I want you to take your Bibles
now and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This chapter is one of the most
referred to passages, chapters, in the entire Bible at funerals. I've rarely been to a funeral
that some part of this chapter hasn't been read. And the reason
for this is because it deals with the resurrection of Christ.
It deals with his acceptance with God and the victories he
accomplished on the behalf of his elect. I'm taking my text
from verse 57 here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul said, by thanks be unto
God, which giveth us the victory. The victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Victory over what? Victory over what? Victory over
darkness. Victory over ignorance. Victory
over our oppressor, Satan. Victory over sin. Victory over
death. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Victory over corruption. This corruptible must put on
incorruption. Victory over mortality. This
mortal must put on immortality. Victory over this present evil
world. Victory over despair. Victory
over the curse. Victory over eternal hell and
condemnation. Victory over the law. Believers rejoice in Christ as
they see and believe who He is. Who He is. He's the victor. He's the only one who has ever
as a man been victorious in this world. We rejoice in Christ as we see
and believe in who he is and what he's accomplished on our
behalf, both in eternity past, eternity future, and what he
accomplished in time. It's an utter impossibility to
ever exhaust his person and work, an utter impossibility. I'm telling
you, the more I study, the more I see. I begin to rejoice in it, and
just about the time I think I'm getting a hold on it, here's
another whole ocean full of stuff. It just, it's inexhaustible. Salvation is an eternal act of
God, and all that he did in time was purpose from eternity. prophesied
thousands of years before he ever come into this world. Every
little thing that he said, every place he went, everything he
did, all prophesied in the Old Testament. And not vaguely, not
vaguely, sometimes word for word what he said. And what I've come to see is
that believers do not glory in their decisions and experiences
or works. They glory in the person of Jesus
Christ. They glory in Christ Jesus the
Lord and the victories he accomplished on their behalf. They do not
hope in some self-sanctification, some self-reformation, or some
self-determination. It's Christ in them, the hope
of glory. That's my hope. That's my hope. Believers are and shall ever
be victorious. Don't feel like a victor, do
you? Believers shall and shall forever be victorious. Not because of their own strength
or wisdom or will, but because God hath given to them the victory. Isn't that what Paul is saying
here? God hath given you the victory.
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself, He came
as a representative man, a man who represented all of God's
elect, all those given to Him by the Father, blessed eternally
by the Father. Read Ephesians chapter 1. He came as a representative man,
a man appointed as a federal head of a people, given to Him
by the Father before the world began. And by Himself, this is
the amazing thing, this is the glorious thing, by Himself, upholding
all things by the Word of His power. I can't uphold anything. I was
trying to pass the medal up. I was having trouble doing that. upheld and is now upholding all
things by the word of His power. And listen to this, and when
He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of God. Now I'm going to tell you something
I have learned this last week working on this little porch
out in that heat. When a man sits down, he's not working. He's resting. He's resting. Christ sat down because his work
was over. What he came to do had been accomplished. He purged our sins, was raised
from the dead, carried up into heaven, and seated at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. And according to Ephesians 2,
6, we were raised up together with Him. When God raised Him
up, He raised us up. All my soul. You got some hope
that somewhere in that casket sometime after you're cold and
they pump that blood out of your veins and put whatever they put
in you and you're laying there in that old cold box, you got
some hope of waking up? I'll tell you what your hope
is. Your hope is that the same one who raised him up will raise
you up. He's going to raise you up. Why? Because we're already
raised up with Him. Raised up with Him. Seated with
Him in glory. And having done so, gave Him
the right and authority to show to us the exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's
what Paul's talking about here. Thanks be unto God which giveth
us the victory. He gives it to you. My soul at the years I spent
trying to earn it, trying to earn it, trying to
merit it, trying to do something for God to show me favor. How
ignorant was I in sin, trying to impress God. What are you
going to do to impress God? He's the creator. He's God. That's not how you get it. Thanks
be unto God which giveth us the victory. Here it is. Here it
is. And this word giveth is an active
and also a present. I guess you'd call it a verb.
