So we're looking in I Corinthians
chapter 15, and Paul, this whole chapter is a reminder to the
Corinthians of what it is that he preached to them and what
it is that goes to make the gospel the truth that it is, which centers
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now some
people look at the resurrection of Christ from the dead as though
it's kind of a fairy tale type thing and it really doesn't make
any difference if it's true or not. Well, Paul puts the lie
to that. I mean, he says that if it's
not true that Christ is raised from the dead, then everything
that I have preached to you is a falsehood and you have believed
in vain. If that's not true, then forget
it. I mean, what are we doing? There's
no need to go any further. So the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead is the linchpin of the whole Gospel as we look
at it. Because if He'd gone to the cross
and died for us and paid for our sin debt, but yet had not
risen from the dead, He would have been no different than any
other man, and he could not have paid that debt because his priesthood
would have ended in the grave. And we need a continuing priesthood. The Jews had a priesthood that
could not continue by reason of death, but you see this man,
because he has a priesthood that continueth ever, then we have
hope. And he ever liveth to make intercession
for those that come under god we are uh... thankful that the
idea is the intercession of christ now when we talk about the intercession
of christ and we mentioned this before but this is a very important
point christ does not intercede uh... down on his knees uh...
begging and pleading and hoping that the lord will have mercy
on his people but christ intercedes at the throne of god as a man
of great power and strength as one who says, I paid the price
for their sin debt. And they cannot, they will not,
they must not ever perish because I am that one who has brought
salvation by my hand. My own arm has gotten me the
victory. See, the victory belongs to Christ.
You know, a lot of people think that they're the ones who've
got the victory. No, we're just those that get the benefits of
the victory. The victory is Christ. He triumphed
over sin and death. Because you see, if He didn't
triumph over death, then it can't be said that He triumphed over
sin, because sin is the cause of death. But Christ did triumph
over it, and He has gotten Himself. He said in Isaiah chapter 63,
My own arm hath gotten me the victory. He won, and He triumphed
over sin when He rose from the dead. Now, let's read the beginning
in verse 13. It says, But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen. Now, there's no such thing
as a resurrection of the people of God. Now, he's
making a twofold argument, but these two things go hand in hand. He said, if there is no such
thing as a resurrection in general, then Christ couldn't have been
raised if there's no such thing as a resurrection. And he said,
And if Christ be not raised, now here's Paul the lawyer, he's
building an argument. He said if there's no such thing
as a resurrection, then Christ wasn't raised from the dead.
Because you know, the Sadducees, they didn't believe in the resurrection
among the Jews. They didn't believe in angels.
They didn't believe in anything spiritual. They just believed
in kind of, you know, just a rote religion that you could see. And there's always those that
say, oh, well, you know, that's just a pie in the sky by and
by. There's no real truth to any of this. But he said, if
there is no resurrection, then Christ is not raised. And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain. Now remember how he started off.
He said, My old brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you wherein ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless ye have believed in vain. Now he said if the things
I am saying are not true, then you have believed in vain. There
is nothing to it. You have got no basis upon which
to stand. Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we have testified of God, that He raised up Christ,
whom, if there be no resurrection, He raised not up. According to
that theory, he says. If so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, or Christ
is not raised. Then if Christ be not raised,
your face vain, and ye are yet in your sins. So he sums that
up pretty strongly. Let no man doubt that that is
the case, if Christ be not risen. And then he says, Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Those who have
professed that they believed in Christ and believed in the
resurrection, he said, it was for naught. He said, it's of
no use. He said, they're perished. That's
it. be no resurrection. That's the
end of the line. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now, the
man who doesn't believe he's not miserable because there's
not a resurrection, is he? What's he have to hope for? I
mean, he's got no hope anyway, so it's not a bother to him.
See, only the sons of God, only those who are made alive in Christ,
find that it would be a dismal and a dark thing if there was
no resurrection. I mean, that would be a terrible
thing to a man who believes in Christ, would it not? I mean,
because that would just be the darkest hole that he could possibly
go into. Now, the man that doesn't know
Christ and doesn't have any hope in Christ, it's nothing to him.
He's just going to move right on out. He's not even thinking
about it. I don't know what he thinks. He just figures if he
made it this far, he'll make it again, you know. But the children
of God know that death is the result of sin. And they know
that the God who dwells in the heavens has said that the soul
that sinneth shall die. And he knows that there must
be a comeuppance that must take place for sin. And that's the
thing that weighs on his heart and his mind. Now sometimes in
the flesh we might even say this, that the man who doesn't have
that burden is in the flesh better off, is he not? Not to have that
burden in the flesh. But oh, what a glorious thing
it is to be given that burden because that is the facing of
what the truth is. Because you see, the Scripture
says that the simple pass on and are punished. They just move
on by. They don't have any mind to it. They don't have any thought
to it. They don't have any regard to it. They think it's silly.
Or they just don't care. It's nothing to them. They just
move right on out. Not so with God's people. We know that our gods are consuming
fire. I tremble to think what it would
be to stand in His presence without a sin bearer, without a mediator,
without a living high priest. That would be an awful thing. Then they which also fall asleep
in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope, we are of all men most miserable. Because, wow, we've
been made alive, and we know what it is to live in Christ.
So it would be miserable to think that that should come to an end.
But now has Christ risen from the dead? Now, he says, you can
forget all that. He said, all that is ifs and
buts and maybes. But he said, here's the truth.
And he said, this is the thing we preached to you from the beginning.
But now is Christ. risen from the dead, and become
the firstfruits of them that slept." Now he said, what if
a man, you know, if there is no resurrection, those that sleep
in Christ, that is, those who have died in the present time,
that have professed faith in Christ, but they have passed
from this world, and the death of the saints of God is spoken
of as a sleep throughout the Scriptures. We sleep when we
die. Now you can read into that whatever
you want to, but that's what the Scripture calls it. He said
those that sleep, Christ is become the firstfruits of all who die. Now if Christ is the firstfruits
of all who die, and He can't be the firstfruits if He didn't
rise from the dead, can He? And if he rose from the dead
and is the firstfruits, guess what? There has to be some secondfruits
and some thirdfruits and some fourthfruits. I mean, there has
to be followingfruits. Does it not for him to be the
firstfruits? It does not say he is the fruit.
It says he is the firstfruits. He is that progenitor of all
of those who shall be raised from the dead. He is the firstfruits
of them that sleep. For since by man came death,
by man also came the resurrection of the dead. Now just like in
Adam, we all died in Christ. We are made alive. That is what
he says. For as in Adam all die, Even
so, in Christ shall all be made alive." Now, some have read that
and they take it completely out of the context in which it is
given. And they say, oh, well, look, all men shall be made alive
in Christ. That is not what it says. Now,
we did all die in Adam, but when he says, all shall be made alive
in Christ, he is speaking specifically about the people that he is talking
to right here. He said, We all died in Adam,
and even as we all died in Adam, so shall we all be raised in
Christ, speaking of those who are the firstfruits, those who
are the people of God. For in Christ shall all of those
be made alive. For every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's, at His
coming. Now, see, He defines it, doesn't
He? He says, They that are Christ's. Now, all men are not Christ's.
How do we know that? He prayed it in the garden. He
said, Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom
Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou
hast given them to Me. They belong to You. Every man
in his own order, that is. Some of us are going to die before
others, but all of us are going to die according to the order
that is set out by the Lord, every man in his own order, Christ
the firstfruits, and afterward they that are Christ's at his
coming. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all
rule and all authority and all power. For he must reign till
he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet. But when he saith all things
were put under him, it is manifest, or it is obvious, that he is
accepted which did put all things under him. And when all things
shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be
subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may
be all and in all." Now, this is a passage of Scripture that
is, if you see the glory in it and
the purpose and the truth that is in it, it is a very glorious
and fulfilling mindset that we gain from looking at this. If
you look at it as some do and miss the glory of it and the
purpose of it and the meaning of it, it is a very confusing
passage of Scripture that says that the resurrection of the
dead, as far as we know, shall occur at the end when he shall
have put down all rules. Now we know that in the purpose
of God, He put down all rule before He ever came into the
world. But it pleased God to demonstrate the putting down
of all rule. Now He created the world so that
He might demonstrate to men, and remember this, to the angels,
of His absolute dominion and of the manifestation of His grace
and mercy. Now the manner in which he would
show his mercy is that he created a world into which he made men,
put men, those men that he loved from before the foundation of
the world and demonstrated to the angels that he would show
mercy to them even though they were sinners. Now keep in mind
that the angels which sinned, they didn't receive any such
mercy, did they? See, the angels never saw any
demonstration of the mercy of God until such time as Jesus
Christ came into the world as the Mediator and Savior of His
people. Because they saw the third part
of the Scripture that says that the angels cast out of heaven,
and that was it. But there was no coming back
from that. I mean, the Lord just cast them
out because they weren't His. He said they were not, according
to what Scripture says, they were not the elect angels. And
so He cast them out. And all that the angels had ever
seen up until that point was a demonstration of the justice
of God and the hatred of God of any rival that might rear
its head against him. But when Christ came upon the
scene, oh, then the demonstration of grace and mercy was made manifest,
and the Lord would show who He is. And so Christ came into the
world for that purpose, and there cometh an end. That is, there
cometh an end to this present realm in which men have lived
We're not going to stay in this world just like we are forever. It wasn't the purpose of God
in the first place. This was a temporary dwelling
place for us. Now, we're finite creatures. We had a beginning and only by
the grace of God will we not have an end. I mean, there's
nothing to keep us going. We don't have any power to keep
us going. You know, of course, the world's
religions and what not, they teach that man is going to, he's
just this life force. You know, he has this life force
and he's either got to be reincarnated or he's got to be, something's
got to happen to him. He can't just vip and that be
it. But according to what Scripture
says, he can be vip and that's it. Because the only thing that
keeps any man alive is not some power or force that's within
him, but the power and the gift of life which comes from one
source who is the life. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father except by me. And so the only life that any
man can have is that which is given to him, and he is the giver
of life. But he would demonstrate that.
And then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God, even the Father. Now, the Lord made this plain. I don't think it can be made
any plainer than what He made when He said to Philip, when
Philip said, Show us the Father, and we'll be happy. He said,
He says, Have I been so long time with you and you have not
known me? He said, He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. Because you see, He is the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You know, I don't try to explain
that. And anybody that does, in my estimation, is treading
on ground that they don't have any business treading on and
don't have any way of understanding that. It's beyond human comprehension. Just like this right here. I
can't explain that in terms that anybody would in the flesh grasp. But it's a glorious thing. But
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He came into
the world as God. Because He is God. When He went
to the cross, He went to the cross as God. When He went to
the tomb, He went to the tomb as God. When He rose from the
dead, He rose from the dead as God. But He did all those things
as man too. Yes, He did. And we can't comprehend
that. That's totally beyond It's just
like thinking about eternity. You mentioned it a moment ago.
The Scripture says that He inhabits this eternity. Now, it doesn't
say that anybody else does or could, because that's the realm
of God. He is eternal. Can you think
about eternal? No. You don't have the ability
to think about eternal. I mean, you know, I've thought
a lot about it. But then I just kind of wilt
down, because when you think about something that has no beginning
and has no end, that's outside the realm of a finite mind to
comprehend. It cannot be comprehended. And
so he says here, though, that there is coming an end. What
is there coming an end to? There's coming an end to this
demonstration in this earthly realm, the establishment of His
kingdom. There is coming an end to it
as far as the manifestation of these things is concerned as
they presently appear. Then cometh the end when he shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God. The Lord said, Ask of
me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
Well, he has brought that to a close, and he will bring that
to a close at the final day. There is a final day. And there
cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom
to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule,
all authority, and all power." Now he already had put that down
because he created all rule and all authority and all power.
So it could not in one sense of the word ever even be an issue. except that He ordained that
powers and principalities and all these things should arise
in order that He might demonstrate His power over all things and
in the putting down of them. And so He's demonstrating that. And He said there's coming a
time when it's going to be made plainly apparent to every finite
creature that I have made with my hands that this is done. that it is set forth. For he must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Now, in prospect, death is already
destroyed, so much so that Paul closes out the words in this
chapter. He says, Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where
is thy victory? Now, that's in the ultimate consideration
of it. But, dear brethren, we still
have an appointment with death, do we not? I mean, every one
of us in this room has an appointment with death. It's a real thing. And it's not a prospect that
any man that's honest would ever say that he looks forward to.
Now, we look forward to the blessing that's beyond death, but I don't
look forward to dying, do you? I mean, that's not a thing that
a man can desire. Not the dying. People sometimes shoot themselves
or do all kinds of stuff, but they are just trying to end their
pain. They are not wanting to die. They are actually wanting
to live. See, they want to get beyond
it. So it is just natural that a
man would not want to die, but nonetheless, it is a thing that
we all have to face. But there is an end to it. There
is an approaching time when the manifestation of what Christ
has done will be clearly revealed. Now, just like the Lord was with
His disciples day by day, and He was God, He is no more God
as He sits on the throne in heaven than He was when He walked among
them and taught them every day. But you see, as long as we're
in this realm here, we have doubts and fears and misunderstandings
and it's not clearly revealed to us, you see? Because even
beyond that, the disciples, they didn't really know who He was.
I mean, He said He was God, but yet how could He be God? You know, He walked here. I mean,
we saw Him. So they still didn't have that
clear thing. And even right now, it's a difficult
thing for us, dear brethren, to enter into a concept that
He speaks of here. But He must reign. He shall reign
until He has put all enemies under His feet. And the last
enemy that will be destroyed is death. In other words, at
the resurrection, death is destroyed. Now Christ is the firstfruits.
He's the one that is the forerunner. He's the one that has set forth
the example and He has shown us the reality of the fact that
He has conquered death because He rose from the dead. But now
yet you and I, we still face death. But He said there's coming
a time when even that shall no longer be the case. It's going
to be put away. For he hath put all things under
his feet. But when he saith, All things
are put under him, and it is manifested, he is accepted, which
did put all things under him." Here's Paul the lawyer again.
He said, Now you've got to think about this. He said, Does that
mean then that somehow or other there is a hierarchy in the Godhead
and so that now There's going to be a differentiation
between the Father and the Son? No, you see, I believe this is
a true thing, that the full revelation of the deity of Christ is going
to be shown to us in that day. Because what does the Scripture
say? It says, We shall see Him as He is. And how is He? the God of heaven and earth.
He is the Father. That's what the prophet Isaiah
said. He said, He shall be called the
everlasting Father. He is the Father. And so he's
going to demonstrate that He is the Father, that He is God,
that He is that One who rules over all things. It is manifest
that He is accepted which did put all things under Him. And
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son
also Himself be subject unto him that put all things unto
him, that God may be all in all." Because you see, the demonstration
of what He is going to show is that He is God beyond any shadow
of a doubt, beyond any question. He is going to manifest that.
Now, as far as we are going to go, I am not going to get into
this other thing here. But I will read it so you think
about it. What shall they do which are
baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all? Now, have you ever been baptized
for the dead? Now, speaking of the Mormons,
that is the reason why they want to know who their ancestors are
so they can be baptized for them. Because they believe that baptism
is washing away their sin, and they can go back and be baptized
for the dead, and they can get all their ancestors. So whenever
they all get into their own kingdoms out here in the world, you know,
they'll have a bunch of friends, I mean in space, where they got
their own planet and all that. And they can, you know, all those
friendly planets that are around them will be all their relatives
and whatnot. And they can all just have a
good time together. But that's not what Paul was talking about
here. You'd have to just pull that out of there. What's he
talking about? He's just basically saying that
if there is no resurrection, then you have been baptized for
the dead. In other words, your baptism
is a dead baptism. It's of no use. Because if the
dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?
That is, what's the purpose of baptism? What is the purpose
of baptism? What does it demonstrate? That's
right, to show the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That
is what baptism is. It's a confession of it. Why
are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy
every hour? May the Lord help us and be mindful
that without the resurrection of Christ, we have no hope. But
in Christ, we have ever had. And it is Christ and Christ alone.