If you will, turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. It's good to see our visitors here. Rocco is Art's brother. He's our real estate agent. We've been on a long and winding road, haven't we, Art? No, Rocco. 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 55, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Can you say that? That's a boast, isn't it? That's a boast. Can you make that boast? We can't make that boast if we're putting any confidence in ourselves whatsoever. Here's why. The sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the law. Now here's how we can make that boast. This is the one way we can make that boast. but thanks be to God, which giveth freely, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, my brethren, be ye 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. Now once again I want to express how thankful I am that we have this place. I am very thankful that we have a building finally after all these many years where we can actually gather together and not hear firehouse door raised, or an engine start up, or lockers clinking down below us. And I'm thankful for that. A place where we can worship the Lord quietly. I'm thankful for that. Well, knowing what our Lord has done for us, knowing what He's done for us, and I mean not just this place, I mean what He's done for us spiritually, by His grace, knowing what He's done, we ought never ever doubt our God ever. We ought never have the least doubt about our God whatsoever. Not at any time. Scriptures tell us this. Let's read the Scriptures here and we'll see why we should never doubt our God. The sting of death is sin. You see, we had a sin problem. This is the thing that you don't hear this today in churches. Most churches are trying to pay the bills. And the preacher is trying to keep his house and his car and what he's got. And so to do that and to make everybody happy, you've got to water the message down You put it in man's hands so it is not offensive. Well, here is the problem with that. You and I have got a sin problem as we are coming into this world. That is what we need to be told because that is the truth. God is only going to bless the truth and this is His Word right here. This is His Word. There is one thing I know about all God's people. We want God to have all the glory. Do you believe God? Do you trust God? You want Him to have all the glory if you do. That's true of all God's people. We want Him to have all the glory in our salvation. We don't want to have any boast in us or any praise in us. Because the Scripture says God saves the way He does. 1 Corinthians 1.29 says that no flesh should glory in His presence. But that he that glories, glories in the Lord. We make our boast in the Lord. Now let's talk about this sin problem. How bad was this sin problem? It's got two branches to it. There's a legal branch to it which means we broke the law of God. Did you know you broke the law of God before you ever were born into this world? Did you know that? I did too. Look at Romans chapter 5 with me just a moment. I know I use this a lot but I've got to show you this. Romans 5. And look at verse 12. As by one man, that's talking about Adam, the first man, from him we all came. By one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. You see there it says, until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned all the way from Adam to Moses. That is telling us, brethren, that whenever Adam sinned in the garden, you see, we all came from him. So Adam was our legal representative. He was our legal head. And when he sinned in that garden, we sinned in him. We were in him. And we were represented by Him. And so we sinned in Him. And the reason sin was in the world, even before God gave the law, sin was in the world and men died because we really did die in Adam. We really died spiritually in Adam. Legally, legally we became guilty before God in Adam. And then there is a second problem though. We were born of Adam. You came from Adam and I did too. When after Adam's sin, God created him in His image. But you know what the Scripture says in Genesis? After Adam fell in the garden, He begat a son in His image. See, He produced a son by corrupt seed, so the nature of that son was spiritually dead. He didn't know God. Seth didn't know God. And on down the line to you and to me, and we come into this world and we don't know God. That's the sting of death, is sin. That's what we are. We're sin because we broke God's law. We're guilty. And all we are in our nature is sin. Let me show you some Scripture on that. I don't want you to take my word. I want you to see God's Word. Romans chapter 3. Let's read verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Paul said. Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? No and no wise, for we before proved both Jews and Gentiles. That takes in everybody in the world. Both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Romans 3, verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. God doesn't leave any wiggle room there, does He? That's all of us. That's all of us. Look now at Romans. Look at Romans and look at chapter 5. I'm sorry, look at Romans and look at chapter 8. When we come into this world, what are we? What do we think about God? Romans 8 verse 6. To be carnally minded is death. That's how we come into the world. Carnally minded. What does that mean? Verse 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Now it doesn't say there that it's simply at enmity against God. It says the carnal mind, your nature and my nature by birth is nothing but hatred against God. Now let me, I know where a person will come from, that person will say, well, I don't hate God. I never hated God. You don't hate the God of your imagination. We are all coming into this world religious. You know what happened to Adam as soon as he sinned in the garden? He went and made some fig leaves and tried to cover his nakedness. We all do that. We come into the world and as soon as we get old enough and