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THE LAST ENEMY DESTROYED
Maurice Johnson, Los Angeles
Turn in your Bibles please to 1 Corinthians 15th chapter, the first verse, 1 Corinthians 15th chapter, the first verse. In the 18th chapter of Acts we have a history given by inspiration to Luke and he wrote it, a history in the 18th chapter of Paul's going to Corinth, preaching the gospel, and establishing the church of God at Corinth. In this epistle, he's ... when he wrote this he's away from Corinth, naturally, and wrote back to the church of God at Corinth as we read in the salutation, introduction to this epistle. But notice here in the 15th chapter he says,Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
now this is the first time I've ever used this in dealing with later part of the rest of the 15th chapter. I've given the truth but I've never noticed before in connection with it that this verse is in connection with it. It's given as a part of, it's the first declaration, first statement in this great resurrection chapter.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you ...
(Well oh right here, thank you. I said the other day It's going to have to hook a bell on this pointer, and then somebody to bring it so I could keep track of it.)
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel how that if you go clear on through to the close of the Millennium ...
no, that's not the subject matter,
I declare unto you the gospel.
"Well hadn't he already preached it?" Certainly. "Wasn't it the basis by which, by which they were saved, the fact by which, and the facts of the story, the word by which they were saved?" Yes. "And upon which the church was established there?" Yes. "But now he says, "I declare unto you the gospel, l declare unto you the gospel," I'm going to go into it in such detail that you need never again doubt that it's really good news, that it's really good news." What's the best news that a poor, guilty, lost sinner with the penalty of sin hanging over him, need to hear or can hear? What's the best news? It is that that penalty has been met by another. It is that what he cannot possibly do for himself has. been perfectly done by somebody else. That's good news to a sinner. That's why Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel."
There isn't a sectarian on the face of the earth that can truthfully say that. I'm coming to see plainer and plainer that the Baptist, no matter how plainly they preach it, and in some cases they do, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for the unsaved, but they cannot consistently say at all, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Because they need the gospel plus. And that's why they've organized and ... and ... built up and named the Baptist organization. Exactly the same with the Presbyterians, with the Church of the Open Bible, Church of the Open Door, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Greek ... Greek Orthodox, the Watchtower Society falsely called "Jehovah's Witnesses" which name they only voted upon in 1931. They've had various names, they felt the need of different names and different programs and different, different, different, different, and so on with every sect under heaven, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, and Herbert Armstrong's so-called "The Church of God the Next World", it isn't they don't even have any hope for the world tomorrow in their reaching.
But the gospel of Jesus Christ is the glorious fountain of all truth. All that Paul in his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians and Philippians expound is the fruitage of the gospel. That's why, as I brought out last Sunday as I read over the radio from the late R A Torrey in his book, "Death Defeated and Defied" ... I announced over the radio I ... or said I wished, I suggested that if you can buy that book, good many of you. Probably get it at Biola, published by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles... Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, that is the copy that I had was. I think I bought it when I was in Chicago a few many years ago, but never read it till the other day. Never read it at all until last week. Got it misplaced and with some other books, and was looking through them and found it. "Death Defeated and Defied", and in that he brought out as you heard me read, brought out quoting from 1 Corinthians 15 and from Ephesians 1 and Hebrews 2 and 2 Timothy 1:10 that the Lord Jesus Christ has gloriously defeated death.
I called to your attention . verses of 1 Corinthians 15... well let's read this whole verse, the first five,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you,
"I preached it unto you, now I'm going to declare it unto you. You that have already believed it", he goes on, "unless you've believed in vain, unless it's a vain message." And it's a vain message if Christ hasn't conquered the last enemy. It's a vain message. The only conquering of the last enemy that He'll ever do.
Now if a man who has spoken out a couple of times here already, and you feel perfectly free to speak when you believe the Spirit of God wants you, if he believes what he said, then he should at the close of this meeting get up and make a humble, open, honest, God-fearing series of confessions. I'll take it up at the close however, God willing. Now notice ... and pray with me and for me, Christians, and for all here. This is going to be a grand and glorious meeting this morning, with some very glorious consequences I hope only, maybe some very sad, but just as spiritual, so far as I'm concerned by the grace of God.
Again now, 1 Corinthians 15:1,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also I have ... ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain.
Now he defines that later on in the 17th verse, that your faith is vain and we are false witnesses if Christ isn't raised. Your faith is vain if you do ... don't have the gospel that's really good news. The word 'gospel' you know means good news, glad tidings.
By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain.
By the way we have copies, printed copies of this chart. I think maybe, I
don't know whether we have one here or not. If anyone of you, do any, does anyone here have a copy of this chart, a printed copy? Alright, please give them to me and let me offer them any visitors this morning. Anybody have one here, have one here? Alright, please give them to me and I'll give them to any that want one.
I noticed one or two copying this chart. You just listen, and we'll be delighted to give you a printed copy of this chart here.
Now, back again tog Corinthians 15.
The gospel by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins,
Oh it's so important to see this, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures because the only Scriptures that were in existence when Christ died were the Old Testament Scriptures. Don't forget that now. The gospel of Christ, the plan ... remember, Romans 1:16, "l am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."
Just like the thief on the cross, on the cross the disciple cried. After he'd heard the Lord Jesus say, I don't know how much, maybe quote all, or not quote or give all of the 22nd Psalm. We know He gave the first verse because over in the New Testament Scriptures we read that He said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And that's the first verse of the 22nd Psalm. You read all the 22nd Psalm, and then you can easily imagine that thief on the cross after he had that, we know he heard enough to cause Him to believe in Christ, and to believe that Christ was coming into His kingdom. "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And Christ said, "I say today thou shalt be with Me in paradise."But now notice, 7 Corinthians 15:3, the gospel is that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." If the Roman Catholics would only believe that and study it, they'd never be Roman Catholics again. If the so-called "Jehovah's. Witnesses" would read that and believe it they'd never be "Jehovah's Witnesses" so-called, falsely called witnesses again. Because the Scriptures present Christ as a substitute. The Scriptures present Christ as one ...
