Gospel—C. Hendricks
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Turn with me tonight to the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
Chapter 15.
Reading from verse one.
1St Corinthians 15 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 ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.
How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures?
And that he was buried. And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the 12. After that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain under this present but summer fallen asleep.
After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.
And last of all, he was seen of me also as a one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet 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 ye believe.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how 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, to 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. You're yet in your sins.
Then they also with your fallen asleep in Christ or perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now in Christ is Christ risen from the dead.
And become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came, death by man came also.
The resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, 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 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 accepted 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.
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 at Ephesus, What advantages it me if the dead rise not?
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin, not for some, if 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 fool.
That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, 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 hath 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 is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star difference 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. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body.
It has raised the spiritual body.
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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.
Howbeit, 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 earthy, the second 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, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither the doth corruption inherit incorruption.
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.
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying.
That is written death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren.
Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain.
In the Lord.
I've just read the entire chapter 1 Corinthians 15.
The greatest?
Chapter in the Bible.
And the fundamental.
Truth of the Resurrection.
You've noticed in my reading that the last part of the chapter is the resurrection of the Saints, the believers.
The first part of the chapter is the resurrection of Christ.
The one follows upon the other is dependent on. It is all linked up with it and tied together.
Christ the firstfruits afterward, they that are Christ that is coming one harvest.
One harvest.
I wonder if there's someone here tonight?
That is going is going to miss this.
To miss this greatest event which all of us who are sitting in the room tonight with faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ are looking forward to.
There was an error.
That was.
Existent in the assembly at Corinth.
And it's found in the 12TH verse of our chapter. Now if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead.
How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
And then he.
Beautifully reasons upon that and shows that if that is so.
Everything is lost.
There is no salvation.
Christianity has been disproved.
But we get to that.
But remember that question, He says, How say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead? If Christ is preached that he rose from the dead, how can some say that there is no resurrection, for he was dead?
He was truly dead. This morning we came together.
The center of the room there was a table.
And on the table there was a very simple, we call it the Lord's Supper, very simple, just the loaf.
And a cup.
Loaf of bread and a cup of wine.
Speaking of the body.
And the blood.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
The two are separated.
Showing that the blood has been shed from that body.
We come into the scene that speaks of death.
The cup separate from the loaf.
And we remembered the Lord Jesus Christ in his death.
That's one of the foundation truths of the Christian faith.
And the other one is that he has risen.
Notice.
He begins by reminding these Saints at Corinth.
Of the gospel which he had preached to them.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye had received.
And wherein you stand.
By which also ye are saved.
They had received that gospel by faith they had.
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They stood in the faith of it.
They were saved by it.
And now they were in danger of being removed and moved away from the truth of the gospel.
They were in danger of imbibing this false doctrine that there is no resurrection of the dead.
And the consequences of that are disastrous to the Christian faith.
And he shows that and develops that very beautifully farther down in the chapter. But what he has to establish at the very beginning of the chapter are the facts of the gospel.
The facts of Christianity, the basis upon which our faith rests.
And it consists of three truths which we will come to in a moment.
He says The gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received.
And wherein you stand.
By which also ye are saved. They had received the fullness of the gospel.
Which consists of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ.
And he shows them that if they continued to believe that error.
That some were propounding there at Corinth.
They no longer believe the gospel.
And so he says if you keep in memory.
What I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
To give up anyone of the elements of the gospel is to have believed in vain is not to keep in memory.
What he had preached to them, that which they had received in faith, and that which they were saved by, which they stood in.
In the faith of.
The Gospel.
And then he tells them what he had delivered to them. Verse 3.
For I delivered unto you first of all.
That which I also received. You see, the apostle Paul didn't deliver a gospel, a good news, for that's what the word gospel means. It means good news, glad tidings. He didn't deliver that. He didn't get that from his own thoughts. He had received it.
From God, divine revelation, He says, What I delivered to you, which you received, I received it by revelation.
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.
How that Christ died for our sins.
According to the scriptures.
The Old Testament scriptures are full.
A. References to the death of Christ according to the Scriptures.
He died.
As an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
He had no sins of his own to die for. Sin had no claim upon him as the only man that ever was in this world.
