Address—C. Hendricks
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The Red Seas Judgment Flood is passed in Him who bought us with His blood.
The Lord is risen. We stand beyond the doom, all our sin through Jesus after 2 #34.
The Lord is red.
Turn with me, please, to 1St Corinthians 15.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
I'll begin reading at verse one.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I have also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas. Then of the 12 after that he was seen of above 500 graduated, once of whom the greater part remain under this present, but some are falling asleep. After that he was seen of James.
That of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that have not made to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, And so you believe now if.
Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. I'll say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. Yeah, And we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins, then they also, which are falling asleep in Christ, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ wisdom from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came dead, thy man came also the resurrection of the dead, whereas in Adam.
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All die so in Christ.
Even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ that is coming, then come at 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 has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that should be destroyed is death, for he had put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him.
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 else. What shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts. And Ephesus, what advantage is it me if the dead rises? Dead rise not. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived Evil communications, corrupt, good manners await to righteousness, and sin not for some of not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame, But some men will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come, Thou fools, That which thou sowest is not quickened except to die, and that which thou source, thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain. It may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it is pleased him.
And to every seed, his own body, all flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is 1, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star different from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption, It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body that is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, albeit that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural.
And afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earth, feet. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy. Such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, but flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inheriting corruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump well the trumpet shall sound, and the dead should be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, in this marvel must put on immortality. So when this corruptible should have put on incorruption, and this mortal should have put on immortality.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law that thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Or as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Well, I have read the entire chapter. We won't get that far this afternoon, but I've read it because it's the most beautiful unfolding of the truth of the resurrection, His resurrection, resurrection of Christ and our resurrection when He comes again for us. The two are tied together. The two are part of the same resurrection.
The resurrection of life.
First Resurrection and We have the most thorough and beautiful and in-depth treatise anywhere in the Bible of the Resurrection, right here in this chapter that we've read.
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He begins by declaring to them, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand. He's declaring to them the same gospel which he had preached to them. Or when he went there the first time he preached it, they received it, and they stood in the truth of the gospel received by faith. And then he adds, by which also ye are saved. They were saved by believing the gospel.
That he had preached to them.
If you keep in memory what I preach them to you, unless you have believed in vain, and you see there was a doctrine there at Corinth that he is addressing. And the 12Th verse brings out what that doctrine was. It was a serious error. I'll read the 12Th verse. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That was the error that the Apostle Paul.
Was dealing with in this chapter there was a teaching among the Saints at Corinth that there is no resurrection of the dead. Don't know fully all the meaning of that teaching, but he deals with it beautifully in the power of the Spirit of God in this chapter. And so he begins by restating to them the gospel which he had preached to them, which they had received, wherein they stood in their faith, and by which they were saved, He says, if you keep in memory.
What I preached them to you, unless you have believed in vain, unless your faith is null and void and worthless, If this error that had been introduced at Corinth was allowed to stand unchecked and.
Unexposed by the power of God and the truth of God, they would have believed in vain if the logical consequence of that error was carried out, that he develops that so beautifully.
And refutes it so eagerly in this chapter.
So to to have embraced what Paul presented to them in the 1St place as they did. He had received it from the Lord in glory. It wasn't something that came from himself, it wasn't something that originated with Paul, but it came from the Lord in glory himself. He had received it, and he had delivered it, and they had received it. They had. They were standing in the faith of it. They had believed it, and they were saved.
By that gospel, he says, unless he have believed in vain, well, the gospel consists of three.
Essential parts he says in verse three I delivered unto you. First of all that which I also received, he hadn't. It didn't originate from Paul, It came from the the glorified head in heaven, the risen Christ. And he had communicated it to the Apostle, and he had communicated it to these believers. At currently I delivered unto you that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. The scriptures referred to, of course, would be the Old Testament scriptures.
And there are many, many, many passages in the Old Testament referring to the death of Christ, one of the best known as the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where it speaks of him of being wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of ours. Peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. We know the chapter well. That's just one of the many scriptures that he could draw from and bring out the truth that Christ died.
For our sins. He is the only man that was down here in this scene that chose to die. He was the only man that chose to die. Well, you might say. Well, no. I challenge that there are there are other people who have died for A cause, and some have died for a loved one. Many have given their lives in war for their country, but they didn't choose to die. They simply died sooner.
For the 'cause that they died. For they just simply died sooner than they would have had they been allowed to remain here. But all are going to die. It is appointed unto men wants to die, and after this the judgment. So every one of us is subject to death. But there was one man down here in this scene on whom death had no claim, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He came to God. He chose to die. He said, No man taketh my life from me. I have authority to lay it down.
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And I have authority to take it again, this commandment if I received of my father, he chose to die, and he died not for his sins He had none. He was the holy 1, the sinless one. He died for our sins. This is the gospel. This is the first precious wondrous element of the gospel. I used to wonder why it then adds. And he was buried because he's establishing the fact, the indisputable fact of history, that he truly died.
There are those that would try to do away with the fact that he really died and that he was just in a some kind of a swoon or.
Or whatever they come up with in their infidelity and unbelief. No Christ.
Died, and he died for our sins and he was buried. He was buried. He was truly a dead man. And that's why this doctrine that says that the dead don't rise, That means if the dead don't rise, neither did he rise. And if he didn't rise, the whole Christian faith is a fable.
Is false and everything is lost. He develops that so beautifully in the chapter. Now the first element of the gospel is to establish the fact of history that Christ died and the fact of Revelation that in that death he died for our sins. He died for our sins. The only one that willingly voluntarily laid down his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And that he was buried. He was buried absolutely essential to realize that he was truly dead. The soldier with a spear pierced his side right into his heart. He was truly dead. But that wasn't to kill him. He was already dead. He had already died, but certainly the abundant proof that he was dead. And then they buried him. They buried him out of sight.
A dead man dairy, and then the third part of the wondrous gospel that Paul had preached to them at Corinth, which they had received, in which their faith stood, by which they were saved, was that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
Verse four. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. So he brings before them what he had preached, what he had received from the risen Christ in glory.
The truth of the gospel. The three elements of the truth of the Gospel that he died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
Do away with the resurrection, and you have done away with Christianity. If you ever notice in the book of Acts the main theme that is repeated over and over and over again, Acts 2 Peter says you have taken this blessing one and with wicked hands, and crucified and slain.
And God has made this St. Jesus, whom we have crucified both Lord and Christ.
The the Spirit of God had been given, He had received the Spirit on high in the glory as a man, the glorified man, and he had sent him down. And this was proof that God had raised and exalted the Lord Jesus Christ to his own right hand in heaven. Again with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them. All he is risen is the constant theme in the central crux of the message in the book of Acts. Do away with the resurrection.
And you've done away with Christianity, and that's what he brings out in this chapter. It would have been a simple thing if it had been.
Faked it, hadn't truly died, and then just he awoke from this swoon or whatever it was as they as the modernists have come up with. Because they'll come up with any unbelieving theory simply because they realize that they must do away with the resurrection or otherwise.
They cannot refute Christianity. Christianity stands or falls with the truth of the resurrection. If he did not rise, then he died like any other man. He died as being subject to death and to sin, but only no, he did not die like any other man. As I said before, he is the only man who laid down his life. He's the only one who chose God, as he's the only one who raised.
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Himself and God raised from the dead.
He said to the Jews, destroy this temple, referring to the temple of his body. And in three days I will raise it up. Think of that statement. Think of that statement. Think of a mere man making such a a statement.
He either was telling the truth and all that he said was true, or he was the greatest impostor this world has ever seen. It would have been a simple matter for the Jews at Jerusalem to have, if it was faith to have produced the dead body of Christ. And that's all they had to do. That's all they had to do is to produce the body of Christ in death.
To destroy Christianity.
You know, the early apostles had gone to India, or to China, or to some remote part of the world that hadn't the vaguest idea of what had transpired in Jerusalem in those days.
They could have been told that Christ died for our sins, He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. They could have been told that and they wouldn't have been able to refute him. They would have to either just believe it or not believe it. But that wasn't preached there. That was preached in Jerusalem, beginning at Jerusalem, where all these events took place, where he was put to the cross, where he died and was taken down and put in a tomb.
