Let's look in our Bibles tonight
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. That was good singing this evening. I appreciate David leading our
singing. He does a good job, doesn't he?
And of course those who play the instruments always, we're
thankful for them. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I want to speak to us tonight
from the last verse in this chapter. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I think tonight it
goes without saying that we all meet with things in this life
that tend to discourage us in the work of the Lord. I was looking
at Psalm 73 just recently, and that psalm begins by David, the
sweet psalmist of Israel, making this statement. He said, My feet
were almost gone. Think about that. My feet were
almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. That's the beginning of Psalm
73. Words of discouragement. But
then when you come to the end of the psalm, we have words of
encouragement. God is my strength, or is rather
the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And I ask
myself this, what changed? What changed from this man of
God saying my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh
slipped to him declaring, God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. What changed? Well, none of the
circumstances, none of the outward circumstances in which David
found himself at that time were altered in the least. Nothing
had changed. He had changed. He had changed. And he had changed because he
tells us that he went into the house of the Lord. And I would
say from that, he changed from those words of discouragement
to words of encouragement because of the Word of God. The revealed will of God. He went into the house of God. What is the work of the Lord?
As we look at this verse this evening, Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. The first question we should
ask ourselves is this, what is the work of the Lord? Well, it
must be, if you turn over just a few pages, keep your place
there, but to the letter of Ephesians, Be steadfast, always abounding
in the work of the Lord. In chapter 2 of Ephesians, we're
all familiar with this first verse. I'm going to read verse
8. For by grace are you saved. This is chapter 2 of Ephesians. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, now
notice this, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So what
are the good works that we are to abound in? Always abounding
in the work of the Lord. They are those good works which
God has before ordained that we should walk in. Now, if you
look back to the text, it begins with the word therefore. And
I've always heard when you say therefore, you need to say why
it is there. For why it is there. It is what
Paul has said in this chapter, the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians,
that should always be an encouragement to all of God's children to always
abound in the work of the Lord. Now this is a beautiful chapter
on the resurrection. But I've chosen four things in
this chapter I want to call our attention to that should cause
all of us, always, to abound in the work of the Lord. First,
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. If you look
back in verse 3, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 3, For I delivered
unto you first of all, and he's speaking of the gospel, the gospel
of the grace of God, and there is no other gospel. Make no mistake
about that. Any gospel that does not declare
the grace of God is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not the
gospel of God. For I delivered unto you first
of all, first of importance, that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Brethren, beloved of God, we should always abound in the work
of the Lord because Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. The Scriptures speak of sin as
a debt. We read that model prayer just
a few minutes ago in Matthew chapter 6, when our Lord was
teaching his disciples how to pray. And you remember there,
he said, forgive us our debts. You look at the same prayer as
it is given in Luke, and it isn't forgive us our debts, but forgive
us our sins. The Bible speaks of sin as a
debt. A debt. Now I don't know about
you, but I think I probably speak for most people here tonight.
I have never liked to be in debt. Now I know all of us at times
we must go into debt. But most of the time when we
went into debt, I set my sight on the end, paying that debt
off. And I was not content, I was
not happy until that debt was paid off. If I could double up
on the payments, however, I wanted that debt paid off. Can you imagine the awful debt
of sin? You could not, I could not, no
one, we could not even begin to number Our sins. The debt is so great. Well, I
have three things about this. What kind of debt is sin? What
kind of debt is sin? Well, first of all, it is a debt
to God's holy justice that must be satisfied. Now make no mistake
about it, every one of us here this evening, we have sinned
against God. And every sin is a debt to God's
holy justice that must be satisfied. God's justice demands satisfaction
because God cannot deny himself. If he did not require satisfaction
for the sins against himself, then he would deny himself. God is righteous. God is holy. Sin, what is it? It is an offense
against God. David confessed against thee,
and thee only have I sinned. And God declared, The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. So when we read here, Christ
died for our sins, what kind of death is sin? First of all,
it is a debt to God's holy justice that must be satisfied. Number
two, what kind of debt is sin? It is a debt that no sinner can
pay. That's just so. It is a debt
that no sinner can pay. You begin in the first book of
the Bible, Genesis, and come all the way through to the last,
the book of Revelation. And you will find this is a testimony
of the Word of God. Sin is a debt that no sinner,
no man can pay for himself. Job said it like this. Listen
to these words. He said, If I wash myself with
snow water, Now, it is believed that snow water is the purest
water that we have on our planet, I assume. And Job, one of the
oldest books in our Bible, if not the oldest book, but he knew
this, he realized this. If I wash myself with snow water,
the purest, the cleanest water that there is, and make my hands
never so clean, yet, Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, and mine
own clothes shall abhor me. What kind of a debt is sin? It is a debt against God's justice,
and it is a debt that no sinner can ever pay. Ten thousand times
ten thousand. The answer is no. God declared
in His law It must be perfect to be accepted. Now, you're not
going to change that. Nobody's going to change that.
I know we live in a world of change. There's no doubt about
that. We see it all around us. And people get the idea that
God changes. No, God is the same today as
He was when He created this earth. He changes not. And God said,
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. And it must be perfect
to be accepted. What kind of debt is sin? Number
three, it is a debt that the Lord Jesus Christ paid. I'm so
glad I've got that third point, aren't you? Sin is a debt that
we owe to God's justice. Sin is a debt that we cannot
pay. But sin is a debt that the Lord
Jesus Christ paid. How do we know that He paid the
debt? How do we know that He satisfied God? Well, notice in
verse 4, and that He was buried and that He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. We know by His resurrection,
by the Lord Jesus Christ on that first day, of the week walking out of that
tomb, after his body had been laid there on Friday afternoon,
the Lord Jesus Christ had satisfied God's justice and came out of
that tomb. All the sins of his people, the
scripture says, thou hast made to meet on him the iniquity of
us all. All the sins of His people were
imputed, were charged to His account. What a heavy burden
that must have been. And He bore that burden to the
cross. He took my sins and He took your
sins if you trust in Him tonight as your Lord and Savior. And
He paid your sin debt. And God's justice will never
come to you. seeking payment. Christ paid
the sin debt of his people. Why should we be always abounding
in the work of the Lord? Because Christ died for our sins. Number two. Number two. Why should we always
be abounding in the work of the Lord? Because Christ was given
a covenant people who shall, now listen, who shall be made
alive. There's no doubt about it, there's
no if, maybe, so, perhaps, no. Look in verse 22, 1 Corinthians
15, in verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. All who were in Adam Adam
being the federal head and representative of all men. We all sinned in
Adam and we all died in Adam. We all became spiritually dead
when Adam disobeyed God. We're called the children of
disobedience because we're children of Adam and Adam disobeyed God. We all died spiritually that
day that Adam disobeyed God and everyone when we come into this
world, we come in spiritually dead, estranged from God. And we will die physically also
and we do, or we did rather become liable to eternal death. As in Adam, all die. There's
only been two men who left this world without going through the
process of death and that is Enoch and Elijah and I don't
know how but somehow along the way Enoch walked with God and
he was not. Elijah got into that chariot
of fire and was carried into the heavens and I don't know
how God did it, but somehow from earth to heaven, they were changed. No one escapes death in this
world. All of Adam, all who are in Adam,
that's what Paul says, for as in Adam all die, but aren't you
thankful for the rest of that verse? Even so, even so, in Christ
shall all be made alive. Now the word shall, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive, points us to the future resurrection
of all who are in Christ. All of those who were chosen
in him before the foundation of the world Just like Adam represented
all of his posterity, his seed, so Christ as the federal head
and representative of his seed, his people, shall all be made
alive. All of those chosen in him before
the foundation of the world, all of those that he represented
and died in their stead and in their place, shall be made alive. But to encourage us, I know this
verse speaks of the resurrection of the body, but to encourage
us to abound in the work of the Lord, let us remind ourselves
that all of those in Christ shall be spiritually made alive, somewhere
along the way. I like to say somewhere between
the cradle and the grave. All of those who Christ represented
shall be spiritually quickened and made alive. They shall come
to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. I read the other
day an old writer who said, the Lord has two quivers. The Lord
Jesus, he has two quivers. He pulls some arrows out of one
quiver and shoots those. That's the general call. And
the general call goes out, and you can disregard it, pay it
no mind, go on your way to hell. But the Lord has another quiver,
and the heirs in that quiver he pulls out, and he shoots,
and they're heirs of love, and they stick. They effectually
work in the hearts of His people and they are brought to life
in Christ. And that's the mystery and the
blessing of preaching the gospel. We never know when the Lord may,
maybe even here tonight, He's pulled out one of those errors.
Oh, I pray it so. Someone here tonight, you came
in here And you're just as spiritually dead as you could be. Have no
interest, no concern for your soul. I talked to a man recently
and he told me, he said, I don't understand why people are concerned
about me. I'm not concerned about myself.
And I told him, I said, that's not a good sign. That's not a
good sign. You're not concerned about yourself.
The reason you're not concerned about yourself, you're dead.
You're spiritually dead. You're on the way to hell! And
only the Lord Jesus Christ, by God the Holy Spirit and the Gospel,
can apprehend you if it is His will. And He can do it. And He will do it. And many of
us here tonight can testify, He did it to me. He did it to
me. Thank God. Of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. Beloved brethren, be you steadfast,
unmovable in the work of the Lord, because number one, Christ
died for our sins. Number two, because Christ has
a covenant people that he represented, and he is saving. He is saving. Number three, Christ will come again. Look
down in verse 52. Christ will come again. In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the
trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed. Is there any doubt? There shouldn't
be. Is there any doubt that the moment
that this verse speaks of, in a moment, that this is speaking
of the moment of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sound
of the trumpet, the resurrection of the dead, the change of the
living saints. It is referring to the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Christ will come again. Now he described his coming like
this in Matthew 24. He said this, as the lightning
cometh out of the east. You ever see it lightning? We
saw some this afternoon. But you can especially see it
in the dark, can't you, at night. the lightning, how fast, how
quick it runs across the sky. Now that's what he said his coming
would be like. As the lightning cometh out of
the east and shineth even to the west, so shall the coming
of the Son of Man be. I want to give you tonight six
things that I know about the Lord's second coming. Six things. First of all, I know that I do
not know the time when he will come. I know that and I also
on that point would say this, I know that I do not know the
time when he will come and I should not speculate. I've seen men,
preachers, ruin their ministry over trying to tell when the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to come. When he clearly told us
that no man knows the hour. And yet, I've heard preachers,
and you've probably heard some yourself, They've got it figured
out. They figured out somehow how
to explain that scripture so that they do know. And of course,
everyone I've ever known, ever read about, the time comes, but
the Lord doesn't come. And the next thing they always
do, they go back to the drawing board and recalculate. And they
figure out they made a mistake. And so they've got another time.
And then that time comes and the Lord doesn't come. And usually
that's the end of anyone listening to them again. I know that I
do not know when the Lord is going to come again and I dare
not speculate. I believe, I spoke to a man here
just recently working here at the church building on something.
And he brought the subject up and I said, you know, every generation
I imagine since Christ went back to heaven have thought, have
believed that they're the last generation. For 2,000 years plus,
every generation have thought it cannot get any worse. Surely
the Lord's coming. Surely it's going to happen in
my lifetime. It may, it may not. But I know
I don't know, and I dare not speculate. Number two, I know
that His coming will be personal, that Jesus Christ, He Himself,
is going to come. He's not going to send His angels,
though they may come with Him, but He is going to come. The
angel, in fact, told his disciples when he ascended back into heaven,
the angel said, this same Jesus, The same Jesus who had the marks
in his hands, the marks in his side, the pierced feet, the same
Jesus that you see going to heaven, so shall come in like manner. I know He's going to come. And before I move on, don't be
looking for the signs. Look for Christ. Look for Christ. Don't be trying to divine the
signs of the times and all of that. Look for Christ. He's coming. Someone told me recently, said,
well, it may be today. That same man, he said, it may
be today. I said, I hope it is. I hope
it is. Number three, I know that His
coming will be suddenly. It will be sudden, rather, because
this verse here tells us, "...in the twinkling of an eye." To
me, that's even faster than the lightning flashing across the
sky, isn't it? The twinkling of an eye. And
in that twinkling, the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible,
and those saints who are alive when Christ comes shall be changed
and all together shall be caught up to meet the Lord. And number
four, I know that at his coming all of God's children will receive
a body fashioned like unto his glorious body. For whom he did foreknow, Then
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son. I don't know why anyone would
not love predestination. I know there's a lot of religious
people who don't. But can you imagine that? Being
predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And I know this I know that when
He comes, we'll forever be with Him. Forever! And number six,
I know that we shall be with Him where sin can never come. We will never ever again be molested
with sin. My beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for Christ
died for our sins. Number two, because Christ was
given a covenant people that shall be made willing in the
day of his power. And number three, because Christ
will come again. And number four, Notice the verse
itself. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. Now notice, for as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Most of us
of any age in this building at all, we could give examples of
things we've worked on and it just came to zero, nothing. not your labor in the Lord it
shall not be in vain our Lord said that not so much as a cup
of water can you imagine a cup of water given in the name of a disciple given to a disciple
of Christ shall not be forgotten there's no other work besides
the work of the Lord that this is true of, it shall not be in
vain. Surgeons sometimes, this just
comes to my mind, but they perform surgery and they do their very
best to fix something and it doesn't always work out, does
it? It's in vain. Not our work in the Lord. So I encourage all of us here
tonight who know Christ as our Lord and Savior, be you steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as
much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here tonight. Let's sing a hymn and we'll be