1 Corinthians 15 and 20. This
is going to be our starting place. This is the launching pad, so
to speak. But we'll be using the record of Christ's resurrection,
which is the subject of this chapter in 1 Corinthians 15.
We'll be using the record we find in the Gospel of Matthew
and also in Luke in live time, so to speak. Now let's read this
one verse together. Don't just listen while I read.
Read it with me, please. 1 Corinthians 15 and 20. But
now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits
of them that slept. In our hymn book, page 128, there
is a hymn called Hallelujah Christ Arose. That's the title of my
message. Hallelujah, Christ arose. Let me see. I thought I could
remember the chorus but I don't. Up from the grave he arose with
a mighty triumph for his foes. He arose a victor from the dark
domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose,
he arose. Hallelujah, Christ arose. I looked on Free Grace Radio
to see when was the last time I preached from this text, 1
Corinthians 15 and 20. I knew I had. Actually, I've
preached from it five times since I've been your pastor, but the
last time was in May of 2017, five years ago, nearly five years
ago. First thing I thought, that's
too long. That's too long. It's high time, I said to myself,
to preach this foundation truth. That's how Paul uses it here,
doesn't he? In all those things that would
be, and not good things, that would be if Christ didn't rise
from the dead. That's why I say this is a foundation. The church is built. This is
the chief cornerstone. If Christ be not raised, what
we're doing here today couldn't be more useless. Couldn't be
more filled. Might as well go out and live
and eat, drink, and be merry, as the fool said, because tomorrow
we die. Oh, but our text says, oh, that's
not so. Oh, that's not so, because now
is Christ risen from the dead. You see how important it is as
we read those verses prior to verse 20? If Christ be not raised,
our faith is vain, Paul said. In other words, it's meaningless.
It's meaningless. If Christ is still in the grave,
that means God wasn't satisfied with his work. That means he
must not have accomplished the redemption of his people. But
God raised him from the dead as evidence that he was satisfied
with the work of his son. That's why he said, son, sit
down at my right hand. I'm going to make everybody bow
to you. Because he was so pleased, as
always, with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ
be not raised, Paul said, you're getting your sins. You're getting
your sins. Now think about that. The lost
man doesn't think about it. He could care less, but a saved
man appreciates that. He remembers that terrible load
of sin. He remembers like Bunyan's Christian
carrying that load and thought it was going to sink him down
into the lowest pits of hell. He remembers when that load was
taken off, and that could only be accomplished by a risen Savior. If he be not raised, that means
we're yet in our sins. We're lost. We're unsaved. We can never be saved if Christ
did not rise from the dead. And this day, this day, Easter,
as it's called, please take my word for it, has nothing to do
with this message. It may have served as a reminder,
I don't know, but the resurrection of Jesus, I tell you what, I
can see something in Christmas, and I do away with all the nonsense
and commercialism, but that I can enjoy. It's a joyful time. But Easter, I can't find nothing
in that that I can identify with. You tell me what Easter eggs
and bunnies and all this nonsense has to do with the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. I just can't identify with anything
about Easter. But anyway, that has nothing
to do with this message except, as I said, perhaps it served
as a reminder. It's impossible not to be aware
of all the absolute craziness going on today and calling it
worship. Am I lying? Am I lying? No, I'm
not lying. When I lived in Oak Hill, I was
telling Robin about this, Oak Hill, West Virginia. When I was
still back there before I ever moved to Kentucky, that's over
30 years ago, there was a church there not far from where my mom
lived. On Friday, they would have some idiots from the church
dragging a cross down Main Street And then they would, they would,
they had three crosses out there and they would hang on there
from, well I think they worked in shifts, men hanging on until
Sunday morning. My, so, yeah, yeah, and they,
I dare say they probably do that at a lot of places, but I remember
one Friday night I was out with my children, took them out to
get a cheeseburger and we stopped at the light and looked right
over and there's an idiot on the cross. I said, Roger, I think
it was. He said, little fella. I said,
daddy, what's that about? I said, buddy, you tell me. I said, Roger,
you know what I'd like to do? If I had a hose, I'd like to
hose him down because it was kind of cold. I'd just like to
hose him down good. But anyway, the resurrection
of Jesus Christ had nothing to do with such nonsense as that.
