It breaks long, loving relationships and unions. It snatches people away from us. But One day death will be swallowed up. in victory. Death will be destroyed.
Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When someone dies, you often hear that the person is at peace or that he's gone to a better place.
Well, I think we can all understand wanting to soften the harshness of death. but you don't help people in fact, you do great harm, if you avoid talking about the eternal implications of death. The question is, are you prepared for what John MacArthur called man's greatest enemy? Are you ready for death and what comes after? Bring those questions to John's study to day, titled The End is Not the End.
And now with the lesson, here's John. Skeptics, both ancient and modern, have argued against the truth of resurrection. Scoffing at the idea that the body which disintegrates in the grave or which is virtually destroyed in a fire or the bottom of the sea or In some other way. could ever rise from the dead.
So, Paul writes this chapter, this massively important chapter of 58 verses. to help us understand the resurrection.
Now there are four lines to follow here. There is first the great transformation, then the great triumph, then the great thanksgiving, and then the great therefore. That's just a way that we can break it down so that we can access. with some level of understanding its wonderful truths.
So let's begin with the great transformation that takes place in resurrection. And its first mention of this promise there is in John 14. Where our Lord says I'm coming. to get you.
Now, we don't know much more than that until we get to 1 Corinthians and find out that in getting us, he has to transform us. And then we find out in the passage in 1 Thessalonians, which explains the rapture, that when he comes to get us. The people who are dead are going to be transformed first, and the rest of us. gathered with them and changed. On the way up.
This unique event, this catching away of the church, this resurrection of the church alive and dead. Is the event Which is the next event on God's prophetic calendar? There is no sign for this, it is the signless event. And it can happen. At any time.
At any time. Prophetically, nothing needs to happen before this. This is why we say as believers that we believe. in imminency. That there is an imminent return of Christ, a signless event.
And then when it happens. We will all B changed. Going to be an amazing event. It involves the Lord. Who is going to shout and speak?
It involves the archangel who is going to speak. It involves this trumpet. Then this Instantaneous Transformation. This is the sacred secret. Just revealed in the New Testament.
A whole generation of believers. Who, um will still be alive in their natural bodies at that time. Will experience an instantaneous transformation. In a nanosecond, or a sixth of a nanosecond, if you want to know how long it takes for light to pass from the outside of the eye to the inside of the eye. By which they will receive their glorious bodies, but not before those who are dead receive theirs.
They're gathered into heaven. together. This has to happen, verse 53 says. Because we're going into the imperishable world. and we're going into the immortal world.
And what is perishable and what is mortal. Cannot Come there. That is The great. transformation. Then Paul in verse 54 speaks of the great triumph.
That is a triumphant moment. I don't have to ask you what your biggest problem is, it's you. Yeah. All your problems are you. Your sin problems, your Mental problems, your emotional problems, your physical problems, they're all you.
I know, you think People bring out the worst in you sometimes, but it's still you. Your problem is you. You know, we've met the enemy, and the enemy is us. And you can't fix you completely. But one day the Lord will.
and it will be triumphant. That's verse 54. When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, when you change this Kent this garment of your Flesh and blood, and put on the imperishable new body of resurrection. When this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. That is the great triumph.
The triumph over death.
Now you do know, don't you, that Death is a process. When you were born into the world, you started dying. You did. You started dying. And you're closer to death now than you've ever been before.
Tomorrow you'll be a day closer. We're all just Dying. That's how it is. Death is an enemy. We fear it, we hide from it, we evade it, we mask it, we try to avoid it.
We go to a funeral and people are in a casket, they look like a horizontal member of a cocktail party. We're trying to make them look like... They're alive. It would be my opinion to close the lid. Yeah.
We have reason to hate death. We have reason to fear death because. It's unwelcome. It breaks long loving relationships and unions. It removes those that are greatly needed.
It pounces on the most. Blushing baby cheeks. and the most deeply wrinkled faces It snatches people away from us. There's little reason for us to question that death is an enemy. It is an enemy.
But One day death will be swallowed up in victory. In that day When is that? But when this perishable, what do you mean when? When At the resurrection. At the resurrection, death will be...
Conquered. Death will be destroyed. By the way. That statement, death is swallowed up in victory. is a quote from Isaiah 25, 8.
The Hebrew literally says, He will swallow up death forever. Swallow is a dramatic verb, isn't it? You swallow something and it disappears. Death is not merely weakened. It is gone.
It is destroyed so that it cannot do any further harm. The destruction of death is total. All of its short-lived and apparent victories are undone. for God's children. What looks like a victory for death And to defeat For us When our bodies die in decay is utterly reversed.
And death dies. in the resurrection. Our bodies live again. in absolute, triumphant, eternal. Beauty.
and victory. In fact, This causes The writer of scripture to taunt death. Verse 55. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?
