Open your Bibles with me to 1
Corinthians 15. The message will begin with verse
23 of 1 Corinthians 15. The title of the message is God
is all in all. And I took that title from verse
28, which shows that The ultimate end of all things in salvation,
and subsequently in providence, and coming up in glorification,
it is all for the glory of God to show that in our salvation
from sin, in our preservation in the grace of God, and in our
glorification unto eternity, that really it's all about God. It's all for His glory. It's
all by His grace and His power and His goodness. And our very
existence, our very being is because of Him. And we're going
to be talking about some language that's kind of difficult. It's
language of the Trinity here. And we'll be doing that throughout
as we go through this chapter and even in subsequent messages. Our God is one God in his nature,
in his being, in everything that he is, but he subsists in three
persons. Now a lot of people deny that
because they cannot understand it. But I don't have any problem
with the fact that I cannot totally understand and grasp and even
communicate the triunity of God. God is so high above us. You
know that, don't you? You can't bring God down on our
level. And when people do, it becomes
idolatry. All we can do is look at the
scripture and understand as far as our limitations are how God
reveals himself. And he reveals himself as one
God in three persons. We're not tritheists. We don't
worship three gods, that's what the Muslims accuse us of. They
have Allah, the one God. They say that we worship many
gods, three gods. No, we worship one God who subsists
in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And I admit that that's a concept that is just so far beyond us,
but yet it's one that is revealed in the scriptures. You know,
just when you look at scriptures like when Christ in the book
of John, you know, he said, I didn't come to do my own will, but the
will of him that sent me. Well, his will and the Father's
will are one and the same. But what's he trying to teach
us there? For the purposes of our salvation, the Son served
the Father. The Father represents the sovereignty,
the source and originator of salvation. The Son of God, who
became the Son of God incarnate, Immanuel, God with us, that's
what his name is. He is the one who brings about
salvation by his obedience unto death. And then the Holy Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, co-equal with the Father and the Son and
every attribute of deity is the one who applies that in time
to each and every one of God's elect. And that's what it is.
But let's go to the scriptures here and let's read, let's begin
at verse 23. Now he'd said, he'd said in verse
22 that as in Adam all die, And what he's talking about, Adam
as the representative of the human race, by his sin, he brought
all of us into a state of spiritual death and depravity and sin. That's why we're born in sin.
We're born spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the absence
of spiritual life. That's why we have to be saved
by the grace of God according to his will and not our own because
by nature we have no will to do what's right, to choose what's
right as far as God's way, God's way of salvation. We must be
born again. because our first birth is into
a state of spiritual death and depravity and unbelief and darkness
and ignorance, all those things you can talk about. In fact,
Paul described God's chosen people by nature, as we are naturally
born, as being no different than the children of wrath, the non-elect. There's no difference between
us. And so when that difference does show itself, when the Holy
Spirit gives us new birth, gives us faith, when that difference
shows itself in our individual regeneration and conversion in
time, one of the first things we see is we don't have a thing
to brag about. We cannot boast, oh, I made the
right choice, but they didn't. The only reason I made the right
choice is because God changed my heart. gave me a new life,
a new mind, new heart, a spirit. When I get back two weeks from
today, Lord willing, I'll be talking about the thief on the
cross. Christ, you know, he was crucified
between two thieves. They both started out reviling
him, ridiculing him, mocking him, and then all of a sudden
the thief on the right, Christ's right hand, he changed. Now why did he change? He started
praying for mercy, Lord, Lord. He said, we deserve what we're
getting. The Lord in the middle, he doesn't deserve what he's
getting. Well, he didn't as far as any sin of his own, because
he was not a sinner, not even made a sinner. But that thief
said, we deserve what we're getting. What changed his mind? Was he
a better thief than the one on the left? No. Did he exercise
his free will? He was exercising his free will
before that when he reviled him and denied him and mocked him.
No, who makes the difference? God does. Grace makes the difference,
friend. So we don't have anything to
brag about. So he says, as in Adam all die, but in Christ shall
all be made alive. Those who are united to Christ
chosen in Him before the world began, justified by His righteousness
imputed as He is our surety, redeemed by His blood on the
cross, those who are in Him will be made alive, will be born again. But look at verse 23, now this
is where I want to be, but every man in his own order, there's
an order, There's a proper order. Christ the firstfruits, Christ
is first. Now what that means is Christ
is preeminent. It's all about him. And then
afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. That is, when
he comes again. Now what this is teaching is
this. There's a God-ordained order of things. When I think
of that word order, I always think about David, King David,
his deathbed profession, testimony. You can find it in 2 Samuel 23
in verse five. And listen to what he says. I'll
just read it to you. David laying there about ready to die. I think
he was around 70 years old when he died. And he said this in
verse five of 2 Samuel 23. He said, although my house That's
his household, his family, and his kingdom. Although my house
be not so with God. David, when he died, his kingdom
was in a mess. And you remember the story of
Absalom, his son who was trying to kill him and take it over?
