Alright, let's take our Bibles
once again. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. I began this portion of scripture last Wednesday and there were
some in Corinth that attempted to destabilize the faith of God's
people by telling them that there was no resurrection of the dead. Well, hearing that, the Apostle
Paul, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, revealed the absolute
hopelessness of life if that be the case. He said, starting
in verse 13, and I'll just make a few statements, bring us right
on into verse 20 is where I'd like to begin today, but if there
was no resurrection of the dead, he says then Christ is not risen. That means Christ is still in
the grave if he's not raised from the dead. He's like every
other false god that human reasoning worships If Christ be not risen
from the dead, then the preaching of God's apostles was false,
and they were all proven to be liars concerning having seen
Him after the resurrection. They said they saw Him, but if
He wasn't raised from the dead, they're liars. They were just
untruthful. And faith in an unrisen Christ
avails nothing And every person that places any hope in Him who
is not risen, if that be the case, is still in their sins
and they're under the condemnation of God. And all who have died
in the faith, believing that Christ was the Messiah, are in
hell today. And if in this life, the hope
that we have in this life only. We're believing right now, we're
believing in Christ, but if He's not risen, then He's not our
Redeemer. He's not our surety. We don't
have a high priest, we don't have a husband. We're not truly
a bride. We have no husband. We're widows. And he truly, if he didn't come
out of the grave, proven this fact that of all men, we're most
miserable for because we believed in him and he's not risen. Now
we know that we have no hope. Now I want you to notice something
that is very, very important. In verse 13 it starts, and Paul
repeats this over and over and over. Look at verse, if there
be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. Verse 14 says, and if Christ
be not risen. Verse 15, yea, we have found
false witnesses of God because we've testified of God that He
raised up Christ. Verse 16, for if the dead rise
not, then is not Christ raised. 17, and if Christ be not raised. 18, then they also which are
fallen asleep in Christ. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ. Now, it's tremendously significant
that we understand what the apostle is saying here. He didn't say
Jesus of Nazareth, though He is. He said Christ. And when we say Christ, this
is what we're saying. That is the title of God made
flesh. God made flesh. God who has the
power to lay down His life and God who has the power to take
it again. God. If we say that God was not
able to be raised from the dead, and man by nature, though he
says he believes in a resurrection, I've said this many, many times,
demons believe that there's a resurrection. But they don't believe at Christ. They don't trust the Christ.
They don't love the Christ. And the Christ that was raised
from the dead, was not raised for them. So man by nature doesn't
believe. You tell somebody, this is who
came out of the grave. The one that came out of that
grave is the God who chose a people before the foundation world.
The one who came out of that grave was the electing God, the
predestinating God. The one that came out of that
grave was the one that laid down his life only for the sheep. That's who came out of that grave.
The one that came out of that grave is the one the Spirit of
God testifies of and regenerates under the preaching of the Christ
of this Bible. Man by nature does not believe
that Christ was raised from the dead. They believe Somebody came out. When you tell
them who came out of that grave, that God, sovereign God, electing
God, redeeming God, regenerating God, God, God in human flesh
came out. They said, no, I don't believe
that. Man in his unregenerate state,
does not believe that Christ was raised from the dead. They
believe in a resurrection, or they say they do. I don't know
what they believe. Until the morning and the evening, they
never lived. So I don't know what they believe. But Almighty
God declares that Christ was raised from the dead. Whenever
the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, and He truly died,
He gave up the ghost. He willed himself dead. And he was taken and he was put
into the grave of a man named Joseph of Arimathea. They witnessed it. They saw him.
They took him and he was put in the grave. He was dead. Now,
the two on the road to Emmaus that we spoke of a moment ago,
they actually verbalized. what I'm sure many thought. We
trusted, we hoped that He was the one who would redeem Israel. We did, we trusted that it was
Him who would save us from our sins, and we rested in God's
abundant mercy, to compassion, to save us, because we know In
us, that is in our flesh, there dwells no good thing. We know
that this earth is fleeting and it's a vapor and we're going
to soon stand before God. And we know that all that's found
in their sins, He's not going to clear them. You remove a believer's
hope in the resurrected Christ. You tell him that God God didn't
come out, and when they saw, they believed on Him. They believed
Him. There were some that believed
Him. Those apostles believed Him. They knew. Peter said, where
are we going to go? You're the Christ. You're God's
anointed. And sure, you have the words of eternal
life. Lord, When he died, there were some
fears, there were some doubts. And a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to do because he's taught now. that Christ
came out of the ground, that Christ was resurrected, that
Christ Jesus finished the work of God. And what they're going
to do now, whenever someone, you tell somebody about the Christ
of this Bible, and here's what they're going to do, they're
going to do as we looked at last Wednesday, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.16, shun
profane and vain babblings, they'll increase unto more ungodliness.