I'm no English. professor, but I think that's
what it's talking about. And yet, it reaches into eternity
because of who it is that's doing the giving and who it is that
these things are being given through. The guarantee of all
our victory is the victorious Christ. In time, I hope to To
give you this morning, as we go through these things, if time
will allow me, I hope to give you nine things. I don't usually
have this many points, but these are very simple. And I'm not
going to elaborate for a long time on them. But if time will
allow me, I'm going to give you nine things manifest in our Savior,
which assures us that God has given to us the victory in Christ. All right, here we go. Christ
manifest His victory over all things as He came into this world
as the light of God. Now, I tell you, until you've
been in darkness, shut up in darkness, you don't know how
glorious that light is. I told you this story one time,
but maybe all of you didn't hear it. I was fishing back in the
swamps down in Louisiana. And I drove back there and I
locked the keys up accidentally in my trunk and there was no,
the car was locked and there was no way for me to get in and
get those. And here I was in hip waders
where I'd been fishing, no shoes, no nothing. And I'm telling you,
you ain't been in dark until you get in Louisiana Swamp. You
couldn't see your hand in front of you. You couldn't see anything.
But in my mind, I'd pictured the road and I kind of knew how
to, you know, and I kept walking. I know I was walking like this
the whole way out of there. But I tell you, I'll never forget.
After hours, I looked up there and there was a streetlight coming
out of that swamp. Oh, how precious that light looked
to me that night. Christ manifests his victory
over all things as he is the light. We're told in Genesis
1 verse 2 that before God did his creating work, that the earth
was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. Darkness. There was no light
whatsoever, no light near or far, no stars in the heaven,
no sun, no galaxies, no moon, nothing but eternal darkness,
just darkness. There was nothing to see and
no one to see it. The first work of God in creation
was light. Is that right? And I tell you,
when he spoke light into existence, darkness had to flee. Darkness
had to flee. And it's exactly the same way
in the new creation. Darkness is the word inspired
by God to describe things before the new creation. We were in
darkness. I didn't know it then, but I
know it now. I was in darkness. And darkness
is, that's the word God inspired these writers to write to describe
the condition of men before conversion. Our Lord began His ministry in
the land of Zebulon and the land of Nephilim by the way of the
sea. And he said, the people which
sat in darkness saw great light. Great light. And I tell you,
if you ever see his light, you'll see great light. Great light. I mean, I've heard so many testimonies
by men. It's like somebody turned the
light on. And that's exactly what it is. That's exactly what
it is. He said, I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of light. He was the light of the world.
The light of the world. And it's absolutely impossible
for any man to know God apart from Christ. He has no light.
Christ is the light. No man, he said, knoweth the
Son, but the Father neither knoweth any man. The Father saved the
Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him." He's the light. There's not a hint of saving
knowledge, knowledge of peace or pardon, of love or grace or
mercy apart from Christ. He's the light. Doesn't do any
good to tell folks about yourself. You tell them about Him. He's
the light. Listen to this verse. Paul describing
his own conversion. Listen to this. For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in my heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. You don't have victory without
light. Light's the first word. All right. Christ is that light. I have
light. And having light, I have victory.
