This evening to the first book
of Corinthians. First book of Corinthians. First Corinthians. Chapter 15. And verse 14. I just sang a hymn there that
has to do with the verse of scripture that I'm about to read and certainly
has to do with this 15th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians.
And, of course, it doesn't stop there. It's the foundation stone
upon which all Christianity rests is the resurrection. of our Lord
Jesus Christ. So let us read that 14th verse
and consider some things relative to that for our help here this
evening. It says, And if Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain and
your faith is also vain." Well, I guess we could say this evening
that the subject that we would deal with would be the importance
of the resurrection or the importance of the empty tomb. if Christ be not risen." Listen,
the empty tomb, I guess, was the most revolutionary thing
that ever happened in the history of this world. The empty tomb frightened, scared off the enemies
of our Lord and made certainly made cowards out of them. The
empty tomb caused the disciples of the Lord Jesus to leave their
boats and go for a second time to be the
fishers of men. So the empty tomb, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. He says if Christ be not risen
here, he's saying that the tomb was empty. And of course, there's
only two explanations as far as I know in the Bible as to
the emptiness of that tomb. Some said that folks came in and rolled the stone away and
stole his body away." Now, that was what was rumored by the Jews
and the Romans that hated him. They said, well, there's nothing
to the empty tomb. They just stole his body away
and hid it someplace where no one can find it. That's all they
are to that. But the angels testified to the
disciples and testified to Mary Magdalene, was it, the first
of the two, that he is not here but he's risen. And also the
Lord Jesus Christ appeared himself not only to Mary but to his disciples. And I remember one time there
after the resurrection They all were meeting in one particular
room there and discussing their future, I guess. And all
at once the Lord appeared in their midst and said, Peace be
unto you. They become so enthusiastic and
worshipful. seized the fellowship there.
But there was one there that wasn't there. His name was Thomas. And of course, when he did make his appearance
and they told him, they said, the Lord has been here and we've
seen the Lord. He who was dead is alive forevermore. We've seen him. We've touched
him and we know that he's here. And Thomas said, well, he said,
I don't believe that. He said, I'm not impugning your
truthfulness or anything like that, but he said, I'm assuming
that these are the things that went through Thomas' mind, that
you've had a vision or something, because I'm an eyewitness to
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, and I know that he was dead,
and they put him in a tomb there, and sealed the tomb and stationed
some soldiers there that the tomb couldn't be tampered with,
so it's an impossibility as far as I'm concerned that the Lord
Jesus, our Captain and our Salvation and our Savior and our Leader
is resurrected from the dead. And he said, I won't believe. He said, I just won't believe
until I can see him for myself. He said, when I see him for myself,
And I can touch his scarred side, lay my hand in it, and see him
as he really is." Then he said, I'll believe. Well, of course,
we know how the story goes, that the Lord Jesus Christ did appear
to Thomas. And when Thomas had seen him,
Thomas, well, the Lord said, Reach forth thy hand, Thomas,
and place it in my sight. And Thomas said, My Lord and
my God." Well, that has to do with the resurrection. There
are two stories concerning the empty tomb. One was that he did
fulfill that which he said he would do, that they would kill
him and on the third day he would rise again. He told that sinful
and adulterous generation He said, you're an evil generation.
An evil generation in that you require a sign. That's what I
think of this generation in which we live. They require a sign.
Everybody wants to see a sign. If people could just see a sign,
they say, well, I'm sure that that would show some authority
to your religion if we could see a sign. If I could see something
that was tangible, something that I could get my teeth into,
something that I could exercise faith and lay hold of, something
that I could touch. Well, I'm sure that religion
would be so, and I'd be able to believe. But the way it is,
I can only be half-hearted in my belief in that I'm worshiping
a God that I have not seen, and I don't know for sure that exists.
