I ask you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to plan to have the
Lord's Supper tonight. It was scheduled for last Wednesday
night. So we'll plan to have it tonight.
1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'd like
to look at one verse of Scripture. 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. Let's pray together. how we thank you this evening
that we have this time, this blessed time, to be able to assemble
ourselves together. And Lord, in this precious time
of fellowship, when, Lord, we're able to meet together as brethren
and to meet with you, who've promised that when two or three
are gathered together, you're with us, you're in our midst.
And for that, we're so thankful. I pray that this evening, Lord,
you'd be pleased. Bless the word to our hearts.
We pray for Joe and for Bruce. Lord, I pray you'd have mercy.
Pray for those in our midst that are sick. I pray that you would
heal according to your good pleasure. Lord, this evening, help us to
worship. Help us to hear. Teach us, we
pray, for Christ's sake. Amen. The scripture says in verse 21
of 1 Corinthians 15, for since by man came death, that is to
say when Adam disobeyed God. Death because of sin. Death. Physical death, spiritual
death, The way that every man, woman is born into this world,
they're born spiritually dead, incapable of hearing. And but
for the grace of God, eternal death became the whole lot of
mankind. For since by man came death. The scripture declares by man.
The second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection
of the dead. Verse 22, for as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive because of
the consequence of being one with Adam. We came, all of us
came from the loins of Adam and being one with Him. Just lineage. His blood flows in our veins. It passed down and down and down
and down. It all came back from that one
man and in his transgression because of Adam. For as in Adam,
all die. Physical death for sure. That's
assured to every man because we've all sinned. And that's
proven as we just give it time. Every child that's born there
appears to be there for a while some innocency, you know. But you just give it time. And
that rebellion is going to manifest itself. We've all come short. We're all going to taste death
because of sin. And for those who refuse to bow
to the Lord of glory, eternal death is going to be their lot. I've said this so many times
every time I hear of someone that leaves this world, and I
know People will go to a funeral and there will be someone that
they made absolutely no confession and believe in the gospel of
God's free grace. And there will be a funeral.
And someone will stand up and try to take something, a little
act of something they did when they were a kid and they will
try to build on that and try to give somebody some hope You
know, but the scripture sets forth that a man that dies without
a faithful knowledge and confession of the gospel of God's grace,
you can pretty well bet he died without Christ. There's an evidence
of life. So far as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ. all represented by and found
to be in Him, by God's electing grace, by God's choice, all that
are represented and found to be united to the Lord by faith,
that faith that was imparted in regenerating grace by the
Holy Spirit, shall all be made alive, alive in resurrected glory. They're going to be raised from
the dead. This is what the scripture says. We're going to be raised
again. This body, as I've said, I'll
say this again, I want to hear it. This body that is corruptible,
this body right here that's mortal, there's going to be a change
in this body. These eyes that are failing,
these eyes, these ears that don't hear like they used to. This
body that doesn't respond like it used to. And give it time
and it's going to fail because of sin. And it's going to be
buried a mortal. body, a corruptible body, and
it's going to go back to the dust. But Almighty God has set forth
in the resurrection all that are found in Christ. Say, explain
this to me. I cannot explain this to you.
All I can tell you, Paul says, we won't all sleep. Not everybody's
going to die. There's going to be some that's
going to be here when the Lord returns. They're not all going
to sleep. But we're all gonna be changed. Everybody's gonna
be changed. And all that died in the faith, they're going to
be raised in a new body. Their body, their body. That's
what Job says. I'm gonna see the Lord. These
eyes, I'm gonna see them. And it's going to be raised immortal,
like unto His. Now that's a promise. In Adam,
all die. In Christ, all shall be made
alive. But verse 23 says, But every
man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they
that are Christ's at His coming. That means that God has appointed
an order. an order that's going to go like
this. Christ is going to be raised
the first fruits. He is the one that will be raised
first as a promise to all that are found in Him are going to
be raised just like He was raised. He's going to be raised first
to die no more. Now there's been records of some
that have Lazarus was one of them that was raised from the
dead. But he died again. Christ is
the first fruits of those that will rise to die no more. And then at his second coming,
the scripture says, all of his bride collectively shall be raised
to life eternal. None of the sheep will precede
any of the other sheep that have died in the faith. All that have
died in the faith will precede those that are still here. That's
what Paul says. The dead in Christ are going
to rise first. Then we which are alive should
be raised together with them. But none of the sheep that if
ever died in the faith are going to precede any of the sheep.
