Chapter 15. The question I want to answer
this morning may come across as a little bit strange to some
when you first hear it, but the question is this, why be baptized
for the dead? Why be baptized for the dead? Now that's Paul's question in
verse 29. 1 Corinthians 15, 29. He says, he's speaking of the
resurrection, and he says, Else, if there is no resurrection of
the dead, Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the
dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized
for the dead? Why are they baptized for the
dead? Now this verse has been given
a lot of wrong meanings by many. There have been some crazy things
preached from this and practiced from this one verse. We never
build doctrine and practice off of one verse of Scripture. Never. It has to be consistent throughout
the Scripture. Whatever that one verse is teaching,
it's got to be consistent with all the rest of the Scripture.
You don't build your doctrine on one verse of Scripture. Now
what this does not mean is it does not mean that we're to baptize
living people for dead people. It doesn't mean that living people
are to be baptized in the place of people that have already died
or any other variation of that kind of nonsense. It does not
mean that at all. Nor is Paul using a vain practice
to make his point He's not taking something, a vain practice, and
using it to make a point about true doctrine. If he was doing
that, he would state how that vain practice was a vain practice.
He would make it clear that he's talking about something that
is totally vain, and he didn't do that. So he's not doing that
at all. I do believe that Dr. Gill and
a few others give two interpretations that fit the context. Now, the
first interpretation goes with what came before it, the context
of what came before this verse. Paul gave that list of consequences
if there is no resurrection of the dead. He gave a list of consequences
if there is no resurrection from the dead. He said Christ is not
risen. He said, our preaching is vain
and your faith is vain. He said, we're false witnesses.
And then he digressed into talking about Christ being risen and
being the first fruits. But now he's come back again
and he's resumed with that list of consequences. And he says
here, those who have been baptized were baptized in vain if there's
no resurrection of the dead. He says, else what should they
do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not? Why
then be baptized if the dead rise not? Baptism is a symbol
of death. That's what we're symbolizing
by it. It's a symbol of death. You're being baptized for death,
because of death, unto death. And it's a picture of burial.
We've died. What do you do when a man's died?
You bury him completely under the ground. You bury Him. That's
what immersion is. Maybe a watery burial, picturing
Christ's burial. But it's also a picture of Christ's
resurrection. We're professing, we believe,
that when Christ lived, we lived in Him, and when He died, we
died in Him. And we were buried in Him. Our
old man of sin was buried out of sight, done with forever,
so that God remembers our sins no more. And now we've come out
of that grave with Christ, and we're a new person, a new believer. Quickened, born of God, created
by God, and that's what we're professing in believers' baptism. Now look at Romans 6, and I'll
show you this. Romans chapter 6. And look at verse 3. Romans 6,
3. He says here, Know ye not that
so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized
into His death. Or you could write there, for
His death, or unto His death. We were baptized because of His
death. We're confessing when He died, we died. That's why,
look, therefore we're buried with Him by baptism unto death. that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death. Baptism is a likeness. We're
in the water grave, we're showing a likeness of his death. We're
buried because he died. But we're brought up out of that
water because he lived. We're buried for the dead, we're
risen for the living. And He says, if we've been planted
in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness
of His resurrection. But if you take away the resurrection,
if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not risen and
our baptism only symbolizes death. So why even do it? You get the
point? Why else what shall they do who
are baptized for or unto the dead, picturing the dead, if
the dead rise not at all? If Christ didn't rise, why even
be baptized? Why then are they baptized for
the dead if he didn't rise? Now that fits the context of
what came before. A list of consequences if there
be no resurrection. Then our baptism is vain. But
I agree with Dr. Gill that there's another interpretation
and it's this. He said, baptism is used here
in a figurative and metaphorical sense for afflictions and suffering
and martyrdom. The Lord used baptism to describe
His suffering and His death on the cross. He said, He asked,
remember when, was it John and who was it? The mother came and
asked, could they one sit on one side and one on the other
in glory? And Christ asked the question, are you able to be
baptized with the baptism that I shall be baptized with? That's
what baptism, water baptism pictures. That's why immersion is such
a good picture. Christ was immersed in suffering. He was immersed in the judgment
of God when he bore the sins of his people on Calvary's cross.
