1 Corinthians chapter 15. Very
familiar passage, but I want to read it to us this morning.
I want to begin reading verse 1, if you'd like to turn there,
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, that He was
seen of Cephas, that is Peter, then of the twelve, After that,
he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the
greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen
asleep. After that, he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen
of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least
of the apostles that am not meet or fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was
not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet
not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Therefore, whether
it were I or they, so we preached, and so we believed. Now if Christ
be preached that He rose from the dead, I say some among you
that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there is
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and
we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so
be that the dead raise not. And if the dead raise not, then
is Christ not raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, it's useless, it's futile. Ye are yet in your
sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is
Christ risen from the dead and became the first fruits of them
that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every
man in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, afterward
they that are crossed at his coming. Then cometh the end,
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 power. For he must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. My thought this morning is found
here in verse 25. For he must reign. He must reign. Speaking of the
Son of God, he must reign. Jesus Christ. The Son of God,
who is one with God, who is very God of very gods, has always
reigned. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit has been reigning for all eternity. He
saideth King forever. He reigns forever. We don't know
if there's been any worlds before our world, any universes before
ours, but if there was, He made them, and He reigned over them.
We don't know what there may be after the new heaven and the
new earth. That's His business. But if there
is, there's one thing for sure, He'll make them. And whatever
He makes, He reigns over. But this particular verse here
is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ in our glorified humanity. As the mediator between God and
man, He is reigning this morning. The Son of Mary who died, and
was buried and rose again, He is on the throne of heaven, reigning
over all of this universe. He that died, He that buried,
and He that rose again is reigning in heaven. He must reign. Isn't that confident to know
that your Savior reigns? You have a friend in heaven that
reigns over this universe. He reigns over all your circumstances. Nothing is out of His control.
The Scripture says in the Old Testament, say unto Zion. Say unto Zion. Zion needs to
hear this. Say unto Zion, that's so tried,
that sometimes it's broken hearted, sometimes so doubtful. Say unto
Zion, thy God reigneth. Sometimes you don't have to explain
it, you can't. Sometimes He reigns so secretly,
but He's reigning, and we need to hear it, don't we? Say among
the heathen, this is something the heathen don't like, but we're
to say it anyway, Thy God reigneth. And brothers and sisters, if
we don't have a reigning Jesus, we don't have a gospel worth
preaching. He reigns, doesn't He? He reigns. He's not a little
Jesus that we feel sorry for. He's a reigning Lord. He must
reign. It's not always easy. Never has
been in the history of this world. And it wasn't easy for Jesus
Christ to get to the throne in His humanity. We're going to
look this afternoon at the trials of Joseph. But he had some trials. God ordained him to the throne
down in Egypt. And he had some trouble getting
there. He had to exercise some patience.
David was decreed to be the king over Israel. But He went through
many a battle to get there, didn't He? And Jesus Christ is reigning
today in His glorified humanity, but I'm telling you, it wasn't
easy for Him to get there. We have the record of it. Brother
Larry's been teaching it to us. The Scripture says in Ephesians
4 and verse 8, listen to this. When He ascended on high, He
led captivity captive and gave gifts to man. But now listen.
How is it that He ascended? What is it that He also first
descended? He that ascended up above the
heavens is He that first descended unto the lower parts of this
earth. What is it first that He that
ascended first had to descend? What a descent it was! for the
Son of God to step out of heaven and to be implanted in a virgin's
womb. It wasn't only geographically
that He descended into the grave, the lower parts of the earth,
but wasn't it a descent for Him who was worshipped of the angels
to be conceived in a woman's womb? How humiliating! What a step that was! And when
he was born, not to be born on a bed in a palace, but to be
brought forth in a stable where the animals were being fed, washed
from the afterbirth. And as soon as he was born, his
humiliation began. For as soon as he was born, they
had to flee with him down to Egypt just to save his life.
All through his life, he was a poor man, wasn't he? He that
was rich for your sakes became poor, that he through poverty
might make many rich. He had no place to lay his head.
He had no money to pay his taxes. And look how he was treated.
The humiliation he suffered. Surely in his heart, in his mind,
he went through the lower parts of the earth. One of his friends
betrayed him. sold him for money. Another one
denied it. All of them forsook him. And
he went to the garden, sweat great drops of blood, into the
judgment hall where they whipped him, plucked out his beard, smacked
him, stripped him naked, put a robe upon him, hailed thou
that's king of the Jews. And when they finished mocking
Him, what did they do? Put a cross on Him, led Him away
to Calvary, and there in humiliation and pain and nakedness, He died. And then what did they do with
Him? They put Him in a tomb. And it was out of all of this
condescension, out of all this humiliation and pain, that He
made His way to the throne. He sits on the throne because
He came out of great humiliation. But isn't that amazing? It wasn't
easy, was it? It wasn't easy for the Lord Jesus
Christ to get to the throne. The Apostle Paul makes mention
here of three things that had to take place before Jesus Christ
could possibly reign as our mediator. And these are huge things. He
mentions them here in the first part of this chapter that I read
to you in verse 3. I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sin." Before the throne comes the cross. Christ died for our
sin. And we find this all through
the Scripture, don't we? Brother Larry mentioned it this
morning, Isaiah chapter 53. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken." He had to suffer as a substitute before he could
make it to the throne. Sin entered this world by one
man. Sin had to be turned out of this
world by one man. But it took the Son of God to
do that. What is the wages of sin? It's
death, isn't it? Jesus Christ died. to atone for sin. That's the
first thing Paul mentions. And then verse 4, he said that
he was buried. The grave, he mentions the grave.
What is the grave? I tell you, it's the finality
of death, isn't it? As far as you and I know, it's
the finality of death. What do we do with people when
they die? We put them in the grave. We
bury them out of our sight. I think it's a very telling thing
when you begin to read the book of Genesis to see how it begins
and to see how it ends. It begins with God forming man
out of the dust of the earth and breathing into his nostrils
the breath of life. But then sin entered and brought
forth death. And have you ever noticed how
the book of Genesis ends? Joseph died. And they put him
in a coffin down in Egypt. That's our whole history, isn't
it? We were alive. Sin entered. And it brought forth
death. And then what happens? We die. And they put us in a tomb. And
if it wasn't for the Son of God coming down from heaven and humbling
Himself to bear our sins, that would be our total history. We
were born, we lived, we died, they put us in a grave. But that's
not the end of it, is it? And it's because of Him that's
not the end of it. Because we're said here that
He died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures. Over in Hosea, Chapter 13, you
don't have to turn there, let me quote it to you, but he mentions
these two things. The Lord Jesus says this, I will
ransom them from the power of the grave. The power of the grave. I don't have to comment on that,
do I? When you think about the power of the grave, you don't
have to say, Bruce, would you explain that? I don't understand
that. Go out there to the cemetery. Look at the people that are still
sleeping in that place. And none of them can deliver
themselves. Nobody can get up out of there.
I've told you about me going up to the cemetery during my
walks and preaching to those folks. And I'm sure the neighbors
have heard me. Because I go down there talking
to them. I ask them to get up. And not a one of them ever has.
Because it's not my voice that's going to raise those dead. But
I'm telling you, there's one voice that's going to raise the
dead. And only His voice can do it. The power of the grave. And here's what He says. I will
ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them
from death. O grave, I will be your plague. He's going to plague. He's going
to destroy the grave. Three wonderful things happened
in our Lord's death. and His burial and His resurrection,
three wonderful things happened. And it's only by His death and
burial and resurrection that these things could happen. And
listen how wonderful these things are. How much does this mean
for you? By His death, He put away sin. By His death, He purged
sin. You can't put away one sin. I
can't put away one foolish thought. I may put it out of my conscience,
I may forget it, but I can't atone for it. But His death put
away sin. And His death abolished death. He died for our sins and in His
death He abolished death. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
The Bible says He hath abolished death and brought immortality
to light through the gospel. By His death, He abolished death.
You know there's no such thing anymore as death. Ain't that
amazing? There's really no such thing
anymore. He that believeth in me shall never die. It's abolished. In our representative, it's abolished. Sin was purged, death was abolished,
and the grave was destroyed. All of that happened in our representative. It was fully realized in Him. You look at Him sitting on the
throne. Is He not reigning over sin? It was on Him upon the cross. He put it away. Sin is no more. Death, He abolished it. It's dead. It's swallowed up
in victory. The grave is destroyed. Aren't
those three terrible, powerful principles? And yet they've all
been satisfied, put away, and destroyed in our representative. And you know something? You here
this morning that have a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
that have been given grace to believe on Him, those things
are going to be realized in you too. He's already purged your
conscience. And death will not be a sting
to you when you breathe out your last breath. And there's coming
a day when the grave will hold you no longer. All of these things
that have been realized in our representative will be realized
in every child of God. Sin put away, sting of death
is gone, defeated, abolished, and the grave will lose its power,
will lose its hold. And I tell you, what else is
there to be concerned about? If those three things are taken
care of, I'm a happy man. What more could we want? Because
that's all that disturbs me is sin and death and the grave. But since my Savior is reigning,
He must have defeated and triumphed over all these awful things in
Himself. Look here in Colossians chapter
2, just over to your right just a little bit. Colossians chapter 2. Look here
in verse 14. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
14. Here's what he tells us the Lord
Jesus did. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. And
He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphant
over them in it, or in Himself, or by the cross." Notice He mentions
these three things here, and all of these things are military
terms. All three of these things. First
of all, He said He triumphed. He triumphed over all of these
principalities and powers. What are these principalities
and powers? Well, they are these wicked spirits. Some commentators
suggest that on the cross, these devils, these vulgar spirits,
these sinful spirits came upon the Lord Jesus just like you
would put your clothes on in the morning. While He was hanging
upon the cross in His utter weakness, they appeared to His suffering
eyes. And they accused Him. God has
forsaken you. He will never turn back to you.
You are going to die and you are going to perish. They tempted
Him something dreadfully there upon the cross. But the Bible
says He stripped them off. He triumphed over them in Himself. And when He says it's finished,
they fled. They fled. He triumphed over
them. And look at this second thing.
This is another military term. He spoiled them. He spoiled principalities
and powers. He defeated them. He triumphed
over them. And then here, he spoiled them. That's what they used to do to
their enemies when they defeated them. They stripped them of all
of their warfare and all of their authority. Sometimes stripped
them of their clothes. They stripped them. And when
He says it's finished upon the cross, He stripped these principalities
and powers. We're told, and I don't understand
this, that Satan had the power of death. He has it no more.
He's been stripped. He came into our hearts and He
sat upon the throne of our hearts, but He's been drugged from our
hearts. He can never re-enter to set His throne there again.
He's been stripped of that power. He'd deceive the very elect if
He could, but He can't. Why? He's been spoiled. Whatever
authority they had before the cross had to be given them of
God. He seemed like over the nations
He gave them free reign, didn't He? Boy, they deceived the world.
But He's been stripped. He's been spoiled. Somebody said
the other day, he's God's devil on a chain. He roars, but he
has no teeth. He's an old lion that all he
can do is roar. He's spoiled. And then he made
another military comment here, and made a show of them openly. I don't know how this took place.
Nobody saw this with the physical eye. But I tell you, the devil
saw it. If you read Josephus' history
of the Jews in 70 A.D. when Titus came in and overran
Jerusalem and he took them captive, he paraded them all the way back
to Jerusalem. He said, here's my enemies. I've
got to victory over them. The Lord Jesus did the same way
when He defeated these principalities and powers. We didn't see it,
but I tell you, they saw it. The angels in heaven saw it.
You and I see it by faith. He got the victory in his humanity
over devils, these powers and these principalities. And what's
he doing now? Out of all of this, he's sitting
on his throne. I mean, he earned the right to
be there as a man, didn't he? You and I cannot work our way
into God's presence. We cannot work to satisfy Him,
but there's One who did on our behalf. And He worked His way
to the throne over all of this opposition of devils and men. were told of something else in
Psalms chapter 2 than opposition that stood against the Lord Jesus
from getting to His throne. Listen to this. You think politicians
aren't presumptuous and naive? Listen to this. The kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.
These weren't ordinary men. These were kings, Herod and Pontius
Pilate. And the Jewish leaders, the scribes
and the Pharisees, they take counsel together. What are they
doing? Against the Lord and against
His Christ, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast
their cords from us. Now you can brag about that,
but it's not that easy done, is it? You can brag about how
you got free will. I heard a man say one time, he
said, really, our will is sovereign. Well, you can brag about that.
A man can make some great statements. But prove it. Let us break their
bands asunder. Go ahead. We'll stand and watch
while you try it. See what God's reaction is to
it. His reaction is just a little
bit different. Give it your best shot. And let's see what the
Lord says. Here's what the Lord says. He
that setteth in the heavens shall life. He shall have them in derision. Yet have I set my King, that
word means to install. Yet have I installed my King
upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord said unto me. Here's what the father said to
the son. And the son repeated it to us so we would know. Thou
art my son. This day have I begotten thee
from the dead. Ask of me and I'll give you the
heathen for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth
for your possession. You shall break them with a rod
of iron. You shall dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise, therefore, O you kings. Stop your bragging. Stop your
boasting about your power and your authority. Be wise, O ye
kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. He is on His throne. God has
installed Him there. Come and get down at His feet. and kiss the Son. He is your
Lord. Bow down to Him and kiss Him,
lest He be angry and you perish from the way when His wrath is
kindled but a little. George Spurgeon said men must
be saved by this reign in Christ or men must be damned by this
reign in Christ. Salvation is by Him and damnation
will be by Him. He's the Christ. He's on His
throne. He's reigning. He was obedient
to death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly
exalted Him. Therefore, bow down. Bow to this
King and kiss Him. Look in Psalms, a very familiar
passage, Psalms 110. Look in Psalms 110. It says a lot of things here about
the Lord Jesus and Him reigning upon His throne. You see, all
of this was predicted before He even came. It was predicted
that He would be exalted, He would reign as King and as Prophet
and as Priest. And you never see in all of the
Old Testament history of the Jews where anyone occupied all
three of those offices. You had your prophets, but they
weren't kings. Or if you had the prophet and
kings, they weren't priests. But Jesus Christ occupies all
of those offices. He's a priest to make atonement
for our sins. He's king to reign, and He's
prophet to teach us. We need Him in His offices, don't
we? And He's so faithful. But look here what He says. Look
in verse 1. This is to show us that God Himself,
the eternal God the Father, had a part in the reign of our Lord
Jesus. The Lord said unto my Lord, the
Father said to the Son, Set thou at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool." God had a part in this, didn't
He? The Father did, because He was the one that exalted Him
and said, Son, sit here and reign. Did you notice in my text that
I read how long the Bible says He was going to reign? Until
the end. Then cometh the end. He's going
to reign. In verse 2, look at this. The
Lord shall send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion.
Rule thou, where? In the midst of thine enemies. I don't think the Lord Jesus
has any enemies in heaven. But He's got plenty of them here.
But you know something? He's ruling in the midst of His
enemies. Next time somebody upsets you,
next time somebody gets on you and tries to make you lose your
temper and get mad and upset, remember this, Jesus Christ is
ruling in the midst of your enemies. That, what's his name over there,
Isis, al-Baghdadi or whatever his name is, they're talking
about how he's wanting to get this caliphate, he's wanting
to be the ruler. He's the ruler now of Isis. They
call him their leader, their ruler. He don't rule anything. He don't
rule anything. He's under this king. Right over
in all that mess that's going on over there in the Middle East,
cutting each other's heads off, and the mess that's beginning
to go on in our country, you know who's ruling it? We have
a President and we call Him our President. We have a Congress.
Those guys aren't ruling, brothers and sisters. Here's some information
for them. Maybe this will help them. You
guys aren't ruling. Jesus Christ is ruling in the
midst of His enemies. They had a pretty powerful King
back there when He was here that set Himself against them. That
was a pretty influential fellow. But they couldn't stop Him. And
nobody's going to stop Him today. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemy. And here in verse 3, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now here's why it's
of necessity that Jesus Christ is reigning. If He's not reigning
in the gospel, He cannot save His people. Because when He first
finds His people, they're not willing. We're born in this world,
and we may be His elect. But I'm telling you, we'll live
in this world just like everybody else. We're children of wrath
by nature, and we don't have a will to come to Christ and
to be saved by Him and by Him only. Oh, we're His people, yeah. But we won't come to Him until
we're made willing. And what is it that makes us
willing? It takes power, don't it? What
kind of grace does it take to save you, dear soul? Don't it
take sovereign grace? People want to know all the time,
where do you guys get that word sovereign grace? Well, we get
it out of the Scriptures. Come boldly to the throne of
what? Grace. As sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign." And that is the kind of grace
it takes to save us, to make us willing. What kind of a mercy
does it take to save us? Reigning mercy, sovereign mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. And these things are in the heart
of the Son of God. He's reigning. You and I shouldn't
be so disturbed about much, should we? I tell you really, I am not
doubtful in my heart that one elect sinner will ever perish
and not come to Christ. I'm just not doubtful about that.
Why? Because of the reigning King.
Thy people shall be willing And if you've been willing to come
to Christ, then you're one of His. And He's worked in you to
make you willing in the day of His power. He's going to use
His power for two things. One, He calls it here, the rod
of His strength out of Zion. That's what went out of Jerusalem.
When Peter stood on the day of Pentecost and said, God has highly
exalted Him whom you've crucified. with your wicked hands, and what
did they say? Oh, mercy, mercy, we need mercy. What shall we
do? We're wicked people. Is there
grace for us? Is there mercy for us? They were
pricked in their heart. What did that? This king who
is reigning today. Brothers and sisters, if he's
not reigning, you and I are in trouble. The fact that you're
converted is enough to tell me that he's reigning. Because you
wouldn't be converted if he wasn't a sovereign king and savior. But he goes on right quickly
in this. Look what he says in verse 4. The Lord hath sworn
and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever. After
the order of Melchizedek. What a priest he is. The Lord
at thy right hand. Now look at this. He's going
to make his people willing in the day of his power. The Lord
at thy right hand. Who is that? That's Jesus. He's
at the right hand of God. He shall strike through kings
when? In the day of His wrath. See that? He's going to make
His people willing to come to Him. Willing to be saved by Him
in the day of His power. What about everybody else? What
about the rebels? He's going to strike through
them too, isn't He? by the Word, by the power of His wrath. Nobody's going to escape doing
business with the King. Nobody's going to escape it. My last point is this, and I
mentioned it just a minute ago. How long will the Lord Jesus
reign? In my text, verse 24 to verse 26, Then cometh the end. He must reign until He's accomplished
God's purpose. That's what's taking place now.
It looks like it's a mass of confusion, doesn't it, when you
look at this world? But it's not. He's outliving
every one of us. We're going to die, Wayne, and
they're going to bury us, and another generation is going to
follow us, and that generation is going to do the same thing
that we did. But all along, up in heaven, there's the man Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, who is ruling every aspect of life. and fulfilling God's eternal
purpose until He brings it all to a climax, until He's accomplished
all His Father's purpose. That's how long He shall reign.
And He'll not cease to reign then. He'll always be reigning. But He'll cease to reign as a
mediator. When the judgment's set and it's
finished and He's assigned everybody their long haul, We won't need
a mediator then, will we? We need one now because we're
poor and helpless and sinful. But we won't need a mediator
out in eternity because we'll be just like Him. We'll be holy
and without any sin. And then the triune God once
again shall reign again. And he tells us something there
in our text. He says he must reign until he
has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. That's the last enemy. He's going to outlive all of
them, death. You know who was the first enemy of our parents? Before they had any other enemy,
Satan was their enemy. He's our first enemy. He hated
us from the time He fell. And boy, He came and invaded
our parents with temptations, deceived our first mother, and
they fell. And look at the havoc that He's
wreaked on this world ever since. He was our enemy. The second
enemy was sin. He murdered our parents by sin. Sin entered Boy, it entered. Oh, isn't that awful? Sin entered
the world by one man. Just one sin by one man. And
look what it did to us. Now, every time a little baby
takes its first breath, there it is, a sinner. And we'll never
get rid of it, brothers and sisters. We'll never get rid of it. We'll
be forgiven of it, but we'll struggle with sin as long as
we're here. But it's been defeated, has it
not? It's been put away. It's no longer your enemy. Not
if you're in Christ. You'll not suffer the consequences
of it. Damnation. But there's one last
enemy. When sin has been put away, and
when death has been tasted, there's one last enemy. And that's the
grave. That's that old grave. I thought
about dear Mary Bell this week. I love that dear lady. Brother
Donnie's wife who died. And she's down there in an old
field, back in the middle of nowhere. And her body is still in that
grave. Grave is holding her. She can't get out of it. But
you know something? That enemy too is going to be
destroyed. The grave. Oh grave, I will be
your destruction. And he's going to accomplish
that in his people. I show you a mystery. We shall
not all sleep. Not all of us are going to die.
We got something to look forward to, haven't we? Wouldn't you
love to be living when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with
His trumpet? That last trumpet shall sound.
There's going to be people alive when He comes. His people. And
you know something? They're in this mortal frame
and they're going to suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, The
Kodak camera company told us a few decades ago that was one
hundredth of a second. The twinkling of an eye. That's
all it takes you to bat your eye. One hundredth of a second.
In the twinkling of an eye, we are going to be changed. This
mortal shall put on immortality. And those that are sleeping in
the graves, who have been consumed with corruption, they will put
on incorruption. And then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written, O death was your sting, O grave
was your victory. The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be unto God which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters,
that's a wonderful message, ain't it? Without hope, my heart would
break this morning. If I thought this was all there
was, this world of trials and tears and heartaches, just to
die, and if we could just die, I'd be annihilated. What an awful
life to live. But to think that the soul will
live on somewhere. If there wasn't hope, Wayne,
my soul would despair. But now is Christ risen from
the dead. And He's a reigning King. And
just as sure as He's accomplished His work as our representative,
it's going to be realized in you at His coming. Amen. Let's pray.