Now I declare unto you the gospel.
That's the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 what the gospel is, what it culminates in, and he's talking of only the believer. It's only for the believers; he's writing to saved people, not talking about the unsaved.
Now watch. When Christ died on the cross, was buried then later, and rose again the third day, was He then and there paying the penalty for sin? Was He then and there taking out of the way all that God had against sinners? Yes! "He tasted death for every man." The full death due, due man. Spirit, soul, and body because death nowhere in the Bible or even in chemistry means annihilation or cessation of being or non-existence. It's dissolution or separation. So the Lord Jesus Christ when He cried on the cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?", He was dying spiritually. And then, I'm not going to try to comprehend or fathom the unfathomable depths of Christ's death, burial, resurrection, but I want to get what is declared on the subject, what's revealed. I want to bow before that.
Alright, the gospel is the story of Christ defeating the enemies of Adam's fallen family. And He's done it! Now what death remains then for Him to defeat? No one but a stubborn, depraved brain with something else wrong with them would even lay hold on and hold to and contend for a ridiculous doctrine like this: That while it's true of course that Christ conquered the last enemy for believers (and that the last enemy is death), He's conquered the last enemy for believers., oh yes, I believe that, but He's going to come back and reign in the future to conquer the last enemy for unbelievers.
(comment from audience)
Well, remember what you just heard at the close of this meeting. Because the crux of some very, very sad meetings, part of them sad, including last Tuesday night at the Ceramic Decorating business (plant), the crux and false wicked heart of some contentions has been precisely what I gave, just gave. That Christ is going to have to come back and reign in order to defeat, destroy, the last enemy of the unbeliever because, remember, the only thing involved in 1 Corinthians 15 about Christ destroying death is the last enemy. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed," the text says, "is death," and if He hasn't already done that, then whose death is it? It's got to be the last enemy for somebody.
I tried when I spoke in brother Wilbur Johnson's backyard months ago, the very first thing I said was that people who doubt, who haven't humbly and resolutely and spiritually grappled with 1 Corinthians 15 on the subject of Christ's reigning, God the Father reigning in and through His Son till He's put down all-enemies under His Son, because it's the rather that puts them down there we're expressly told, those who haven't grappled with it to where they see the truth comparing it with 1st ... with the 1st chapter of Ephesians where we're told that Christ in His resurrection and ascension was taken far above ail principalities and powers, the devil and his host of demons, far above all principalities -- several are mentioned there; was raised from the dead, number one in His own death conquering resurrection defeating ... and far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion, rule and authority, and every name that's named not only in this age but in that which is to come, and has put all things under His feet and made Him to be head over all things to the church which is His body.
One of the first things I said, I'll start again on that, in the meeting in Wilbur's backyard months ago was that they who have failed to wrestle with 1 Corinthians 15 on this subject, wrestle with it spiritually and resolutely enough, going into all the kindred texts, such as Ephesians the 1st chapter the last few verses, Colossians 2 where we're told that in Christ's resurrection and ascension He spoiled the principalities and powers making an open show of them triumphing over them in His resurrection and ascension, and the next ... 1 Peter the 3rd chapter 22nd verse that the risen Christ, Christ was raised from the dead principalities and powers and authorities being made subject to Him, and the same in Ephesians ... in Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2, and then in Hebrews as I gave last Sunday morning, unto which of the angels has God subjected the world to come? But He has to His Son, He has to His Son. And so ... I started ... I was saying, I brought out that Sunday that they who fail this truth that the death referred to 1 Corinthians 15:24, 22-28,-9, that that death has already been destroyed by the resurrection of Christ. The gospel of Christ is the story that the last ... all the enemies, the last one being death, have been destroyed.
They who fail to see that I brought out cannot logically, they cannot intelligently, I mean with human intelligence, hold to the doctrine that some death that is an enemy must yet be destroyed by Christ without facing sooner or later the only enemy death that can be called an enemy to mankind, that's the last enemy, I mean now since Christ's resurrection defeating the devil and destroying him and .. and completing the wonderful facts that are called the gospel of salvation, the only death that could be destroyed in the future as an enemy at all if it's the last one would have to be the second death.And it isn't my fault my dear friend if there are one or two or three who stubbornly hold on to their ridiculously false, utterly illogical, nonsensical, and blasphemous doctrine. It isn't my fault. But it'll be my fault before God if I don't do all I can to warn and forewarn and prepare you, and then rebuke with all authority them that sin and rebuke them before all that others also may fear. And I expect to do it and do it with a finality in this particular case this morning, God helping me.
But now back please to this. On over to 2 Corinthians please, the 5th chapter, 2 Corinthians the 5th chapter, and begin at the ... 74th verse,
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all.
Just think of it, that the whole human family was dead when Christ came. Long before that of course because in 9 Corinthians 15 we're told that "in Adam all die." For we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead.
As I said the other day over the radio, Christ died for dead people, died for dead people. He went down into the grave of humanity in a very definite sense, and defeated the one that had the power of death, the devil, destroyed him, Hebrews 2:14.
I wish I had ... maybe I shouldn't take time, but I'm going to before long, maybe next Sunday morning if I'm here, I wish I had with me this morning John Jasper's sermon on the double funerals. That famous Negro preacher of Richmond, Virginia. Oh-h, that sermon, John Jasper had come to see these truths and he did certainly help me some. It lodged in my subconscious mind I’ll tell you where he brought out you know, he preached the funeral of two ... of two folks, one was ... I forgot whether it was John, let's suppose it was John, he was an ungodly rascal and the other was Mary, a well-known and beloved Christian young woman. And John Jasper who lived back in the ... where was it, a hundred and fifty years ago? I think about a hundred and fifty years ago. John Jasper preached something like this.