All I had to do if he isn't risen was produce his dead body.
That would have destroyed it all. But they couldn't do it because he's not here. He's in the glory our faith, beloved, rests upon the most solid.
Infallible foundation of all history it is the resurrection of Christ is the most thoroughly documented fact of all this year.
And now he goes, and he produces the witnesses to testify to this glorious truth. He is risen. He is not even.
He is not here. Had he been there, had the disciples stolen away his body? That was the story they invented up, and the soldiers were told to say that. But while we set, the disciples came and took away his body. Well, that would have meant every one of them would have been put to death. That would that would be the immediate thing. But we will persuade them and secure you, they say.
And this story is current among the Jews to this day. The Bible says all they had to do, all they had to do, I say it again, is produce that dead body, a simple thing in Jerusalem. They couldn't possibly, the disciples couldn't possibly have done away with that dead body.
Since they were looking for it.
Trying to find it. If it was truly a false thing, well, let's see what his witnesses are. Verse five, that he was seen of Cephas. Ben of the 12Th, he was seen of Cephas. That's Peter. Peter had said the law denied he yet will not die, and he denied him with oaths and curses. And it says the Lord turned and looked at Peter and he went out and he thought there and he went bitterly. Now here's Peter.
Just imagine if you were Peter and you had denied that your Lord.
With oaths and curses three times. And he had told him he would do that, you might say. Oh.
Would he ever forgive me?
Would would he ever?
Maybe he didn't even enter into the truth of the resurrection. It seems as though the women entered into it far great, far much more before than the apostles. When they came to the apostles and told them that they had seen the Lord risen, they didn't believe it.
Just think the Lord Jesus the first one he appeared to in resurrection, Mr. Cephas.
And that wonderful.
The one who's going to be used as the chiefest of the apostles to proclaim this glorious message of the resurrection. The Lord appears to him as the rest of Christ now no one saw him rise.
No one saw him rise, but he was seen after he was put to death. A man living on the earth 40 days, 40 nights. Let's just look at that. Acts 1.
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Acts Chapter one.
We're looking at some of these infallible proofs, and I'll just read it in Acts, chapter one.
The former treatise have I made with Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up.
After that he threw the Holy Ghost had given commandments under the Apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive.
After his passion, after his sufferings by many infallible proofs, many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days.
And Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
Many infallible proofs 40 days. It wasn't just a sudden appearance to 1 here or to another there, but it was 40 days. He was a risen man on earth and then he ascended Acts one gives the ascension and then ten days later making the 50 days since he was since he rose, comes down the Holy Spirit Acts 2 The gift of the Spirit The day of Pentecost 50 Well, he was seen as Cephas, the one that had denied him the one that thought if he.
I can imagine that he thought he didn't have. He'd never be used of the Lord again. He sees the Lord in resurrection, and he witnesses to this. You know, of all the Apostles, even the one that took the Matthias, who took the place of Judas. He went to his own place. He was. He replaced him in Acts, one of all the 12 Apostles. Every one of them was martyred according to church history, except John. He's the only one that wasn't Martian.
Now these men, these men, gave their lives.
For a cause that they knew was true, they preached.
Christ died and he was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
They wouldn't have done that if it hadn't been true. You don't. You don't take sides with A cause. That means you are going to be martyred unless there is truth to it, and unless the one who is the risen one has given you a message to proclaim.
And that's exactly what we have here. He was seen of Cephas, who became the chiefest of the apostles. And then of the 12, they'd all denied him. They all forsook him and fled. It says they hadn't denied him like Peter had, but they were sick and fled. They all felt ashamed of themselves, and he appears to them.
To empower them with the message of going forward.
You get that in John 20 when the disciples are gathered together.
He shows them his hands in his side that isn't Christ. And he says, peace be unto you. And then he says again, peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me Even so send I you. And then he breathes into them the breath of his resurrection life, and says, receive to the Holy Ghost. They were to go forth now with the power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life in Christ, and the power of resurrection. They had seen the resurrected Christ.
And they are. They have communicated to them by the resurrected Christ His resurrection life, and Christianity goes forward in the power of that. So he appears to the 12:00 and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren, at once verse six, of whom the greater part remained under this present for summer fallen asleep, there is a a false cult. It has gained millions of adherence, and it was begun by a man.
Joseph Smith was his name.
And he saw some visions, so he says the Angel Moroni appeared to him. So he says he saw some gold plates. So he says, never been able to produce the plates. He's never been able to substantiate anything that he claimed. But there were several in collusion with him to voice this great deception upon men. And there are many that have believed the lie, and they follow the Mormon delusion to this day.
Here were 500 President Once you can get a few to get together, to come up with agreement, to to deceive and to manipulate the masses, that can, that can happen. But here were over 500 brethren at once now, and he appeared to them as the risen Christ. Impossible to get such a company to agree together, to become part of a great deception that would promote a false religion.
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These are infallible proofs that he truly rose again and that he was seen alive after his passion.
And then it says in verse 7. After that he was seen of James. Now James was one of his brothers, I believe James the Lord's brother in John seven It says Neither did his brethren believe in him.
They didn't believe who he was. They did not have faith.
He was just the carpenter's son. He was just their brother. And after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus appears to James.
And.
And he becomes the leader in Jerusalem along with Peter, and makes great decisions. And he's very prominent. You read of him quite often in the book of Acts, Paul In chapter one of Galatians, he said when he went to Jerusalem he saw James the Lord's brother and Peter. And besides he saw none other of the apostles. So here the Lord appears to these two. Peter had denied him with oaths and curses. He appears to him to restore him and to empower him to go forth with the message of the resurrection.
He appears to the 12, all of whom had forsaken him and fled because he was going to use them. He appears to these 500 brethren at once impossible to delude such a company all at one time. And then he appeared to James.
And then of all the apostles. Now why does it mention the apostles a second time? It speaks of the 12 and now it speaks of all the apostles. Well, it could be that all the apostles embraced more than just the 12. And it also could be that since he was going to establish them and use them for the to be the center from which king.
Emanated the gospel message and the truth of Christianity that they were.
They were given.
An abundant testimony to his resurrection to that group he appeared twice in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. He appeared twice. For those who were to form the very crux and center and core of the Christian message, he appeared twice to confirm it. Remember when the dream was given to to the to the Baker, and in Joseph's case.
He said The thing is certain because the dream was repeated to us, to Pharaoh, wasn't he interpreted it.
Joseph said because this God has confirmed it, He it's it's it's a certainty. He has given it to you twice. And so this company was given evidence of the Lord's resurrection twice and then the last news.
Was the most unlikely of any of the witnesses to have come over unto the Lord's side to have become a Christian. It will solve Tarsus Saul of Tarsus, who spent all his religious energies to snuff out the hated, despised name of Jesus and his followers. He had letters from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of Jesus. Those who were of the way, he he was going to exterminate them.
From the Earth.
They wouldn't have taken all this trouble. All they'd have to have done is produced the the dead body of Jesus. So all they'd have to do Christianity was then destroyed. They couldn't do it because he's not here.
He says, last of all, he was seen of me also as a one born out of due time. He was a Jew that hated Christ with a vengeance, and he was converted by that light from heaven on the way to Damascus. Saul, Saul, I persecutest thou me Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutors. It is hard for me to kick against the ******. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And he was 3 days and three nights without sight. And a revolution took place in that man's soul. That Pharisee of the Pharisees, that Hebrew of the Hebrews, that one who could say, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, That one who was so confident that what he was doing was God's service. For the time would come when they did killeth. You, the Lord said, will think that they do God's service. Such was Saul of Tarsus. And then he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.
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And in one decision that he made all the doors that were opened to him, the doors of opportunity, the doors of worldly greatness, the doors of of religious elegance, and all that they chosen for he was their champion. He was their Goliath to snuff out this new movement, the sect of the Nazarenes, they called it Solitarsis. And now their champion falls.
At the feet there isn't Christ.
