Alright, good morning everyone. If you will, let's go ahead and
bow our heads first thing this morning. Dear Lord, what a wonderful week
you've made for us. You provide for us in so many
ways. You give us the rain when we
need it and you give us the sunshine as we need it. We see you in
nature. But most thankfully, for so many
of us here, we see you in the word and we've heard it in your
preaching. And we thank you for that blessing
that you've touched so many in this place, dear Lord. And if
it be thy will, visit us again, both today and in the future.
Keep bringing us the messages of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Without him, there is no hope.
We must have all of Him all of the time. Amen. Now if you would, go ahead and
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'm going to do a little
bit of scripture reading today, a little bit more than usual.
And this first part, unlike the last time where I did a lot of
comment during my scripture reading, I'm just going to read this straight
through. Paul's writing to me anyway is a little more understandable
here. And I think it was what, Romans
6, the last passage we had looked at a couple of times together. And be with me this morning.
I woke up at 1 o'clock and this got on my mind. I got up at 2
and started reworking this thing. I'm not saying anything different,
but I started moving stuff around and where I had it. And when
you do that, a lot of times something gets missing you don't want and
you keep something you do want or don't want. And so if I get
confused, I don't know. I ain't no fixin' it today. We're
here now. But we're going to read the first
22 verses of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. Paul writes to us, Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand, by which
also you are saved, if you keep in memory that what I preached
unto you, unless you 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 twelve, and of course
that's Peter. After that he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present, but some are 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 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. 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 believed. 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. Yea, 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 fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all man most miserable. But now 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. Excuse me. I've been drinking
coffee since 2 o'clock and now I'm thirsty. Our starting point
this morning will be a combination of the two verses I just read
to you, and that's verses 14 and 17, so I want to put them
together. Verse 14, and if Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also
vain. Verse 17, and if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. So from
this, I ask each and every one of you this morning, is your
faith in vain? That, of course, depends on what
you have faith in, doesn't it? In these 22 verses, Paul writes
to us of at least two things here that a person must have
faith in. And that's gonna be our focus
as I continue on for a few moments here. Now I've given the title
to my outline this morning, and I'm calling this thing here,
Faith in the Life and Faith in the Death, and how necessary
it is that that person has this faith. A person has no hope and
no salvation without it, or as Paul put it so plainly, your
faith is in vain. Y'all probably noticed I do it
all the time, and I think it's part of my contrarian nature. I was speaking to my cousin,
Gwen, yesterday, and we talked about my contrarian nature a
little bit. I go backwards often in these
things, and I'm going to do the same thing today. I'm going to
cover the last part of the scripture, then we'll go back toward the
first part. I do it for a couple reasons. One of the reasons,
this first, what I'm calling my first point, or faith in the
life, is the main focus of Paul's attention here in this chapter
of Corinthians. But the second part I'm going
to get to is really, I think, what most people have the most
trouble with nowadays, at least as I view it and as I look around
and I see it. So we're going to begin this
morning, and it's just going to be just a few minutes. I'm
trying to be a little bit quicker today. We're going to begin with
faith in the life. Now Paul had a lot of work to
do when he penned this letter to the church here in Corinth.
Time's not going to allow me to comment on it, but if you
go through and read it, or you just read a few commentaries,
and they'll give you a brief outline of the chapter. A lot
of work. He admonishes, he corrects, he
advises, he exhorts these people, this young church. They had began
certain actions. They were practicing certain
sins. And in this case here in chapter
15, they were allowing an error or a denial of the truth to creep
into the church. This error, this denial that
Paul is confronting right here in this chapter that we just
read, it's stated right here in verse 12 if you want to look
at it. Christ writes, now if Christ be preached that He rose
From the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection
of the dead? Evidently, and we don't know
exactly who, some commentators make guesses of who it was, but
people had brought in Christ did not raise from the grave.
They had brought this lie into the church, directly contrary
to what Paul originally brought to the church and the truth.
This church in Corinth, it contained both Jews and Greeks. Corinth is a small city in Greece,
or it was a small city in Greece. And the Greeks especially had
a problem with believing that there is life after death. If
you'll recall, especially from Doug's preaching in Acts to us,
that Paul ran into this same problem in Acts, I believe it's
chapter 10 or chapter 18. I don't forget which one it is
now. But there it said that they mocked
him, they called him a babbler, they said that he preached strange
gods. It was all because he was preaching
that Christ rose from the grave. So now there are troublemakers
in this church, this church here that he began. They're denying
the very message that Paul brought to them. And it's the same message that
Paul was still preaching. That message is Christ lives. To deny or to not have faith
that Jesus was raised from the dead is to have no faith at all.
It's first just a denial of the history of the event. That's why I read this extended
passage to you. I wanted you to read it for yourself.
He just read of all the witnesses who saw Christ out of the grave. Numerous, numerous sightings. But even more deadly and dangerous,
I believe, if you deny that Christ rose from the dead, You deny
the very testimony of God himself. You're calling God a liar. Because
you see, the scriptures prophesized of this resurrection. It's also to deny the deity of
Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
The grave could not hold God. But instead of me just carrying
on about it, I believe this is the only time I'm going to ask
you to turn all morning. If you would, keep your place
here, we're going to come right back to it, but turn to Acts
chapter 2. And I'm just going to read the point I'm trying
to make to you here, that the scriptures speak of the resurrection,
the witnesses speak of the resurrection, and Christ is God, and the grave
cannot hold Him. Now here, this is the Apostle
Peter speaking. And this is a message that he
brings. And just think of how familiar it sounds to what we
just read. Ye men of Israel, beginning in
verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know. Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
beholden of it. Now we go to where the scriptures
speak of it. For David speaketh concerning
him. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall
rest in hope. because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see
corruption." He must rise on that third day, folks, and he
did. Verse 28, thou hast made known
to me the ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with
thy countenance. Man and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his grave is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath to
him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which you now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Peter's gospel is
Paul's gospel, and it is the gospel. David and others prophesied
to it, and many witnessed it. Jesus did rise from the grave. But also, to have no faith that
Jesus is risen is to have no hope at all. As Paul wrote it
in verse 17, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain,
you are yet in your sins. This is the most important point.
And I wanted to bring it to your mind right here because I'm going
to return to it in a few minutes. So I'm going to wait and talk
about it, but I want you to be thinking about that verse 17
as we go through here. Now I've made short work of this
today. Like I said, I wanted to try
and get through a little bit sooner and not run out of time
this morning. But I want to leave you with
just two verses before we go on to something else. And it's
the necessity of having what I'm calling here faith in the
life. Faith in the fact that Christ
rose from the grave. And it comes also from the pen
of Paul. You don't have to turn. It's
just two verses. It comes from Romans 10. The
necessity of having faith that Christ rose. Verses 8 and 9 of
Romans 10. But what saith it? The word is
near thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart,
listen to this now, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. This is
a necessary article of faith without a better way to say it.
But now before I move on, I think I would be remiss if I don't
try to answer the question rather quickly, just what is faith? Just what's faith? Now we moved,
going on about a year ago, and in my move I uncovered a book
that I didn't realize I had. And it was written by Mr. Norval
Robertson, and it's entitled A Church Member's Doctrine of
Theology. Now, he's an old-time preacher. I believe this was written in
1874, and he just preached evidently for 40-some years, I believe,
at a small church in Mississippi. But he wrote this book, and I've
been going through it. And I told my wife the other
day, I said, this is a doctorate course, and I'm a first-year
student. I'm telling you, it's some kind of deep. And I've really
been enjoying it, and I'm going to admit to you that some of
the things I'm going to stay from now on out, I liberally
borrowed from him. I'll put it that way. And another
thing is, I don't know where this book come from. So if one
of you all are missing a book, I know where it is now. I'll
be glad to give it back to you when I get through it. But he
gave a definition to this question I'm asking, what is faith? And
it was quite simple. He wrote, as we use the word
in ordinary discourse, faith is one of the most simple and
common acts of the human mind. Faith is belief. That's simple
enough. I really thought he'd go into
a lot more detail, but that's all he gave on the subject, really,
as far as a definition. But I wanted to go, and I know
I used to do this all the time, I wanted to look it up in the
Webster's, and let's see what Webster's had to say to me about
just what is faith. I know I used to do that all
the time for you. And as always, it gives several
different definitions to the same word, but the one that stuck
out the most to me this morning, since we're dealing with spiritual
matters, it said that faith is something that is believed with
strong conviction. And that's the kind of faith
I'm talking about this morning. Strong conviction. Strong conviction. We can never
have enough. When I read that, I thought about
that man that came to Christ with a child with a dumb spirit. Christ asked him, do you believe?
He said, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Do you
ever go to God with that same request? Strong conviction. I'm always
after stronger conviction. My faith is too weak. Lord, give
me more. I pray with that man. Help my
unbelief. But now there was another definition
that Webster's provided, and it said that faith is a firm
belief in something for which there is no proof. And I guess as I was going into
my study this past, well, week, mainly about a week I've spent
on this now, I was going to work on something different. So, as
usual, I changed my mind. That definition really, really
probably come closest to what I, if I had to write down a definition. Proof in, you know, belief in
something that there's not a proof. But that was in direct contradiction
to what Mr. Robertson wrote. He wrote that
that's not faith. That's actually presumption.
