Seeking the Lord's help for a
little while this evening, turn with me to the chapter we read,
Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15, and reading verses
55, 56, and 57. The first epistle to the Corinthians,
chapter 15, verses 55, 56, and 57. 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 thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is something
that has been recorded and the author is unknown, but it goes
like this. There is a preacher of the old
school. But he speaks as boldly as ever. He is not popular, though the
world is his parish, and he travels every part of the globe, and
speaks in every language. He visits the poor, calls upon
the rich, preaches to people of every religion and no religion,
and the subject of his sermon is always the same. He is an eloquent preacher, often
stirring feelings which no other preacher could, and bringing
tears to eyes that never weep. His arguments none are able to
refute, nor is there any heart that has remained unmoved by
the force of His appeals. He shatters life with His message. Most people hate Him, everyone
fears Him. Well, what's his name? Death. Every tombstone is his pulpit. Every newspaper prints his text. And someday, every one of you,
every one of us, will be his sermon. And so as we have read this chapter,
this glorious chapter, which speaks of the resurrection of
Christ, the resurrection of man, and Christ's victory over death,
we would seek with the Lord's help to bring something out of
this for the profit of our never-dying souls. on the last occasion that dear
Marian worshipped in this house of God was on the Lord's Day,
April the 28th. And the text on that occasion
was in the first book of Kings, chapter, no it wasn't, it was
the second book of Kings, chapter four, And regarding the woman
with those meagre supplies and those supplies that surpassed
exceeding demands, and our text was, Elisha said to her, what
shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the
house? And she said, Thine handmaid
hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Well, as we said, she was a woman
with surpassing demands. and all she had was this jar
of oil and that could not possibly meet the debt with which she
was faced with. Well as we came to the end of
the sermon we quoted from Revelations chapter 19 and the 9th verse regarding the marriage supper
of the Lamb. And there we have, And He said
to me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings. And we then spoke a little from
Jeremiah chapter 38 and verse 20, where Jeremiah was speaking
to the people who were in great fear. And he said to them in
Jeremiah 38, 20, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech
thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee. So it
shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. And it was said, now it's to
come off everything. It's to come off everything.
To come off, as this dear woman was, with just nothing but a
jar of oil. She had nothing. She had these
terrific needs. But such demands that she could
never meet. But she was blessed. She was
blessed with bountiful supplies. She had no hope at all of meeting
the debt. And we spoke about the claims
of the law, the claims of the law that we could never meet. But blessed be God, and this
we will seek to try to develop a little this evening from these
verses, that those claims, though we could never meet them, the
law, the law proclaims death. The law proclaims death. We have
no hope of meeting the law's demands. But they are met. Those demands
are met, we said, by the infinite grace of God. And we quoted,
in closing, from that most well-known, I think the most interpreted
verse in the whole of the Word of God, in John 3 and verse 16,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And that's where this jar of
oil, the analogy with this jar of oil, that he gives and he
gives and he gives again, eternal life forever and ever and ever. Well, dear Marion, it was just
two days later, two days later when we actually, we had arranged
to go and see them that morning and we arrived and the ambulance
was there and she was just saying, I just want to die. I just want
to die. and friends, and that's being
brought off of everything, isn't it? The Lord, He'll bring us,
He'll bring us off of everything, and He'll make us willing even
to face this last enemy of death. And so she married and she faced
death. And it wasn't long after she'd
been in the hospital that she spoke very little. But one of
the last things that she said before slipping again into, I
suppose it was unconsciousness, that Keith and Anne were with
her and quoted blessed assurance and she said Jesus is mine Jesus
is mine what a dying testimony isn't it on as we think of the
It's great sadness that her and Ted have walked in since Christmas,