I wish one of our colored friends this morning, and I say that of course kind of delighted you're here this morning. I wish maybe one of you would do this; you could do it a lot better than I... But you couldn't get into it better I'll betcha than I can. When ol' John Jasper's truth, when John Jasper said,
"Now, if you any ... if you all want me to preach somebody into to heaven that lived the other way, you called on the wrong man. As the tree falls so shall it lie. We all know that John lived a life of an awful sinner. He's gone out to meet God,
and something like that, and he just committed.
"I haven't got no more to say. He's already gone, and his day of opportunity is gone, and so forth, and his sad ?
But sister Mary, oh-h-h sister Mary. She's different."
And he went on and told about sister Mary,
"And we know how she lived, what a sweet Christian. She died. Where ... "
What?
(Comment from audience)
She walked in white."And said she died. Say where did she go? She went down, down where death is. I wonder where she is this morning?"
And he acted like he's leaning over the battlements, looking down into death.
"Oh-h Death, Death, has sister Mary been down there?" "Yeah." "Is she down there now?" "No, she isn't down here no more." "Whatsamatter? How come she ain't?" "Well Master Jesus, He done come down here a long time ago and He done tore down all our banners, and He done told us if any of His'n come down here to let ‘em go out on through."
And then John Jasper said, "Oh-h-h, bless God," and he went on you know. And you know I understand now the Bible doctrine that John Jaspers preaching. "Master Jesus done come down here and He done tore down all death's banners. Yes sir."
Now you friends here, pardon me for my efforts to immitate but I enjoy that. I tell you I've gotten ... I made a tape recording of John Jaspers sermon and when I was back and sent it ... and Lonnie sent it back to Virginia, and months, a year and a half later I was back there and in the home of the folk, Hudsons, and one of them said, "You know, every time I hear that sermon of John Jasper I just cry all over again." That's a great big strapping six-foot one or two contractor Herman Hudson. And I said, "Every time you hear that?" He. said, "I mean your sermon." I said, "Oh-h, Lonnie Gartrell sent you that?" He said, "We've played that over and over and over again." He said, "Every time we play it ..." and James Cox told me back in Ft Worth the other day, he said, "I've heard that sermon over on that tape over there." Well I want to make a new tape and I think I can make it better now because I can get into that myself better what John Jasper was seeing when he hollered to Death down there, "Sister Mary down there?" "No. She ain't down here no more. She was. She's gone through. She's gone through." I want to tell you my friend, I want to meet John Jasper.It was beautiful too the way he begin to picture heaven. He said you know when, "Oh-h-h, wha's it going to be to be thar?" And then he'd soar into his spiritual imagination and said, "When I get up there I'm going to walk down the street and look and see a great big palace and that's where Master Moses lives and that's where so-and-so. And then he said, down, going a little back street, he said, "I'm going down a little back street and I'm going to walk on now. Wait a minute, there's the purtiest little cabin with honey suckles all round the front door 'n all. Why look yonder, that's my mama," and so on you know. And then another one. And all of a sudden he said, "Wait. Wait, who is that cuming down? Who is that? Why there sheis. Why that 's sister Mary." And i's said he just went into almostuncontrollable ectasies of joy and the whole congregation almost lost, themselves you know as they followed John Jasper up to heaven, and all of a sudden he ran into sister Mary right there and he was preachin' her funeral. She was there and there she was up there.
Oh my friend we can well afford to let our imaginations fly with that sparrow that had blood on his wings.
(Wilbur Johnson) Sanctified.
Yes sir, sanctified imagination. That's right. Maybe better than imagination we might say 'meditation'.
(Wilbur Johnson) Vision.
Vision. That's right. "'Where there's no vision the people perish." That's what Stephen had in mind and heart while they were stoning him to death and he said, "I see heavens open". They stopped their ears, and the gates to the temple in Jerusalem were stopped to him I dare say but heaven opened up to him. Because the way had already been opened to him, that "new and living way made by the blood of Jesus Christ and the veil, that is to say, His flesh."
2 Corinthians 5,For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
How'd you like to have this placard put over your door, your house, "The people who live here live unto themselves." I read this story several months ago about a man, he just ... far as I know he didn't mean to make it a hobby, most things pretty soon become a hobby and they lose their spirituality, but he stopped at a farm house, stopped his car out on the highway or country road and walked up to the farm house, either knocked on the front door on the porch or hollered hello, lady came to the door and he said, "Does Jesus Christ live here?" "Sir?" "hoes Jesus Christ live here?" "I don't understand you. Jones is our name," or Hoffinstifler, something. "Well," he said, "I was just interested in knowing if Jesus Christ lives here." Then she got it. If somebody would come to your house and you hadn't been forewarned and just asked you, "Does Jesus Christ live here?", would you quickly and joyously, humbly say, "Yes, yes." "Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate," 2 Corinthians 13:4 and 5. Paul said, "I trust you shall know we're not reprobate." Reprobate, castaway, a castaway.
2 Corinthians 5,Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh,
5:16. Let me read that 15th again.
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore know we no man after the flesh: yes, though we have known Christ
knew Him as an Israelite, concerning the flesh an Israelite, Romans 9; born from the loins of David, is quoted by Peter in Acts 2 and by Paul in Acts 13, but we don't know Him ... minister of the circumcision Paul says in Romans 15:8, but we don't know Him that way anymore after the flesh, nor should we know anyone else that way, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new in Christ.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to with, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
That's what I've been contending for a good many different times in the last several months, I mean very specifically. "That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Turn back please... and I'll finish this,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
We're to go and tell the world, "Did you know"... I heard it put this way one
time, and I've often given it. That the heaven's court adjourned nineteen hundred-odd years ago when Christ cried on the cross, "It is finished," after saying, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"" It's because He had the sins of all humanity, the Adamic sins of all humanity in His own body. He was dying for our sins. Heaven's court was in session, He was called up as a representative of Adam's race. Thank God He represented me, bearing my sins in His own body. "God hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the rightousness of God in Him." So court was in session, one man appeared as a defendant, but He pled guilty, guilty because He took my sins and your sins and "He tasted death for every man". When He cried, "It is finished", there was an earthquake you remember and we're told the veil in the temple yonder that kept man out apart from the presence of God, the veil was torn from top to bottom. Now the whole human race has failed. I believe in universal salvation from the guilt and penalty of Adam's sin. "He's the savior of all specially of those that believe."
