Victory in Jesus

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
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And Lord willing, today we are going to finish 1 Corinthians 15, looking at verses 50 to 58.
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The title of today's message is Victory in Jesus.
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1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 50, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
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For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
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When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
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Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
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But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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Amen.
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What a text.
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Father, thank you for your word.
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Lord, thank you for giving me life and breath to preach today.
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Lord, what a word to preach.
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Father, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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Father, I pray that your name would be glorified.
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Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would fill me and that he would speak through me.
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And Lord, that the words would go out, that they would be mixed with faith, that they would go into the ear, to the mind, but Lord, down also into the heart and the very soul.
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And Lord, that they would be used to change hearts today.
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Lord, confront the unbeliever in his unbelief.
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May today be the day of reckoning for him.
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And Lord, for the believer, comfort them in the realization that this life is followed by a much greater blessing than any of us could ever imagine.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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One of the most intriguing events in the Bible is known as the rapture.
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And many of you have probably realized, especially those of you who have been under my preaching ministry now for 13 years plus, that I don't talk a lot about the end times.
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And so you probably have never heard me use the word rapture very much.
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Well, today's the day, at least a bit.
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This word rapture means to be caught up and it refers to the time when Jesus will return and he will catch up his church to be with him.
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Probably the most commonly associated passage with this particular event is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
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Brother Evan read this morning.
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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command and with the voice of the archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
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And so we will always be with the Lord.
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What a tremendous reminder.
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What a tremendous blessing.
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And I know there is tremendous debate that this particular subject engages.
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The question of when the rapture will happen.
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There's the question of is there going to be a tribulation period after the rapture? Is it going to be that the rapture happens in the middle of a tribulation? Is it going to happen after a tribulation? And I want to let you know we're not doing that this morning.
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That's not the subject of today.
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We could talk about that another time.
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My purpose today is to simply indicate that the rapture itself, the catching up of the church, the raising of the dead, to be with the Lord is at the heart of this text.
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We can talk about timing another day, but Paul is teaching the fact that this event will occur and he is describing in detail what this moment is going to be like.
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There's going to be an immediate change in the body for both the dead and the living.
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There's going to be a trumpeting announcement of the coming, conquering king, and there's going to be a final victory over death and the grave.
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All of this is Paul's conclusion to his teaching on the resurrection.
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Earlier in the chapter, he dealt with those who said there is no resurrection.
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That begins at verse 12.
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Then he dealt with those who have questions about the resurrection that began at verse 35.
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But now he is concluding this with reminding people what they can expect because of the resurrection.
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What can we expect because of the promise of the resurrection? This is the crescendo.
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This is the this is building to this point.
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And now it's here.
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What can we expect because of the resurrection? Well, I have three things that I have noted from this passage that we can be assured of.
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Three things that we can be assured of because of the resurrection.
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The three things are a certain change, a coming conquest, and a current confidence.
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I didn't put them in the bulletin this week.
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I didn't have the opportunity to get that done.
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I'm sorry, but let me just begin.
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And if you want to write it down, fine.
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The first one is a certain change.
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If you'll look with me at verse 50.
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I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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All right.
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Stop right there.
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If you remember what we talked about last week, this is the great thing about verse by verse preaching.
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We're already in context.
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What did we talk about last week? Paul makes a distinction between the natural man, Adam, and the spiritual man, the resurrected Christ.
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He said Adam was a was a was made a living soul, but Jesus was a life giving spirit.
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And so he makes a distinction between that which is natural, that which is spiritual.
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And here he's he's he's continuing with this idea.
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And he's saying, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
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What he's talking about here is the natural body that we now possess, which most of us understand that language because we talk about somebody being a flesh and blood human.
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Right.
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Jesus came flesh and blood.
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Right.
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He didn't come as a spirit.
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He came as flesh and blood.
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This is the natural body.
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This natural body does not have what it takes for the environment of heaven.
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This natural body is not fit for the environment of the new kingdom.
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It's like this.
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There's a lot of environments we're not fit for.
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Right.
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If we go up into space, the only way to survive is to be put in a big suit that keeps us at the right pressure and gives us air and puts oxygen in us.
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That's the only way to survive.
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And that's in that in that environment, because we're not made for that environment.
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If we go down to the depths of the sea, unless we're in a submarine or we're in a some kind of a some kind of aquatic suit that allows us to survive, we're not fit for that environment.
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We're not fit for the heavens.
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We're not fit for the depths.
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We're only fit for this particular environment.
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And we're certainly not fit for the environment of the kingdom of God.
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Therefore, there is a certain change that must happen.
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And that is Paul's point by saying flesh and blood.