That did not have to die.
But he did die.
Not because sin had claim upon him. Not because as the scripture says, the wages of sin is death and he had to pay those wages.
But he came to die for.
Your sins and mine.
Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, Isaiah tells us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
Every sacrifice in the Old Testament, every lamb, every ram, every Bullock, every offering made was a testimony to the truth that a sacrifice had to be made.
And a lamb had to die, blood had to be shed. And so when John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus coming towards him, he said, behold the Lamb of God.
Which taketh away the sin of the world.
The one who would be the Sin bearer.
The one who would go into death not because of any ill that he had done, but because.
Of the ills that we have done.
He went into death for us. For our sins He died.
That's the first part of the gospel.
It involves the fact, the basic fact of history, that he truly died.
He didn't go into a swoon.
And apparently died.
And then he revived later on. That's one of the false heresies that has been propounded by those who hate the truth of Christianity and the truth of God.
The two ordinances of the Christian faith bear testimony that he died.
Baptism is unto his death. Know ye not that as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have been baptized?
Unto his death.
He died, and the ongoing memorial of the Lord's Supper is to remember him. In his death, he truly died.
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The soldier pierced his side not to put him to death. He was already dead.
No act of man.
Could take his life from him.
He said it. He said no man taketh my life from me. I have power, authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father.
He lay his life down in obedience to the Father.
He was not put to death by man.
He could not do it.
He had to lay his life down.
He is the only one of whom it can be said.
That he died willingly.
That he chose to die.
You might say, well, what about those that have?
Chosen to die on behalf of a comrade in battle. Hand grenade is thrown in the midst and one falls on it. Gets blown to bits but he saves the rest. He chose to do that. Oh no, he didn't choose to die. He just chose to die sooner.
Because Death was going to take him anyway.
Because he was a Sinner.
The only man on whom no death had no claim whatsoever was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, and he chose to die.
He came to die in the grand truth. The foundation truth of the gospel is Christ died for our sins.
According to the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures.
And then the second element of the gospel, and that he was buried, he was put in the very place of death. He was put in the very vault, the tomb.
That they put dead persons. He was truly dead. He was there for three days.
In death, a dead man.
Very basic truth, absolutely essential in order to.
To be a believer.
A Christian.
He was truly dead.
The very baptism of the Christian says, We are buried with him in baptism unto death, that like his Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
Buried with him in baptism.
He was buried.
He was in the place of death.
Absolute testimony to the fact that he was dead.
And then the third part of the gospel.
Verse 4 and that he rose again the third day.
Again according to the scriptures.
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption.
He was given the sure mercies of David, raised from the dead.
On the third day, many Old Testament scriptures bearing testimony to that glorious truth.
So what he's doing here is he's setting before them the facts of the gospel which they had received.
By in which they stood.
And by which they were saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain for them to abandon any one of those three essential foundation truths were to have the have been believed in vain. To have believed in vain.
To no effect. Worthless. That kind of faith absolutely essential to hold to these three truths.
Now Christianity is the only.
Faith.
Religion, if you will.
In this entire world.
That has a living leader.
Founder.
The one who is the leader, the founder, the captain of our salvation.
Is living in the glory.
He lives.
Death did not hold him.
He went into death as a vicarious sacrifice for our sins.
And he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
Now he's established the fact of what he presented to them.
And bear in mind very essential these three truths, even the very truth of burial, that he was really dead, put in the very place of death. How say some among you, Paul says, if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, How say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead?
The consequences of that terrible.
But he has to go further here in establishing the facts of the gospel. So he's talked about Christ being raised from the dead. You remember at Athens when Paul preached the resurrection, it says some mocked.
And others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
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They mocked at the thought of resurrection.
Paul said to Agrippa. Why should it be thought a thing? Incredible with you, O king.
That God should raise the dead.
God gives us a testimony to that every spring.
Gives us a testimony to that every fall when the farmers crop that he's planted in the ground in springtime springs forth into a mighty harvest. The resurrection. God has given us in nature. The testimony over and over again that there is a resurrection, a God that brings life out of death.
But here he brings forward now the witnesses.