What about those that have been saved from the guilt and penalty of Adam's sin? That's why little babies dying in infancy go to be with God because they have no guilt, they have no guilt, and they're not old enough to deliberately, willfully sin against light. Therefore they're as safe as the perfect substitutionary work of their savior can make them. But when we get old enough to sin of our own accord then and reject Jesus Christ, then we'll be convicted as the Lord Jesus Christ said as recorded in John 16; He said you remember, 16:7, "It is expedient for you," talking to the disciples before His resurrection, ascension, I mean the night He was betrayed. John 16:7, "It’s expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if 1 depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He's come He will convince the world, or convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me." That's the damning sin, to reject, to disbelieve in Jesus Christ. That's why we're told in John 3:36 as I quoted this morning over the radio, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life: he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:17,18, "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world or damn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Nobody's going to go to hell for not having eaten meat on Friday or [not] peddling Watchtower literature. There's only one sin that will send a soul out into a Christless eternity, and that's the sin of deliberately rejecting the savior. Because all of the sins that we potentially commit before we're born while we're in our mother's womb, all the sins ... the seed plot of all sin is in every Adamic nature. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me," David said, David. And Paul said that, "We were by nature children of wrath, even as others." That's why Christ said that, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh." That's why we're told, "There's no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And Christ (Romans 3:13), and Christ said as recoiled in Luke 13: 3 and 5, "And except you repent, you shall all likewise perish."
Yes, in the first man all (lie, but the second man came, and thank God He opened up the new and living way. He reconciled the world unto God. But how many of those people who have been died for by the Lord Jesus, how many of those people who have been sanctified by the blood of the covenant, the everlasting covenant of which we read in Hebrews the 10th chapter, how many willfully sin and do despite to the Spirit of grace, and trample under their feet the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified? There's no more sacrifice for sin. When you deliberately reject the work of Jesus Christ, there's nothing ahead for you my friend but "a certain fearful looking for of fiery indignation and wrath that'll devour the adversary", we're told in the Word of God. And so let's remember that now, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. He took everything out of the way.
Turn back please to the 4th chapter of Matthew. And I wish I had an hour more than I have because I want to touch at least some things that have been gripping me. Friday night I was taking two tape recorded messages, two tapes down to the Post Office to mail and for radio programs, and about nine o'clock, and I was going down the freeway, and some of these things that I'd never thought of just this way began to flood my soul and I actually was so blinded with tears I had to slow down, afraid I couldn't drive safely, as I was visualizing these things.
One reason my friend that I know that the contention I've been making, though connected with some very, very unpleasant rebuke on my part, one reason I know that my contention has been to the glory of God is that the Word of God is more precious and the love of God more fervent and 1 have not even been sorely tempted to substitute spittle or fleshly anger or false accusation for the glorious truths up ... upon which I've been getting a better and more precious grasp.
(gap on tape)... prayer if I'm preaching sometime and some infidels and rough, ungodly fellows come up to just heckle and make and ... and stir my anger, and if I'm really looking at Christ with a single eye, and by body's full of light as it were, and I'm not even tempted to spit back at 'em. I'm not even tempted to put aside the sword of the Spirit and pick up a putty knife and fight with 'em.
I'm not even tempted when I'm conscious that I have God's power, the dynamite of God, and to use it, and that that's all I'm trying to give., then I'm not even tempted to get some lower religious cap pistol, "spit-spit-spit-crack-crack-crack" you know. Not at all when I know that I'm contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.Now Matthew the 4th chapter. After the Lord Jesus had lived on earth for 30 years under the law, and kept it in every jot and tittle, and now He's publicly announced as being the Son of God as tie comes out of the river Jordan, the 16th chapter ... verse, the 3rd chapter, Matthew 3:16,
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And to a voice from heaven, saying, This ...
Not all these Jews that have come out of the water; the rest of them went in dry sinners and came out wet sinners. But this one, this one; they went in confessing their sins, He went in the sinless Son of God, and He came out the sinless Son of God. But He hadn't yet been publicly acknowledged. That's why John the Baptist said as recorded in John 7:31, "that Christ might be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water". And so here's the way He was made manifest to Israel. They went, were baptized first, confessing their sins, went in dry sinners came out wet sinners. He went in, they don't know yet but what He's just another Jew, He went in, was baptized of John, but when He came out, "straightway the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased"".
All right, now He's ready to begin His public ministry. I was reading from E.Y. Mullin, he was the president until ... I think he's dead now, of the Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, very eminent Baptist theologian and eminent otherwise in the Baptist circles, I was reading from him yesterday, and he said that when Christ came out the river Jordan that He was baptized in water of course, that's all that those Baptists in the main are concerned about, that, I mean in the main, that when Christ was baptized He was ready now for His public ministry. Well that's just exactly what I had come to see wasn't so. He wasn't ready for His public ministry. "Well He's introduced, He's announced as and recognized as the Son of God well pleasing to God." Yes, that's right. But He's not ready for His public ministry. Look at the next verse, 4:7,
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit in the wilderness.
He didn't begin His public ministry preaching and performing miracles. He goes out in the wilderness.
