[0:00] We're going to begin our worship now singing in Psalm 93, Psalm number 93, and sing Psalms. That's on page 123 to the tune Argyle. We're going to sing the whole of this psalm.
[0:13] The Lord is King, His throne endures majestic in its height. The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and might. The world is founded firm and sure, removed it cannot be. Your throne is strong and you are God from all eternity. We're singing these verses in acknowledgement of God being our Lord and our King, sitting on His throne, presiding over all that takes place in His creation, the one to whom we are due to worship and also answerable to Him.
[0:49] The Lord is King, His throne endures. We'll stand to sing. The Lord is King, His throne endures majestic in its height. The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and strength and might. The Lord is founded firm and sure, removed it cannot be. Your throne is strong and new and strong. And you are God from all eternity. The seas, O Lord, have lifted up, the seas, O Lord, have lifted up, they lifted up their voice. The seas, O Lord, have lifted up, they lifted up their voice. The seas, O Lord, have lifted up their wings, and made a mighty noise. The Lord, have lifted up,
[2:35] And made a mighty noise The Lord enthroned on highest throne More powerful is He And that met all the oceans waves Are breakers of the sea Your royal statutes, Lord, stand firm And changeliness your world
[3:38] And holiness adorns your house For endless days, O Lord We're going to call on the Lord now in prayer Let's join together in prayer O Lord, our gracious God We are conscious that You have given us So many details in Your Word That ought to guide our minds As we come to worship You And among these we have been singing, Lord, of Your majesty And of the way in which You preside over Your creation We pray that that itself may affect our mind In such a way tonight that we come submissively And with delight and relish To come to exalt Your name
[4:39] And we thank You, O Lord That these words about You Reveal the truth about You And that everything You say about You Yourself and Your Word We can take to heart as Your own infallible truth And we thank You, Lord, that You have remembered us In such a way as to reveal Yourself to us in this way For every aspect of Your Word That has come to reveal the Lord to us And come to reveal to us what we are ourselves They are all designed that we should know You That we should come and fall down in adoration And in faith before You That we should come and possess eternal life Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Your dear Son We bless You, Lord That tonight we have this renewed opportunity To add those things that are still required of us To know in our experience To add to our knowledge And to add to our level of commitment to You
[5:40] We pray, Lord, that You would increase our understanding We pray that You would deepen our faith Widen our love, we pray So that we may love as we have been loved And that we may consider, Lord That the pattern You have set for us In Your great love for Your people Is a pattern that in itself In its perfection Is such a great challenge to us But we thank You For Your grace that is promised to us each day The grace, Lord, that we pray for To enable us to meet and to fulfill Every task You have given us We pray for our worship to our worship And that we may know Your grace And that we may know Your grace And that we may know Your grace from day to day For Your grace itself is designed to fit with our need And we ask, Lord, that this grace of God This great power, this favor of God Which is so much spoken of in Your Word
[6:42] May truly be our delight this evening We ask, Lord, with bowed heads That we may know Your forgiveness Your acceptance of us We come to confess that we are not what we should be That we are not, Lord, what You designed us to be in the beginning That we are sinners That we need Your forgiveness Your cleansing Your uplifting out of the pit of sin That we need Your help daily in our struggles with sin Our struggles with ourselves and our fallenness Even, Lord, as Your redeemed people We acknowledge that we fail daily to meet the standard That we find in Your Word Standard that is so matchlessly portrayed for us In the humanity of our Lord Himself We bless You tonight, Lord That we have that ready access to You Through Your Word and Spirit We pray for Your Spirit to bless us Oh, Lord, we pray that we may never come to
[7:44] Even think reflectively or for a moment That we are somehow sufficient in ourselves To deal with those things that belong to our need That belong to Your requirement of us But we give thanks, Lord, that You are all that we require That we have everything in You that we need In order to live acceptably before You So, bless to us, we pray, our gathering here this evening Bless us in all our life as a congregation of Your people We give thanks for the many avenues of service That You provide for us, Lord, in this congregation We pray that all of them may be used to the full And we pray that You would grant us Your grace, Lord To fulfill in these activities Our desire to glorify Your name That we may see Your kingdom advance The congregation itself growing In the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord Even those of us who are adults We pray that You would help us, Lord