Presumption. He put down on paper that faith,
properly so called, always rests upon evidence. Hence, to believe
without evidence is not rational. And in respect to our relations
to God, it is extremely dangerous. That's quite a contrast between
the two. To believe in something without
proof versus believing in something with evidence. So I tried to come up with some
examples. Just what is he trying to say versus what I read there
in the dictionary. We all had faith that the sun
would come up this morning, correct? We have no guarantee that it
was going to, but it did yesterday and the day before that. So we
had faith that we'd see it again today. We have evidence, past
history. Mr. Robertson won that argument
in my mind. I also thought that if you jump
out of a window, which way are you going to go, up or down?
Unless you flap your wings or have some kind of power source,
you're going down. We always have. We jump out the
window today, we're going down. Evidence wins again. Now, I didn't
spend too long on it. You can tell by these two simple
examples. And I think maybe if you think long and hard enough,
you might could come up with an example of where Webster's
might win this argument. But as I continue reading Mr.
Robertson, But he had the most convincing argument to me that
he was correct when we're talking about these spiritual matters.
And I'm not going to quote him here like I've always done. It
was very simple what he said. He said, all the evidence we
need we have right here before us this morning, the Holy Scriptures. He called this evidence infallible. And of course it is. God cannot
lie. The truth is right here. Now, true saving faith has as
its object one thing, or better yet, one person. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the testimony in that
book. God Himself, God who cannot lie, He Himself told us, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, now these are
the words of Christ, that's why I specifically said God told
us. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. The key words
there, you have to believe on me. We have to believe on Jesus Christ
as He's revealed in these scriptures, in this gospel. We don't believe
in a Jesus that's a God of our own imagination. That's what
Paul is dealing with here in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. He reminds these people that
all the evidence points to the truth that Christ rose from the
grave. The same truth he brought the
first time he preached to them when he first brought the gospel
to that church. I believe he stayed there almost
two years. If you don't believe in Christ rising from the dead,
then you don't believe in Christ, period. And the truth then is
the truth now. You just can't take the parts
of the Bible out that you like and you want to believe and put
the rest to the side. This book is all or nothing. It's all or nothing. Idolatry
is still the number one sin in religion, just as it's always
been. It's just that nowadays, the
God that so many people have created in their minds, He just
happens to carry the same name as the real Savior. They call
Him Jesus too. Confuses a lot of folks. But
back to our scripture this morning and back to the point that I'm
trying to get across. My time's already starting to
get short. It's amazing how the clock goes up here. I wish it
went this fast at work. Look at verse 3 with me. It reads, For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scripture. The first thing was
you have to have faith in the life. Here we see that you have
to have faith in the death. You have to have faith that Christ
died for your sins, that you're pardoned because he paid the
penalty for them. As we get into this subject,
I'm going to go to the evidence. Mr. Robertson said, we have faith in the evidence.
We have faith in this book. So we're going to look at a scripture.
Now Genesis 3 speaks to his heel being bruised. Daniel 9, it tells
of the Messiah being cut off. Psalm 22, we read of Christ being
afflicted. And that's just a small sample
of numerous places in the Old Testament that speaks to the
death of Christ. But I'm going to read a few verses
to you, and I picked this one out because, really, if you want
to, you can turn. It's Isaiah 53, but everyone
here is familiar with it. You probably don't even have
to turn. Speaking about how it was prophesied,
the evidence that the Messiah would die for our sins. I'm going
to pick up at verse 3 in Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected
of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
done, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand." Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, they most especially
give us an extended history of these eight verses. That's what
they're speaking about, the life and the death of Christ, the
travail of his The Old Testament spoke of his
death. I just read one example to you. And the reason for it
is given to us right here in Isaiah 53. The reason Christ
died. Verse 10 tells us of Isaiah 53,
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. And as far as the New
Testament goes, you can open your Bibles to practically any
page and you'll find evidence that Christ died for his people.
There again, the evidence points that Christ died for his people's
sins. Now only a fool would deny that
Jesus died. History tells us that there was
a man named Jesus and he did live. Even Islam recognizes Jesus
as a prophet. But since he's not walking the
earth today, he died. He died. But faith, the faith
I'm talking about this morning, it comes not in just believing
that he died, but in believing that he died for your sins. There's
a difference. But the first thing that comes
here is you've got to know your sinner. And I spoke on this subject
Well, a couple times in the last few times we were together, so
I'm not going to hang out here too long, but I have to visit
it again. I'll just take a little different
tack to it. Joseph Hart wrote a song, and in that song there's
a line in it. It says, though all are sinners
in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. When you
get right down to it, most people fall into that category. They
got a few little problems, but they're just not out-and-out
sinners. They just ain't that bad. They
can always look up a comparison and find somebody worse. That
helps ease their guilty conscience. They just don't realize the deadly
consequences of sin. They just don't understand that
sin is punishable by death. and eternal damnation. And that's whether you're guilty
of just one sin, or 101 sins, or a million pages worth of sins.
