Well, all conferences go by quickly,
but this is about as quick a one as I've ever will. Have this morning. Worship with you and I thank
the Lord for that. Again, such a blessing to be here. I appreciate
everybody's. Hospitality, your love for us
and we love you. Thank the Lord for you. It's
been a blessing and privilege to be with you. 1st Corinthians
15. If you would this morning. We've been going through the
book of 1st Corinthians back home. Just a few nights ago, I preached
from 2nd Corinthians chapter one. And Paul in, I'm gonna read 2
Corinthians 1.6 while you're turning there to 1 Corinthians
15, but Paul talking about preaching the gospel in verse six of chapter
one, he said, whether we be afflicted or not, whether we be comforted,
whatever consequences of us preaching the gospel, it is for your consolation
and your salvation. And these are the two reasons
that the Lord has given us why we preach the gospel. He's commanded
his pastors of old, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord. And that can't be overestimated.
We need comfort every hour, don't we? There's just one thing that
comforts the sheep. And that's the gospel of our
Savior. That's to know our shepherd, to hear of him and his care for
us. And then it's for your comfort
and your salvation. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save. The gospel goes forth and it
goes forth in the power of God and his effectual power. And
it's the words of eternal life. able to make you wise unto salvation
by the power of God and his grace. And then for those of us who
know him, he's still saving us, isn't he? He's still saving me. I need him worse and more so
today than I ever have in my life, and need his comfort, too. And so
here in 1 Corinthians 15, 53, we have a passage of scripture
that I pray will be a comfort to us. And also, as we see who
our comfort is, that the Lord will save us today. Verse 53,
for this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. If you look at the musts in scripture, there's no, there are no contingencies
with God, there are no, there is no waiting on an outcome
other than a sure outcome. And all of those musts that you
see concerning us, you must be born again. You must. Christ must needs go through
Samaria because one of his sheep. And this must here, all of them,
have for their reason. Why is it an imperative? Because
look at the last part. Look at verse 57 of our text.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything that Christ accomplishes
has accomplished, and all of the consequences of that are
musts. This is an imperative because
the victory is a person. This reminds me of what Paul
wrote. Look at Romans 8 with me in Romans 8, 34. 8, 34. Or
33, verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifies. "'Who is he that condemneth?
"'It is Christ that died. "'Yea, rather, "'that is risen
again, "'who is even at the right hand of God, "'who also maketh
intercession for us.'" This is why the believers corruptible
must put on incorruption. There's three reasons given here
in verse 34, Romans 8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? Christ
died. Christ died, Christ crucified. He washed away all of my sins
in his precious blood. I love that simple way of saying
that, don't you? Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own precious blood. He died, he robed me in the eternal
white robe of his righteousness. He paid all of my sin debt so
that there is no sin on my account. Secondly, that is risen again,
verse 34 there in Romans eight, that he is risen again. Calvary
is successful, accepted. We are accepted in the beloved
because his sacrifice on Calvary was accepted not by sinners,
but by God almighty, his father. who demanded his blood as payment
for our sin because he so loved that he gave his only begotten
son. He paid all of my sin debts so that there is no sin to my
account. We know that We are indeed redeemed
by him and made spotless to stand in the presence of God because
Christ is the firstborn of the dead. He was delivered for our offenses
and he was raised again for our justification. And then thirdly
there in Romans 8, 34, he maketh intercession, he also maketh
intercession for us. This is why these musts This
is why we must rise incorruptible. Our mediator is the Son of God
who gave himself for us. We can never lose a case in the
courts of heaven. No one can lay anything to our
charge because Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, our Advocate, our case is built not upon anything
about us, but on the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. What does that have to do with
our text? Well, the imperative in verse 53 of our text also
has for its reason the Lord Jesus and what he did for us. Verse 57, again, but thanks be
to God, but back in our text, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why this must amounts
to a victory, verse 54. Death is swallowed up in victory. That's the victory that our Savior
won for us on Calvary. It wasn't him doing the best
he could. so that we might pick up the slack, I guess is
what they preach, basically. This is him doing everything
for us, like the good Samaritan. He came where we were. He poured
in the oil of his grace and the wine of his precious blood and
lifted us up and carried us to the end. You think about this world's
religion and the equivalent of what they preach is if the good
Samaritan came by and said, there's an inn up the road here, just
wanted to let you know, if you'll avail yourself. No, he picked
us up and carried us to the inn, paid our way there, and said,
if he ever owes you anything else, put it on my tab. This must is a victory won by
the Lord Jesus Christ. The certainty of us going from
impure and perishable to perfect and everlasting in our very being is a win won for us and given
to us, given by Christ. And the way that God has won
this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ God the Son defeating
every enemy, including our own sinful nature,
ourselves. We're our own worst enemy. The
old man, that's who I fight every day. I don't know what part Satan
has in that, but Satan doesn't have to make me do it. I'll do it all on my own without
the grace of God. You see why we're so insistent
to proclaim from God's word that whatever Christ came to do and
gave himself on Calvary to accomplish, he fully accomplished it. That's
the difference between a sure hope and a maybe. That's the difference between
the sovereign son of God and a Jesus that's doing his best
and coming up short. We insist repeatedly that he
did not make victory available. He won the victory and gave it
to us. What happened on the cross is
not subject to our pathetic, depraved, sinful will in any
way. Again, our will is the problem.