[8:46] To further enter into The expression of Your name In the world in which we live By the life that we live By the way that we speak By our very own thoughts, O Lord Remember tonight all the gatherings of Your people And we pray for them as they meet together as we do And as they have met throughout the world On this day, the Lord's day We thank You for the value That we place upon Your day For the way You have taught us, O Lord To regard this day in itself as significant And for the way that we recognize That You set it aside from the very creation To be a day that was different To the other days of each week And we thank You for the opportunities we have in it To know You And to increase our knowledge of You And our fellowship with one another Blessed to us, we pray, all the advantages we have In a Lord's day that comes about So regularly, week by week And we thank You, gracious one
[9:47] For all that Your day represents to Your people And for the way that we come to associate it With Your own resurrection from the dead For the way that we also see in it An anticipation of the eternal rest That You have provided for Your people That awaits them in heaven And we ask tonight anew As we come to give our mind To the great subject of resurrection And as we look towards that coming of the Lord And the resurrection of His people To be raised, to share with Him And to be with Him In that glory that is promised We pray, O Lord That You would strengthen our faith And give us to resist, we pray The many temptations we find in the world To disbelieve these things Give us, Lord, in the midst of all the Different species of thought that we come across That are contrary to Your Word That we may hold fast to Your own revealed Word That we may leave all its promises All its warnings, all its threatenings
[10:49] All the passages that come to comfort us, O Lord All the ones also that stir us up to remembrance Of the tremendous and stupendous fact Of Your judgment We ask, O Lord, that we may be All the more made wise unto salvation Bless, we pray, all the families belonging to us As a congregation tonight We ask that in all our homes We may know Your blessing We pray that You would grant to us, O Lord Your own guidance and Your own favor In all that we seek to do We pray for those tonight Who cannot be here physically We pray for them, Lord And especially those of them who are ill We pray for those in hospital And we pray for grace for them For the recovery And we give thanks, Lord For the news that we hear From time to time Of those who have been ill And those not only long-term ill But also those who more recently Were laid aside And sometimes unexpectedly
[11:50] And sometimes suddenly O Lord, bless them all We pray and bless their family And we give thanks again tonight For the measure of recovery For William Graham We pray that You would hear our prayers For him again And for Mordech And for their family, James And Damien We pray that his progress Will continue We give thanks to You, O Lord For the safe delivery Of Donnie and Teane's grandchild Even though it is such an early time In her mother's pregnancy We thank You for our safe delivery We pray for her And we pray that You would bless our Lord As the days go by And we pray that You would bless Kian and Alistair At this time as they celebrate Once again a child given of the Lord And continue to bless them, O Lord During this time We pray for those who mourn Who continue to miss loved ones Again, Lord, we ask that You would Console and comfort their hearts
[12:50] And we do commend them to You once again Whether it be recent bereavement Or times in the past Lord, we know that bereavement Continues to be a painful experience for us But we thank You for the way In which Your own comfort Is extended to us Through Your Spirit We ask, O Lord That we may now continue To wait upon You As we further our worship service here Bless us, we pray Throughout the week That we've entered upon Bless us as we anticipate, Lord The coronation of King Charles Later in this week We pray for him As You require us to do in Your Word We pray for himself And we pray for his spouse, Camilla Bless them, Lord, we pray At this important juncture Not only in their own lives But in the life of the nation And help us, Lord, we pray To bear them before You And we pray that he will come To be an influence for good Especially for Your own cause
[13:52] For the advance of Your kingdom That he will not be drawn aside To substitute the Lord With any other alternative To the Lord Jesus Christ As His King and His God And grant him, Lord, Your blessing As he awaits this important day And so go before us now We pray and bless all Who are in government over us In all parts of the land Lord, in these difficult, tumultuous days We pray for Your guidance We pray for Your mercy We pray for Your forgiveness For our many sins And the many ways In which we have departed From Your ways Return us, Lord, we pray How long?
