The end times as described in 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, emphasizing the bodily resurrection of believers in Christ. It contrasts the death that came through Adam with the life that comes through Christ, highlighting Christ as the first fruits of the resurrection. The passage details Christ's reign until all enemies, including death, are put under His feet, culminating in the delivery of the kingdom to God the Father, leading to God being all in all. The sermon concludes by urging believers to live in light of this hope, working for the Lord until His return.
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shall read together please in first Corinthians chapter fifteen first Corinthians chapter fifteen and we'll read from verse twenty two start the verse twenty eight first Corinthians fifteen verse twenty two For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ of his coming, then cometh the end.
I want you to notice that term. Then cometh the end. We've been looking at a different period in connection with the coming again of the Lord Jesus and at the end times. But now we come to the end. And there's a paragraph here outlining the end of all things. Finally, Christ upon the throne and all things put under the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For he must reign till he have put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he that has put all things under his feet, but when he that put all things under him, it is accepted that he is accepted which did put all things under him. And from all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
This is a tremendous passage right in the middle of a tremendous chapter. I don't think I need to tell you that the outstanding truth in First Corinthians chapter, chapter fifteen is the resurrection body. Apparently it was one of the problems that in the church at Corinth, As a matter of fact, Paul himself, he tells us here that there was some among you that denied the resurrection of the body. And so the whole chapter, it is concerned with resurrection.
He starts off, first of all, by giving an outline of the Gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised again the third day according to the scriptures. And then afterwards he gives a wonderful outline of the resurrection of Christ under fourteen proofs that he gives that he really did rise from the dead. I don't need to tell anyone here this morning that the great vital foundation truth of the gospel is not only the death of Christ upon the cross but also his bodily resurrection from the dead.
Thank God he's risen. And Paul here he gives fourteen different proofs that Christ was really raised. Seven of them are positive and seven are negative. And then afterwards he gives an outline in this paragraph that I have mentioned. It starts right from Adam. He speaks of two federal heads. First of all, in Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive. And it's pointing forward to a day when the resurrection of the bodies of those that have passed away, that they will be raised.
As in Adam, all die. That goes right back to the beginning. After the fall, death came in. And the federal head of mankind from that time was Adam. And us in Adam all die. There were just two exceptions to that. You remember Elijah was caught up to heaven. You remember Enoch too. We're told that he was not for God took him. But as we've looked down through the ages, we find that death was once supreme. As an Adam, all die, but in Christ.
And by the way, the term there is important. Those that are in Christ shall all be made alive. Oh, thank God for that term in Christ. It's used in the epistles of the Ephesians again and again and again. And every truly born again believer, everyone who has been regenerated by the Spirit of God, when Christ comes back again, will be raised. Bodily Resurrection. I'm perfectly aware at the present time, sometimes among our young people, and the denial of the truth of bodily resurrection.
And to talk about someone who maybe has been wiped out by an atomic blast, and there's nothing left. And Do you mean to say that that person, that has been wiped out like that, that there will be a resurrection of his body, a bodily resurrection? And they give all kinds of arguments to try to prove that there's no such thing as a bodily resurrection. But my Bible tells me that in Christ all children be alive and there will be the literal resurrection of the body. you know the body is sacred and especially in the epistle to the Corinthians again and again the body of the believer the literal body of the believer is mentioned it was God who designed it and made it and it was the Lord Jesus who redeemed it and it is the Holy Spirit that inhabits the literal body of the
believer. And it is sacred. And we cannot do what we like with our body. It belongs to God. And each member of the Holy Trinity is associated with it. The literal body of the believer is sacred. And we believe that at the resurrection, those that are in Christ, they will be raised again bodily. and there will be in the presence of the Lord. In Adam all die, but on Christ all shall be made alive. Christ the first fruits, but those that are Christ in his parousia, in his coming.
Oh, what a wonderful day it will be when those that are in the graves today will be raised and caught up to be with the Lord. So this great chapter, it goes into all the different things that are in connection with resurrection, the literal resurrection of the body. And then this paragraph, right in the center of the chapter, it covers the whole period of time, right through to the end. And the Apostle here, in speaking about it, he gives five different things that will happen after the coming of the Lord for the saints.
And the first thing that he mentions is that all rule and authority and power will be eliminated. He will destroy all rule and authority and power. He's speaking here of the different governments by which men have been under. They've been under different forms of government. But he's speaking here that all these forms of government will be wiped out when Christ comes back again. I think that what he's speaking of is the Battle of Armageddon. You know, at that time...
at the Battle of Armageddon, all the armies of the world will be gathered together. We find the King of the North, the King of the South, the Kings of the East, and also the West. And they're gathered together around the city of Jerusalem. And the object of this great coalition of power has the object of wiping Israel off the map and destroying them completely. And it looks as if that is what is going to happen. Oh, there are two heads here, heads of authority and power. That is the two beasts that we find in Revelation chapter thirteen, the beast out of the sea and the beast, the man from Europe and the man from Israel, two leaders of authority and power.
and read that just as it looks as if Israel is going to be completely destroyed and wiped off the map the heavens open and the Lord appears and he deals first of all with the two leaders and they're cast into the abyss they're cast into fire the first occupants of the day of fire will be these two leaders of this revolt against God and then The Lord will turn upon his enemies and he will deal with them. He will eliminate all rule and authority on par. This tremendous power that is gathered together, not only against Israel, but also against Almighty God Himself, he will take care of that.
