Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 62 in your hardback hymnal. Let's all stand together.
Crown hymn with many crowns, number 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. of Him who died for thee, and
hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the
grave, who rose victorious to the strife for those he came
to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, For
Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days Adored and magnified. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be in 1 Corinthians 15, both hours actually this morning.
So if you'd like to turn with me there in your Bibles, the
15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. And I've titled this Bible study,
The Testimony of Scripture. The Testimony of Scripture. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our study. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you have not left us to our own devices, that you have
given us your word. Know how we pray now that your
Holy Spirit would add grace to the revealed truth of your word
and that you would cause us to believe Lord, we know that by
nature we'll believe anything other than you. Oh, how we ask
now that you would cause us to know that, thus saith the Lord,
is a word of grace and truth and life. Lord, that You would
speak it effectually to our hearts. Cause us to bow. Give us rest
in Thy dear Son. Cause us, Lord, to find Him to
be all and find Him to be in all. For we ask it in Christ's
name, Amen. If you were on a jury And there
were 500 eyewitnesses to an event that all testified to the same
thing. How convincing would that be? Uh, the most skeptical juror
would have to be convinced with such evidence. And yet the Lord
has given us undeniable evidence to the resurrection and we as
rebels will not believe Him unless He does a work of grace in our
hearts causing us to believe. We will deny all the evidence
and we will believe anything other than God. It's amazing
how rebellious we are by nature and how dependent we are for
the Lord to open the eyes of our understanding, to give us
the gift of faith in order for us to believe the obvious. I mean, you think about it. The
religions of the world are based on mostly the testimony of one
man. Islam is based on the testimony
of Mohammed. Mormonism is based on the testimony
of Joseph Smith. Buddhism, the billions of people
that follow after that religion, is based on the testimony of
Buddha, one man. We have the testimony of 40 penmen
who wrote over a period of 1,500 years, 66 books, and they all
say the same thing. Now, the Lord didn't have to
do that. The Lord could have just spoken
one time and held us accountable to that word. But knowing how
foolish and slow of heart we are to believe, He has given
us undeniable evidence. And yet, in light of all this
evidence, we're still dependent upon Him to give us grace, to
change our hearts, to give us faith, to believe. The testimony
of our depravity is so settled in this argument that
the Lord gives us in His Word. How foolish we are. We'll believe
anything before we'll believe God. The styles of writing in the
scripture go from historical to poetic to prophetic. There's all different types of
men that God used. The scripture says, holy men
of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. That none
of this is by private interpretation. That it's all inspired of God
and yet we won't believe it. Unless the Lord gives us faith
to believe. That's the argument that the
Lord is giving us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The Lord could have
spoken in a corner, but he said, I didn't do this thing in a corner.
I didn't do it in the dark recesses of some backwoods experience. I did it publicly, and I confirmed
it with witnesses, and I've given you every reason, every reason
to believe. Look what he says. In verse 6, after that, he was
seen of above 500 brethren at once. The Lord appeared to 500 believers. Now, let me say this. The Lord has never appeared after
his resurrection until this day. He's never appeared to anyone
that wasn't his. ever. And he's not going to start
now. If the Lord reveals himself through
his word, it'll be to his people. He doesn't cause his voice to
be heard in the street. He's not going around begging
men to let him have his way. uh... he's not pleading with
unbelievers he makes effectual uh... makes well it makes willing
in the day of his power and uh... he makes faith effectual to his
people and reveals himself and he uses his word the means by
which uh... he speaks to his people is his
word uh... so we We don't trust our experiences. We don't trust our feelings.
Feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My only warrant is the Word of
God. None else is worth believing. This is the revelation of truth. You say, well, how do you know?
Well, God's taught me. God teaches you. You just know
it's true. You know this is true above everything
else. And that's what the Lord is saying
here. He's saying, I've given you witnesses.
I've given you my word. I appeared to Cephas, notice
in verse 5, and that he was seen of Cephas. What sweet grace the
Lord shows towards sinners. Peter, that's who Cephas is.