And so he was talking there about his suffering. He said, are you
able? to be baptized with the baptism I'll be baptized with?"
And they answered and said, we're able. And he said, you indeed
shall be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with. They were
going to suffer and die for the sake of Christ. And he said,
you will be baptized with, not like his, he was dying for his
people, forsaken of God, putting away the sins of his people.
They died and martyred him for the sake of Christ. But you see,
baptism pictures suffering and affliction and death. Now, if
Paul's been speaking of believers' baptism here, it seems more likely
he would have said, we, than say they. Doesn't it seem more
likely? Because all believers are baptized.
But he says, what shall they do who were baptized for death,
for the dead? So he's speaking of, but not
everybody suffers to the extent that they die because of Christ. We're not all martyred for Christ.
But he speaks of they, those who are, who were martyred for
Christ. And then plus, now let me read
the rest of my text and you'll see how this interpretation fits
the context of what comes after. Now read it with me. Verse 29.
Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? that
are suffered affliction unto death, unto the grave, if the
dead rise not at all. What would be their hope of even
doing that? Why would they suffer like that? Why are they then
baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy
every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which
I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. I'm baptized unto
death on a daily basis, Paul said, by persecuting men. And
he gives an example. If after the manner of men, he
said, I stood before men at Ephesus and I fought with beasts. These
men were like beasts. These were persecuting men, unregenerate
men who hated my gospel. And I fought with them at Ephesus.
If I did that, what advantage would it give me if the dead
rise not? Why would I even do that? What
would be my hope of standing there and dying for Christ if
the dead don't rise? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow
we die. You see, it fits the context
really well. That he's talking about suffering
unto death. Now here's what I want to deal
with in this. The hope of the resurrection in Christ. is how
God strengthens His saints to endure suffering for the sake
of Christ. The hope of the resurrection
of Christ is how God strengthens His saints to endure suffering
for the sake of Christ. Everybody God saves is going
to suffer. We're all going to suffer. Believers suffer because
to be a witness. We're all witnesses of Christ. And to be a witness is to be
a martyr, is to suffer. That's what the word, the Greek
word for witness is martyr, is to be a martyr. Christ suffered
for his people. It became him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things to bring many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. He became our perfectly consecrated
Savior through sufferings. Why did Christ come down? He
came here to be our high priest. He came to be our high priest
in a two-fold job. There's a two-fold job of a high
priest, which only a man can accomplish. Number one, it's
to reconcile his people to God, to offer sacrifices to God to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. That's what Christ
came down to do. He went to the cross to do that
work, to deliver his people from bondage, and that's what he accomplished.
That required the sufferings of Calvary's cross. And the second
job of a high priest is, he not only goes into the holiest of
holies and represents the people to God, he comes to the people.
God's people. And he represents God to his
people. And he has to be able to comfort the people. Therefore,
he has to be one in their sufferings. He has to know what you're going
through and able to be able to comfort you. And so for those
two reasons, Christ came down and was made of a woman, made
under the law, despised and rejected of men, and suffered all His
life, even to the death of the cross. So that, by that, He reconciled
all His people to God, and now He's able to come to all His
people where we are, and comfort us, and love us to Him, and love
us to God, and love us to glory. comforting us because He knows
what we've suffered. He's been there and touched with
every feeling that we suffer. So believer, this is why we're
going to suffer. Christ suffered. And by His suffering,
He satisfied God and He's able to comfort us. Now, as Christ
suffered as a man, as the servant of God, when He was suffering
as a man, as the servant of God, dependent upon God, what was
His strength to endure that suffering? What was His strength to endure
that suffering? Now, I know He's God. And as
God, He don't need a thing. But as man, what was His strength
to endure that suffering? Go to Hebrews 5. I want to show
you this. Hebrews 5, verse 7. Hebrews 5, verse 7. Who in the
days of His flesh... We're talking about Him as a
man now. representing His people, our covenant head. In the days
of His flesh, when He offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears, who did He do it to? Unto Him
that was able to save Him from death. You know what that means?
Unto Him that He trusted and believed and was confident was
able to raise Him from the dead. resurrect him from the grave.
He knew he had to die and he went to the cross to die. But
he did that trusting the Father who promised when he fulfilled
all the covenant work that God would raise him from the grave.
And he prayed to Him that was able to save him from the grave,
resurrect him. And so he was heard and that
he feared though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered And being made perfect, He became
the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. Being
made perfect doesn't mean He had any sin in Him. It means
He perfected obedience. He perfected His people. He perfected
righteousness. He perfected holiness. He became
the perfect author and finisher of our faith. He finished it,
is what it means. And He became eternal salvation to all now
who put all their confidence in Him, who obey Him. Now, since
Christ suffered, and He learned what it was to obey, He perfected
obedience for His people, do you think you and I are going
to go without suffering? You and I who believe on Christ?
Not at all. We're going to suffer. And we're
going to learn to trust Christ through that suffering. Listen
to the Lord. He said, if the world hates you,
You know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, now listen to this, if you were of the world, the
world would not hate you because the world loves its own. Are
you hated by the world? Are you being persecuted by the
world? If I'm not, I better say, uh oh, I must be coming across
as being too much of the world. Because if you're of the world,
they're not going to say a word against you. They're not going
to say, trouble, take time to bother with you. Nothing offensive
about you. If you stand with Christ, they'll
know He's not of this world. He said, if you're of the world,
the world would love His own, but because you're not of this
world, but I've chosen you out of this world, therefore the
world hateth you. In verse 20, He says, remember the word I
said unto you, the servant's not greater than his Lord. Christ
suffered, didn't He? We're His servants. We're not
going to be greater than Him. We're not going to go without suffering.
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. But if they've
kept My saying, they'll keep yours also. If they believe Me,
they'll believe what you're teaching. But if they hate Me, they're
going to hate you. But all these things will they do to you because
they'll do it for My name's sake. Men don't reject the Gospel.
for Buddha's sake. They don't reject the truth of
Christ for some false god's sake. They don't say that's why they're
doing it. They say they're doing it for Christ's sake. He said
they're going to do this for my name's sake. But what they're
really doing it for is because of what that name means. For
the sake of what that name means. And what that gospel declared.
Because they know not him that sent me. Now many saints have
suffered. And we're going to suffer. Hebrews
11 tells us that some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Some of bonds were put in prison. They were stoned. They took stones
and killed. They killed Stephen with stones.
Some they sawed asunder. They sawed him in two. Some were
tempted. They were slain with a sword.
All these different ways they were afflicted. And he said,
in this world wasn't even worthy of men like that, men and women
like that. Paul says in our text, we stand in jeopardy every hour.
He said, I die daily. I suffer something on a daily
basis. I was just thinking the other day, watching the news
and things, I was thinking, we are a weak, pitiful nation. We don't know what it is to suffer.
We haven't had to suffer. It's been two or three generations
back since we've had to suffer. If we had to go back and try
to fight World War II, we couldn't do it. We'd lose. First of all,
we couldn't agree to do it. But second of all, we wouldn't
have the backbone to do it. We'd fail. And that's how nations
fail. Every generation gets weaker
and weaker and softer and softer. We want our kids to have better
than we have, and we think better than we had is letting them have
everything and have to suffer nothing. Suffering is good. Not getting your way is good.
God's going to see to it His people suffer. We're not going
to have our way in this world. And that's the case with all
God's saints. Now here's the second thing.
Let me hurry along. Why do believers suffer? We're
going to suffer. We saw it. We're going to suffer. Why do we suffer? It's because
we identify with Christ. I'm not talking about now suffering
because you're just somebody that can't get along with people.