Children who are here, young people, students in school, every fact that you learn when you study history and you will study history, every historical fact.
You can talk. You can study the Roman Empire, you can study the Persian Empire, you can study about Alexander the Great, you can study about Napoleon. You can study about the various.
Empires and.
Events of the past, not one of them.
Not one of them.
Comes even close to being as well documented as the fact of the resurrection of Christ.
The fact of the resurrection of Christ. We are believing a fact of history.
And indisputable. Irrefutable.
Fact of history.
Christian faith is based upon a fact so well documented, so well established.
Irrefutable turn back.
Acts 1.
At this point I meant to read it. I'll read it now.
Acts 1.
I'll begin at the beginning.
The former treatise have I made, O 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 on the apostles whom he had chosen.
To whom also he showed himself alive.
After his passion, that means his sufferings.
By many infallible proofs. By many he showed himself alive after his sufferings. By many infallible proofs.
Being seen of them 40 days.
And Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, that's enough. The Lord Jesus was a risen man on earth, seen by.
A number of witnesses and the witnesses that saw him and the ones that Paul brings forward here.
To prove the fact of the resurrection are only a few. They're not by any means a complete list of all the witnesses that could be brought forward in testimony to the resurrection of Christ. But it's a it's a compelling witness.
It's an irrefutable witness.
That our faith, the Christian faith, is based upon a historical fact of history.
Now no one saw him rise from the dead. No one.
Many saw him die.
Many saw him on the cross, suffering, heard the words that he uttered.
Last word was Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
There were those that saw the soldier Pierce his side with the spear, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
They knew he was dead. The soldiers came to them and they marveled that he was dead already.
He didn't die a normal.
Time span type of death, but as soon as he could cry at his finished.
He dismissed his spirit.
Gave up the ghost and they marveled that he were dead already. He was taken down by loving hands.
His disciples. The last the world ever saw of Christ was a dead man on the cross.
The next time the world sees him will be when he comes back in power and glory.
To smite the earth with the rod of his mouth.
Judgment.
The last they did to him.
The next they see him will be when he comes back.
But his loving disciples took him down, and they put him in a new tomb where never man had been laid.
Man appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death because.
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He had done no violence. Neither was any guile found in his mouth.
He was given the royal burial because of who he was.
Man would have had him cast out as a dog.
To perish and be eaten by dogs.
Was given the criminals burial.
And God gave them a royal burial.
But no one saw him rise.
But many, many, many saw him alive after his death.
By many infallible proofs, he showed himself 40 days on this earth, a risen man. He didn't just appear for a moment in a flash to someone, or a voice didn't just speak to someone and it could have been misinterpreted or misunderstood. Oh no.
Now the Lord Jesus was a risen man on earth 40 days, and then he ascended to heaven, and they saw him go.
They saw him go, and they saw the cloud receive them out of their sight.
And the Angel said, This Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as he has seen him go into heaven.
It's coming again.
Every truth of Christianity falls to the ground. If he didn't rise. He can't come back if he's not in the glory.
Our hope is gone. Everything's gone. We're still in our sins if he didn't rise.
But thank God.
He is risen.
You remember what he did. He denied the Lord three times with oaths and curses. He said he would die with him. He wouldn't deny him, but he did.
The Lord told him He would do it.
And the Lord looked at Peter after he had denied him for the third time, and those two eyes met.
And Peter went out, and he wept bitterly.
You denied him.
Did he ever knew him?
He didn't.
Properly judged the strength or the weakness of the flesh and the presence of the power of Satan.
And so the Lord meets Peter Cephas. He was going to be used mightily as the champion of this truth. You see, all the apostles, the requirement to be an apostle, sometimes you'll meet Christians today and they'll say, yes, we have apostles today. That's impossible.
An apostle had to see the risen Christ.
There is not a man living today that has seen Christ in resurrection.
None. All the apostles saw Christ in resurrection, and so the Lord appeared to them as the risen 1.
That was going to be the crux of their message. Read the book of Acts. It centers around the resurrection.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the fundamental truth of the Gospel.
If he didn't rise, his death was for naughty.
Didn't have the efficacy and value that we know it has, and God has proven that it has because God raised him from the dead.