Christ crucified is the victory. And there is certainty because
of who did it, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 54, again,
in our text, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed
up in victory. The last enemy shall have been
destroyed. Think about that day often as
believers and long for it Not that we would be unclothed, but
that we would be clothed upon. We don't look forward to death
for the sake of death. We look forward to life. We look forward to entering into
life. And people talk about the afterlife. as though it's just something
there. You know, it's just there. There's the afterlife there.
You've got to consider that. You've got to think about that
during life. It's just like the earth is just there and the sky
is just there and the afterlife is just there. No, what happens
to you when this body dies is attributable alone to the son
of God. Death is swallowed up in victory. It doesn't just happen and then
something else happens. It's swallowed up in victory,
won by Christ. What he did on this earth and
what he accomplished on Calvary, if there is victory over death
for you, it was won by your Savior. Preaching of the gospel of Christ
and what he did is the savor of life and of death. And that's because of a person.
Christ crucified is the cause of life in them that believe
he is our life and to reject him, to refuse him, to deny him,
to despise him is to forfeit what he did and to be consigned
to everlasting death. He that hath the son hath life.
And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, 1 John
5, 12. All of this, it's just another dot on the
timeline. And I don't say that to trivialize it. I say that
to simply show how that it's according to God's perfect purpose,
his complete purpose for his people. This victory won and
the results of it after death is another part of all that comes
to pass because of Christ and what he did. Christ gives victory over death,
God said so. In Job 19.23, listen to what
Job said. Oh, that my words were now written.
Oh, that they were printed in a book. that they were graven
with an iron pin and lead in the rock forever. For I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though, after my skin, worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. That's
a consequence of my Redeemer living, Christ died, yea rather
that is risen again, who intercedes for me even now. So I'm gonna
stand too. He'll stand on this earth in
the latter day. So I shall stand and yet in my
flesh be God. Our enemies can't win because
of who our champion is. All of our enemies. Corruption,
mortality, death, the grave, sin, the law, all of that in
our text. The word grave there is also
the word for hell. There's no victory for hell,
in my case, or the grave, and so death is, it's not a bad thing
anymore for God's sheep. Death is welcome, to live is
Christ and to die is gain. I wish we could get hold of that
now. I believe the older we get and
the closer we come to that day, whatever it is, the more precious
that is to know that death is gain. Again, why? Because of
a person. because of who it is that died
for me and rose and intercedes for me now. The way for death to be vanquished
is by life. That's what mortal putting on
immortality means. The Lord said he would change
our vile bodies, and this has become one of my favorite scriptures,
He shall change our vile body and fashion it like unto His
glorious body. That's worth thinking about,
isn't it? That's worth thinking about. Because my Redeemer liveth, Job
said, I also shall live, even after worms destroy this body. And we know that eternal life
is not just living forever. You know, in this world, people
think they're gonna live forever. But a believer, we don't wanna
live forever like this, do we? You wanna be like this forever? Eternal life is not just living
forever. Even in glory, even with Christ,
it's not just an indeterminate amount of time. Christ is eternal. Christ is our forever. We're gonna be with Him and like
Him. That's glory. That's heaven. Verse 56, the sting of death
is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Death is a problem
because of sin. Sin is a problem because of God's
law. The wages of sin is death. Sin is transgression of God's
law, but the gift of God, what does it say there in verse? Who
giveth us the victory. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, somebody. Our Savior, said that the law
is contained in these two. If sin is transgression of the
law, what is sin? What's the law? The sin is contained
in these two, that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's a problem though. because
we hate God by nature and we hate everybody else. Cain slew Abel just because God
loved Abel. God accepted Abel and rejected
him. We hate God by nature, we hate
God because we love ourselves. Anthem of this world is the greatest
love is to learn to love yourself. You don't have to learn to love
yourself. We just do. By God's grace, we learn from
God to love him. Simon, do you love me? Do you
love me? Paul said, if any man love not
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Does that sound harsh? If you
don't love the Lord Jesus, you ought to go to hell. You ought
to go to hell. Our problem, you see, is that
we nailed God's son to a cross and we took delight in his death.
They laughed and mocked. I should say we. And by that
very cross, the Lord Jesus Christ took our punishment. He took
our hell. He satisfied the law for us before
God all which sealed our doom, and
it's by the preaching of that cross that we're made to fall
in love with Him, who we hated by nature. We fall in love with
God and His Son. You know, it probably does sound
harsh to somebody that doesn't know God. If you don't know God,
you don't know what you are. To say, if any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. If you don't love the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're a monster. I am too. He made us. He made a paradise
for us before he ever made us. Put us in that paradise. And he made it real simple for
us, didn't he? Of all the trees of the garden,
All the delights of paradise, it's all yours. But don't eat
of that tree. And we ate not because that tree
was more beautiful or the fruit of it more desirable, we ate
because we hated God. We hated God's authority over
us. Satan introduced one addition. to all of the perfection of paradise.
He added one thing, you know what it was? Free will. Free will. God said thou mayest accept. Satan said, in effect, hath God
said? Here's what God said, but it's
really up to you. It's really up to you. We're
still saying that from His grace. If we don't love Him, there's no place for us but hell. By His grace, He caused us to
fall in love with Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. We talked last night about God
saying, Jacob have I loved. And because God loved Jacob,
Jacob loved God. His love is the cause of our
love. And by the preaching of that
which is the definition of love, what's the definition? Herein
is love. Not that we love God. If you want to know what love
is, forget about anything about you. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us. And you notice that and after
every time it talks about the love of God, the love of Christ,
because his love is not well wishes. It's not, it's his love
is like, I want, I sure do want you to be saved. He loved and
he gave his only begotten son. I used to say he loved us and
he did something about it. He loved us and he did everything
about it, causing us to love him. And there's only one thing
we can say to that, verse 57, thanks be to God. Thanks be to
God. Not I made a decision, I got
saved when I was this many years old. Thank God. Thank God. which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I think I can probably speak
for my fellow preachers of the gospel. The longer we look into
this book and the longer we preach, the simpler it gets. Thanks be
to God. Not simpler because we know more
and we figured out things, but simpler because I believe God
is showing us the vanity of everything else but the simplicity that's
in Christ. Which giveth. The word thanks
there, but thanks be to God, it's translated thanks only 11
times in scripture. You know what it's translated
as 160 times? Grace. Grace be to God. All grace is
attributed to Him. Giving us the win. For giving
us the victory. The victory that Christ won on
Calvary. Oh, that we would see it for
what it is, the victory. I love that song. We sing that
who can number his generation. Can tell all the triumph of his
cross. Millions dead now live again.
Myriads following his train. Victorious Lord. Victorious Lord. and coming king. We thank God in this Thanksgiving
that we express as an acknowledgement of that free and sovereign grace
whereby we are included and put in Christ who is made unto us
all we need. You need to be righteous before
God. I can answer that for you. You do. Christ is made unto us
righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness.
And notice, he didn't offer us the victory,
he gave it to us. Isn't it so simple, the truth?
In your ears, for they hear. I wanna read you a brief passage
in closing in Luke 15. This is, when I think of God's
grace, I often think of this passage. Luke chapter 15, verse 4. What man of you, having an hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until
he find it? And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
more than over the ninety and nine just persons which need
no repentance. This is the picture that often
comes into my mind when I think of God's grace. And a couple of words stand out.
When the Lord said, I found my sheep. My sheep, I found my sheep
rejoice together with me. The scriptures use several words
for believers. Believers is one of them, the
elect, saints, those that the Father
gave me. We're identified in a lot of
wonderful ways, aren't we? Maybe this is the most beautiful
of all. His. His.