[14:33] How long will it be Before we come Once again as a nation To be characterized By a love for Your truth Lord, hasten the day, we pray And come and hear The prayers of Your people As You hear them Come and answer And do so, Lord In a way that would Exceed our very expectation We pray all with the pardon Of our sin In Jesus' name Amen Let's sing again to God's praise In Psalm 90 this time Psalm number 90 That's in the Scottish Psalter Page 350 Singing verses 13 to 17 The tune this time is Morvan Turn yet again to us, O Lord How long thus shall it be Let it repent Thee now For those that servants are to Thee O with Thy tender mercies, Lord As early satisfy So we rejoice shall all our days And still be glad in Thee These verses 13 to the end of the Psalm
[15:34] To God's praise Turn yet again to us, O Lord How long thou shall it be Let it repent Thee now Let it repent Thee now For those that servants are to Thee O with Thy tender mercies, Lord As early satisfy As early satisfy As early satisfy So we rejoice shall all our days
[16:41] And still be glad in Thee According to us Thee Thee days have been Wherein we grief have had And years wherein we ill have had So do thou make us cry So do thou make us cry O let thy work and part O let thy work and part O let thy work and part And shall our days And still be glad in thee We hope that we grief have had And still be glad in thee So do thou make us cry And shall ourgens before, and show unto their children dear thy glory evermore.
[18:01] And let the beauty of the Lord our God be us upon, our handy words establish love, establish them each one.
[18:40] Now we're reading two passages of God's Word this evening. Firstly, it's from the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 25. And we'll read the first 12 verses, or the whole chapter really, the 12 verses.
[18:58] And also 1 Corinthians 15, a few verses there which we'll turn to look at later in the service. First of all, Isaiah 25, reading from the beginning.
[19:09] O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful, and sure.
[19:20] For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin. The foreigner's palace is a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you.
[19:34] Cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.
[19:46] For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners as heat by the shade of a cloud.
[19:58] So the song of the ruthless is put down. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
[20:16] And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth.
[20:36] For the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him.
[20:47] Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.
[21:00] And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim. But the Lord will lay low his pompous pride, together with the skill of his hands.
[21:12] And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground to the dust. We turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
[21:27] We'll read verses 50 to 58. I tell you, this brother's flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
[21:42] Behold, I tell you a mystery. 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.
[21:57] For this 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.
[22:14] O death, where is your victory? O 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.
[22:29] 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.
[22:42] We pray God will follow with his blessing, that reading from his word. Let's sing once again before we come back to 1 Corinthians 15. This time it's Psalm 72.
[22:54] Psalm 72 from St. Psalms, page 92, verses 1 to 9. The tune this time is Duke Street. Endow the King with justice, Lord, the royal Son with righteousness.
[23:08] Your people, your afflicted ones, he'll judge with truth and uprightness. The mountains will bring peace to them, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend and save the poor, and crush all those who them oppress.
[23:25] And so on, down as far as verse 9, Psalm 72. Endow the King with justice, Lord. The royal Son with righteousness.
[23:53] He'll judge with truth and uprightness.
[24:12] The mountains will bring peace to them, The hills, the fruit of righteousness He will defend and save the poor And crush all those who then will rest As long as sun and moon endure So will he live time without end He'll be like showers on the air
[25:18] Like reaps that on moon fields descend The righteous then will blossom forth Through earth is ever-lasting green Until the moon no longer shines Peace in abundance will remain From sea to sea he will hold sway And from the river to earth's end
[26:22] His enemies will lead the dust And deserts rise, the knee will end Well, let's turn once more to 1 Corinthians 15 The passage we read from verse 50 And tonight we're going to consider these verses Down as far as verse 57 So that will leave us, God willing, one further study In this great chapter Dealing with the resurrection When we come next time, God willing, to look at verse 58 Which really sums up and concludes Paul's treatment of the resurrection As a significant application of it As you find in verse 58 So from verse 50, as we've read it through He's dealing here again with the resurrection
[27:23] But giving us some more details In addition to what we saw earlier Throughout the chapter Now one thing you notice here is very obvious And that he's talking here to brothers He's, of course, addressing the church in Corinth But all the way through here He's really dealing with the resurrection of the Lord's people And that's in keeping with what you find Mostly throughout Scripture Scripture has very little, actually, to do with The resurrection of the unsaved Because the overwhelming emphasis in the Bible Is on salvation On redemption from sin and from death As this passage itself is going to bring us through this evening And the emphasis on life and salvation Means that that's really what predominates That's what really gets the major part of Paul's treatment Throughout this chapter, indeed There is, of course, going to be a resurrection of the unsaved as well
[28:28] But it will be very different to the resurrection Not in kind, but in result To the resurrection of God's redeemed and saved people Jesus himself referred to that In chapter 5 of John's Gospel And at verse 29 there, 28-29 He says, where he taught That God the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment Because He is the Son of Man Do not marvel at this For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice And come out Those who have done good to the resurrection of life And those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment Or to the resurrection of condemnation Which also is the meaning of the word there So that's giving us a very definite truth That God will bring all from the grave Whoever they are Whenever they have lived All shall come out of the graves
[29:29] Of the voice of the Son of God And you put that into line with the emphasis In this chapter of the coming of Christ Himself 1 Thessalonians 4 and other similar passages And so there is a resurrection of the unjust A resurrection of the unsaved as well We're not going to deal with that tonight It's part of the message of Scripture But as we say, the overwhelming emphasis Is on the resurrection of the saved Of God's people Why is that?
