testament of the Christ to come. In the
volume of the book, it is written of me, Christ said, lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. In the volume of Christ said,
it's all written of me, the one who was to come to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews is a a summary of the
whole Old Testament, what it's all about, and it's all Christ
in it. It's all Christ. How he purged
our...it begins at the very first, the Hebrews says, after he had
purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And then he goes on to say how he did that. Substitution. Satisfaction. How he satisfied
God's law. How he satisfied justice. So
that's the gospel. In a nutshell, substitution and
satisfaction. Christ, how he died for the sins
of his people according to Scripture. And it says he was buried and
he rose again the third day according to the Scripture. Now, go back
to Acts chapter 2. Acts 2, when Peter preached at
Pentecost, this was his message. This was his message. The first
recorded public message by one of the apostles was at Pentecost. And Peter was the chief preacher. And this was his message. Christ
and him crucified. How Christ died for his people. Died for their sin. Acts chapter
2. How he died and buried and rose again according to the scripture.
Look at Acts 2 verse He said, David, speak of concerning him,
Christ. In Psalm 16, he said, I foresaw
the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that
I should not be moved. That is, a living Lord is seated
right now, that we should not be moved. Therefore did my heart
rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall
rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell. Christ went through hell on Calvary's
tree. He was separated from God. And
that's hell. And neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. That is the resurrection that
God promised before in the Holy Scripture. So, well, no, stay
there. Go on down. He said in verse
34, David is not ascended into heavens. David said himself,
the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes thy footstool. Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ. He's the one that God raised.
If you go to Israel and would find the place where they buried
David and open that sepulcher, you might find some bones there,
at least the dust of those bones. He's not talking about David.
He's talking about the Son of David. Alright, go back to 1
Corinthians 15 now. So, this is the good news. I kept writing this at the top
of every page. Good news. Good news. Christ died for our sins. We don't have to. Good news.
He was buried. He rose again. That's good news.
Good news. And verse 22, it says, In Adam
all died. with dead and trespassing sin,
because of Adam's sin, death passed upon all men. Listen to
Romans chapter 1. Listen to Romans. It says, by
one man's disobedience, death reigned upon the sea. Death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression. He's the figure of him that was
to come. By one man entered into the world, and death by sin.
So death passed upon all men for all of sin. And then he went
on to say, by one man's offense, death reigned by one, much more. They that receive abundance of
grace, the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Jesus
Christ. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinner. By the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. He says, in Adam all die. We
all have to die, but now Christ said, he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. This body will die, but we don't
die. Verse 22 says, in Christ shall all be made alive, quickened
together with Him. We already have been actually.
We already have been raised, quickened. You who were dead
are quickened. Now everywhere that Paul went,
he preached this message. Everywhere he went, he preached
how that Christ died for our sins. The gospel. The good news. Christ died for
his people. This is the good news of God.
That we don't have to die for our sins. There is therefore
now no condemnation of them that are in fact. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Why?
Christ died. That's why. Who is he that condemns?
Christ died. He died for our sins according
to the Scripture. We don't have to. We don't have
to. And he was buried and he rose again. Everywhere Paul went,
he preached the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
that Christ rose again. Good news. I got that written
down. Good news. Trying to remind myself, preach this as good news. You see, everything Christ said
and did depends on the fact that he rose from the grave. All we believe, all we do here,
all our hope depends on the fact. Well, it's more than a fact.
He's a person, but it is a fact. A fact. An undeniable fact that
Christ rose from the grave. There is life after death. How
do we know that? Christ lives. That's what he
said in the Revelation, isn't it? One of the last things. He
said it in the first. First chapter of Revelation,
and he said it again in the end, I'm alive. I am he that was dead,
but hold, I'm alive. And so everything he said is
true. And everything he promised us
is true. Most do not believe in any kind
of life after death. You know that. If not most, do not believe there's
any life after death. That's why they say, you know,
grab all the gusto you can get now. He who dies with the most
toys wins. That's what they say. Because
this is it. That's what most people believe. Some have some
ridiculous notions about life after death. The Hindus say if
you don't live right, you'll come back as a dog or a cow.
you know, reincarnate, made flesh again until you keep living right,
until you become one with the Spirit. Ridiculous notion, don't
you? Ridiculous. And others, you know, have some
kind of carnal utopia that, you know, people are up there doing
what they do here. Our Lord told us about the resurrection,
didn't He? Through Paul himself. Our Lord
Himself said it. So Paul preached the resurrection
every time he stood up. And he said, this is why I'm
called in question. This is why I'm hated. I love him. I love that the Lord
sent him to preach this, to comfort one another with these words.
