If you would turn back with me
to the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and
hold your place there if you would please. One of the most feared things
in this life of human existence is a thing we call death. Men
and women by nature do not want to die. It seems as though many go to
great lengths these days to live and to extend their lives as
long as they can. I definitely am an advocate for
good health and taking care of ourselves. Death is something
that cannot be ignored. It will one day come for each
of us. My parents lived to be in their
seventies, but they both died within five years. one another
death is for certain death is for real and death is for sure
and it's final in this life as we know it Hebrews 9 27 tells
us as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the
judgment you see death has been appointed for each of us Just
as our birth was appointed by God when we would come into this
world, the very minute, the very second God ordained and appointed,
so it is with death. And death is an appointment that
men and women will keep. And it's an appointment that
none of us will ever be late for. Death is appointed by God. And then God will judge every
man and woman according to the verse in Hebrews. After this,
the judgment. And death is a subject that no
one likes to talk about. But the Bible is clear about
this life being only a vapor. That it's here for a brief moment
and then it fades away. James tells us that in his epistle,
whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. We make our
plans and our appointments in life, but none of us really know
what awaits tomorrow. And James said, for what is your
life? That's a good question for us to ask this morning. What
is your life? It's even a vapor that appears
for a little time and then vanishes away. Now if a man lives to be
a hundred, we say he lived a long life, but a hundred years in
comparison to eternity is only a short while. Death is like
the grass of the field. And according to the prophet
Isaiah, we are told to cry. And men say, what shall I cry?
What do you want me to cry? And the prophet says, you cry
all flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof
is as of the flower of the field. The grass withereth. The flower
fadeth, but the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass." Isaiah 40, verses 6 and 7. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, 24,
he said, For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. And the grass withereth, and
the flower thereof falleth away. Quoting Isaiah that I just read. I read earlier this week that
in 1846, Former President John Quincy
Adams suffered a stroke. And although he returned to Congress
the following year, his health was clearly failing. And Daniel
Wexner described his last meeting with Adams and he said someone,
a friend of his, came in and particularly made an inquiry
of his health. And Adams answered this. I inhabit a weak, frail, decayed
body. It's been battered by the winds,
broken in upon the storms, and from all I can see, the landlord
does not intend to rebuild it. But for some, friends, the great
Creator and Owner of these bodies most assuredly intends to rebuild. There's no escape from the experience
of death. There's none of us who can avoid
it. And unless the Lord returns soon, it's something that every
single one of us will one day experience. Brother Mahan said
one time, there's no bridge over the river of death. It's something
that we must go through. Personally, we must all walk
through the river of death. Men don't like to talk about
it. Death sometimes comes for the young. I've had friends that
died in their teens. See, young people don't think
you're you know, bulletproof. Don't think that just because
you're young you're going to live a long life. I've had friends
that have died in their 20s. Some die young, some middle-aged,
and some, like our dear brother Jack, leave in their later years. But it comes for us all. appointed unto all men and women
to die, and which after God's judgment awaits. And God has
set our bounds, and we cannot pass." That's what Job said in
Job 14.5. He says, Speaking of man, that
his days are determined. Who determined them? God did. The number of his months are
with thee, and God has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. You know when you'll die? When
God gives me my last breath. That's when I'm gone. Not before,
not after. Exactly on time. All things with
God are on time. These things are certain. And
if a man or a woman chooses to ignore death, laugh at it, make
little of it, and plans to only live and not die, he's labeled
in the writing of Holy Scripture as a fool. In Luke 12, verse
19, if you want to hold your place and turn there with me.
Luke 12, verse 19. Here our Lord speaks. of a certain
rich man," and verse 16, "...brought forth plentifully, and he thought
within himself, saying, What shall I do? I got so much I don't
have room for it all." Where am I going to bestow all my fruits
and all my goods? Verse 18. And then in verse 19
he says, And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast made much
goods, laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? God called him
a fool. Let me also add this. To many
people's disagreement, There is no difference in the actual
death of a saved man or an unsaved man. No actual difference with
the death of a believer and the death of an unbeliever. Both
saved and lost men and women suffer in affliction, sometimes
long and painfully. Brother Jack suffered much in
pain over the past years. You know that. And every single
time that I took Shirley to see him in the nursing home, the
hospital, he would always, I mean every single time, he'd say to
me, David, I'm ready to go home. I'm ready to go home. I want
to go home. And he didn't mean in Kingwood. That ain't what
he meant. He meant home, home. Every time
I visited, he would ask me to pray that the Lord would take
him home. He'd say, David, pray that the
Lord would let me die. He said it every time. And I did. But the Lord always
does things in His own time. And yesterday, Saturday morning,
as I said, at 5.30 a.m., God took him home. Now there would be some that
would say, well what a cruel prayer to pray. Wouldn't they? You pray for someone to die,
but not a child of God. You see, for a child of God,
death is a promotion. It's an advancement. Death for
the child of God who trusts in Christ alone is His all and all
means to be finally rid of sin. No more sin, suffering, pain,
and tears. Speaking of the elect children
of the living God, we're told in Revelation 21, verse 4, "...and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." He didn't stop
there. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things passed away. An old Puritan by the name
of Richard Baxter, upon his deathbed, had someone come into the room
where he lay dying and said, Brother Baxter, how are you? And the old elect child of God,
so weak, frail and dying, looked him straight in the eyes and
he said, I'm almost well. I'm almost well. When I saw Jack
this past Tuesday, I knew he was almost well. For the believer to die is gain. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul
said? He said, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. The saved sinner's life is in
Christ. Have you seen an experience like
that? If you have, you'll echo what
the Apostle Paul, and you'll say, to die is gain. To die is
gain. And dear friend, it is. Paul
said in another place, to be with the Lord is far better. Far better. In Romans 8.18, Paul
again said, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Now at this present time, in
this life, in the flesh, nothing compared to what will be. Friends, you can take the time
to remember the time in your life that you were the happiest
and the most joyful And it will not come close to comparing to
the glory that shall be revealed in the believer. Now you can
take my word on that. You can take the time to remember
the time in your life when you were the strongest and the healthiest,
and it won't compare to what we'll be when we go to be with
our Lord. Oh, what glory Paul speaks of. You can take the time to remember
when you were the most peaceful, satisfied, content, and it will
not come close to comparing to the glory which awaits the believing
sinner. That's what Paul said. Now many
lost men and women die quickly and quietly. So do believers. Some lost men and women die violently
and suddenly. And so do believers. And I hear
men say things like he died with a smile on his face. Yeah, and
he might be in hell. How a man dies doesn't mean a
thing. Some of the saints of God who
were martyrs were burned to death in the fire, and they died screaming
in pain and agony. And some of the most vile men
that have ever lived and hated God their whole lives died peacefully. You see, how a man dies does
not mean a thing. Both the saved and the lost sometimes
fear and dread death. But a fear of death does not
determine a man or a woman's relationship with God. A man's
relationship with God is determined by his relationship with Christ. What do you think of him? Whose
son is he? Not how he dies. And I tell you,
I grow tired of hearing men attributing a man or woman's salvation by
how they die. It doesn't mean a thing. It doesn't
mean a thing. Now in the 15th chapter here
of 1 Corinthians, Paul's talking about the resurrection. Now listen
to me just for a few minutes longer. There cannot be a resurrection
without a death. Have you ever thought about that? There cannot be a resurrection
without dying. Can there? Of course not. That's what resurrection is.
It's arising from death. One day, corruption found in
this frail and dying flesh will be turned into incorruption.
We read that earlier. And mortality shall be turned
into immortality. And one day, this dying, decaying
flesh, body of death, which our spirit is housed within, will
be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. But these great
blessings as great as they are, cannot come until death comes
first. There will be no resurrection
until death first comes. No resurrection without a death.
Many of the old writers have written that there can be no
salvation without repentance. We know that. There can be no
way to the crown but by way of the cross. There can be no spiritual
life without first the dying of self. To be exalted, we have
to be humbled. And friends, there can't be a
resurrection without there being a death. This flesh will be buried
in shame, but it will be raised with honor. This flesh is buried
in weakness and raised in power. The flesh is buried in a natural,
decaying body, but it's raised a spiritual one without sin. Okay, let's look at the text,
verse 55. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. Two questions are asked here.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Well, where is the sting of death? Well, have you ever been stung
by a bee or a wasp? I have. And you'll have to agree
with me, if you have, that it hurt. You felt it. It was painful. The sting of
death, friends, is very, very real. It hurts and it's painful.