Although my house be not so with God, yet he, God, hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. The order of it's already been
set down by God, and it cannot be changed. You cannot disorder
it. You cannot change it. None of
us can. The evil of this world cannot change it. It's ordered
in all things. God ordained order. Christ said,
lo, I come in the volume of the book. What is that book? That's
the book of God's ordained purpose and will, his order. And it's
sure. Now how can it be that sure without
any doubt, without any possibility of failing? Because it's conditioned
on a surety whose name is Jesus Christ. And in Him, all the promises
of God are sure and certain. Christ is the surety of that
covenant. All of our salvation, all of
redemptive history, is conditioned on Christ. And that's what he's
saying here. Every man in his own order, Christ
the firstfruits. He comes first. He's preeminent.
It's all conditioned on Him. And then afterward, they that
belong to Christ at His coming. That's His people for whom He
died. It's not everybody without exception. But it says it here. They that are Christ. They that
belong to Christ. they that are his at his coming. And simply, what he's saying
here is this, that it's all conditioned on Christ the firstfruits, who
has the preeminence, and every man, it says in verse 23, who
is the every man there? All for whom Christ died and
was buried and arose again the third day. They shall all be
saved, they shall all be raised again unto glory. He will not
lose one of them. He said it. This is the will
of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
And my friend, that truth is essential to the preaching of
the gospel. The glorious person and the finished
work of Christ. And it says in verse 24, then
cometh the end. When the last one of His people
are brought into the kingdom, the last one of God's elect,
when they come, then comes the end. That's when Christ comes
again. 2 Peter 3 speaks of that. God's not willing that any of
them should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Well, when that last one is given new life by the Holy Spirit,
that last one is given faith to believe and brought to repentance
of dead works and idolatry, Then cometh the end. Now how soon
will the end come after that one has brought it? I don't know.
But the Bible doesn't tell us that. But then cometh the end.
Now look at verse 24. 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.
Now in this eternal counsel and covenant, God the Father gave
all authority All responsibility to accomplish salvation to His
Son. It was Jesus Christ, God the
Son incarnate, who accomplished all things to be delivered unto
the Father in the end. And prior to delivering up the
kingdom to God the Father, Jesus Christ will have subdued all
rule, authority, and power. Anything that stood against Him,
we read about that in Philippians 2. Every knee's gonna bow and
every tongue's gonna confess. Now God's people do that when
the Holy Spirit brings us under the gospel and gives us life
and faith and repentance. We bow and we confess. But in
the end, even his enemies will be his footstool. And he will
have subdued all rule, all authority, all power. Now it doesn't mean
here that Christ will cease to reign. He'll always reign as
our mediator. But it simply means that his
work of saving God's elect and bringing them to final glory
will have been accomplished to the glory of the Father and to
the glory of the Son and the Spirit. It'll all be finished
according to the Father's will and purpose. And Christ will
then present all things unto the Father for his glory and
honor. And it says, when he shall have put down all rule and authority
and power. Look at verse 25. For he must
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. Now again, this
does not mean that Christ's reign will have an end. He'll always
reign over his church. He's the king of kings. He's
the Lord of lords. But his reign in future glory
will not be the same nature as his present reign over the earth
wherein he must subdue all enemies. There'll be no more enemies.
And that last enemy, look at verse 26, the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. In future glory, all enemies
will have been conquered, subdued, the sting of death. There'll
be no more death, think about that. The sting of death has
already been conquered and destroyed for all of God's elect, for all
believers, sinners saved by grace, all who are in Christ Jesus.
And we're gonna look at that later on when we come to the
end of this chapter. Remember when he says, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,
but it's all been removed. Why? Because Christ took our
sins, imputed to Him, to the cross. And he died, he drank
damnation dry, he established that perfection of righteousness
by which we stand before God and live forever. His righteousness
imputed. He satisfied law and justice.