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou he the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Well, the Father had publicly endorsed Him, acknowledged Him already to a whole assembled multitude. We don't know how many Jews, but we're told in the first part of the 3rd chapter, "that there went unto John Jerusalem, Judea, and the regions round about and were baptized of him". So there was a real representative company of Israelites. And they know from the announcement from heaven, that visible coming of the Holy Spirit upon Him and the word from heaven, "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." They know that He's the Son of God. So far as that spiritual ... those ... that two-fold witness. But the devil said, "If you're the Son of God prove it to me. Do something now. Satisfy your hunger." But he answered and said, It is written, The Son of God shall not live by bread alone.
Is that what He said? I gave that before several times. Look at it again. He said,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.
He doesn't accept the devils prescription or plans for His work. And He's not there to prove He's the Son of God. He's there to begin His ministry as the Son of man, at least so far as meeting the devil's concerned.
The devil said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones he made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.
He met the devil by just quoting Scripture, written Old Testament Scriptures. Isn't that beautiful? As I said last Sunday, He met the devil like you and I can meet him. Because He didn't meet the devil in His inherent power as the Son of God; He met the devil as the Son of man, the second man as He's called in 1 Corinthians 15, the second man. As I brought out last Sunday and you Bible students know, one of the reasons Christ is called the second man is because there's no difference in this other family, they're all horn dead. That's what we read in Z Corinthians 5, "We thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead". "Dead in trespasses and sins." "We thus judge that if one died for all, then all were dead." And so in a cemetery there's no intelligent reason to make distinctions such as dead, deader, or deadest, or big, bigger, biggest, so far as the condition of the corpse is concerned. They're all dead, all dead. Never mind the size of the grave, the size of the monument, never mind the age of the one whose body was laid there, and never mind how long this one's been there and how long that's been there. If they're dead and in the grave, then they're altogether dead. It's the great leveler someone has said. Not the great one, but it's one.
All right, so Christ is the second man because He's the first fertile grain figuratively speaking since Adam's fall, and He's the one that could die and come forth, bringing forth other grain in Him. And only those in Him will be thus brought forth.Now again please, Matthew 4. But Christ, not letting the devil successfully tempt Him to prove He's the Son of God.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
I'd like to go back and read that context from the 8th of I7euteronomy, i's very interesting, but I won't take time now.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.
Just imagine the Lord Jesus allowing the devil to do that. He was allowing the devil to have his way with Him as the man, and how's He going to meet the devil? The first man when he was tempted of the devil, fell. He was tempted, he and his wife, in ... in the New Testament Scriptures which refer to Adam, "in Adam all", "Adam's disobedience", "in Adam's transgression", "Adam's disobedience", so I'll just refer to Adam here. Adam was tempted to disobey God in eating the forbidden fruit. Lust of the flesh, then the Lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And so to be tempted in all points like as we, the Lord Jesus with a sinless body just like Adam had, the Lord Jesus with a sinless body, the second man, to come in the world with a sinless body, second man. I repeat, the rest of them were corpses in God's sight, dead in Adam. And old ones dead in trespasses and sins of their own.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city,
imagine that, in Jerusalem,
and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,
Now the devil starts quoting Scripture. But you compare that with the original back in 91st Psalm and you'll see where the devil tampered with it some.
It's written, He'll give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again.
Again the Lord Jesus quotes Scripture. Think of the wonderful tribute He paid to the Old Testament Scripture by using them to defeat the devil. Think of it. The Son of God using Old Testament Scriptures to defeat the devil. How I like to give that to Roman Catholics. Think of the tribute the Lord paid as to the living, quivering, vital power of the old Testament Scriptures.
(gap on tape)For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Turn please to Luke the 3rd chapter and let's read a little bit, there's an added detail or two in Luke's inspired account of this period of temptation. I'm having to draw toward a close for the ... cause of the time. Luke the _3rd chapter. Fourth chapter I mean, the 1st verse,
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost,
that's very significant, "And Jesus being full of the" third person of the Trinity. He's not beginning His work as the Son of God. Now He's the Son of God of course, but just like He was Immanuel when He Was lying in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. But He wasn't functioning as God, He was there as a baby. taut He was nonetheless "Immanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us". That's another passage of course and truth that the so-called Watchtower Society and Herbert Armstrong have to deny, that, that baby was Immanuel. Immanuel, as we're expressly told. The baby was "Immanuel, which being interpreted, is "God with us". And it won't help them at all to say it means 'a god'. Because even if that's all the truth on the point, then He's not just a man. He's the one that died. So even according to them ‘a god’ died; according to the Word of God, Immanuel, God the Son.
We need to remember as I've brought out a good many times over the radio and other places, and I hope you've seen it from your own study maybe long before but during or since, that one of the reasons Armstrong and the Seventh Day Adventists and the Watchtower Society people and the Mormons get so far off on the subject of Christ's death is because they've got their own damnably ridiculous definition of death. "How could a spirit being die?" Well according to your definition of death he couldn't. But according to God's definition of death He did! He could and did. Death is separation and never annihilation, never cessation of being. We're dead to sin. "We're dead with Christ to sin" we read in Paul's epistles, the believers are. Dead with Christ to sin. "Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Dead to sin. "When she that liveth in pleasure is dead to God while she's alive to pleasure," see. All those definitions of death in the Bible.
Luke 4:9,And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, [or Spirit], returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Well that's the way you and I should be, led by the Spirit, after we're. saved, led by the Spirit. Isn't that beautiful?
Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
Now we can put up with these noises when we remember that these tapes are going to be sent out prayerfully, let's follow then in prayer, for others to listen in. These mechanical devices ... these brethren are doing some good hard work and occasionally slip. I never made a mistake myself, but they make mistakes you see.
(audience and Maurice laughs)
I mean I never made that one at the same time they're making it.
And the devil tempted him after He hungered.And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command that this stone be made into bread. Jesus answered him saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil taketh him up into an high mountain, shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
That's television for you isn't it, I mean that's devil-vision, not too radical different from the present invention and what it's used for and purposes back of it.
shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All-l-l-l this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that it is delivered unto me.