He said, all we believe, our hope of eternal life depends
upon the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the grave. He's alive, he's
now seated, reigning and ruling, and he's coming again, and he
says he's going to receive us to himself. And I'm not going to prove that.
The Lord doesn't prove himself, he reveals himself. We're not
here to prove anything. We're here to hear what the Scripture
says and believe more fully. Now, at Corinth, Greece, it was
a vast metropolitan city. You know, we've looked at this
before. It was a center of learning. It was known for its science
and politics and, well, it was the most modern city, one of
the most modern cities of the day. And it was full of scoffers
and mockers and, you know, those that professed themselves to
be wise, ever learning. would never come to acknowledge
the truth. And they scoffed and mocked, and Paul addressed them
somewhat. Somewhat. But this is not written
to the world. This is not written to unbelievers
to get them to believe. This is written to God's people.
Alright, so that's who I'm preaching to tonight. Alright, look at
verses 5 through 8. He assures us that Christ arose
by all the witnesses. He was seen of Cephas. That's
Peter. Then of the Twelve. After that, he was seen above
500 brethren at one time. You know, the Lord gave, and
I talked about this one time, that the Scripture says when
the Lord was crucified, the graves opened and many saints went into
town. That's what it says. How could
people deny that? They did. Our Lord said one time,
though a man rise from the grave, he won't believe. See, nobody
will believe. It's not a vision, a miracle, a sign, a wonder that
you believe. Christ must reveal Himself. But
some of the dead arose and went into town. And then our Lord
was on the earth for 40 days. Wasn't it? Forty days after He
arose. The Lord was back on the earth
for 40 days. Paul said he was seen by five
hundred brethren at one time. Five hundred people gathered
around him at one time. How can you deny that? You might
deny it if you hear Peter say it, or James say it, or Paul
say it, or just these twelve men say it. But five hundred,
and Paul said most to the Corinthians, he said, most of them are alive
now. Go ask them. They saw him. He said, I saw
him. And you know he was seen by more
than that. He was seen by that many at one time. And he said,
last of all, he was seen by me. And so he says, we preach Christ's
risen, risen Christ. I like verse 11. It could be
a good title, wouldn't it? So we preach, and so you believe. So we preach. It doesn't matter
who believes it. We preach, you believe. We believe. Now, verse 12, here's where he
answers some of these scoffers. If Christ deprives them that
He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there's no
resurrection of the dead? No believers say that. But there
were some, like Paul said, that there will be false brethren
crept in among you, and they'll try to stir up strife, and they
bring up these arguments. And they did. They even called
Paul's apostleship into question. And throughout the Corinthians,
he defended his apostleship. But he said, how does some say
there's no resurrection of the dead? Read on. If there's no
resurrection of the dead, this is a fact, then Christ is not
risen. He didn't rhyme. If Christ is not risen, this
preaching is vain. This is the most useless occupation
on earth. And that's what the modern world
believes in. They believe preaching is the
most ridiculous, foolish... They had preached the message
recently. that I heard, and I may preach it word for word here,
from Hosea. I told him that was going to
be his funeral message I'm going to preach at his funeral. And
it paraphrases a verse in Hosea that says, the prophet is mad
and the people are crazy. He'd entitled it, the preacher's
crazy and the people are insane. That's what the Word will say.
The world says this preacher, these preachers of this gospel,
these preachers of this old-fashioned, archaic, bloody religion of a
holy God needing a propitiatory sacrifice, and how that one man
came and laid down his life, and God Himself shed His Son's
blood to put away the sins and give us peace with an angry God.
That's foolishness, let's say. That's utter foolishness. Anybody
who preaches that is a fool. And anybody who believes it is
crazy. That's what the people say. And it's in this very book
that Paul said, now who's the fool? Had not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? He said, Paul stood up in Corinth
and said, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Bring them
on, he said. We'll see who the fool is. Fool
has said there's no God. Fool has said all of this just
came into existence by accident or chance. That's foolish. That's
preposterous. They're the ones that are insane.