He totally removed the curse which is eternal death. But the
Apostle Paul here back here in Verse 26, the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. He's talking about physical death
there. Even believers who are neither spiritually dead nor
will experience eternal death, we're still subject to physical
death. Romans 8.10 says this body is
dead because of sin. But it goes on to say, but the
spirit is life because of righteousness. But even physical death will
be conquered as to our own experience of it when we're raised and united
to our glorified bodies. Never to die again. Never to
get sick again. Never to sorrow again. That's
what it's talking about. Look at verse 27. For he hath
put all things under his feet, but when he saith all things
are put under him, It's manifest that he's accepted, which did
put all things under him. This is a reference, you can
read about it back in Psalm 8. We won't turn there, but in Psalm
8, verses four through six, and it's repeated in Hebrews chapter
two and verses six through nine, how all things are put under
him, but we don't yet see all things put under him. Now, what
he means by that in Hebrews, when he says, all things are
under Christ. He's in control. But we don't yet see that. Now,
make a distinction here. We do see it in God's word, and
we believe it. But when you look at the nightly
news, sometimes you wonder, is God really in control? Well,
yes he is. This world looks like it's chaos,
doesn't it? I love that illustration that
somebody gave, but I can't remember where it started. But it's talking
like a tapestry or a quilt or something like that. If you look
at the bottom of it, you see all these different colors just
jammed up together and making no pattern and making no sense.
But if you look at the top of it, you see the pattern of it.
You see the beauty of it. And that's the kind of way Providence
is for us. We look out and we see things,
look like they're out of control. We'll even say something like
this, why does God let that happen? But I'll tell you what, looking
at it from God's point of view, it's all fine. It's all fine. All things are under his feet,
even though we don't see it. But in Hebrews it goes on to
say, but we do see Jesus. We see him, whom to know is life
eternal. We see the God man. We see the king of kings, we
see his righteousness. Oh my soul, a revelation of God
in him. And so all things in subjection
to Christ as the mediator, it's obvious that this does not include
God the Father, he says, who sets forth the supreme authority
of the Godhead as the source and originator of salvation.
We understand that Christ subjected himself to the glory of the Father
for the purposes of our redemption. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
there's an established order of authority there that he's
revealing. And this does not mean inequality
of persons. It doesn't mean that God the
Son is a lesser God and God the Holy Spirit is a lesser God.
No, they're co-equal in every attribute of deity. But as the
Trinity, one God in three persons, is so far above our understanding,
we have to bow to what God's revealed concerning the equality
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as to the nature
of their persons. But we have to recognize, as
the Lord Himself did, there's an established order of authority.
And that's what He said, I didn't come to do mine own will, but
the will of the Father. Now their will's the same, but He's talking
about a subjection there for the purposes of obeying the law. He was made under the law, for
example. Now he's the one who wrote the law. He is the law. But to redeem his people which
were under the law, he himself was made under the law. So you
see that subjection. We'll look at verse 28. It says,
and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall
the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things
under him, that God may be all in all. God the Father has arranged
under and placed in official subordination all things under
his Son, all things under his Son, Jesus Christ as the mediator
of the covenant Christ is called the Servant of the Covenant,
for example, the Angel of the Covenant. And so again now, I
emphasize, I don't mean to just be repeating myself, but I'm
just emphasizing, this does not mean an inequality of persons
in the Godhead, but that official subordination of the Son to the
Father for the purposes of redemption. And so we can properly say that
the Father is glorified in the redemption of sinners by God
the Son incarnate. the Savior, the Redeemer. And
He's exalted and given the preeminence. And as we said before, the fact
that Christ reigns and rules and is given the preeminence
does not mean that the Father is subjected to Him. God the
Father, who arranged all things under the authority of the Son,
occupies that position of the sovereignty of the Godhead. Christ
equally and the Spirit equally, but for the purposes to do what?
to save me, to save you. So all things are in official
subordination to the Son, and as the Son is official subordination
to the Father. And it makes all things subordinate
to God who is all in all. Now, let me just simplify it
as far as I can do. What this means is that if you're
gonna give glory to the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
If you're going to be accepted by God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, if you're going to live forever with God, the triune
Godhead, you gotta come through the Son. You gotta come through
Christ. The Bible says in Colossians
chapter two and verse nine that in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him. You understand
that? There's no salvation from the
Father and by the Spirit except through the Son. There's no acceptance
with the Father or the Spirit except through the Son. There's
no eternal glory. The glory of the Godhead will
shine in radiance through Jesus Christ. So look in verse 29 else
what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the
dead rise not at all Why are they then baptized for the dead
now, you know? People take a verse like that
and they go crazy with it the Mormons false church They say
they take that verse and they'll say well I can be bad if I have
a dead relative that died in unbelief, I can be baptized for
that person and get them into heaven. And that's why if you
want to find one of the best archives of genealogies, you'll
find it in Utah. Because they're trying to be
baptized for their dead relatives. That's heresy. First of all,
baptism doesn't save anybody. That's not why we're baptized.