It reminded me what our Lord told the woman at the well. Remember
that? In John 4. He deliberately put himself right
in the path of that woman. Because she was one of his sheep.
That's why the chapter begins with these words. He must needs
go through Samaria. One of his sheep is there. He
came to seek and save his sheep. But he told her, this woman,
when she began to get uncomfortable with our Lord's probing interview
with her, brought out her fig leaves of religion, didn't she?
She began to show him and thought it would impress him. She said,
you know, I worship up here. I worship in Samaria. That's
where my father's told me to worship. It's just as good as
Jerusalem, isn't it? Remember how our Lord answered
that? He didn't say, well, you know, sure, that's fine. Everybody's
got their opinion. Everybody's going to heaven.
They're just taking different roads to get there. No, he said,
lady, You're clueless, didn't he? He said, lady, you don't
even know what you worship or who you worship. You're clueless. If you really knew, and this
is what he said, didn't he? If you really knew right now
who it is that's talking with you, if you really knew the gift
of God, you would ask of me. That's God's gift. He said, if you knew who, not
what. She knew a lot of what's, but she didn't know who. She
didn't know who. And Christ said, if you knew
who it is talking to you right now, at this moment, you would
ask of me, and you know what I would do for you. If you would
ask right now, I would give you living water. I would give you
living water, and you'd never thirst again. That living water
that flows from the fountain of God Almighty, but you can
only have it as it passes through me. I'm the conduit. I'm the conduit. Ask me. Ask
me. Like he said in John 7 afterwards,
when he saw that religious generation going through all the rigmarole
religious tradition, and he stood and said, is anybody thirsty?
He would do that today, wouldn't he? If he went into the average
church with all this absolute insanity going on, Anybody thirsty? Or are you satisfied
with this? Are you satisfied with making
decisions, getting baptized or walking an aisle and learning
doctrine? Is that all you want? Is that
all you need? Well, there's plenty of it. But if you're really thirsty,
if you really want to know the living God, If you're sick and
tired of this foolishness, if your heart's thirsty to know
the living God, come to me. Come to me. If you don't come
to me, you'll be satisfied with this foolishness. Oh, but if
you're thirsty, come unto me and drink. Come unto me and drink. And believers, believers don't
celebrate their Lord's resurrection one day out of the year, do they? No, no, no. We celebrate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ every day of the year, and especially
as we meet today, the Lord's Day, not Easter Day, the Lord's
Day. It's the Lord's Day. He arose
early before the sun came up. He arose early the first day
of the week. That's what the scriptures plainly
said. That wasn't a Christian Sabbath. There's no such thing
as a Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath was on Saturday under
the law for the Jews. Christ rose on the first day
of the week, Sunday. That's the Lord's Day. It's not
a Sabbath, it's the Lord's Day. Easter time with all its superstition. It's not just unscriptural, it's
anti-scriptural. I'm going to move along. I know
you may be getting tired of hearing this, but I'm not. This religious hoopla demonstrates
what I read the other day in an article by A.W. Pink. I thought,
I don't know when this was written. How long has Pink been dead?
He died, what, in the 50s? I don't know when this was written,
but it was like he looked out the day. He said, the professing
church has boasted that it will convert the world. To accomplish
this aim, it has sought to popularize religion. Innumerable devices
have been employed to attract the ungodly. That's exactly right. And he says the result has been
that the world has converted to professing church. That's
exactly right. Most churches have adopted entertainment. I mean, just all kinds of things,
thinking that'll draw in the world. Well, it does draw in
the world. And you've got an ungodly, you've produced a multitude
of people that don't know God from a goose, but they saw a
puppet show or some other nonsense and they made a decision for
Jesus. That's heartbreaking, brother and sister. That's just
absolutely heartbreaking. I know people like that. I've
got children, grandchildren, I've got family like that. I
mean, sitting under a Lies. As Scott said, men standing there
telling lies on God, and they might be as sincere as they can
be, but if they believe that, they don't know God. They're
going to hell. And I'm supposed to just stand
and say, well, you know, I don't want to offend nobody. It's sad,
isn't it? I had an experience just the
other day that reminded me of this. Robin and I were in Walmart. It's not exactly my favorite
place to be, but we dropped her car off to get the tires rotating,
She said, I need a few things. I said, they said it'll take
an hour. And when the lady told me that,
an hour to do the car, I said, that's great, because I can handle
about an hour. That's about my limit. But it took longer than
that. But Robin picked some things
out for me for the beach. She's trying to get me beach
ready, Terry. So I went to try them on. And
I heard her talking with this lady that took care of the fitting
rooms. She asked this lady, what did
I do? What's your husband do? And Robin
said, he's the pastor of Fairmont Grace Church. You'll like this. This lady said, does Delilah
Breedlove still go there? And Robin said, yeah. This lady
said, you know what? I was in first grade with Delilah
Breedlove. I went to school with her. I didn't like her. In the
first grade, she stomped on my foot. And I said, that's Delilah. But
I don't think that lady's got over it yet. But anyway, I came
out. And she said, so you're a pastor? I said, yes, ma'am. She said,
are you going to join the Ministerial Association this Sunday morning?
I said, no, ma'am. I've not heard anything from
them. She said, well, they're going
to meet at, what is it? I've got it written down here
somewhere. That's cemetery. Evergreen Cemetery at the mausoleum
for a sunrise service. You going to take part in that?
I said, I don't think I'll be there. And I could tell by the
look on her face, she was disappointed. She didn't understand that. I
said to her, and I prayed as I said it, ma'am, you remember
what the angels said to them women that morning when they
came to the tomb seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and he was
gone? He was long gone. They said, why do you seek the
living among the dead? Why are you doing that? I mean,
these fellas are going to go out and have it so good, I don't
know what they do. a sunrise service? Why seek the living
among the dead? They said, he's not here. He's risen, just like he told
you. Now you go tell his disciples.
You go tell those weeping, frightened disciples that he's risen, and
if they'll remember, he said he'd meet him in Galilee. Now
go tell them. Oh, that's good news, isn't it? Good news, the
Messiah, the Messiah. Now I told you we'd be using
Matthew and Luke's account So turn with me to Matthew chapter
1. Matthew, I'm sorry, chapter 28, verse 1. Matthew 28, 1. Bobby, I'm sure glad you enlarged
the print. But I just referred to this.
Matthew 28, 1. Now the last time these ladies
saw the Lord Jesus Christ, they saw his dead body being laid
in this tomb. They did what they could once
his body was taken down to prepare it. But because the Sabbath drew
on, they had to stop. So they followed and watched
where his body was placed. So they come back. They come
back to finish the job of preparing his body properly for burial. That's why they come. Verse 1. In the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary to see the sceptre. And behold, There was
a great earthquake. It wasn't so the Lord could leave,
it's so they could look in. For the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning
and his raiment was white as snow. I wonder what the ministerial
association would think of that at a sunrise, sir. And for fear
of him, the keepers did shake and become as dead men. And the
angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I
know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He's not here. He's not here. He's risen, as
he said. Come see the place where the
Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is
risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you
into Galilee. There shall ye see him. Lo, I
have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy. and did run to bring his
disciples word. Now I say we would look at Luke's
account as well. Luke chapter 24. I think by doing
this we'll get a better picture of this glorious event. Luke
chapter 24 verse 1. Now upon the first day of the
week, Sunday, Very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre,
bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others
with them. And they found the stone rolled
away from the sepulchre. Luke 24, verse 3, And they entered
in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to
pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood
by them in shiny garments. And as they were afraid and bowed
down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, why seek
ye the living among the dead? He is not here, he's risen. Remember how he spake unto you
when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified? That must happen,
and it did. So does this. It must happen. And the third day, rise again. And they remembered his words.
Oh, Larry, if you would remember his words, how much needless
heartache, you would say to yourself, how much needless worry if you
would just remember his words. And they returned from the sepulchre
and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. One writer said, as the disciples
wept and mourned, they told them the story. It was Mary Magdalene
and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and other women that
were with them which told these things unto the apostles. And
their words seemed to them," isn't this astounding, and their
words seemed to them, after all the things the apostles had witnessed,
eyewitnesses of Christ, their words seemed to them like an
idle tale, and they believed them not. Again in Matthew 28
and 1, you need not turn back there, but notice the first verse,
it said, in the end of the Sabbath, in the end of the Sabbath, Literally,
that was the end of the Sabbath. It began to dawn to the first
day of the week, the Lord's Day, the Lord's Day, the dawning of
a brand new day. Oh, there's a lot there, isn't
it? This is what I mean by that.
For he that is entered into his rest, Christ is our Sabbath. Paul in Hebrews 4 wrote, verse
10, for he that's entered into his rest, not trying to find
rest under the legal system of the law. Oh, no, no, no. Not
Sabbath keeping and tithing and touch not, taste not. Oh, no,
no. Those folks never had rest. Oh,
Christ said, come unto me. I'm the Sabbath, and I'll give
you rest. That just pictured what I can
do. For he that's entered into his
rest, Hebrews 4 and 10, he also has ceased from his own works.
Oh, that's so refreshing. My soul and God got me lost. I went to my, it's just a first
reaction of the natural man to think he can do natural things
and please God. I mean, it's just, it's just
a given. But God kept bringing me down.
But I remember I went to Grandma. Grandma, I'm lost. She said,
well, get you a haircut. I was a hippie. I said, Grandma,
I'm lost. I don't know what to do. She said, the first thing you
need to do is go get that haircut. So I went and got a haircut. I said,
Grandma, I'm still lost. Well, then you need to get a Bible
and a reading. So I did that and went back over and said,
Grandma, I'm still lost. I'm lost. Sad, isn't it? Sad. Trying to
think I could appease God by the length of my hair or memorizing
scriptures and so forth. Let us labor, Paul says in Hebrews
4. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, his rest. Throw all this other garbage
aside, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Along this same line, Galatians 3 and 24, wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That's the purpose
of the law, that we might be justified by faith. For Christ
is the end of the law, Paul wrote in Romans 10 and 4. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Oh
yes, it was the end of the Sabbath. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled and there is remission.
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed
us once for all. Now we're free. There's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh hear his sweet
call. Come and he saves us once for
all. Galatians 3 and 13, Christ had redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us because it's written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Oh, wasn't those
glorious words that fell on the ears of those poor grieving women. The last time they saw Christ,
his lifeless body was laid in a tomb. I cannot imagine their
confusion. They believed in him. They loved
him. That's why they were the first
ones there. They went and told Peter and John, and they raced
to see if it was true, but these women came. They loved the master. They were brokenhearted. The
last time they saw him, they were laying his limp, lifeless
body in Joseph's tomb, and they rolled a stone in front of him.
And they left there. They come back three days later.
thinking, well, maybe now the Sabbath's over, we won't be breaking
the law, we'll go finish preparing his body. That's what they expected
to find. He's not here. He's not here. He's risen. He's risen. And with fear and great joy,
they ran to bring his disciples word. What unspeakable joy. must have been in their hearts.
I mean, could they have been any lower in their heartache,
in their confusion? And then suddenly, that's why
I say the resurrection of Christ is the foundation stone of our
faith. Suddenly they're transformed.
He's not dead. That one who loves us and gave
himself for us, that one, Magdalene said, that cast seven devils
out of me, he's alive. He's alive. Brethren, I want
to try to, for you and I, before we leave here today, try to reinforce. I would like to enter into the
joy The joy that these ladies felt. What unspeakable joy to
hear these words. I'd like for them to ring fresh
in our ears like we were hearing them for the first time this
morning. I pray God would do that for us. Would you pray the
same? Oh, to hear, he's not here, he's risen. He's risen, your
Redeemer's risen. He's ruling right now. He's overruling
everything. There's no accidents. People,
I don't know how many people, and they mean well. We're sorry
to hear about your bad luck there at the parsonage. Somebody said
to me just the other day, said, oh, it's where you had your old
chain, Scott, down there at Wright's. He said, well, Larry, good luck
with that. I said, Scott, I hope I got more
than that going for me. But oh, what joy it was to know
that Jesus Christ lives and reigns for me. He's interceding for
me, he died for me, why would he not intercede for me? Why
would he not overrule everything? I don't understand very little
of what he does and why he does it, but God still grant me faith
to know if he's doing it, it must be right. It must be for
my best, although I can't see how. And that's what the promise
in Romans 8 is about, isn't it? It doesn't say you know how,
you can figure it out. Man, he's God. Just know this,
by faith we know. We know that he works with all
things together for our good. How do we know? Because of the
one that's doing the work, God Almighty. He makes no mistakes.
But here's what I want to do. Consider the reverse. Consider
as Paul did in those verses prior to our text. If Christ hadn't
risen from the tomb, listen to this, child of God. And if you
don't know Christ, this is your case right at the very moment.
If Jesus Christ had not risen from the tomb, instead of unspeakable
joy, there would be the very opposite, wouldn't there? There
wouldn't be nothing but unspeakable sorrow. Instead of a good hope,
there would be a hopeless life, a hopeless death, a hopeless
eternity, if Christ didn't rise. Everlasting sorrow, God's unmitigated
wrath, And instead of all of our tears being forever wiped
away, there would only be nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Oh, I'm so glad he rose again
from the dead. I'm so glad that Jesus Christ,
hallelujah, Christ arose. In Matthew chapter 28, there's
the account of the guards that were guarding his body going
into the city and telling what happened. Went to the chief priest
and said, man, the stone rolled away. There was an angel. He's
gone. You remember that? And you know
what the chief priest did? I'll tell you what we're going
to do. We're going to give you a lot of money if you don't spread
that around. We'll pay you. And if it comes
to the ears of the governor, who you're under his command. I mean, you could forfeit your
lives because you're supposed to have been guarding that tomb.
But I'll tell you what, the chief priest said, we'll give you money.
And then if you get called on the carpet for this, we'll get
the ear of the governor and we'll secure you. We'll tell him that
you fell asleep. And while you were asleep, someone
came and stole the body of Christ. Now, if they were asleep, how
did they know whatever happened? And we're told in Matthew 11
that that story, that lie, is commonly believed to this day
among the Jews. And so it is. But just imagine,
brothers and sisters in Christ, if that had not been a lie, what
if it had been true? That they came and stole the
body and then went out and said, well, he rose from the dead.
What if that had been the truth? Instead of hearing words like,
enter into the joy, prepared for you from the foundation of
the world, this is all we would hear. This is the only thing
we could hear. We wouldn't have a mediator.
We would hear, depart from me into everlasting darkness, prepared
for the devil and his angels. Instead of everlasting joy, there
would be everlasting heartache. Hallelujah. That's never gonna
happen. Not to a child of God. No child
of God. Not one true believer. Not one
real Christian. I mean those who are not Christian
in word only, but those who worship God in spirit and in truth, like
our Lord told the woman at the well again. Not one believer
will ever hear such horrible words from him who has power
to not only kill the body, but cast the immortal soul into hell. And that's the truth according
to God himself. With so much riding on, so much
depending on, so much that the very existence of these blessings
I've spoken of can ever happen otherwise, how this message of
a risen Savior, not a dead one, should produce in the heart of
every believer this holy fear these women experience, this
reverence, this holy awe. Like the children at the Red
Sea, after they crossed over, they looked back, they saw that
great work that God had done, and they just stood and said,
wow, wow. And they sang, there's not a
God like our God. Oh, brothers and sisters, up
from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumvirate exposed.
He arose a victor from the dark domain and he lives right this
moment with his saints to reign. He arose, he arose. Hallelujah. Christ arose. That's pretty good. That's pretty good, isn't it? Christ arose. I've got too much here. Let me
just skip. Let's just put some of this aside.
Let me share an article with you. that I saw in David Edmondson's
bulletin a few weeks ago. He's the pastor there in Madisonville,
Kentucky. His article was from this verse
in Exodus 3, verse 14. This is what God said to Moses,
I am that I am, present tense. I am the Lord, I change not.
I am that I am, David wrote. To His elect people, God is everything,
all the time. He has always been God, and He
will always be God. Yet there is nothing more comforting
and assuring to the saved sinner than to know that God is the
ever-present I Am. How many times did Christ say
to His fearful disciples, it is I, I Am, don't be afraid,
I Am. That's who spoke to Moses at
the burning bush. the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
I am. David said he is the believer's
everything. Jesus Christ is God, and concerning
his elect, God says, they are weak, but I am their strength. They're poor, I am their riches. They're in trouble, I'm their
help and comfort. They're sick, I am the one that
healeth them. They are in darkness, Christ
says, I'm the light. They are lost sheep. Christ says,
I'm the door and the good shepherd. They're unrighteous. I am their
righteousness. They're unholy. I am their holiness. They're ungodly. I am their God. They're nothing. Christ says,
I'm everything. They're hungry. I am the bread
of life. They're in darkness. I am the
light of the world. They're unprofitable branches.
I am the true vine. They're dead. I'm the resurrection,
the way, the truth, and the life. I like that, don't you? I like
this old hymn. I asked Robin if we knew this.
It seems like I remember trying to sing it one time, and it was
obvious we didn't know it. I think I could be wrong. Hail,
thou once despised Jesus. Hail, thou Galilean king. Thou did suffer to release us.
Thou did free salvation bring. Hail, thou agonizing Savior,
bearer of our sin and shame. By thy merits we find favor. Life is given through thy name.
Paschal Lamb, by God appointed, all our sins on thee were laid. By almighty love anointed, thou
is full atonement made. All thy people are forgiven.
All thy people are forgiven. Through the virtue of thy blood,
open is the gate of heaven. Peace is made, twixt man and
God. Jesus, hail, enthroned in glory,
there forever to abide. All the heavenly hosts adore
thee, seated at thy father's side. Therefore, sinners thou
art pleading, There thou dost our place prepare, ever for us
interceding, till in glory we appear. Worship, honor, power, and blessing,
thou art worthy to receive, loudest praises without ceasing, meet
it is for us to give. Help ye bright angelic spirits,
bring your sweetest, noblest ladies. Help to sing our Savior's
merits. Help to chant Emmanuel's praise. Someone said when they heard
thunder outside, a believer, they said, oh, it's hard to stay
inside. I want to go out and hear my father. Hear my father. Oh, how great thou art. I read
one time years ago that the early believers, because of persecution,
they were forced from their homes. Nero, for example, had thousands
murdered. That's who Peter wrote his two
epistles to. That's why he speaks of suffering
all the time. But I read that during those days and many days
afterward, when the Catholic Church took up the sword against
God's people, that a believer finding himself
in a strange city and hungering for the fellowship of another
believer, hungering to worship God with another believer, CDs
and DVDs just don't take the place of that. What they would do, they would
approach someone, and they would say, you know, they were a stranger
to them, but this is how they would do it. They would say,
he is risen. Of course, if the person was an unbeliever, they
thought, what's he talking about? But if they would respond, when
that stranger would say, he is risen, they would respond, yes,
he's risen. He's risen, and they knew they
had found a brother or a sister in Christ. But now was Christ
risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that
slept. God bless you. God bless you.
Thank you for your teaching.