Each and every one of them deserves the same punishment. Death, death,
death. Just one. You can't commit one
today and then live for the next 80 years without a single sin
and not deserve the same condemnation as the worst outlaw in the prison
cell. Not in the sight of God's eyes.
It's death. But until you come to realize
this, as Until you come to your senses and you find out that
you stand under this condemnation, you'll never need this Jesus
that Paul is writing of. You might need that little Jesus
of your own imagination I spoke about a little bit earlier, but
not this Jesus, not this Jesus of the Scriptures. You might
need a little help, but you don't need this all-sufficient Savior
that's revealed in the pages of our Bibles. And Mr. Hardy had another line in that
hymn, and it's the one probably most of you are most familiar
with. It goes, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made
him so. So if you want to pray for folks,
that's what your prayer needs to be. God, show them they're
a sinner. Show them they're a sinner. Because
when they learn that, and it's only until they'll learn that,
Then they'll come to this Christ. This Christ that came into the
world to save sinners. So just what does it, time's
gone, just what does it mean to say that Christ died for our
sins? Back in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians. Christ died for our sins. And
to make sure I say it now and I don't forget, I want to preface
my next comments By noting this pronoun, our, Paul is writing
to believers. When he says our sins, it is
a specific, definite people. First of all, cross dying for
our sins means he paid the penalty for those sins. The justice of
God must be satisfied. A blood sacrifice must be offered. The sentence of death I mentioned
before. It has to be carried out against
all sin. And it was. And it resulted in
the death of God's only begotten son. This Christ we're reading
and studying about this morning. And with it, Christ secured the
pardon for his people. He paid the penalty that was
required by the law. He died. And with that death,
they can now be set free. A sin debtor is no longer owed,
so the debtor must be set free. Must be set free. And now, the good news for the
sinner, they don't have to worry about those sins anymore. They've
been washed away in the blood of the lamb, washed so thoroughly
as if they've never been there to start with. They've been put
away. They're gone. They've been forgotten.
When I had that thought, it brought a scripture to my mind, so I
looked it up, and it's probably one of the most comforting scriptures
for a weary sinner. Hebrews 8 verses 12 and 13. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he saith a new covenant
he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. It is the surety of this new
covenant that we're speaking about today. And what's the result? Their sins and their iniquities,
God says, I will remember no more. They're all taken away. They're all taken away. So, now I want to try and tie
my two points together. We must have faith in the life,
and we must have faith in the death. So I want to re-read just
one last verse from our passage here this morning. Verse 17.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. Ye are
yet in your sins." To deny His resurrection is to deny His efficiency
as a Savior. It is to doubt His purpose, His
purpose for which He walked this earth. And it's to doubt His ability,
to deny His ability to accomplish what He came to do. In some respects,
it's to doubt that He's even God, because God cannot fail. And it's to doubt or to dispute
this very testimony of God, because this book everywhere, everywhere
proclaims His success. No failure with this Christ.
100% success. Without His death, there is no
payment for sin. We'll have to look at elsewhere. Without His death, the law has
not been satisfied. So it still cries out that penalty,
death. There's no atonement. There's
no appeasement of God. His wrath has not been abated.
And the guilt of the sin still weighs on the sinner. No peace,
no freedom. Without his life, without his
resurrection, there's no justification of his people. For his blood
was shed to obtain the forgiveness of their sins, yet he must be
raised again for their justification. There's no sanctification of
his people. There's no regeneration. There's
no reconciliation. There's only death. But the good news is that's not
the case, is it? Jesus did die, and he did rise
again. History tells us this, and more
importantly, this book tells us, the very written word of
God. If you want to believe something, have faith in that. We have a
successful Savior. He will see of the travail of
his soul. The guilty will be cleared, and the captive will
be set free. You can bank on it. I'll leave you with just one
scripture this morning, and it speaks to the efficiency of the
work of our Savior. Romans 5, just a few verses. If you want to turn, you can,
but I'm going to start reading right away. I'm going to pick
up at verse 8. Talking about our successful
Savior. How complete? His work was. And how he has
saved his people. But God commanded his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much
more than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved
from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we
will reconcile to God by the death of his son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more, the grace of God, and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses under justification. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all man to condemnation, Even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. We must have faith to have salvation. And our faith has to be in the
one who saves, the one we just read about, Jesus Christ. We
don't bring anything to add to his work. We only bring our voices. and our cries, and our tears,
and our begging for mercy, and our begging for kindness from
God, and most especially our begging for forgiveness for our
sins. Search the Scriptures. See what
they say about Him. See what they say about you. See who you need. The only Savior
there is, the only one provided, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have faith
only in Christ. Thank you.