[0:00] Now, as we mentioned earlier, we began last Wednesday evening the latter chapters of 1 Corinthians. We looked at the different sections, 1 to 6, 7 to 11, or rather 7 to 10, and 11 to 14.
[0:16] And now we're looking at these closing chapters, 15 and 16, and we began last Wednesday with verses 1 to 34. Probably a larger chunk than would have been ideal.
[0:27] These passages really should be chopped up much smaller, but time isn't always on our side in these things. So we'll look at this latter part of chapter 15, which will be familiar to some of you from readings of various wakes or funerals and so on.
[0:44] It tends to be quite a well-used passage because it is one that looks to the resurrection itself, one that seeks to describe and to lay before people the reality of the resurrection, a little glimpse of what it is like.
[1:02] Now, the reason Paul is doing this, in this form, in these words, is what we find in verse 58. That's the reason for it all. The last verse. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast.
[1:13] In other words, steadfast in your faith. Unmovable. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Don't get slack and distracted and troubled by these heresies and these distractions, which he made reference to in the earlier part of the chapter.
[1:27] But for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, it's not going to just all end in dust. It's not going to be that which only has hope in this life.
[1:39] He said himself, verse 19, in the earlier part of the chapter, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. And this, no doubt, was what some of the Corinthians were anxious about.
[1:50] Because some people had said the resurrection is past. It's done. You know, Jesus rose. Yeah, okay, but we don't rise. We are just meant to spiritually be reborn, do the best we can in this world, and that's all there is.
[2:05] And this is what he is tackling. How is it that some of you say there is no resurrection? The logical conclusion of what you're saying is if there's no resurrection, then Christ hasn't been raised.
[2:16] And if there is a resurrection, if Christ has been raised, the rest of his body, the church, must follow. As night follows day. As the rest of the torso follows the head. So if Christ has been raised, the rest of you must rise too.
[2:29] It's not in vain. And the reason he's going into such length and such detail is to establish and strengthen the Corinthians in what they have received and what they have believed.
[2:41] Be steadfast in this faith. Unmovable. Keep working for the Lord. It's not for nothing. It's not in vain in the Lord. Now some commentators, of course, have drawn attention to the fact that Paul is speaking about things which, of course, must remain unknown.
[3:00] And we can't possibly understand what is beyond the grave. And he's grasping to use words and illustrations to describe the indescribable. There's a sense in which that is true.
[3:12] He has to use words to describe things which, I'm quite sure, once we see them in glory, there won't be words in the lexicon of our languages which can adequately describe what it is that we are beholding.
[3:26] He is at something of a disadvantage. But nonetheless, he's not just grasping in midair. He's not just shooting in the dark. Because if you go back to the beginning, he says, I declare unto you, chapter 15, verse 1, that which I preach to you, which you have received, wherein you stand, by which you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preach to you, unless you believe in vain.
[3:49] For I deliver to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.
[4:02] And then all the people he was seen of. This resurrection is not just a vague idea. It is something he has been taught and told by the risen Christ. It is backed up by what the Scriptures already say in the Old Testament.
[4:16] We'll come to that as well in this section. And of course, there is the eyewitness testimony of the apostles who have seen Christ alive. But then he says, you know, some people will say, okay, fine, if there is a resurrection of the dead, you know, what sort of body do they come in?
[4:31] And how are they? What's a body like? How can it possibly be? You know, how are the dead raised up? With what body do they come? We know what body we put in the ground. If they have risen again, then what kind of body do they have?
[4:43] One thing we need to recognize and establish here is what Paul doesn't state explicitly, but which is nonetheless true, it's stated elsewhere in Scripture, that at the time of our death, inverted commas, the soul does not die.
[5:01] The soul departs from the body and the soul goes to either heaven or hell immediately. Now, we might, with some justification, call this the resurrection of the soul, which is immediate upon death.
[5:16] It's not technically a resurrection because a resurrection of the rising of the dead and the soul doesn't die at all. But you know what I mean. When the body dies, the soul immediately departs from it.
