or that they had any reason to
consider that one would be coming. And you know, even though they
cried out night and day to be delivered, they were not exactly
sure that such was going to take place. We are in a much more
blessed condition today because we know that our Deliverer has
come and that He has accomplished our salvation. We are not waiting
and hoping that somebody will come along and help us out of
a jam because we already expect that He has performed all that
is necessary to deliver His people. And so we come as the children
of God desiring to hear about what our Savior has done, not
for somebody to come along and tell us what we yet must do in
order to have the benefits which He procured. I am thankful for
the revelation of God's grace that gives us reason, dear brethren,
to rejoice. Because you know a man that knows
himself to be a sinner, he knows himself to have no power of his
own, he knows what he is by nature, and he knows just how prone he
is to forget the things that he's supposed to be seeking. And if a man knows that in the
depths of his soul, he can't have any confidence whatsoever
in anything he would ever do to gain the favor of God. I mean, you know, what would
you do? I mean, and if you did it today,
why do you think you would do it tomorrow? I mean, judging
on past history and your unthankfulness and your disobedience to the
things that you have known, why would you think that tomorrow
you would not turn from Him? I mean, every one of us in this
room, if it wasn't for the grace of God, we would depart from
the Lord tomorrow. That's one of the reasons why
we come together as brethren, is to remind one another of that.
And to be reminded that the Lord has provided everything for us
that we could stand in need of. get worried about that. They
think that if you tell God's people that, well, they'll just
all of a sudden say, well, there's nothing for us to do. We'll just
go on out and do whatever comes up. Well, that's just simply
not the case, is it? Because the same grace that brought
about the salvation of God's people as he was pleased to send
his son to die for us, that same grace is still operable in the
work of the Holy Spirit to keep the people of God. And I don't
know that pathway where it might lead each one of us down. I don't
know the ins and the outs of everybody's life, but I know
this, that if a man is born again by the Spirit of God, God has
set His love upon that man, and He is drawing him, and He loves
him, and He will bring him to the desired place that he has
predestined for that man to be. And that's just a glorious thing.
I rejoice every day that I think about that, because otherwise,
where on earth does any of us think we would be any place but
in hell? if that were not the case. I
mean, that's the only way God's people are going to be delivered
is the grace of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of the Savior
to preserve and keep us and hold us in the palm of His hand. And
as you read through the Scriptures, all of these prophets and all
of these godly men testified to that thing, that they are
kept by the grace of God and nothing else. And so Paul begins
here in the 15th chapter of Corinthians right where he started off. One thing you can count on with
Paul is that he won't go very long before he comes right back
to the heart of the matter, which he's always speaking of the heart
of the matter, but he always comes back just like a broken
record as the needle just keeps going back to the same place
and playing the same thing. You know, or of course, I guess
now we don't think about the needle on the thing, we think
about the CD player getting You know, hung up in a scratch, and
it just keeps playing the same thing over again. And by the
way, on that thing, I thought that was one of the things that
when they came out with CDs, they said, well, that was a thing
of the past. You know? I believe it's worse, actually,
than it was with records. Every now and then, you'd get
one that would get stuck like that, but it's a very common
thing with a CD, isn't it? to have that. I mean, the least
little scratch or whatever can cause that to happen. But the
Lord, through Paul, taught him the Gospel, and he definitely
kept coming back to the same thing. And so he wants to remind
the Corinthians of this. And he says, Moreover, brethren,
this is the 15th chapter of I Corinthians, Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you." Now he says, I'm going
to preach to you what I preached to you. Now a lot of people,
they want somebody to tell them something new. You know, they
want somebody to come up with something new that they hadn't
heard. And you remember how those men there in Athens were. Religious
men want something new. They don't want the same old
thing. They want something new. But you see, the man who knows
that his salvation is in Christ, he just wants to hear the same
thing over and over again. That's what Paul said. The same
thing I preached to you last week, he says, I'm going to preach
to you again. And the thing is, it never grows
old. I mean, you can talk about the
grace of God every day of your life, and it never grows old,
does it? I mean, the redemptive work of
Christ never grows old. It is that same precious thing. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also 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. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day, that he was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve. After that he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
under this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that
he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. Last of all,
he was seen of me as of one born out of due time. For I am the
least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, 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 with
me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach, and so ye believe. Now if Christ be
preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you
that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain? Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we have testified of God, that He raised up Christ,
whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain, year yet, in your sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now, I'm
going to stop right there. It's really hard to stop anywhere
in this chapter without reading the whole thing because it's
all just a continuation of the same point. Now, when Paul says
up here, he said, that which ye have preached, if ye keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye believe in vain."
Now, is it possible to believe in vain? Now, some people look
at this as though this is saying, Paul said, well, you believe,
but then you quit believing and so now it's in vain. That's not
at all what he's saying. He said, This is what I preached
unto you, and this is what, if you hold in your memory, is the
basis upon that which you believe, unless what I have told you is
a crock of bull. He said, Now if what I have told
you is not true, then you believe in vain. Because what does he
go on to say? He said, If the dead rise not,
your faith is vain. So the faith of God's people
rests on one thing, primarily. Now, we know it rests on the
whole work of Christ. But what Paul is saying here
is it was boiled all down to it because here was a thing that
had arisen among them. He said, there is some that say
among you that he didn't write. Early in the days of the church,
there was false doctrine that came in. I mean, we kind of think
about that, oh, the apostles and all that were running around
and teaching here and everything, and so consequently, everybody
was just on the same page and the doctrine was pure and all
of that. Well, just as soon as men get a hold of something,
there's going to be corruption that's going to enter into the
picture. And you can be sure that men will corrupt the gospel
of Jesus Christ just given one little pinch of an opening to
do so. They'll do it every time. And
it's always denying something that God said or seeking to make
man to be the linchpin in the matter of salvation. I'm telling
you, the ways and the works of men have nothing whatsoever to
do with the salvation which is purchased by Jesus Christ. They
can't keep it from happening, and they can't add a thing to
it, because what He did is a perfect work, and nobody can come along
and improve it, and nobody can prevent what He has accomplished
from taking place, because He's done it. But some say, some say
that there is no resurrection, he said. And if that be true,
then you have believed in vain. But he said, you haven't believed
in vain because Christ did rise from the dead. He says, I've
delivered unto you exactly what the truth is. He says, for I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. Now, how did Paul receive it? He received it from the mouth
of God, the same way anybody receives it in reality. Now,
the Lord is pleased to send preachers into the earth to declare the
gospel. But the truth of God only comes
to men one way, and that is that the Spirit of God enlightens
them to the truth. Now, he may use messengers, but
he must and will of necessity be present to open the ears of
a man that he might hear. How shall they hear it? Without
a preacher, for sure. That is in the natural ear. But
how shall they hear it? A man can't hear the Gospel unless
God is pleased to open his ears to hear it. No man ever heard
except in that same way. Paul received this from the Lord
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
What Scriptures? The Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament
Scriptures which were full of the testimony that Christ would
pay the price for sin. all of the prophets, and testified
to this, that he was buried and that he rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. Now those are facts. These are
things he said we preach to you. These are the things we receive
from the Lord. And apart from believing these
things, you have believed in vain. There is nothing that you
could stand upon if these things aren't true. And I received them
from the mouth of God, he said, so I know they're so. And I delivered
them unto you, and God testified to you of these things because
you believed." And this is just not me. He says, he was seen
of Cephas and of the twelve. This is a well-established fact.