If you've lost someone special, someone you loved dearly, you
know something about the sting of death. You ask Ms. Shirley,
you ask Pat, you ask Georgia, you ask Sandy, those that have
lost their husbands, about the sting of death and they'll tell
you that it hurts. It hurts greatly. They'll tell
you that it's real. If you've lost a mother or father
or especially a child, you know something about the sting of
death. Even when a church family loses a strong brother or sister,
those whom we call pillars of the faith, we feel the sting
of death. I feel the sting of death this
morning. Where is the sting of death?
Where is the victory of the grave? It's real. I know that. It's
real. And you go to the cemetery, you see them as you drive from
time to time, you look over and see the cemetery and you see
all the headstones and the monuments, you see something of the sting
of death. And if the Lord tarries, we all
too will lie in the grave and we will feel the sting of death
and all those that loved us that we leave behind will feel the
victory of the grave. They will. Where does this sting of death
and victory of the grave come from? Well, look at verse 56.
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
Sin brought death into this world, friends. Sin brought death into
this world. God said, Adam, in the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. Genesis 2, 17. From the
first tear in the Garden of Eden to the last tear that will be
shed on earth is due to sin. I'm telling you, friends, from
the first breath until the last, sin plagues every inhale, and
every exhale, every pain, every disease, every groan, every hurt,
every cry, every sorrow is because of sin. This thing of death is
sin. Now let me say this, and I say
it with no reservation. If there was no sin, there would
be no death. Do you hear me? If there was
no sin, there would be no death. But we sin and we die. And we
carry in our own bodies the very evidence of our departure from
God. It is sin that makes death terrible. It's sin that makes death eternal.
The sting of death is sin. Now listen, if I can get rid
of sin, I can get rid of death. Sin is
the cause of death. If I can get rid of sin, there
is no death. Notice also that the power and
strength of sin is the law. That's what he says here. The
sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Well,
what does that mean? Our abuse of the law gives sin
its strength and its power. God's law has been offended by
us and our abuse of what it gives us to do and tells us not to
do. God's holy law is perfect and
God in holy justice will not lessen, now listen, He will not
decrease its holy demands. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And God cannot lessen its holy
demands and still be just. And He is just. Sin is the cause
of death and my sin, by strength of the law, makes me personally
unable to do anything about it. But if I can do something about
sin, I can do something about death. Instead of death being
the victor and having victory over me, I should have victory
over death. So we've got to take care of
this sin issue. How are we going to do that?
Instead of death being the victor and having victory over me, I
could have the victory over the grave if not for sin. How can
I then face the sting of death and have victory over death and
shout, O death, where is thy sting now? Oh, grave, where is
your victory now? How? I ask you, how can that
be accomplished? It can't by me. Not in me or
by me. There's only one way. Christ is the way. Christ is
the truth. Christ is the life. Now listen. This is the gospel. This is what
our dear brother trusted his soul upon. And it's what you
and I must trust our souls upon. Christ. Hold it. Embrace it. Love it. Or should
I say, hold Him. Embrace Him. Love Him. Christ is the victory. The old
hymn writer wrote, Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and bought me with
His redeeming blood. Look at verse 57. Here it is. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All thanks be to
God and God alone. The child of God attributes his
redemption, his victory over the grave to God and God alone. Because it's God who gives us
the victory. How does God give us the victory?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. all things
be to God and God alone. Why? For He gives us the victory.
It's a gift. It can't be earned. It can't
be deserved. It can't be merited. So how does He give us the victory?
We just say it, the only one way, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, may God cause you to see
that. Salvation is in a person. We
say that all the time. And that person is Christ. And
He was made to be sin for us. Though He knew no sin. He did
not know sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God. Where? In Him. I'm going to tell you something,
friend. I never grow tired of hearing or preaching that. It's
my only hope. It's your only hope. And this
was the only hope of our departed brother Jack Shanks. And it's
a good, sure hope. Look to Christ. Call upon Him. Trust Him as your all in all. And the sting of death for you
is removed! Oh, grave, where is that victory?
Trust in Him. The sting of death is removed
and the victory of the grave is defeated. Do you see that? If you do, it's by God's mercy
and grace. And may God teach us that Christ
is our only redemption, our only hope.