The resurrection of Christ is the vital proof that Christianity is real and true.
First he was seen of Cephas and Peter, who trembled at the question of a little maid, that bold man.
When he receives the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts.
His message to the people of Israel, ye men of Israel.
God hath made that same Jesus, whom he have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
In resurrection.
And they were smitten. In their conscience. They said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Said, Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children, to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
But it was the power of the resurrection that they preached, it says in the book of Acts with great power.
Gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Great grace was upon them all. It was the resurrection that imparted power and vitality to the message.
They were not afraid of death.
Everyone of the apostles met a martyr's death, according to history.
Except the Apostle John.
History tells us that Peter was crucified upside down. I don't know if that's true or not, but from the end of John's gospel it indicates that he would be crucified and martyred.
They were not afraid of suffering.
They were threatened. You read the book of Acts, the history. What gave them that power?
That dynamic because they had seen the risen Christ.
He was seen of Cephas.
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Then of the 12, he had to appear to the 12. He was going to use them. They were going to be the very foundation of this new thing that God was going to bring in called the Church. It's built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.
The foundation of the apostles and prophets. They had to have seen the Lord in resurrection.
He was seen of the 12.
And after that he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, 500 brethren at once.
Impossible.
To convince.
Impossible to foist a lie, a falsehood on the people.
On 500 brethren at once.
To get them all to agree to a lie to that which has been manufactured. As Peter says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made no one unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the Mount of Transfiguration. Yes, that's the pledge of a coming Kingdom. There can be no coming Kingdom. There can be no return of a coming king, if he's not living.
He is living.
He was seen of the 12 and of above 500 brethren at once irrefutable testimony. That's a fact of history, he says, Of whom the most part, the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
500 brethren at once. To get the mall to agree together to promote a lie is unthinkable.
Unthinkable.
Based upon that fact.
After that he was seen of James. Who was James all? I believe that was the Lord's brother. It says in the Gospel of John. It says neither did his brothers, his brethren believe in him.
They didn't believe until he was risen from the dead.
They didn't believe until they saw Christ in resurrection.
Think of how compelling that would be.
To be confronted after they saw him put to death on the cross, buried in the tomb.
And then?
To be confronted by a living Christ, James.
The author of the Epistle to the Jay of James, I believe, and his brother Jude, the author of Jude.
James was a key man at Jerusalem. When Paul went to Jerusalem, according to Galatians 1, he saw none of the apostles save Peter and James, the Lord's brother.
And the Lord was going to use James in a mighty way.
In the early church and so he was seen of James.
And then of all the apostles?
I wondered why that's repeated. I think I know.
It says he was seen of the 12 and verse 5 but now it says in verse 7 he was seen of all the apostles A2 fold testimony that those who would be the foundation of the new thing, the church that was coming in.
Would have a double witness of the risen Christ.
Men of the 12TH.
All the apostles.
The apostles absolutely had to see the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
One didn't have that, hadn't seen the risen Christ.
Or the Christ in glory. He is disqualified to be an apostle. Can't be any apostles today.
But I believe that the last witness that he brings forward.
Is the most convincing of all.
Last of all, verse 8.
He was seen of me also.
As of one born out of due time.
Saul of Tarsus.
Was it you that hated?
With.
A vengeance.
The despised name of Jesus. He hated his followers.
He did everything in his power. He had letters from the chief priests.
We heard that this afternoon.
When he was on the road to Damascus.
Letters from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of the Lord that were of the way.
The way of Jesus.
And a light from heaven.
Acts 9 says a light from heaven when he tells it to the Jews. In Acts 22 he says a great light from heaven.
And when he tells it in Acts 26 before Agrippa, he says a light from heaven brighter.
Then the noonday sun.
And that light from heaven shone into his sin darkened heart, that Pharisee of the Pharisees.
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The one who sat at the feet of Gamaliel.
The one who was educated in the strictest sect of our religion, as he says.
The one who had everything going for him. He was the Goliath, the champion for the Jewish cause to snuff out the despised and hated movement. The Nazarenes, the followers of that despised Nazarene. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth, They said.
The sect of the Nazarene.