[29:59] Well, for one, that's what God has given the most emphasis to In His revelation of Himself to us He's not a God who's willing that any should die That any should perish But that all should come to repentance It's so that we'll come to see Our need of Jesus Our need of the salvation that's in Him Our need of the victory over sin and death That He has brought about and accomplished Through His own death and resurrection from the dead That's why you find this overwhelming emphasis in Scripture In God's revelation of salvation to us So that we'll come to the Jesus Who took our damnation to Himself Who took to Himself the death that we deserved for our sins And who therefore is presented to us as such As the Savior of His people And tonight as we go through this passage I trust that you and I will put to ourselves
[31:02] Once again, our need of the Savior Even if you're saved Even if you've been saved for many years I hope that through this passage tonight We will all come to an appreciation Of the greatness of Christ Of our need of Christ Of the wonder of life in Him For people who don't deserve it Such as we all are And that will come If we're not yet in Christ To really consider Even before we leave this place tonight That this is where you need to be found That this is where you want to be found That this is your concern And this is your desire To be found in Christ Not having a righteousness of your own So that you'll be like the apostle In his testimony in Philippians 3 If by any means, he says I would attain to the resurrection of the dead Tonight that's surely your desire My desire That you will be part of those blessed ones Who will come to be raised at the coming of Christ To meet Him Triumphing in His salvation
[32:03] And not cringing before His condemnation Two things I want to look at First of all, the necessity Of a great change As the passage brings it out for us The necessity of a great change Verses 50 to 52 Where he says Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God Nor does the perishable inherit imperishable And then secondly We'll look at the features of this great change That God will bring about In the resurrection of His people Well, you'll find that in verses 53 Down to verse 57 So the necessity of a great change The change that will take place At the resurrection The change especially in our bodily condition And secondly The features of that great change What does it consist of?
[32:57] What is going to happen? And of course we do acknowledge That while we're following the words of Scripture there There are still many aspects of this truth That really elude us And are beyond our capacity To put into such words If you like as they deserve The necessity of a great change Well, look at what he says in verse 50 I tell you this, brothers Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable Now what does he mean by Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God?
[33:34] Well, by flesh and blood He's certainly still focusing on the body But it also includes our present bodily existence In this world Even for us as Christians This present state of things This body in the present state of things Even though we are saved in Christ As we are as such prior to death We cannot inherit the kingdom of God The body we presently have The bodily life we presently live The body in which we live this life Is not itself capable of sustaining the fullness of life That is going to be the portion of God's people at the resurrection So flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God And you can see it's expanded where he says Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable He used these words earlier, you recall as well The perishable that's raised in verse 42 there
[34:34] To be imperishable What he means by that is The body that we require to inhabit glory, if you like The life that we will have in glory This bodily life It will still be a life in the body spiritually Going back to previous studies But what he's saying now is that We need a body that is above the reach of decay The body we have just now is going to decay It's decaying already It's proceeding day by day towards returning to the dust And we cannot inherit the kingdom of God Therefore in that body it's perishable The perishable does not inherit the imperishable The necessity of resurrection The necessity of a great change Because what he's anticipating here as we'll go on in the study Is a life and a body in that life As well as our soul Remember that God has redeemed us as persons
[35:38] As living human beings And that means our body as well As our soul incorporated in the redemption that is in Christ Is not going to leave our bodies out of that salvation Is not going to have salvation that is just purely spirit only Or soul only He has redeemed our persons Body and soul together And while the body returns to the dust And the soul goes To be with God in heaven for God's people In anticipation of this day When the imperishable Will characterize the body that's raised From the dead We need to have A body that's set above The reach of death The reach of decay In other words A body that is suitable And qualified Under God For the fullness of life That heaven will be The fullness of life
[36:39] That Christ has purchased For the perishable Cannot inherit the imperishable Nor does flesh and blood Inherit the kingdom of God And he goes on From verse 51 And 52 To expand on that somewhat Behold I tell you a mystery 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 For this perishable body Must put on the imperishable And this mortal body Must put on immortality We shall not all sleep But we shall all be changed What is that setting before us?
[37:27] Well it means really that When the Lord returns There will still be people And those of his own people Living in this world That have not died Whose bodies have not Returned to the dust In the grave We shall not all sleep Is what he means by that But we shall all be changed In a moment In the twinkling of an eye In other words He's saying The kind of change That takes place In the resurrection Of the bodies of God's people Will take place In the bodies Of those who are still living When the Lord returns Because they are still Perishable And subject to death They need a different Kind of body Set above death And that's going to happen When the Lord returns Even for those Who have not died And their bodies Return to the dust In the grave They shall be changed We shall all be changed We all need to have That change By which we come To inherit bodily The kingdom of God
[38:27] And you see what he's saying About it It will happen In a moment In the twinkling of an eye At the last trumpet So from that You and I cannot say tonight I've got plenty of time yet I'm still relatively young I can just relax And take my time And when I get nearer To my old age Then I'll be able to Seriously deal with The issues of eternity No he's saying The Lord is coming And we shall be changed In an instant It's going to take place In the twinkling of an eye There's change in our bodies In a moment In the twinkling of an eye At the last trumpet How long does it take For you to flick your eyelid To blink your eyes Well he's saying That's how quickly The change is going to come When the Lord returns By his power That's going to be Effected immediately We shall all be changed In a moment In the twinkling of an eye For he says
[39:31] The trumpet Will sound And the dead Will be raised Imperishable And we shall be changed The trumpet Will sound That's an interesting phrase Isn't it And there are two Places in scripture Where this kind of Emphasis on the trumpet Being sounded Is before us In the word of God First is at Mount Sinai Where there was An incredibly loud Blast Of trumpet Over which Moses himself Says As you read the Account in Hebrews 12 I exceedingly Fear and quake Moses was a man Who was so near To God That he spoke with him Face to face There was nobody On earth That was At that time At least as near To God As familiar with God And knew the tremendous Majesty and greatness Of God The way Moses did And yet it's said Of him there That this trumpet blast On Mount Sinai
[40:32] Which signaled The arrival of the Lord Coming onto the mountain To set it on fire By his presence Gave Moses himself To fear And to quake It was such a tremendous Loud blast You see this blast Of the trumpet It's not It's an unearthly trumpet If you like It's not somebody Taking a normal Musical instrument Or even a hundred Of these musical Instruments trumpets This is a supernatural Trumpet This is something That comes from heaven This is an unearthly Trumpet sound That awakens the dead That comes to announce The arrival of the king I'm sure God willing On Saturday There will be something Similar to that In human terms Very often the case When the queen The late queen Was arriving at parliament Or wherever And this time For the coronation There will be a fanfare I'm sure To announce That the king Is here To announce That this is the moment
[41:32] This is the moment The large crowd In anticipation Of the king's coronation Gathered there This is the moment They've been looking forward to This is the moment The moment has now come The trumpet blast The fanfare announces This is it He's here And it'll be that way At the end of the world It'll be that way At the end of the age At the coming of Christ At the resurrection Of the dead For the trumpet Will sound And the dead Will be raised Imperishable The other place You find it mentioned The sound of the trumpet Is in Revelation Chapter 20 Sorry 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 Verses 15 to 16 You remember That's dealing with The resurrection as well 1 Thessalonians 4 Verses 15 to 16 Where you find The Lord himself He says We declare that Those who are alive Who are left Till the coming of the Lord Will not precede Those who have fallen asleep
[42:33] For the Lord himself Will descend from heaven With a cry of command With a voice of an archangel And with the sound Of the trumpet of God And the dead in Christ Will rise first Then we who are alive Will be caught up together With them in the clouds To meet the Lord In the air Therefore So we will always be With the Lord It's the same emphasis there That when the Lord comes There will be this Almighty Unearthly Supernatural sound That will announce His arrival The fanfare of heaven It will come And announce to the world The King is here The Lord is here God has come And He's come to judge the earth And He's come to Bring His people home And He's come to Deal with all Who have ever lived As Revelation chapter 20 Puts it The great white throne Before whom all Will be arraigned And before whom all Will be judged And it's announcing
[43:38] As it announces The King's arrival As you read there In 1 Thessalonians 4 It's more than just The announcement Of His arrival It's also It's also a summons To us To take note Of what's happening To come and meet The King The trumpet that announces His arrival Is the trumpet That says to us You are required Now to meet Him You are required To listen You are required To give Your greatest attention To what's happened Because it's the King Who's arrived It's a time for Concentration As never before Because we shall be All arranged before Him To be judged by Him According to what we have done Whether good Or evil What a great day
[44:41] That's going to be Friends What a wonderful Fulfillment Of the hope Of God's people What a wonderful Climax and crowning To their life Of faith In this world To their expectation Of resurrection To be with Jesus Forevermore To gather with God's people In heaven And to be there Without interruption Forevermore With this perishable Having put on The imperishable And this mortal Having put on The immortal And that's what He's saying to us tonight It's this wonderful Anticipation Of this great day How are you preparing For it?
[45:27] How am I preparing For it? When there's An inevitability About it When there's A certainty About it Are we preparing To meet Our king?
[45:41] This is not Going to be like The coronation We're anticipating This week However grand That may be However significant That may be For many people This is for the Whole of humanity And especially So for God's Redeemed people The moment They've anticipated The moment Indeed That the world Has been waiting For the world Of God's people In it Especially Has been waiting For from the moment People began To fear the Lord The day of the Lord Presented in God's Revelation of himself As the pinnacle Really of history The pinnacle of redemption For God's people Here we are tonight We have A privilege That's Not the lot Of many people In the world In the day In which we live The privilege Of knowing This truth From the gospel The privilege Of being called To anticipate The coming of the king The privilege Of knowing That we have To have our trust In him That we need To love him That we need To fall down
[46:41] In obedience To him In this life So that we will Welcome him When he comes What a great privilege God has given you That he's revealed This to you As something That is Required of us And that it's A privilege of us To enter into A life of faith And trust And love And hope In the Lord Jesus Christ Is that where you are With your life So far Is that where Your hope Is anchored Is that how You're preparing Not just For your death But how you're Preparing For the coming Of the king For the realization That the Lord Is on his way And the trumpet Will sound And the dead Will be raised And we shall All be gathered In his presence Well he's saying here That that's What's going to happen So the features Then of that Great change
[47:42] Next We can see Moving from The necessity Of it The necessity Being that We cannot Inherit The kingdom Of God Without this Change In the resurrection Of the saved When he says here For this perishable Must put on The imperishable And this mortal Body must put on Immortality Then when the Perishable Puts on the Imperishable And the mortal Puts on immortality Then shall be Brought to pass The saying That is written Death is swallowed Up in victory O death Where is your victory O death Where is your sting Quoting from Isaiah 25 And also some Verses you find In Hosea chapter 13 Combining them there Really together For this imperishable Must put on The imperishable And this mortal Must put on Immortality We've alluded to that But you see The must Is there again Emphasized It must be the case We cannot inherit The kingdom of God Without this change But then
[48:43] When this happens Then shall be brought To pass the saying That is written Death is swallowed Up in victory And that word Then is important Because here is A prophecy That for thousands Of years Has been lying Waiting for it To be fulfilled The prophecy That the Lord Gave through Isaiah To the people In chapter 25 As we have it Of his prophecy A prophecy Waiting for fulfillment For the day Of its accomplishment And it's The accomplishment Of it At the coming Of Christ Then shall be brought To pass the saying That is written This is not fulfilled Once you leave this world As a Christian And in your soul Enter into glory That's only part Of what is awaiting The Lord's people This actually awaits The raising of your body So as to be with your soul Reunited to enter glory Forevermore Then shall be brought To pass the saying That is written Death is swallowed up In victory Now in principle
[49:43] That's been accomplished By Jesus Of course In his own resurrection From the dead But as far as God's people are concerned It's still awaiting In the future To be fulfilled When they are raised From the dead To be with Christ Forever Because that's going to mean Neither decay Nor death Shall ever again invade Their human experience Their human life They're set above it They're imperishable They're immortal Death has no longer Any possibility Of invading What they are As raised Saved people in Christ What a great prospect That is And here is Paul saying That This For he says The sting of death Is sin The power of sin Is the law Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory
[50:44] Through our Lord Jesus Christ He's saying here The sting of death Is sin If you think of a scorpion Which seems to be The imagery there Scorpion that bears This poisonous Deadly sting In its tail Well death Has its sting In sin Sin is the sting Of death Sin is Here Gives Death Is what gives death Its sting And here's Here's the amazing thing That this sting Has already Entered into Jesus Christ Himself He came into this world To die And he came into this world To die The death That we deserved He came into this world To die The wages Of sin The death That is Not just Physical death But also death Spiritual Death In separation From God Death As the great Penalty of sin That God Has laid upon us In our condemnation
[51:44] That is why Jesus came into the world He came to live A perfect life But to die This atoning death Sting of death Entered into himself But not in a way That defeated him It's the other way about Death has been defeated By the death He died Fulfilling the demands Of the law The requirement Of God And then Followed by a resurrection His resurrection From the dead You know that when Not every species Of bee Has this But the honeybee Has a sting With a little hook At the end Of the sting Which protrudes From the rear Of its body And when the honeybee Stings Into flesh Of any kind Because that Sting is Barbed
[52:44] It's got a hook He can't pull it out Again The bee Cannot pull it out Again Without destroying Itself And Have you ever seen Such a thing As the body Of the bee Is torn apart The little Sack The end of its body With the sting Attached Continues To be attached To Wherever this thing Has entered And it keeps on Pumping the venom Even after the bee Has been torn apart And very soon Dies after that Well think of that As an illustration Here is sin Here is the devil Indeed Using his sin As a weapon Using sin As a weapon Here is the sin That is proper To you And to me As sinners Here is Jesus The son of God Come into the World In order to take The sting Of death To himself The sin For which we are Rightly condemned But it's destroyed
[53:46] The moment it enters Into Christ Because he has died The death We could not die He had died He died Victorious Let me remind you Of a wonderful passage In Hebrews Chapter 2 Where you find The writer there Talking about The coming The death Of Christ And especially Himself Taking out Human nature He says He took He took this To himself That through Death He might destroy The one Who has the power Of death That is the devil And delivered All those Who through fear Of death Were subject To lifelong To life To life Talks then About being made Like unto his Brothers In every respect Taking our human Nature to himself But confine it To what he says There That through Death Through his own Death He might destroy Him Who has the power Of death That is the devil
[54:47] Not only did Jesus Deal with sin And overcome sin And remove the sting Of sin From the death Of his people He has also Come to Destroy the devil's Authority And ultimately Himself And his condemnation Forever You see It's all in the cross It's all in the Resurrection of Christ Following his Death The death he died And that's what Lies behind That's what's Foundational To the Lord's People In their resurrection Where the perishable Puts on the Imperishable Where the mortal Puts on immortality Then it shall Come to pass Death Is swallowed up In victory The Lord Has taken the Sting Himself Out of death And when you Die as a Christian That sting's Not going to Touch you The poison of Sin has been Removed It's not going
[55:49] To be in any Way Capable of Invading Your life Anymore Oh death Where is Your victory He adds Oh death Where is Your sting As if Paul Is turning Around and In a way Of personifying Death As if it Was just A real Person that He's talking To That had This ascendancy Over human Beings He's now Saying Oh death Where is Your victory Now Oh grave Oh death Where is Your sting Now Now that The Lord Has done What he Has done Now that God has Swallowed up Death In victory Now that Jesus Has died Now that He's taken That sting To himself Where is Your victory Where is Your triumph Where is Your sting It's gone You don't Have it Anymore What a Celebration What a Cause of Celebration The wages Of sin Is death The sting
[56:53] Of death Is sin Christ has Dealt with it And when you Come to Trust in him His triumph Becomes Your triumph His victory Becomes Your victory His ascendancy Over death Becomes Your ascendancy His taking The sting Out of death Means it's As if you Have done It yourself Through faith In him That's what's True of you Thanks be to God who gives Us the victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ The resurrection Is future But the Victory Is assured Whatever Lies between Now and the Return of Christ In the History of The world The foundation Has been Laid The principle Of victory Has been Won Isn't that Something Tonight That you Yourself Can celebrate Isn't it Something really That the world
[57:54] Ought to be Longing for The accomplishment Of it At his return Then shall Be brought To death The saying That is written Death is Swallowed up In victory Don't you Actually feel That sense Of expectation Even of Triumph As you Anticipate That for Yourself That this Is something Really That belongs To your Life And to Your hope And to Your Expectation That that Day is Coming for You as Well Through Your faith In Christ Through The victory Of Christ That he's Achieved For you When you Can actually Say Looking down Upon death As you Are raised Above it In the Resurrection When you Can say Where now Is your Victory Grave I've left It behind It's no Longer There It's no Longer Relevant My Lord Has triumphed And I've Triumphed In him Thanks be To God Who gives Us the Victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ You know There's a Great book A Scottish
[58:55] Theological Classic Called The 4-4 State By Thomas Boston It's really Called human Nature In its Fourfold State He deals With the State Before the Fall The state Of sin The state Of grace And the state Of glory The fourfold State Of human Beings And in That book Page 384 I've got Noted here Boston Imagines The souls Of God's Saved People Being Reunited With their Bodies That had Been Long In the Grave And Reunited In the Resurrection With their Souls And Boston Imagines The souls Speaking To the Body And Saying This Arise Then my Body And come Away Let these Eyes Which used To weep Over my Sins Behold With joy The face Of our Glorious Redeemer
[59:56] Let these Ears Which used To hear The word Of life In the Temple Below Come And hear The hallelujahs In the Temple Above Let these Feet That carried Me In the Congregation Of saints On earth Take their Place among Those in Heaven And let This tongue Which confessed Christ Before men Join The choir Of the Upper House In his Praises Forevermore And he goes on Imagining the Soul speaking To the Body You will Fast no More But keep An everlasting Feast You will Weep no More Neither Shall your Countenance Be over Clouded But you Will shine Forever As a Star in The firmament And then the Soul says to The redeemed Body The resurrected Body We took Part together In the Fight Come Let us Go together To receive And wear The crown This
[60:56] Perishable Must put On the Imperishable And when This perishable Puts on the Imperishable And this Mortal Shall have Put on Immortality Then Shall come To pass The saying That is Written Death Is swallowed Up In victory What a Great Thing Faith Is That as It joins You to Christ That victory Becomes Yours But what a Great Saviour Christ Is That he Has done All that For his People Let's pray Oh Lord Our Gracious God How Grateful Tonight We should Be to You That you Have Already Accomplished Victory Through your Own Resurrection From the Dead That your Promise Of glory For your People Is as Real as Their Presence On earth Is to Themselves We bless
[61:57] You tonight For that Victory Lord we Pray that Each of Us here Who know The gospel So well Who have Come to Look at This great Passage This evening Lord we Pray that It may be True for Each one Of us Too That we Shall Put on The Imperishable And that This mortal Will put On immortality And that We will Participate In that Great Hallelujah When the Lord returns Of a Celebration With his People Of his Victory And theirs Over sin And over Death Hear us We pray For Jesus Sake Amen We're Going to Sing In conclusion From Psalm 116 Psalm 116 That's in St.
[62:44] Psalms Page 154 And we'll sing Verses 12 To 19 The tune is Even Tied How can I Thank the Lord for All he's Done With Gratitude Salvation's Cup I'll Raise I'll Call upon His Name And will Fulfill My Vows To Him Before His People's Face The Lord Holds Dear The Death Of All His Saints Hear Me O Lord I Am Your Servant True I'm Your Servant And Your Handmaid Son And From My Chains I Have Been Freed By You To The End Of The Psalm How Can I Thank The Lord For All he's Done How Can I Thank The Lord For All he's Done With Gratitude Salvation
[63:46] He Sing I Call His Name And Will For Feel Into His Name Will Will S The Lord Hold Dear The death of all his sins Hear me, O Lord I am your servant true I am your servant And your handmaid son And from my chains
[64:49] I have been freed by you Thank, O friends I will sacrifice to you And call upon The name of God the Lord When all his people In assembly meet With joy I will fulfill my solemn word Before his people I will keep my birth
[65:50] Within the court of our God's holy place Within the city of Jerusalem And to the Lord alone He all have raised I'll go to the side door to my left here after the benediction And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the communion of the Holy Spirit Be with you now and evermore Amen Know I will be speaking the Lord Ephesians Will you come to Groß게 with you Barbara I am so glad You should have kept You can hear me You can hear me I heard you Be and I am so glad I am so glad You have why You have to welcome
[66:51] I am so glad You are thank I am so glad You are thank You are komma I am so glad You are hail I am so glad I am so glad I am so glad You are elevation I am so glad You are as stone You are landmark I am so glad