And that is taken from Hosea 13. Fourteen also From the Old Testament. Death is addressed in the figure of an animal or or an insect. That has some kind of poisonous sting that kills. Sting is kentron, refers To be able to do that.
and also refers to the poisonous bite of snakes. At the time of resurrection, death's sting is gone. Really? Deaths. Sting.
was sentenced to death. at Calvary. You might say that death put its stinger into Christ. And has been staggering ever since in the throes of death. Paul sees death forever conquered.
and sings this song of triumph. It is just an amazing and wonderful reality. O death, where is your victory? You have none. O death, where is your sting?
Then he interprets verse 55 and verse 56. The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. It's not death itself that kills. Death has no power.
Unless There is unforgiven sin. Then death. It is deadly. Death has no sting for the believer because there's no. Unforgiven sin.
It's all under the blood. It's all paid for. It's all forgiven. It's all removed. It's all atoned for.
The power of sin is the law. If you break the law of God, You have sinned. And if you remain in that condition as an unforgiven law breaker, Death has terminal power. But If all your sins are forgiven in Christ, then death has no power. And you can taunt death.
Death. Really, it's like a welcome friend. Paul says, for to me, To live as Christ and to die as what? There's no sting. Far better to depart and be with Christ.
Satan is a toothless lion. And death is a stingless bee.
Now that leads Paul From the great transformation to the great triumph to the great thanksgiving in verse 57. But Thanks be to God. Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ? For this triumphant approach. To death for this great promise of resurrection, who do we have to thank?
The Lord. It's the work of Christ that satisfies the law's claims. It's the work of Christ. that paid The price For our sin. Christ bore the curse for us.
The sting of death for the Christian gone. Christ has Taken that sting. For us. And death is now A welcome friend. Death is disarmed.
Death is defanged. Death Just takes us. into the presence. of Christ. Death.
For us has been destroyed.
So, the great transformation, the great triumph leads to. The Great Thanksgiving. Thanks be to God. Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ? In other words, it's being in him.
that allows us to triumph over death. And then let me just close with a vital Concluding point. I'll call it the great therefore. Therefore, isn't that fascinating? 57 verses of doctrine and one verse of application.
You think doctrine's important? Yeah. 57 to 1. Therefore, My beloved brethren. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
What a great statement. Don't be moved around by your emotions. Don't be volatile in your fears and doubts. Don't be erratic and scatter-brained, easily discouraged. My beloved brethren, You will rise from the dead.
That is the promise of God. This is a full and loving appeal that really asks two things of us. Be steadfast and immovable. What that means is stand. For truth.
Steadfast. is an adjective means Sitting. It is the idea of being settled. Seated, fixed. Firm, solid, settle down.
Get a hold of your emotions. Be settled. You're going to rise from the dead. He exhorts us to firm up our convictions. Not wavering on this issue like the Corinthians were.
But being immovable, that is a really interesting word. Immovable. It's um compound word. In the English, as it is in the Greek original, but it comes from a verb canane. which means to set something in motion or to shift.
There is an English word that comes from it, and that is the word cinema. Cinema is the English derivation of kinas. which is the German word for motion pictures. And motion pictures are just that. They are movements.
When something is in motion, It is Cinema. Stop moving. Paul says Don't be in motion doctrinally. Be settled. Be steadfast.
Be firm. Immovable. Do not Hebrews 13:9 says, Be carried away. by varied and strange teaching. We have things like that enjoined upon us all through Scripture.
Don't be like children, Ephesians 4, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Settle down. on the rock-solid reality of the promise of the resurrection. Unwavering. All right, that's the doctrinal part of it.
Second, Go to work. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know your toil is not in vain in the Lord. You're going to be raised to glory and rewarded. For your work.
Don't just Dabble at it. People say to me so often now. When are you going to retire? What does that mean? What are you asking me?
When I lose my mind, then somebody will haul me off. What do you mean? Retire from what? the kingdom of God. Abounding in the work of the Lord.
People say, don't you get tired? I don't know what it is not to be tired. It's a happy kind of condition that I've lived in for a long time. But It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to be exhausted by abounding in the work of the Lord.
Let me tell you something. The practical result of sound doctrine is commitment to hard work. in the kingdom, because that's where your doctrine takes you. And it isn't that you do it in a nominal way, but you abound at it, and you abound at it always. Peri-suo is the word.
Literally means overdoing it. More than expected, more than enough.
Now look, if there's no resurrection, forget it. Let's all retire. If we're just going to get lost in nothingness, Forget it. But there is a resurrection. And we're going to be with our Lord.
Forever. And heaven is going to be filled with the people. that other believers were used to reach. There is a resurrection.
So Be steadfast, immovable. In the theology of the resurrection. And then Always Overdo it. in the work of the Lord. Work is air gun.
That's exactly what it means. Work. Work. Because such work is not In vain. It's not for nothing.