Does the Lord Jesus say, "You're a liar in that."? He did not. Elsewhere He confirms it. When He said "the prince of this world is cast out and judged". And then in Hebrews 2 "destroyed", but in the sense that God Himself defines destruction there.
But now watch. The devil showed Him, went up
into an high mountain, shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And this is a truth, very briefly stated and hurriedly almost, that came to me with a new force; I can't give it to you but just a glimpse of it as I saw it, in the time which I have, it came to me the other night.
Let me put several things closer together than they appear in the Bible in the event. The Lord Jesus shall we say said to the devil, "I'm going to get the kingdoms of this world. I'm going to win the right to reign, but not by a tryst with you, a rendezvous with you on top of this high mountain. But I'm going to go to the lowest hell, I'm going to be in the heart of the earth three days, and if it wrest the keys of hell and death from you, and I'll destroy you, and I'll come out, [ ? ] I'll go back to the glory, back to the heavenly mansions hasting, and I'll hand the kingdom over to the Father, as the antitypical wave offering before God in the glory. I'm going to get the kingdoms back from your hand. They were listening to you while you were head all right, by the first man when he sold out to you because all thing…"
Remember when God created Adam He said, I brought this out more times lately, God said to Adam, "Thou art to have dominion, you shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the ... the creeping things and all, and you'll have dominion, you'll be the king. You're the ruler." And the devil came in the form of a serpent, the most subtle of all the creatures and coming around through Adam's weak side, shall we say or comparatively so, wasn't weak but comparatively, dodged the head and went to the woman, and the woman led her husband into the ... into the ... disobedient woman deceived and he followed in the transgression, and the kingdoms were delivered over to the devil.And we're told, we're told in Romans the 5th chapter, listen carefully, we're told in Romans the 5th chapter "death reigned from Adam to Moses". Well what did Moses do about it? He received the law and the law ministered death. The law simply preached dead men's funerals.
And He was led into the wilderness to be tested by the devil, the second man, before He began His public ministry. Thank God He met the devil, not in the Garden of Eden where the first man had, but in the wilderness and began as the Son of Man by defeating ... and defeated the devil in the three points of temptation by being obedient to God's Word. The devil said, "All these kingdoms are mine. Look at them. Aren't they beautiful? Kingdoms of world and glory thereof. In a moment of time he showed them. Pit give them to You if you'll worship me." "Get thee behind Me. It's written, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God."" And worshipping His Father, being true to Him and obedient ... obeying His Father, He defeated the devil quoting Scripture.
Then He began His public ministry. And He went around you know, and when He performed miracles, driving demons out in Matthew the 11th chapter, some of them said, "Well, He's doing it by Baalzebub the prince of devils." He said, "If I cast out devils by Baalzebub then Satan's kingdom is divided against itself. But if I cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." The kingdom of God is come unto you. Now was it? John the Baptist said recorded in John 3 shortly after his baptizing Christ, he said, "All things are delivered into His hound," John 3:35, "All things have been delivered into His hound." I thought the devil had all of them? He said he did. And he had had. So far as the rulership of the world. I brought out awhile ago, we're told in Romans 5, "Death reigned from Adam to Moses," and then the law reigned showing men what sinners they were and how the only hope was to live up to the ten commandments. And it shut their mouths, ministered death, but thank God connected with that was. the ceremonial program, the tabernacle, meats and drinks and divers baptisms and carnal ordinances imposed upon Israel all pointing to the work of Jesus Christ.
In the fullness of time He came. And then after keeping the law, He was a perfect law fulfiller, the righteous one, the lamb of God without spot and blemish, but He gave Himself a ransom for all, that when He came out of the grave, when He came out of the rave ... grave, watch now, He died under the reign of death and under the reign of the law. He died under the reign of the law and under the reign of the devil himself. They got Him. Dead. But when He came out, when He came out He came out with the keys of death and hell. He went back to the glory and reported as the antitypical wave offering as I said awhile ago far above all principalities and powers, He reported a perfect work done.And grace is now reigning. How could grace be reigning, underserved goodness be reigning if death hasn't been destroyed? Because death reigned from Adam to Moses, and then the ten commandments ministered death, but now grace is reigning. Where's grace reigning? Over the whole world, because Jesus Christ has purchased the whole dispensation of grace for Adam's fallen family. In a sense of course all the way back here all those who believed the. promise of the coming Christ were saved, spiritually. But now "grace is reigning through righteousness by Jesus Christ," Romans 5 the last three verses. "Grace is now reigning through righteousness by Jesus Christ," the right work that He did. Grace is reigning.
Now visualize for a moment. How could grace be reigning, God's underserved goodness be reigning if the enemy hasn't been defeated?
And just try to visualize now, I close with a little bit, the Lord Jesus said as recorded in 9 Corinthians 15, "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." As I brought out the other day speaking on Universalism, Friday, I think it was, I said, "Let's remember that the fallen angels good and had weren't in Adam. When Adam sinned he didn't have any angels in him, in his loins. The devil wasn't in Adam." So the Universalists can't take that verse of Scripture to help their program of universal salvation, when they say in Adam all die, so in Christ al-l-l-l shall be made alive. Well let's first see who was that 'all' in Adam and then who's that 'all' that's in Christ.