I don't know how many sheep the Lord has. He knows. I don't know
if all the sheep have been born. I don't know. I mean, we could
be right on the very verge right now of the second coming of Christ.
I don't know. But I can tell you this, when
it's pleasing to the Lord, when God's sheep have all been regenerated,
made new in Christ, when God Almighty is pleased to end this
thing. At that time, all of the sheep
will be raised together. Moses is not coming out of the
ground before brother Scott. All of them are going to be raised
at the same time. That's what he said. But every
man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they
that are Christ's at his coming. And then, verse 24, 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 authority and
power at the second coming of Christ. That's gonna be the end. That's gonna be the end. The
end of the world as we know it. There's gonna be a new heaven,
new earth. But this world, as we know it, is going to be over. The end of all rebellion, the
end of sin, abounding against God on this earth. God's going
to burn it up. The end of excuses for not hearing
the gospel is going to be over. All the books are going to be
opened. Men are going to be judged out of their out of those books,
out of their works, according to their works. There's going
to be no more time. I mean, time just seems to go
so quickly. You know, here we are, 2019,
and here it is, half this month gone. Where'd it go? How could
it go that fast? You know, faith. Right now, we hear the gospel,
we believe, We hear these scriptures, we believe God, God gives us
faith right now to believe. Right now, you're believing by
faith that God just gave you. Faith cometh, cometh, cometh,
cometh. Not yesterday's faith. As I said,
we don't breathe yesterday's air. Cometh by hearing. This is why it's so important
to hear the gospel again. To hear it. Why? Because this
is the way faith cometh. When there's an absence. You know this. When there's a
laxness or an absence or something and we're not able to meet together.
We're affected by it. We're affected. We need to be
together. to hear. We need to hear the
gospel. But in that day, when the end
comes, faith, faith is going to give way to sight. We're going
to see Him as He is. We're going to know Him and hope. We have a hope right now, an
expectation. That's what we have. We're going
to see Him as He is. We have hope there. But in that
day, In the end, that's going to give way to reality. We're
going to see Him. No more need of preaching the
gospel for the purpose of calling out God's sheep. They're going
to be with the Lord. He will have called out all of
His sheep. And then what happens when the end comes? Well, the
Scripture says, Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father. I looked that up, that
He will have delivered up, this is what it means, given over,
given over. And as I read that, I thought, I pray God give me some light
on this. So I've been praying that the Lord give me some light,
and I believe He has. I believe I have something for
you. And I'm going to do something
that I normally don't do. I'm going to give an illustration. And hopefully, after this illustration,
I'm going to make an application of that illustration concerning
this. Then come at the end when He shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God. a whole family of children is
lost. Well actually, what's happened
is they've been captured. They've been kidnapped by a very
dangerous, powerful criminal. A criminal. A criminal has lied
and seduced those children and has taken taking them captive. And this criminal has one objective
about those children that he's taken. He wants to harm the children
because he hates the parents. He hates the parents and so he's
going to get at the parents through the children. Therefore, he truly
hates the children too. because of their relationship
to the parents. Now, these children are children
of those parents, bone to bone and flesh of flesh of those parents. And the only chance that they
have is if they're rescued. These children are captive. captive
to this dangerous, hideous criminal. And they have no chance of escape
on their own. They're bound. He's got them
locked up, bound up. And to rescue the children, the
criminal is going to have to be overcome. The criminal is
going to have to be taken care of first. So what happens is
the dad, One that is bone of bone and flesh of flesh of those
children. The dad, who is their dad, takes
the responsibility to become the rescuer and the deliverer
of his kids because they're his. They're his children. And he
loves them and he's not going to leave them alone to perish. So he searches out until he finds
the children. And when they're found, these
children are found to have been abused. And they're broken. Their legs are broken. And they're
sick. And they're just consumed with
sickness, sickness unto death, head to foot. They have no mental or physical
capacity to be able to find their way home. And the criminal is
aware of the rescue. And the father of these children
has to come in and overcome. But the father has the ability,
he's got the power, he's got whatever it takes to get to the
criminal and overcome the criminal. He's stronger. And his heel in
the taking of those children, taking that which is captive,
his heel is bruised but he crushes the head of that evil one, that
criminal. And he takes his children. Now
these are his children. He owns them. He owns them. They're
his. They're his kids. They're legally,
morally, they're his children. And what he does is he comes
and he brings them back to the mother. The mother who owns them
also. And he delivers them to her.
