Well, good evening. I think getting
in this chair and sitting down would be that hard. Well, it's
good to see everybody able to come out on a cold winter's night. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to 1 Corinthians 15. I thought about that today. Those of you able to come out
on a cold night when it seems like the world has tilted off
its axis a little bit. I guess it's wrong for me to
think I want to make it worth your while. Because I can't do
that. But I've sought earnestly. I have earnestly sought the Lord's
leadership that He might give you something tonight to make
it worth your while. I believe maybe He has. 1 Corinthians
15. We begin our reading in verse
42. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It's sown in corruption. It's
raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised
in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised
in power. It's sown a natural body. It's
raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body. And so it's written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit, albeit That was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the
Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. 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. 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. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord." Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you that you are God alone, that you rule and reign, always accomplishing
your eternal will and purpose. Father, enable us to have the
faith and the grace to rest in your sovereign will, knowing
that what is happening in our lives and in our world today
is not an accident, it's not bad luck, it's not the will of
man being accomplished, but it's your eternal will and purpose.
And Father, we're thankful, thankful to know you are God alone. And
how thankful, human words cannot express our thanksgiving, that
it is your sovereign will to save your people through the
obedience and through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're
thankful that it is your will and purpose to bless the preaching
of your word, to take our stumbling and bumbling words and bless
it to the salvation of your people, to bless it to the hearts of
your people, to strengthen feed and comfort and encourage. Father,
how we thank You. And Father, I beg of You tonight
that You would meet with us in the person of Your Spirit and
enable us to worship. Father, show us Your glory. Show
us Your glory by revealing to us the Lord Jesus Christ, to
giving us the faith to believe Him and to rest in Him. Father,
we thank You for this place that You've enabled us to meet together,
a place that has stood as a lighthouse in a dark, dark place. And Father,
we pray your continued blessing. And Father, for those that you
brought into the time of trouble and trial, we pray for them.
You've given your people absolutely everything that's necessary.
There's nothing lacking that we might stand accepted in thy
sight. But Father, in this flesh, we
are a poor, and a needy people. And Father, for those who are
sick, sick of body, mind, and heart, Father, we pray for them.
We pray for those who are recovering from this virus. We pray a special
blessing, our brother Gary Holbeck, that you'd undertaken his behalf,
Father, and restore him back to health, that he might be with
his family and be able to come here and worship with us again.
For those who are heartbroken and bereaved, Pray for Brother
Mike Young at this time and others, Father. Comfort their heart,
we pray, as only You can. Father, we ask You to forgive
us of our sin and our much speaking. See us and hear us only in our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His blessed name, for
His glory, the glory of His name, and the good of His people, we
pray. Amen. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter
15. I titled the message this evening, No Sting in Death. And
I'll tell you how I came to this text. Many of you already know
on early Sunday morning, our Lord was pleased to call home
our sister, Ethel Young. He called her home to glory.
Yesterday, we had a family-only graveside service. We're not
able to have big funerals and things like we're typically used
to doing. Mike said his way of showing
his love to everybody was not having a funeral, not having
a visitation, not putting people at risk. If it wasn't for this
situation, I know many of you would have been there to hear
the funeral message. But since you were not able to
attend, I thought I might expand the message I preached at the
graveside yesterday for you all to hear this evening. It was
just a great blessing to me as I studied and prepared it and
thought I might bring it to you this evening. If I came to this
particular text for the funeral service, Brother Mike called
me and told me the Lord had called his mother home. He said something
in a way, I don't think I've ever heard a phrase this way
before that really caught my attention. I liked it. He told
me, there is no sting of death in this for mother. He said,
but there's a little sting for me. Isn't that good? That is
such a good description of what happens when a believer dies.
There is no sting of death ever. for the bleep, but there is a
little sting left for the loved ones who stayed behind it. There's
a little sting. And the verse he was referring
to is in our text of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. O death, where's
thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory? Now that word sting, it means
an insect sting or like a sting from a bee or sting from a scorpion.
But it means more than that. You just got stung by a bee and
you shake it off and go on. This word sting means a sting
that kills. So this sting that Paul is talking
about here is a deadly weapon. None of us would like to stare
down the barrel of a deadly weapon, would we? I've heard somebody
sticks a gun in your face. All you see is a barrel. It looks
to you this big around you. It scares you to death. We don't
want to look down the barrel of a deadly weapon. And there's some apprehension
to think about death, isn't there? There's this apprehension that
we've never done it. We don't know what it's like. But now
listen, this is what the word of God says. Death is not a deadly
weapon to the believer. Death is something we should
think about. We should. We should. And prepare for it.
It's a point on man wants to die. This is an appointment we
must keep. But death is not something worth
the fear. Not if we trust Christ. If we trust Christ, there's no
fear in death. Because death cannot sting, cannot
destroy the believer. And the reason there's no sting
in death for the believer, and there is a little sting left
for the loved ones who are staying behind, is because this reason. The Lord Jesus Christ has given
His people complete and utter victory. And much of the victory
that our Lord has purchased for us is received when we die. Verse
57, Paul says, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And since the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, has given us the victory, God's elect are not
stung. They're not defeated. They're
not harmed by death in any way. And tonight I want us to see
four ways that Christ has given us the victory so that we who
believe on Him will never be stung by death. Number one is
this. Christ, God's people, there's
no staying in death for God's people because Christ has given
his people the victory over corruption. Verse 51. Behold, I show you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Aren't you glad for that? We
shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.
The end shall be brought to pass the saying that's written, death
is swallowed up in victory. Now that word corruptible, I
looked it up, it means something that can perish or something
that can be destroyed. And that's our flesh, isn't it?
Our flesh is corruptible. It can perish, it can be destroyed. And the reason for that is the
nature of our flesh. By nature, We are corruption. It's not just we have corruption.
We are corruption. Our flesh is the corruption of
sickness and the disease of sin. Our bodies are corruptible and
they must perish. They must because of the sin
that's in our flesh. Every one of us here must die
and our bodies must go back to the dust because of the sin that's
in our flesh. That will happen to every last
one of us unless the Lord returns first and changes us We'll have
to lay down this body of corruption and it must go back to the dust
that God made it from. But the death of the body and
the decay of the flesh does not mean that the believer's been
destroyed. The death and decay of our flesh
doesn't mean that somehow death has got the victory and sin has
stung us and destroyed us by death. For the believer, all
death means is we've finally laid down our corruption. We've
finally laid down that which can be destroyed. We've left
our corruption behind, and we've gone on to be with the Lord.
We've been made sinless, and we've gone to live with the Lord
in a sinless paradise. Now I tell you, I ask you, where's
the defeat in that? Where's the sting in that? There's
none, is there? No, there's none. All that's
there is victory. And Christ, our substitute, is
the reason for it. that Christ, our substitute,
is the reason that God's people have victory over this corruption. The Lord Jesus Christ took the
sin of His people. He took the corruption of His
people into His own body on the tree. And He put all of that
sin, all of that corruption away by the blood of His sacrifice.
It's all gone. And here's how I know that's
so. The Lord Jesus died for sin. He actually died for the sin
of His people They took his body down and laid him dead in a tomb
and rolled a stone in front of it. He was there for three days
until by his power, he arose and he rolled that stone away.
And during those three days that the Lord lay in the tomb, you
know what happened to his body? Not one blessed thing. After
four days, Martha told the Lord, Lord, don't tell him to roll
that stone away. He stinketh. It's been four days, he stinketh.
After three days, you know what happened to the body of our Lord?
Nothing. His body saw no decay. And you
know why his body saw no decay? There's no sin left in him. All
that sin that had been charged to him was gone. Sin's what causes
corruption. He saw no corruption because
there's no sin left in him. But what happened to it? What
happened to all that sin? His blood put it all away. And now,
sin can't cause any more corruption, any more decay, any more death
to him or to his people. Because he put their sin away.
Christ gave His people the victory over corruption when He gave
them His incorruption. He traded our corruption for
His incorruption. He gave His people something
that can't be destroyed, that cannot perish. He gave them eternal
life. Now that's true for the souls
of God's people right now. If you believe Christ right now,
right now at this very minute, you have eternal life. While
your body's perishing, you have eternal life. And one day that'll
be true of our bodies too. When the Lord returns and we're
raised, He's going to give us a body just like our soul, incorruptible,
eternal life made just like Christ. And that's why Sunday morning,
there was no stinging death for our sister, Ethel. All she did
at that time was put off corruption and go be in the presence of
Him who took all her corruption away. Complete victory, complete
and utter victory. Alright, number two, Christ has
given His people. Here's why there's no sting in
death for His people. Christ has given His people the
victory over death. At the end of verse 54, Paul
says, Then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. Paul says death is swallowed
up in victory. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
did for His people. He swallowed up death. So that
death is gone for all of God's people. I thought of this illustration. That water's gone. You know why
it's gone? I swallowed it up. I swallowed
it up. That water, whatever was in that
water, good or bad, can't help anybody, can't hurt anybody ever
again. It's gone because I swallowed
it up. That's what Christ did to death
for his people. He swallowed it up. So it's gone
and it can't harm his people ever again. Verse 55, because
he swallowed up, this is what the apostle says, O death, where's
thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory?
There's no sting in death for God's elect. You know why? You
know why there's no sting in death for the believer? It's
because of God's amazing grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, in order
for Him to swallow up death, this is what He had to do. He
took the sting of death into Himself. He took the sting of
sin into Himself as a substitute for His people. He took that
stinger in His own body upon the tree and now His people can
never feel that stinger themselves because our substitute took it
for us. Now that's grace. That's grace. See, the stinger
of death is sin. You know, a bee or a scorpion,
it's got something that's a stinger, doesn't it? That causes pain
and suffering. Well, the stinger of death is
sin. See, sin's a stinger. Sin's what's
caused all of our problems. It causes all the pain and the
suffering and the wickedness that's in this world. It causes
death in this world. That's why we keep having all
these funerals. It's sin. It causes death. And sin Left
itself is the stinger that causes eternal death. But the Lord Jesus
Christ took that stinger away from his people. He was made
sin. He took that stinger of sin in
his body. He was made sin for his people.
And he took that sin and he died in their place. He died the death
that his people deserve because of their sin. And now they can
never die. Christ died for them. He satisfied
justice by dying in their place They can never die. God's justice
demands they never die. Just like God's justice demands
Christ die when he was made sin for his people, that same justice
demands God's people never die because Christ died in their
place. Now our bodies will still die, but our souls can never
die. Our souls can never die eternal
spiritual death if Christ died for us. Now we say, Ethel died. That's what we say. But you know
what? She's living life, right at this
moment, more full and more rich than anything we can ever imagine,
this side of glory. As a matter of fact, Ethel didn't
die at all. I'm not saying we're wrong to
say she died, but really she didn't die. Her body died, but
Ethel went to be with the Lord. So death didn't hurt her at all,
did it? All it did was help her. Graduation day, death helped
her. And that's true for every believer.
Christ has given us the victory over death, so that death cannot
harm God's people. All it can do is help them. That's so. All right, thirdly,
Christ has given His people the victory over the grave. Verse
55, Paul says, O death, where is thy sting? In O grave, where
is thy victory? Now yesterday, Jay and I drove
out to Louisa, just a cemetery I'd never heard of before. I
didn't know how to get there. I printed off directions from the funeral. Buddy, I never would have found
it if we hadn't, our phone told us to turn on, because the roads
weren't marked. But anyway, me being me and not
knowing what I was going to want, I didn't want the funeral. I
didn't want to be late to somebody's funeral, you know. And Mike said,
we won't start without you. So we got there a little early.
And a little early, I had some time to look around. That place,
that hillside, it's full of graves. Just full of them. Some of them
have been there a long time. There are some old graves there.
Some of those bodies have been in that hillside a mighty long
time. And if you didn't know any better,
by walking around that place, you know what you'd think? You'd
think the graves got the victory. There are folks that have been
there 100 years. death. The graves got to victory. They've
been there a long time. But it hasn't. It hasn't. It hasn't. Because of the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ, even the grave is
not a defeat for the believer. You know, we think, because it's
all we've ever seen, we think of a cemetery as a place of death. That's what we think. Quiet,
cold death. That's what we think. But the
story's not told now. One of these days, all those
cemeteries and places that have been cemeteries, bodies have
been there so long, you don't even know it's a cemetery anymore.
The headstones are gone, the markers are gone. There's dead
bodies down there, we don't know it. One of these days, all those
places where people are buried are going to be places of abundant,
abundant life. Because there's going to be a
glorious resurrection there when Christ returns. And I'm telling
you, It don't look like it right now, but the grave holds no victory
over God's people. You see, the grave is not the
end of the story. You know, we go to the cemetery
and we bury our loved ones. Maybe we might throw some of
the first handfuls of dirt, you know, or something in there.