No, this is the wisdom of God in the gospel. Where am I? Well, he said, preaching is vain. And your faith,
verse 14, is vain. If you believe this, and Christ
didn't rise from the grave, you're wasting your time. You might
as well be doing anything. Over in verse 32, look over there. Paul said, I have fought with
beasts at Ephesus. I have risked my life preaching
this message. If the dead rise not, what good
has this been for me? Let's eat and drink. Why? Because this is it. Tomorrow
we die. We said, don't be deceived. Don't
be deceived. Don't listen to these evil communications. Don't do it. They're the fools.
They're the fools. Look at verse 16. If the dead... Verse 15. Yea, we are found false witnesses
of God. We're saying all this about God,
testifying that God said this, that He raised up Christ. If
He didn't raise Him up, then we're false witnesses. We're
not men of God. We're not the people of God.
false witnesses. If the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins, if there is anything
called sin. And this is why the world, this
is the reason why the world doesn't want there to be a God, doesn't
want there to be a resurrection, doesn't want this book to be
true. Sin. They love it. The natural man loves it. If
there's no God, we don't have to answer to him. Look, if it
feels good, do it. Like the last verse of the Judges,
every man did that which was right in their own eye. No sovereign,
no king, no God, no judge, no law. Who's to say what's right
or wrong? Isn't that what our modern world
says? So that's what they want to be said. They can wish it
all they want, but it's not so. And then he said in verse 18,
those that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Our dear
brothers and sisters and husbands and wives and children that believed
the Lord Jesus Christ and we have hope of seeing them again.
That's it. It's all a lie. They just died
like a dog. That's it. You'll never see them
again. You'll never see him again. Who are you going to believe?
Huh? Why? Because he rose from the
grave. And he stayed here 40 days, answering,
oh, you know, nobody could answer that. And, you know, when he died,
they tried to quiet the residents. When he rose, In the beginning,
they tried to quiet it, didn't they? They tried to say this
is a conspiracy, and they paid. It didn't work. You'd have to
pay too many people to keep quiet. Oh, and he says in conclusion,
in this life, verse 19, only we have hope in Christ. If all
our hopes, all our trust, all that we're casting Putting all
our eggs in one basket, so to speak. We're miserable, aren't we? We're
miserable. But, don't you love the buts? But now, hold on. He is risen. Christ is risen from the dead.
And He's become the firstfruits. And he went on to talk about
every man in his order, Christ's first. He was the first to rise
from the grave. You say, no, Jairus' daughter
and Lazarus. No, they died again. Christ is
the first to rise and never die again. OK? But he's the first,
the first proof, because he gets the preeminence, doesn't he,
in all things. And after him, everyone in his own order. I
don't doubt that that means that every person that died will come
up in that order, if anyone. Although it's going to be so
quick that you won't see it. Anyway, I thought about this
down in the old Salem village in Winston-Salem. It's an old
Moravian village. I don't know what they knew years
ago. It's probably not the truth, but I do like this, that when
they bury people down there... Have you been down there? You've
been there, okay. You've seen that cemetery? It's
all a bunch of white stones. Flat stones. As far as the eye
can see, they all look alike. The one over this hillside. Flat
stones. And they don't bury them with their families. They bury
them in the order that they died. As I said, everybody's equal
in death. There's no male, female, marriage or given in marriage.
You die, that's where we lay you, according to the next person.
I thought that's good. That's good. They all look alike.
But every man in his own order, Christ's first. And He used this, our Lord used the illustration
of a corn of wheat, down in verse 37. He talks about the body being
sown into the ground, verse 37, because somebody, he said, he
called him a fool. Verse 35, some man will say,
some ignorant fool will argue, well, how are the dead raised
up? With what body do they come? Knowing that these bodies go
back to the dust, they do. It doesn't take long at all. And down in Mexico, People are
so poor that you rent the grave. You rent the grave, don't you?
That you're buried in. And in two years, they dig up
your bones and put somebody else's body in. And they put all those
bones, if you've got a family, they put all those bones in a
box together over here on the side. Don't they? And we've seen them dig those
bones up right after two years to make room for somebody else.