I'm talking about suffering for Christ's sake. For identifying
with Christ. Christ was despised and rejected. And it's written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. And we're going to be accounted as sheep for the
slaughter if the stronger we identify with Christ, the more
we're going to suffer rejection. Just bank on that. You want a
good barometer for how well you're identifying with Christ? How
much are you being rejected by men of this world? That's a pretty
good indication. Now we suffer so that we might
live and that others might live by Christ our resurrection. That's
why we suffer. That's why we suffer. Let me
make the point. The only reason that we endure
suffering, the only reason we persevere in suffering, is because
Christ makes us persevere. It's because Christ is risen
and makes us to persevere. Listen to this, Paul said, I'm
always bearing about the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
meaning I'm always suffering for Christ's sake. Has he suffered? And Paul said, I want to be made
conformable unto the sufferings of His death. In other words,
I want to suffer until I die for His sake. That's what Paul
said. I want to preach Christ so boldly, so narrow that they
kill me for Christ's sake. Boy, I want that. That'd be a
good thing to wish for. I want to have the boldness to
preach Christ and suffer martyrdom for His sake. I preach Him so
boldly. That too fanatical? That's what
Paul asked. That's what he said, I want.
And he said, and I suffer, I bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus.
Why? That the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. That it might be made manifest.
The only way we continue under such kind of suffering is because
Christ is risen and lives in us and keeps us enduring. You
wouldn't endure it otherwise. He said, for we which live are
always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. It's two
things. Number one, we're delivered unto
death so that we might preach the living Lord Jesus Christ
who's reigning and risen. And as we suffer that death,
it's manifest. He's the one that makes us continue
to live by His work power and also by giving life to those
to whom we preach. And he says, so then death works
in us so that life might work in you. So that you might see
and know and experience the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ who makes His
people alive through the Word of the Gospel. That's one reason
we suffer. That's a good reason, isn't it?
That's a good reason. And then we suffer because we
preach Christ's works rather than man's works. Paul said,
our brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, Why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. What he's saying is, is when religious men argue with
you and they tell you that the reason that they reject your
gospel is because they have such a high regard for the law of
Moses, don't believe a word of it. That's not why they're rejecting
your gospel. They're rejecting your gospel
because they have a high regard of their works. under that law
of Moses. That's why they're rejecting
it. You preach and you give man just one law to keep, or two
laws to keep, or muddle it up and give them just the Ten Commandments
to keep. They won't persecute you. The
offense of the cross is gone. Then you declare that man has
something to do with it. I don't care for what aspect
of it it is. Paul preached Christ as all righteousness
and all sanctification. He said, I through the law am
dead to the law that I might live to God. What did he mean
by that? Number one, Christ is my righteousness. I'm crucified
with Christ. He's my righteousness. My old
man's dead and He's my righteousness. And number two, He's my sanctification. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live, I live
by the faith of Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me. That's
righteousness and sanctification. And they would argue and they
would say, but now if a man believes it's by God's grace and Christ
is our righteousness, but he's got to go back to the Lord now
or he can't be saved. He's got to be holy or he can't
be saved. And they're saying he's got to do it by his works.
And Paul was persecuted because he answered that with this, O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who hath bewitched you? He said, before whose eyes Jesus Christ
has been evidently set forth, crucified among you through the
preaching of the gospel, set before you in every message Paul
preached. This only would I learn of you. Did you receive the Spirit
of God by the hearing of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you start? Was it by
somebody telling you what you needed to do? Or was it by hearing
what Christ has done? Well, they heard from Paul, and
it was by hearing what Christ had done, not by what the works
of the law. He said, having begun in the Spirit then, are you now
made perfect by the works of the flesh? Are you now going
to go back to the law? And to confirm that's what he
meant, he said, he therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit. He that works miracles among
you, Christ who is ministering to you from glory, sending forth
the Spirit and causing you to believe and to walk honorably
and to obey Him and trust Him and honor Him in what you do.
Is He doing that by the hearing of the works of the law? By telling
you what you should do? Or is He doing that by hearing
of faith? By hearing what all Christ has
done? In other words, when you were saved by hearing about what
Christ has done, the way you're going to continue to be ministered
to by Christ is by hearing about what Christ has done. We don't
start out with what Christ has done and then switch over now
to what you have to do. We declare the wonderful works
of God from beginning to end. And through that message, Christ
makes you want to follow Him. but the world will persecute
you for that. They'll reject you, they'll push
you back, and if you press them hard enough with this gospel
and declare it boldly enough, they'll do to you what they did
to Christ, and they'll kill you. That's in every man's heart.