now almost 18 months ago, when their son Stephen suddenly died
on Christmas Day. And they never come up from it. The great sadness, the great
grief. but how her sufferings now have
reached a close and heaven affords her sweet repose and so oh this
conquering as as our text finishes but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Oh, that this is
the gospel, isn't it? The gospel is, as we've said,
the law is, die, it's death. But gospel sings, let the sinner
live. Well, and so, as we read in the
21st verse, that for since by man came death, by man came also
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. And so Paul, as he wrote
that letter to the Romans, and in the fifth chapter he speaks
of us being whilst we were yet without strength in the sixth
verse in due time Christ died for the ungodly and he says in
in verse in verse 18 to 21 therefore as by the offense of one that
is Adam judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that
the offence might abound. But Where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Well what a mercy, what a mercy
that as he says in the 12th verse there in Romans 5, wherefore
as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and
so death passed upon all men. for that all have sinned. Oh how we bless God, don't we? How we bless a God that in his
love, all that love that was agreed in eternity past, those
covenant blessings, that covenant of grace, that yes, that man
would fall and we would all fall with him. But a substitute, a
substitute is provided. And when that time came, as Jesus
would say, my hour is not yet come, but that time did come,
when He, the holy, harmless, spotless Lamb of God, that He
laid down His life for His sheep, for His lambs. And so that deliverance, there
was that glorious deliverance from the pit of hell for each
of his dear people. That a propitious God, that his
anger was satisfied, his wrath was satisfied. as Jesus at the
propitiator that he endured the wrath of God in those three hours
of absolute agony as he hung upon the cross. And that fountain,
that fountain of blood was opened for sin and for uncleanness. Well, and so our text says, O
death, 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. Well, it's terror, isn't it?
Oh, death. What? It's terror. That's why many people in the
world will never ever speak about death. They'll do anything. They'll do anything to change
the subject. And the attitude very often is,
well, let's eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Friends, we have this. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? You know, the law, the law was
given and the law was given and it gives strength. It gives strength
to sin. Oh, it gives strength to sin.
It leads to death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And it has a sting, this sting,
the sting of death is sin. It ends in death and destruction,
this sting. Adam and Eve, they sinned. They broke the law. The law was
broken. Sin entered. Sin entered the
world and death was pronounced on all. And there was this everyone,
everyone born under that fearful condemnation of the law. He says the sting of death is
sin. It's like it has been described
as a scorpion. As a scorpion, it's deadly. It's the king of terrors. It's
cruel. It's a cruel enemy. It's a destroyer. It brings absolute destruction. There's no hope. There's no hope. The sinner is damned. He's broken
the law. Every one of us, every one of
us have broken that law. we're all facing we're all facing
eternal death and we have absolutely no power no power in and of ourselves
to deliver ourselves or to deliver those whom we love from that
dreadful dreadful enemy of death because of sin because of sin
But oh, that verse 57 speaks of victory, speaks of this victory,
but thanks be to God. which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. In Galatians chapter 4 and verse
4, we have those well-known words. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. And so Isaiah, as he prophesied
in the 25th chapter of death, being swallowed up in victory. And death is this dreadful monster,
this dreadful monster, this destroyer, this hurtling everyone under
the law into condemnation, into a certain eternity in hell. And yet a ransom, a ransom is
provided, a substitute is provided. Oh, the wages of sin is death,
isn't it? Nothing that we can do can escape
that. But, oh, as the law demands death,
oh Christ, He perfectly, He perfectly satisfied the demands of the
law. Why, He lived, didn't He? He
lived a perfect life. a body had been prepared for
him hadn't it that as he came down from heaven this body was
prepared for him and a body like our own he couldn't have represented
us had he not a body and a soul like our own but unlike us from
