I'm gonna speak to you on the
subject tonight, the last enemy. 1 Corinthians 15, 26, the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. First of all, don't forget by
whom death is destroyed. Look at verse 25. For he must reign, Christ must
reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, whom we have to thank for the destruction of all of
our enemies. It's the woman's seed that crushes
the serpent's head. He's given men for us and people
for our life. Because we are precious unto
him he's made a thousand fall at our side and ten thousand
at our right hand Because we made him our refuge the scripture
says He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies
And has set their feet in slippery places and has cast them down
to destruction while he holds us by his right hand All of our
enemies fall at his will, at his power. And we stand in him. Christ has put away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. The wages of our sin is death,
our death. But by the precious blood of
our Redeemer, we don't have any of that. We don't have any sin, he took
them away. The just one suffered for the sins of the unjust and
has brought us to God. So that though the carnal mind
is enmity against God, we're now his precious sons and
daughters. We were all enemies by birth,
by nature. Now by his grace his enemies
are our enemies, and he's destroyed them all Though we dwell in the
body of this death now Our bodies Will deteriorate they already
are They will die they will decay But the Lord will by the power
of his resurrection Claim our dead, vile bodies,
our corrupt bodies. Fashion them like unto his glorious
body. What a wonderful scripture that
is. He'll meet us in the air and
so shall we ever be with him. And let's think about that for
a minute. This body, this body. Why doesn't the Lord just leave
these bodies in the grave? Our body's gonna change anyway,
it's gonna be different, so why even raise it at all? Why not
just give us fresh bodies, different bodies? Well, they will be different,
but it will be this body that will rise. Job was able to say, though after
my skin, worms, destroy this body, yet in my flesh, Shall
see God The Lord doesn't just make us
a separate body since the flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, but he raises these Bodies and changes them. I Think that's a wonderful thing
to think about Like the bodies that we now dwell
in were changed from the properties of the dirt that he made them
from, so our new bodies will be changed from what they are
now, from corruption to incorruption, from vile, in language of scripture,
from vile to glorious. But it will be these bodies. There's something wonderful about
that too. Consider how that death has already
Our enemy in this life Certain properties within our
body have already died They made us weaker and unsteady if you're
young It won't be that long old people have been telling you
that since you were little kids weren't they? It's really not
I'm there now, and I'm telling you that You're gonna fall asleep
one night, and you're gonna wake up 60 the next morning. And that's okay. There's nothing
wrong with that, as long as you're in the Lord. But these bodies,
they're already, death has already taken hold of them. Caused pain and suffering, there's
already death working in us. But what a glorious victory Christ
has won for us in that these very bodies, have you thought
about that lately? I don't know that I've ever thought
about that. I think about how the Lord will raise us up and
that we'll be changed, we'll be different. But this same body,
the only body I've ever known, the body I've inhabited since
even before I was born, The Lord knit us together in our mother's
womb. And he's redeemed us body and
soul. He's gonna have us. He's gonna
take these bodies and he's gonna make them like himself. This
body that he knit together, this body that once was so full of
life, so just glowing with youth. This body that once ran like
the wind, sin and Satan have poisoned it.
My sin, my sin, my own sin has poisoned it. And will yet bring me down to
the dust, but this same body will rise, be raised by the power of the
Son of God. and in my flesh, in this flesh,
I'm gonna see God. I'm gonna stand face to face
with the one that bought me and is coming for me. Philippians 3.20, for our conversation,
that is our citizenship is in heaven. Would you turn there
with me, Philippians 3. I wanna show us this closely. Philippians 3 20 For our citizenship is in heaven
that word conversation means a community of citizens Is in heaven we are citizens
not of this earth There is some level there's there's some truth
to the fact that we're citizens of this earth in the sense of
being part of this world for now and but we're not of this
world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We need to think about that every
day. You don't have to consciously think about it, but we need to
live that way. We're citizens of heaven from whence also we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're watching
for our King to come and deliver us from the body of this death.
Deliver us from this present evil world And here's what that's going
to look like who shall change our vile body Yeah, I don't want to get too
graphic about this, but but we're corrupt we are we are walking
corruption We talked about this with some
friends recently that if you seal me in a perfectly airtight
tomb when I die, I will still rot. The worms will still eat
me because they're my worms. They don't come from somewhere
in the ground. They're my worms. That's what
Job called them. And we walk around. Again, if you were sealed in
a clean room, and you go without washing yourself
for just a little while, you're gonna be rank. It's not outside, the problem
is not outside of me, the problem is me. These bodies decay and they're called vile here because
Our hands are swift to shed blood. Our feet are swift to shed. We
do evil with both hands earnestly. Our tongues are set on fire of
hell by nature. In every way, these bodies have
got to go. But he's gonna change them that
they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." How can
that be? How can I be incorruptible? How can I be young again? I've
always liked that song, Forever Young. You know why I like that
song? Because I'm going to be that way. You are too, if you
know the Savior. Forever Young. How can that be? Well, just the
same way that he does everything he does. He does what he wants
to do. He made our bodies to begin with.
