Good morning. Please remain standing. We're going to we're going to read the text for today. I'm going to back up into verse forty five for context. So First Corinthians fifteen forty five. Thus, it is written, the first man, Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We should not 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, the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body, perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. 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. 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. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. You may be seated. I'm going to go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to share your word this morning. My dear beloved brothers and sisters. In truth, the only congregation of Christians I really believe I've ever been a part of, Lord. I thank you so much for knowing what it is to be a body. Loving one another in that sense, Lord. I pray this morning that as this word is It's founded and truth is brought into our hearts. God, I pray that you would be present in a way that's special and tangible. God, I pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he brings conviction, enlightens the eyes. Lord, if you don't let us see, Lord, we won't see. If you don't open our ears, we won't hear, Lord. We just ask for your blessing on this time. Use the script, the text this morning that you've given us, Father. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So I was going over some news headlines last night. This was the first five or six that popped up. Attacker radicalized quickly. Video shows truck hitting crowd. Ex-officer Charged with murder. Female prison guard killed in Texas. Suspect in homeless killings arrested. This is the news in our world. Death is the news. This passage, which is so dear, First Corinthians 15 to so many of our hearts. Paul has done some amazing things throughout the chapter. He's reminded us that everything he's teaching, the Corinthians is biblical, comes from the scriptures, reminds him that he himself saw the risen Christ, along with Five hundred people, which Paul reminds them that most of are still alive. Can you imagine that's at least two hundred and fifty one? He goes on to answer question after question about the resurrection, and as he comes to the end, he has just a couple more questions he wants to answer, and then he wants to bring the whole thing to an end. And that's where we come in today. The section, I believe this passage verses 50 through 58 can be divided into four sections. So I want to begin with verse 50. Verse 50, the reminder of impossibility. Verse 50 says this, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit The imperishable. This seems like a simple verse, but in all reality, this has been debated pretty hotly throughout a lot of times. I'll never forget being in Guatemala and my real first interaction with Jehovah's Witness. They really aren't too active in rural East Texas where I'm at, where I grew up. But in Guatemala, they're everywhere, everywhere. And I came to discover something interesting about Jehovah's Witness that they do not believe in a physical resurrection. They see resurrection as some sort of spiritual thing that happens to people where they are like a ghost and they float around and they would go on to say, well, even even when Jesus ate and drank, he really wasn't physical. And they use text like this one that says, I tell you, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. To justify that very belief. But I want to share with you as you read through the context, I want you to get a hold of what Paul is telling the believers in Corinth. He's not just talking about a physical body. If you'll go back in the context with me, as we try to discover what flesh and blood really means, I want you to pay attention to what Paul is doing. He's holding up a contrast between two atoms. Verse 45, the first man, Adam, became a living being, the last a life giving spirit. Verse 47, the first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust. As is the man of heaven, so are also those who are of heaven. And verse 49, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so we shall bear the image of the man of heaven. That is the thought in Paul's mind as he progresses to say, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. In other words, what belongs to the first Adam cannot fit into what belongs to the second Adam. Flesh and blood has more than just a physical meaning to it here. It has a meaning that everything that belongs to Adam that we received with death and weakness and a cursed nature. Doesn't fit into what belongs to Christ. The time to come. Also, he mentions that as we born the image of the man of dust, so we shall bear the image of the man of heaven. So as he speaks of bearing the image of the man of death, this is what he means by flesh and blood, brothers and sisters. What is it to bear the image of Adam? It means weakness, it means sickness, it means people drive trucks into crowds. That's what it means to bear the image of Adam. But for us who believe, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. Also, if you pay attention to the verse 50, it says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now, that is strange terminology in modern evangelical days. Most modern evangelicals say something like, you know, unless you're saved, you can't go to heaven. But Paul doesn't put it that way, does he? Paul says, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These words inherit and Kingdom of God are rich and thick in the Bible, and he wants with three or four words to bring an image of the whole story of the Bible into your mind. He chooses to use the word inherit. Flesh and blood cannot inherit. If you think about it, as sons, of Adam, according to the genealogy of Jesus and Luke, Adam was a son of God. He inherited from his father the earth. He reigned over the first creation, naming the animals, tending the garden. He inherited, and as we believers wait for the day when we will see Christ return, we wait not only for heaven, but a new kingdom, a new earth. As we read in Revelation, where there's no more crying and no more tears. But I promise you, it is a new creation. Lastly, if you see verse 50 as two parts of a parallel statement, you see flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God is parallel to nor does the perishable inherit. The imperishable flesh and blood means perishable, weak, sick, sinful, and it's Paul's going to go on and say just a little bit, the sting of death Is sin. It's more than just physical. Flesh and blood, brothers and sisters, means everything that sinful Adam receives. Will. Cannot make it into the kingdom of God. The second section goes from 51 to 53. It's about the revelation of a mystery. The Apostle Paul says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This is apparently the main problem with what the Corinthians were doing. They were taking this Greek thinking that they had that said the physical, anything physical is bad, and looking for ways to argue against the physical resurrection of Jesus. bodily resurrection of Jesus. So they come to Paul and what seems like a good question, doesn't it? Well, if you have to die to be resurrected, what about people that are alive when resurrection time comes? Paul says, behold, I tell you a mystery, mystery usually in the Bible means something that you couldn't have necessarily picked up easily from just reading the scriptures. It would have had to been something revealed. As Paul says in other parts where he mentions God's plan for for Israel and the church and different things as he related to things that weren't necessarily clearly revealed in the Old Testament. Well, here again, he comes with the word mystery and he says here, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, as my dad would say, my eyes don't twinkle. We understand what Paul means. In this in this coming of Christ, in the return and the resurrection, which we'll read a couple of passages to speak of these things happening at the same time. Since we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed. What is the speed of this resurrection? Well, it's in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. The last trumpet. Matthew 24, 31 says, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call. They will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. First Thessalonians, chapter four, verses 16 and 17, say for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of a command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with Him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. What's going to happen is that even though some people's bodies are separated from their spiritual natures, they're going to be rejoined. The dead are going to be resurrected. And those who are living at that moment in the twinkle of an eye will be transformed. They will experience the same thing that is happening to the dead bodies, but they'll experience it without dying and they'll be transformed. Almost instantaneously in a blink of an eye, the twinkling of an eye. This is necessary. For the perishable body must put on the imperishable. And the mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal body puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the same that is written. Verses 54 down to 57 form the next block of thinking in which Paul is going to connect what he's been saying before to the final victory of the Christian. And he says this, when perishable puts on the imperishable and mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the same that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your stink? I want you to notice that what Paul is saying is that in a moment when this shall happen, he says, then shall come to pass what is written, the final victory. He pieces together two different quotations from the Old Testament, one from Isaiah 25, 8, which actually brings pieces of the same passage we read from Revelation. No more crying, no more tears. And Hosea 13, 14. And he pieces them together as if he's taunting death himself. You know, he's watching the NBA finals. And as you watch these basketball players play, man, they get in each other's heads, don't they? I was watching LeBron James and he basically just ruined Stephon Curry with one thing. He just got in his head, began to taunt him. But Paul does it in a whole different way. He taunts the only one who's never been defeated, right? He treats death as a personified thing. And he says, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? For Paul, the resurrection is the necessary outcome of what God has done in Christ and what he intends to do for his people. And as you see these passages quoted from the Old Testament reminding us that this was God's plan from the beginning. He then progresses in verse 56 or digresses in a thought. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. The sting of death is sin. What is it that causes death? To have its bite, what causes people to die? And on top of that, what makes us afraid of death? Both things are stings from death. People die. Loved ones die. Children die. Death has a sting and it comes from sin. But not only that, no matter what we accomplish on this earth, we still die, don't we? He goes on to then say, the power of sin is in the law. The power of sin is in the law. Well, this is probably most clearly understood by what he says in Romans 7. Romans 7, 5 says this, For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not the old way of the written code. Then what shall we say that the law is sin by no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, producing me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Speaking this week with someone about reverse psychology in children, you know, this belief that you can tell them, you know, hey, don't eat that plate of food. To which the kid responds, you know, to gobble it up as quick as he can. And we see this from the time we're tiny that law brings out. Sin and empowers it, it's appalling thought, but as he digresses from what is the sting of sin, death is sin, the power of sin is the law, he moves to what he wanted to do anyway. But thanks be to God. Who gives us victory not only over Sin by keeping the law, sin by paying for our transgressions, by giving us his righteousness. But he defeats death. Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, he ends with the conclusion, really, that's the whole chapter. Therefore, my beloved brother. Be steadfast. Immovable. Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. As the Corinthians have played with not believing in the resurrection and Paul has went To great lengths to prove to them, not only is it necessary that we rise from the dead, it's biblical that we rise from the dead, that I saw Jesus rise from the dead. He goes on to say at the very end, guys. Hang on to this truth, this is not something you can let go, be steadfast and immovable. It's interesting that these two words steadfast and immovable are almost synonymous Greek word, just like he repeated the same thing twice. Keep going, don't be moved. And he says, always abounding in the work. of the Lord. There's something about knowing that death will be defeated totally and that Christ is coming and that my nature will be transformed and I will be a part of a new creation, a sinless creation. There's something about that that makes everything we do on Earth now count and matter. And therefore, he says, looking to the resurrection abound in the work of the Lord. You can go to work every day, brothers and sisters, and not let it be for the work of the Lord. And you can go to the same job and it can be doing the Lord's work. Abound in it. You will meet him face to face and you will be changed. I want to share with you five applications from this passage. Five applications from this passage. Number one, beware of cultural narratives. Beware of cultural narratives. You see, underneath the Greek culture was a belief, and that belief is that nobody rises from the dead because who wants to have a physical body, right? So underneath that culture, it was it was as common as believing, you know, that water is HQO for us. They believed that it was there, it was believed by everybody, and it made Christianity nonsense to the Greeks. It was their cultural narrative, and Paul doesn't let them off the hook. He doesn't change the gospel. He tells them this is God, this is his plan. But, you know, we have our cultural narratives, too, don't we? You know, in the U.S. today, from Disney, I'm watching my kids, from every movie that comes out, Disney and everything, you get this message, right? Follow your heart. Just follow your heart, you know. Just inside you is everything that you could possibly be. Just whatever desire, just go for it. Because it couldn't possibly be dangerous or deadly. Matter of fact, on the opposite, it's the very thing You know, there was a couple that followed their heart, reached out and took a fruit, took a bite of it, and the whole world died because of it. But I don't really want to talk about the world's cultural narrative. I want to talk about Reformed Baptist Christian cultural narratives. We got them too, don't we? We got things underneath us that we believe, well, some of us, at least. That when it comes down to it, it's just a cultural narrative. Let me share two of them with you this morning. And this could really go on and on, but I want to share two. Number one, right doctrine equals spiritual health. Right doctrine equals spiritual health. If we could just get everyone to believe exactly the right doctrines, then all of a sudden, spiritual health problems will totally disappear. As long as there's an ascension to the truths, spiritual health problems will disappear. Jesus said to the church in Ephesus, I'm really glad, paraphrasing, that I'm really glad you kicked out the false apostles, but you forgot something. You've lost your first love. You're right, your doctrine is right, but you don't love me. That's what he said to me. And somewhere underneath us in our struggles and our battles to reform people all across the nation and the world is a desire to be right. But I'm telling you this, there's more to spiritual health than being right. You can have every aspect of the worship regulated according to the regulative principle and people still don't worship. Not because it's wrong, but because there's more to worship than it being right. Right doctrine doesn't necessarily equal spiritual health. There's more, more to it. We can go on on this, but I want to keep moving. The second one is this. This one you don't necessarily hear openly, but it's always under there. You know, God doesn't need us. God doesn't need us. Now, immediately when I say that to you, you're going to say, that's right. God doesn't. What does God need us for, right? He doesn't need us for anything. And so there's a truth to it that in the theological level, God, of course, needs nothing, especially not us. But could you imagine bringing your child to me and telling me, you know, I've just come to the decision. I'm just going to trust God to feed my child every day. He doesn't need me. He could just feed my three year old on his own, right? He's God, right? He can make bread up here out of nowhere and poof, my three year old picks it up and he begins to snack on it. He doesn't need me. God doesn't need us. And we realize when I say that to you, how how ridiculous that statement is. But over and over again, as I'm confronted and as I speak with reformed people, you get this feeling. God doesn't need us to pray, right? He's just going to save whoever he wants to save anyway, right? He doesn't need us. When the scripture commands us, it doesn't ask us to pray for the lost. It commands us to pray for the lost. God doesn't need us. Isn't that what they told William Carey when they sent him across the world to India when they were debating it? God doesn't need you. If He wants to save India, He'll do it on His own. God doesn't need us. That's a true statement. But God has designed this world. He has chosen in His sovereignty to use means, to use you, to use me, to use prayer, to use evangelism, to use love. That is what he's chosen to do. These aren't just stories of Abraham coming and praying and interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah and Moses interceding for the people of God. No. James looks at us in the face and he says, brothers and sisters, you don't have because you didn't ask. That's why you don't have. Because God chooses the means of prayer to do things. that God would break out a revival of prayer in our hearts. We would see life come in a way we probably never experienced. Prayer. God is alive. He's living. He's not just right. He's alive. God does not need us, but He has chosen to use us. The second thing I want to share with you from this passage is Paul says, I tell you a mystery. Let me tell you something. As reformed people, we better we need to accept that there are still things that are mystery. OK. We spend a whole lot of time on fifth tier doctrines trying to figure out things. When in all reality, in Paul's time, there was mystery and in our time, there's mystery. So it's not that it's wrong to speculate at all, but sometimes In the same way that Jesus looked at His disciples and He said to them, when He rose up, the angels were like, what are you doing here? You know? And they were debating to each other, is He going to establish the kingdom now? Or is it going to be some future time? You know, they're having a theological discussion. Christ looks at them and, you know, hey, don't worry about that. Be My witnesses, because there will come a day when you can't. Be my witness anymore. Be my witness. There's still some mystery. We need to accept it and grant grace. That's one of the things I love about the position papers of our elders. If there's one thing that they grant, it's grace. Grace. Anyway. Third thing I want to share with you this morning is just a little reflection on my experiences with working with people across the world who are Victims of the prosperity gospel, would that be a way to say part of the prosperity gospel? If you're not familiar with the prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel says Jesus died on the cross so that you can have perfect and total healing right now so you can be wealthy right now. But I want you to pay attention to what Paul says clearly in the text. When the perishable, verse 54, puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then, then shall come to pass the same. Death is swallowed up in victory. You see the problem when I go to talk, see, I don't when people invite me, I get invited to charismatic churches on the mission field. I get invited to prosperity gospel churches on the mission field. And I don't come into the church and tell them, you know what? Jesus didn't die to make people well. I don't tell them that. Because it's not true. He did die. One day you will be totally made whole. Every sick person that believes in Jesus will be resurrected, have a new body and be made whole. I agree with you. See, the problem I have with the prosperity gospel is not that they believe God is going to give us some sort of amazing inheritance or that He's going to give us a perfect body. I just think they got the timing of the thing wrong. Then it shall come to pass. Then, when Christ returns. Until then, as Jesus said in John 16, 33, in this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I've overcome the world. Number four. Sin, the sting of death, is defeated. Charles Spurgeon preached verse 56 and 57. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. And he begins his sermon on the text by giving three stories. Stories of people on their deathbed. One of them is a rich businessman. The other is a drunkard, and the third one is a pastor of a liberal church who had told people, don't worry about sin. It's all OK. Everything's going to be good. And each person on their deathbed is wrestling with their life and they're hearing these demonic voices. Their sins are coming back in front of them, the lives they've led, the things they've done. It's all flashing back in front of them. And Spurgeon is saying death is terrible without Christ. Death is terrible apart from Christ. My son was singing the other day in the shower a Hindi song. from the church in India. Ah Prabhu Yeshua. It's a real simple hymn. Come, Lord Jesus. Come. And we were discussing, you know one of the big cultural differences between the church in the West and the church that's persecuted or the church that is 0.07% like we are in our church in India. The difference is one group is crying out, come Lord Jesus and end this pain, and the persecution, and being a minority, and being mistreated, and watching the sin, and watching the sin. And they're singing, Ah Prabhu Yeshua, come Lord Jesus. Come. And many times over here, we're trying to figure out how we can just get a few more years out of this, this world, you know. And we get comfortable in the West. Sin just doesn't seem to quite happen. We even see the news and it doesn't really get to us. We're so used to death around us that's not really infecting us directly many times. We're numb to it. The death is real and it is coming for every person in this room. No doubt about it. Old and young, every single one of us is on a path directly to death. If the Lord Jesus doesn't intervene and change that. And my question is to you, what will you see on your deathbed? What will be the voices you will hear on your deathbed? Will you be able to sing, come Lord Jesus, come? It's really simple. Jesus says, turn away from your sins and follow me. Christ is there for anyone and everyone in this room. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I just quoted a Bible verse, didn't I? Will you call upon the name of the Lord? That's the question. Lastly, and maybe, I'm almost out of Spanish right there, maybe, One of the probably Paul's most clearest points is that we should live now. With an eternal perspective. Therefore, my beloved brother, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. There's nothing like seeing a person I don't know about you, but my dad worked for the railroad, so that meant that at some time he would go away for days at a time and come back, but he would leave us chores. And I know you're probably not like me, but I used to wait till the very, very, very, very, very last second to do my chores before my dad would come back, right? But as I knew he was approaching, boy, you'd never seen anybody work like I would work, you know? When I knew he got in the car, he'd call, well, I got off early, you know? I'd run, jump on the lawnmower. It'd be like nine o'clock at night, you know, and I couldn't see anything. I'm still doing donuts out there in the lawnmower. There's something about knowing that your Lord and Master is coming back. It moves you to act now. Living like Jesus is coming. He's coming. He's coming to ask you, I gave you talents. And what did you do with them? What did you do with the things and your family and the Bible in your hand and the lost people around you? What did you do? I gave you these things. Now, I'm going to ask you, what did you do? And he's coming back. And that hope, not only that, it's a hope. We don't have to fear death. You understand that? You can live right now totally unafraid of death. In the face of persecution, If you're a believer in another part of the world. Or around your friend, John Piper. Wrote a wrote an interesting had an interesting title and I read the article, he says, don't waste your cancer. I like that idea. Our sovereign God is in control and we should know he's so much in control. Death is so much been swallowed up. It is stingless. It is victorious to the point. that I can take advantage of the worst things that ever happened to me. I'm going to close by telling you about a missionary that I love, William Borden. William Borden graduated from Yale in 1909 and later from Princeton Theological Seminary. He decided to become a missionary to Muslims of northern China, but he died of cerebral meningitis in Egypt. During his training there at 25. He's buried in the American Cemetery in Cairo, Borden in night, and this isn't I can't even I don't even know what year it was, but he bequeathed one million dollars, his entire inheritance to the China Inland Mission. And a few other agencies. The Borden Memorial Hospital in Langsdorf, China, was named after him. Some say that after his death, Borden's Bible was found. Given to his mother. In it, she found one of the place where he had written no reserves. With a date shortly after he gave the million away. Later, she found in his Bible. For a date shortly after his father told him he would never let him work in the company again, no retreat. And shortly after, shortly before he died in Egypt, no regrets. Knowing that death has been swallowed up in victory means no reserves. No reserves. No reserves. Your life on this earth is like a grain of sand compared to the ocean. No reserves. Live your life for Christ today. Now. Now. No retreat. Don't be afraid. Don't fear the loss. Don't fear the devil. No retreat and no regrets, because though you may be buried in some unknown place, heaven and Jesus gets glorified. And there you'll meet your master. You will rise. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word today. We thank you for. Its power to bring us, Lord, to recognize our needs. I pray, Lord, for those today. Those who may not know You. Those who, Lord, on their deathbed will see their sins flashing before them. God, let us place our faith in You, our trust in You, Let us follow You right now on earth. Just give everything up with no regrets and no reserves and no retreat, Lord. Thank You for following up death and victory. Move our hearts today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.