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He is saying this current state of being cannot inherit the kingdom of God because it's not fit for the kingdom of God.
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It's not made for it's not designed for it's not going to work again.
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It'd be like you taking your body out into space.
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It just wouldn't work.
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One of the things that we need to understand, though, is what Paul is not saying.
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Paul is not saying that the new kingdom is going to be some kind of a mist or ethereal, immaterial world.
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Some people think when he says flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom, that what he's saying is that the kingdom is going to be some kind of a spiritual world.
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No, it's going to have a physical component.
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We know that because when Jesus rose from the dead, he had a glorified body.
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And what did he say in Luke 24, 39? A spirit doesn't have flesh and bones.
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And yet you see, I do.
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Right.
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So Jesus came out of the grave with flesh and bones.
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He said, but wait a minute, it says here, flesh will not inherit the kingdom.
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Yes, this flesh.
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We're going to have a new type of body.
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And I don't know what it's going to be like, but I know this.
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The Bible says we'll have what Jesus has.
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When we see him as he is, we'll be like he is.
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So we're going to get a new body and it's not going to be an intangible spirit.
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We're not going to be sitting on a cloud, plucking a harp, eating grapes.
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I don't know.
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That's a visual.
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A lot of people have for heaven, you know, sitting on a cloud, playing with a harp, you know, sort of having some kind of mystical experience.
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No, it's a it's a real tangible experience.
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This flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
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Therefore, we need a new body to be able to inherit the kingdom of God.
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What's the difference between this and the new body? This body is perishable.
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The new body is imperishable.
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This body has a natural dying point.
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It's going to rot away one day.
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But the new body will never be subject to death.
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It will never be subject to decay.
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It will never be subject to deterioration.
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It will be a spiritual body that is functioning fully by the spirit of God, will never, ever grow old, will never, ever get tired, will never, ever get a wrinkle or a gray hair.
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You're going to live forever.
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You ever think about that? You don't sound excited.
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I'm pretty.
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Every time I look at my face, it gets a little more wrinkly, a little more gray.
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My eyes get a little more dim.
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And I think about the fact that one day this body will stop.
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And yet there is coming a body that won't stop.
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So Paul tells us this, he tells us in verse 51, Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
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Why does he say mystery? Because it really is mysterious.
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How this is going to happen? It really is a mystery.
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It's something that we really don't understand.
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He says, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep.
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And by the way, the word sleep is euphemistic for death.
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In the Christian life, we're never said to die.
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It's just sleep.
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It's a euphemism.
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He says, We shall not all sleep or die, but we shall all be changed.
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The moment and the twinkling of an eye, the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on imperishable.
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This mortal body must put on immortality.
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Notice what he says here.
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First, he says there will be believers alive when Jesus returns.
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He says, We shall not all sleep.
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When Jesus returns, there's going to be believers alive.
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I think this is why in every generation, there's somebody who comes out and says, This is the last generation.
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Because there's an expectation.
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Somebody is going to be the last one.
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Why not me? Right? Somebody is going to be the last generation.
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Why not us? And so every generation thinks it'll be the last one.
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And my wife and I talked about this.
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We went on a little trip yesterday and I read my sermon.
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So I let her drive and I was reading.
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And when I read this, we were talking about the fact that, you know, I think that a lot of people really hope they're the last generation so they don't have to die.
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You know, because he says, We will not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
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The idea of those who don't sleep, that means they're not going to die.
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That means a rapture You didn't have to go through the process of death.
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You didn't have to go through the process of aging.
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You have to go through the process of the pain.
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And I think a lot of people want that.
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Come, Jesus, now, so I don't have to die.
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And maybe there's a little self-service in that.
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But I think that's really the desire.
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Let it be, Lord.
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Come, Lord Jesus.
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We shall not all sleep.
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And what's interesting about this, too, Paul says we.
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That includes himself, which tells me and scholars do debate on this a little bit.
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I think Paul really believed it could have happened in his own lifetime.
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I think Paul believed he didn't know when Christ was and Christ said, You do not know when I'm going to return.
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And so this reminds us that we should all live with the expectancy of the return of Jesus Christ.
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We should live in the with the idea that it could be any time because that keeps us focused on what's most important.
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If we didn't, if we knew Jesus wasn't going to return for 50 years, that might change.
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But if we knew he's going to return in 50 minutes, how would this worship service be different if you knew he was coming today? And that's sad that we say yes, because that's the idea.
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We will not all sleep.
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Some of us, maybe not us, but maybe our children, maybe not their children, maybe that somebody is going to be alive when he returns.
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I don't want to get too caught up on this.
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A lot more to say.
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But this importance, we shall not all sleep.
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So there's a there's an idea they're going to be believers alive.
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And there and here's the second thing.
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And this is important in children, young people, anybody who doesn't know Christ.
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Listen to me now.
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This is important.
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There will be no time to prepare when he does come.
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There is going to be no time to get ready.
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The return of Jesus is not going to be telegraphed.
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It is going to come without warning.
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And there will be no second chance.
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A few years ago, I heard of a church where the pastor had been preaching on the second coming of Christ, and he was really trying to impress upon his congregation the immediacy of the reality of the second coming of Christ.
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And it just so happened that he had a daughter who was a musician.
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And it just so happened that she played the trumpet.
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So during his sermon, he had her stationed by the back door.
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And at the height of his sermon, where he was telling people of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it would be in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
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She played the trumpet.
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People screamed in terror.
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Some of them fell on the floor.
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Some of them leapt up from their seats in shock.
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It was a moment.
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And while I don't necessarily agree with the theatrics of the pastor, it was a good point to kind of show you who was ready and who wasn't.
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Because the people just white faced as ghosts, grabbing for their seats, grabbing for their children.
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What if? What if the trumpet sounded right now? What if instead of a teenage girl that was the angel of God blowing the trumpet of God to announce the coming of the Son of God? Are you prepared for when that trumpet sounds? There will be no time to prepare when it does.
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And there's going to be an immediate change.
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As soon as the trumpet sounds, the text says this perishable must put on the imperishable.
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When that trumpet sounds, every dead person who is in Christ is going to rise immediately.
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And at that moment, it'll be like the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37.
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They're going to have all their pieces put back together and they're going to come out glorified and they're going to be ready to go.
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I remember in seminary, somebody asked, why did the dead rise first? And there's six foot more to go.
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That's not a good joke.
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Okay.
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So they got six foot and further to go.
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We don't know why the dead in Christ first, but they rise first.
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And then everyone who is alive in Christ is going to change immediately.
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You won't be looking at it, it won't be like some movie where things start.
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It is going to be that.
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It's in the moment, the word twinkling of an eye.
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One of my professors said he did a study on this.
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He said it was the time it takes for light to hit the front of the eye to get to the back of the eye, which is no time at all.
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There's, it doesn't take any time.
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Think about how fast your brain sends signals from the eye to the brain and to the rest of your body.
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The fact that it takes light, no time to get from the front of the eye to the back of it.
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That's the idea of the immediacy of the text.
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In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, it's going to be done.
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You will be changed and there will be a transformation of your body, a certain change.
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So let's look now at the coming conquest.
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This is verse 54.
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So because of the certain change, we have, we see now a second reality, a second thing that we believe, and that is verse 54.
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When the perishable, this is the coming conquest.
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When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying, death is swallowed up in victory.
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When the miracle of Christ's return takes place and the necessary change of our bodies has occurred, this will usher in the final victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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When Christ was on the cross, he defeated death.
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Yet we still die.
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Some people say, well, why? Because the final blow to death has yet to be dealt.
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Christ defeated death and showed himself its master, but he has yet to deal its final blow.
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Currently, Christ is reigning from his throne.
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And the word tells us that.
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He says, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me.
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He is king right now.
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And he will reign until his enemies are subdued.
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1 Corinthians 15, 25.
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He must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet and the last enemy is death.
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It says in verse 26, the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
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When Christ comes, he's going to put to death, death.
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Interesting thought, right? And this coming moment is a fulfillment of prophecy.
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If you look here, he says in the text, thus shall come, then shall come to pass the saying that is written.
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Anytime you see the phrase that is written, it's telling you this is written somewhere.
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Where is this written? This is written in Isaiah 25, verse eight.
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He will swallow up death forever.
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He will conquer death.
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And at this point, Paul bursts into what seems to be a song.
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Oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, death, where's your sting? But that too is a quote.
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That is a quote from Hosea 13, 14.
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It's a quote about the the power of almighty Yahweh who has the power over death.
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Where is your victory, death? You don't have it anymore.
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Where is your sting, death? It's gone.
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It's like one commentator said, this is like a bumblebee.
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You know what's interesting about a bumblebee? When it stings you, it dies too.
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You know, the stinger comes out and it and it dies.
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So here's the situation.
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Death has been stinging us all these years.
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One day it's going to die.
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Death becomes like the bumblebee who stung stings us and death becomes no more sting.
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There is the stinger's gone.
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Death has no more power.
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And that in fact, that's the point of this entire section.
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That's the reason the title of the sermon is Victory in Jesus, because this whole section is about the conquest of the Savior over death.
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It is what he came to do.
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He came to stare death in the face and come out as the victor on the other side.
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That's what Jesus did.
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He defeated death, his own death on the cross.
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He defeated death.
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He came out of the tomb and now he's staring death in the face.
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And one day he's going to come up and he's going to deal a death blow and he's going to put death to death.
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And I think while we're going up into heaven, we're going to sing, oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Now, at this point, Paul makes a theological point.
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And I don't want to overlook it, but I don't want to belabor it.
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I just want you to notice verse 56.
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Paul includes here a theological message.
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He says the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
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That's not part of the song.
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That is the reminder to us of the reality of the theology that makes this all true.
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What does it mean when he says the sting of death is sin? It's very easy.
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Death could not and would not affect us if sin wasn't in us.
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Let me say it again.
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Death could not and would not affect us if sin was not in us.
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Do you realize that we die because of sin? That is a theological fact.
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Death entered the world through sin.
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You want a passage? Romans 5, 12.
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As sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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Sin causes death.
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Sin is the power.
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It is, in fact, the sting of death is sin.
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If sin would have never entered the world, we would not have had to die.
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In fact, what does the Bible say? The wages of sin is death.
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Do you realize every time you sin, you deserve the death penalty? Some people think I'm nuts for saying that, but the Bible is so clear.
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Every sin is a capital offense against Almighty God.
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Every sin deserves death.
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That's why people always, oh, don't ever say, oh, God, give me what I deserve.
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You better be careful.
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If God gave you what you deserve, you've been dead a long time ago.
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The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
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What does that mean? Well, what it means is this.
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Without the law, there wouldn't be any sin because sin is breaking the law.
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What was the first sin? Breaking the only law.
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There was one rule.
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You had one job.
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Don't eat.
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And yet they ate.
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The Bible says in 1 John 3, for everyone who makes a practice of sinning practices lawlessness.
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Sin is lawlessness.
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So what is Paul's theological point here? If there was not sin, there wouldn't be death.
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And if there was not law, there wouldn't be sin.
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God has given law.
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We've broken it.
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So we deserve to die.
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And yet Christ overcame that.
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That's the whole point.
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Christ has defeated this for us.
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But I want you to think about this for a moment before I move on from that.
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When he says the power of sin is the law.
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Every time we sin, we break God's law.
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And what makes that so serious is that God is good.
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And God does not overlook the breaking of his law.
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A few years ago, Paul Washer, pastor I listened to, was in a crowded student assembly.
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And there was a bunch of students there.
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And he was asked to speak.
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And he was he was coming out on to the to the area where he could speak.
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And he came out and he was trying to get their attention.
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The students were all acting so silly.
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And you know how kids are just acting a little foolish.
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And he says to them, he said, listen, I want to tell you the most terrifying truth about God.
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So they all quieted up.
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So I'm going to tell you the thing about God that is the most terrifying truth about God.
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So now they're all quiet like you.
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He said the most terrifying truth about God is that God is good.
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Teenagers sort of cross eyed, looked at each other.
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Some of them laughed.
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Why in the world would you say the most terrifying truth about God is that God is good? He said, because we are not.
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God is good.
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And because we are not.
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His goodness requires of us a penalty.
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Years ago, I was in the room when this happened.
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R.C.
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Sproul was asked during a Ligonier conference.
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Somebody asked, R.C., why was the punishment for Adam and Eve so severe? Thankfully, the question came on a card.
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The person wasn't at a microphone, so the person didn't get directly answered.
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But this is literally what he said.
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What is wrong with you people? That was his answer.
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He said, God made man and put him in a perfect garden, gave him perfect comfort, gave him everything he ever needed to survive, gave him everything he ever needed to thrive and be happy.
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And he said, do not do this one thing.
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And he did it.
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And you're saying he's severe.
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What is wrong with you? You do not understand the goodness of God and you do not understand the sinfulness of sin.
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You may take issue with his response.
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And I am not exaggerating it.
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I was there.
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My son went, you remember? He's like, what just happened? I said, somebody asked.
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You ever heard that? There's no dumb questions.
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Somebody asked one that maybe, maybe was teetering on the line, asked a serious question, got a serious answer.
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The wages of sin is death.
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Sin is an offense against an eternally holy and righteous, just God.
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When Isaiah saw God high and lifted up, seated on his throne, what did he say? Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and I have seen the King.
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And he put his hand over his mouth.
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And he commenced to proclaim a judgment upon himself.
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That's why all these people on TV, oh, I saw God.
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We walked together.
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We had ice cream on Hallelujah Boulevard.
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It's junk.
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It's garbage.
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You did not see God.
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It's an absolute lie.
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If you saw God, you've been on your face screaming out in terror.
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You did not see the living God.
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All right.
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I'm sorry.
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I was just saying, this is the reality.
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The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
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Sin deserves death and the law deserves recompense.
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But this is the beautiful part, and I'm not stopping now because now is the beautiful part.
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The word but is a beautiful word because the word but changes things.
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The sting of death is sin.
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The power of sin is the law.
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But thanks be to God.
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Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, we had nothing but death, we deserve nothing but hell, but thanks be to God who gives us victory over all that, not through ourselves, but through our Savior, not through what we have done, but what he did for us.
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He became sin who knew no sin that we could become the righteousness of God in him.
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Death was like Goliath standing before the people of God, mocking the people of God.
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And Jesus, like King David, walked out and said, who is this Philistine who speaks against the people of God? And with a stone of the cross of God, he struck down death and death is dead.
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And Jesus is David, not you.
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When you read that story, remember that.
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Don't put yourself in the place of King David.
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Jesus slew the giant for you.
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You're like his weak brother standing back saying, what are you doing? And Jesus goes before death and strikes death dead.
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I do have a few more things to say.
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That'd be.
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Verse 58, I want to say this because the therefore.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers.
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You know, you know what therefore means.
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Means everything I just said results in this.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast.
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That word steadfast means to be in a position of strength.
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It means to be firmly established.
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Like when I teach kids karate, the very first thing I teach them how to do is stand up straight and not get knocked over.
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How to stand in position and hold your place firm.
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He says, be steadfast and immovable.
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On what? On the resurrection.
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That's the whole concept.
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That's the whole subject.
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Do not let someone come in and try to knock you off your stone.
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Your stone is Jesus Christ.
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Do not let someone come in and try to push you off the foundation.
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Your foundation is Jesus Christ.
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Do not let someone come in and try to rock your faith.
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Would you instead put your faith in the rock? Who is Jesus Christ and stand on him? Be steadfast and movable.
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And this last one, this is why I didn't want to stop, because this is you need to hear this.
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He says, always abounding in the work of the Lord, that word abounding.
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I want to read to you.
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It means to have such an abundance as to be more than sufficient with the implication of being considerably more than what would be expected.
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Let me ask you a question, beloved.
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Is your work in the Lord more than what is expected? Is your work in the Lord more than what is expected? We give so much to our hobbies.
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We give so much to our interests.
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We give so much to our families and to our recreations.
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But how much do we abound in the work of the Lord if the resurrection be true and it be true? Should that not force us into a life of abundant service to our Lord that is more than is expected, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain? Here's the thing.
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All labor that's not done in the Lord and for the Lord will one day perish.
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But everything done in and for the Lord will never be in vain.
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I want to end today with a short reading and then I'm going to draw to a prayer and close.
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And I read this at Irvin Hillard's funeral.
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Irvin was my friend and he was a man of great faith and he was a man who loved to serve the Lord and encourage people.
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But this is something that I wanted you to hear because it goes right along with the message.
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It's called One, Only One Life by C.T.
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Studd.
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Only one life.
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Two little lines I heard one day traveling along life's busy way, bringing conviction to my heart and from my mind would not depart.
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Only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Only one life.
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Yes, only one.
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Soon will its fleeting hours be done.
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Then in that day, my Lord, to meet and stand before his judgment seat.
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Only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Only one life.
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The still small voice gently pleads for a better choice.
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Bidding me selfish aims to leave and to God's holy will to cleave.
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Only one life will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Only one life.
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A few brief years, each with its burdens, hopes and fears, each with its clays I must fulfill, living for self or in his will.
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Only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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When this bright world would tempt me sore, when Satan would a victory score, when self would seek to have its way, then help me, Lord, with joy to say only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Oh, let me.
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Oh, let my love with fervor burn.
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And from the world now let me turn living for thee and thee alone, bringing the pleasure on thy throne.
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Only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Only one life.
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Yes, only one.
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Now let me say thy will be done.
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And when at last I'll hear the call, I'll know I'll say it was worth it all.
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Only one life to will soon be passed.
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Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank you.
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I thank you for the the feeling of urgency which comes in a message like this, that forces us to be to be real with ourselves and real with the reality of life and real with the fact that one day Christ is going to split the sky and he is going to come and he is going to bring with him.
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He is going to bring favor upon his children.
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He's going to bring judgment upon his enemies.
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And father, let it be that those under the sound of my voice would understand that there is only two humanities, those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ.
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May it be Lord.
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That we are in Christ today and for those who are not Lord, may you bless them with the gift of repentance and faith and those who are Lord, may they ever with expectancy look forward to the coming of our king, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's in his name we pray.