He can make them the way he wants them when he gets good and ready.
It's that simple. He subdues all things unto himself.
Nature, he's not subject to nature. Nature is subject to him. The dew of youth is on our Savior's
brow, and we shall be like him. Bless God for that. Every time
I feel a pain, bless God for that. Every time I mourn the wretchedness
of my sin and what I am, bless God it's not gonna be like this
for long. Verse 27 in our text where he
hath put all things under his feet That's that's the reason
that's the cause he's the champion he's he's the winner he's He's
the reason for it He's the author and finisher
of our faith our life our hope Our very existence When he saith all things are
put under him it is manifest that he is accepted which did
put all things under him The father will be under the son.
They'll be it'll be The three on the throne Three persons in
one God The destruction of death is part
of the victory of that Christ, our champion, won
for us. And that victory was won on Calvary. That victory was won on Calvary. Christ lived as everything we're
not and died for all that we are because of his victory over
Satan, our great enemy, over sin, Death and hell, he is exalted
of the Father. Everything is under him, under
his feet. He hath put all things under
his feet because he is the mighty conqueror. And he won that victory
on the cross for us. And when he rose from the dead,
which is what this whole chapter, don't forget, this is a chapter
concerning the resurrection of God's son and ours in him. Because of his victory, God the
father tasks the son in the beginning and eternity with the redemption
of his people. He was made a surety. The scripture
uses that word, a surety, a mediator, the shepherd and bishop, that
means the one who's responsible, the one who watches over and
cares for. Christ is the surety of his people,
and that happened in eternity, of course, between the father
and the son. Christ was trusted, help was laid on one who was
mighty and is mighty, and that help was to help us to to win
the victory for us, to win life for us, eternal life. And he gave himself in that endeavor,
in that salvation. And part and parcel of that is
the destruction of every evil, every one that is evil, even
our old selves, our flesh. so that Christ's death for us
on the cross is not only infinitely beneficial to us, but it's a
success worthy of eternal glory. He's on the throne now victorious and reigning in the heir of all
things, the heir of the world, and rightly so. because of what
he accomplished by his sin atoning death. In other words, he's both
Savior and Lord. Not only do we have life, eternal
life because of him, but he reigns rightly because of the victory
he accomplished for us. Turn with me please to Matthew
21. Matthew chapter 21 and verse 41 This is a reference to our text
is a reference to this which is a reference to Old Testament
Scripture Matthew 22 41 while the Pharisees were gathered together
Jesus asked them saying what think ye of Christ and Notice
the things that the Lord asked. The Pharisees asked a lot of
questions like, if somebody, think about this. You've got
the son of God walking with you, and what are you gonna ask him?
What do you wanna talk about? Well, you know, if a man was
married more than once in this world, who's gonna be his wife
in heaven? Well, that's brilliant, isn't it? That's an earth-shattering
question. And they asked things like that.
They asked him things to try to trip him up. The scripture
tells us the motive of their heart was not to learn from him,
but to trip him up and prove him a imposter. So they asked him stupid things
like that. Who cares? What difference does
any of that make? That's not what the kingdom of
heaven is about. That's what he told them. It's
not about that. But look at the questions he
asked them. What think ye of Christ? That's getting to the
point, isn't it? What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? He exposes by that question their
carnal thinking. Everything had to do with the
flesh. They were looking for a champion
that would save them from the Romans. They were looking for
somebody that would give them the glory that was due unto them. The Jews were despised, and they
were thinking, boy, the Christ, when He comes, He's gonna show
that we're on top of the world, and everybody else is just in
our way, and all this stuff. They still think that way. That's why they reject the Son
of God, because He didn't exalt Him. He put them in the dust
when He was here, and with His word. It's not about a fleshly kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world,
he taught them. That's not what they were about.
Look at their answer. He's the son of David. Well, that's a fact. He's of the lineage
of David. But that's not the point. When
you ask somebody whose son is the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
not your answer, the son of David. Because there's something that
trumps that. There's something a little more important than
that that's the right answer. He just happens to be the son
of God. And they didn't answer that way? He saith unto them, how then
doth David in spirit call him Lord? You say, David is his father. David didn't say, he's my son.
David said, he's God's son. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool. If David then, and that's our
text, that's the same verse. that our text refers to, which
again, refers back to the Old Testament. Verse 45, if David
didn't call him Lord, how is he his son? He is, according
to earthly lineage and genealogy, but how can that be if he's the
son of God, if he's the Lord of the universe? How can that
be? And they weren't able to answer
that. They couldn't answer that, because
their thoughts, the natural mind, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, and
they had no spiritual life, and so they had no spiritual understanding. They had the same scriptures
we do. They had the Old Testament that spoke of the Son of God,
the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ from the very beginning.
He was pictured in the very garden of Eden. And they couldn't answer
this question. Because they were blind. God's
got to open blind eyes. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord hath made them both. He didn't open their eyes. He said to his disciples, it's
given unto you to know these things. But it's not given to them. They weren't able to answer him
a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any
more questions. It was a stopper. Whose son is
he? That's the simple truth that
you and I need to know. You think about that with me.