the moment we were born we've sinned And yet him had not a
taint of sin, he perfectly fulfilled the law. He's spotless, he's
harmless, he's undefiled. But oh, the love of Christ to
sinners. This sting, oh, as a bee, as
a bee will sting, won't it? And a bee will sting and it'll
leave its sting in its victim. Oh, and friends, and Christ,
Jesus, that sting has been inflicted on Him, that was inflicted on
Him, that it shouldn't be inflicted upon His dear people. And so
that sting has been removed. Oh, as Marian, as she was taken
from this time state into glory, it was immediately in the presence
of the Lord. No, she didn't have to suffer
what she breathed her last. Christ has done it. It's a finished
work of Christ. And so it is, isn't it? It's
death of deaths and hell's destruction that's put so well in that Guide
Me O Thou Great Jehovah 462. And it's when I tread. Oh, make it our plea, friend,
when I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside,
death of deaths and hell's destruction land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises I will ever
give to thee. Oh friends, a precious Jesus. Yes, there was Satan, wasn't
it? He believed that he had the victory as Jesus and he cried,
it is finished. He gave up the ghost. He's laid
in the tomb and Satan believes he's had the victory. No, blessed
be God, yes he did brose his foot, but all sight and was dealt
a deadly blow, all that his head was severely brosed. He's conquered. He's a conquered foe. Our Jesus
is the conqueror. He has conquered. He has won
the victory, won the victory for his dear people. He's won that victory over sin,
death and hell. Now the wonderful thing about
all of this is that we merited none of it. There was nothing
that we could do to rescue our souls, ourselves, from spending
an eternity in a never-ending hell. But you know, this victory,
this victory that Christ, that Jesus won, this victory is just
as though that you and I have won it. It's just as though you
and I have won it. We share, we share in this triumph. Thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we don't share
in it by any merit of our own. At nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. But it's this gift, isn't it?
Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. It's this gift of the glorious
gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Sinners, we all
lost everything. We lost everything in Adam. He sinned, we sinned. He failed, we failed. But friends, how precious isn't
it that Christ has undone for his people what Adam did and
what we have done in our desperate state of sin and iniquity, of
being lost, of being estranged from God. or we are partakers
partakers of this triumph the partakers of this victory through
our lord jesus christ well now as we seek to bring our thoughts
to a close and we've not got too many young friends with us
but I trust that it will be of profit to us all as we refer
to the account of David in Samuel when he fought Goliath. And you'll remember that his
father, David's father, he sent him, didn't he? Sent him with
various food and provisions to his brethren that were fighting
in Saul's army. And so David, he comes along
and he comes and he finds his brethren and indeed all the soldiers,
they're all so demoralized, they're frightened, they're in fear as
far as they're concerned that the battle is lost. and there's
no hope of being saved, and the Philistines have the victory.
And why? Because there is this great shout,
this great shout, and this huge man comes out, and David asks
after him. And he says, well, what shall
be done? What shall be done for the, what does he say, in verse
26 of the first book of Samuel 17? David spake to the men that
stood by, saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth
this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For
who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies
of the living God? And the people answered him after
this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth
him. And that came out in verse 25
that the king would enrich him with great riches and would give
him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. But what does David have to face?
He has to face mocking, doesn't he? He faces mocking from his
older brother Eliab. And he accuses him, doesn't he,
of being naughty. I know thy pride, and the naughtiness
of thine heart. For thou art come down, that
thou mightest see the battle. Oh, how our Jesus, how our Jesus
was mocked, wasn't he? He was spat upon. Oh, the cruelty
that he went through even prior to going to the cross, and as
he hangs upon the cross. and this we see in David here
with Goliath we see King David's greater son and so David said As he heard the shout of Goliath,
he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner.