The Univ... the Russellites, they say that Christ laid His life a ransom for all; the Scripture says that. But now watch, they do not stand by that Christ arose to give new life. And they have only a Jesus, a human dying, and how could one human taste death for every man. You remember that Russellite, the Russell [ ? ] and Ernst advocate, older man, said to us out there in that home in San Gabriel, he said when I asked him, "How could a mere man taste death for every man? How could a mere man die for the whole human family?" And he said, "Well how could we all die in Adam?" That was pretty clever but by the grace of God I was ready for that. I said, "Wait a minute, we all died in Adam because we were all in Adam when he sinned. The human family was in Adam's loins, he was the federal head. Make the tree good and the fruit good, make the tree bad and fruit bad. Adam the federal head of humanity had the human family in his loins and when he died the fountainhead became corrupt. "But," I said, "we're not all in Christ naturally. None of us are. We're told in the same Bible how people get and do in Christ. You've got to get into Christ by spiritual regeneration. You got to get into Christ. And so Christ laid down the ransom suffering infinitely enough to save all that believe on Him, and when we believe then we're put into Him, baptized into His death, it becomes our death, and buried with Him by baptism of death, and raised up to walk in newness of life, and we're going to get our resurrection body.
"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall alt be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first-fruits," guarantee the harvest, "Christ. the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then," now remember, Paul is simply stated just like he ... just like Christ did in John 12:24, "Except a grain of wheat fall in the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." Now that sounds like it's just one event, "if it die it bringeth forth much fruit". But in that little verse is this, "if this grain of wheat Christ died it bringeth forth much fruit." Everybody that'll ever be raised or immortal body like Christ to be with Him for all eternity is included and comprehended in John 12:24. That's the whole thing in a very short verse.
"Except a grain of wheat fall in to the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." "In Adam all die, so in Christ shall a11-l-1 be made alive." All that will ever be made alive as a result of the gospel that he declared unto the angels, the gospel, in Christ.Now watch this just a little bit please. After having stated that, after having declared that as he does several times in that chapter, gives a brief statement and then a parenthesis. "They [ ? ] , that's the end! then the end! then that's the consummation! then the end! when He delivers up to the kingdom to the Father." He has guaranteed this grain of wheat's fallen on the ground and died, it's come forth, the first-fruit, all are going to be raised in Him. That's the subject of the resurrection, and He says that guaranteed, that guarantee is followed by the consummation when He delivers the kingdom up to the Father. "For He," the context be careful there, "He must reign till He's put down all enemies, all rule and authority and might, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and He hath put down all enemies. Rut when it is said He hath put down all evidently He is excepted who did subject all under Him."
So Paul is simply saying there the expression, "That's the end, that's the consummation, that's the purpose, as I called to your attention from Hebrews 9:26, "Christ once in the end of the ages," literally as Rotherham has it, "conjunction of the ages", someone else some other translation has it, "the ends of the ages," someone else has it, "the ... the ... the purpose of the ages.." "Now once in the end of the ages hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." And then ... in 1 Corinthians 10:!:3 (sic), the thing that happened unto Israel baptized unto Moses the cloud and the sea happened to them for types, they're written for our learning upon whom the end, consummation, the ends of the ages are come. I hope to make a chart one of these days with this ... this age with an arrow pointing here, and this age and an arrow pointing here, this age an arrow pointing here, and this an arrow pointing here, and here an arrow pointing backwards, and here an arrow, the feet of it anyway, an arrow pointing back, and here an arrow pointing back, and the new heavens and new earth an arrow pointing back. So far as man's concerned the cross work and the death conquering work of the risen Christ is the consummation, the purposes of all ages of God's dealing with mankind. The consummation of all ages. We're told in Isaiah 9 that He's the Father of the ages, the eternal Father, literally the Father of the ages, the Lord Jesus. He's the one that planned under God the Father and with the Holy Spirit the purpose of coming in, His coming in the world, and He's conquered the last enemy.
Now watch please and I'll stop. The devil had the kingdoms, the domains, the dominions of this world which were potentially of course they were in Adam, all were delivered into his hands by the disobeying servile Adam and Eve. And he used them in his various ways with God overruling of course until the second man came, and He was tempted. "Now I'll give these back to you. I got them from the first Adam, first man, now I'll give them back to you. See how pretty these are. Look at them The kings of this world and the glory of them. Now I'll give them all to you if You'll just worship me. They've been delivered into my hand." "Get thee behind Me. I'm not going to get them from you to be a second fiddle to the devil, the god of this world." Hallelujah. Oh how beautiful it is to see what He did to win back as the second man, to win back the dominion. And the last ... what good would have it done if He'd just raised the dead a few times and not defeated the one that had the power of death. And so He defeated the one that had the power of death, that is the devil, in His, Christ's, death, in His, Christ's death.
Yes my friend, all things have been delivered into the hands of the Lord Jesus, they were, and He perfectly restored the first dominion that the first man lost, defeated the de... enemy, and went back to the glory, handed back to the Father, and came back and tabernacled with His disciples, the believers, for 40 days speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom. The kingdom, all things delivered into His hand, all things delivered into His hand, John 3:35, Matthew 11, Luke 10.
Just remember this. The Lord Jesus said as recorded in Luke 10 to the seventy, "I give you power over all the power of the enemy. You tread down serpents and scorpions and nothing shall by any means hurt you." That's before the cross, don't forget before the cross. All things delivered into His hands, the kingdom of God's at hand, but the kingdom shall ... "and if I cast out demons by the Holy Spirit then the kingdom of God is come unto you," Matthew 12. And Matthew 21:43 He said, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you."
When was it taken from them? When the king went into the grave and conquered the devil that had the power of death and came out with keys of hell and death, then He proved He had the right to reign not only against the devil personally, the second man, but over all mankind because He defeated all their enemies he last of which is death, went back to the glory, handed the kingdom over to the Father, carne back down to the disciples, then talked for 40 days of the things pertaining to the kingdom, and then said, "John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence." And they said, "Lord wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said, "It's not for you to know the times and seasons. But you'll receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you." And so He went back to the glory and the Holy Spirit came down baptizing each all of them into a new company, the church which is His body, later it was given to Paul to reveal that that is the thing God's doing now, building this new institution, the new man, the church which is Chris's body in which the believing Jew have lost their Jewish identity and the believing Gentile, the twain are one new man.