Spiritual thieves will try to sow tares. in the midst of God's
people. But a believer, by the grace
of God, kept by the power of God, will stand firm. If Christ
be not risen, we don't have any hope. Paul says in verse 20,
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first
fruits of them that slept. Now is Christ risen. And the glorious truth Concerning
this, the glorious message of hope and life is found in John. Hold your place right there.
John chapter 6 verse 38-39. This is what he did. This is
what he did. John 6 verse 38-39. The Lord said, I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. This is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all
which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. What did He do? He finished the
work. He finished the work. And His sovereignty, Christ was
raised. His sovereignty is proven and
established by His resurrection. Because He came out of the ground,
His sovereignty is proved. Listen to this, for to this end,
Romans 14, 9, Christ both died and rose and revived that He
might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Now let me tell
you what that scripture just said. He has the power and the right,
according to His resurrection, to rule. He has the power and
the right. Man fell in sin. And sin had dominion over him. Man had broken the law of God.
The soul that sins is going to die.
You leave a man to himself. without a Savior, without a Redeemer,
without a substitute. And God's just. God's just. But by the resurrection, that
glorious act of God's approval, that He accepted that which Christ
did, He raised Him from the dead. And by that resurrection, it
proves, the scripture says, that He's Lord both of the dead and
living. Now here's what He's saying.
He has a people. He has a people that He's going
to save. People that's His, by gift of His Father, purchase
at Calvary, willing submission, and whether or not they remain
on this earth physically right now, there's some here that's
alive that know God, or whether they've died in the faith. If
they've died in the faith, I'll tell you what they have. They've
got hope in Christ who came out of the grave because He paid
their debt to the law. And now because He conquered
death and conquered the grave, there's no sting whatsoever in
death for them. He's Lord. He died, revived,
rose again. that He might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. Now whether they died in the
faith or whether they're still alive today in the faith, He's
the Lord and earned the right to keep them justly. He paid their debt. He conquered
grave. By His resurrection, all the
gloom and despair that's insinuated by those who would deny the resurrection
of the Son, to accomplish the will of Almighty God. Now, they're
at rest. Christ has revived. Like I said,
men today, they don't deny so much that there was a resurrection.
What they deny is who came out of that grave. Who was raised
from the grave according to the Scriptures. A carnal man will
have a Savior. who died and was buried and rose
again to make salvation possible, which is not possible, but that's
what they say. I believe, I believe that Jesus
died for everybody's sins, that He was buried and that He came
out of the ground and now it's left up to you. Well, what kind
of a Savior is that? To a man that's dead spiritually,
what kind of a Savior is that? Well all you have to do is exercise
your faith, well then you believe in salvation by works then. Your
works. That ain't gonna fly. What kind
of a savior? Christ rose. All the comfort, the peace, the
joy, and future hope for the child of God is established,
founded upon the certainty of who Christ is. This is what Scripture
says, Romans 1, 4. Declared to be the Son of God
with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. In fact, our very justification.
What does that word mean again? Justification means the declaration
to be free from any guilt before God's law. That's what it means.
Justify. The law looks at a redeemed vessel
of God's mercy and sees no guilt. No guilt. No guilt. Do we have
sin present with us? Yeah. Yeah. But Christ paid the
debt of all of our guilt at Calvary. It's paid for. Paid for. So the
law says, well, if there's no guilt, you're justified. Our very justification before
God, and listen to what Scripture says, five-fold statements concerning
justification being no guilt. Justified freely by His grace.
before the foundation of the world. Almighty God justified
His people freely by His grace. And remember, if God's ever looked
at a man or a woman one way, God who never changes, never
changes, He never looked at us one way and then looked at us
another. If He looks at a believer justified right now, if He ever
looked at that believer any other way, then He changed. He changed
His attitude, changed His opinion. He said, I changed not. So we're
justified freely by His grace. How? You mean before we were
ever born? He saw the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. The blood was slain. He trusted
in Christ first. He was the first one trusted.