Now, dear brother, make no mistake about it, that those things that
we believe are based on fact. Now, the world likes to criticize
the things that God's people believe, and they say that it's
like, you know, a pie in the sky, by and by, and all of those
things. But if this is a well-proven
fact, he says, those things that we believe are based upon fact. And if these facts are not so,
then we might as well all go home. Because if Christ didn't die
for our sins according to the Scriptures, we're in bad shape. I mean, what are we doing? We've
got no hope whatsoever. I mean, if He didn't pay the
price for our sins, who's going to pay it? And what are we going
to pay it with? I mean, if every individual man
is going to pay for his sin, how is he going to do it? The
Scripture says the soul that sinneth shall die. That's a pretty severe payment,
is it not? I mean, how are you going to
recover from that? You're not. But he was seen of
Cephas, then of the twelve. Of course, we know Cephas is
Peter. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren
at one time. You know, 500 men all seeing
the same thing, it would be hard to deny that such was true, would
it not? I mean, two or three is one thing,
but 500 people all seeing the same exact thing, that's a pretty
strong witness to it, is it not? And that's what he says here.
He was seeing the 500 brethren, of whom the greater part remained
to the President. He said most of those people
are still alive. I'm talking about people you
could walk up to and you could tap on the shoulder and say,
tell me what you saw, and he'd say, I saw Christ risen from
the dead. After that, he says, but some
are falling asleep now. Think about this. Those that
had seen him, do you suppose they believed having seen them
raised from the dead. I expect they did. I expect they
did. And they fell asleep. Now this
is important. They fell asleep in the knowledge
that Christ rose from the dead, did they not? What a glorious
place to die, dear brethren. What a glorious frame of mind
in which to lay down our heads upon our deathbed, knowing that
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Because if Christ has risen from
the dead, then dear brethren, we have hope, do we not? But
he said if he didn't, guess what? You don't have any hope whatsoever.
I mean, you can pack it in. This is it. He said, this is
the way it is. And he said, after that he was
seen of James, his brother, and then of all the apostles. And
last of all, he was seen of me. Now Paul was
following Christ when Christ rose from the dead, was he? But
he said, I saw him. Now when did he see him? Yes,
he saw him on the road, and then I believe he saw him in the days
when he was in the wilderness, when the Lord taught him the
Gospel. Now he says, I was one born out of due time. He says,
I went along and he said, my life has two chapters in it,
just like the chapter of every one of God's people, before Christ
and after Christ. And there's a big difference
between those two chapters. It's all because of the grace
of God. For He said, I am the least of
the apostles. I'm not even worthy to be called
an apostle, He said. Because He said, I persecuted
the church of God. He said, it was my stated purpose. He said, my one desire in life
was to kill the people of God. But He said, God who is rich
in mercy with the great love wherewith He loved us, when it
pleased Him, He called me by His grace. When I was yet breathing
out threatens and slaughters against the people of God and
hating Christ at every turn, but yet God who is rich in mercy,
He calls me to call upon His name. Is it any wonder, do you reckon,
that Ananias and these early believers were a little bit fearful
when they heard that Paul was coming to see them? Do you suppose
they said, Now, wait a minute. I mean, we believe the Lord can
do anything, but this is about beyond Beyond belief. Paul says it is beyond belief.
He said, I didn't have some inkling within me, something I learned
in Sunday school, that one day I said, well, maybe I'll turn
my life over to God. No, sir, he already figured he
was following God. And it was only by the mercy
of God that he was delivered out from the blindness of religious
darkness. Dear brethren, if the Lord can
save a man like the Apostle Paul, He can save anybody. Because
I'm telling you, it's far worse for a man to be wrapped up in
religion which is false than it is not to have any at all.
Because you see, a man that doesn't have any at all, At least he's
kind of like a blank piece of paper, but the man who is steeped
in religion, buddy, he's got unlearned everything he already
knew. And religion is a strong thing.
I mean, you know, it's amazing, isn't it? I mean, you can see
this in the cultures of men around the world. I mean, people predominantly,
they stick with the religion that they're born into. And it's
tough when a man is religiously oriented to get him out of that.
Paul, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I mean, he was steeped
in it. But he said, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And dear brethren, there's not
a man who ever has known the Lord who wouldn't testify of
that very thing. Austin, wake up, buddy. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain. Because nothing that the Lord
does is in vain. It keeps using that word, in
vain. Now, I believe it's on purpose.