Last of all, he was seen of me as a one born out of due time. There was this Jew that got converted to Christ before the nation.
They will be born again in a day in the coming day, and then all Israel will be saved. And he was one born out of due time.
And what an apostle he became.
He calls himself I am the least of the apostles who will not need to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they are. All the 12, all the other apostles, He labored more. Abundance is not I, though he is not I. But the grace of God, which was with me, He wouldn't take any credit to himself.
His life was such that he had he thoroughly confirmed himself for what he had done to those who were precious to the Lord Jesus.
What he had done now, he was willing to be nothing to be.
Despised and hated and ridiculed and persecuted and slandered and tackled upon, He was willing to be that Christ.
Because he had come to know the risen, glorifying Christ. All these doors of opportunity, the things he says in Philippians 3 that were gained to me, these I counted unaccounted praise, loss. Yay, doubtless I count all things to be lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be done, that I may win. Christ founded him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness, righteousness which is of God like faith.
To know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.
If any way I may be conformed unto his death, he wanted to be so thoroughly identified with Christ even in death, that he could be.
He had persecuted the Church of God. Now he's converted the most unlikely man in all the world that would ever turn over and become a follower and an advocate of the cause of Christ if it wasn't real, if it wasn't true. He is risen, risen. Christ sights him down with a light brighter than the new day, sun and solid churches becomes the Apostle Paul.
Whether therefore it were I or they, so we preach, and so we believe, so we preach, And so he believed. What is it you believe? You believe that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose together the third day according to the Scriptures. Your faith stands in that. You're saved by that.
Tell them, he says. Now verse 12. We come to the error now. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That was the error that he's dealing with. He's established by appealing to the evidence of history, all these infallible proofs and these witnesses, the most unlikely ones. One denied him three times. Another didn't believe in him. He was his, the Lord's own brother, the 12. They'd all forsaken him and fled. They felt ashamed of themselves. They formed the nucleus of this new religion, if I could put it that way.
Christianity.
And then saw the parses himself, the most unlikely one. It would have been impossible for those poor Galilean fishermen to do what bought him out.
It would have been impossible for any sum of money to have changed some of Tarsus. Only a glorified Christ could do it. He's the one that did it.
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Now Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. He'll say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? For he was dead. He was a truly dead man. He was buried. He was dead. He died. He died for our sins. True, but he died. No question about that. That's an indisputable fact of history. And he was put out of sight as a dead man.
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. Everything is.
For nothing has no meaning to it. Your faith is vain. You believe the lie. You haven't believed the truth.
They palmed off a falsehood on you, a false religion, and you've fallen for it. You've believed it. If Christ isn't risen, everything collapses.
Why suffer for a cause? Why be identified with A cause where you're going to be martyred, you're going to be persecuted. You might be put on a rack. You might be thrown to the lions. You might be torn to shreds by wild beasts.
Widely identified with such a cause. If Christ isn't risen, it's not true. It's false.
But he is risen.
These are infallible proofs that our faith, beloved, rests upon the solid rock of the truth of Christ is risen.
He says in verse 14. Again, if Christ be not risen, then as our preaching vain and your faith is also vain, our preaching vain. I've given up all the advantages of Judaism.
I have the world of opportunity open before me, and I've chosen to preach this, this message which is just senseless and meaningless and has no, no substance to it. It's not true. It's vain. It's worthless. Christ is imprisoned.
Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is also the thing you believe the lie.
Haven't believed the truth.
You can see why the modernists and the various ones that hate the word of God and the Bible and the Lord Jesus, they want to do away with the resurrection. If they can't do away with the physical bodily resurrection of Christ, Luke 24 makes that soul abundantly clear as the risen Christ, he says to the disciples.
Handily, and see a spirit of not flesh and bones as you see me having. He was truly a risen man before them. He ate not in order to sustain his body, or he had to do that. He had a resurrected body. You don't need food to sustain that, But he ate to show that he was a true man in resurrection.
It wasn't a spiritual thing.
In the sense that it was a spirit that they saw an apparition just in an appearance of a spirit that would vanish no 40 days. He was a risen man on earth, and all these witnesses are brought forward, the most unlikely ones.