Peter, the one who denied the Lord three times with cursing. And then had that experience
of the Lord fixing His gaze on Peter. You remember when Peter
was there warming himself by the fire and the Lord had been
beaten and flogged and He set His affection on Peter. And Peter,
the scripture says, went out bitterly. convinced that he had
made himself a reprobate. There was no hope. He went back
to fishing. And when the Lord appeared to
Mary at the open tomb, what did He say? Go back and tell the
disciples and Peter. Tell Peter. You know, where sin abounds,
grace does much more abound. And the Lord gives grace to the
brokenhearted. He doesn't break a bruised reed. He doesn't snuff out a smoking
flax. He causes those who are broken
over their sin Well, he causes us to be broken over our sin
first, doesn't he? And then through that brokenness, he's pleased
to reveal himself. And he said, I showed myself
to Peter. And then do you remember when
the Lord spoke with Peter there after the resurrection? And,
Peter, lovest thou me? Lovest thou me? What did Peter
say? Lord, I love you. And the Lord
said, feed my sheep. Now, I can't remember if I shared
this with you all or somewhere else, but the word agape is God's
love for man. And the word phileo is man's
love for man. The word Philadelphia, the city
of brotherly love, that's the word phileo. If you look at that
passage in John chapter 21, when the Lord is speaking with Peter,
He said, Simon, agape thou me? And Peter responded by saying,
Lord, I phileo you. And the Lord asked him the second
time, Simon, agape thou me? And Peter said, Lord, I phileo
you. And the Lord the third time said, Simon, phileo thou me? And Peter said, Lord, you know
I phileo you. You know I love you. You know
everything. You know my heart. Well, that whole exchange was
Peter saying to the Lord, Lord, I do love you, but I don't love
you near like you love me. And the hope of my salvation
is not based on how much I love God, but rather how much he loves
me. Isn't that glorious? And so the Lord is saying, he's
saying, I appeared to Peter, to Cephas. After the resurrection, I went
directly to him and encountered him and lifted him up. And that's
what the Lord does. He takes those that are in the
valley and brings them to the mountains. And takes those who
are on the mountain and brings them down, doesn't he? So, here's Now, lest there be some confusion
in someone's mind about what it means to see the Lord, I remind
you of the encounter that the lord had with thomas in john
chapter twenty member thomas was not there in the upper room
when the lord first appeared to the disciples and uh... and he and luke chapter twenty
four he expounded unto them those things concerning himself, and
beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he revealed
to them the things that were already revealed in Scripture.
And Thomas wasn't there. And so when Thomas shows up,
Thomas says, I'm not going to believe it unless I can see it.
I've got to be able to put my finger into the wounds of his
hand and my hand into the wounds of his side, then I'll believe."
And some 10 days later, Thomas was with them and the Lord appeared
again. And Thomas falls on his face before the Lord and confesses,
my Lord and my God. And the Lord said, Thomas, come
here and put your hand in my side and put your finger in my
wounds. No evidence that Thomas did that.
And the Lord said to Thomas, He said, Thomas, because thou
hast seen Me, thou hast believed. But blessed are they who have
not seen Me, yet believe." So this matter of seeing the Lord
is not is not having a physical encounter with him like he gave
to these early disciples, like he gave to Cephas, like he gave
to the 500. It's believing. It's seeing God through the eyes
of faith. Not through our physical eyes,
but believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed, Thomas, are
they who have not seen, and yet they believe. And when God gives
you faith to believe, you see more clearly than you see the
physical world around you. You can be deceived by the mirage
of physical things. But when the Lord opens the eyes
of faith and enables you to set your affections on Christ, you
know who He is, you know what He's done, and you're convinced
with all your heart that he is the Christ, the son of the living
God. You remember when the Lord was
talking to Martha there in John chapter 11 at the graveyard of
Lazarus, and the Lord told Martha, he said, I am the resurrection.
Martha said, I know that in the last day that my brother will
rise again. And the Lord said, Martha, I
am the resurrection. He that believeth on me shall
never die. And then the Lord asked Martha,
Believest thou this? Remember Martha said, Lord, I
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which is to come
into the world. I believe everything the scriptures
said about you. I just believe. And that's what
faith does. And so With all the evidence
that God has given us, we're still in need of a miracle of
grace in our hearts in order for us to believe. We're so rebellious. We're so spiritually dead. We're so blind that we will not
believe all the testimony, the testimony of scripture, the testimony
of eyewitnesses. We won't believe it unless the
Lord comes to us just like he came to Cephas. And so he says
in verse 5, and remember the gospel was how that Christ died,
was buried, and rose again according to the scripture. And the evidence
that he rose again is that he was seen of Cephas. That he came
to Peter and spoke to Peter and restored Peter. And then of the twelve, and after
that he was seen, verse six, of about five hundred brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remain to this present,
but some have fallen asleep." Now Paul's writing 1 Corinthians
twenty-five years after the resurrection of Christ. So out of these five
hundred that the Lord appeared to, he's just saying some of
them have died. But isn't it so sweet, the terms
that the Lord uses to describe the death of a believer? He didn't
say they died. The Lord had already said, if
you believe on Me, you shall never die. He said they've fallen
asleep. They've fallen asleep. And the passing of the child
of God from this world is much like falling asleep. When you're sleeping, you're
resting, aren't you? You're not working when you're
sleeping. Whatever work we might pretend
to do or try to do in this life, when we pass from this life,
all our labors cease. uh... when a person is uh... is sleeping when you're sleeping
you were sleeping just a few hours ago i assume when you were
sleeping you were completely dead to the things of this world
you didn't have any idea what was going on around you when
you were asleep didn't care did you You may have been having
some dreams, but those were just figments of your imagination,
weren't they? You were completely dead to the things of this world. And so we shall be when we pass
from this life. People who talk about, you know,
their dead loved ones looking down from heaven and observing
their lives here on earth, that cannot be. It cannot be. when we depart from this world
time ceases to be you have no recollection of time when you're
asleep do you uh... you you know you you have a dream
you think it lasted all night it made this lasted a few seconds
uh... and time is is is not is irrelevant
to you isn't it when you're sleeping so it shall be for us uh... when you pass from this life
you're not going to be How are we going to be resting in Christ
and enjoying His presence if we have any memory at all of
this life? You're not going to have any
memory of your sin. You're not going to have any
connection with this world anymore. And the Lord says, Many of the
500 over the last 25 years, some of them have fallen asleep. They're
no longer here with us, but many of them are still here and they
will testify that they saw the Lord. How merciful our Lord is
to give us undeniable evidence. He that liveth and believeth
in me, shall never die. Believest thou this? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the anointed one, the one long awaited for,
the one predicted from the very beginning would come, the seed
of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, who
would satisfy the demands of God's law, I believe. I believe
you're the son of God, the sovereign, omnipotent creator and sustainer
of all of life. The one on whom I am completely
dependent for all mercies and all grace. I've got no place
else to go. I believe with all my heart.