He said, if you hold these things, unless you believe in vain. But
He said the Lord did this and it wasn't in vain. God doesn't
call His people to believe something in vain. And he does not perform a work
in a man for it to turn out to be nothing. Well, I thought old
brother so-and-so was going to turn out to be, you know, a great
preacher, and it turned out he wasn't nothing but a deceiver.
And we're disappointed. Well, because he just turned
out to be what he was by nature. But you see, when God is pleased
to work in somebody to do the work that He would perform, it
will not be in vain. It will be exactly what the Lord
wants it to be. I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
He said the Lord constrained me to it. He said I would have
quit a hundred times, but the Lord was rich in mercy. He kept
me going and He caused me to labor more than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach and so you believe." He said, that makes
a difference. Which one of these witnesses that comes to you and
tells you these things, he said, the same thing is true. He said,
Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again
the third day of which we are all witnesses. And he says, if
you gather us up all in one room, we will all testify to the exact
same thing. And it is upon this that our
faith rests. Now if Christ be preached that
He rose from the dead, how say some of you that there is no
resurrection of the dead? He said, look, you're wasting
your time and ours too to be telling us that there is no resurrection
that Christ isn't risen from the dead if He be risen from
the dead. For if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen. If there is no such thing
as a resurrection, then Christ is not risen. Now you know sometimes
every now and then you get some smart people that will come along
and they've figured it out that there is really no resurrection.
No resurrection of the dead. No resurrection of human beings. No resurrection wherein the body
is put into the ground and then one day the body will come out.
Now we are certain that the body that comes out of the grave is
going to be a glorified body. It is not going to be a corruptible
body. It is going to be a spiritual body according to what the Scripture
says. But it is going to be the person that went in the grave
is going to come out of the grave. There is a resurrection. Because
if we say there is no resurrection, then Christ is not risen. Why do we know that? Because
the Scripture says He is the firstfruits of them that slept. He is that One who has set the
stage. He has proven. that there is
a resurrection from the dead. And if lest we have believed
in vain, dear brethren, we rejoice in the concept of the resurrection
of the dead. And we know that the story of us does not end in the graveyard. Why? Because Christ is risen
from the dead. Now how say some of you, he said,
that there is no resurrection of the dead? Is it going on somewhere
else? And tell everybody else that.
But he said this is just a vain bit of work. What are you claiming
to be a Christian for if you don't believe in that? Brethren,
this is the basis of our hope. This is the ground upon which
we stand. If Christ be not risen from the
dead, then we are of all men most miserable, he said. If Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also vain? He answered the question, didn't
he? Unless you believed in vain. He said, Christ be not raised
from the dead, then you have believed in vain. But we do not
believe that you have believed in vain. He says, and we're found
false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that
He raised up Christ, whom if it be that He didn't raise Him
up, then the dead don't rise. Because, dear brethren, that's
a two-fold thing. If you say there's no resurrection,
then you can't say that Christ rose from the dead. And if Christ
didn't rise from the dead, you can be sure that nobody else
will rise from the dead. So really it all boils down to
that, does it not? An empty tomb where the Lord
came forth from the dead. You're yet in your sins. And
not only you, but they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are
perished. They're just gone. They went back to the dust. And the winds of time sweeping
through the hallways of memory are gone. That's it. That's pretty bleak consideration, is it not? Now,
I don't guess it bothers a man too much that's never been given
the hope of eternal life. I mean, a man that just figures
he's just going to die and that's going to be it, it ain't going
to bother him a bit if that turns out the way it is. But Paul said,
you know, those of us that have been given hope, he said that
would be the most dismal of thoughts, would it not? Because we would be yet in our
sins if the dead rise not. Because you see, if the dead
rise not, then what Christ did didn't accomplish anything. And they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. Those that had expectations.
You see, Christ is as big as the Lord Jesus when He walked
upon the earth. If He be not raised from the
dead, then everything He said is a lie. And you better be prepared
to stand up and say that Jesus Christ, the biggest liar that
ever lived, if the dead rise not. Because He said, as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so
shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
earth. And He shall come forth from the grave. And He has come
forth from the grave. And the basis of all that we
believe rests therein. that our sin is taken away because
what He said was that He would bury our sin. And when He rose,
He didn't rise as a sacrifice, but He rose from the dead as
a triumphant victor. And oh, what a glorious thing
it is. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Because the dead would perish. We would perish. We would die
in our sins. I can't think of a more awful
place for a man who has been awakened by the Spirit of God
to know what sin is and to know who God is than to contemplate
dying in our sin. That's the most terrifying thing
I can imagine, coming into the presence of a holy God in my
sin. Can you imagine anything more
frightening than that? I certainly can't. But dear brethren,
if the things that Paul preached to those that we preach in the
present time are not true, that's exactly what's going to happen. A lot of people do kind of think
of it that way. You know, a lot of people, a lot of church people,
it's just kind of a thing they do. It's not the thing that drives
their life. It's not the thing that causes
them to rejoice when they wake up in the morning and to rest
in when they go to sleep at night. It's just kind of like, oh yeah,
well that's church stuff, you know. And a lot of people are
very faithful. in their church and religious
life, but they don't have the life of Christ. They've never
been born again by the Spirit of God. It's just something that
they do. And they're happy in it. And
you know, if it turns out not to be true, they'll be, well,
just the way it is. But I'm telling you the most
terrifying thing for an awakened child of God to consider would
be to be separated from the presence of the Lord forever. That would
be terrible. I mean, that would just be beyond
thought. But now, he said, now is Christ
risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that
slept. For since by a man came death,
by a man also came the resurrection." Now, this is the glorious part
of the gospel the Lord would teach us, is the imputation. There are two things that a man
has to come to grips with, and if he doesn't come to grips with
them, he can't ever have any understanding of what it is that
Christ did. One is the imputation of Adam's
guilt to the human race. We're all guilty. In Adam, we're
born guilty. We didn't have to do anything
to get guilty. People look and say, oh, look
at that little baby there. He's so innocent. And he is as
innocent as he'll ever be. But in that infant is every evil
thought in its seed form that could ever be. and given time
and the lack of the restraining grace of God, it will develop
into being exactly what it will be. But you see, the Lord, who is
rich in mercy, He has shown us that even though the guilt of
Adam's sin rests upon us from the day that we are born. According to His purpose, those
whom He calls by His grace have also had the righteousness of
Christ imputed to them before they ever drew their first breath.
So it is kind of a conundrum of a thing that that little baby
that's born in Adam is a corrupt individual by the imputation
of Adam's sin. But those who are chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world are as pure and holy
in His sight as we imagine that a little baby
is. And they remain that way. till
the time that they lay down these old corrupt bodies in the tomb,
and one day, because of that which Christ did, they are raised
in a glorious body, and so shall they ever be with the Lord."
Brethren, that's the hope we have, unless we've believed in
vain, Paul said. And he said we've not believed
in vain. because I receive these things from the Lord." And he
says, I'm telling them to you again, and by the grace of God
you'll believe it if the Lord is pleased to open your eyes
and give you a heart to embrace these things. And these things
are the very words of life, and they enliven us, and they give
us strength to go on. Not as those who just blindly
hope that it's true, but those who by the grace of God believe
it's true. It's kind of like I've shared
this with you before, but it's an illustration of this very
thing. Years ago when he was still alive, they were mounting
up an expedition to go over to Turkey or wherever it was to
see if they could find the remains of Noah's Ark. And they asked Lester Roloff,
if they go over there and they find the ark, will this strengthen
your faith? He said, if they load it up and
bring it back and drag it up in my backyard, he says it won't
make me believe it one bit more than I already do. And so it is there, brethren,
when the Lord's pleased to give a man faith, he just can't help
it, can he? He's just got to believe it.
Thanks be unto God for that faith, for we have not believed in vain,
dear brethren.