And he said, here's the kids. They're his kids. They belong
to him. They belong to her. And he brings
them. He brings them and they're safe
and sound and He presents them to her. And the children who
were property of both of them owe their life and their deliverance
totally to the Dad who made Himself to be the Deliverer. He never
ceased to be their Dad. He made Himself, He took upon
Himself the form of a Rescuer. their dad who is their rescuer
and he comes. Now likewise, according to the
everlasting covenant of God's grace, Almighty God out of the
mass of humanity, all that would ever be born before the foundation
of the world, God Almighty who knew every man, all souls are
His, He chose Himself A family. God Himself chose Himself and
predestinated them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to His good pleasure. They're His kids. He
made them. He chose them. He ordained them
to be holy and without blame. And by one act of disobedience,
all of these children that belonged to Almighty God, one act of disobedience
by one man out of that mass of humanity, the first one, by his
one act of disobedience, he fell captive to sin, to Satan, to
this evil criminal. That criminal that hates God
and all that are gods, he hates them. And now all of the children,
the children of God, because they're sons, because they're
sons, they're fallen sons, but because they're sons, now they're
lost sons in bondage to the criminal. and have no hope of escape in
themselves, and they're dead. They've died. They've died spiritually. And they don't even know they're
in bondage. They have no earthly idea they're in bondage. That's
bondage, when you don't even know you're in bondage, and you
think you're free. And they have no possibility. They don't know they're in bondage.
They don't care that they're in bondage. If you told them
they're in bondage, they don't believe you. They have no way
of delivering themselves. And the Father, who is one with
the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to God's everlasting
covenant of grace, gives unto the Son, who willingly agrees
to to become the Rescuer. Who is He? He's the Lord of Glory. He's God Almighty. And the Son
who eternally and agreeably stood as the surety, the Rescuer, the
Mediator of the sheep. He comes into this world having
been commissioned, sent by the Father, to go and rescue these
children. You go get them. You get them. And I'm going to give you all
power over all flesh that you should give eternal life to as
many as I have given you. Coming into this world, being
made flesh like unto His brethren, the Son comes and binds that
criminal. He comes into the strong man's
house. comes into this world. This is
the strong man's house. He's the prince of the air of
this world. He's got the children of all
men, but God's got a people in here, and that's the ones He's
coming after. And so the Son comes and binds
Satan by overcoming him by His perfect life. These children,
they'd sinned against God. They had broken God's law. And
the Rescuer Himself, the Lord of Glory Himself, who has taken
upon Himself the form of a servant, a Rescuer, a Deliverer, and He
comes in here and they have disobeyed God. And He comes in to overpower
that which they lost in the fall. He said, I'll live for them.
I will earn a righteousness to deliver them. How are they going
to be delivered? They're sinners. Christ was made
sin. I'll take that. And I'll make
that my own. And he took upon themselves.
But what about justice? He said, I'll be made sin for
them. I'll answer to the law's demand
for justice. The law's got to be satisfied.
As I've said before, there's no washing this under the rug. There's no sweeping it under
and hiding it and kind of wiping it down on the outside and everything's
going to be fine and don't worry about it. No. He bore their guilt
being made sin and the justice of Almighty God looked upon Him
in wrath, and God's wrath was poured out on Him. He was made
to be us, and there's us right there. We died. Paul said, I
was crucified with Him. And to release them from the
bondage of sin, Christ bore that. He bore that sin to give them
a righteousness. He earned a righteousness. It
imputed that righteousness, and now, having completed the work,
given him by the Father, the Holy Spirit of God, effectually
and irresistibly, reveals to these that have been redeemed,
sons of God that have been redeemed, and reveals to them in regenerating
grace, and tells them through the preaching of the Gospel,
this is what God eternally purposed to do. This is what God purposed
for all those that chose in His Son. And this gospel is preached. And to everyone that the Spirit
of God is pleased to call out of darkness, He gives them faith
to believe it. How do you know who the people
of God are? They believe God. They believe
Him. They believe Him and they realize now, my eternal salvation
was totally brought out by the rescuer himself, who according
to God's will and purpose, and now having rescued the sheep,
just like that dad came and got them and bound that criminal
and took those kids because they were his, they're mine, they're
my kids, and you're not going to have them. And he brings them
and presents them back, now having rescued the sheep, We hear that
which was everlastingly willed and purposed by God for His church,
out of Job 33, 24, I love this, deliver him from going down to
the pit. I have found a ransom, I've found
an atonement. So Christ, with God's everlasting
covenant being ordered in all things, it's sure He haven't
finished the work of the Father. At His second coming, He shall
raise all of His sheep from the grave, all at one time, collectively. And Christ, who owns the sheep,
they're His by gift from His Father. And He's rescued them
from sin and Satan. They're His by purchase. And He's going to bring them
back. The Scripture says He's going
to deliver. Then come at the end when He shall have delivered
up. He comes and He brings them back. And He delivers them to the Father.
A glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And delivers them safe and sound,
secure, holy, without blame. And the Holy God, God Almighty,
to whom the children of God couldn't even approach Him, the Father,
who is unapproachable and just, and who will in no wise clear
the guilty, accepts Him. And we enter into His presence
in the person of the Rescuer, because His righteousness now
robes us. He's delivered us from the bondage
of sin, and there's no guilt and no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus. And He brings them to the Father
and delivers them back. These are the ones, Father, You
chose. These are the ones You gave me.
And He delivers them to the Father, but He forever will remain to
be their head. and their sovereign master in
the kingdom. He'll forever be their husband
of the beloved bride. We shall ever praise Him and
honor Him and magnify Him as the glorious Deliverer who has
redeemed us to God out of every blood and kindred and tongue
and people and nation He's made us. The Scripture says to be
unto our God as kings who are going to reign with Him and priests
who shall offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto His holy name. That's the work that Christ came
into this world to finish. That was His meat, that was His
hunger, His thirst, that was His desire to complete the work. of rescuing the people of God. He did and finished it, and He
conformed them all to His image, and now is sovereign grace, gloriously
displayed. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Scripture says, for it, this is Hebrews 2.10, became Him,
it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. This is what that means. For
it became Him, that is the Father. The Father declared by choosing
a people unto salvation, He declared their salvation to be an act
worthy of accomplishment. When it says, for it became Him,
that's what that means. To the Father, it became Him.
to choose a people unto salvation, and by choosing them, the Father
was saying, their salvation, and whatever it takes, is worthy
of accomplishment. And in the accomplishment of
their salvation, the Father purposed that Christ himself, the captain
of the sheep, their salvation would be honored, eternally honored,
as the one who perfectly and completely suffered all that
the law and justice of God demanded, required. And when we shall be
raised from the dead, when is this going to take place? Well,
when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and all
power. All temporal, yes, all kings
and governors and civil authorities, but primarily all spiritual and
hostile dominions and authorities that oppose God and his people,
Satan, flesh, this world, all these things are going to be
completely subdued and cast out into the lake of fire and cease
to be any more of an obstacle toward the advancement and the
salvation of God's kingdom. And all that were everlastingly
beloved of God, the Father, the Son, of the Spirit, all of them
that fell and were separated from God by sin, all of them
that were captive to Satan, Almighty God purposed, I'm not going to
let them perish. I'm not going to let them die
in their sins. And He covenanted together with
the Son, the Spirit, and the Son rescued them. The Spirit
of God gave them life and called them out of darkness. And then
according to the work, and the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the words of the Lord Jesus shall completely ring throughout
all eternity, Hebrews 2.13, as he comes to the Father, these
words, behold, I and the children which God hath given me. Oh,
in that day, that glorious day, then shall come the end when
he shall have delivered unto God, even the Father, all those
that God everlastingly loved. They fell in Adam, but they were
raised and brought back in Christ. I pray God bless these words
to our heart. And now at this time, let's eat
and drink in the