I don't think people do that much anymore. They used to, but one
way or another, we go to the cemetery. Preacher says a few
words over the casket. People take a flower. And they
go home. We leave our loved one there.
But I want to tell you what, that's not the end of the story.
That's not the end. Ethel and all of God's people,
they're going to rise again. You know why they're going to
rise again? Because Christ, who died for them, also rose again
for them. See, they buried our Lord Jesus,
but the grave couldn't hold him. The grave couldn't hold him any
longer than the three days that he appointed. You ever wonder
why Jonah was three days and three nights in that fish's belly?
I mean, couldn't Jonah have learned after one day? Couldn't Jonah
have learned after an hour salvation belongs to the Lord? You know
why Jonah was three days and three nights in that well? Because
God Almighty determined his son was going to lay three days in
the tomb. That's exactly why he did. And after three days,
the grave could not hold the Savior. And he could only hold
him as long as he allowed it. And the grave could no longer
contain him because the sin that had been charged to him, the
sin that he allowed to sting him, had been put away by his
precious blood. That stinger mark that was put
on him is healed by his precious blood. And since sin was gone,
the Lord Jesus, it was impossible for him to stay dead. Well, you
know what? It's just as impossible for any
of his people to stay dead. They can't stay dead. The saviors
put their sin away. Sin's what causes death, isn't
it? Well, sin's gone, there can be no death. See, the grave is
not the end of the story. Now, you want to hear the rest
of the story? You want to know what the rest of the story is?
God's people will die, but they'll rise again. They'll rise again.
And when they come out of the grave, it's going to be in a
body. A body of flesh. But it's going
to be a body a whole lot better than the body we put in the ground. You think about the farmer. When
you plant corn. My mother used to have a garden.
And she dragged me down there every year, being that feed store.
It was the most boring thing in the world to me. These just
dried up seeds all over the place. You know, you get these little
old seeds. This looked like nothing. I mean, how in this world is
this thing going to ever be anything? And something that's a miracle
to me, you put it under the dirt, and that seed, that corn kernel,
just all dried up there, I mean you can't smash it with a hammer.
That thing, you put that down in the ground. When you want
to plant corn, you don't go down and get your luscious ear of
corn, all that soft, good kernel you put in the ground. No, that's
not what you do. You just put one little dried
up kernel down in there, and when that thing comes up, it
comes up a luscious ear of corn, sticking off this six-foot-tall
stalker. I mean, it's amazing. Something
so glorious could come from a dead little old thing. But that's
what happens, isn't it? That's how we get corn. So is
the resurrection of the dead. We put an old, shriveled up,
dried up piece of flesh that has just been ruined by sin.
It hasn't been able to eat. It's been sick. It's been wracked
with pain. Somebody 250 pounds dies or 80
pounds. I mean, just shriveled up down
to nothing. And that body lays there long
enough, decays, goes back to dust. Just a handful of dust.
That's what we put in the ground. Buddy, you wait to see what God
resurrects. When we're resurrected, we're going to be ourselves.
We're going to be in our flesh. But I'm telling you, it's a whole
lot better flesh than what we've got now. It'd be glorified flesh. And in glory, we'll be ourselves.
We'll recognize each other. You know, somehow, do you ever
wonder how is it that the disciples at the Mount of Transfiguration,
they look, how'd they know that was Moses and Elijah talking
with the Lord? I hope they did. We'll recognize one another in
glory. We'll recognize those we've never seen. We'll be ourselves. Why don't you listen to what
Brother Henry said about that? I wish I could say things like that,
like what he said. He said, we'll be ourselves in glory. He said,
but when you see me in glory, he said, don't be discouraged
if it takes you a little while to recognize me. You probably
won't recognize me right off. He said, I'm going to be a heat
bearer looking there, and I am here. And he's right. We will be, because
we'll be in glorified flesh. What is going to be raised is
going to bear very little resemblance to what we buried, what we put
in the ground. That's the resurrection. That's
the blessing of the resurrection, because the grave has no victory
over God's people. But now listen, there can't be
any glorious resurrection without death, without the great first.
See, the death of the body, you know what that leads to? It leads
to God's people having the full victory that Christ won for us. The songwriter said this, I've
been singing this song to myself all day. My sin. Oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin. Not in part, but the
whole. It's nailed to the cross, and
I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. It's
well with my soul. It's well with the believer's
soul at all times. When it's not well
with the world around you, it's well with your soul if Christ
was made sin for you. It may not be well with your
body. Sickness may wrack it with pain. Your mind may just... But if Christ died for you, it's
well with your soul. And when the believer's body
is in the grave, it's well with your soul. See, their body's
in the grave, but they're not in the grave. The real man, the
soul is not in the grave. Their soul has gone to be with
the Lord. And the day is coming When all
of creation is going to see this, the grave has not won a victory.
When our Lord returns and raises His people out of the grave,
He's going to raise them in sinless perfection. And you know what
He's going to say? Look what I did. Oh, look what
I did. You know, they say there's nothing
certain but death and taxes. That's true, I reckon. But one
day, taxes, Death and even the grave will be no more, and we'll
never, ever think about them again. Because Christ has won
the victory. He's won the victory over death
and over the grave, and he's given that victory to his people.
All right, here's the fourth thing. Christ has given his people
the victory over sin. Verse 56, Paul says, the sting
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. I touched
on this a minute before about the stinger. The stinger of death
is sin. It's sin that comes out and stings
us and causes all these problems that we're talking about. All
these problems we're enduring, it's because of sin. And when
sin stings us, we have pain. There's a reaction. There's pain,
there's sickness, there's sorrow, there's death. And sadly for
some, there's eternal death. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
given His people the victory over sin by being made sin for
them. By taking their sin away from
them into His own body upon the tree. And He died the death that
we deserve. Everything our sin deserves,
Christ suffered for His people so that they will never die.
Now sin, Christ has won the victory over sin. And He's given you,
you who believe, He's given you the victory over sin. Do you feel very victorious over
sin? Do you? Sin has a great, great effect
on our lives. It has an effect on our lives. It has an effect on our bodies.
But it does not have dominion over them. Now, when we say sin
does not have dominion over you, you know, that doesn't mean God
saves you and you don't sin as much as you used to sin. Or does
it mean that you even want to sin less than you ever used to
sin? Gene, if that's what that means, I've not been delivered
from the dominion of sin, have you? I haven't. That's not what
it means, thankfully. When we say sin does not have
dominion over you, this is what it means. It means the sin, the
stinger, the sin. It cannot control the fate of
your soul anymore. You're done with it. can't make
you not believe on Christ. Your nature of sin, that's what
makes it to where you can't believe on Christ. You remember a day
you couldn't believe on, you wanted to and you couldn't? It's
because sin had dominion over you. Now, God saved you. He's caused you to be born again
and you believe and you can't not believe. You can't quit believing. Why is that? It's because sin
doesn't have dominion over you. And that sin that would have
damned you, it cannot damn you It can't separate you from God
anymore because Christ took your sin away from you and he was
condemned for you. And that's the victory that Christ
gives to all of his people. Now, here's our conclusion, verse
58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord. Here's Paul's conclusion. Since
the Lord's given us the victory, don't quit. Don't quit. I can
see somebody surrendering if they're losing. Can't you? Can't
you? I can see that. But if the Lord's
given you the victory, don't ever surrender. Never. Don't ever give up. Remain steadfast. Don't quit. Don't quit trusting
Christ. Why would you? and remain unmovable. Don't move one iota away from
Christ. Just remember, where did you
start? Where did you start in the faith?
When God first revealed Himself to you, where did you start?
Here's where you started. You started in complete and utter
dependence upon Christ to be your everything. I mean, you
didn't know nothing. You weren't nothing. You couldn't
do nothing. Isn't that right? Be unmovable. Don't move away
from that. Don't think now that you've learned
something, you can be independent. Be unmovable. Don't move away
from complete and utter dependence upon Christ. If you do that,
you'll have victory. And continue to abound in the
work of the Lord. Continue to abound in this work
of helping God's people and serving God's people and praying for
them. Continue to abound in this work to do everything you can
do to help the gospel be preached. And don't quit. Just don't quit. When you feel a little sting,
a sting of failure, and you feel like you failed, just remember
this. You can't fail if you trust in
Christ. You can't fail if you're preaching
Christ. You can't fail. Your labor has
not been in vain. You might try to do something
to help people, and what do they do? They kick sand in your face.
And it stings! That's a sting of failure. But
don't quit. Don't quit. It's not in vain when we're serving
the Lord. And when you feel a little sting,
a sting of sorrow, a sting of fear, a sting of doubt and worry,
don't quit. Don't quit. Don't quit. Because
there is. Now, when we lose a loved one,
there's sorrow. But there's no sorrow for them.
There's no sting for them. No sting for anyone that trusts
Christ. But there is a little sting. for those who are left
behind. We'd be dishonest to say otherwise. And when you feel it, don't quit. Don't quit. We say it's a little
sting. But buddy, that little sting
would be tough to deal with. I mean, that little sting can cause grief
that's so huge at times. It's all-consuming. You don't
think there's ever anything you can do with it. It's just like
looking at the Alps and thinking, I'm going to cross them on foot.
But relatively speaking, it's still a little sting. I'm going
to give you three reasons in closing why. It's a little sting
for those of us who are left behind. Look over at 1 Thessalonians
1. Here's the first reason. It's
a little sting. We have genuine sorrow. It is
a genuine sorrow that we have. But I'll tell you what's bigger
than our sorrow. It's a genuine good hope through grace. 1 Thessalonians
4 verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." He's saying sorrow,
but don't sorrow like you have no hope. Sorrow with a good hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain in the coming
of the Lord, should not prevent, we will not proceed. Then which
are asleep for the Lord himself should descend from heaven with
a shout and the voice of the archangel and with the trump
of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which
are alive and remain should be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Now that's how this thing is
going to end up. Wherefore, Paul says, Comfort one another with
these words. When we feel that little sting
of sorrow, comfort one another with these words. Comfort one
another with this. The comfort of Christ. The comfort
of salvation in Him. The comfort that He's coming
again. This is not the end of the story.
Alright, number two. This is why I told Mike yesterday
and I tell all of you this tonight. Your loved one may be gone. Mike,
your mother's gone. She is. She's gone. And your
loved one may be gone, but if you're Christ's, you're not alone. You're not alone. No believer
is ever an orphan left alone because your heavenly father
is with you. Remember when our Lord, John 14, he's talking to
his disciples. He told them he's leaving. They're
concerned, they're worried. And he tells them, I will not
leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Now that's
a promise that comforts the hearts of God's people. I will come
to you. But you know what's even more
comforting? The word comfortless that the Savior used there means
orphans. I'll not leave you an orphan.
You can't be an orphan if you have a father who lives forever.
Can't be. Can't be. And no believer is
ever a widow. You have a husband. The Lord,
your husband, the bridegroom, whoever lives, is always with
you. Your loved one may be gone, but
you're not alone. The Lord won't leave you alone. And then thirdly,
this is just a little sting. It's a little sting. Because
we have something greater than that sting. We have God's promise
that his grace is sufficient. Now God's grace, since it's God's
grace, is always sufficient. God's grace is sufficient to
save. It's sufficient to call. It's
sufficient to keep. It's sufficient to glorify all
of God's people. And until that time that the
Lord is pleased to glorify us, God's grace will be sufficient
to comfort His people. Now that grace, it won't take
the hurt away. It won't take the feeling of
loss away. It won't make you forget that. But I'll tell you
what it will do. It will enable you to endure
it. And it will comfort your heart
like nobody else ever could, even your mama, even your dear
departed loved one. God's grace will comfort your
heart better than it will. Oh, it's a stain. That little
stain, it's a stain, isn't it? But we have something greater.
That's why Mike would call it a little stain, because we have
something greater. Well, I hope that's instructive,
and I hope that'll be comforting to your heart like it was mine
and prepared. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for a good hope
through your grace. How we thank you for the victory
that you've given all of your people through the victory that
Christ our Savior, the captain of our salvation, has won for
his people. Father, how we thank you. How we thank you that we
don't have to win this victory on our own, but that Christ our
Savior has won it for us and made us more than conquerors
in Him, who for reasons known only to Him would love us, would
love sinners like us, and give Himself to redeem us from our
sin. Father, we're thankful. And Father,
we pray that You'd take Your Word and You'd cause it to to
comfort and help and heal the hearts of your people. We know
we have a full, free salvation in Christ our Savior. The victory
is ours. The glory that you promised your
people is surely coming. But Father, between here and
there, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of darkness, there's
a lot of dark trails and mountainous hills that you've called us to
trod. And we pray you take your word
to strengthen us and comfort our heart to take every step
on the journey that you've called us to in faith, looking to and
depending upon Christ our Savior. It's in his blessed name that
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.