Victory over darkness. Victory over ignorance. Secondly,
this victory over all our enemies is manifested in Christ as He
is life. I used to hear people singing
and talking and jumping up and down and shouting and talking
about the good life and this life and some other life. That's not life. Life is to know
Him. That's eternal life. It's to
know Him. Believers know that the Son of
God has come and given to them an understanding that they might
know Him that's true, that they're in Him that's true. This is the
true God and eternal life. Life from the dead is to know
Him who is life. It's to know Christ. You cannot
have the Son except by believing on Him, and to know Him and believe
on Him is life. He that hath the Son, are you
listening, hath life. Is that right? He that hath the
Son, do you have it? Have you embraced Him? Do you
believe on Him? Do you trust in Him? You have life. You have life. God saves us, Paul said. By the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Savior, being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. And that was this. And then consider this verse,
John 3, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son, now listen to this, shall not see life. We've been talking about having
life, now we're talking about seeing life. He shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. This resurrection chapter begins
with the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ and laying hold
of him. And he said, you're going to
keep this in memory, otherwise you believed in vain. Because
this is what it is. He's the light, and he's the
life. Thirdly, Jesus Christ manifested a complete victory over all things
by being made of God for us wisdom. Wisdom. Paul said we preach Christ
crucified under the Jews a stumbling block, under the Greeks foolishness. But under them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. He made unto us wisdom. You understand mysteries that
absolute geniuses in this world have not a clue of what you're
talking about. People way smarter, way more
gifted than you are, and you stand and talk to them, and you
can see these things just as clearly as you can and describe
it, and tell them, and point them to the scriptures, and point
after point after point after. I've got nine points this morning.
Somebody's going to leave here after a while saying, I don't
know what he said. You would if you had the wisdom
of God, and Christ is that wisdom. There's only one way in which
fallen, ruined, corrupt sinners can be saved. Christ crucified. God laid on him, Isaiah said,
the iniquity of us all. Once, it says, in the end of
the world, as he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, both the life and death of Christ enables God to
be just in his justification of all that believe on the Son.
That's wisdom, the wisdom of God. Understand, there's no other
way to be saved except in Christ. For God to be God and still save
wretched, guilty sinners has to be through his son. And there's such a wisdom manifested
in Christ that declares a sure and eternal victory over all
things. God's not going to accomplish
this work in his son and have those saved in ignorance. He's
going to show you what he did. And when he does, for the first
time in your life, you have wisdom. The man who has light in life
has wisdom. He sees the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Fourthly, as the wisdom of God
in Christ is given to us, he delivers us from the oppressor
who is Satan. Listen to this chapter here in
the book of Acts. Peter said, the word which God
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
Lord over all, how that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, now listen
to this, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Well, God was with him. What
is oppression? You ever thought about it? How
often do we read the scriptures and don't even know the words
that we're reading? Oppression is an unreasonable
command. That's what oppression is. It's
an unreasonable expectation. It means depressed by overburden. Oppression. as Israel was oppressed
by Pharaoh who ordered them to gather their own straw and then
to make bricks for him for a tribute to him. They were oppressed. That's what God called Israel
under His servitude. So Satan oppresses men and women
by deceiving them into a hope which they have to accomplish
themselves. Sinner, save yourself. Ain't
that what this world is preaching? As long as you try to do it,
you'll be oppressed. And the harder you work, the
more it's demanded. As the wisdom of God is established
in the minds and hearts of chosen sinners, Satan's power is broken. His hidden works of dishonesty
are exposed, and his anti-Christ religion revealed for what it
is. And for the first time in your
life, you'll be free. Huh? I'm free? Fifthly, as he heals us from
the oppression of the devil, he gives us peace. Isn't that
something? Let me read you something. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God is accomplished
through the redemptive work of Christ, reconciling us unto God
in the body of His flesh through death, presenting us unto God,
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. And no man can
have peace with God except in Christ. But over here in Ephesians
2.17, Paul said he came and preached peace both to the Jews and the
Gentiles. And to preach peace is to preach
Christ, who is our peace. And if a preacher is sent to
preach peace and a man's unable to hear it, that means God is
for him. And if God is for you, who's
going to be against you? And as those things are established
in your heart, you begin to have peace, even in the light of the
corruption of this world, even in the light of the power of
Satan over men, even in the light of all these things. David said,
yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil. How come, David? Thou art with
me. Oh, my soul. What must it be
to have this kind of peace? And so the doctrine of peace
gives us peace, not only with God, but with one another. Have
peace with one another. All right. Sixthly, as the victory
over our enemy is manifested and peace is established, he
brings comfort to the heart. Comfort to the heart. Spiritually
speaking, only God can comfort a sinner. And the way God comforts
the sinner is to reveal His Son both to him and in him. When the Comforter has come,
our Lord said, if I go away and it's expedient for you that I
do, He said, I'm not going to leave you without comfort. The
Comforter is going to come. I'm going to send Him. I'm going
to send Him to you. And when He's come, He's not
going to speak of himself. Now Kelsey, you were asking me
this morning about something somebody told you. And that religion
that teaches that kind of thing, all they ever talk about is the
Holy Spirit. In John chapter 16, when he talks
about the Comforter coming, he said when he comes, he will not
speak of himself. And I'm telling you, for your
own good, you come around people and all they talk about is the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. They don't know
the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you how you know the
Holy Spirit. He tells you about Christ. He'll take of the things
of mine and He'll show them unto you. What does our Lord say that
is? That comfort. They were perfectly
comfortable with the Lord, but the Lord was going away. And he knew they were uncomfortable
with it. He knew they had doubts. He knew they had fear, just like
we do. But he said, I'm going to leave
you alone. I'm going to send a comforter to you. When I send
him to you, he's going to take of the things of mine. He's going
to show you more than I've already told you. He's going to show
you great and magnificent things. He's going to tell you where
I am and why I'm there and what I'm doing. He's the source of all comfort.