to be able to think when we realize there is something about sin, we are going to try to cover it. We're religious by nature. So as long as you tell us I can do something to cover my sin, we don't hate that God. The God we hate is the God that says you can't do a thing about your sin. You don't even know the true and living God unless He reveals Himself to you. That's the God we hate. That's the God we hate by nature. But you see, this is necessary because this is the only way, the only way that we're ever going to be made to shut our mouth, empty our hand, and bow to God. And when God brings you to do that, this message starts out being bad news because you're thinking, I'm a sinner, I can't do a thing about it, I don't get any room to glory. But before it's over with, if God reveals this to you, when He does, it's a message you love to hear. Because you can look death square in the face and say, death, where is your sting? You can look the grave in the face and say, grave, where is your victory? It is gone. Well, our next problem it says there is, it says there the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. You see, God stacked the deck. And He did it to show how wonderful His Son is. But what God did is, after we fell in Adam, 430 years after Abraham, God gave a law at Mount Sinai. He didn't give a law between Adam and Moses. But when Moses, He called him into Mount Sinai and He gave him a law. Why did He do that? What's the law for? Let me go back where we went this morning. Romans 3. Look here in verse 19. We know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that's all of us by nature as we come into this world. And here's what it was given for, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." That's why God gave the law. Look at Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and look at verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. God gave the law, not for you and I to try to come to God by it. He gave the law to show us the magnitude of our offense in the garden when we sinned against Adam. And to show us the magnitude of our sin nature and our thoughts and our deeds before God. You know, when you read the Scriptures and you read about mortifying the deeds of the flesh, if you'll read carefully all through the Book of Romans and all through the New Testament, what you'll find out is, more times than not, what the Apostle Paul is speaking about is religious deeds whereby men think they can come to God. Those deeds have got to be taken out of our hands. Because God, you see, God is holy. This is God's chief attribute. I know everybody says His chief attribute is love. God is love. But God is holy. And the way God loves is holy. That means God is of two pure eyes to look upon sin. He can have no fellowship with a sinner whatsoever. None whatsoever. So God can't have any fellowship with you and I as we come into this world. We're dead in sin and the law of God, God who God is, His very nature, the very essence of God says He's against us. He's contrary to us. He's everything we're not. We're unholy. Remember the un-cola? We're the un of everything God is by nature. God is holy and He can't have any dealings with us. So, we've got this problem. We're sinners. We've broken the law and our nature is sin. That's all we can do is sin. Remember when God destroyed the world in Noah's day? Man hasn't changed since then. God looked upon the face of the earth and He said, the thoughts of the imagination of man's heart is only evil continually. You know, that sounds harsh to us because we judge each other by each other. You know, you and I, when we have a tendency to pick out somebody that's a little worse than us to judge ourselves by, and now we don't usually pick out somebody that's way better than we are and say, well, I'm as good as him. We pick out somebody that's a little worse than us. I'm not as bad as that. But the problem is all of us together at our best state are all together vanity. That is the scripture. Man at his best state is altogether vanity. You see, man is not the standard. Other sinners are not the standard by which God judges His people. He said in Acts, He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Christ Jesus. That is the man we have to measure up to. That is God's Son. So what God did for His people is this. God sent His Son into this world for sinners. Look back at Romans now and look at Romans chapter 5. You are going to see this is the whole message of Romans and it is the message of the whole Bible. Look at Romans 5 here, verse 6. When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. We can't describe what it is to be ungodly. That's who Christ died for. It says there, scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perfectly for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in it while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Christ came and died for ungodly sinners who can't do a thing for themselves. That's who He died for. There were some men, you know, always Pharisees. They're self-righteous religious folks. They're the folks God spoke about in Isaiah 65 when He said, they say, stand over there by yourself, I'm holier than you are. And God said, they're a stench in my nose. They're a fire, a stinking trash, A fire that is burning refuse and it stinks in my nostrils, God said. And they were standing around and they would always be mocking the Lord and mocking His people because they didn't wash their hands like they washed them or they didn't do these different religious works they did. And the Lord Jesus one day said to them, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. The ungodly. Those that can't help themselves. This saying men have, God helps those that help themselves. No He don't. He helps those that absolutely cannot help themselves. That's what the ungodly means. Didn't you just read that? That's who He helps. Those that can't help themselves. Those that are too ruined in sin to do anything. Now go back to Romans chapter 5 and I want to show you something here. You say, well I don't want to die in a representative. I don't want to die in a representative man. I want to stand on my own two feet. No you don't. No you don't. But here is the glory and the beauty of that dying in Adam. Adam was a type. God set forth that first Adam to represent His Son, to be a picture of His Son. To show us that just like we died in Adam, the way we are going to be made alive is by His Son. Now go here to Romans 5 with me and let me show you. He says there, At verse 14, he mentions Adam there. And look at the last phrase. He says, Adam is the figure of him that was to come. It means Adam was a type. Adam was a picture. You know when you draw a picture and you have that picture and you show it to somebody, you say, this is what the building is going to look like when we get done with it. Well, that's not the building. You can't sit down in that. You can't rest in that. But that's what it's going to look like. Well, that's what Adam was. Adam was a figure. How so? In federal headship, in representation. You see, everybody that would be born of Adam, that's who he represented. And you know who Christ represented? Everybody that's going to be born of him. He has to do all the work. So we have to be born by Him birthing us. You remember? Adam sinned and so we became legally guilty in Adam. And then we are born of Adam. So we got a nature that is guilty too. The nature is unholiness. The being guilty before the law is unrighteousness. We have to be made righteous and holy. So look at this now. Look, Romans 5. Romans 5 and look at the end at verse 19. As by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound." Here is God's son. Brother Art read it. God, before the world began, gives him a people and says, I am going to trust these people to you. I'm going to end you, I'm going to justify them, I'm going to purge their sin, I'm going to make them righteous, I'm going to give them spiritual life, and I'm going to give them give them an eternal inheritance. I am going to do all this for them. And you are going to do it for me. You are my son. You are going to do it for me. Because my purpose is to glorify you, my son. To exalt you. Colossians says it pleases God that he have all the preeminence. It pleases God that all fullness dwell in his son. And he is the fullness of the Godhead. God is the Spirit. You cannot see God. The beauty of this thing is you got a God whose Spirit you can't see, and people He created who are flesh and blood, and how are we going to be brought together? How are we going to see each other and commune with each other? God whose Spirit took human flesh, holy, spotless, without blemish, the only man beside Adam that was ever in the world, that started out absolutely perfect. He's the only other one. Because He's the only other representative. You're either going to be found in Adam or you're going to be found in Christ. That's it. You didn't make yourself a sinner and you're not going to make yourself righteous or holy. If you ever find out, if God reveals to you what you are in your heart and what you are because of that sin and how vile and guilty you are before God, that'll be the best news you ever heard. I'll become your best friend. I promise you that. Because you'll say, I finally came across a preacher that wasn't fleecing me and trying to get in my pocketbook and just send me home. That's all. I'm here to tell you the truth. I don't care if you give a dime. I don't. I want you to know the truth. I want you to know salvation. And that salvation is a person. God's Son, the Lord Jesus. So God gives a law. He tells him, I'm going to have you do all this work for me. But not only that, see He puts Adam in this perfect environment, no sin, no nothing around. Gives him one law. And He says, now I'm going to let man have his way. Do what you want to. Here's a man that's got a free will. You know what he did? He sinned against God. So God, He doesn't do that with His Son. He doesn't say, here is a perfect world. He says, here is a world that is nothing but sin, corrupted. And you don't have one law. You got over 600 laws. There is a whole lot more than just 10 commandments, you know. You got all these laws. You are going to have to take a human body, You're going to go, I'm going to prepare a body for you, you're going to be born of a virgin so you won't be corrupt like the rest of them. You'll start out holy and righteous. So you're made under that law and you're going to have to live under that law before the all-seeing eye of God. Perfect, without spot, without blemish, all the days of your life. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth when the fullness of time was come. Galatians 4 says He was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. That is why He came. So He walks this earth perfect, holy. He healed people. He gave the blind sight. He healed lepers. He did all these wonderful works as He walked this earth. And He did all that to show us that He is the only one that can heal our sin disease. That is the worst disease we got. It is worse than cancer. It is the cause of cancer. So He came forth to do that. Well, He walks this earth, He's perfect, He's spotless, He's holy. Now what? You remember, it's not just the fact that we've got to establish the law, we've broken the law. Our sins got to be dealt with. And this is the Gospel. Now let me tell you the Gospel, Romans 3. This is the heart of the Gospel, right here, Romans 3. The purpose for which Christ came forth is right here, verse 26, Romans 3, 26. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that God might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. You see, God's got a people He's determined to save. Purpose to save them. But the thing is, God can't save them at the expense of His justice. And they're guilty. In other words, everybody God saves has got to die under the penalty of the law to satisfy the justice of God. Everybody who saves has got to die. You and I have to die. And I'm not talking about physical death. The death that is, the wages of sin is death. That death we're talking about is after you leave this physical body and you have to suffer, separated from God, in hell for eternity. That's the death we're talking about. And so Christ the Lord, God's own Son, willingly said, make me guilty in their place. Make me sin in their place. He couldn't be made sin any other way. He could not sin. He knew no sin. He would not sin. The only way for Him to be made sin is for God to make Him sin. And God did that. I don't know how, but He did. so that God could charge him in the room instead of His people with our sin. And so God, He willingly went to Gethsemane in that garden and that's, you know, God paints such good pictures for us, such parallelism for us. You know, the first Adam was in a garden. Where did the last Adam go? He went to a garden. He went to a garden. The first Adam, he saw his bride, had disobeyed God and taken of the fruit, and in love for her, he plunged himself into sin for her. Christ Jesus, in obedience to God, saw His bride, His church, His elect, His people, plunged in sin, and for His love for His bride, He plunged Himself into sin for her. Because God is so holy, He will not save anybody at the expense of His justice. This was declaring His righteousness, how God might be just, how He might be just. And He is the Justifier because that One who was on the cross, that One who went to the cross, that One who laid down His life on Calvary's cross and shed His blood is God Almighty in human flesh. He is just and He is the Justifier. Righteousness is up here and He can be merciful to His people now. You see, did Christ just make that possible? Now here's where men want to create a loophole. We're all lawyers by nature. We want to create a loophole so we can still get our hand in there somewhere. And here's where men do it. They say, well, Christ did everything He can do. Now it's up to you to make that blood effectual for you. Well, let me ask you a problem. Remember that sin nature we are talking about? That sin nature that hates God? That sin nature that won't have a thing to do with God? What about God who said it's not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy? What about that? You see, if I say it's up to me to put my hand to it, to willingly accept Him to make His blood effectual for me, you know what I'll do? I'll boast. Well, but at least I believed. But don't a sinner have to believe? Yes, he does. But how are you brought to believe? Ephesians chapter 2. Go there with me. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince, the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." In other words, we were all this way. Who makes you to differ? Who makes you to believe where another man don't believe? I can't do it. If I do it, I'm going to get the glory. Who does it? Look at the next word, but God. who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins, had quickened us together with Christ by grace, are you saying? And He raised us up together and He made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ so that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. But how are we going to be made to see that and believe Him and trust Him? Watch. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that faith is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." You see, the sting of death is sin. Christ came and the Scripture says He purged us of our sin. Look at Titus. Go to Titus with me. Titus. Let me get to it. Titus, and look at chapter 2. I'm sorry, chapter 3, verse 3. We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, Titus 3, 3. Foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that, Kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. He came and washed us. He came and purged us. He came and gave us life. He came and gave you a new spirit and a new heart and faith to believe what Christ has done for you. You see, we had to have a new nature. That nature we had was sinful and rebellious and hated God. We had to give them a nature that made us willing to believe God. You know what the psalmist said? Remember when He said, why does the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain thing? Why do they try to take My Son off the throne? He said, God laughs and He has them in derision. He said, yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I have set Christ at My right hand because He finished the work. And He said to Christ, Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. That's when you'll believe God. That's when you'll believe God and actually say even your believing God is of God. In the day of His power. He did it. Now brethren, I said to you that if you believe God, you want Him to have all the glory. Let me ask you something. What have I said of anything that I've said today that gives you any glory? None. Not a thing. I said to you, God chose His people before the world was made. I said to you, He put it all in Christ's hand. I said to you, Christ is the last Adam who came forth and made under the law and obeyed the law perfectly for His people and made us righteous before the law. And then He went to the cross and took our sin and He justified us from all our sin from the law. And then He sent this Gospel to you like He's done right here today. And He spoke this Word into your heart. And the Spirit of God entered and gave you life and faith. And you just found that, that's what I believe. I don't know why I didn't believe it yesterday. I believe it today though. God has entered in and done a work of grace in the heart. There's got to be a work done in righteousness on the cross. And there's got to be a work done of holiness in the heart. There's a fountain open. For what? For sin and uncleanness. Isn't that what it says? Sin and... I might be misquoting that. Anyway, it's for righteousness and holiness and that fountains Christ. That fountains Christ. Now, I said all that to say this. Our text says this. Back there with me now. I said we ought never doubt our God. And when you see what our God did for us spiritually in salvation, How that He took care of our sin problem before the law and in our heart? How He did it? Upholding God's law, declaring God holy and righteous, never harming His justice whatsoever? When you see that now and you see how God came and revealed this to you and made you thankful and rejoicing in it, made you glory in Him, seeing that He's done that, do you doubt God will do anything else for His people? Romans 8 says, he that spared not his own son. Can you imagine giving your own son for a bunch of criminals in a prison who hate you and would kill you and strangle you if they could get their hands on you? And say, my son, go in there and you die for them. That's what God did for His people. That's the ungodly I'm talking about. That's what God did for us. Because He loved His people. But He would not love us at the expense of His justice and His holiness. He did it in harmony with it. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other in Christ Jesus. Now seeing what He has done in doing that for us, brethren, He said, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? You've heard that illustration. I think it's one of the best illustrations I've ever heard. Brother Don, his son-in-law, is coming over to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. And Don says, here's my daughter. She's yours. They got married. He comes over to his house one day. Don takes him around out there and takes him to his garage and says, I want you to know everything here is yours. The keys to that vehicle's in there hanging up. You're welcome to it. There's tools in there, anything you want. There's everything here. You're welcome to it. Doug stood there with his mouth wide open. And Don looked at him and he said, I gave you my daughter. You don't think I'll give you a wrench? God gave his son this building right here. What's that to God? Moving an old backwoods hunting and fishing country boy from South Arkansas all the way to New Jersey for a handful of folks, what's that to God? given us anything we need to magnify and glorify the person of His Son for whom He made this whole world and has this whole world held in store right now. Till He's called out every single one of His people. If He's using you for that, and that's our purpose right now, do you think God will withhold anything from us for that? To accomplish that? Absolutely not. So he says to us in our text, be steadfast, that means don't ever move away from this Gospel. Be steadfast. Colossians says be rooted and grounded in Christ. Beware lest any man try to spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, telling you to touch not, taste not, handle not, but you got to go back to the Lord, be holy. Listen to me. Of God are you in Christ, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption, so that we glory only in the Lord. He says, don't move away now, don't be moved away from Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are the fullness of God in Him. See, you've got to be one with God for God to accept you. And Christ prayed and said, I pray that they be one in me and thou in me, that we may be one. And that's what we are. One. Be steadfast. Be unmovable. Don't let anybody move you from the Gospel. Don't let anybody move you. And he says, always abounding in the work of the Lord. What's the work of the Lord? I'm going to stop with this. What's the work of the Lord? The work of the Lord is whatever God has put in a believer's hand to do for the furtherance of the gospel, the furtherance of Christ's kingdom, and the glory of Christ. And what is that for the believer? Everything He's put in your hand. We don't have a secular life and a spiritual life. I read this article this week from a supposed grace preacher that's popular, and this is what he kept saying. He was writing this whole article about how to separate your church life from your social life. And how to separate your church work from your secular work and your secular pleasure. God's saints don't know anything about that. You're the temple of God. You're not your own. You're built with a price, God said. We don't know anything about dividing that. Whatever God's people are doing, we're doing it for the Lord. If you are working at the job He has given you, before He called you, before He called you, Rob worked at Wawa for Rob, for the furtherance of Rob's house. After He called Rob, Rob works at Wawa for the Lord, for the furtherance of the Lord's house. Whatever God has put you in your hand to do, we are doing it for the furtherance of His Gospel. That is what is on our heart and our mind. That is what we want to do. Because when God calls out the last one of His people, He says, Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your... Thanks be to God. He is going to give us the victory. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. And we will go and we will be with Christ and we will be with our heavenly family and we will rejoice all our days forever and ever and ever and ever without end. That is what we are looking for. This is not my life. This is a pilgrimage. I am here to glorify Christ. Until I go there, will I glorify Him in person? That's what we're for. That's what we're doing. So be steadfast, be unmovable, always abounding. That means all the time. And God says He'll give you grace so that you may abound to every good work. He'll give you the grace to do it. We can't do a thing without Him. But He'll give you grace to do it. When it was time, I fretted a lot in unbelief, wanting it to happen sooner, because I didn't like that firehouse. I didn't like competing with them while I was trying to preach to you this most important message. But when God's time came and He had grown us in faith and grown us in grace, He gave us the little piddly substance we needed to get this building. And He'll do that for you all. He spared not His Son. He won't spare anything else. Don't ever doubt it. All right.