Chapter 77
“The End”
“Then cometh the end,
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he
shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign,
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he
saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which
did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him,
then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under
him, that God may be all in all.” – 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
I like to get to the end of things. I try, as much
as possible, to consider what the end of a thing will be before I do it. I try
to consider what the end of my words will be before I speak them. From her
earliest childhood, I taught my daughter never to think about her actions and
words for the immediate time, but to consider what the end will be. I think she
learned the importance of that instruction even as a child.
Immediate
gratification often ends in pain and destruction. Immediate pain may in the end
preserve life and give gratification. The dope addict finds
immediate gratification in his needle; but pain and destruction are sure to
follow in the end. The cancer patient finds immediate pain in his surgery and
treatments; but life and gratification in the end make the pain insignificant.
In the natural world, nothing is more
important than a thoughtful consideration of and regard for the end of things.
All our words and deeds, even all our thoughts and attitudes have certain,
inevitable consequences. If you take fire to your bosom, you are going to get
burned. If you sow to the wind, you are going to reap the whirlwind. The end of
anything is far more important than its’ beginning.
In spiritual matters, too, the end of all
things is far more important than their beginning. When everything has
run its predestined course, when time shall be no more, when this earth is
dissolved in a ball of fire, the resurrection is past, and the judgment is
over, we read, “Then cometh the end!” The
text might better be translated -- “Then, the end!”
Though creation has revolted
against God and sin has marred his handiwork, though it appears that everything
here is in utter chaos, though antichrist seems to reign among men without
rival, though Babylon (the great whore of free-will, works religion) has made
all the earth drunk with the wine of her fornications, there is a day coming
called “the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).
Though today all the world,
all men, and all events appear to be set in direct opposition to Christ, there
is a day coming called “the dispensation
of the fulness of times,” in which the Lord God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him” (Eph.
1:10).
Though all men by nature despise his rule, there is a day
appointed by God, in the which “at the
name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).
Though all men by nature are the enemies of God, though Satan
and all the demons of hell oppose his purpose, though men and devils unite as
one, in thought, word, and deed, to rob the triune God of his glory, in the
end, through the blood of his cross, by our Lord Jesus Christ, almighty God
shall “reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things in earth or
things in heaven” (Col. 1:20).
In Isaiah 45:20-25 the Lord God himself tells us how things will be in the end. We would be wise to hearken unto the gracious counsel he gives in that place.
"Assemble yourselves
and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that
cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together:
who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have
not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour;
there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the
LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all
that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glory."
In the end, every creature
in heaven, earth, and hell, every deed performed in God’s creation, by men,
angels, devils, and Satan himself, (every deed!) great and small, good and
evil, and every event of providence shall magnify, honor, exalt, and praise our
great and glorious God.
As we come now to the end of
this study of Bible doctrine, I think it will be helpful to conclude the study
by seeking to know and understand the teaching of Holy Scripture regarding the
end of all things. May God the Holy Spirit graciously turn our hearts and minds
away from the cares and burdens, heartaches and sorrows, trials and
temptations, difficulties and disappointments of this world of time and sense.
May he even take our hearts away from the pleasures, joys, and comforts of this
world and this brief existence. Come, O Spirit of God, come! Sit our hearts and
minds this hour, and sit them permanently, upon “THE END.”
When everything that shall be has been, when everything that
must be has come to pass, when all the will, purpose, desire, and pleasure of
the triune God has been perfectly accomplished and fulfilled in all things and
by all things, the Scripture declares, “Then cometh the end!” Let me show you five things from the
Word of God about “the end.”
If we would apply our hearts
to wisdom, we must learn and constantly remind ourselves of this first fact: -- everything in this
world is temporal and must soon come to an end. “The fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor. 7:29-31).
I wonder if we will ever learn that everything here is just
temporary. Time is not endless. This world is not eternal. Everything in this
world had its beginning and shall have its end. And both the beginning and the
end of all things has been ordained and fixed by God’s unalterable decree from
eternity. God made you and me for a specific purpose. When God’s purpose for
us, and concerning us has been perfectly and completely accomplished, “then
cometh the end.” Then
our end shall be either eternal bliss or eternal woe. Will you think about that
fact?
We live in a world in which all things are
temporal and passing away. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end. That man
must be truly blind who does not see that everything here is only momentary. We
are creatures created by God with immortal souls in a world where everything is
mortal, temporal, and perishing. All property, all talents, all relationships,
all evil, all good, all opportunities, all things in this world are temporary!