Every man. All God's got to do is let Him
do it. It's in every man's heart. So you just ignore the vain reason
men give. This is the reason. Because we
identify with Christ, We declare Christ is all and that's the
reason we suffer. We have to be made to show that
it's only by the life of Christ that we endure. And it's this
gospel that we preach. I wouldn't stand here and preach
this gospel to you if Christ wasn't risen. I would wilt and
fade and change it and try to make something happen faster
if it wasn't for Christ risen and the life working in me to
keep me preaching what I'm preaching. The only way. It's too hard otherwise. It's too hard. All right, lastly. Suffering is to cause us not
to look to ourselves but to God who raises the dead. That's what
it's for. Paul suffered at Ephesus greatly. He mentions it in our
text here. He says, If after the manner
of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantages did
it me? If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow
we die. At Ephesus, Paul went to preach the gospel. It was
where the goddess Diana was. You ever seen the replica of
the pentagon of the... What's it called, Melinda, in
Sidon, Nashville? Parthenon. The replica of the
Parthenon in Sidon, Nashville. Well, inside that, they got a
replica of the goddess Diana, just like they had it at Ephesus.
And Paul went there preaching. He went there preaching. And
the men who made those idols and made a good living off of
making idols said, if we let this fellow keep preaching, we're
going to be out of business. That's exactly what preachers
claiming to preach Christ today in the biggest churches in this
country and small ones in this country That's why they don't
want to preach. We're going to be out of business. And they
said, we got to do something. And they brought him into this
theater. There was a crowd of people. And these men wanted
to fight him. They wanted to kill him. These
are the beasts he's talking about that he fought with. And Paul
tells us why God brought him there and made him suffer that.
He said in 2 Corinthians 1.9, we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. We were baptized unto death. We were baptized for the dead.
We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves. That's why. But that we should
trust in God which raiseth the dead. This is Paul's message
throughout, and this is his message in our text. What good would
it do to suffer for the dead if the dead rise not? Why would
I have wrestled with these beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not?
But we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead, who delivered
us from so great a death at Calvary by His resurrection, and does
deliver as he did those at Ephesus through the gospel, through regeneration,
and he continues to deliver. We believe he's going to continue
to deliver just like he delivered Paul at Ephesus, just like he
continues to deliver his preachers, and just like he's going to deliver
his people until final resurrection. That's what he makes us to suffer
for, so that we don't trust in ourselves. We look to the hope
of the resurrection, Christ the Lord. Why do you suffer? What
is it that makes you endure suffering? The hope of the resurrection
by Christ. He is going to resurrect you
and revive you right now. When you suffer and you experience
a little bit of death. You have a sentence of death
in you. You don't have any strength. You can't do anything. What does
He do? He resurrects you. Sort of live a little taste of
the resurrection by reviving you and making you continue on.
Well, one day you are going to experience physical death. and
He's going to revive us. We're going to live with Him.
And every time He makes you to suffer, He makes you a little
more learn, don't trust you. Don't trust you. That's our message. Don't trust you. Trust Christ. And that's the message of the
hope of the resurrection. But if there wasn't a resurrection,
what would be the point? We wouldn't have strength. We
wouldn't have strength. We just eat and drink. Tomorrow
we're just going to die like a dog. Thank God we have Christ
our risen Lord. So preach Christ and preach Christ
boldly. Be ready to suffer at the hands
of unregenerate beasts dressed in sheep's clothing. And be prepared
to be revived by Christ. Don't trust you, trust Him. Just
like you're not going to trust you, but trust Him when it comes
to that day when you lay your dying head on the pillow. Don't
trust Him now when you go in. That's what keeps us from declaring
Him boldly. We're looking to ourselves too
much. Trust Him and let her fly. See what happens. Alright. Amen. Let's stand together and we'll
take a short break. Father, we thank you for the
message. We thank you that no matter where we are in these
scriptures, Christ is there. Thank you for showing us Christ.
Thank you for reviving us when we suffer and we wilt. This flesh
is providing us no strength at all. You're providing us with
a thousand obstacles and a thousand false vain reasons for not following
you. Lord, thank you for continuing
to overcome it. Thank you for continuing to save us in spite
of us. And Lord, we pray you'll continue
to do that. Bless the word now to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen.