Victory Over Death — Chuck Smith

Opening Prayer and the Shepherd's Care

Let's pray. Father, how thankful we are that we know you as a shepherd. How thankful to know you as a guide and to just commit our lives to be led by your Spirit. But how thankful we are, Lord, to know you as a host, a wonderful host, preparing the table before us, anointing our heads with oil until our cup overflows.

We thank you, Father, for the hope that we have of one day dwelling in our Father's house forever after we've passed through that valley of the shadow of death. Lord, we thank you for the victory that we have this day and for the victory that you accomplished over death, where death was swallowed up in victory, so that today we have no fear of death.

So that today, Lord, death is no longer the enemy that it once was, but just the gateway into your presence. Bless now, Lord, we pray the study of your Word as we open our hearts to study the Scriptures.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Tonight, Skip will lead us in the study through Isaiah chapters 23 through 25. And I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed Skip's teaching the last couple of sunny nights.

He is an anointed teacher, brings excellent information, very succinct, sticks to the text, and just a real blessing. And if you haven't been with us on a Sunday night, you need to avail yourself the opportunity of hearing this outstanding teacher as he leads us through the Bible tonight, Isaiah 23 through 25.

Actually, he took us through some really tough chapters that weren't very exciting just reading them, but he was able to bring out excellent information that made them exciting. Now we're getting into some really exciting prophecies here in Isaiah.

Isaiah's Prophecy of the Marriage Feast and Victory Over Death

I'm looking forward to see how he shares with us from the areas that we're now entering into. Speaking of the 25th chapter, which we want to look at this morning, these are prophecies of the future, the coming again of Jesus Christ, the establishing of God's kingdom upon the earth.

Beginning with verse 6, it would seem that Isaiah is giving us a prophecy of what the scripture often refers to as the marriage feast of the Lamb. And you've probably heard that term, the marriage feast of the Lamb, and basically that's what we are looking at in verse 6 of the 25th chapter as he describes this glorious feast that the Lord has prepared.

And then he tells us in verse 7 that he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast over all of the people, and the veil that is spread over the nations. There will be an openness and no longer a clouding of the truths of God.

And then verse 8, he will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off of the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it.

I love that, where God says, I've said it. And when he says it, you can be sure he will do it. And it will be said in that day, lo, this is our God, we have waited for him. And he will save us. This is our Lord, we have waited for him, and we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Glorious prophecy of the future day, when death will be swallowed up in victory, and the Lord will wipe away all tears from off of all faces, and the rebuke of his people, that is the nation of Israel, will be taken away from off of the earth, for the Lord has spoken it.

The Universality and Uncertainty of Death

The day when death is swallowed up in victory, death is usually a time of tears, and God will wipe away all tears because there will be no more death. Death is something that we really don't like to talk about.

It's something that most of us have had a close brush with. Sometimes we realize we were just inches away from death, or just perhaps a nanosecond away from death. We sometimes have had those experienced close brushes with death where it sort of leaves us with our hearts pumping and just sort of a feeling of weakness as we realize just a foot or a few inches here or there and it would have been all over for me.

And that awareness that death just hovers very close to all of us. It's something that all of us will face sooner or later. The statistics concerning death are extremely impressive. One thousand out of every thousand people die, and we're not going to be able to escape that except that, as Paul said, I'll show you an interesting secret.

Not all of us will die, but there will be a metamorphosis, a change of body, and we'll get to that in a little bit. Death is mistakenly looked upon as the end. Not so. Death is the beginning of eternity for us.

Eternity with God or eternity apart from God. The Bible tells us that's been appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. The judgment will determine where I will spend eternity after I die.

Death as the Enemy Introduced by Sin

The Bible speaks of death as the enemy of mankind. When Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he said that Christ must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

We realize that death was not a part of God's original purpose and plan for man. That death is something that took place as the result of man's disobedience to God. In spite of the warning by God not to eat of the tree that was in the middle of the garden, the warning that if you eat of that tree you will surely die.

Yet Adam did eat, and as the result death entered into the world by one man's sin. Death entered the world, or sin entered the world by one man and death by sin, so that death passed unto all because all sinned.

The Fall, Aging, and the Hope of Bodily Renewal

I believe that when God designed the human body, and we can see it, in the capacity of the cells to reproduce themselves and it's marvelous how that they're encoded in the DNA is the whole plan and design for every cell of the body and designed to reproduce themselves so that they tell us that about every seven years you have a totally new body as the cells have reproduced.

I do believe that probably in the fruit of that tree that God said you shall not eat of it, there was probably some kind of a bacteria that caused a breakdown of the code of the regeneration of the cell so that they began to mutate and the aging process set in.

We don't know exactly how or when or why the cells begin to break down and aging begins to take place, but we're all aware of that fact that it does happen. It is a fact of life. Probably in that tree of life that the Lord protected, lest man would return and eat of it, there was probably the antidote to the bacteria.

I do believe that had Adam not sinned, that he would be a young, strong man today, just as strong as he was the day God created him. But as a result of sin and sin that was brought into the world, all of us are now subject to the aging process that leads to death.

Christ's Victory Over the Fear of Death

But there's coming a day, Isaiah prophesies this wonderful day, when death will be swallowed up in victory. This last enemy will be destroyed. The Bible speaks about the fear of death. In the book of Hebrews, we read that in as much as we are made of flesh and blood, Jesus also took on a body of flesh and blood, that through his death he might destroy him that had power over death, even the devil, and that he might deliver those who through the fear of death were subject all of their lifetime unto bondage.

In our text today, it speaks of a glorious day that is coming, an interesting prophecy of that day when death would be swallowed up in victory. Paul the Apostle also writes of that day in his letter to the Corinthians chapter 15.

He said, I'm going to declare to you a truth of God that has not been known in the past, but God has revealed it in our time. Not all of us are going to die, but all of us will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the last trump.

For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in an incorruptible body, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible body must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality, and then it will be brought to pass the saying, death is swallowed up in victory.

So Paul takes this phrase from Isaiah's prophecy, and he tells us at what time this prophecy will be fulfilled, and that is at the rapture of the church where Paul is saying, not all of us will die. There will be a metamorphosis.

We will all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. For this corruptible body must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality, because we are told that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Continuing, Paul said, oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? And he talked about the sting of death being sin, but thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our sin has been forgiven.

Sin's Sting Removed Through Jesus Christ

When we were just little guys, my brother and I used to catch bees by the wings. When they were on a flower, you could grab their wings, and then we would spit on our Levi's and touch the little bottoms to the Levi's, and they would sting the Levi, but of course, wouldn't hurt us.

Once we removed the stingers, then we would let the bees crawl all over us, and we would have bees crawling, and the girls would come, and they would see these bees crawling on us, you know, and we said, oh we're not afraid, you know, of bees, and we acted very brave, and we weren't afraid.

Why? Because we had removed the stingers. The sting of death is sin, but Jesus removed the stinger, so that we really don't fear death anymore. It is just the gateway into the presence of God, where we are to dwell in the glory of his presence forevermore.

Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? Thank God who has given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Death, we are told in the scripture, was the result of sin. By one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin, so that death passed unto all men.

But Isaiah prophesies of a day when death will be swallowed up in victory. In Romans chapter 8, Paul says that we and all of creation are groaning and travailing together up till now, as we wait for the manifestation of the sons of God, that is, the redemption of our bodies.

How we long and how we wait for that glorious day, when this corruptible body will put on incorruption, this mortal body will put on immortality. Paul, writing to the Corinthians in his second letter, said, we know that when this earthly body is dissolved, goes back to dust, we have a new body.

It will come to us directly from God. It's not made by human agency, but is direct from God. And that this new body is just, you know, wonderful beyond description. He speaks about how we who are still living in these present bodies do often groan.

I'm sure that Paul was getting up in years, because I find that that's true. As you get older, you start to groan. Earnestly desiring, he said, to be freed or delivered from this body. Not that I desire to be an unembodied spirit just floating somewhere out in the universe.

But I desire to receive that new body, which is from heaven. For he said, I know that as long as I am living in this body, I'm absent from the Lord. But I would choose rather that I might be absent from this body, that I might be present with the Lord.

Jesus' Resurrection as the Guarantee of Believers' Life

Death will be swallowed up in victory. And in reality, that did happen to Jesus. When he rose from the dead, death was swallowed up in victory. And Jesus promised to you and to me that because he said, I live, you too shall live.

Death will be swallowed up in victory. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead. And he is the first to rise from the dead. For since by man came death, by man, that is Jesus, came also the resurrection from the dead.

For as a result of Adam's sin, all of us died. But even so in Christ shall all be made alive. His victory over death assures our victory over death, that is those who have put their trust and their faith in him.

Jesus' Claims and the Proof of the Resurrection

Now, as you read the Gospels, you find that Jesus made many radical claims. Jesus claimed to be the son of God. He claimed that his father had sent him into the world to save the world. He claimed that he was the way, the truth and the life, and that no man could come to the father but by him.

He claimed that he was the light of the world. He claimed that if you believed in him, you would not perish, but that you would have everlasting life. He claimed that he and the father were one. He claimed that if you had seen him, you had seen the father.

He claimed that if a person lived and believed in him, though he were dead, yet he would live. And if you lived and believed in him, you would never die, that death would be swallowed up in victory. In John 10 17, Jesus said, Therefore, my father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again.

No man takes my life from me. I lay it down. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. So he claimed, I am able to just lay my life down. I'm able to take my life up again.

In Mark 9 31, as Jesus was teaching his disciples, he said to them, The son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But after three days, he will rise again. In Mark 10 32, Jesus said to the twelve, We are going to Jerusalem, and the son of man will be delivered unto the chief priest and to the scribes.

They will condemn him to death, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and scourge him, and spit upon him, and shall kill him. But the third day, he will rise again. Jesus claimed that all power was given to him in heaven and in earth.

Now, Jesus made many radical claims. Claims that a normal person would not dare to make. Claims that if any other person made those same claims, you would immediately write them off as insane. Yet he made all of these radical claims, and then he staked all of these claims on the fact that after he was crucified, he would rise again on the third day.

They were all premised upon the resurrection on the third day. As Paul wrote, If Jesus did not rise on the third day, then all of our faith would be in vain. All of our hope would be gone. All of the things that we believed would be worthless if Jesus didn't rise again.

It's easy to make claims. Any of us can claim anything we want. I saw the other day where this Sunyat Moon put on a robe and a crown and claimed that he was the Messiah. Well, you can make that claim, but it's one thing to make the claim and another thing to prove it.

The Resurrection Validates Christ's Claims

Houdini, who was known as the master escape artist, who baffled the people by his uncanny ability to escape in all of these different things that they would do, you know, handcuff him, put him in a bag and drop him in the water and how he escaped and people were astounded.

He claimed that he would escape death, that he would discover the secret and he would escape death so that when Houdini died and he was placed in the crypt, they put a telephone in the crypt so that when he rose, he could call and they waited for over a year for the call to come.

It never came. They finally disconnected the phone and realized that though he made the claim that he would escape death, he didn't. Jesus claimed that he would escape death and the third day he fulfilled that claim.

The third day he rose from the dead, thus proving all of the other claims that he made, verifying that what he claimed was indeed true. He was all that he said he was. He was indeed the son of God. He was indeed sent by the father into the world to save the world, that he is indeed the way, the truth, the life, and no man can come to the father but by him, that he is the light of the world, and that if you will believe in him, you will not perish, but you will have everlasting life, that he conquered over the grave, that he rose victorious from the tomb, and thus death was swallowed up in victory when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

His resurrection is to us the proof of all of his claims. For those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, death has lost its sting. The grave has lost its victory. There's no more fear of death, for we know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.

Death is no longer an enemy, but the door into the presence of our Lord, where there is fullness of joy at his right hand, where there are pleasures forevermore. I highly recommend to you that you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, because you certainly don't want to leave this world without him.

Closing Prayer and the Call to Salvation

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior. We thank you, Lord, that you conquered over death, that death was swallowed up in victory. And we know, Lord, that because you live, we too shall live.

And one day as we are changed, and this corruption puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will be fulfilled for us this prophecy that death is swallowed up in victory. And we will stand, Lord, with you as you wipe away our tears from our eyes, for there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering.

The former things will have passed away, and we enter into the joy of your eternal kingdom. There in your presence, where there is fullness of joy. Thank you, Lord, for the hope, the blessed hope that we have through Jesus Christ of that eternal life with him in his kingdom.

We pray for those today who are here, Lord, who do not have that hope, who still live in the fear of death, those to whom death is still an enemy. We pray, Father, that today they might know that forgiveness of sin, the sting of death removed, the fear of death gone, as they look forward, Lord, to that wonderful day when we shall be with you in your kingdom forevermore.

Thank you, Lord, for making the claims and proving the claims that you are everything that you said you were. You've done all that you said you would. And, Lord, we just rejoice that we belong to you and we have that hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Guide us, Lord, in your ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front to pray for you that would like to know for sure that when you died, you will go to be in the presence of the Lord.

You see, these promises are not to everybody. They're just to those who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ. Paul said, if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the mouth confession is made unto righteousness and salvation. So, you have an opportunity today to make that eternal decision, the decision that determines your eternal destiny of whether or not when you die, you will be with the Lord for eternity or separated from him for eternity.

And I would encourage you, as soon as we're dismissed, come on down to the front. And these men are here to pray for you and to pray with you and to help you to have that glorious assurance that you belong to Jesus, that he is your Lord, he's your Savior.

May the Lord watch over and bless you this week. Make it a glorious week of fellowship with him as we grow in our understanding of his love, of his plan, and of his purpose for our lives.