That's not why we're immersed into the water. Baptism is a
New Testament public confession of salvation by God's grace in
Christ. And I can't be baptized for you
and you can't be baptized for me. So what, so this in no way
means that there's any saving efficacy in the ordinance of
baptism. Baptism is for believers. And it's not teaching that those
who are alive today can be baptized for the dead and thus secure
their salvation. It's ridiculous to take one verse
and try to establish such a crazy doctrine that's nowhere else
stated in the scriptures. But you know, people do that.
They do that. They deny the gospel of salvation
by God's free grace conditioned on Christ alone based on his
righteousness alone. So baptism here refers not only
to the ordinance of believer's baptism, but for what it means.
A public identification with Christ. But you know what else
it is? It's a public identification
with all true believers, even those who have died and gone
on to be with the Lord. I'm identifying with them publicly
when I'm baptized. I'm identifying with you who
are saved. When I get baptized, I'm identifying with Christ as
my Savior, and I'm identifying with all believers as my brethren. That's what that means. When
we as believers are baptized, we confess that we're dead with
Christ, we're buried with Christ, and that we've risen with Christ.
My sins were imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed
to me, and I have life from the dead because it comes from him
by the power of the Spirit. And we identify with him in the
reproach of the cross and take our place as his witnesses in
the world, just as our brethren in Christ who have died did before
us. Just like all the disciples did before us. They were baptized,
identifying with Christ. And believers today are baptized
and identified with that reproach of Christ along with those believers
who have died. Why would we do this if there's
no resurrection from the dead? Now that's what Paul's saying
here. Why would we do that if there's no resurrection of the
dead? It'd be silly. It'd be worthless and useless.
If we have hope in this life only, it'd be absurd for us to
be confessing and identifying with Christ because it'd be a
lie. And so he says in verse 30, and why stand we in jeopardy
every hour? Why are we going through what
we're going through if there's no resurrection from the dead? You know, I thought about this. Most of us growing up in religion,
and it was false religion, were baptized in false religion. weren't we? What happens if the Lord saves
you and you want to confess the true Christ in believer's baptism?
Boy, that's going to make some of your relatives and your former
churchgoers perk up and say, what in the world are you doing?
Huh? Well, here's what I'm doing.
I'm confessing that what I believed and what you believed before
is a lie. Think about that. That's what
that confession's all about. I'm confessing and identifying
with the true Christ under the true gospel. That's what baptism
is. Being baptized under a false
gospel is just taking a dunk in a pool. Because, and listen
again, now baptism doesn't save us. It's a confession that Christ
has saved us, the true Christ. But then when you come into the
gospel and you go outside the camp, then you have a lot of
opposition, don't you? And what Paul's saying here is,
why would we go through all that if there be no resurrection of
the dead? You see, what we have in the
gospel is the promise of eternal life and glory with God in Christ. Now, what we go through here
on earth, is it worth that? Well, of course it is. In fact,
Paul in Romans chapter eight, he made this statement. He said,
the trials and the pains that we go through here on earth are
not even to compare with the glory to follow. Now, I'm like you. I want all
my loved ones to be saved. I want all my friends to be saved. But I can't save them. And if
I deny the scripture in order to get peace of mind in my own
mind that they are saved, that's not going to change what God's
Word says. You understand that, don't you? God's Word is God's
Word, whether we believe it or not. I hope we believe it. But
it's still God's Word. And if God says this is the way
it is, this is the only way of salvation, And I thank God that
he's brought me to submit to his way and to repent of my own. So this is the whole thing that
Paul's saying. Those who came into the Corinthian church denying
the resurrection from the dead, he's saying, you don't realize
what you're doing. You're denying Christ himself.
And if that's the case, we're of all people most miserable
and our faith is vain and we're going through all this trouble
and this trial for nothing. But that's not the case. Because
he's already said it. He said, but Christ is risen. He is risen from the dead. And he's become the first fruits
of them that slept. By Adam came death, by Christ
comes life. And there's no other way around,
we'll all be made alive in him. And the glory that's to follow,
It's not, listen, what we're going through in our trials and
our, you know, I've often said that we today have it pretty
easy compared to the saints of old. Because, I mean, they lived
in places where it was outlawed to worship in the name of the
God, the true God of the Bible. I think about Peter and John
when they were brought up to the Sanhedrin. They said, we've
told you not to preach in the name of Jesus. And so they were
brought up on trial. Many of them were thrown in jail.
Many of them gave their lives. Read Hebrews 11. And I thank God we live in a
country where we have a constitution where the law can't get at us
for what we preach and what we believe. But we still go through
problems, troubles, trials, opposition. And it's heartbreaking. And it
causes tears and sorrow. That, what we will have in glory
is not even to be compared with this. We have such a hope, and
it's awesome. Okay.