The early Christians were called that.
And Paul, Saul, I should say, hated them.
And then he met the Lord.
And God saved him.
And God turned him around.
There would have been no amount of money.
That could have induced him to have made that change.
That could have convinced him to embrace the faith which he sought to destroy.
With all the energy of his religious being.
No, absolutely impossible.
That Saul of Tarsus.
Could ever have become a champion for the faith of the Christian cause.
Unless God himself.
Unless Jesus himself met him.
And turned him around. That's exactly what happened.
And when he made that decision?
When he heard the voice from heaven. Saul. Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the ******.
If you are Saul of Tarsus.
A Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
He says what things were gained to me? He had everything going for him, Fame.
Position Wealth.
It all closed in an instant.
When he said yes to the Lord Jesus.
He had seen not Christ risen on the earth, but in the glory.
He had believed the lie that was propounded in Matthew 28, that the keepers were told the Jews paid them a large sum of money, and say, say that while we slept his disciples came and stole him.
And we will persuade them and secure you.
I don't know if you know what anything about the Roman Empire, but if any soldiers who had been dispatched to guard a tomb, as they had to guard the tomb of Jesus, had slept, it would have meant instant death for them.
Not discharging their responsibility.
To say that while we slept, the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus.
Have you ever thought that all the Jews had to do to disprove Christianity was produce the dead body of Jesus?
That's all I had to do.
That would have shown it up to be a hoax, a falsehood.
Not a fact of history.
They couldn't produce that body and you can be sure they looked for it.
Unless they were so convinced themselves and had just given themselves over to the lie that they knew he was risen and it was useless.
But I'm sure some looked.
It says of Enoch when he was taken, it says he was not found, they were looking for him.
Well, they didn't find the Lord Jesus.
If they had produced him, dead or alive, either way, Christianity would have been destroyed.
The Christian faith is based upon the fact of the resurrection of Christ.
And those of us in the room, beloved Saints of God, those of you who believe that truth.
You're believing the fact of history.
Irrefutable.
Cannot be, cannot be contradicted.
And that's why the enemy attacks it so viciously.
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 am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
He was the apostle Paul now by the grace of God.
And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain.
But I laban more abundantly than they all. But he's not taking the credit to himself immediately, he says.
Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
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Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believe. Now we come to the error. Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, for he was dead.
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. You believe the phantom, you believe the lie.
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, that is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, worthless.
You are yet in your sins.
And then there's another dire consequence.
And if you're getting your sins, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Your loved ones that have died in the faith of Christ, they've perished.
They died believing A falsehood if Christ isn't risen.
Everything's lost, you're still in your sins and more, he says in verse 19.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Now I can't say that, and I dare say there's none in the room that can say that.
Because we have it pretty nice here.
We're not afraid that.
Well, we have an open door, but sometimes the Christians in other countries, they meet with a closed door.
And they're afraid.
They live in constant their life is in jeopardy every hour, as Paul says later in this chapter.
He says we're in jeopardy every hour. I don't know what that is.
I don't know what it is to be in jeopardy every hour. I don't know what it is to be under the sentence of death every moment.
That Paul could say daily I die.
To have a band of soldiers burst in here and apprehend certain of the crowd and take them off, and we may never see them again.
And put them to death.
He says, If in this life only we have hope, in Christ we are of all men most miserable.
Now you can take those words literally when the apostle Paul said it, because, as was mentioned this afternoon, or this today at any rate, the catalog of his sufferings.
That he lists in 2nd Corinthians 11.
Is absolutely overwhelming. You would say. How could a human being go through that?
But the Apostle Paul went through.
He gave up a life of ease and plenty and prosperity and popularity and power and fame and wealth. He gave that all up. For what if Christ isn't raised from the dead?
For what?
Nothing but persecution. Nothing but.
Flanders.
And hatred.
He says I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung, that I may have Christ for my gain.
How could those apostles go through that? How could they suffer the indignities we've been reading of it in our readings in First Thessalonians. How could those early Christians suffer like that Because they had the hope of the resurrection before their souls?
They realize that this is just this is not our resting place. This is just a temporary scene through which we're passing.
We're heading for the glory.