Now that's just what faith does. And you can't have it. of your
own devices, of your own will, of your own means. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's
a gift of God." And this kind of preaching will cause God's
people to say, Lord, that's what I want. Give me faith. Give me faith. I need for you
to do work of grace in my heart. Verse seven. And after that,
he was seen of James, James, the half brother of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can you imagine growing up in
the same house with the Lord Jesus Christ? The Son of God? The sinless one? The perfect
one. He never had a look that wasn't
perfect. He never spoke a word that wasn't
perfect. He never did anything that wasn't
absolutely perfect. And here's the reference to James. James wasn't a believer until
after the resurrection. How could you live in the same
house with Christ and not be a believer? What a testimony to our spiritual
deadness. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy. How much mercy the Lord is showing
us here to say, you know, I had to appear to James in order for
James to believe. At one point, James thought the
Lord was out of his mind. He had lost it. He was just a religious fanatic.
Here he was, the Son of God. James ultimately becomes the
pastor of the church in Jerusalem and is used powerfully of God
but nothing happened until the Lord appeared to James after
the resurrection. The Lord appeared to me. You
know, you can go to church, you can read your Bible, you can
pray, you can do all the religious things that men do and and not
be a believer. He was seen of James, then all
the apostles. In verse 8, and last of all,
he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. Now the word there is abortive.
all saying i was uh... i was an abortion i was a i was
a a premature birth an unexpected and some have suggested perhaps
uh... in the roman government some
senators who used unscrupulous means to get their position of
power were referred to everybody knew who they were and they were
referred to as born out of due time they were they were a board
of senators uh... and paul they weren't worthy
of that position is what they were is what they were saying
and uh... maybe perhaps paul's taking that
language on to say i'm not worthy of this position And I was born
unexpectedly. Paul was on the road to Damascus
determined with letters from the high priest to persecute
the church of God. And was set out to arrest confessing
believers and have them put to death. He wasn't looking for
God. And God arrested him, didn't
he? Knocked him off his high horse. Spoke audibly to him. Light shined from heaven. Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? I love that. The Lord is referring to his
church as himself. And Saul said, who art thou,
Lord? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."
Who was Saul persecuting? He was persecuting the people
of God. He was persecuting the church.
And the Lord took it so personal that he said, the Lord said,
you're persecuting me. This is my body. These are my
people. And I'm not going to have it.
And he stopped him, didn't he? And Paul says, I was born like
an abortion. It just happened. It was premature. I wasn't worthy. The Lord did
it all. He arrested me in my In my rebellion
against God, He stopped me in my tracks. And then in another
place, Paul talks about his conversion as a pattern for all believers'
new birth. He said, my conversion is a pattern
for yours in that you're not looking for God. He seeks after
his people. No man seeketh after God at any
time. The scripture says he has to seek us. He has to knock us
off. We're blind. We're rebels. We won't concede to the evidence. We know that Saul of Tarsus was
there observing the stoning of Stephen. and and gave consent
to it and the scripture says that they they laid their cloaks
those who picked up stones to stone Stephen in Acts chapter
7 that they laid their coats at the feet of Saul and Saul
watched it all and and yet he saw the He saw the radiance of
Stephen's countenance when he looked up and he said, I see
the Son of God standing. And then when the Lord did convert
him on the road to Damascus, you remember what the Lord said
to Saul? Why kickest thou against the pricks? Now that's a goat
that the farmer uses when he's behind the mule or the oxen who
won't go. He sticks him with a sharp stick
in order to get him to go. And the worst thing that that
animal can do is kick against that goat. It's only going to
make it pierce into his flesh all the more, isn't it? And so
Saul of Tarsus had all this evidence He had the testimony of men.
