If you would like to turn with
me over in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, it is a joy to be here. I appreciate
your pastor asking me, and I appreciate your fellowship and your friendship.
And I do give thanks to the Lord when I remember you, and I especially
thank the Lord that You all are going to have to bust out this
wall behind me. There are a lot of places. When
I see people building on, it breaks my heart. I really wish
they closed the doors. But I am glad for here. Thank
God for blessing His Word through this dear man. Over in 1 Corinthians 15, I want
to begin here in verse 12. And I want to just go right through
this book with you, right through this chapter with you, if you'd
like to do that with me. I don't want to get so much bogged
down on just a few verses, but I want to look at what the Apostle
Paul teaches us concerning the resurrection of the body, the
resurrection of our physical bodies. I think sometime when
you and I think of the resurrection, We think, well, when I get old
and maybe diseased and weak and bowed, then it will be precious
to me to think of that. But you know, a young believer
who is young in age should understand the resurrection of the body
and believe it and live in the hope of it. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to save us. and make us happy. And we cannot
be happy if we do not believe that everything ends in this
life. The Lord Jesus is the Savior
of the whole man. He does not save just our souls,
He saves our body. He saves our souls now, but He
has purchased the body as well as the soul. And He will have
this body with Him for all eternity. a whole man, a whole woman. And that's what I want us to
look at this evening, and I want us to begin here in verse 12
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the resurrection of the body. And here's the way the Apostle
Paul begins this. Now, if Christ be preached, that
he rose from the dead, and he was. Christ was preached. Paul tells us in the beginning
of this chapter, he said, I preached unto you the gospel. And he said
the gospel is this, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, that he was buried and he raised again the
third day according to the scriptures. Paul said, I preach the resurrection
to you. And then, of course, if you look
back up there in verse 5, he talks about Peter, Cephas. He
was seen of Cephas. And in the first few chapters
of the book of Acts, every time the Apostle Peter got a chance
to preach, he preached the resurrection of Christ, didn't he? Almost
had a one note on his instrument. You've taken by wicked hands,
and you've crucified and slain him, but God raised him from
the dead. You crucified the Lord of glory,
the Prince of life, but God raised him from the dead. Peter preached
the resurrection. And of course, he tells us here,
in verse 6, of 500 brethren. Now, Christ be preached that He arose
from the dead physically How say some among you that there
is no resurrection of the dead?" Well, I tell you, the Church
has a battle. We have a battle within our hearts. We have a battle in the world.
And we have a battle in our midst, in the Church. How say some among
you, where did this heresy come from? We see a lot of it rehashed
today, the gospel according to Judas and Da Vinci Code. That's
just old heresy that's being hashed around that's been here
since the world has been here. Just heresy, the devil and his
heresy. And the church has to be on her
guard. She has to always be contending
for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Paul said, I'm
leaving you and you'll never see my face again. That's what
he told the church at Ephesus. But he said, as soon as I leave,
there's going to be men, even among you, that's going to rise
up speaking things that you ought not. Perverse things to draw
away disciples. Act yourself. Always have to
be watching, don't we? We've got to watch to make sure
I'm not that fellow. I don't want to be that fellow.