That's this generation, this generation. What Jesus said about
this generation, He said, you are a sinful generation in that
you require a sign. And He said, no sign shall be
given. I don't care how long people
look yonder there to the sky for a picture of a cross or some
bloody substance, in order that it might bolster their weak faith,
they'll never find it. And if they do see it, it'll
not be of God. It will not be of God. I don't
care what they say. The Lord Jesus Christ said, You
are a sinful nation in that you require a sign, and there shall
be no sign given except the sign of Jonah in the belly of the
whale. He said Jonah was in the belly of that great fish for
three days and three nights. Even so, the Son of Man must
be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights,
but he'll come forth on the third day. Well, there's two theories. One
that someone stole him away, and the other one was that the
truth, what the Bible reveals, that he did exactly what he said
he'd do. Now, if a certain tomb was not emptied, and emptied
in the right way by the resurrection of Christ, the religion then
in which we hold this evening is no better than any other religion. It's just the same as the religion
of the Mohammedans or the Buddhists or all of the other various religions
of the world today. If this tomb was not emptied,
not emptied by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
religion is vain. It's like Paul says here, if
Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain. We're wasting
our time. And he said on top of that, your
faith also is vain. The empty tomb, what does it
mean? The importance of the empty tomb. Number one, it means a
living Savior. No other kind of Savior is any
good. If He's not a living Savior,
He's no good. It can't help Him. A dead Christ
can't help you. A dead Christ can't save you
because he can't save himself. He must be a living Savior. Listen,
the Apostle Paul one time said that the Lord Jesus Christ is
able to save unto the uttermost all who come to him. He's able
to do it because he is a living Savior. The Scriptures say, and
I've said this time and time again, that God hath reversed
the order of men. Men said, crucify this man Jesus. Crucify him, kill him, do away
with him, erase him from the scene because he's troublesome. He's a troublemaker. He causes
chaos. anxiety and frustration among
all of us. He upsets our cities and towns
and he has divided the people. And so they took counsel together
and they said, kill him, do away with him. And of course they
did. That's exactly what they did.
They killed him, crucified him, but God reversed the order. God raised him from the dead. raised him from the dead, and
hath given him a name above every name. And the Scripture said,
He that was dead is alive forevermore. And the Scripture says that he
ever liveth to make intercession for us. Listen, this verse that I read
here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, let me read it again. And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain. Now, mere faith, mere faith will
save nobody. It must be faith in the right
object. And the only right object of
trust is the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down his life and took
it up again. It's got to be a faith with the
right object. That's the reason that all of
these years, Sunday after Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday
and everywhere I've ever had the opportunity to preach, I've
tried, I'll not say that I've done my best or anything like
that, but I've tried to make it clear in my mixed-up way,
I've tried to make it clear that saving faith must rest upon a
revealed Christ, not the Christ of our imagination, or the Christ
of history, or the Christ of the higher intelligent education
in those circles, not that Christ, but saving faith must rest upon
Christ as He's revealed in the Bible. And no other Christ will
save you except the living Christ as He's revealed. And the only
way that we can know who He is, is be shut up to the Bible. Because the Holy Spirit hath
revealed Christ in the Word. We can't find Him any other way.
We picture the Lord Jesus Christ to be as the artist has depicted
him in this little pose with his hands folded, his pious look,
his long pointed face. All of that is described by the
artist and if that's the only conception of Jesus Christ that
we have, that's not saving faith because it's not in the right
object. That's not the Christ of God. That picture on the wall,
that little statue on the car, that little statue in church
buildings, that cross, that's not the Christ as revealed in
the Scriptures. Saving faith must rest upon the proper object. And that object is Christ. Now
listen, that object is Christ who did what? Who laid down his
life. Now, is that what most Christians
believe today in regard to Christ, that he laid down his life? Or
do they believe that he was a victim of an unruly mob and they took
his life away? Now, both of those things are
true. They did kill Him. But on the other hand, they could
do nothing unless He permitted them. And that's the area and
aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ that most people don't know anything
about. And I think that it's essential that they know that.
I think that it's essential that men know that Jesus Christ was
God Almighty and that He did Lay his life down. No man takes
my life from me. You haven't got the power to
take life from me. I am the giver and the sustainer
of life. I'm God. I lay it down. I lay it down
because I'm in complete control. I'm master of it. I'm the originator
of life. I am life. Jesus said Himself,
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. I am the Life. I am the
Prince of Life. And I lay it down. I lay it down.
He laid His life down and then what? He took it up again. He took it up again. That is what I am talking about,
to reveal Christ. We are not saved by the strength
our faith, we are saved by the strength of Him who is the object
of our faith, the Lord Jesus, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in this 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 and verse 18 says this, let me read it. It says,
then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. That is, we are not saved by
the strength of our faith, but by the strength of Him who is
the object of our faith, even the Lord Jesus. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. That is, if the
tomb if the tomb was not empty and if his body was stolen away.
Well, here is another reason why the empty tomb is so important,
the resurrection of Christ is so important. It is because of living saints. He said, Because
I live, ye shall also live. Now, the believer in Christ,
has what? He has everlasting life. Now,
there is no disease of the body that can affect the life that
one has in Christ Jesus. Now, let me explain it this way. Everlasting life is not the subject
or cannot be the subject of heart failure. or any other disease
that affects the body. How could it be thought that
everlasting life could die? It can't die. Nothing can affect
everlasting life. Because he lives, because he
lives, the Lord Jesus, because he hath risen from that grave,
who are believers in him shall live also. You shall be the recipients
of everlasting eternal life. Ye shall never die. Living hope. The Apostle Peter, he said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. which hath,
according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. When Jesus Christ died, the disciples
were despondent, despaired. Their hope vanished. The cause
that he had founded, He had deserted. They went back to their boats,
to their nets, and said, well, we go fishing. But when they
were convinced by Him, His very appearance and the testimony
of others and the testimony of angels, when they were convinced
that the Lord Jesus Christ was alive, their hope was revived,
and they became men of courage and men of much activity and
men who not only tolerated this world, but invaded this world
and opposed everything that stood in the way of the gospel of their
Lord. And to the extent that some say
that every one of them was martyred, died a violent death, was persecuted
to the extent that they gave their lives, they spilled their
blood for the captain of their salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ ought to keep
our hopes alive. That ought to motivate us into
service for him, knowing that he's alive and because he lives,
we shall also live with him. That ought to stir us into action,
stir us into duty. Some say, well, we're not too
zealous. Well, whose fault is it? Whose
fault? Is it that you and I are not
zealous for the cause of the Lord Jesus? Who can you blame
it on? You can't blame it on the truth.
You can't blame it on the truth. We have the truth right here.
The truth is that Christ died and was buried and rose again.
We have that truth. And if we have been vitally connected
with Him who is that truth, well, that ought to move us. That ought
to cause us to be zealous. That ought to cause us to be
That ought to cause us to go ye therefore into all the world
and preach the gospel. That ought to drive us to our
knees in prayer. That ought to cause us to read
and search the Scriptures. That ought to cause us to be
good witnesses every day for our Lord. Listen, as I told you
here the other night, if Jesus Christ is not valued above all,
Jesus Christ is not valued at all. Whose fault is it that we're
not zealous? It's not the truth. You can't
blame it on the truth. You can't blame it on the Lord
Jesus. You can't blame it on the Bible. If there's no enthusiasm
and no zeal that springs from our religion, it must be our
own fault. It must be because we have never
seen these blessed truths that the Bible's talking about because
This truth that I'm telling you about here this evening, and
you know it as well as I do, you've read it time and time
again in the Bible, this truth of the empty tomb and the importance
of the empty tomb made a holy man out of Peter, James, and
John and all the rest of them, and they were able to say that
I'm willing to spend and be spent all of my life for the cause
of Christ. Because of this empty tomb, because
He lived, Paul said, for me to die is gain. It's better that
I die. It's gain that I die. But he
said, for me to live is Christ. If I don't die, and if I live,
he said, my life is spent giving myself to the service of Jesus
Christ anyhow. So it doesn't make any difference.
For me to die is gain. It's to be with Christ. But if
I live, he said, it's Christ anyhow. That's what he's talking
about. Why? Because of this lively hope
that he had, a lively hope, a living hope. We're not representatives
of a doomed cause or a dead church. The Scriptures say the gates
of hell shall not prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. representatives of one that's
dead, he lives. Well, a pledge and guarantee, you might
say, that this empty tomb is to us. It's a pledge. It's the firstfruits of the dead. It's the guarantee that you and
I will also one day be like him. said, Beloved, now are we the
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. They say that science can tell
people or show people the difference between something planted and
what it will be when it springs up out of the ground. That is,
we plant a bulb and soon we pluck a flower. We plant an acorn and
soon we sit under the shade of an oak tree. This is what is
referred to as nature at work. But our resurrection now, Our
resurrection will not be nature at work. It will be the Lord
Jesus Christ at work. It won't be nature. There is no life in this body
when it's placed in the grave. Nothing but a miracle or nothing
short of a miracle can give life to our dead bodies out of the
grave. Now, I think that science has
a limited field in which it can operate and function. There are
many things about which science is silent. That is, they are
as dumb as a post. Science cannot tell us what is
right and wrong. Science cannot tell us the kind
of being God is. It can't do it. You remember
the lightness that was displayed from some areas of this world
when the astronauts went to the moon. Some said, did they see
God? Did they see God? It's been reported that the Russian
cosmonauts said that they was there in space far beyond some
of the stars, all that and all their wanderings and journeys,
they'd never discovered God. They'd never run across God up
there anywhere and they kind of made light of it. Well, science
cannot tell us the kind of being God is. Science cannot discover
God. Science can dissect the body,
that is, cut the body up, but it cannot tell us whether we
have a soul or not. They can't, and in fact, there's
a whole lot of scientists and all that's in that area of education
that they are unbelievers. They're infidels and full of
skepticism in regard to the existence or essence of a soul. They just
don't believe it because they haven't seen it. Well, listen,
I've said all that to say this, for things that we need to know. For things that we must know,
this is important. For things that we need to know,
for things that it's imperative for us to know, we are shut up
to the Bible as divine revelation. The only thing that's worthwhile
and of any lasting value or importance by way of wisdom is that which
is revealed from this book. It'll tell you where you come
from and it'll tell you where you're going. It'll tell you
how to get there and tell you how long you're going to be there.