What do we need to know other than who he If you have the slightest inkling
who he is, you'll take your place under his feet and be happy to
be there. Turn with me to Philippians 2,
please. Philippians chapter 2 Verse 8 Being found in fashion as a man
he humbled himself And became obedient unto death even the
death of the cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him. That's what we've said Because
of what he accomplished on Calvary God has put him on the throne
And given him a name which is above every name that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow Of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should
confess That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father All things are put under him, except the one that put
them under him. All things. Where are we gonna
be that day? And I don't just mean physically,
you know that. We might think that, well, I won't be surprised
about bad or dismayed. I'll have an advantage over the
masses that day because I've already known for years that
he's Lord. I wonder whether maybe you and I might just be shocked
when we see who he is. When we behold his lordship,
his supremacy, the magnitude of his sovereignty, that perhaps
we might be dismayed that seeing who he really is, we've lived
the way we have. Maybe by this point we'll be
past that, I don't know. But I do know this, thank God
we know him. But the more you see him in the
word, the more God reveals to you, the more you realize how
little we know him. You understand a little bit why
Paul, after knowing him for some time, said, That I might know
him And the power of his resurrection I Do know this though those whom
Christ has redeemed Who have bowed in the day of his power
willingly Are going to be perfectly fine with being under his feet Christ has always been the Lord
of all. He always has. He commanded the
winds and the seas even while he walked this earth. He made
a fish pay his disciples' taxes. And he made a bird feed his prophet
even before he walked this earth. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy, Romans 9.15. gives life to whom he will, John
5, 21. But our text speaks of such a time when all who oppose him in this
world now, and they serve his purposes now, but they're gonna
be brought inexperience under his feet. They're gonna know
that they're there. Satan will no longer be given
any slack in his chain. Evil rulers in this world who
were given what authority they have by Christ to begin with
Will be shown openly and to their eternal shame To be powerless
puppets of the master And their evil will be exposed
their so-called power will crumble before their eyes And before the eyes of the whole
universe They'll acknowledge Christ who now they refuse to
acknowledge Religious soul-murdering Antichrist
freewill Liars will be exposed in that day and ashamed and punished
Those who preached and practiced the horrible satanic mantra of
It's all up to us. They'll find in the end that
nothing has ever been up to them and that the one whom everything
is up to has consigned them to hell for their pride and idolatry. It's a good time, if the Lord
ever shows us what this is, it's a good time to bow, to take our
place under his feet now. And may he give us a glimpse
now of who he is. Do you see that that's all that
we really need to know? Those who neglect to worship
the Lord publicly In support of his church. And
I don't care what your reason is. You may have a very good
reason. The man in the scripture did. He said, my father's poorly. I've got to go take care of him
until he dies. And then once that's done, I'll
come follow you. And the Lord said, let the dead
bury their dead. And you, you follow me. You worship me. You serve me. That's who he is. That's who he is. but those who just will not,
for whatever reason, worship Him in this life, in this one
life that He's given us. Because of a job or because of
anything, we'll be shocked to find out who He is. It's gonna
be a great shock. Those who choose the false free
will religion of this evil world, rather than to ever stand in
awe of the God of the Bible, will be shocked to find out who
he is. See, if you know who he is, you're
not gonna boast of your free will. I'm telling you right now. No way. You're gonna bow to his
will. And you're gonna see that all
things in this world, in this universe, in your life, is according to his will. He
worketh all things, the scripture says, after the counsel of his
own will. He doesn't confer with anybody
in that. We'll find out who he is one of these days. If we live for ourselves, And our life's ambition is success
in this world. This sin-cursed world. This world has one purpose, and
it's Christ. And when he's done with it, he's
gonna burn it up. You gonna set your affections on that which
is not? Riches that make themselves wings
and fly away the favor of this world or the pleasures of this
world We're gonna be shocked to find out who he is Only his father is not put under
him This exception just all the more establishes the rule Hebrews 2 8 thou has put all
things in subjection under his feet For in that he put all in
subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under
him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. You look at this world and it
doesn't look that way, does it? That's why we gotta trust his
word. We got to believe him. And hence our text. not one thing
is not put under him. Then, when our text comes to
pass, we will see all things put under him. When cometh the end, remember the context, then cometh
the end. Indeed, as our Lord taught Solomon,
The end, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Look what happened on Calvary. The Lord has destroyed all of
our enemies. And the last enemy that we will
experience the destruction of is death. when he raises our
bodies from the grave to live with him forever. The very death that works in
us even now is already vanquished. Just some passage of time will
occur and we will see the end of death. Death will be reversed, abolished, and we'll find out then what
life is. Youth, even in this life, let's
face it, it's a wonderful thing. That song says youth is like
diamonds in the sun. What will it be though to dwell
in a body so glorious that the only way
it can be described is that it's like his? All other adjectives would fail. It's going to be like him, like
his glorious body. It's hard to imagine now. We belong to Him, body and soul.
And He makes everything beautiful in His time. Look what happened on Calvary. Amen, let's pray.