You have that hope.
You have that hope.
Now he says in verse 20. He says now he is Christ risen from the dead.
And become the first fruits of them that slept.
His resurrection is just the first of the harvest. The farmer goes out in the field when the field looks like it's ripe, and he'll take the first fruits out. He'll take the one of the shocks out and he brings it in, shows his wife. He says this is a little foretaste of the rest, all the thing that's out there in the field.
That's what our harvest is going to be like this year. Christ the first fruits afterward.
They that are Christ's.
At his coming verse 23 every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ that is coming.
Then cometh the end. Notice he mentions his coming in verse 23. The only mention of his coming in this chapter I believe.
Except at the end where it talks about the resurrection. Doesn't use the word he's coming, but that's that is his coming when he raises us from the dead.
First part of the chapter is establishing.
The gospel he had preached.
Authenticating the facts of the Gospel by reliable witnesses.
Many infallible proofs of his resurrection.
And then?
Showing that if he's not raised, everything is lost.
Then stating, But Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. His resurrection is the pledge of our resurrection.
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We're going to rise one day.
It's as certain as His. If you believe in His resurrection, you must believe in your own.
Because we're part of the same harvest.
Then cometh the end verse 24 after he mentions at his coming the end of verse 23, he goes over the tribulation period, he goes over the Kingdom period, and he goes to the very end.
Of the millennial reign of Christ 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.
1000 years his reign will last, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. When is that?
When is that last enemy destroyed? Turn over to Revelation 20, please.
Time is running out.
Revelation 20 Very important passage. The last enemy.
That shall be destroyed.
Is death verse 11 Revelation 20?
And I saw a great white throne.
And him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. That's resurrection. That's resurrection.
And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Now this event we're reading about takes place after.
The old this old earth and the old heavens have passed away.
It says the earth and the heaven fled away in verse 11.
There was found no place for them. So here is this great white throne standing in space. Who is seated on that throne?
John 5 says that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
That all should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
Friday before the prayer meeting, I was I was going through the park here in Regina, passing out some tracks and I came across two men sitting on the bench. I gave it to the first one, he took it. I gave it to the second one and he said, what is that?
It's a gospel tract, so I don't want it. Don't want it, don't want it, don't want it.
I said, why don't you want the gospel?
Well, he was very irrational.
I said you're going to bow to that man.
To the Lord Jesus Christ, one day I won't even repeat what he said.
And he will.
Everyone, this is the judgment of the unsaved dead.
They stand before God in resurrected bodies, John 5 says. There's a resurrection of life. That's what we're going to take part of. If you believe. Is there anyone in here that doesn't have the faith?
That embraces.
These precious truths that we've been talking about, that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Do you believe that?
Is that the faith in which you stand and by which you are saved? Do you have that faith?
If not, there is a resurrection of damnation.
Resurrection of judgment spoken of in John 5. The resurrection of life.
All of us who have faith will partake of that, and those that have no faith will partake of another resurrection.
A resurrection of judgment.
And that's what we have here.
Verse 13 it says the sea gave up the dead which were in it. That's resurrection.
And death and hell are correctly Hades.
The disembodied state death describes where the body is gone.
Hades, described with a spirit and soul, is gone.
Separated, but at the resurrection they will be rejoined.
To stand before God.
To stand before whom?
God, yes, but the one that's seated on that throne is the Son of God.
The Son of God who died on the cross for your sins. Christ died for our sins.
According to the scriptures, and if you reject that, you stand before him one day.
And bow before him.
Death and hell. Death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of fire. That means that that intermediate state of things, death.
And Hades will cease.
Never be again.
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The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
This is the second.
The Lake of Fire.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast.
Into the Lake of Fire, back to 1 Corinthians 15.
The last enemy verse 26 that shall be destroyed is death.
Death.
You are going to take part in one of those two resurrections, either the resurrection of life.
The resurrection of the believers spoken of in this chapter.
Of the resurrection of judgment.
And that depends on you. The decision is yours.
Christ has done the work.
You'll never be able to blame God.
You'll look into the face of the man that died for you on the cross when you stand before him. You're going to meet him as a savior now, or as a judge then One or the other. The choice is yours.