He had the experience of Stephen. He had the convicting goad of
the Spirit of God that he was kicking against. And he's a pattern for us. We'll
kick against all the evidence. We'll kick against all the work
of grace until God just breaks us and makes us to become willing. So Paul's now using all this
language to say to us, here's the undeniable evidence. Don't
kick against the goat. Don't deny the testimony of 500
people who are all saying the same thing. Look at Cephas and
how the Lord restored him even after what he did. Is he not
capable of restoring you? He says in verse 9, I am the
least of the apostles. Now in Ephesians chapter 3, he
refers to himself as, and by the way Ephesians is written
after 1st Corinthians, he refers to himself as the least of all
the saints. And then in 1 Timothy chapter
1, he refers to himself as the chief of all sinners. And 1 Timothy was written after
Ephesians. People who want to believe in
progressive sanctification, here's progressive sanctification. Paul
starts out by saying, I'm the least of the apostles. Then he
says, I'm the least of the saints. And then later in life, towards
the very end of his life, he says, I'm the chief of all sinners. Progressive sanctification is
regressive. It's seeing more and more of
your need for grace and more and more of your own sin and
unwillingness before God. Here he says, I'm the least of
all the apostles. Because I persecuted the church
of God, verse 10, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And that could be said of every
one of us. Whatever, who maketh thee to differ? What do you have
that you've not received? And if you received it, then
why do you boast as if you didn't receive it? As if you earned
it? Now that's true of spiritual
gifts. It's true of everything. It's
true of our health. It's true of our possessions.
It's true of everything. What right do we have to boast
in anything? You got it from the Lord. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Well, that's such a sweet, humbling
thing to remember, isn't it? I am what I am by the grace of
God. And before God, before God, we're
not under the law. We're under grace. We're under
grace. The law's been satisfied. God's,
the Lord Jesus Christ answered to the commandments of God and
satisfied and fulfilled all righteousness before God. Now that having been
said, I want to clarify something. That doesn't apply to our relationships
with man. You're under the law. when it
comes to your relationships with men in this world. Let me illustrate
that. Next time you're pulled over
by a police officer, you roll down your window and say, Officer,
you don't understand. I'm in Christ. I'm not under
the law. I'm not like everybody else.
I'm under grace. And after they take you out of
the straitjacket and do a psych evaluation on you, you might
get off. You see, that doesn't apply. We live in a nation of laws.
We're responsible to the law, to one another. It doesn't apply
to your children either. Now, I'd a whole lot rather when a
police officer pulls me over to treat me with respect and
kindness rather than condescending and demanding when you nevertheless
and what i'm saying is that when you exercise the law with your
children uh... do with grace do with kindness
don't say well you know what my children are not under the
law uh... there they are you you spare
the rod the scripture says you hate the child You hate the child. They need to understand that
there are rules and regulations. The best thing that you can do
for your children is teach them to respect authority. Respect
authority. Respect the law. And that's the
problem with young people today, isn't it? Now, with every generation
of young people, there's a problem with my generation of young people.
Young people are rebellious towards authority. And that's the best
thing we can do for our children. So don't take that... We're not
under the law when it comes to our relationship with God. But
we are under the law when it comes to our relationship with
man. And we need to have a respect for that law. and teach our children to have
respect for that law. Paul says, I am what I am by
the grace of God. This matter of grace doesn't
excuse rebellion, it doesn't excuse sin, it doesn't excuse
disobedience. It says that my acceptance before
God is based on the fact that I have no righteousness in myself,
no ability to satisfy any demand of God's law, and I'm completely
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ as my law keeper, as my
substitute, and as my sin bearer before God, as all my righteousness
before God. by the grace of god i am what
i am in this great 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 in me so i'm not under i'm
i'm under grace i can live i don't have to i don't have to to do
anything paul said no grace works if grace is in my heart i'm more
seek to honor the Lord with everything I've got. I'm going to acknowledge
the fact that all my possessions belong to Him. That's the whole
reason for giving, isn't it? The whole reason for giving financially
is to acknowledge the fact that I am what I am by the grace of
God. It's all His. And this grace is working in
me. causing me to will and to do of his good pleasure also
that this is it where we're not on the law run to grace grace
doesn't lead to irresponsible licentious disobedient living
it's it's it's a grace that works in me therefore Whether it were I or
they, so we preach, and so you believed. He's referring to the
other apostles, the other gospel preachers, that we're all preaching
the same thing. And that's the beauty of the gospel, isn't it?
That all the men that God's called are all preaching the same thing. They're all declaring the same
truth. All right, let's take a break. Thank you.