His Victory, Our Victory - 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 - April 5, 2026

Matthew Poole: Good morning. Christ is risen. All praise to God. Let's pray for his help this morning in his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here this morning. We thank you that we have a reason to gather this morning. We're not here aimlessly. We're here to worship. We're here to enjoy you. God, maybe some of us though come with questions, come wondering, come confused about life. Come with much pain and sorrow. Come with even reminders of death this morning. God, wherever we may be, God, we thank you that there is purpose here because you are a sovereign speaking God. And you delight to reveal yourself through your word. You delight to lift up the Son and the excellencies of your Son through your word. And so we ask you God to do that now. Do that now, God, what we cannot do ourselves. Help us to see Christ. Help us to see this world-changing, eternity-changing event that happened 2,000 years ago. Help us to see it this morning by faith. You can give us the power. Open up our hearts to see and behold and to treasure. It's in your name that we pray, amen. Imagine for you the year is 1020 BC and you are in Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem is the clanking of armor. Smoke on the horizon, dust clouds on the horizon because there is an army that has come to take you out. And the Israelites go out to meet this army. These are the Philistines. And the way that the battle was set up was there was two ridges. Philistines on one ridge, Israelites on the other, and valley in between them. And the rules of the war are this, send out a champion from among you. Whoever wins takes all. One fight between two people, send out your champion, and here everything is on the line. The stakes could not be greater, your life, your family, your nation. the name of God, the temple, all that God's and through you it's on the line. and so ready to fight for it, right? And everything seems fair, those rules, those rules are fair. It seems good until the enemy camp sends out their champ. and it's none other than Goliath. Like eight, nine, 10 feet tall. Armor all over him, like over 100 pounds of armor, just dwarfs everybody. His appearance is terrifying. He's got a spear, a javelin. He's got this coat of scales, metal scales covering his chest. He's terrifying. And not just his appearance, his track record is terrifying. The guy isn't lost. He destroys every enemy he comes in contact with. So it's time for the Israelites, they're there, and this guy Goliath is mocking the God of Israel and taunting the Israelites. So it's time for Israel to send out their guy. They look around. There's no one. Who's gonna go out and face this God? They have King Saul there. King Saul was actually the king that they wanted. Saul means asked for. Saul is the guy Israel asked for to be their king, to be their representative. And it says, as Goliath is taunting God's people, Saul and all the Israelites are dismissed. made and and nobody going out to face. panic, doom is on the horizon for them. The enemy is simply too great for the Israelites to face. Maybe this morning in a different way, spiritually, we are facing a Goliath, an enemy that is beyond our strength to contend with. Maybe this morning you feel dismayed and terrified and paralyzed. the demands of life, the struggle, the obvious brokenness of this world, the evil and the suffering that's everywhere, and death that looms, the great shadow of death that looms over every single one of us this It makes sense that you and I would be terrified, because we're not strong enough to face this enemy. And we've thrown everything we can at this enemy, right? From money to morality to technology, science, politics, nothing can get us out of the predicament that we're in. Nothing can help us to battle the enemies that we face. so paralysis and doom has been the situation that humanity is in since the beginning. And the question this morning for us is, is there then any hope? Of course, there's hope this morning, facing an enemy that is too great for us. That is why we are here. And God's word comes to us today into our paralysis and moves us to praise. It's what the resurrection of Jesus Christ is doing for us. And I hope and pray this morning we all would move in that direction. We begin in our text by meeting the enemies, our enemies that are too great for us. In verse 56, the apostle Paul is writing. He says the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. This is like a three-headed monster that is bent on destroying us and bringing us to ruin. I've taken considerable inspiration from Thomas Mayen to Puritan. He calls this, these are the three enemies in combination. They work as a triple alliance set against us. They work together to destroy the people of... And to give it more of the emotional feeling, Matthew Henry calls this Triple Alliance. He says, what this is, this is a chain of misery. It's the chain of misery, the law, sin, and death. Now this sequence is important. Paul is beginning at the end of it. We're gonna start back at the beginning. There's a causal sequence here. It begins with the law. Now the law is good and holy and perfect. So there's nothing wrong with the law, the problem is with us, but the law comes into our world and it demands something of us. It demands be holy as your Lord God is holy. holiness is the demand of the law. And for us, it's like scaling a Mount Everest that just repeats itself. Get to the top of your moral whatever, think that you've arrived somewhere and there's just another Everest to climb. God's holiness so far exceeds even our imagination. It is an endless journey, an endless climb. And its demand is not just external, its demand is internal. This is what Jesus would say, if you lust, it's as good as adultery. If you have anger in your heart towards someone, it's as good as murder. This is holiness, internal, external holiness. The law can never be satisfied no matter how much we do. It's just a slave driver over and over and over again. Be better, do more. All day. what we live under. The law also exposes not our inability to climb, but it exposes how far we fall. and it reveals sin. Sin is the failure to be holy. It's the missing of the mark of God's standard. It's worship not directed at God, but directed towards ourselves. It's treasuring ourselves and other things above God. Who alone deserves that place of supremacy? It's what sin is. And yet the law just exposes. how far we fall. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of and are without excuse. This morning perhaps you are wrestling, not trying to climb the ladder of God's holiness, but wrestling with an intense sense of your sin and your shame. Moral failure that has maybe wrecked your life. It's there, that is sin. We are all guilty. Looking at what we should not, grumbling. being discontent, fighting, being self-righteous, arrogant, judgmental, all of that is evidence of sin. Now the power of sin, sin's power doesn't happen in a vacuum, it happens because of the law. And so you have the law there that is always working through sin to condemn us. That's where sin gets its power. So the law just crushes. accusing us day and night. You have failed the law. You deserve to be condemned, ashamed, and to die. It's how the law conspires with sin to crush us, leading us finally to that point of death. This is the end of the chain. It begins with the law and it moves towards death. God's righteous, just declaration for sinning against Him is death. It's what we deserve. It's not just a physical death, it's a spiritual death. It is the rightful natural consequence when we separate ourselves from God who is life. That's what happens. Death happens. Not just physically, but spiritually separating ourselves for an eternity away from the enjoyable presence of God. The law, sin, and death. A triple alliance set against your destruction, set for your destruction. A chain of misery wrapped around our necks, tormenting us day and night. The question as we face that is who can face that? It is too big for us, it is too great for us. What an enemy. Do we have hope? It's certainly not gonna come from somebody like King Saul. It must come from outside of ourselves. So at this point, we might be paralyzed just like the Israelites, and there is no Saul to be found, but just because our enemies are too great for us does not mean they are too great for our God. If we turn into hope here in this message, if that was a little bit of a downer, that's the diagnosis, here is the cure. Our God fights for for us and does for us what we cannot do in ourselves. Our text gives us a champion. Look at verse 56. The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory. He gives us the victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that? We can't miss that. Our text is giving us our champion. Who's our champion to represent us? Jesus Christ. He's going out on the battlefield to fight. The Israelite victory came through David, not through Saul. Our victory comes through Christ, not through ourselves. This victory is not a trophy that we achieve. It is a gift that we receive. We receive the gift of victory. Consider how Jesus has defeated these enemies. This triple alliance. Consider how he defeated the law. He fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. Every single benefit he fulfilled as the righteous one of God. What that means is you can't accuse Jesus of anything. The law cannot find fault with our Lord. It can't accuse Him. All the law can now do is highlight the supreme riches of Christ and the glories of His holiness. The law is the character of Christ on display. It's not bringing any accusation against Jesus. And you know what that means for you and I this morning that believe? The law cannot accuse you or myself if you are in Christ. The law cannot accuse Christians. Why? because it's looking at Christ, and you're in Christ, and Christ is in you. You've already died with Christ, and you are new in Christ. The law cannot condemn you this. And what that means is your moral failure, your sin or shame of last night or 10 years ago, if you were in Christ, I don't think a lie from the pit of hell. The accusation is. The accusation against your character is a lie from hell. That's not the voice of your father in heaven. It's the enemy's voice. It's Satan's voice to accuse you and destroy you. But Christ has fulfilled the law in your stead. So that never-ending feeling of not being able to do enough, not being able to scale Mount Everest. It's been done. It's been done. Christ has scaled it for you and it's given to your account. Praise God. You are righteous. Perfect. Spotless. Without wrinkle in Christ. Now in part, in the future you will be fully, fully manifesting your spotlessness. Without wrinkle. Holy before a holy God. How unbelievable is that? We can't even conceive of that, but praise God. So this is the law, but consider, ⁓ one other point. Let put this way, put it in relational terms for you. How pleased is God the Father with God the Son? How pleased is he? So pleased. infinitely pleased. He's been rejoicing in the Son for eternity past. The Son's perfect, he the Son. That is the very same way he sees you. If I were to then ask, well how pleased is God the Father with you? Because of our fallen nature, we would have a gap, a discrepancy between how pleased we see God the Father with the Son and how pleased we think God is with us. There's a gap there. The Bible says there should not be. The Bible says in truth, the same pleasure the Father takes in the Son is the same pleasure he takes in you this morning. Praise God. The smile of God is over you this morning, singing and delighting in you. That also means that we are free to pursue holiness, not to gain it, but because we already have it. We can pursue righteousness. Not necessarily to get it, to earn favor with God, but because he's already blessed us with it, and we're just becoming what we already are. That's the law, consider how Jesus defeated the enemy of sin. How did he defeat sin? He became it. He became it. The righteous one, 2 Corinthians 5, he became sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That's how it works. This is what Martin Luther calls the great exchange. He takes our sin on the cross and we take his righteousness. Unbelievable. The great exchange. I have these plants in my office that I always forget to water, so they're always shriveling up. One of those plants is high up on a bookshelf and I can't really reach it, and so I have to kind of tilt the watering can up and I can't get to the top, so can only pour it into a dish. Sorry, this thing's. I can only pour it into the dish. And the soil is so dry that when I pour that water into the dish, It disappears. It gets absorbed up into the soil. The soil is absorbing the water. Did you know that this is what Christ does to the wrath of God for you? He absorbs it. He absorbs it. The very wrath that you deserve for your specific sins, He absorbs it. Every single substitution of Christ for sinners. He takes our sin and he gives us his righteousness. our moral failures, our lies in terms of their accusation against us and separating us from God. We don't have to fear our past sin, our present sin, our future sin. Christ has taken all of it. Finally, consider how Jesus defeated the enemy of death. He passed through it. He passed through it. Jesus did die on a cross. He was buried. And then three days later, he came out of the grave. He passed through death, came out on the other side. He fulfilled the law in perfect obedience. He died as if he had disobeyed the entire thing, but he rose from the dead, declaring that the payment for sin is sufficient. As his father was vindicating him as the righteous one. What that means is the check did not bounce to pay. your death. It didn't bounce. If Christ had sin, he would not have come out of the grave. He would have been judged there. But he had no sin. So he could come out of the grave. Death does not have dominion and mastery over him. It's a sufficient sacrifice. It's the testimony that the check of God's blood in Christ did not bounce. Christ has passed through to never die again, and what that means for you and I this morning is that we too, if we are in Christ, will pass through. The waters of God's wrath did not defeat Christ. He went through them and came out on the other side. I'm reminded of a retelling of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Speaking of these two pilgrims, Christian and hopeful, they're on their way to the celestial city. Pick up at last, the pilgrims, Christian and hopeful, they came within clear sight of the celestial city. It was more beautiful than they ever imagined. It shimmered as if the buildings were made of pearls. The streets and the stairways appeared to be made of pure gold. This sight filled them with such longing to be there. They ran along the path with hearts full of hope, but their path led them to a dark river. They looked for another way to cross, but there was none. Look how deep the waters are, Christians. I don't know if we're gonna make it. But there's no other way to the city, Hopeful said. We must go in. The king has never failed us. We must trust him again. As always, as they entered the water, Christian began to sink. And he cried out to Hopeful, all the waters, the waves are crashing over me. I can't keep my head above the water. Hopeful held on to Christian. I feel the bottom. He said, and it's good and it's solid. Let's press on. I'm going to die said Christian. I'll never reach the city. He was so afraid. He so afraid he couldn't even see the city's light any longer. Hopeful tugged on Christian's head, tugged it above the water. I see the gate. Hopeful said angels are there to receive us. Christian grasped. He said to Hopeful, ⁓ they're waiting just for you. The king has left me here to drown. I've been such a faithless pilgrim. Then, then Christian remembered the king's promise. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overcome you. Christian's strength returned, yes brother, I feel the ground. You're right, it is solid. And look. The Celestial City. When the doctor comes to us with the terrifying news that we have days to live, we will pass through. When the sudden tragedy comes, car accident happens, we will pass through. As death's long shadow just hangs over us, and maybe that one day our bodies are just gonna give way, we will pass. And maybe most importantly, when your sin and your shame overwhelm you. prophesied to you that that's the end of that is death. You will pass through. Your sin and your shame does not have the final word. You will pass through. Christ has passed through, therefore we will pass through. His victory is our victory this morning. Maybe that's the first time you've ever, this is the first time you've ever heard the gospel. This is the gospel good news. Jesus came to live a life that you could never live, to die a death that you deserve, to be raised from the dead, to give us life forever with God. This is gospel good news for you. That chain of misery, Jesus takes, he absorbs so that he may give you a chain of everlasting joy. And you might say, well that doesn't sound fair. That's not fair. Doesn't every religion have something that you got to do? No, it's not fair. And no, you don't have to do anything. Grace is not fair. It's a gift to be received. Your response is to believe like a beggar holding out his hands saying yes to what God has for you. That's all God is asking of you to respond to the gospel of good news by saying yes to it and believing in it. and receiving this victory, whether this morning for the first time or us as the millionth time, what is our response? Praise. Praise is our response. Look back at our text. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory. God the Father gives us the victory through the work of His Son applied by His Spirit to the praise of His name. These three enemies, the law, sin, and shame, they now serve our praise. They don't serve our shame, they serve our praise. The greater the enemy, the greater the victory, the greater the thanksgiving and the praise. The Israelites needed someone to fight their battle for them. And they found it in the unsuspecting little shepherd boy who was not even invited out to be a part of the army, the shepherd boy that was on a cheese run who happened to hear Goliath taunting his God. And David said, No, I'm going in. And he went in with unsuspecting weapons of weakness, a mere slingshot to defeat the foe. David hits square in the head, cuts off his head, raises it up, and the Israelites roar. A roar of victory and triumph as they run. They run in praise. to their champion, enforcing the victory. It was theirs. David won it. And so too this morning, we need someone who fights our battle for us, and God has provided that victory in a very unsuspecting savior. One from Bethlehem. Somebody who would fight not with the weapons of this world, but who would fight the weapons of weakness and suffering and death. This is the work of our God. And more was going on here than we might see in the Goliath story. He was wearing a scale, or he's wearing a coat of scales. He was essentially dressed like a metal dragon. A metal dragon serpent. Goliath representing far more than the Philistine camp. Representing the armies of darkness. representing the snake that slithered into the garden in the very beginning to tempt Adam and Eve to rob God of his glory. who Goliath was representing. And then we have that promise that the Messiah would come to crush the head of the snake. And that's what Jesus is doing when he dies on the cross. He is severing the head of the snake. Darkness is being destroyed. As John Owen says, in the death of Christ is the death of death. and the church erupts with praise. His victory is our victory. It's not merely that hope is now displacing despair, but worship is displacing idolatry. God is not asking us to fight this morning. He's asking us to receive the fight that he's already won and to celebrate. This has always been the end game of our God. He's not burdened for you to get the spoils of his son's victory. That's the end game of it. Always has been. God gets the glory, we get the joy. Father, we thank you for all that you have done this morning. In Christ Jesus, winner takes all. And we are delighted to be your people who get every single benefit that he has purchased in overcoming sin, death, the grave, Satan, the kingdoms of darkness. God, we thank you and we look forward to that day when we will be with you forever in a new kingdom. a new kingdom where there is no more death, there is no more darkness. God, we thank you that because of Christ, we will pass through to be in his presence and in your presence with all the people of God forever and ever. God, may you be glorified. And may our joy be full now and forever. It's in your name we pray, amen.