But meet him you will, and bow to him you will.
And confess that he is Lord. You will do that.
God has decreted.
This man said he would not.
But he will.
He will.
Do it now.
Come into peace.
Verse 35 we have to go down. I just want to touch a few things at the end before closing. But some men will say, how are the dead raised up?
And with what body do they come? You can just hear in the questions the unbelief that lies behind them.
I can't understand the resurrection. It's senseless. It's meaningless. It's foolish to me. It says in Acts 17, I referred to it before, it says when I heard of the resurrection of the dead so mocked. And you hear, you can hear the mockery in the question. And that's why Paul answers it that way. He says, thou fool.
That which thou sowest.
Is not quickened except it die. He goes back to the knowledge that every farmer has. He sews that grain into the ground.
And until it dies and germinates, there's nothing that's produced. You could leave that grain on the table.
For 1000 years it wouldn't produce anything. It has to die. It has to go into death.
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bear grain.
And may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him.
To every seed, his own body, the shock that comes up of wheat or corn or whatever it is doesn't look anything like that seed that went into the ground.
And what the apostle is doing here is he's likening the seed to this body.
That's going to be sown in death and what comes up at the end of the harvest.
At the time of the harvest, I should say, he's likening it to the new body, to the resurrection body.
So he says in verse 42, we must pass on some of those verses. So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption.
This is a corruptible body.
It decays. It's going to return to the dust. Dust thou art, and under dust shalt thou return.
It's not permanent. We're living in a in a very impermanent.
Body.
It is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption.
Going to have a body that is incapable of decay, incapable of corruption.
It is sown in dishonor. Oh how much dishonor attaches to this present body. It can get sick.
It's very limited.
In what it can do, limited in strength, limited in how fast we can move. The angels, they can move at tremendous speeds. They're far stronger than any of us. But so it's sown in dishonor.
Is raised in glory.
We have very little idea what that resurrection body is going to be like. Body of glory.
Incapable of injury.
It is raised. It is sown in weakness.
Is raised in power.
Today, if we run towards each other and hit each other, we're going to hurt one another.
Imagine having bodies where you could come towards each other and justice pass right through each other without any injury affecting.
Either one.
The risen Christ. He came right into a room with the doors all shut. He didn't have to open the door to let him in.
Can you imagine a body like that?
Body of power.
Body of glory.
It is shown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body. We're in it right now.
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There's also a spiritual body.
That little seed that the farmer sows in the ground in the springtime, that's like the natural body and what comes up in the fall, The body that God gives to that seed, that's like the spiritual body. That's the analogy that he is making in this chapter.
And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam, Christ.
A quickening spirit.
Howbeit, 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, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy just like Adam as to our bodies.
We looked like Adam. We have bodies like Adam had earthly bodies.
And as is the heavenly that's Christ.
Such are they also that are heavenly.
We are heavenly now, heavenly people, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we bear it in our bodies.
We shall bear the image.
Of the heavenly or what awaits us? Are you going to miss this?
Is there anyone in this room that's?
Here, without faith, living vital, saving faith to your soul. If so, you're going to miss this. You're going to miss it.
And you are going to be raised with a body of which scripture tells us nothing.
A body capable of suffering for throughout the endless ages of eternity stand before the Great White Throne and be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Forever.
Because you wouldn't bow now.
To the claims and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't miss that.
It's the most important issue you'll ever have to decide.
This I say bread and flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We can't enter the glory in these bodies.
They have to be changed.
And now he describes how they're changed quickly. Behold, I show you a mystery, Verse 51. A mystery. We shall not all sleep. That means we won't all die.
That we shall all be changed in a moment.
In the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump.
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.
And we, the living shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption. When he talks about this corruptible, he's talking about a believer who has died in faith and his body has gone into corruption.
When he's talking about this mortal, he's talking about us who are still living in this mortal body.
Who will receive immortal bodies?
The corruptible one will receive incorruptible bodies. Same body.
But the terms are used to describe the present condition of the Saints, either dead or living.
This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.
And this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory, No more death.
No more death for the Saints.
But as we read earlier in this chapter, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.