And as soon as the pastor is gone sometimes, that's when those
fellows show their faces. towers among the wheat, goats
among the sheep." In verse 13, "...but," he said, "...if there
is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen." Now,
what these people were denying seemingly as we read these verses,
that they weren't so much denying the resurrection of Christ, but
they were denying the resurrection of the believers. Yes, they said,
we believe that Christ raised from the dead. You preached that
to us. We believe that. But what they were denying was
the resurrection of the believer, his father. So he said this,
and if Christ be not risen, now notice he gives us several negative
things. I know you and I don't like to
dwell too much on negative things, but we can learn by negative
things. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has not raised from the
dead, Then look here at these negative things. Number one,
then is our preaching vain. It's empty. You folks will probably have
a funeral in a few days, and your pastor will probably get
up and he'll say something like this, and he'll quote some of
these verses. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of his saints. Blessed are they who die in the
Lord, that they may rest from their labors. To live is Christ,
and to die is gain. But you know something? That
doesn't mean a thing. If the Lord Jesus Christ is still
in the grave, you might as well stay home and not listen to Him. When he comes here and preaches
through Christ the forgiveness of sins, redemption through His
blood, that don't mean anything if Christ be not risen. Our preaching
is useless. We're beating the air. It doesn't
mean anything. And look at this. And if our
preaching is vain and you believe it, your faith is vain. It's just like the faith of devils. It won't profit you. It doesn't
matter if you endure to the end in the faith. It's vain anyway,
if Christ be not raised from the dead. And then he goes on
in verse 15 and says this, Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God. How so? Well, because we've testified
of God, that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so
be that the dead raise not up. Let's quit calling the Jehovah
Witness out and confronting them and telling what great cults
is among us with the Mormons and all of these people. We're
no better than they are. We're worse probably. We made
a liar out of God because we confessed that he's done something
that he hasn't done, if so be that Christ is not raised from
the dead. For if the dead raise not, then is not Christ raised. See what Paul seems to be saying
here? It seems that they are not denying
the resurrection of Christ. But he says if you deny the resurrection
of Christ, if you do not deny the resurrection of Christ, but
if you deny the resurrection of the believer, you might as
well deny the resurrection of Christ. And he will get to why
he says that in just a minute. But he puts these three things
together. Look in verse 17. These three
things, they often go together. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Three things
that go together, and you see it sometimes in the Scripture.
Well, turn over here and let me read it to you. Look in Acts
chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. Three things
that often go together in the Scriptures. And that's the resurrection
of Christ, faith in Him, and forgiveness of sins. You see
these three things often. Christ was delivered for our
transgression, raised again for our justification. And by faith
we have peace with Him, with God through Him. Now look here
how Peter says this. He's preaching. He's preaching
here. And notice what he says in verse
40, Acts chapter 10. And notice verse 40. These three
things go together. Him, the Lord Jesus, God raised
up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people,
but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us who did eat and
drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and
the dead. To him gave all the prophets witness that through
his name Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins." Freedom from sins. But our faith isn't who? A dead
Christ? A risen Christ. God raised Him
from the dead, and believing in Him, Peter said, you have
your sins remitted. Freedom from your sins. Those
three things go together. Look back over in our text again.
Look back over in the 15th chapter. Look in verse 18. Here's the
last negative thing the Apostle Paul says. It's this. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. Ain't that sad? Ain't that fearful? The sweet psalmist of Israel,
where is he? He's perished. Abraham, holy
Daniel, Lydia, the Philippian jailer, the thief on the cross,
where are they? They're perished. Why? Because Christ did not raise
from the dead. And you and I, we look in just a few days from
now at our own death. We look out into eternity and
what do we see? A dark eternity. We are without
any hope. And what is it to be without
hope? Our hearts would break. If Christ be not raised from
the dead, we are of all men most miserable. If Christ came into
this world just to give us hope that pertains to this life, I
tell you, we are miserable people. Because here we have this struggle
within us and without us, groaning within ourselves, endearing temptations,
endearing hardness, family trials, trials on our jobs. A man that is born to a woman is
a few days and full of troubles. And if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are miserable people, aren't we? Brother Donnie
Bell said one time, explaining the difference between faith
and hope, and I like the way he explained this, he said, Faith
reaches out and takes a hold of everything right now. Faith
believes it all right now. Right now I'm seated with God
in Christ. Right now I have eternal life.
Right now I'm perfected, accepted in the Beloved. All these things
are mine right now. But hope is altogether different.
Hope looks a way out of the horizon. Hope looks a way out yonder in
the future. And hope says it's going to be this way. It's going
to be that way. Hope doesn't pertain to this
world. We're saved by hope, but hope that's seen is not hope.
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience
wait for it. We have a hope, but it has nothing
to do with this life, the world to come. Now look what he says
in verse 20. But now, but now, now Paul changes. He's been dealing with all these
negative things. If Christ be not raised from
the dead, but now, he says, but now is Christ risen from the
dead. And all these fellows read this
and said, Paul, we told you we agree with you. We believe you
when you preach that Christ raised from the dead. We believe it.
Well, he said, you're going to have to believe this, too. If
you believe Christ raised from the dead, you're going to have
to believe this, too. He has become the firstfruits of them
that slept. What Paul begins to do here in
verse 20, he begins to develop what he already hinted at that
he said back there in verse 13. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
a private person. He's a public person. And by
that I mean he came as a representative. He didn't come to do anything
for himself. He took our humanity to please
God, to fulfill the law, and to suffer its penalty, not for
himself, but for us. He bore our sins. He suffered
for us. He died for us. And He arose
and He ascended there as a forerunner into that veil, the holy place,
for us. He is now in the presence of
God for us. Jesus Christ never did anything
for Himself. Never did anything. I challenge
you, dear brothers and sisters, to find where He ever had to
do anything for Himself. He was a public person. And that
is what the Apostle Paul is going to tell us now. Look in verse
21. For since by man," by Adam, the first Adam, the first man,
came death, and he's speaking here of physical. "...by man
came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." See that? Paul said you're denying the
resurrection of the body, then you might as well deny the resurrection
of Christ. Because he raised not for himself.
And when he raised, he's only the firstfruits. And you know
what that means, don't you? When the garden begins to come
in in the summertime, I always watch my tomatoes. Because there's
always one ripening before the others. And I keep my eye on
it. Every day I'll go check it. And when it's good and ripe,
I'll pick it off. But you know, that's just the first one. There's
going to be a bunch more after that. And that's what Paul said
Jesus Christ is. He's only the first that raised
from the dead. All of those people that the
Lord raised while he was here upon this earth, Lazarus, Jairus'
daughter, they died again. They died again. The Lord is
the first one who raised from the dead never to die again. I am he that liveth, and I was
dead, and now I'm alive forevermore. You say, Bruce, didn't those
people come out of the graves when the Lord was crucified?
Only after he raised from the dead. He was the first fruit
of the resurrection. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is teaching us here, that we're saved by a representative. You know, you don't have to do
anything to die physically. The mere fact that you're in
Adam, you'll die. You take care of yourself. You
eat well. You exercise well. We should. But there's nothing
you can do that will stop you from dying. You die by virtue
of your union with Adam. But when you've died, and when
I've died, and the skin worms begin to devour this body, and
it begins to decay, and nothing's left of it but a little bit of
powder after a while, you shall live. not because of anything
you do or can do, but you shall live simply because of your union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We were lost in a representative
spiritually, and our bodies died because we were in that man.
But now we live spiritually in Christ. And we'll lay these old
bodies down knowing that they're going to raise because of our
union with Him who is already alive. His resurrection assures
the resurrection of all of those who are united to Him by living
faith. And he goes on in verse 23. Look
at this. But he says this. God has an
order. God has a purpose. And He'll follow that order.
every man in his own order. Christ, he's the firstfruits,
he has the preeminence. Afterward, they that are Christ's
at his coming." They that are Christ's. They that are Christ's. They belong to Christ. He's coming. And one of the reasons he's coming
is because he has some people. They're in the ground. They're
His. The Father gave them to Him.
They're precious in His sight. They're a gift of His Father
to Him, and He values them. He gave His life for them. They're
His. They're His by election. They're
His by redemption. They're His by regeneration.
We're His by faith. And I tell you, I'm His willingly.
We're His. And He's coming for His own,
for His. at his coming, when he shall
descend from heaven with a shout. And look in verse 24, when this
has come to pass, when Christ has come and raised his from
the dead, then cometh the end. You know this thing's coming
to an end. It's not going on forever like it is now. It's
coming to an end. God has a purpose. And He's already
fixed the day when this life as we know it, when God's purpose
shall be finished, that shall be the end. The end's coming.
Now, that's comforting to you, dear child. You ain't going to
live forever like you're having to live now. It's fearful for
the ungodly because it's coming to an end. When? When's it coming to an
end? Not until this time. when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and all power. For he must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. He shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God, whatever that kingdom includes, the church
for sure. God has turned everything over
to this mediator. His Son. God has said, in effect,
Son, this is my purpose. You carry it out. You fulfill
it. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is doing today. He's fulfilling the Father's
purpose. And He's going to put all things
down under His rule. You know, everything ain't put
under Him right now. It ain't put down. It's under his feet,
but it ain't put down. There's a devil just running
to and fro through the earth as a roaring lion. But someday
he's going to put him down. He's going to utterly crush him.
There's the ungodly that's against him. He's going to put him down.
All his enemies. He's already brought you at him.
You were his enemy, and he's brought you at his feet. He's
put you down under his feet. And you love to be there. You
love to be there. But he's going to put everybody
down. in the end. And he must reign. He must reign. He must reign. You say, Bruce,
what's happening right now? Well, what's happening right
now? What is happening right now? Well, we're in a war. Terrorism is spreading, they
tell us. I read the other day where there's 25 million people
in Africa with AIDS. And now they're talking about
all these different infections that could just sweep the nations
and millions of people die. Our culture as we know it in
our country seems to be changing right before our eyes. There's
uncertainty on every hand. How is it? No, that's not what
I'm talking about. That's the way it is when you
look around us. But how is it when we look up? How is it when
we face things as it really is? He is reigning. The Lord Jesus Christ governs,
He rules, He overrules everything for His glory and the good of
His Church. All nations, all individuals,
the hearts of the King, everything is in His hands. Every
circumstance you face in your life, All authority is given
me in heaven and in earth. And God the Father has put everything
under His feet. And right now, while you and
I sit here, Jesus of Nazareth is reigning in heaven and in
this earth. And I find that to be very comforting,
brothers and sisters. Very comforting. What's happening
right now? He's reigning. Jesus is reigning. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. That's fearful. That's fearful
for the lost. Four things. I think the scripture
would teach us that there's coming a time when those
who are in the lake of fire will seek death and can't find it.
When their bodies and souls are joined back together and cast
in the lake of fire, they'll seek death and can't find it.
Why? It's been destroyed. Wouldn't that be awful? To live
in this body after its soul is united and cast into the lake
of fire and your body can't die? It's impossible for it to die.
Christ had destroyed death. But oh, what a blessing for the
saints. He'll never die again. Death
can never touch him. Why? There is no such thing. The Son of God will destroy death. That's His last enemy. And He'll
utterly destroy it. It shall be no more. For he hath put all things under
his feet, God has. And when he saith that all things
are put under him, it is accepted, it is evident, it is manifest
that God is accepted, which did put all things under his feet.
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall
the Son also himself be subject unto him. that put all things
under him, that God may be all in all." And to me, what he's
saying here in verse 27 and verse 28 is this, that God has put
all things into the hands of the mediator. And he's ruling
and reigning and fulfilling the purpose of God right now. But
there's coming a time when the Son of God as the mediator in
that office as a mediator That office will not be needed anymore.
The Lord Jesus Christ will not need to be an advocate for us
then. Won't that be wonderful? Can
you imagine that? Why? Oh, you think of that and
it scares us now, don't it? Oh, to make a statement like
we won't need a mediator then. Well, it scares us now because,
oh, we desperately need one now. But there's coming a time when
we're going to be so perfected and so sinless and so like Him. We won't need someone between
us and God to plead and maintain our cause. Christ in His office as a mediator,
oh, He'll still be there. The Son of God, God Himself in
our humanity, He'll be there. He'll be the only God we'll ever
see. But His office as a mediator will have been completed. And verse 29, I'm not even going
to look at this verse because everybody knows what this means
anyway. So we want to look at that. I just say this much about
it. What shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the
dead raise not at all? Why are you then baptized for
the dead? What is baptism? It's a death. It's a burial. But it's something else. It's
a resurrection. It's a resurrection. And Paul
said, Paul said, I know you've been baptized. I know you've
been baptized. I baptized two or three of you. And he said,
if you don't believe in a resurrection, why don't you just take those
fellows out there that professes and put them down in there and
hold them there. Just let them suffocate. That's
what they said they believed. But when you come up out of the
water, what are you professing? A resurrection. A resurrection. And then he goes down on down
here. Look here in verse And here I guess what it confounded
some. They were trying to reason this
out in their carnal heads. But some man will say two questions. How are the dead raised? That same old spirit of Sadduceeism. And the Lord Jesus told them
this. He said, You don't know the power of God. How are the
dead raised? He that raised up the Lord Jesus
will raise up us by his own power, the power of God. He did. They'll hear my voice, the Master
said. And when they hear it, they'll
come up out of the grave. The power of God. That's the way
we're raised from the dead. And they ask this question, well,
what body will they have? With what body shall they come? And then Paul begins here in
verse 36, and he explains different types of bodies. And I want you
to notice this. He begins in verse 36, and he
starts with a seed, a little grain, corn or peas or tomatoes. Thou fool, that which thou sowest
is not quickened, not made alive, except it die. And that which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but
you just put a little old burr grain in the ground. It's all
dried up. One little kernel of corn, you
take it and you plant it down in the ground, whether it's wheat
or corn or whatever it is. But God gives it a body as it
has pleased Him, and every seed His own body. You take a little
old dried up seed of corn, a kernel of corn, And you dig a little
hole, and you put it there on the ground, and you cover it
back up, and it just dries up and dries up and dries up. And
then what happens? Put some water on it, sunlight,
and here comes this little sprout up, and it just grows and grows
and gets big and gets green. And after a while, you see this
little ear of corn, and two ears of corn. And after a while, you've
got two huge, big ears of corn just full of grain on it. Where
did that come from? God did that. He took this little
dead, dried-up grain and He made a beautiful stalk out of it.
Changed it completely. Now He does something else in
verse 39. But all flesh is not the same
flesh. There is one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of
birds. There are also celestial bodies,
those heavenly bodies. There are the earthly bodies.
But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun
and another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. One
star differs from another star in glory. And what is Paul saying?
Paul says, Look around you. Just look around you at these
different bodies that you can see. Look at the little worms
crawling on the ground. He's got a body. Look at the
beast out in the field. They have bodies. Look at the
birds up in the air, flying. They have bodies. And look at
the sun, how it comes up there in the east and rises and warms
and lights this earth. What a heavenly body that is.
Look how bright it is. Then look at the stars of the
night. All of them are different. They are different colors and
they have different brightness about them. All of these bodies.
And where did they come from? Why, God made them, he said.
God made them. And what's he proven to these
Corinthians is God is a Creator. He's a mighty Creator. He's made
all these bodies. That's what He does. That's what
He likes to do. And Paul said, Are you doubting
that He can make you a new body? That's what he's in the business
of doing. And when you're raised from the dead, it would be no
problem to Him to make you a distinct individual body. Billions of stars, and all of
them differ. Oh, brothers and sisters, God
is a wise Creator. He's a faithful Creator, a powerful
Creator. And He's been in the business
of creating greater things than you and I will ever know. And
he can raise us from the dead by his power and give us a body,
a glorious body. Look what he goes on to say.
In verse 42, see how he says this? So also is the resurrection
from the dead. Look what he says about it. It is sown in corruption, decay
and rot. It goes back to the dust, but
look at this. It is raised altogether different. It is raised in incorruption,
not subject to decay. It is sown in dishonor, humiliation,
nakedness, lifeless, cold, but it is raised a glorious body,
a body full of glory. The Lord Jesus says they shall
shine as the sun. in the kingdom of their Father.
What a body! It is sown in dishonor. It is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, utter
weakness, helplessness, dead. But it is raised with the power
of an endless life. Raised in power. Verse 44, it
is sown a natural body. an animal body that has to have
breath and food dependent upon oxygen and all these things,
but it has raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body
and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. He had a body. He had a soul. God united them
together. But it's just a physical body.
Animal body, they call it. But look at this. The last Adam
was made a life-giving spirit, quickening spirit. There's a
physical body that has its limitations. But there's a spiritual body
that has no limitations as far as we know. And that's the body
the Lord Jesus was raised in. This is a little bit difficult
to understand because you and I talk about physical and spiritual
and we divide them. But when he talked about the
physical body of Jesus Christ, he said it's a spiritual body.
We know the Lord Jesus looked at his disciples and said, if
you think I'm a spirit, handle me and see. You can put your
fingers in my glorified prince here. Thrust your hand into my
glorified side. I'm not a spirit." Ain't that
what he said? I'm flesh and bone. But Paul
said he's a spiritual body. He says that because he has no
limits to that body. His disciples were in the upper
room, had the doors locked, but he just walked right through
the wall. That's a spiritual body. He can eat, but he's in
no way dependent upon it. He'll never get tired. He'll
never have to rest. And when he got ready to ascend
back into heaven, he was there. We can't get to the nearest star
in our lifetime. But Jesus Christ in our humanity
suddenly ascended back to heaven. What is that? That's a spiritual
body. A body that can be seen, can
disguise itself. But it's a body, but it's a spiritual
body. And look in verse 47. The first
man is of the earth. He's earthly. God made him of
the dust of the earth. But the second man, who is he? He's the Lord from heaven. He's the eternal Lord, the sovereign
Lord in our humanity. And as is the earthly, such are
they also that are earthly, but as is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthly, and boy we have, and right now we're groaning
over it, aren't we? And we're aging. And we're wrackling. And we're
getting old and bowing down. Why? Because we're dying. Why? Because we're in Adam. We
bear his image. We can't help it. Nothing we
can do about that. It's inevitable. We bear his image. But, just
as we've borne his image, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly. Who is that? That's the Lord
from heaven. We'll borrow His image. How in
the world is this going to happen? How in the world can this happen? I look out to you this evening.
How in the world are you going to borrow the image? How in the
world are you going to have a spiritual body that can disguise itself,
that's not dependent upon the oxygen and the food and the things
of this world? You can go to heaven and come
back to earth or whatever. How in the world can such a thing
happen to us? Is it going to be an evolution? Is that the
way the Lord is going to do it? Is it going to be a process over
a period of time? And suddenly one day we're going
to look around and say, well, I didn't notice until now, but
I'm glorified. How is it going to happen? Well,
Paul said, I'm going to show you a mystery. Look what he said
in verse 50. I say, brethren, flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption
inherit incorruption. Behold, I'm going to show you
a mystery. We're not all going to die. We're not all going to
sleep. But we shall be changed. Slowly, gradually, evolution? No. In a moment. In the twinkling
of an eye. I think it was Kodak Company
said something about that being eleven one hundredth of a second
That's what it takes to blink your eye. That's fast. It's not
going to be gradual. When the Lord descends from heaven
with a shout, the voice of the archangel, there's going to be
a change take place in the blinking of an eye. And here's what's
going to happen. The trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." That
quick. Boy, look at this, and I love
the way he says this. He doesn't separate what we are
right now from what's going to take place with what we'll be
then. He said, Bruce, my body's going
back to the ground. It's going to become dust, or some animal
is going to eat it. There's nothing left of it. But
look here, this corruptible, this corruptible, this body that
dies and rots and decays, it's gone. God knows where it is. This corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
I put on incorruption, and this mortal shall I put on immortality."
See there what he's saying? I don't understand that. But,
brothers and sisters, it's going to be a body that we have here. And yet it's not going to be
that body. But it is going to be that body, changed and glorified. Then shall be brought to pass
the same that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin. Of where is sin? There is none. The strength of sin is the law.
But the curse of the law has been born. There is no sin. There is no curse. There is no
sin. You say, I feel sin in me. We're
talking about what God said, not what we feel. Well, you don't
have what God said or what you feel. God says there's no sin. He sent his Son into this world
and our humanity. And John the Baptist said, look
at him. Who is he? He's the Lamb of God. What's
he doing, John? He's taken away. He's taken away
the sin of the world. And it's gone. There is none.
And there is no curse of the law. There is none, brothers
and sisters. Jesus Christ is without sin,
and He is not bound by the curse of the law. Look at it. Look at it. He has no sin, and
He is not bound. There is no sin right now, and
there is no curse right now for every dear child of God. If we
could live in that freedom, oh, what freedom that would be. But
I guess we won't until finally we realize it in the resurrection.
And then we'll say, where's your sting at now, death? Where's
your curse at now, law? But thanks be unto God which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
read you one scripture, then I'll quit. Look over with me
in Isaiah chapter 25, in verse 8. Isaiah 25 and verse 8. Look in verse 6. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast
of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wine
on the leaves well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over all people. and the veil
that is spread over all nations. Won't that be wonderful? And
he will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
all tears from off all faces. And the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth. For the Lord hath
spoken it. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him, and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. God bless you. Thank you. you Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you