And after that's over the Lord's going to let the devil have another chance. He's going to put up his christ. But you know how the people are going to defeat him? They're going to defeat the devil, the antichrist, and the diabolical beings that'll be on earth then, they're going to defeat 'em by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And then since the devil's been defeated, the time's going to come when the Lord's going to come back, He's going to destroy the antichrist with the brightness of His coming. Won't have to reign at all to do it, just brightness of His coming. He comes back in His undimmed glory, destroy the antichrist and the false prophet, they'll be put in the lake of fire the Bible says, and He'll have an angel come down and bind the devil, bind the devil and put him in the bottomless pit.
Before that we read in the book of Jude that when Michael the archangel disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, he durst not hail ... hurl a railing accusation of the devil but said, "The Lord rebuke you." But now since the devil's been destroyed, that doesn't mean rendered cease to be but rendered he's defeated, defeated just like the fig tree that didn't bear fruit, Christ said, "Why cumbereth it the ground?" The Greek there is destroy, same word exactly as destroy death, destroy the devil, destroy the antichrist. "Christ hath abolished death." "Why destroyeth it the ground?" In other words, it's not operating using the ground as it should. So the devil's destroyed now. Just like the ground that fig tree was destroying that part of the ground, rendering it not productive, taking the place of a good productive fig tree bearing no fruit.
Now but when the Lord Jesus comes back He's going to have an angel bind the devil because he's a defeated foe. Have an angel bind him and put him in the pit. Then the Lord will reign with a rod of iron for a 1000 years and the devil who had ... look now, the devil who had, had the power of death will be in the pit. So I guess he won' t be able to use it even if he hadn't been destroyed back here. He can't use the power of death in the Millennium because he'll be in the pit.
Now at the end of the millennium the Lord Jesus will reign with a rod of iron and He may have some capital punishment; we read of one dying a 100 years young. I don't know all that that means but anyway the only death that could possibly be afflicted ... inflicted during this Millennium would be the death from the ruler, the Lord Jesus. And death then couldn't be an enemy if it's in the hands of the ruler Christ Himself, anymore than the jail is an enemy to the judge. The jail isn't an enemy to the judge. The police functioning in their proper capacity are not an enemy to the ... the ... the mayor of the city or the district attorney or the ... the judge. No, they're not an enemy, they're his instrument, his tool for carrying out a just punishment, supposedly, just in that case.
All right now watch. When the Lord Jesus at the end of the Millennium lets the devil loose a little season. Are we told he's going to be able to kill some folks? He's going to try to deceive some folks, he'll try to deceive some folks. Then the Lord will destroy him, put him in the lake of fire, and this Millennial reign it will be over. He's going to raise, raise the unjust, those who died with the penalty of having rejected Jesus Christ in their mortal bodies. going to raise the unjust. Will that be the Lord destroying the last enemy? When He's going to raise them and they would wish and will wish that they could stay there. We read earlier of some that sought death and couldn't find it, rather than the punishment that they were enduring. They sought death and couldn't find it. And now the Lord raises them out of the grave, the unjust, the resurrection of the unjust.
Could that be called destroying death? What's He raise them for?! You ask one of those ... ask Pharaoh if he's there, ask Hitler if he's there, ask Judas as he's raised out of that grave. Let's come up to him at the end of the Millennium, resurrection of the unjust, "Judas, do you realize in raising you that the Lord has destroyed your last enemy death?" Raised him out of that death state to stand before the white throne judgment. And Judas and others will cry for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the face of the wrath of the lamb and God Almighty. What depraved imaginings it is that would cause anybody to think that Christ raising the unjust at the end of the Millennium is destroying death! When He raises them only to judge them and ... and put death, now watch, put death and hell and all liars and sorcerers and unbelievers and murderers will be put in the lake of fire! Death and Hades will be put in! Now if it's destroying death, then it's destroy... and it ceases to be, then it destroys them and they cease to be, and the Universalists are right, the Destructionalists are right. No my friend, God help us.
Turn to Romans the 16th chapter will you please.
(Earl LaForce from audience) Psalms 69:4 says,
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
Yes sir, "I restored that "good" which I took not away". The Lord Jesus as the second man, that's a fine verse brother Earl, the Lord Jesus as the second man restored what he took not away. And He has the right to reign, and we're told in Revelation He's going to take His great power one of these days and reign, going to take His great power and reign. Hess already far above all principality, power, might, dominion, rule, and authority that are named in this age and that which is to come. Head over all things, all things, all things to the church which is His body.
Romans 16th chapter. After Paul has given glorious doctrine throughout the chapters, some of it's bad, the law, but it's true, and then the glorious gospel of the grace of God and practical living for members of the one body, Ephesians, I mean Romans 12:4 and 5, other practical writings, then he salute so-and-so, salute this, salute this one, salute that one, salute these others, Christians, and then he says in the 16th verse,
Salute one another with an holy kiss,
[or salutation].
The churches of Christ salute you,that is all the assemblies of Christians in all this are over here in Palestine and Asia and Greece from which Paul was writing, they salute you. He's coming to Rome directly though. And he says now,
Now I beseech you, brethren. Now I beseech you,
in the light of these beautiful facts, in the light of this beautiful harmony of God's people, unity of God's people.
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
In this doctrine that we've learned, we've learned that death reigned from Adam to Moses, the law reigned till the cross, and then grace reigned since the resurrection of Christ, grace reigned through righteousness. We're told in Romans 8 if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin. We're told in the latter part of the 8th chapter who shall separate us from the love of Christ; death isn't because it's done away with, it's conquered, done away with from God's stand point, it's conquered. We're told in the ... the 14th chapter of Romans the 9th verse for this cause Christ both suffered and rose again and revived that He might be lord both of the dead and living. He's lord of the dead and living so of course He's conquered. And you also have a ... I gave several times in Revelation 1:18 He has the keys of death and hell.