And you'll see some of them still have hair on the skull, but not
much. But after two years, no flesh on them. Hair lasts longer than anything,
but eventually it's gone. After four years, it won't wait
hardly. How about a hundred years? A
thousand years? Some have been dead for 6,000
years, their body. There's nothing. Dust. That's what our Lord said, didn't
He? Dust, you'll return. And so these arguers said, How
is that body going to be raised? Dust. And Paul said, here's what
Paul answered. Fool. And he says, you're a fool. I
like in Romans 9 where they argue, you know, if everything's according
to God's will and who can resist his will? And he said, who are
you to reply against God? He doesn't argue with these arguers.
He said, let the pot church drive with the pot church. He says,
you're a fool. And he goes on to say, something's
got to die for it to live. And he uses this illustration
of grain put in the ground, verse 37. What you sow, you don't sow
what it shall be, you sow bare grain. It may be wheat or it
may be corn, but it's just a grain of corn. Does that sound familiar,
what he's talking about? Who else talked about a grain
of corn being put in the ground? Who said it first? The Lord. He said, except the corn of wheat
fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone. Christ is the
first fruit. He said, but if it die, it will
bring forth much fruit. And he said in verse 38, God
giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, every seed his own body.
Christ is the first fruit. And you know, in answer to all
these evolutionists, all these fools, all these that argue against
the resurrection, a corn of wheat stands to call them fools. Just a little corn of wheat,
a seed, of whatever seed it may be. In every little seed, is that wheat, that grain, that
whatever, apple, tomato, potato, watermelon. You can't get a watermelon
from an apple seed. You can't get an orange from
a grapefruit. You can't get a cherry from a
tomato. Can you? It's amazing, isn't it? One little
seed. Isn't that one little seed that
just evolved that way? Come on, what an idiot. What
kind of idiot to believe that? How many seeds are there? How
many different kinds of seeds are there? Why don't you take
that seed? I had a bag of half-runner beans
that I got at, I keep wanting to say Lynch Hardware. It hadn't
been in business for years. Angle Hardware. I got it like
ten years ago. I got those seeds ten years ago.
And I keep planting them every year. You go out there and look,
they're dead, aren't they? They're dead. No, they're not.
They look dead, but they're not dead. Isn't that amazing? They
can sit there for years. That proves God is. Every little
seed. It proves the resurrection. Christ
used that in proof of Himself. He's that corn of wheat that
God buried, that God killed and God buried. He rose again to
purchase fruits. And by His death, many are made
righteous. Many. One little kernel of corn. How much corn would it produce?
Grains of corn. It's got to happen, he said.
And what you put in the ground, that one little seed, you can't
tell what is going to come from that. Oh my, the end result of one
little seed far exceeds the glory of that little seed. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. That's what Paul went on to say
in another place. Oh my, that's a miracle. of God's
creation, God's resurrection. Good news. Verse 21 down there,
he says, By man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. In Adam all die, everyone in
Christ shall be made alive. You have God's Word on it. You
have the whole creation bearing witness of it. Verse 23, But
every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruit, he gets the preeminent. And every man in his own order,
Don't you love 1 Thessalonians 4? It says, we believe. Brethren,
don't be ignorant of this. Don't sorrow as those who have
no hope. We believe Jesus died and rose again. So also them
which sleep in Him, that fell asleep, that died in faith, God
is going to bring with Him. When Christ comes back, they're
going to come with Him. All our loved ones, all our brethren
are going to be with Him in the sky. to receive us. And this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, he said. That's what the Lord said. And
we that are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord
shall not go before them. And the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with
the trump of God. And another place Paul said that
trump will sound. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. And we which are alive and remain will be caught
up together with them in the clouds. You see, he's not going
to come back down here. We'll meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord, he says. Comfort one
another with these words. And he says it's very soon. And
look now at verse 24. Every man then cometh to the
end. The end. When you read the word
the end, Does that sound bad or good to you? That's good news to the believer. It's going to be the end of sin.
It's going to be the end of pain. The end of sorrow. of everything, the end of all
people, places and things on earth, all kingdoms and dominions
and principalities and powers and rulers and all these things,
but the very beginning, just the beginning of an endless kingdom. Verse 24, the end when he shall
deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. He's put down all
rule, all authority and power, for he must reign. until He hath
put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy, that which causes us such grief,
such pain, so many tears, and gives us fear, we are subject
to fear. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Death. And then, if I may go
on a little bit, just a few more minutes, let's look down here.
Look down at verse, well, let's see. He said there are many different
bodies, celestial and so forth, glories of the sun and moon and
natural body. Look down at verse 44. Let's
jump down there. He said this, verse 43, 42. So
in the resurrection of the dead, the body is sown in corruption.
These vile bodies, these bodies of sin, this body of death that's
corrupt, it begins corrupting, it begins decaying almost immediately. And all of us older people now,
these things are happening, aren't they? Our bodies are sagging
and wrinkling and hair falling out and age spots and teeth and
just everything. We're corrupting, aren't we?
We're literally decaying right before our eyes. Rotting. Sown in corruption, but it's
going to be raised in incorruption. The dew of youth on our brow. That's why they didn't recognize
the Lord. He had His glorified body. A young-looking man, verse
43, is sown in dishonor. My, my, the sin that has dishonored
thee, my. Raised in glory. Sinless. Raised
in glory. Sown in weakness. Raised in power. No more weakness. No more weakness
of mind. We're going to know. Our minds
are so weak, aren't they? Our faith is so weak. We're going
to know. Even as we've been known. We
know, oh my, weakness, that's going to be sown, but it's going
to be raised in power. Sown a natural body. Are these
natural bodies dependent on food and drink and so many things?
No, not the new one. Blood, the life of the flesh
is in the blood. We're not going to need that. Remember what Christ
said? Handle me, a spirit hath not
flesh in what? Bones. Not blood. He poured that out on the mercy
seat. Flesh and blood. We're going to be flesh and blood,
but it's not going to be dependent on natural things. Food and drink and this earth
and so forth. It's a spiritual body. We live
by the Spirit. Verse 45, the first man, Adam,
was made a living soul. The last Adam, a quickening spirit.
First man, verse 47, of the earth is earthy. The second man is
the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. We're just like Adam, our father,
but as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
We've borne the image of the earthy, and it's a sad image,
and we shall bear the image of the heavenly. Oh, my. Brethren, flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,
but I show you a mystery. It's a mystery. I can't explain
it, but God's going to do it. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Spurgeon said death is going
to be like a pinprick. Twinkling of an eye. How many
times have your eye blinked since I said that? Like that. Not going to even feel a thing. Now a moment in the twinkling
of an eye at the last trump, there's where it says it, the
trump shouts out, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
we shall be changed, this corruptible must put on incorruption, this
mortal must put on immortality, and when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass that glorious saying
that is written in Isaiah 25, death is swallowed up in victory.
Do you know how sad death is? It will not be remembered because
of the glory that shall follow. Swallowed up in victory. O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. Christ removed that. The strength
of sin is the law. Christ satisfied that. Fulfilled
that. Thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved,
Brethren, be steadfast. Remember how I started this?
You're saved if you hold fast, if you keep in memory, wherein
you stand. So be steadfast. Unmovable. Let nothing move you. Paul said
that one time. He said, let nothing move me.
Let no man bother me. Unmovable. Always abounding in
this work, testifying of our Lord for as much as you know,
This is not in vain. It's not in vain. Your faith
is not in vain. Oh, no. Christ is risen. And He'll raise
us someday. And that's right soon. Stand with me. Our Lord, we thank You for Your
Word. Without it, we're in the darkness,
even as others Oh, how blessed are they that read the Word,
and they that hear the Word, and they especially that keep
it, lay hold of it, believe it, receive it. A man can receive
nothing except it be given him or her from above. Faith is thy
gift, the revelation of your Son in us. It pleases you to
reveal your Son in us, and we believe, we know and are sure
that He is the Christ, the Living One. This is life eternal to
know the only true God, the living and true God, and Jesus Christ,
the living Lord. O Lord, thank You for making
Yourself known to us through Your Word. Do it again, Lord. Continue to do that work in the
hearts of some. Lord, leave us not to ourselves.
Leave them not to themselves. Thy coming is soon. Surely, You
said, I come quickly. And your people say, even so,
come quickly, Lord Jesus. But, Lord, reveal Yourself to
some that we love and desire to see, know You. Reveal Yourself
to them. Cause them to call upon You while
it is today. Today is the day of salvation
while the gospel is being prayed. Cause them, Lord, to seek Your
faith, to call on Your name, to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they will be saved. It's in thy name that we've met
here tonight. Amen.