And nothing temporal can ever satisfy our immortal souls.
We are all moving rapidly to a world in
which everything is eternal. As was just stated, you and I are men and women with immortal souls. We
live in a world where everything constantly changes. But we are going, and
going rapidly, to a world where nothing changes and nothing ends. That great,
unseen world which lies beyond the grave, whatever else it is or is not, it is
eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Hell is eternal. Heaven is eternal (Mark 8:36-37.
Everything here is vanity. Only that which is eternal is of any real meaning,
significance, consequence, and value. I
urge you, for your soul’s sake, count nothing on this earth more valuable and
precious now than you will in that day when you must leave it.
All things here will soon be
past.
Heaven and hell alone will
last.
Will you, for trinkets of a
day,
Eternally be cast away?
Immortal souls, can’t you
see,
All things here are vanity?
Should you gain the world’s
store,
Is it really worth your
soul?
Set your heart on Christ
alone
Trust the work which He has
done;
And when this world has
passed away,
You’ll never miss the
melting clay.
The Lord Jesus Christ alone can prepare us
for eternity. Our
happiness or misery in eternity depends entirely upon and will be determined
entirely by our relationship with the Son of God now (John 3:36; 6:47; 1 John
5:10). Only the blood of Christ can wash away our sins. Only the righteousness
of Christ can give us acceptance with God. Only faith in Christ can fetch the
merits of his blood and righteousness to our souls. Only the Spirit of God can
give us faith.
I cannot press with sufficient urgency the need ever to beware
of “the cares of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things (which) entering in, choke the word, and it
becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).
Second,
if we would live peaceably in this world, we must learn that the beginning, the accomplishment, and the end of all things are of God.
-- “All things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18). All things in
heaven, all things in earth, and all things in hell, -- all things good and all
things bad, -- all things pleasant and all things painful ,-- all things
temporal and all things eternal, -- “All things are of God” (Isa. 14:26-27;
45:2-13; 46:9-11; Rom. 8:28; 11:36).
God predestinated all things according to the good pleasure of
his will. God created all things according to the good pleasure of his will. God rules all things according to the good
pleasure of his will. God disposes of all things according to the good pleasure
of his will. God shall have the praise of all things according to the good
pleasure of his will (Ps. 76:10; Pro. 16:4; Eph. 1:11).
Third,
I want you to see that the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our dear
Savior must reign until the end comes. – “He must reign” (1 Cor.
15:24-26). That Man who lived and died for us, as our Mediator, Surety,
Representative, and Substitute, that he might save us and bring us to heaven is
himself God almighty, who rules all things. He earned the right to reign over
all things as a Man, as our Mediator and Surety, to be the sovereign Governor
of the universe, by his obedience to his Father. And he forever possesses the
power of absolute, unrivaled, sovereign dominion because he is God the Son.
Observe what the text says.
Our Lord Jesus Christ must reign because he is God. A god who
does not reign is no God at all (Ps. 115:3; 135:6). He must reign because his
dominion is the reward of his obedience (Ps. 2:8; 14:9; Rom. 14:9; Phil.
2:9-11). He must reign because the salvation of God’s elect and the glory of
God depend upon it (John 17:2-4). He must reign because no one is able to stop
him!
Our great and glorious Savior shall soon put down forever all rule, authority, and power: -- All civil rule, authority, and power, -- All domestic rule, authority, and power, -- All ecclesiastical rule, authority, and power, -- All satanic, demonic, hellish rule, authority, and power.
The
Lord Jesus shall soon put all enemies (his and ours) under his feet. He will graciously,
effectually conquer the hearts of all his elect, bring them to his feet, make
them willing in the day of his power to be there, and cause them to bow in
subjection to him, to his scepter as their King, and to obey his gospel and his
ordinances.
Those he does not conquer by his grace, the Son of God will
conquer by his wrath. All will bow to him, either as willing servants saved by
his grace, or as conquered vassals compelled to acknowledge the dominion, the
rightful dominion of that King whom they despise.
He shall put our enemies under his feet,
too; and if they are put under his feet, they are put under our feet. Sin, with
all his misery, shall soon be put under our feet. Soon, the world, with all its
influence, shall be put under our feet. Death, with all its fear and in all its
forms (Judicial Death, – Spiritual Death, -- Physical Death, -- The Second
Death), shall be put under our feet. Even Satan, shall soon be bruised beneath
our feet by the God of all grace (Rom. 16:20).
Fourth, when
the end comes, the Lord Jesus Christ shall deliver up the kingdom unto God the
Father. -- "Then
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power…And
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be
subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all"
(1 Cor. 15:24, 28).
What do those two verses mean? First, let me show you what they most certainly do
not mean. When the Scriptures here declare that the Son shall deliver up
the kingdom unto the Father, they do not teach, suggest, or in any way imply
that Christ is not God (1 Tim. 3:15), or that the Son of God is in any way
inferior to the Father (1 John 5:7), or that Christ will cease to be Prophet,
Priest, and King over his Church and Kingdom (Heb. 1:8).
What
does Paul mean, then, when he tells us that Christ shall deliver up the kingdom
unto God, even the Father, and shall be subject to him? When the resurrection is
over, when the great white throne judgment is done, and all things are created
new, when all God’s elect are saved, there will be one final work to be done by
our Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah’s Servant, as the Surety and Mediator of the
covenant. He will present all the elect unto the Father, holy, unblamable, unreprovable, and
perfect (John 10:16; Eph. 5:25-27; Heb. 2:13; Jude 24-25). -- The Shepherd will
present his sheep. -- The Savior will present his Church. -- The Son will present
his brethren. -- The King will present his Kingdom to God, even the Father.
“I take the kingdom to
consist of that innumerable company whose names were written in heaven; and
which, when their numerical fulness is completed, the Son of God, who graciously
consented to become the Son of Man for their sakes, will present in one,
entire, and glorified body to the Father.” -- (Augustus Toplady)
In that great day, in the end, Christ will stand before his
Father and our Father, with all his elect by his side in the perfection of his
holiness, and say, “Lo, I and the children which thou hast given me. All are here. Not one is
lost!” -- “All, my Father, you chose and gave to me, all you trusted
me to redeem, here they are, just as I promised, holy, unblamable,
unreprovable, washed in my blood, robed in my righteousness.” -- “All that I
redeemed, every blood bought soul is here.” -- “All those who have been
regenerated, called, and sealed by the blessed Holy Spirit are here.”
He will, no doubt, go on to say. “Now, my Father, all the
purpose of grace is fulfilled. All the counsel of peace is accomplished. All
that we agreed upon in the covenant is done. In all things, our great purpose
in predestination is now fully accomplished. Now grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life!”
Fifth, this
is the end of all things: “that God may be all in all!” God Almighty has from
eternity ordained everything that comes to pass in time to make himself an
everlasting and a glorious name (Isa. 63:12, 14), that in all things Christ
might have the pre-eminence (Col. 1:18). And in the end, God, the triune God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as he is revealed, known, loved, and worshipped
in the Person and work of Christ, our God-man Mediator, shall be “all
in all.” There are three
things in this last phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:28 I want you to see.
1.
The works and purpose of the triune God shall
be perfectly accomplished (Eph. 1:3-14; 2:4-7).
2. God
in Christ shall be all. The Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, shall
be all meat,
clothing, and shelter for our bodies, all life, joy, peace, glory, and
satisfaction for our souls, all sun and moon and light forever!
3. God
in Christ shall be all in all. God, the triune God, shall be all in all things. God, the triune God,
shall be all in all his people. God, the triune God, shall be all in all the
praises of all saints and angels forever!
The delivering up of the kingdom to the Father will not put an
end to it, but eternally establish it in a new and more glorious form. Christ
shall not cease to reign, though the mode of his administration will be
different. As a divine Person, he will always be one with the Father. Even as
the incarnate God-man, he will continue forever. It is only in Christ the Word
that we can see and know God. The effects of his mediatorial
kingdom will abide forever. There will never be a time when the God-man will be
cast aside, or hidden in the shadows. Our Lord Jesus Christ will never be less
than he is now: The Image of the Invisible God!
Is this the goal for which
we labor? Is this the burden, care, concern, and prayer of our hearts? – That
our “God may be all in all.” Do we not, from the depths of our souls,
pray, as our Savior taught us, “Our
Father, which art in heaven, ‘Hallowed be thy name. “Thy kingdom come…Thy will
be done”? If this is indeed
the thing for which we most ardently labor, the thing we desire, for which we
earnestly pray, then we have every reason to take heart and be of good courage.
-- "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord."
AMEN.