Justified freely by His grace. And then justified by His blood
that the Father saw eternally. And then justified by faith,
as I've said before. Faith is the evidence to a believer
that he knows God. But how do you know that there's
life there? Well, James says our works. We're not saved by our works. but we evidence life in Christ
by our work of faith and labor of love. And then the scripture
declares us to be justified by our words out of the abundance
of a man's heart. I've said before, a believer
talks like a believer. And I don't know, I can't tell
you how to do that. You just listen, just listen. A believer
talks in his life. There's no pride There's no pride
in his, you know, he's proudful, yes. But when it comes to his
salvation, he's going to be honest with you. He's not going to be
telling you what he did to save himself. Justified. Justified by his resurrection.
Romans 4.25, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for or because of our justification and even our regeneration. is
dependent upon His resurrection. Our regeneration. Listen. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or living
hope by or through the means of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Whenever Christ was taken by
the Jews, put to death, buried, to most, if not all, the very
hope of the Messiah, as I mentioned a while ago, vanished. And they
felt, you know, that's why those two said on the road to Emmaus,
we trusted that it had been He. We prayed. But then their hope
revived when they beheld the living, reigning Lord Jesus Christ
to a lively hope. a living hope, a powerful expectation
possessed by God's people. We believe that Christ was raised
from the dead. And our very resurrection depends
totally on the fact that He was raised from the dead. The scripture
says in verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and
become the first fruits of them that slept. Whenever you're out
in the field, first fruits, those first fruits, the first evidences
of produce that is actually beheld is the promise. Those first fruits,
that's the promise that all the rest of it is coming to. That's
the first fruits. He has become the first fruits.
So whenever Christ rose from the dead, here's what God promised. He didn't rise as a private person
only. He rose as the head and the representative
of his people. And as all of God's elect are
his body as the head rose, so shall the body rise too. Philippians
3.21, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body according to the work whereby he is able
to subdue all things unto himself. Paul says in Romans, But if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. And then
in verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 15, For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Adam was our first
federal head. federal head of all mankind.
He represented all that ever be born in this world because
we all came from his loins. And when he disobeyed God, we
all disobeyed God. Because what he did, we did.
We were in him. When he sinned, we sinned. Therefore,
when he died, we died. We all come forth dead men, spiritually
dead. And now physical death and disease
and all evil of this world finds itself because of one man's disobedience,
or man's one disobedience. You can say it any way you want
to say it. But in that sin, but Christ Jesus, there's another
man. By that man, for by man came
death, by man. Here's that second Adam. That
man known as, declared as the Christ, the anointed, God in
human flesh. The Word made flesh, took upon
Himself the form of sinful flesh, yet without sin, came into this
world, made Himself answerable to the law of God for all of
His people, those that God had chosen. And He lived for them,
earning their righteousness. He died for them, putting away
their guilt. He was raised for them, the first
fruits of them. And now all for whom He's lived
and all for whom He's died, they stand perfect in God's sight,
worthy in Christ to enter heaven and eternally dwell. And lastly,
verse 22 and 23, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. For in Adam, found in union only
with Adam, You know, I mean, we're born in Adam until Almighty
God imparts a new man. We're all in Adam. For in Adam,
the unregenerate, found in union with Him, all die. That's justice. That's fair. That's all that can happen. There's no other end to anyone
found in Adam but death. Even so, Though in Christ, chosen
in Him and electing grace by the Father, found to be the recipients
of His shed blood, robed in His righteousness, all granted faith
to believe and trust Him, shall all be made alive. But every
man in his own order, verse 23, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards
they that are Christ's at His coming. This is the reason why
all the departed saints, at the time of his death, didn't rise
to die no more. You know, Lazarus came out of
the ground. There were some, even his resurrection, Scripture
declares, that came out of the graves, went into the city, you
know, declaring, you know, they died again. The Scripture declares,
every man in His own order. Christ, the first fruits, that's
the reason He rose from the dead and no one else rose when He
did to die no more. But all found in Him shall arise
at His second coming to die no more. Christ is risen from the
dead. If He's not, we have no hope. But He has, and has become the
first fruits of all them that are in Christ, in Him, that believe. May the Lord bless the Word to
our understanding, keep us by His mercy and grace, teach us
through His blessed Word for Christ's sake and our good.