And when the words were heard which David spake, which he had
declared, that I will go, I will go, Well, then he goes to Saul, doesn't
he? And Saul, well, you must have
my armour on. But the armour hasn't been proved. No, he must go alone. He must go trusting in the Lord. He mustn't go in his own strength. He goes in the strength of the
Lord's. He says in verse 32, let no man's
heart fail because of him. Thy servant, as he speaks to
Saul, thy servant will go, will go and fight with this Philistine. Oh, Jesus, wasn't it? Oh, the
willing servant. Oh, the suffering servant sent
by his father. loved, loved poor sinners, sends
his own dear Son, that all who believe in him should not perish. And why? Because the sting of
death has been inflicted upon Christ. Well, and so, as you
know, David, he goes out to make a life in just his ordinary,
simple clothing. And and he takes a takes a sling
and five stones. And and with those and with the
stone, he runs to make the Philistine, the Philistine Goliath cursing
him. And he said to the Philistine
in verse 45, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear
and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee. and take thine head
from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the hosts of the
Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild
beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there
is a God in Israel, and all this assembly shall know that the
Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the
Lord's. And He will give you into our
hands. Friends, this final enemy, this
enemy of death, the battle is not yours, it is the Lord's. The sting of death is in Jesus. That sting which would remain
in you is in Jesus. And so David, he put his hand
in his bag, took thence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine
in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead and he
fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevails over the Philistine. Oh, the grace of God is that
woman with that little pot of oil. Yes, impossible, but impossible
demands were met and the demands of the law are met by this precious
Jesus, by this conqueror. And as David conquered Goliath,
so he represents in this a precious Christ. That as the Israelites,
they were sure that they would be defeated, that they would
be conquered, that they would be finished. that the Philistines
would have the victory. But David prevailed over the
Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine,
and slew him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood
upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of
the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw
their champion was dead, they fled. Friend, this is the gospel. This is the gospel. Oh, that
the enemy, the enemy, oh that he's there and he's sure he'll
have the victory. But they flee. All of these soldiers,
they were frightened silly. None of them were going to battle.
They were just ready to be defeated. But what happens? As the enemy
flees, we see that they share in the spoils. They share in
the triumph. Just as poor sinners, saved by
grace, redeemed by precious blood, share in Christ's victory. that as He returned to heaven,
taking His spoils with Him, our names are written upon the palms
of His hands, upon His heart. And so the men of Israel and
of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until
they came to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded
of the Philistines fell down by the way to Sharim, even unto
Gath and unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines and they spoiled their tents. They took everything, all the
treasures, everything they had, just as though it was them that
had gained the victory. No, David had gained the victory
and through his victory they gained And so it is through Christ. Oh, that thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, dear friends, that they
fought, that as David fought Goliath, and he won. So the victory was shared by
all of Saul's army. And so it is with the child of
God, or with the church of God, that though we merit death, we
can do nothing ourselves. But He, He does it all. He fights His people's battles
well. And so that sting of death, that
sting of death, that though death is a most solemn and very, very
sad occasion, particularly sad for those that are left and much
sorrow with it. And that is the effects of sin.
We still feel very much the effect of sin. We are still sinners. but ought to be amongst those
that are not amongst those whose wages will be death because of
sin. O, that to prove and to be blessed,
as we trust dear Marian, his, and many, many others that have
gone before, the wages of sin is death. But thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory, through our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Amen. We conclude our worship with
our final hymn number 172 from Hymns for Worship. Take time
to be holy, speak oft with your Lord, bide in him always, feed
on his word, make friends of God's children, help those who
are weak, forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek. 172 from Hymns for Worship. Take time to be holy, speak oft
with your Lord. Abide in him always, and feed
on his word. Make friends of God's children,
help those who are weak. Forgetting in nothing is blessing
to see. Take time to be holy, the world
rushes on. Spend much time in secret with
Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus, like Him
you will see. Your friends in your corner His
likeness shall see. Take time to be holy, Let him
be thy guide, And when not before him watch, When you're in sorrow, still
follow the Lord. And looking to Jesus, still trust
in his word. ? They join to be holy ? ? They
come in your soul ? ? Each vote and each temper ? ? In his control
? ? As men by his spirit ? ? Strength and age of love ? soon shall
be fitted for service above. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, the fellowship and the sweet communion
of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us all, now and for evermore. Amen.