You know that? Science can't do that. The wisdom
of this world can't do that. They can't do it. We shut up
then. You see, the things that we need
to know, we shut up to the Bible. Shut up to the Bible. The Bible
does not contradict true science, but it enters a realm where science
cannot walk and science cannot work, and that's by revelation. Well, those are some things in
regard to the empty tomb. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
risen from the dead. He ever lives. He's seated on
the throne, and he ever lives to make intercession. He's there,
and he's going to stay there until he puts all of his enemies
under his feet. And one day he's going to crush
all of his enemies. He's going to crush them all,
and he's going to come again, and he's going to rule the rod of iron,
the Lord Jesus. He's going to make this world
his footstool. Now listen, he can't be ignored. You can't ignore
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're either going to worship
him or profane his name, one of the two. You can't ignore
him. You can't ignore him. Every document that's of any
lasting value in civil courts, local courts, gives credible evidence by way
of date as to the existence and ask for the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Man can't ignore Him. You can't
ignore God. No, sir, you can't do it. You're
either for Him or against Him. You can't ignore Him. You either
worship Him or you profane His name, one of the two. You're
not going to ignore Him. God just fixed it that way that
you can't ignore Him. You've got to come face to face with
Him. You've either got to bow to Him or tell Him to go to hell,
one of the two. And that's what we'll do. We'll either bow to
Him or tell Him to go to hell. You're not going to ignore God.
The empty tomb says all that. He's risen. He's risen. He's
not here. He's not here. He's not hanging
on the cross. He's not dead. He doesn't slumber in the grave
waiting a resurrection. He is the resurrection. Isn't
that what He said? He told Martha, He said, Martha, He said, I am
the resurrection. I am the resurrection. I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though
I were dead, yet shall he live. That's what He said. I am the resurrection. I can't
ignore me. Oh, if you, this evening, you
hear, and God in His mercy has made Him known to you as the
resurrection and life, you've laid hold of Him, embraced Him,
given yourself to Him, love Him, then you remember. You loved Him because He first
loved you. You sought Him because He first sought you. And you're
a debtor. You're a debtor. You're not a
debtor to me. You're not a debtor to this church.
You're not a debtor to this world. You're a debtor to God. You're
a debtor. You're a debtor. Paul says, I'm a debtor both
to the Greek and to the barbarian. As much as in me is, I'm ready
to preach the gospel to them that are at Rome and everywhere
else. I'm a debtor. You're a debtor.
You're a debtor to the Lord Jesus. Tell a story. Be a witness of
the resurrection. Tell people why. Engage in conversation
with these people on the outside. And tell them that there's an
empty tomb and that He's risen. Tell them why He's risen. Tell
them that He had power over life and He laid His life down and
took it up again. Tell them that no man was able
to take His life from Him. Tell them that this Jesus of
Nazareth is the sovereign king of all those who believe. Tell
him that every man's destiny is bound up and wrapped up in
the hand of the Lord Jesus. Tell him that. Tell him that
he has mercy. He's granting mercy to people.
Tell him that mercy is optional. Tell him that he can give it
or withhold it. Warn him to flee the wrath to come. Warn him that
judgment but judgment will come on every Christ-rejecter, everyone
who ignores God's Christ.