And then God the Father is called in the Scripture the God of all
comfort. He's the source of all comfort
and salvation is His decree, His purpose. And Paul said He
comforts us in all of our trouble. So we can comfort others with
the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted. That's
a lot of comfort, isn't it? My soul, the triune Godhead,
is concerned with your comfort. And those comforts are given
to you because of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
a comfort. to know that my Savior appointed
by the Father has entered into heaven itself and prepared a
place for me. Let not your heart be troubled.
Oh, you believe in God. Believe in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go. Oh, I tell you, believer,
if you can wrap your arms around this, you can find peace in anything.
If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. Huh? For you. You can find comfort in that. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'm not going to leave it all up to you like these preachers
are telling everybody. He said, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. That's comforting to me. Paul, having preached the second
coming of Christ to the Thessalonians, he turned to him and he said,
comfort ye one another with these words. All right, here's the
seventh thing. As our Lord manifests these victories
to us, He establishes in us a good hope through grace. We're plainly
told in Romans 8.24 that we're saved by hope. The man who has
no hope has no salvation. We're saved by hope. Paul told
the Thessalonians about a hope laid up for them in heaven. The
hope wasn't here. The hope wasn't in them. The
hope wasn't here for Satan to get at, or for religion to get
at, or for the world to get at, or for you to get at. The hope
is laid up for you in heaven. After telling the Colossians
all the glorious accomplishments of Christ, Paul said, set your
heart on things above, not on things down here. Because that's
where our hope is. Our hope's in Him. The gospel was preached. Christ
was declared. Hope was established. The gospel
bears witness of the hope laid up for us in heaven, or as Peter
put it, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God through faith. What is this hope? Well, he tells
us in Colossians 1, 27, Christ in you the hope of glory. And
then Paul wrote his opening remarks to young Timothy talking about
God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. He
said, which is our hope? He's our hope. The religion of
this world has a groundless hope. It's like a man when he says,
boy, I hope it don't rain tomorrow. Ain't got no what he do, watch
the weather channel? We got no basis for those things
that we call hope down here. It's just an idle wish, isn't
it? Not so with Christ. Not so with him. You know, as a young kid, I used
to say, cross my fingers, that I hope this is so, and cross
them fingers. Listen to this. Christ is a sure
hope. And we hope in Him for good and
solid reasons, II Thessalonians 2.16. He said, now our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved
us and hath given us, now listen to this, everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. Number eight. Our victory in
Christ is manifested in his trial over death. He said earlier in the chapter,
I read it to you a while ago, within this life only we have
hope in Christ. We are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead. And he become the first
fruits of them that slept. He is the guarantor because God
raised Him from the dead. That's assurance that He's going
to raise all His elect from the dead. For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And every man in
his own order Christ's the firstfruits. Afterward, them that are Christ's
that is coming. Do you believe that? I asked myself this all the time,
do you believe that? Do you believe in spite of both
Roman and Jewish protest? Those Jews went down there and
they said, now wait a minute, you're going to put him in that
tomb and his disciples are going to sneak over here at night and
they're going to take the body and they're going to say he rose
from the dead because that's what they preached. Those Romans
said, oh no, he ain't. We'll put a guard out here. We'll
seal the tomb up. We'll roll a stone up here. Nobody
can move. And they rolled that great stone
up there in place, and they set that Roman guard there. And in
spite of Roman and Jewish protest, God came down and rolled that
stone back and raised his son from the dead. Huh? When I look at a cemetery and