[5:27] The soul immediately is either in the presence of the Lord or with the devil and his angels right away. Now, the soul then is not yet reunited with the body.
[5:40] That is the resurrection of the body of the last day, the last trump and the twinkling of an eye, verse 52. The dead will be raised and reunited with the still living soul.
[5:51] Why this sort of delay between the time? We have to leave that with the Lord. But we do know the body goes into the earth, cremated or buried or whatever, and at the last day, the body will be raised, reconstituted, same body but different, reunited with the soul.
[6:07] That is the resurrection of the body. That's at the last day. The resurrection of the soul, if we can use that term, is immediate upon the point of death. And the soul, for a Christian, for a believer, goes immediately to be with the Lord.
[6:23] The resurrection body, when it comes, is, this is what Paul is talking about. It is the same but different. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dies.
[6:33] It's not brought alive except it dies first. Jesus is only where he should have hinted at this with regard to his own death in John 12, verse 24. Verily, verily I say unto you, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
[6:49] But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Now what Paul is talking about here with the resurrection of the body is, you know, if you've got a seed, a corn of whether it's wheat or barley or oats or whatever, and you stick it in the ground and it grows, that which it grows into is not exactly the same as the bare seed itself.
[7:10] And yet the crop that comes up, whether it's oats, whether it's barley, whether it's wheat, whatever it may be, is nonetheless, in a sense, contained within that seed.
[7:22] It's nothing but wheat if it was a seed wheat. It's nothing but barley if it was a barley seed. It's nothing but oats if it was an oat seed. Now you might set out a seed of oats and corn, barley and wheat and so on, and you put them on a piece of paper in front of you.
[7:35] They maybe don't actually look that different as seeds go. But God knows what they're going to grow into. The farmer knows as well. But when you stick it in the ground, once it effectively dies and is dissolved, it doesn't just disappear, it germinates.
[7:51] It grows, and that from which it grows, it becomes something far greater, something bigger, something more fruitful. And yet it is the same.
[8:02] The same but different. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, that be a grain, it may chance a wheat, and some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, as God has designed it to be, to every seed his own body.
[8:19] All flesh is not the same flesh. It's one kind of flesh and men, other beasts and other fishes and other birds. But also celestial, that is heavenly, bodies and terrestrial. Some of you may be old enough to remember that the character, the extraterrestrial, ET.
[8:34] Now, that's what it means, earthly. If he's extraterrestrial, he's beyond the earth, outside of the earth. Terrestrial means earthly. Old-fashioned word, but that's what it means. Of the earth.
[8:45] Celestial of the heavens. There are celestial bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars and so on, and bodies terrestrial which inhabit the earth. But the glory of the heavenly, the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another.
[8:57] One glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the star. Every star is different from the other. And yet it is glorious. Because, back to verse 38, God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him.
[9:09] He knows exactly what he's doing in all of this. So also is the resurrection of the dead. Back to verse 39, all flesh is not the same flesh.
[9:20] When Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't say, look, that's all right. You can pass through the door and walk and so on. Look at your hand. Look, it goes right through me. No, it does it. He says, handle me and see.
[9:31] For a spirit, a ghost, hath not flesh and bones as he see me hath. And he ate and drank in front of them. They could handle him. They could touch him. It was a real body.
[9:43] It's he himself stated to be a body of flesh and bones. But all flesh is not the same flesh. One kind of flesh in a man.
[9:53] And we could say one kind of flesh in a man on earth. And one kind of flesh in a man in glory. Now, of course, nobody in glory has got that flesh and bones body yet.
[10:05] Except Jesus. All the others do not yet have their bodies, their resurrection bodies, until the last day. Their living souls, if they are saved, will be with the Lord, such as, you know, Elijah and Moses and so on that the disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration.
[10:22] But their bodies are not yet reunited to their souls. Because the last trump has not sounded. The last day has not come. But we have an indication of what the resurrection body is like because Christ has been raised.
[10:36] Back again to the earlier part of this chapter. If the dead be not raised, Christ is not raised. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of men that slept. If you want to know what the resurrection body is like, look at Jesus' resurrection body.