And then he goes on to say in verse 15, yeah, and we are found also false witnesses of God.
Because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ when he raised not up there. So be that the dead rise not. We falsely represented God. Our preaching has been that God raised him from the dead and now we've falsified that's not true, that Christ isn't risen.
Where if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. Notice the two are so tied together. You can't have you can't believe in the resurrection of Christ and not believe in the resurrection of the Saints because he's the first fruits afterward. They were the price of his coming. A farmer goes out into his field and picks the stock. In the fall he brings it in and shows his wife and he says, here's a sample of the harvest that we're going to get this year.
And that's just the pledge of all the other stocks that are out there. Christ is the first fruits. We are those that are His and His coming. It also proves the the the coming of Christ. We get to that later in the chapter.
Resurrection involves all these truths, all these truths and his reaction, His resurrection in ours are so tied together and linked together that if the dead don't rise, neither did he rise. And if he didn't rise, the gospel is false. Their preaching is vain, their faith is vain. We falsely represented God.
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Said, if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised by 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain here, yet in your sins. And then he says another thing, then they also which are fall asleep in Christ or perish. Those who have played their lives down and martyred him for Christ. They perished. They were they believed a lie, they believed a false thing. They they died for the wrong thing, no substance to it. Christ isn't risen. It's it's nothing. Christianity is meaningless.
That's what Paul is saying.
And they also, with your fall asleep in Christ, are perish. They lost.
Says in verse 17, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. Our sins aren't broken.
Everything has been forfeited.
Then in verse 19 he says if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men most.
Miserable. There aren't any of us. I don't believe in this room that could say that. Certainly not the speaker.
I don't have the kind of life that the apostle Paul had, the kind of life that he had. But later on in this chapter he says in verse 30, Why stand we in jeopardy everywhere? We don't know what that is. We don't know what it is if we're visiting in a home. Last night we were visiting, and if someone had come to the door and knocked on the front door, we wouldn't have stiffened.
We wouldn't have been filled with fear unless someone would walk in the the authorities and apprehend one of us and drive us off to prison. Well, that's the kind of a life that Paul lived. He was in jeopardy every hour. We don't know what that is. There are those in Europe during the last war that no September.
For their faith in Christ, they never knew when there'd be that knock on the door and the troops would come and take away the head of the family and the mother, the father, the children, take them all off and they never see them again. We don't know what that is. We don't know what it is to have suffered the loss of all things. I haven't suffered the loss of all things. I have a family. I have those that love me and my brother, and so on.
But he suffered the loss. Of all things he could say in Second Timothy, one all would be in Asia have turned away from me. That's the hardest thing to bear when you'd rather turn away from you. Those with whom he had labored, labored so faithfully while he he says, If if all I had is hope in Christ, now I am of all men in the most miserable, because all I'm getting now is persecution and slander and tribulation and distress.
And.
Jeopardy.
Have we suffered the loss of all things? There were some Christians in those early days that were in that position. We know very little of it in this land. There are some today in other parts of the world that can relate to this. So he says that in this life only we have hope in Christ. We are all men, most miserable. Why should I go through all this? Why should I have been? I've given up all that I had in Judaism for a lost cause if Christ is enraged.
Everything is meaningless, senseless.
Unless there's something beyond, unless the reality beyond is so infinitely better, so much greater, so much more wondrous than any suffering that we have here as he could say, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us.
Our light affliction I read through the catalogue of all of Paul's sufferings, all his sufferings persecuted, abandoned the night and the day. I spent in the deep in parallels of rivers, in perils of waters, and perils among my own countrymen, in perils of the heathen, in perils among false brethren. And he goes on and on and on and on, names on And then he says, our light affliction. Oh no, it's not light.
It's enormous. It's more than a human conveyor, but he says our light affliction.
It's working for us, just for a moment.
Just for a moment, he says, works for us in surpassing measures and light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal ways of glory.
While we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. He had been there in the 3rd heaven.
He had seen those things. He had seen the risen, glorified Christ. He had talked with him. He knew him personally.
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And he was willing to give everything up down here that he might have Christ, and he lived in the future. And if I could say that faith is the substantiating of things hoped for. He lived in the realization in his soul of all the reality of the future that God has prepared for those among the earth that wouldn't be possible without the resurrection. It's all, it all is dependent upon this wondrous truth. So he says.
In this life only I have we have hope. In Christ, we have all men most this report.
Now I'm going to script verses 20 through 28 because they are of parentheses and to get the continuity of thought we'll read verse 29. I'll again read verse 19 and then read verse 29, because verses 20 through 28 are a parentheses. So to get the train of thought, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are evolved and most miserable else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all.
Why do are we then baptized for the dead, and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Why should I become baptized and identified with the name of Jesus that he's not risen?
Here was one who has died for the cause of Christ. He's gone on, he's been martyred, he's been persecuted, and he's left this scene. He's left the ranks. And now I'm identified with Christ and baptized in place of that one who has gone on and fill up the ranks, identify with that company that has nothing but persecution and hatred and rejection here, if that's the lot of those that are baptized.
To the death of Christ, and in place of those that have gone on in martyrdom.
Why do that if there is no resurrection?
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Why be identified with a dead and risen Christ and the subject then to all the persecution and trouble and tribulation that comes upon Christians as it did in those days? If there's no resurrection, why replace those that have gone on by being identified as baptism with that despised name, if there's nothing beyond?
Don't rise. It's a lost cause, he says. Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Why do I subject myself to the kind of treatment that I get every hour? He says. I protest. By your rejoicing or by my boasting of you, which I have in Christ Jesus. I die daily. They were his boasts. They were the ones that he was living for. They're the ones that he was willing to, to go through all this rejection and hatred and persecution. He died daily.
Death was his portion, he said. I'm willing to do that because you're my folks, and I'm doing it for you and the Saints there at court and elsewhere. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts and Ephesus, these weren't true beasts, these were men that ravaged on him and and and gnashed upon him, as it were, with their teeth, just like beasts, he said. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage it did me if the dead rise not?
What is he? And drink for Tomorrow We Die. That's the philosophy that pervades today.
Among those that don't believe in the resurrection, they don't believe in a life beyond. They believe you go 6 feet under it and that's it. That's the end of it. If that's the case, let us even drink, for tomorrow we die. You might as well live for now because there is no future for for man. But that's not Christian thing. Young people live for him because what is beyond this scene, all the the pleasures and the enticements of sin that this world has to offer to you.
Is worth a straw. Isn't worth a straw. Look for him, no matter what that brings upon you. Persecution, Rejection, suffering. That doesn't matter. You're living for eternity. You're living for the risen, glorified Christ and the power of his resurrection.
And that's what he's bringing before. So after he says let us eat and drink tomorrow we die. That's the statement of unbelief, he says Be not deceived, evil communications, corrupt good manners, those that talk that way, they are corrupt in their walk.
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And then he says a way to righteousness.
And sin not.
To live like the world lives as though all we have is now.
Is a life of sin, a life of self indulgence and a life of pleasure for self. For some have not the knowledge of God, some are ignorant of God, They don't know him at all. Those who don't have the knowledge of God, they live for now.
They don't live for eternity.
Christian lives for eternity. Paul lives for eternity. He lived for the risen, glorified Christ.
I speak this, he says to your shape.
In your shape he has to rebuke them. Earlier in this epistle he says, you've reigned as kings without us, and I would to God you Ray, you did reign, but we also might reign with you. They were living prosperously down here when the apostles were counted, the off scouring of the world, the refuse of all. Until now the apostles were despised and hated and rejected, especially Poland.
And what made him do this? What was the power that enabled him to go through all the tribulation and suffering and trials that he went through? It was the power of resurrection.
Power of the resurrection of Christ. That's what enabled him.
To do it how he was unable to do it. I see the hours up. I would like to go through the parentheses and finish the chapter. Maybe we can do that tonight.
Let's close by singing number.
94.
The Lord is risen indeed.
And all his work performed, The captive surety now is freed in death our foe disarmed. 94 Someone raised that tomb, please.