Death is Defeated, Labor for the Lord

Transcript

GR 1372
03-30-08
Death Is Defeated, Labor for the Lord
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
Gil Rugh

We'll continue our study in 1 Corinthians 15. We’ll be concluding this great chapter on the resurrection. We've spent some time looking at not only the details of this chapter but matters related to this chapter that help us appreciate more fully the biblical subject of the resurrection of the dead. That's been Paul's focus in writing to the Corinthians in chapter 15, the bodily resurrection of the believer. He hasn't talked about unbelievers in chapter 15, we find out about the resurrection of unbelievers in other places in scripture. Paul's concern in chapter 15 has been limited to the resurrection of believers and in particular his focus has been primarily on the resurrection of church believers.

He started by establishing the foundation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Christ's resurrection from the dead assures and guarantees that we as believers in Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead. Evidently the church at Corinth had some people in their midst who were not denying that Christ has been bodily raised, but were dealing with that as a unique situation and were denying that believers would experience bodily resurrection. And in doing so they had a mixture of the thinking of the Greek world and biblical teaching. They could teach that Jesus Christ had died and been raised from the dead in payment for our sin and that all who believe in Him will be saved, but the Greeks believed that the body was a problem. They believed in the immortality of the soul and the soul needed to be freed from this body. So for them the idea of a resurrected body was not something that they would conceive of. So you ended up with this kind of mixture in thinking and teaching in the church.

Paul has shown that if you deny the resurrection of believers, you have denied the gospel because you cannot disassociate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the resurrection of those who believe in Him. And if you aren't going to be raised as a believer in Jesus Christ, that means Jesus Christ wasn't raised, and you've denied the gospel. But Paul carries this to a far more serious level than the Corinthians had thought about. As is often the case, when teaching comes that we might disagree with, we say, well, they're not totally wrong. No one is totally wrong. The worse heretics have some sprinkling of truth in what they teach, but the Apostle Paul made clear in verses 33-34 of chapter 15, bad company corrupts good morals. Become sober minded as you ought, stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Paul says that those who are teaching that there is no bodily resurrection from the dead for believers don't know God. It's a sin for you to tolerate that kind of teaching in the church. Wake up. It’s a shame, disgrace for you to be tolerating that.

He went on to talk more fully about the resurrection of the body, its glorious characteristics. Then in verses 50-53 he made clear that every believer from Acts 2 down until the rapture of the church will experience a bodily transformation. Verse 50 says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And we looked into the fact that there will be people who go into the kingdom that Christ will establish on earth in their physical, fleshly body. But no one in the church age that began in Acts 2 and will continue down until the removal of the church at the rapture will go into the kingdom in a physical body. Those who have died will be raised from the dead and their bodies will be transformed, glorified. Those who are alive when Christ returns for the church will experience instantaneous transformation as they are caught up to meet Christ in the air. We were told in verse 52 that will happen in a moment, in an atom of time, quicker than you can think. So the dead will be raised, the living will be transformed. We are going to be made new.

The reason is, verse 53, this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality. And verses 53-54 go together, even though we broke between the two, because 54 rolls to the conclusion. But there is a close connection. Verse 53 says, this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality. Then, but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality. What Paul is going to do now beginning with verse 54 to the end of the chapter is give a great declaration of praise, announcing the victory that Christ has accomplished, the victory in which you and I are participants. And he'll conclude by declaring that this fact of the resurrection and the victory we have in Christ is to shape all we do as God's people.

The connection in verses 53-54 is clear when you read the repeat. This perishable will put on the imperishable. This mortal will put on immortality. Four times he uses the word this, twice in verse 53 and twice in verse 54. It is this perishable that will put on the imperishable, it's this mortal that will put on immortality. And he's showing the inseparable connection between this present physical body and the resurrection body that we will receive, the transformed body that we will receive. Our glorified bodies will be this body, it's this perishable body, this mortal body that is going to become imperishable, that is going to become immortal.

When that happens then will come about the fulfillment of what God has promised for His people. And he quotes from Isaiah 25:8, death is swallowed up in victory. And all the way back through Isaiah the prophet God had declared that His intention for His redeemed people would be that they are victors over death. Revelation 21:9 refers to that same verse from Isaiah and it includes more of it because that's the verse that also says God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. It's always been God's intention through the salvation He would provide in His Son to provide victory for His children. That includes Israel, that includes the church.

Now we've looked at the timing of the resurrections in scripture. Israel also will experience bodily resurrection from the dead. That will happen at the end of the 70th week of Daniel, you remember, Daniel 12, Revelation 20, when Old Testament saints and tribulation saints who have been martyred will be bodily raised as Isaiah 25:8 promised. But Paul says the promise of victory over death is also applicable to the church. And as believers in Jesus Christ, we know that death will be swallowed up in victory. That word swallowed up carries the idea of the destruction of death, the doing away of death. And it's more than just stopping what death has done. But because God is going to raise us as His children from the dead, He is going to undo the impact and result of death. So not only will death be put to an end for us, we will be imperishable and immortal, but those who have experienced death will have the impact of death reversed. They will be made alive, they will be called out from the grave and those bodies that have been died, now have been changed to be immortal. So death will be swallowed up in victory completely. Not just death will no longer be an issue for the child of God, but the effects and impact of death for us will be undone.

When Paul quoted this, he put the emphasis on, “swallowed up.” In Greek if you wanted to put emphasis on something, you could arrange the word order because the endings and so on made clear what the structure ought to be. So the first word in this statement is swallowed up, swallowed up is death in victory. That emphasis, death will be completely dealt with and a nonissue for us. So in that sense it doesn't matter whether you are a believer who has died or a believer who is alive at the coming of Christ. The impact will be the same. Both will get bodies that are immortal and imperishable.

Then will come about the saying, death is swallowed up in victory. This causes Paul to come out with a declaration that really is a taunt to death, and he addressed death, personifying it. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? It’s like he's taunting death. Death, you have been canceled, you have no victory. It may seem like death has won. We've all had loved ones, friends who have died, believers who have had a great testimony for the Lord. Some have died it seems in the prime of life, some have died at a young age. And we stop and think, what a tragedy, what a loss, how terrible that they were taken, how sad they won't see their children grow up or their grandchildren. Well wait a minute, we need to be sure we understand, oh death where is your victory. Death hasn't won for the believer. Even when a believer dies, death hasn't won. Death doesn't have the victory. That is temporary, that will be shortly undone. And that loved one, that believer who has been placed in the grave is going to be called back out of the grave with a body that is glorified, imperishable and immortal.

Oh death where is your victory? You act like you've won. You have no victory. Oh death, where is your sting? That's not exactly a quote in verse 55, but it is from Hosea 13:14. And what Paul does is take the general wording of Hosea 13:14 and uses it to drive home his point and makes the point that is fitting, but it's not an exact quote. Oh death, where is your sting? Now we're talking about a sting here, a word that is used a couple of different ways, but in the context like this, and it's used this way in Revelation, we're referring to the stinger, like on a scorpion, or the fangs of a snake. And Paul is saying the sting, the bite in death has been removed, that which injects the poison that gives death its power. Remember Hebrews 2. Christ came and was born into the human race and died so that He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. The power of death broke it, the sting of death. In other words what Paul is saying, death has no power now to inject its poison into me. So you may die, Paul. Yeah, but that's not a killer bite. One of my grandchildren has a snake. Between the snakes and the dogs I only go as far as the curb of the house. When the snake was small, it would bite him sometimes when he had it. That was enough to get me out of the house. But you know the snake didn't have any poison so it may have pinched a little but it didn't do any real damage. That's what Paul is saying about death—where is your sting?

I was watching one of the animal programs one time and an animal that feeds on scorpions that has that stinger tail, first thing they do is bite the tail off, then the scorpion has no power. That's the way Paul is talking about death. The stinger has been removed, it has been defanged, death has no power, it has been defeated. Believers still die, but that is temporary. Death has lost, if you will. Oh death where is your victory? Oh death where is your sting? Now Paul is going to elaborate this for us so we understand. The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. The sting of death is sin. What gives death its power? It is sin. Without sin there would be no death.

Back up to Romans 5, we pick up with verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, now note this, and so death through sin. So death spread to all men because all sinned. You see what happened. Death wasn't present until sin was present. So the sting of death is sin. It's when sin comes into the picture, death takes hold of you, takes you in its grasp. Adam lived in a garden, God said you can eat of all the trees of the garden except one. The day you eat of that tree you will surely die. What did Adam do? He ate of that tree? What happened? He died. He immediately died spiritually, and the process of physical death began. He was a dying man from that point, just a matter of time. Death entered the world. What happens? We are the descendants of Adam. We are sinners. What happens? We are sinners by birth, we are sinners by choice and Romans 6:23 say, the wages of sin is death. Death brings the consequences of sin. So the sting of death is sin, it's really when you're bitten with sin you're injected with the poison and it will kill you. The result of that, you will die, you will pay the price for sin—death. The sting of death is sin.

Flip back to 1 Corinthians 15:3. Paul began this chapter by focusing on the gospel, the good news concerning Christ. And note that gospel—1 Corinthians 15:3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. This chapter on the resurrection has to start with dealing with sin. Why? The sting of death is sin, that's what injects the poison, that is what kills you—spiritually, physically and eternally. Christ died for our sins because the wages of sin is death. Down in verse 17 Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins. Apart from Christ dealing with sin, we are still lost. If we are still in our sins, we are still under the condemnation of sin, which is death. But Christ died for our sins.

Now we sometimes quote 1 Corinthians 15:56, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. And we use the word sting to refer to the pain we feel when someone dies. And there is grief, there is pain in that sense, and even in the loss of a loved one we grieve over the separation. But we need to be careful. We get so caught up in the things of this world and the things of this life we can lose perspective. I don't want to minimize the sorrow that is there when you lose a dearly loved one, but it is not overwhelming. I can stand at that grave side and say, oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? I've buried this loved one, this is their body, but death you've lost because this loved one in Christ will rise again. You haven't won, death, you've been defeated. I'm pained by the separation that has taken place but I have joy unspeakable in my heart knowing that this separation is temporary. And they will be raised in victory. So the sting he is talking about here, even though there is a pain associated with the separation of a loved one, he's talking about the killer sting of death as a result of sin.

The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. Now note here, death is brought about by sin. Now he doesn't say the sting of death is sin and sin is caused by the law. There is a connection. The power of sin is the law. The law didn't cause sin, but the law becomes an occasion for sin. He's talking about the Law of Moses here. You know it's amazing to me, just a little aside, I read through a passage like this and we study it, how much the Apostle Paul packed into the Corinthians. We sometimes say, we have too much knowledge today. We never do. These Corinthians are only five years old in the Lord. Paul is writing a letter to them and he just writes that they ought to understand the whole doctrine of sin, the whole issue that he talked about in chapter 15 verse 21. For since by a man came death. Now familiar with the whole account of Adam. You understand they didn't have their own Old Testament scriptures to carry around, let alone New Testament. Now he's going to talk about the power of sin is the law. He doesn't even go on to explain that. They should understand, the power of sin is the law. You mean the Law of Moses gave power to sin? Yes. Well I though the law was a good thing. It is. Paul will tell us that in the book of Romans, but the Corinthians didn't have the book of Romans, it hasn't been written yet. Paul will write to the Romans on a later occasion when he visits Corinth. But you understand these Corinthians had, had a serious, serious education in the Word of God.

And so Paul makes statements, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. How so is the power of sin the law? Well when God gave the law through Moses on Mt. Sinai back in Exodus 19 and following, He gave commands—do this and don't do this. And you know what happens when there are commands. There is something in us stirred up to want to test them, to want to go against them. I always use the speed limit because some of you have a problem with that. And what happens? They set the speed limit at 35. Ever notice? If I could just go 45, it would be good enough. Then I get into a section where the speed limit is 45. You know what I'm thinking? I really need to go 50 or 55. You know what? When the speed limit was 65 on our interstate, we thought 70 or 75 would be really right. You know what now? You go 75, people are going right by you. Why? Well somehow when you set down law of any kind, it is in our rebellious nature to want to go against that. You tell your children, you can eat anything in the cupboard while I'm gone, but stay out of the chocolate chip cookies. Nothing even sounds good anymore. The only thing I would want is a chocolate chip cookie. Why? Because I can't. And so sin responds that way to the law of God, and when God set down the law it revealed how sinful we really are. And so it enhanced sin, if you will, revealed sin to be sinful.

Romans 7. The first 13 verses Paul talks about this matter of the law. Verse 4, therefore my brethren, you were also made to die to the law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another. We were set free from the law and its demands because he has made clear back in chapter 3 verse 20, by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. So we were set free from that obligation, Christ's death sets us free from sin and from the law. Verse 6, now we have been released from the law, having died to that which we are bound. So now we can do what we want. Some people think that's what grace means. No, that's licentiousness. Now we can do what the Holy Spirit directs us to do through the Word of God.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary I would have not come to know sin except through the law. For I knew coveting was wrong when God said, you should not covet. But sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind. That's what the law did, it stirred up sin because it told me the things that God didn't want me to do or the things that I must do. And thus I became a greater violator, as Paul unfolds it.

So in that sense the law gives power to sin. So sin is the problem, but even a good thing like the law is used by sinful beings for bad things. God created sex and intended for a man and a woman to enjoy a sexual relationship. But He said it is only fitting between a man and a woman within the marriage relationship. That's not good enough. We want to live together and not be married. Why should we have to get married? Because God said so. That's not good enough. You see what it does? It's between a man and a woman within marriage. Well why can't it be between a man and a man and a woman and a woman? All of a sudden now it's not good enough. Sex and the expression of love . . . That's not the issue, the issue is it has to be my way and not God's way. That's the commandments of the Word of God--do. The Mosaic Law did it for Israel and the Word of God does it the same way today. People are antagonized, they are angry at being told, this is what God says. There is a rebellion against that. Now I know, people say, that's your own interpretation.

Anytime I get to that we just stop right there and say, you may be right, let's look at this. And we go to Romans where it says, all have sinned. Now I'd like to know your interpretation of that. Do you know what all means? Do you know what sin means? The Bible says sin is a failure to do what God says you must do, or doing something He says you shouldn't do. The Bible says all have sinned. Is that a problem for you to interpret? I've done this with a theology professor in a liberal school. He said, you just have your own interpretation. I said, let's interpret. Now the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Do you know what wages are? Something you are paid, you are due. The wages of sin is death. Do you know what death is? Just what's the problem of interpretation here? This is the kind way to do it, you could have gone a shortcut and just told him he was an idiot. I mean, it's not interpretation. We communicate, we're talking. No, we couldn't talk because he has his own interpretation and I have my interpretation. So it's not a matter of interpretation, it's a matter of accepting what God has clearly said or not.

So that's how sin works, that's how the law works. So the law is no answer to the problem of sin. I keep mentioning the Ten Commandments are part of the law. Confused people for some reason have missed the point. You have to die to the law. People think they are going to get saved by keeping the law, obeying the Ten Commandments. By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. We believe in Christ so we can die to the law and be joined to another, Christ. So Romans 7 elaborates on that among other passages.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. But thanks be to God, verse 57, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Death is a reality, sin is a reality, our rebellion and rejection of the law is a reality. How are we going to get the victory? Thanks be to God. The credit, the thanks goes to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way Romans 7 ended. After spending the whole chapter talking about the law, Paul says, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Same conclusion. It is only through Jesus Christ. Sometimes we as believers get sensitive. People say, you think your church is the only way, you think you are always right, you are so narrow, you are so prejudice, you are right and everybody else is wrong. Well you know God is always right and everybody else is always wrong. Let God be true and every man a liar, right? Jesus said, the way to life is narrow and there are few who find it. The road to life is narrow, there aren't many traveling it. Jesus said He was the door, the only access to the Father. It is narrow. You are right, we are saying that every other way, every other teaching is false. The gate to destruction is broad, the road to destruction is broad, many are traveling it. We sometimes think, what are we doing wrong? People think we are so narrow, they think we are self-righteous. What we are saying, this is the only way, they are correct in that. But that's not self-righteousness, that's true humility, to submit yourself to what the living God says and obey it. That's humility. But the fact that people are going to think we are narrow, we think we are right. Do you think we are teaching the wrong way to heaven? Of course we think we're right, I don't only think we're right, I know we are right. This is what the Bible says. He that has the Son of God has life, he that has not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him. That's what the Bible says. Now your view may be the Bible is too narrow for you, I understand that. It's too narrow for almost everyone in the world. But that is our conviction, that's what we stand for, is it not? We ought not to be ashamed of the truth.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. That participle translated gives us is a present tense participle. We might translate it in English with our “ing” often on the end of our participles, who is giving us the victory. The ultimate climax in victory will be with the resurrection or translation of our bodies as we saw in verse 54. But you know what? We are already in that victory. It is God who is giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we are already part of that victory. Now I may yet have to experience physical death if the Lord doesn't come. But you know what? I'm already part of the victory. Now the ultimate climax will come when this body is raised from the dead and the victory is mine and I am glorified. But He is giving us the victory. So even I face the sorrow and grief of the loss of a believing loved one, I do it through tears of joy that we have victory. This isn't the last word, death will not have the last word. It, too, will be overcome and I can wait the reunion. That's how we look at life. God is giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does this all mean? Therefore, this wraps up not just what he has immediately said, but the whole chapter on the resurrection now. This is going to be the bookend to the way the chapter started in the opening verses. Here is the other side. Therefore, my beloved brethren. And that's an expression of great warmth. He could have said therefore, my brethren. He addresses them as fellow family members in Christ, but he goes beyond that. They are my loved brethren. He's expressing the warmth and closeness he has with them. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Go back to the beginning of the chapter, remind you how Paul started here. Chapter 15 verse 1, now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you. Note this, which you also received, in which also you stand. Here is where you are planted—in the gospel. By which also you were saved, if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. They are standing fast in the gospel, holding firmly, fastened on to the Word of truth, unless they believed in vain. He'll pick up that word vain at the end of verse 58. But those concepts of standing, being planted, being firm, holding fast.

Then you come to verse 58, therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable. They are unshakable, unmovable, that's what they are to be. So that's where he started. When it comes to the truth of the gospel, the truth of the Word of God, the church at Corinth is to be a rock. We're not going anywhere. We can't be shaken. We can't be moved away from it. We hold onto it. This is where we stand. That’s what we are about. They aren't to allow anything to unsettle them, to move them away from the truth. Remember 1 Timothy 3:15? “The church is the pillar and support of the truth.” What does that picture convey? It's the pillar, the support of the truth. Here is something that is a fixed foundation, that holds up the truth. What a travesty that the church doesn't know what it believes, it is here and there and everywhere. Who knows what the next new doctrine comes down the pike and here goes the church. We're into candles, we're into dark light, we're into ancient ways, we're into purpose driven, we're into this, we're into that, we're all over the map. And the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. I don't care where the world goes, don't expect them to be anywhere near the truth. Paul doesn't either, but he's telling the church at Corinth you are to be immovable, steadfast.

Turn over to Ephesians 4. I just quoted from 1 Timothy 3:15 and when Paul wrote that to Timothy he was at Ephesus. Ephesians 4:11, the gifts that God gave to the church, including apostles like Paul, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ. Keep this in mind, this is what verse 58 is about, when we get to abounding in the work of the Lord. Building up the body until we all attain to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. We are to grow up into Christ. I mean, it's like our children. It's one thing for your three-year-old to be gullible, it's another thing for your thirteen-year-old to be gullible in the same, and it is totally unacceptable for your 23-year-old to be gullible like that. But somehow the church can be around year after year after year and something new comes along. Well, maybe there is something to that. Do you think there is anything wrong with that? They seem to be growing, they seem to be happy about it. What are we? This is the bulwark of the truth, the place that won't be blown around, that won't be moved off its foundations—right here, the local church. The church at Corinth, true New Testament churches. We are not to be blown about. It’s not God's intention that the church live in a state of confusion, wondering if the next thing will be the right thing. We have the Word of God, that's where we stand. Yes, but so-and-so has a growing church and he's written a book and he has some really interesting things that seem to be working. Well you understand, this is not an experiment, this is the church. We are the pillar and support of the truth. This is not the place where every new idea that every crackpot and halfpot gets his ideas tried out. This is the pillar and support of the truth. I mean, it doesn't seem that it ought to be that complicated.

Yet the church at Corinth was already confused. Paul said be steadfast, be immovable. That's maturity, that's growth. They are only five years old in the Lord, Paul expects that already ought to be true of them. How much more ought to be true of churches that are 20, 30, 40, 60 years old, and they're still chasing around after every rabbit trail that comes along. I hold the pastors and leaders of those churches to greater accountability as God does, because He says don't let many of you be teachers because you're going to have a greater judgment.

Be steadfast, immovable. But it's not enough to be a block of concrete, we're not just parked, I don't move, I haven't changed my beliefs in 50 years and I'm not going anywhere nor am I doing anything. Well you'll note the next part of the instruction—always abounding in the work of the Lord, back in 1 Corinthians 15. Always abounding, that word means to overflow, to excel. You know like you take a glass and you put it under the faucet and you hold it there and it fills up with water and then the water just starts pouring over and gushing over. This is the word you'd use. It's overflowing. And that's what Paul is talking about. He's not just talking about getting by, he's talking about people that are all out in the work of the Lord.

Now you'll note two words here, always abounding in the work of the Lord. We're doing the Lord's work. But that doesn't mean it will be anything less than work. The next word, knowing that your toil, kopas, your exhaustive labor is not in vain in the Lord. We're talking about overflowing in work and tiresome labor in the Lord. We don't quit, we don't give up, we don't pull back. I like R. C. H. Lensky, in spite of his eschatology. R. C. H. Lensky was a Lutheran writer, has written fine commentaries on the New Testament. You read with discernment on eschatology, but listen to what he says. Always. Always has another point in youth and in age, in pleasant as well as in somber days, when many work with us and the work is a joy, and when we plod on alone with heavy hearts, when we have already done much and when others have done scarcely anything. Always. Good reminder. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. You know the world lives for the time when they can quit working, but I'm not part of the world. I'm a servant of the living God. I am to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. I cannot pattern my life and my lifestyle and my goals after the world. I am to be always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Well what's the work of the Lord? Well we saw in Ephesians 4, we're all working together in the exercising of the gifts God has given to the building up of the body, the church. Paul used this word abounding back in chapter 14 verse 12, so also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound, be overflowing, for the edification of the church. Building up the body, abounding in the work of the Lord.

Lensky had another comment I want to share with you, many of you have Lutheran backgrounds so you can appreciate this faithful biblical Lutheran. The significant genitive of the Lord should correct the so-called “church work” of many who busy themselves with worldly tasks in the churches with mere humanitarian social service and a hundred other things with which the Lord and the gospel are not concerned. The church is about the church's business. It's becoming a big thing for the church to be involved in social programs today, to be involved in helping with AIDS. And so people begin to look at the church, oh your church doesn't have a social program, your church doesn't help the poor, your church doesn't . . . Our church preaches the truth, our church is a pillar and support of the truth, our church defends and declares the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't allow others so they will think well of us to set the agenda of the church. God set the agenda for His church. We are to be abounding in the work of the Lord.

Why? Knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. You understand we never do anything that is worthless when we are doing it in our service for the Lord. It may look like I'm a failure, it may look like I accomplish little. But I am about the work of the Lord. It's never done in vain. You say, all I do is change diapers in the nursery. Yes, so that little one is taken care of so their parents can be here and hear the Word of God without distraction. You think that's of no value? How would we concentrate seriously on the Word of God with thirty babies squawking in here to be fed or changed or given attention? Of course it's work. It’s labor. You think I get all dressed up and go to church, put on a smock and dive into the mess. That's really something to look forward to. Well remember there is no toil, no labor in vain in the Lord. That's true for everything. People come and clean, run a vacuum. Anybody can run a vacuum, but not anyone can run a vacuum for the Lord. Why is it done? I'm doing it because I wouldn't want people to come here where we tell them to come to hear the Word of God and we think it's all right to be filthy and dirty, we don't care enough to clean up so they can sit there in a good environment. We do these things, why? For the Lord. It's all part of my ministry and I have to be always abounding in the Lord. Nothing I do is in vain. That's my encouragement. The encouragement may not come from other people, but Paul encourages the Corinthians—you know that your toil, your exhaustive labor, you may be worn out, weary, but it's not in vain in the Lord.

I love the way the Spirit directs Paul. He never holds out that rosy, it will get easier. There is glory coming, but he never holds out that after you have been in church for ten years it will be easier, after you've been together for twenty years things will get easier. No, Paul keeps talking about work, about toil. We don't have time to go through the times he uses these words about his own ministry. It's work, it's toil, keep at it. You know what has so blessed our church? So many faithful people who have just kept at it, just kept at it. Isn't that a mark of maturity? Two-year-olds have no attention span, we can't bring two and three-year-olds in here and expect them to sit and listen to this sermon. They have short attention spans, they are easily distracted, they don't stay with it. You know what happens when we're raising a generation of undisciplined, untrained children? The become 20-year-olds who haven't learned to concentrate, flitting about here and there, going in there. A mark of maturity is that stability, I stay with it. I don't do my job because it's fun, I do my job because it needs to be done. I don't do it to the best of my ability because I get more praise for it, I do it to the best of my ability because that's my responsibility. That's a mark of maturity. Why does a man support his family? Because that's my responsibility. Why do we do?

I praise the Lord that we're privileged to abound in the work of the Lord knowing it's not in vain. We've read the last chapter. It’s glory. That's what we're driving toward. I'm not driving toward, “I'm 65,” I can think of retiring soon. From what? The work of the Lord? I may be able to retire from my secular job or a job I have, but can I ever retire from my service for the Lord? Well, I'm going where it's warm and I'm going to sit on the beach or I'm going to sit on my porch, and we'll probably go to church, too. Spare me from that kind of abounding, that sounds an awful like when the world retires, doesn't it? [It is] pervasive, it's to characterize us. Be always abounding, overflowing in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not empty, it's not worthless, it's not to no point in the Lord.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Lord, we marvel that you would call us to salvation in Jesus Christ, undeserving, rebellious, hell-bound sinners. By your mercy and grace you sent your Son to die for our sins. In mercy and grace you sent your Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment. In mercy and grace you drew us to faith in Christ. So, Lord, we give you all the glory as Paul wrote, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we desire to be a church that is always abounding in our labors for you, being steadfast and immovable, that all the glory might go to you. We pray in Christ's name, amen.