[10:50] It is the same, but it is different. All flesh is not the same flesh. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption.
[11:02] It is raised in incorruption. When the body is sown, when it's placed on the ground, it has begun to corrupt, to decay. Because it is dead. The soul has departed from it.
[11:13] When it is raised, it is raised in incorruption. It's never going to die anymore. If I can speak reverently, then the body of Jesus, before he died, was a body that was, in a sense, subject to corruption.
[11:30] And by that, I don't mean that he decayed in the grave. I mean it was a body capable of death. A body which could die. Now the bodies that we have just now are corruptible in the sense that we age, we decay, we begin to become more decrepit and things go wrong with our bodies.
[11:50] They decay. Eventually they die. They are bodies capable of death. Corruption. Corruption. The resurrection body is not capable of death. It is a body which cannot die.
[12:03] And whilst on the one hand we think, hey, great, for all eternity, same body, doesn't age, doesn't decay, doesn't get wrinkly, doesn't get old, nothing, all that, that's great. That's great if you're in heaven. It's not great if you're in hell.
[12:16] Because that body cannot die. No matter how much torment, how much agony, how much shock, how much pain, for all eternity that it endures, it is a resurrection body, not in glory, but in hell.
[12:31] And it cannot die. That's great news if you're in heaven. It is very, very bad news if you're in hell. It is an ongoing living death.
[12:42] You cannot actually die in that resurrection body because it is reunited to a soul which is effectively already in a living death. But Paul is talking really about the souls of believers, the bodies of believers.
[12:59] He's looking not to hell. He's looking to heaven. He wants to encourage the Christians of Corinth to recognize what is going to happen at the resurrection itself. It is soul incorruption.
[13:11] It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. Now, we inhabit a world that is fallen. We inhabit bodies which, at various points, perhaps at many points during our lives, have been guilty of sin.
[13:25] The vast majority of the sins that we commit are not merely in our head, but they are motivated by the flesh, by appetites, by desires, for covetousness, whatever it may be.
[13:37] So there is an element of dishonor in the body. It is a world that dies. It is a world that dies. But it is raised in glory. We are in a fallen world in which we die.
[13:48] It is a perfect world in which we are raised. It is sown in weakness. The body weakens as it ages. Disease, illness, weakens it. It is raised in power.
[13:59] Even if we were the fittest, strongest person in the world, our abilities would not be able to keep up with our vision or our hope. You know, if you were a brilliant mountaineer, you might want to run all the way up there, gristly, or pack and everything and so on, reach the top, another mountain after that.
[14:16] But when you get up that high up, you realize that the oxygen, the air is thin. You need breathing apparatus, perhaps, or whatever, because the body can't cope with the exertion it's being put under.
[14:28] Eventually, no matter how fit or strong a body is, there is a strain greater than it's able to cope with. There is an element of weakness, even in the strongest body.
[14:41] It is limited by its own corruption. It is raised in power. It is sown in a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
[14:54] This is quite a definitive statement Paul is making here. It is not just the case that this world, it's all the work done with, that's it. There is a natural body. We all inhabit that.
[15:05] But there is also, he says, a spiritual body. And as we've had the one, so we will have the other. One thing I'll just draw your attention to.
[15:16] Natural body and spiritual body. A spiritual body, it doesn't mean, oh, it's just sort of through the inferior, like a ghost, and woo, put your hand right through it, sort of thing. No, there is a natural body, which is a body, a physical body.
[15:29] There is a spiritual body. It is still a body. It is still physically a body, albeit a spiritual resurrection body.
[15:41] Again, take the example of Jesus. The women that fell at his feet, they hung on to his ankles, says, don't touch me yet, because I'm not ascended to my father, and so on. But they physically held on to him.
[15:52] The disciples physically touched Jesus when he appeared to them in the upper room. So it is a spiritual body, but it is a body nonetheless. Make no mistake about it.
[16:04] There is a resurrection body. And so it is written, the first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Now, verse 45, it's not both parts of it that's written.
[16:17] It's not written, first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. It hasn't hitherto been written in the Old Testament that the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Paul's just writing that now.
[16:28] But it does state at the beginning, Genesis 2, verse 7, as you know, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
[16:39] And man became a living soul. But all that he was made from the dust of the ground and God's perfect workmanship, he didn't become a living soul till God breathed into him the breath of life.
[16:53] Now, that is the same sense in which, remember, the scriptures are said to be inspired. Some translations of the Bible use, for example, that second verse in Timothy.
[17:05] I think it's 1 Timothy 3, 15 or 16. I may be wrong, but you can look it up. Where it says, you know, all scriptures given by inspiration of God. And some translate that as by God breathing out or breathed out of God.
[17:19] And as God breathes out his word, his power, his life, his scripture comes to life. It is written down and it is brought alive by God's quickening spirit.
[17:32] In the same way Adam is made, man is made, a living soul when God breathes into him the breath of life. Remember Ezekiel's vision, the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37.
[17:43] You know, all the sinews come on the skin and all the flesh all covers them, but there was no breath in him. And then the Lord says, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man.
[17:54] And he says, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. And it did. But until the breath of the spirit came, there were so many corpses.
[18:05] And there they stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army. It is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul only because God brought him alive.
[18:17] The last Adam, i.e. Christ, was made a quickening spirit. Now, Jesus isn't just a spirit, of course. He is the embodiment of the spirit.
[18:28] He is the word made flesh. He is the spirit personified. He is God in the flesh. And a part of the purpose of God is to bring alive. That's what quickening means in the old-fashioned language there.
[18:40] The Holy Spirit brings alive. It quickens. And Christ is one who brings people to life. Raised Lazarus from the dead, he died as his daughter, many sinners.
[18:51] But more than that, every time a soul is converted, it is, yes, by the Holy Spirit. It is by the spirit of Christ, the power of Christ. He is made a quickening of bringing alive spirit, whose purpose is to bring life out of death.
[19:08] Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. In other words, Adam was on the earth a long time before Jesus appeared on the earth.
[19:19] Jesus was God the Son from all eternity. He didn't appear on the earth with a body until long after Adam and every generation that had been before then had been. And likewise, Jesus' resurrection body didn't come first.
[19:33] It is natural, if we use that term, body came first. So likewise for us. The first man is of the earth, earthy, when Adam was made from the dust of the earth. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
[19:45] As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. That's us. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. That's what we shall be. And all who are brought alive in Christ, so shall they be.
[19:57] And as we are born in the image of the earthy, of Adam, the dust of the earth, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And remember again what John writes there in 1 John, where he says that fantastic version in chapter 3.
[20:12] What manner of love the Father has been stowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
[20:25] We don't yet see what we're going to do. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. As we have borne the image of the earthy, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly.
[20:40] Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. In other words, you and I, as we are, cannot go to heaven physically.
[20:53] Because our bodies are corrupt. They are fallen in the sense that they're part of this fallen world. Corruption cannot inherit incorruption. He says, Apple, wait a minute. You just said Jesus appeared to the disciples.
[21:05] They handled him and they felt him. He said, see, a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me ha. It doesn't say flesh and bones. It says flesh and blood.
[21:15] Jesus makes no mention of there being blood in his resurrection body. The life is the blood. Remember, under the old sacrificial system, that blood has been shed.
[21:28] It has been poured out. It has been emptied out. It has been sacrificed upon the cross. His resurrection body is not a body of flesh and blood.
[21:38] It is a resurrection body, yes, of flesh and bones. Not a bone of him shall be broken. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
[21:52] Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Our bodies will be the same, but they will be different. Whatever it is that maintains and sustains the power of God, the beauty of holiness sustains the resurrection body, it is not.
[22:11] The old blood being pumped around the veins as it is with us now. Jesus' resurrection body was not a body of flesh and blood. It was a body of flesh and bones.
[22:24] No mention of blood. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. As Peter tells us, 1 Peter 1, verse 4, What we have is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, it was restored, it was received in heaven for you.
[22:45] And there it is, this corruption we have just now. We can't just march into heaven. And even if the Lord were to come back right now, tonight, so that we wouldn't have opportunity to die, we would still have to be changed.
[23:00] Verse 51, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We won't all necessarily die, but we shall all be changed. Now, some people have said, oh, look, Paul got it wrong because he expected Jesus to come back in his lifetime.
[23:13] He probably did expect Jesus to come back in his lifetime. But this verse is not confined to the life and the days of Paul. It is nevertheless, despite whatever he may have expected, it is a timeless truth.
[23:28] We shall not all sleep. In other words, when Christ comes back, there will be some people who are still alive. Some of his people will still be on the earth when he comes.
[23:39] And these, because corruption cannot be ahead of incorruption, will be changed. The bodies that they have will be transformed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.
[23:54] For the trumpet shall sound. He makes reference to this again in Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 4, verses 16 and 17. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God.
[24:09] And the dead in Christ shall rise first. The bodies rising up from the graves. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
[24:20] So shall we ever be with the Lord. We shall all be changed. Either with resurrection bodies that have been risen from the dead or the bodies that we have will be transformed.
[24:34] In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the trumpet sounds. For the trumpet shall sound. The dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed.
[24:45] For this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. Again, see the emphasis. He's talking about the same body in which he dwells.
[24:58] It will be the same but different. They used the example last week. How can it be the same but different? If I look in the mirror now and see a man the age I am.
[25:10] And then Luke straightened with my hand. I see a photograph of me age five. I haven't gone and got myself a different body. I haven't gone and had a transplant of anything. Of a different head or a different torso.
[25:21] It's the same body. But my body age five is very, very different from my body now in my fifties. And yet it is exactly the same body. It has changed.
[25:33] Beyond all recognition. Perhaps it's taller, it's wider, it's wider, it's heavier. But it is exactly the same body. It's not a different one. And so likewise, the resurrection body will be the same body.
[25:48] But different. Different qualities. This corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible put on incorruption.
[26:00] This mortal put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the same that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is it written? Isaiah chapter 25.
[26:11] Verse 8. He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away two years from off all faces. And the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth.
[26:25] For the Lord hath spoken. He will swallow up death in victory. There it is in Isaiah 25. Isaiah probably did not realize exactly what it was he was writing about.
[26:37] But he wrote what he was inspired to write down. But he didn't necessarily understand what the fulfillment would be in Jesus of Nazareth. God personified in the flesh.
[26:50] Being crucified. Rising from the dead. And so death being swallowed up. This is the sense of it. It's not that it's dodged. Jesus doesn't sneakily come down from the cross like some people say.
[27:01] Oh come down from the cross and we'll believe you. Must have been some temptation to do that when he knew that he could. But if he dodged a bullet. If he tried to escape. If he wriggled out of death somehow.
[27:12] Then death still wins. But because he faced it head on. He soaked it all up. He took the worst that death could do. And then he still emerged victorious.
[27:24] Rising from the dead the third day. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death where is thy sting?
[27:35] Oh grave where is thy victory? Again Paul is not simply making up these poetic phrases. He is drawing one from the treasury of the Old Testament.
[27:46] The Hebrew scriptures. Hosea chapter 13 verse 14 states this. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Oh death I will be thy plagues.
[27:59] Oh grave I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be bid from mine eyes. Now you think. That's not saying exactly the same thing. As it says here. Oh death where is thy sting?
[28:10] Oh grave where is thy victory? It is conveying the same truth. There is some difference. You know some people quite often say to me that if they are telling a wee story.
[28:21] And it is original. The original is in Gaelic and they put it into English. They are always going to apologize and say it doesn't sound quite the same in English. Well it is kind of like this. That what is written originally in Hebrew.
[28:33] It doesn't sound exactly the same in Greek. In which Paul is writing. It is conveying the same truth. But some of the wording is slightly different. And it may be a little of a punch.
[28:43] Maybe lost. Or it may be sharper in the Greek. But the reason it is not exactly precisely word for word. Is it is talking about two different languages. The one is speaking it in Hebrew. The other is speaking it in Greek.
[28:55] Of course it is going to be slightly different. Nevertheless it is there in Scripture. Just as death is swallowed up in victory. It is already there in Isaiah 25.
[29:06] O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? It is already there in the prophet Hosea. That which Paul is trying to convince the Corinthians of.
[29:18] Is not his own ideas made up out of his own head. It is that which he has received from the risen Christ. And that which is grounded and anchored in the already existing Scriptures.
[29:32] Which then if you like always become open up. It is like if you are going off on some hike or expedition or whatever. And somebody says right there is all your equipment in there. And the first night camping.
[29:43] You are looking. What on earth am I going to use this for? I wonder what that is for. I wonder how we are going to make use of this. And then as the journey goes on. You are instructed. We are going to get up this rock face here. Take out that piece of equipment.
[29:54] And you go oh right that is what it was for. And then you hook it in the rock. And you haul yourself up. Oh that is what we need this rope for. That is what we needed these bits of the boots for. And so on. Maybe you did not realize at the outset.
[30:05] What all the different bits of equipment were for. But the person who packed the bag knew. And the person who already had the course mapped out for you. They knew. And God who inspired all these things to be written down.
[30:17] Hundreds of years before. He knew exactly how they would be applied. And how they would then become unpacked and opened out. Oh death where is thy sting? Oh grave where is thy victory?
[30:30] It has no victory. Because the resurrection overpowers it. Not just the resurrection of Jesus. But the resurrection of the dead.
[30:40] Full stop. Which will apply to each and every individual that has ever lived. Those who have been burned at the stake to ashes.
[30:51] They will be reconstituted with a dust. To which they have scattered the Lord. Will remake their bodies. Those that have been drowned at sea. We read in Revelation 20.
[31:01] The sea gave up the dead. Every soul that has ever lived and died on this earth. Will have their resurrection body. And death will be overcome with that resurrection.
[31:14] Even if they be consigned to a lost eternity. The sting of death is sin. What that means is the reason that men fear death.
[31:24] All of us are probably a wee bit anxious or afraid. Even if only of the unknown. But the reason we're anxious about death is because deep down. Perhaps not even deep down.
[31:36] But in the other side. We know we're sinners. And we know that if we are to stand before the righteous judge of all the earth. Left to ourselves. We should be condemned. It is a scary prospect.
[31:48] To face that which is completely unknown. Knowing that we enter into the presence of one who is the holy of holies. And we are so very unholy.
[31:59] The strength of sin is the law. It convicts us. It tells us how wrong we are. And yet we are also taught in God's wonderful word. The law.
[32:11] The law is perfect. Come back to the soul. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ now. I don't know if you're anything like me.
[32:23] But over the years you had some teachers you were pretty scared of. Some teachers who put the fear of death in you. Some teachers who, my goodness, they got results. But you were scared of them. But they taught you.
[32:36] And they taught you far better than the easy, ozzy ones that were laid back. And didn't really mind to let you do whatever you liked in class. The ones that you were scared of. And the ones who taught you their subjects.
[32:47] And you came out with the knowledge that you needed. And with the tools to do the job at the end of the day. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. Which given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[33:01] You see, if we're about to face God in our own strength, we're already lost. But if we're going to face him secure in the knowledge of what Christ has done. Then we don't have to fear anything.
[33:13] Because it's not our righteousness we're looking to. It's his. It's not our life for achievement. It's his. It's all about Christ.
[33:25] The sting of death is overcome. The power of the grave is swallowed up. Thanks be to God which given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[33:36] Therefore, this is where we came in. Therefore, my beloved brother, don't be moved. Don't be shaken in your faith. Don't be steadfast. Unmovable.
[33:47] Always abounding in the work of the Lord. But as much as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Nothing can knock you off your course. Nothing can pluck you out of his hand.
[34:00] Not here. Not hereafter. Because whilst the clock may be ticking on this life. And whilst the sands may be running through the old glass. And the time may be ever shorter.
[34:12] It is also true that now is our salvation. Nearer than when we believed. And what we have to look forward to. Is the resurrection of the dead.
[34:24] Thanks be to God. Which given us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless you.