I look at that hole and I watch them lower that body in there,
I just, I close my eyes and I think, God's going to raise me from
the dead. I don't care how much dirt they pile on me or if they
throw me in the ocean or burn me in a fire. I don't care what
happens. He's going to raise me from the
dead. And his son's resurrection guarantees it. Guarantees it. If we believe that he raised
Christ from the dead, it shouldn't be too difficult to believe that
you, for whom he came and died and was revived, should also
have the same victory over death. Thank be unto God, Paul said,
which giveth us the victory. He said this, if you then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth. at the right hand of God. All right. Here's the last point. Christ manifested his victory
over his enemies by giving his gospel free course to all his
elect. Now, you think about that. Every
power, every what you call them in the scriptures, principality,
in this world protest the preaching of the gospel. Now you think about it. They're
against it. They're against it. They do everything that the law
will allow them to protest the preaching of the gospel. Preachers
and believers over the years have been martyred, put to death,
killed indiscriminately for preaching the gospel. And yet his gospel
has been given free course under every kind of principality and
power that this world was able to produce and been successful. You know why? Because of the
victory we have in Christ. He told those few disciples.
I shiver when I think about the glory of what it is I'm about
to tell you. He said, all power in heaven
and earth given unto me. It's mine. I earned it. I merited it. It's given to me.
It's appointed to me. I'm ordained for it. Now, you
go preach. You go preach. And the gates
of hell not going to prevail against you. Huh? You see what
Paul says? He's given us, already had the
victory. I'm not trying to win the victory.
I have it. I have it. He manifested his victory over
his enemies by giving his gospel free course. And I can't explain
it. It defies every natural principle
of logic I've ever heard, yet I know it so, that every soul
given to Christ in eternal election, every soul redeemed by His precious
blood and justified in His resurrection, every soul for whom He intercedes
in glory shall hear His gospel. And being able to believe it, and being able to keep it, and
be able to die with it. These all died in faith. They'll continue to believe it
to the saving of the soul. Let me read this to you and I'll
close. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4. He said, I thank my God always
on your behalf. for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched
by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that
you become behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end,
that you might be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. How shall you believe in Him
of whom you have not heard? How shall you hear? without a preacher. All but thanks be unto God, who
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
know that I have enough breath to sing it, but there's an old
hymn I used to love to sing, and then when I learned the difference,
I didn't like the verses. So I rewrote them. And I love the chorus. I heard an old, old story about a savior came from glory. How he gave his life on Calvary
to save a wretch like me. I heard about His groaning, of
His precious blood's atoning. Then I repented of my sins, and
won of what? Victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior,
forever. He sought me and he bought me
with his redeeming blood. He loved me and I knew him, and
all my love is due him. He plunged me to victory beneath
that cleansing flood. I heard about his healing, of
his cleansing power revealing, how he made the lame to walk
again and caused the blind to see. And then I cried, dear Jesus,
come and heal my broken spirit. Then by grace he came and brought
to me the victory. I heard about the mansions in
his father's house in glory. And I heard about the Lamb of
God above the crystal sea. about the angels singing the
old redemption story. And some sweet day, I'll sing
up there the song of victory. Help me with the chorus. Oh,
victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and he bought me
with his redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew him, and
all my love is due him. He plunged me to victory beneath
that cleansing flood. And the best I'm able to do it,
back to the gospel.