It's for the Lord. And we're going to spend forever with him. Can't come back and redo this. Can't say, you know, Lord. I um I worked for you a little while.
It's really, really good. And I just got busy. Or Lord, I did it until I was 62. You know, it's time to retire. 18 years of my life I Rested.
Really? Can't come back. No, that wouldn't be the attitude of somebody. who understood the great therefore here. Certainly wasn't the attitude of Paul.
Or Epaphroditus, remember him? Philippians 2? Paphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier. He was longing for you all, was distressed because you heard that he was sick. He was sick to the point of death.
But God had mercy on him, not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. He was sick to the point of death. Ministering Relentlessly. Sick to the point of death. How do you know that?
Verse 30, he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete. What was deficient in your service to me? An ideal situation is just to wear yourself out. In service. And then Grab the promise of Revelation 22.12.
Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give to every man. That reward based on Our work. Stand firm. on the resurrection. Work hard.
So look, when we talk about the resurrection, We're talking about a truth. that has powerful implications for our life. And that's verse 58. You ought to circle verse 58, or do whatever you do in your Bible, underline it. What the resurrection promise of God, this incredibly.
gracious, marvelous, incomprehensible promise. But we're going to be Raised like Christ and have a resurrection body like His, as we saw in our earlier study. that the Lord is giving us that forever. And consequently, what he's asking of us Is in this little veil of tears that vanishes and disappears like a vapor. In the few years that we have, Let's get settled down, not wavering, not moving around, not vacillating.
In our convictions. And at all times Overdoing it. In the work of the Lord. Because Our labor. In his name, is not In Then.
Father, we thank you for our time. In this chapter, what an amazing experience it's been to go through it. We We thank you for The theology that is the foundation of our behavior. We know that All theology is applied theology. All theology is practical theology.
There is no theological truth that doesn't have immediate practical implications. Immediate practical implications.
So we're so grateful for all that you've done for us. We want it to show up in our lives. That's our prayer. Amen. Uh You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's current study is titled, The End is Not the End.
Now, friend, you've probably heard the Bible verse that says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones. And of course, it doesn't feel precious to lose a loved one.
So I asked John to give some advice to someone at the bedside of a dying Christian, or a family member or friend with days or maybe hours left in this life. Here's what John said Well, you have to remember what that verse says. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Why it's precious to him is because he longs to have. his beloved people in his presence.
You have to look at it from the divine side. God loves his own children. God is love. God loves us. That's why He sent His Son.
God loves us. That's why He regenerated us. He loves us. That's why He justified us. He loves us.
That's why He adopted us as sons.
So, from God's perspective, He longs to have us in His presence. That is just. an amazing thing to think about. God saving sinners is not some concession. He's not saying, well, I don't like you, I'm upset with you, I'm mad at you, but yeah, okay, I'll give in and save you.
No, he. Loves His own. He loves his own. This is over and over and over again stated in Scripture, and he will love us forever. He will love us forever.
He will lavish us with love forever.
So from his viewpoint, it is precious. when he can take us out of this world with all of our struggles and all of our pain. If you can imagine that you're a loving father and somehow you could take the child that you love out of all pain, all suffering, all threats, all dangers, and bring him to the safety of your side, you would want, that would be precious to you if you could do that. Yeah, well, that's God. He looks at us with such love.
that it's a precious reality for him to be able to rescue us.
Now that is the heart of salvation. That is the heart of the gospel. God wants lovingly to rescue sinners from sin and death and hell. And to say that at the deathbed of a dying believer is God wants you. You're leaving us.
We hate to see you go, but. He wants you. He loves you. He wants you in His presence. What greater comfort is that?
That's true of every believer. And what an encouraging reminder that is And friend, the encouragement doesn't have to stop with today's broadcast. You can go online and listen again to today's lesson or from any of the messages from John's series called The End is Not the End. In fact, this series could be particularly helpful for a new believer. It's an ideal introduction to the eternal glory that awaits him or her.
The title again, The End is Not the End. Download the MP3s and transcripts when you get in touch today. Our web address is gty.org. There is a lot of material in this study that we didn't have time to air on radio, so make sure you get it all. Download all three MP3s and transcripts for free at gty.org.
And whether you're studying along with the lessons you hear on Grace to You, or maybe you're following along with your pastor's sermons at your local church. The MacArthur Study Bible is an excellent resource. The study Bible has 25,000 footnotes that will help you know God's Word better and be transformed by it, whether you've been a believer for five months or for 50 years. The MacArthur Study Bible is affordably priced in hardcover and leather and even premium goat skin. You can order yours by calling 800-55GRACE.
or go to our website, gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us and be back next time as John MacArthur kicks off a study on the transforming power of Scripture and how you can take advantage of it. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth. one verse at a time. on Race to You.