You know, as we look at it, we find that Christ is the one that's going to take our rule and authority and power. Many years ago in Portugal, I was at a Bible reading and a brother asked some young Portuguese, what do you think is the most perfect form of government? And of course they spoke of democracy. and the spoke of dictatorship, the spoke of different forms of government. And the old gentleman that was conducting the Bible reading, he said, I want to tell you, he said that the most perfect form of government is an absolute monarchy, an absolute monarchy.
These young people, they were very much enamored with what they called democracy. But he said... the most perfect form of government is an absolute monarchy. But he said the monarchy who will be upon the throne must have three qualifications. And he said the first is perfect wisdom. And certainly, secondly, perfect love and also perfect power. And he said there's only one person that is that has these qualifications and it is the man at God's right hand. Thank God he is the perfect monarch and he, after putting down all rule and authority and power at the Battle of Armageddon, the next thing is he must reign.
There is an imperative. He must reign. This is the second point. He must reign. You know, this would take us back into the Old Testament the different covenants that were made with Abraham and also with David and others of the Old Testament concerning the kingdom. And thank God for one thousand years there will be a perfect government. He must reign. One would love to go into the different passages in the Word of God for that great time when Christ will be upon the throne with perfect wisdom, love and power. and carry out a perfect government at that time.
But then we read here in this passage again about putting all authority under his feet because at the end of the millennia that perfect form of government that was carried on for a thousand years will read about a revolt. And then revolt It was headed up by Satan himself. We read again another must. We read that Christ must reign, but we read also that the devil must be loosed for a little time. And unfortunately, at the end of the millennium, we find again a revolt against Almighty God.
But the same one who took care of it at the beginning of the millennium, the Lord Jesus Christ, he takes care of it at the end. And those that rise against God after that perfect form of government for a thousand years, he takes care of that as well. And the enemies there are put under his face. And again, we find that he is the mighty victor. So this is what we find in this passage. The next thing we find is the last enemy is death. The last enemy. Oh, certainly it is an enemy. The last enemy is death, but death will be destroyed.
And then we find that Christ, after all enemies, have been put under his face, then he hands over the kingdom, the meditorial kingdom of which he has been upon the throne in millennial days. We find that he hands over a world that has been reconciled, a world that has been cleansed and he hands it to the Father and we find when he does that his mission has been accomplished and we enter into the eternal state. So that is what we find in this passage and when we look at it it's called the end.
God is all in all and the five different things that preceded are outlined here in a very very dramatic way in verse Corinthians chapter fifteen. And then at the end of the chapter there's a lovely little paragraph there. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an hour at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead and Christ shall be raised incorruptible. We get that term, we shall be changed.
Oh, I love that. We shall be changed. Well, down here, some of us need an awful lot of changing, but thank God Christ comes back. As far as we are concerned, we shall be changed and caught up rapture to be with him and the Lord. And at the end of the chapter, Paul, after giving this great mystery of the second coming again of the Lord, He said, beloved Braden, he said, gives it an exhortation here to be in the Lord's presence and to work for him until that day appears.
Oh, may the Lord help us these days as we look at the world in which we live. And the things that we have been speaking about, concerning the condition of things at the latter times and the last days but here it is the end and thank God the end is that Christ is upon the throne in the millennium and finally God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit goes into the eternal state and we will be there at that time oh what a wonderful prospect we have and when we do When we look at it and realize the wonderful program that God has, it can bring peace and joy to our hearts.
May God bless his words. And shall we just have a little word of prayer. Our blessed God and Father, we do thank thee for the blessed hope of the coming again of the Lord Jesus. We thank thee as we see the world deteriorating so rapidly and things happening that we never thought would happen. Our Father, we thank thee that our hearts have peace as we think of the Lord Jesus coming back again to take us to be with himself. And our Father, we pray that the things that we have been speaking about, in spite of all the deterioration and all the sin and departure and apostasy in the world at the present time.
We have that blessed hope of being with that one who died for us upon Calvary's cross. And, our Father, we pray that it may regulate our lives and also control our thinking and control our lives down here. We commit us now to thee again with our thanksgiving and praise for being together these days. To consider thy words and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ himself. These are our requests, and be kind to thee with thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus.