The Cure for a Dying World

In this sermon, Pastor Jeffrey Johnson reflects on 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, focusing on the theme of Christ’s victory over death and the eternal nature of His kingdom. He begins by diagnosing the current state of the world as having a "terminal cancer"—the cancer of sin. This spiritual disease has affected every aspect of human life and institutions, rendering all worldly hopes and reforms ultimately futile. Despite political efforts or societal changes, the root problem remains: death, brought into the world through Adam’s sin.

Pastor Johnson emphasizes that true hope is not found in earthly politics or temporary solutions. He challenges the congregation to recognize that Christ did not come to establish a political kingdom or provide mere hospice care to this broken world. Instead, Jesus came to build a new, eternal kingdom by conquering death itself. Through His resurrection, Christ defeated sin and death, securing the promise of eternal life for those who believe in Him.

The sermon explains the legal concept of imputation: just as all humanity inherited death through Adam’s sin, we inherit life through Christ’s righteousness. Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of our spiritual rebirth and the promise of a future physical resurrection. Pastor Johnson stresses that being part of Christ’s kingdom requires a spiritual rebirth; we must be born again to see and enter this everlasting, spiritual kingdom.

Looking ahead to the end times, Pastor Johnson highlights the ultimate defeat of death when Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father. At that point, all enemies—including death—will be destroyed, and the fullness of God’s kingdom will be established. The hope for believers lies in this eternal kingdom, which is pure, sinless, and without end.

Pastor Johnson concludes by urging the congregation to place their hope in Christ’s kingdom rather than in the temporary systems of this world. He encourages a response of faith: to die to self, flee from the fleeting hopes of earthly kingdoms, and seek refuge in Jesus. The message is clear—Christ is the only cure for the "cancer" of sin, and through Him alone can we find eternal life and a place in His unshakable kingdom.

Transcript

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If you have your Bibles turned to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we're going to be looking at verses 20 through 28. 1 Corinthians 15 starting at verse 20. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God the Father, after destroying every rule of every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him. That God might be all and all. Well, it won't be a surprise to you for me to diagnose the condition of our country, to diagnose the condition of our society, to diagnose the condition of our world. It has terminal cancer. It's a cancer that's going to lead to death. There is no cure to the social reform or social society. Any such treatment that we may apply to our country, to our society will end in failure. Now we may be able to prolong the agony. We may be able to delay the inevitable. We may can push back the deaths, but the world's going to die. The whole world's going to die. Death is coming for all. It's coming for you. It's coming for me. It's coming for everyone in the world. And not just for the individuals. It's coming for every institution, every government, every nation. Every nation is infected with cancer. The cancer is sin. It's spread into every facet of society. Turn on television, you'll see the cancer everywhere. It's in the lungs. It's in the heart. It's in the lymph nodes. It's in the brain. The blood system is spreading it everywhere. It's everywhere. It's terminal. Two days from now it's not going to stop anything. This coming election is not going to stop it. Our hope, our hope is it might restrain it. That's our only hope for this election. Remember that. The Democrats are so infected with cancer that if they win, it's over. But know this, the Republicans are only 20 years behind. The Republican party is also infected with cancer. The Republican party today is already caved on abortion, same sex marriage. Now we prefer that God restrains evil. And I'm praying for a good outcome on Tuesday. And I'm sure you are too. And we should vote, I believe. We should do all that we can. If you have a loved one that's got cancer, you would want to keep your loved one around as long as you can. And if you can buy a few more days, a few more weeks, a few more months, the treatment is worth it. Let's put them through chemo. Let's get some treatment in. So we want to preserve it, not for our sake, but at least for our children's sake, preserve this country for a little bit longer. But know that it's coming. From the very beginning, our country was doomed to fail. Every nation is doomed to fail. Every nation is going to die. And ours is no exception. Man's hope has never been in moral reform of the governments and nations of our world. Our hope is not in politics. Our hope is not in government. Our hope is not in a Christian majority. Our hope is not in the Republican party. Our hope is not in Christian nationalism, though I would prefer that than what we have. You see, the world has terminal cancer and there's nothing we can do about it. We are all dying. In the end, we all die. The world will be destroyed. And every nation in this world is going to be destroyed. When Jesus came, he came to be king, but the Israelites wanted him to be their earthly king and they wanted to make him king by force because he fed the 5,000. Jesus perceived they wanted him to be an earthly king because they fed him. And so they come after him and he hit away from them. And he did not have any interest on raising up an army in storming Rome. He wasn't interested in taking out Caesar. He wasn't interested in Christianizing the Roman Empire. That wasn't his objective. Christ's objective was something way more glorious. His objective was to start a new kingdom, to build a holy kingdom. The kingdom that he wants to build in his building is a everlasting kingdom that has no end. His kingdom will never fail. It will never die. It's a kingdom that is not of this world. Jesus tells us that in John 1836. He says, "My kingdom is not of this world. It's not a geographical political kingdom. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But they're not fighting. I'm not raising up an army. I'm not running for political office here. I'm not trying to reform society in such a way. My kingdom is not of this world." He says. And the weapons of his kingdom are not earthly. We learn that in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh." Donald Trump is not our hope. And we need to hear that today. You see, Jesus knew that Tiberius Caesar was not the source of the problem. He's not the source of the cancer. You take out Julius Caesar, there'll be another puppet to come in his place. There would just be another Caesar to be raised up. He didn't come to dethrone Caesar. He came to take care of the cancer. He came to go deeper than the surface of the problems. We all have cancer. And all the wicked rulers are infected with that cancer. They're sinners. They're depraved. Christ came to take on Satan. He came to take on sin itself. He came to take on death. You see, this world is passing away. The Bible tells us this world is passing away. It's not designed to last forever. And thus King Jesus did not come to give hospice care to the kingdoms of this world. Let me say that again. King Jesus did not come to give hospice care to the kingdoms of this world. You know what hospice care is? Brother Wallace, our dear brother, was put on hospice for the last several years. But in the last couple weeks of his life, there was no more treatment. They forego all treatment. Treatment could prolong. But at this point, two weeks ago, they said,"There's nothing we can do at this point. Now we're here just to make sure he's comfortable, that he's as pain-free as possible." See, the Lord Jesus came not to put our world on hospice care. I know his coming in the Christian influence does prolong this world. We are the salt of the earth. And wherever Christianity thrives, it's going to have a positive and preserving impact. We are the salt of the earth. We will prolong this world because of our moral decency. We do have an impact upon this world. We are a treatment to this world, but in the end, we may treat the symptoms, but we're not going to undo the cancer at the heart of the problem. And thus, for Christ to establish an everlasting kingdom, a kingdom that will last forever, he has to defeat death. The enemy that has to be overcome is death itself."To establish an eternal kingdom that lasts forever, death itself has to be conquered. He comes to undo the effects of sin, which is nothing less than conquering death. Christ comes to establish an eternal kingdom that has no end by conquering and ruling over death." Now that's how you have to defeat this thing, is defeat death. And is there any political leader that can do that? Is there any man of this world that you know of, any physician, the top scientist? Is there anyone that we know that can undo death and not just help prolong life for a little while, but go into the graveyards and bring people back to life and destroy death altogether? That seems humanly impossible. In fact, for the kingdom of God to be established, this is what has to happen. Nothing less than death has to reverse itself. There has to be a life, eternal life established for the kingdom of God to be established. You see, Adam, the first man destroyed the world. He brought the cancer into this world. And all the nations that flow out of Adam's sin, all the nations of the world are here to restrain evil, but the nations themselves that restrain evil are infected with the very evil that they're seeking to restrain. And Adam brought this death upon our world and the destruction that we see around us and the evil that we see around us. And for this to be reversed, there has to be a new man, a better Adam, who comes and defeats, not Caesar Augustus, not take over one particular nation or another particular nation. He has to go into the grave and defeat the great enemy, death itself. But we have four points here is how did Jesus the King, King Jesus, how does he defeat death? How does he overcome the cancer that brings forth death to all of us? Well, we have four ways in which Christ conquers death, how he rules over death itself. First of all, we see in verse 20 that he conquered death in his own death. Look at verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all for those who have fallen asleep. The cure to this cancer was nothing less than resurrection from the dead. John Owen says that in his title of one of his books, the death of death, the death of death in the death of Jesus Christ, that Christ came in his death to destroy death itself. How did Christ die? Christ died by our sins being imputed to him. He had no sins and therefore there was no reason or no grounds for him to die. He would have never died. We've talked about this last week. He would have never died if it wasn't for imputation. He was a holy man and therefore his body was perfectly without ailments. He took on our sicknesses, but he was never sick himself. He never had cancer at all within his body. He was a perfect man and it's the wages of sin that brings forth death and because he was sinless, he could not have died. The only way he could die is for him to willingly take our sins and our sins being taken off our count and imputed or transferred to his count. And he takes our sins before the judgment seat of God and God sees us in him and thus pours out his wrath and thus kills him and he dies on our behalf. So he takes our sins into the grave with him and so he dies because of us. And one says we're the ones who murdered Christ, but he rose again because of himself. As the grave took care of our sins and judged us, it continued to look at Christ and he was innocent. He was sinless. He was righteous and Christ in his own power. He says I lay down my life and I have the power to raise it up again and his own righteousness, he conquers death itself. And this is a miraculous thing where Jesus Christ takes death, puts it into the grave, and comes out of the grave conquering cancer from the inside out. He conquered death howl by his innocence, by his righteousness. And thus we see he's the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. And in this sense, his death and his resurrection secured our justification. Romans 4.25 says he was raised for our justification. The fact that he come out of the grave is indication and proof that he was an innocent man. And he did that not for himself. He did that for us who are spiritually dead. And his resurrection is the grounds of our own righteousness that is imputed to us, our own justification. But not only does he secure our justification as resurrection, his resurrection secured our spiritual resurrection. All who know the Lord Jesus Christ have been born again. And being born again is a spiritual resurrection from spiritual death. And the only way you enter into the kingdom of God, if you want to be a part of the kingdom of God that has no end, the one that last pass the coming judgment, the kingdom, the only kingdom that will not die of cancer is the kingdom of God. And Jesus says if you want to see it, if you want to enter into it in John 3, 3, you must be born again. Unless you're born again, that means it is unless you're spiritually resurrected from the dead, we're all born spiritually dead. And unless you're born again, you cannot enter into this spiritual kingdom. You cannot enter into this kingdom. You can't even see it. The kingdom doesn't come with observation. It's a spiritual kingdom as of now. And the only way to see it, to experience it, to know it, to become a citizen of it is through the new birth. Jesus said it this way in Luke 17, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that you can be observed. You know, the Jews wanted a political geographical national political kingdom. They wanted something they can see to take Rome off their backs. They wanted political freedom. And we all do. But Christ says my kingdom is not that type of kingdom. It doesn't come with physical observation. You're not going to say, look, there it is, or look over there. It's not something you can see with your physical eyes. You have to be born again and have spiritual eyes to see it. It says the kingdom of God does not come in ways that can be observed, nor they say, look, here it is or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. That is the only way that you can see the kingdom of God is it becomes established within your heart where you bow the knee to King Jesus. And the love of God is poured out in your heart and you willingly, freely are cured of the cancer and you come down and submit your lives to Christ. And it's not by force. It's not through legislation. Legislation can't change your heart. You can't force people to be Christians. It has to be a new birth that will you willingly, freely bow down to King Jesus. And only then is Christ Lord of your life. Only then is he ruling over your soul through the new birth. And so in so raising from the dead, Christ conquered death, not just for himself, but for all of us. And so we go toward the second point, how does he do this on our behalf? We can say, well, his resurrection secures life for himself, but how does his resurrection secure life for you and me? I want to live forever in the kingdom of God. I want to be a part of that kingdom that has no end. Well, Christ does this, we see in verse 21 through 23 through legal representation. We died through legal imputation of Adam sin and we're made alive through the legal imputation of Christ's righteousness. Look at verse 21 and 22 with me. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as an Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Jesus, or God, told Adam, the day you eat of this forbidden fruit, the day you eat of this, the day you sin is the day that you're going to die. You're thinking to yourself, well, Adam lived a lot longer. He didn't die that day. No, he did die that day. His relationship with God was terminated. His heart was diagnosed with cancer, which is the heart of sin is selfishness, a hatred of God and love of self. He died spiritually and he died first spiritually, which led to his physical death some years later. And when he died, his sins are imputed. His sin was imputed to all of us. And the Bible says we all died. The whole world died when Adam died. So how is this fair? Why am I held guilty for a sin that I did not commit? I wasn't there in the garden. Why am I already born dead in sins? I didn't have a vote in this. I didn't have a say in this. I was born already cancer within me. I was born with cancer. That's not fair. I didn't do anything about this. Why should I be punished with cancer for something my parents did? Because Adam was your legal representative. You see, when his heart was corrupted because of sin, he developed this selfishness, this pride. It's a cancer. It's a spiritual cancer. And because he's corrupt, the stock is corrupt. All the fruit that comes from that stock is going to be corrupt with him. And we all came from Adam. And because he had the cancer within him, we were born with that cancer in us. And so he brought death to the whole human race in his sin. You see, there's two judgments. The first judgment happened in the garden. After Adam and Eve sinned, the consequence was death and they died. And Jesus, God came down and met with them and says, here's your consequence. And the consequence is they was expelled out of the presence of God. You're now alienated from me. You're dead. And in that judgment, we all received that judgment. We are already condemned. We're born condemned. We're born with depravity within us. And there's nothing we can do. And there's no hope for us unless there was another man, a better Adam, who could undo sin and undo the cancer and undo death. It's not just a little treatment he had to have, a little bit of medication. No, he had to go through death himself. And he had to overcome death on our behalf. And just as we all died in Adam, we're all born with cancer of selfishness and sin and pride. In Christ Jesus, we're all born anew. We're all made alive through the legal imputation of Christ's righteousness. Look at verse 21 and 22 again. For as by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. You see, I don't like this doctrine of the imputation. I don't like the fact that I'm, I'm condemned in Adam. That's not fair. Well, how do you like being made righteous in Christ? How do you like that one? If you don't have legal imputation, you don't have salvation in Jesus Christ. And so we have to be born anew. And this happens twice. There is the spiritual rebirth. Just as there's a spiritual death and a physical death, there has to be a spiritual rebirth. And then there's going to be a physical rebirth. We call that resurrection. So your soul has to be resurrected, then your body has to be resurrected. First, you have the spiritual resurrection that comes to justification and regeneration. Romans 5, 12 talks about this. Therefore, just as though one man's sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned, but the free gift is not like the offense. For by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift of the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounding to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from the one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which comes from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reign through the one, much more those who received abundance of grace and the gift of the righteousness will reign in the life through the one, Jesus Christ. You see, Christ earned our righteousness. And that righteousness is a perfect righteousness that is transferred to your in my accounts. And once we are counted as righteousness, once we are justified, once we have no sin to impute to us, once our sins are completely wiped away and put into the grave and we're innocent, what can God do but nothing but give us life? He has to give life to those who are righteous. And because we have an alien righteousness that is not our own, but is given to us by free grace, we by that righteousness are given life. We are resurrected from the grave. We've been born again. We call that the new birth. And because we've been born again and we've been declared righteous when we sleep, but when we pass away, when we die, when our physical party is laid to rest, we'll see that it too will be resurrected. Look at 23 verse 23. But each one in his own order, Christ, the first fruits that is coming, those who belong to Christ, that is, there's this already but not yet aspect of the kingdom of God. God has inaugurated the kingdom of God by establishing it within our hearts. It's not a geopolitical kingdom. It's not a physical kingdom. It's a kingdom you have to be born again to see and to enter into because it's the new birth. It has righteousness in life within the soul where we willingly bow down to King Jesus and he rules over us in love. And we say he's the king of King and Lord of Lords. We love him and worship him as our King. And that is already transpired now in the spiritual realm for our work. This world is no longer a home. We have been translated out of the kingdoms of darkness and we've been translated into the God's kingdom, the kingdom of his dear son. But just as that kingdom has already been established in our heart and this is the first fruits that come from Jesus Christ's resurrection, there's going to be a coming resurrection where the kingdom of God is consummated, where the kingdom of God is finally fulfilled in its entirety. And there's going to be a physical reality to this kingdom. There's going to be a new heavens and a new earth where only righteousness dwells and we're going to have new bodies and we're going to live forever and it's going to be the perfect kingdom. You know it's something this election is not going to establish. No matter how much we march, no matter how much we protest, no matter how much we pray for the societies of our land and try to influence to being a good influence and we should do all that. We should try to preserve our country. We should try to keep our country from dying of cancer tomorrow. We should do all those things but in the end it's still going to die because it's still going to be infected with sin and cancer. But there's coming a day that we're going to enter into a world, a physical world, a new earth and a new heaven and that world's going to have to be cancer free. It's going to be sinless and perfect and holy and let me promise you something about that new kingdom that we're going to enter into. It has no end. It will last forever and ever and ever because there's no sin. If there's sin in the kingdom of God it could not last. It would fall. It would die of cancer but the kingdom is holy, it's pure and thus it because of its holiness and purity it lasts forever. This world cannot last forever. It has to be put into the grave. It has to die eventually. This is why this world's not our home. The kingdom of this world is not our home. We're looking for a new city, a better city whose builder and maker is God. That's what we're longing for. So we could get upset come Tuesday and maybe we will be upset. We might complain and go oh, oh, it's me but don't be discouraged saints. Christ has won the victory. He is king of kings. He is lord of lords and his will will be done and he's going to establish his kingdom and he's building his kingdom now and if you want to be a part of it you're going to be born again. Don't flee to Russia. Don't flee to another country. Flee to Christ. He's the only hope to cure you of your cancer. Thirdly, Christ will conquer physical death by destroying all his enemies. Look at verse 24 through 26. Then comes the end, the end of the world. Then comes the end. When he delivers, that is when we're resurrected from the grave. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God the father after destroying every rule, every authority and power for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. We see here in verse 25 that Christ, we're not waiting on him to be king. We're not waiting him to be lord. We're not waiting for this. He's already king of kings. He's already ruling and reigning. It tells us here he must rule. He must reign until he's brought the whole world into subjection to himself. First Peter 3.22 tells us the Lord Jesus who has gone into heaven is the right hand of God. Angels and authorities and powers have been made subject to him. Cautious 2.15 talking about his resurrection having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. When Christ came out of the grave, he destroyed all of his enemies. He became anointed as the king of the world. Every authority, every power has been put under his rule. And he rules in two ways. He rules his children through love, through the new nature, through regeneration, through his law being written in their hearts. Ephesians 1.19 says talking about what is the exceedingly greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seed him at the right hand in heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come. So he says we see God's ruling power. Where do you see the kingdom of God? Wherever you see a new birth? Wherever you see the power of the resurrection of Christ working in our own lives resurrecting us from the dead. There is supernatural power. We see the kingdom of God in our midst. So I want to see this kingdom of God. Look around at the brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's the fruit of the kingdom of God in this world. Now it's not a geopolitical kingdom but it's nevertheless a true kingdom. It's a kingdom that will last forever. But he rules over his enemies in a different way. Again the goal of him ruling over his enemies is not to bring his enemies to Christianize his enemies. So eventually the enemies of God's those who belong to Satan those who are not born again for them to just be patched up look a little more like Jesus but in their hearts they hate Christ. It is not to give a little bit of patchwork upon the unbelievers. He rules over them by restraining them keeping them from doing anything that's against his will in holding them back for judgment. 2 Peter 2.9 tells us the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. No matter who wins on Tuesday know this King Jesus is the one who decided and if he gives our nation over to what we deserve it's judgment of the king. We deserve it and King Jesus says this is my sentence and so he's judging us in righteousness by giving us over to the desires of our heart. When the world goes south that's evidence of God's divine rule in judgment. If he in his grace and kindness restrains evil for a little while we'll see God's mercy. We see Christ's mercy upon our society and this for the sake of his love for his children but it is coming when he overcomes physical death for his people. He will judge the world in righteousness. Look at verse 24. Just look at verse 26. The last enemy to be destroyed is death but until then he must reign over all his enemies and place them under his feet. This is what we're told in Revelation 18 when it talks about the nations of the world the politicians of the world the zikines the rulers of this age. It gives us a warning not to take rescue and not to find our hope here and I know some of you because I've talked to you and I'm I'm bent in this direction too so we want a bunker we want a stash of food some ammunition we want you know to know people that have fresh water and eggs and let me tell you as a side note I'm doing nothing of that but I'm glad you guys are just make sure you have enough eggs for my family and myself but though there may be a slight bit of wisdom to know the days are evil and have some preparations I'm not degrading that don't place your hope there. We want to overcome the resurrection. I mean we want to overcome death. We're going to die. We're all going to die. I mean that's the fate of us all and if we don't have a better hope than this world then we of all people are most hopeless and this is why Revelation 18 tells us come out of her my people talking about the nations of the world and this the system of the world it calls basically it's identifying the nations with Babylon come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins lest you share in her plagues for our sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities pay her back as she herself has paid back others repair her double of her deeds mix a double portion for her in the cup she makes as she glorified herself and lived in luxury so give her a light measure of torment and mourning for this reason her plagues will come to her in a single day death and mourning and famine and she will be burned up with fire for mighty is the lord god who judges her and the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and well over her when they see the smoke of her burning they will stand far off in fear in her term and say alas alas you great city you mighty city babylon for a single hour your judgment has come can you imagine i mean think of all the politicians especially the democrats they're putting their hope in in saving global warming and saving this earth or trying to get to mars and trying to save life and humanity this is where their hope is can you imagine the lord coming back on that glorious day and they're going all that i've done all that i've worked for all that i've invested in all that i've put my hope in in one single hour it's all gone it's come to nothing judgment has come upon the world and now everything is being burnt up with fire could you imagine the hopelessness and the desperation that must come upon the people and it goes on to say and say to the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her say to the ship masters and the sailors all who trade in the seas it stood up far off as they saw the smoke of her burning and on and on to the different businessmen and the people of this world that they put their treasures in this world and in this world their treasures in themselves are destroyed fourth my last point christ will conquer death by restoring the kingdom back into submission to the father verse 27 28 for god has put all things in subjection under his feet but when it says all things are put in subjection that is the feet of jesus it is plain that he talking about the father is accepted who put all things in subjection under him when all things are subjected to him then the son himself would be also subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that god might be all in all you see the first adam brought the kingdoms the kingdom of god if you would it brought destruction to this world introduced cancer into society and since then we've seen nothing but death death sin and chaos around us the second and better adam is restoring what the first adam destroyed and he's doing it not through politics he's doing it through the gospel he's doing it through his own death and resurrection he's got to conquer death itself it's only when death is destroyed and is no more that the kingdom of god will be fully established in this world first creed the 1554 says when the parishal puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory we're still that last enemy to be destroyed is death and we still face physical death even though we are no longer spiritually dead we still will die but there's going to be a day when death is swallowed up in victory isaiah 25a says he will swallow up death forever and the lord god will wipe away every tear from our face and the reproaches of his people he will take away from the earth and revelation 21 speaks of that glorious day when he overcomes death through the resurrection and then is then i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away it had died and the sea was no more and i saw the holy city the new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of god is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and god himself will be with them as their god he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be any mourning nor crying nor pain for the former things have passed away when christ conquers death he's going to take the kingdom that the father subjected to him and the father the son's going to take the kingdom says here's yours again i restored it brand new holy pure everlasting kingdom and then when he does that that's when god will be all and in all in other words god will not be all until he's in all right now god is all within the children of god but i promise you when he creates a new heavens and a new earth only the righteous people of god will dwell in there and only then will god dwell in all people and then when he dwells in all people who live on this earth will god be all and in all that is the kingdom we're looking for we're not looking for our hope in elections and i'm not discouraging for you from voting see the world has terminal cancer but there's no lasting hope in this world we must look for a better kingdom we must look for a city whose builder and maker is god but let me give you this last encouragement to enter this kingdom you got to die to self you got to die to this world you're going to forsake everything you say you can have this world it's burning up run and flee flee from babylon forsake it there's nothing here for you there's no lasting hope for you here remember on tuesday we're just pilgrims no matter what happens remember you're just a pilgrim in this world this is not your home anymore this is not our dwelling place we're just passing through this cancer-filled war world yes we're trying to do what we can to preserve restrain evil as much as we can and we're praying for the rest for restraints upon our government and upon our land for our sake our children's sake we would love for christianity to thrive and influence politics i'm all for that and may god do that but even in the end that's not our hope america is dying this world is dying flee from the wrath to come flee to the kingdom of god may you be born again today so that you so that you may live forever and never die amen