Now we saw in last week's lesson
in the first 11 verses that Paul, one more time, declared unto
us the gospel. He declared unto us how Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was
buried. He rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. He showed us clearly that there
is a resurrection. We serve a risen Lord. He died,
was buried, but he did rise again. That's the gospel declares the
perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His perfect righteousness
that he imputed to his people. The gospel declares the substitutionary
death of God's son, how that he died because the sins of his
elect were imputed to him and God killed him for it. He was
buried and he rose again for our justification. The gospel
declares the victorious ascension back to the father. of our Savior,
where he sits on the right hand of the Father, ever living, to
make intercession for his people. And you take away one of those
pillars of the gospel, and you've taken, you've destroyed it. And
that's what was going on here. People were denying the resurrection.
So in verse 12 here, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, Now if Christ
be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now the gospel's
been preached to you. You hear the gospel and you can't
preach the gospel without declaring the resurrection of Christ. So
how is it possible for anyone, for the Corinthian believers,
anyone here, how is it possible for us to deny the resurrection? Both the Old Testament scriptures
and the New Testament scriptures clearly declare the resurrection
of Christ. So how can you deny that there
is a resurrection if a person denies the resurrection? They
must completely deny the scripture. If you're going to deny the resurrection,
you have to absolutely deny the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that has very serious ramifications. Look at verse 13. 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. Now, if the dead don't rise,
Christ is still dead and buried. He's still in a tomb. So our
preaching is vain. If Christ is still dead, if he
never rose from the grave, all the good news that we have of
forgiveness of sins, of eternal life, is utter vanity if Christ
did not rise from the grave. Because Christ is the first fruits
of them that slept. We'll see that here in a minute.
And if there's no first fruits, there'll be no harvest. If the
first fruit's dead, The rest of the harvest is going to be
dead, too. If Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain, our preaching
is in vain and our faith is in vain because we put our faith
in one who's an imposter because he said, destroy this temple
in three days, I'll raise it up. Well, he wasn't talking about
Solomon's temple. He's talking about his own body.
Well, if he didn't raise that body up, that temple up in three
days, he's an imposter. And our faith is in vain because
our faith is in the bones, the dust of somebody lying over there
in a tomb. Our faith is in a living Lord
who's seated at the Father's right hand, making intercession
for us. Well, if Christ is not raised, we don't have an intercessor
with the Father. If Christ is not raised, he's
not in heaven preparing for us a place. Our faith is in vain. Because it's in an imposter,
if Christ be not raised. And look at verse 15. Yea, and
we are found false witnesses of God, because we've 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, and ye are yet in your sins. If Christ is
not risen, God's servants have lied on God. They've lied to
you. What an awful thing for someone
who claims to be a servant of God to lie to you. Paul says,
if Christ is not raised, we've lied to you. We've lied to you
and we told you that God raised his Son from the dead. And if
Christ is not risen, worse yet, we're still in our sins. Because
what does Scripture say? He was delivered for our offenses,
he suffered, he died for our offenses, and he was raised again
for our justification. He was raised again because the
sin that was imputed to him has been put away under his blood. Well, if he's not raised, our
sin's still on us, not on him. If he's not raised, he didn't
put our sin away, and we're still under the condemnation of our
sin. If Christ is still under the power of the grave, we are
still under the condemnation of sin. That's the ramification
of saying Christ is not raised, that there is no resurrection.
And further, there's no hope for those who've already died
in the faith. Look at verse 18. Then they also, which are fallen
asleep in Christ, are perished. They're eternally perished. If
Christ is not raised, everyone who died claiming to trust in
Christ has eternally perished because their sins have not been
put away. They died in their sins. And further, they had no
hope of the resurrection. If Christ didn't break the power
of death, how do we expect to break the power of death? The
only way we can ever hope to break the power of the grave,
to break the power of death, is if Christ broke it for us
and that he's going to raise us from the dead. But if he didn't
break the power of the grave, certainly we're not going to.
In verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. Now, believers suffer persecution.
They suffer hatred and ridicule for Christ's sake. And all that's
for nothing if Christ is not raised. It's just for nothing.
The hope that a believer has in this world is for a better
world to come. Our hope is this is not all there
is. We're the children of Abraham
who, like Abraham, look for a better country, who build her and make
her as God. Well, if this life is all there
is, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then we are, of
all men, most miserable because we're trusting in a dead Savior
who can't keep any of his promises, whose every promise he ever made
is sure to fail if he didn't rise from the dead. We're, of
all men, most miserable. We're spending this life in misery
and there's no life of joy and happiness and peace in Christ
to come. That's the ramifications of saying there's no resurrection,
that Christ did not rise. But thank God he did rise, he
rose from the dead and our faith and our hope in Christ is not
in vain, because look at verse 20. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and he's become the first fruits of them that slept.
Now, since they're first fruits, there's going to be more. Since
there's first fruits, there's going to be a bountiful harvest.
God's going to see to it. He's going to send the sun and
the water and the word. There's going to be a harvest
and he's going to send workers out in the field to gather that
harvest. There's going to be a harvest. Now, in the Old Testament,
the first fruits every year, the first fruits of the harvest
were gathered together and offered to the Lord. And if the first
fruits were sanctified and holy, The rest of the harvest was going
to be sanctified and holy and blessed by God. Well, Christ
is the firstfruits and he's holy. The sin that was imputed to him
has been put away under his blood and he's holy. He's the firstfruits. The rest of the harvest, God's
elect, are holy, too. They've been made holy in Christ
because he's the firstfruits. And the firstfruits were offered
to God to, you know, give thanks for the harvest, but they were
also offered to God because they were considered the best. The
first fruits tasted the sweetest. Well, that's Christ. Now, Janet
and I have been married for 22 years. We've never had a garden. We, both of us, just kill anything,
anything but grass. My grass grows, but anything
else we plant dies. But this year, our neighbor,
Janet told her our neighbor, they'd grow a nice garden, you
know, just that little backyard that everybody in Russell has.
They'd grow a nice garden. So our neighbor, she helped Janet
plant this garden this year. It's a very small garden, just
about three tomato plants and two pepper plants and a cucumber
vine or plant or whatever you call that thing. Well, we have
had a couple cucumbers so far. The first one came. And boy,
it tasted good. I mean, it was just, it tasted
so good. And I know a cucumber tastes
like a cucumber, tastes like a cucumber, tastes like a cucumber.
But that first one, I mean, it tasted good. It just tasted good. It's the first fruits. Well,
that's Christ. To the believer, nothing tastes
like Him. He's the first fruits and He's
the best. Look at Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one, verse
18. Or verse 17. He's the firstfruits, the best,
and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
And He's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. He's the firstborn from the dead,
the King of the dead, the firstfruits of the dead, that in all things
He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. And that little cucumber vine
we've got, our neighbor tells us, I guess I'll believe her.
She knows more about this than I do. She said, that little vine
is going to produce more cucumbers than you'll know what to do with.
That's Christ, the first fruits. There's going to be a harvest
of people made like him. There's going to be so many of
them you can't count them. Made just like him. And every one
of them is going to be made just like him. Now Janet went out
and she picked the second and third cucumbers off our little
vine the other day. She likes to cut them up and
put them in vinegar. I said, cut one of those up and let me
just eat it just like a cucumber. And I ate that and I said, reckon
that vine's going to produce a squash at any point this year?
And she looked at me, she said, no. I said, I don't believe it
will either. I don't know anything about plants,
but that vine is not going to produce a squash this year. You
know how I know that? I don't know nothing and I know
that because the first fruit was a cucumber. Christ is the
first fruits. This is too good to be true.
If it wasn't in God's Word, we wouldn't believe it. Every one
of God's left is part of that harvest that's going to be made
exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be raised in a
body just like Christ. My soul. And you know, people
never should have doubted the resurrection. There are plenty
of stories in Scripture about someone raised from the dead.
There's many of them. But they were all raised back to mortal
life. They all died again. I told Savannah this week, I
don't remember what we were talking about, but I said, Lazarus is
glad he died again. Wouldn't it be a misery if he
lived from then till now? What a misery. He was raised
back to mortal life and he died again. Christ rose from the dead
to immortal life. Eternal life. Sent back to the
Father ever living. making intercession for us. Well,
Christ is the first fruits. His resurrection is the guarantee
of the resurrection of every one of his children, not raised
to mortal life, not raised back to this life, raised back to
eternal life, just like the life of our Lord. And all that's true
because of federal headship. Look at verse 21 in our text.
For since thy man came death, By man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive." Now Paul is still reminding
us here of the gospel, the gospel that he declared first unto us.
And if you're going to understand the gospel, you have to understand
federal headship. God deals with the whole human
race in two federal heads. There are just two, there have
only ever been two. Adam and the second Adam, Christ. And
he deals with the whole human race and one of those two men.
Everything those two men did, they did as a representative
of the people that were in them. Now the whole human race, every
son of Adam was in Adam when he was in the garden. All of
us were represented by Adam. And what Adam did, we did. He was our federal head. Well,
what did Adam do? He sinned. He fell. He rebelled
against God. And he died. And when Adam fell,
we fell. When Adam sinned and rebelled
against God, we sinned and rebelled against God. And when Adam died,
we died. Sorrow and sickness and death,
both physical death and spiritual death, came as a result of Adam's
sin. It's on us because of Adam's
sin. God told Adam, don't eat of the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the day
that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam ate that
fruit and he died. He spiritually died. And eventually
his body died. And the very reason that we have
funerals today is because death came by Adam's sin. Look back
at Romans chapter 5. In Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, Adam,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men, for that all sinned. All have sinned, or that should
be translated, all sinned in Adam. We all sin in Adam, our
federal head, and we die because his sin was imputed to us. That's the first federal head,
but the gospel declares a second federal head, the second Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is the representative
of all of God's elect. All of God's elect were put in
him in that covenant of grace. And what Christ did, we did. When Christ lived a perfect life
of obedience, he did that as our federal head, as our substitute.
And when he lived a life of obedience, we lived a life of obedience.
If we're in him, when Christ suffered and died, we died in
him because he died as our federal head. And when he arose from
the grave, we arose in him. He told his disciples, because
I live, you shall live also, because he's our federal head.
So by man, by Adam, came death. And by man, by the second Adam,
comes life, both spiritual life and physical life. If you're
still there in Romans, look across the page here at verse 17. For
by one man's offense, death reigned by one. Much more, they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men on the justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. We're made righteous in Christ
our federal head. Now men die because of a union
of nature with Adam. We have Adam's nature. Is there
any denying that? Just watch yourself for part
of a day. There's no denying we have Adam's
nature and we die because we have a union of nature with Adam.
We're born just like him and we're going to end up just like
him, dead. Unless Christ returns first, these bodies are going
to end up just like Adam's, dead. And men have spiritual life because
of a union of nature with Christ. That's so. We've been joined
to him so that we have his nature and that's the nature that lives.
And we're going to end up just like him. Living eternally. With bodies that have been resurrected
to eternal life. We're born into this life bearing
the image of Adam, aren't we? But when we're resurrected, we're
going to be resurrected in a body bearing the image of Christ.
That's why David could say this. This is what David was looking
forward to years ago. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness, when my body has been raised up in a body
just like the body of my Lord. That's because of federal headship.
Now, verse 23, but every man in his own order, Christ, the
first fruits, And afterward, they that are Christ's at his
coming. Now God is a God of order. There's going to be an order
to this thing of the resurrection of the dead. Now Christ is the
first fruits. He's the first to rise again,
to rise from the dead and never die. And next will be believers
who have died in the faith. They'll be resurrected when Christ
returns. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13 But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord should not prevent, or proceed, not
go before, then which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words." You see the seriousness of denying the resurrection?
This is the comfort of the believer. If you take that away, you've
taken away the comfort of a believer. Because Paul says, you comfort
one another with these words. Now, verse 24, back in our text. So Paul here is talking about
Christ and 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 power.
Then cometh the end, That's the end of the world as we know it
when Christ returns. And Christ is going to return
because the will of God and redemption is complete. It's all complete.
And when he returns, there's going to be an end of civil authority.
There's going to be the end of family authority, the authority
of husbands and fathers and mothers. There's going to be the end of
authority in the church, no more pastors and elders, no more preaching. That'll be the end. It'll be
the end of sin. It'll be the end of death. It'll be the end
of sorrow. And Christ is going to reign. He'll have all rule
and all authority. He's going to reign, ruling in
a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
And his kingdom is going to be populated, full of people who've
been resurrected and made just like him. Now, some of them will
be alive when Christ returns. They'll be changed. But the vast
majority of them will be resurrected in bodies just like our Lord's.
Now verse 25, For he must reign, he must reign, till he hath put
all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Now Christ is King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. God set him on his throne. It's
obvious he must reign. The King must reign. And you know the list of things
in scriptures. I looked them up again this week
because I like reading them. There's so many things the Redeemer
must do. In Luke 2, verse 49, he told
his mother and his foster father, wished ye not that I must be
about my father's business? In Luke 19, he told Zacchaeus,
you make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy
house. What a day. John the Baptist
said he must increase, and I must decrease. John 4, verse 4, he
must needs go through Samaria. If he's got a sheep there, just
like Zacchaeus, he must dwell at his house. He must go meet
that woman and call her to himself. John 3, verse 14, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And he explained what that meant
in Matthew 16, that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes
and be killed. He must be killed. And what? Raised again the third day. Now,
in the end, all that work's been accomplished. All the people
that he died for have been called to himself. And he's going to
come again and he must reign. And Christ, our King, will have
no rivals and every enemy is going to be destroyed and put
under his feet. I looked at that this week, every
enemy of Christ is already conquered, aren't they? They've already
been conquered, but they've not all been destroyed. They've not
all been put away. But the last enemy that will
be destroyed, and we're going to see this, the last enemy to
be destroyed is death. Then we're finally going to stop
dying. That's what Henry told you. We're finally going to stop
dying. Death is going to be destroyed. Our enemy that we live in fear
of all of our lives and be put away. Now, verse 27, for he hath
put all things under his feet, but when he sayeth all things
are put under him, it's manifest. It's 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 the Father has put all things
under the feet of Christ. He's given him all authority
in heaven and earth. Well, of course, the Father's
excluded. The Father's not under the feet of the Son. The Father
and the Son are equal, but as mediator, as a man, Christ is
subject to the Father. He came to do the will of the
Father in redemption. And when time has ended, the
will of the Father has been accomplished. The Son's going to deliver up
the kingdom to the Father. And God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are going to reign. The Son's going to deliver up
the kingdom. He said, Father, here are I and the children which
you've given me. We're all here. Not one's lost.
And the kingdom's going to be delivered up to the Father. Now,
verse 29, Paul goes back here to the instruction of the resurrection. He says, else what should they
do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise? Not at
all. Why are they then baptized for the dead? Now, Paul's not
talking about being baptized for someone's already died, he's
talking about believers baptism that represents the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ. Well, if the dead are not raised,
Why do we administer Believer's Baptism? Believer's Baptism declares
our confession of Christ. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried in him. And when he arose, I arose in
him. That's our confession of faith. But if Christ be not raised,
when someone desires to confess Christ in Believer's Baptism,
you'd have to drown them. You'd have to dunk them under
the water and hold them there to be a true picture of Christ.
If he's not raised, that'd be awkward, wouldn't it? If you
just took somebody and drowned them. But Christ is raised. That's why we administer believers
baptism. In verse 30, he says, if the
dead be not raised, why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I
protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
I die daily. If Christ be not raised, why
do we expose ourselves to persecution and ridicule and face death. Paul faced it every day for preaching
the Gospels. People always want to take him
and kill him and throw him in prison and beat him. You know,
the Jews tortured and martyred many members of the early church
over this belief of the resurrection that Christ was raised. Look here at verse 32, he says, If after the manner of men I
have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage hath it me if
the dead rise not? Let's just eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die." Now, I don't know if Paul here is talking
about facing actual beasts, lions, at Ephesus. Maybe he did. I don't know. It's not recorded
in Scripture. But he could have, couldn't he? Just like Daniel.
Daniel went down to the lion's den and faced no harm. But he
may be speaking here figuratively of facing beasts. Satan's a roaring
lion. The enemies of Christ are called
dogs that compass me about. And Paul says, why face those
risks, those persecutions, those dangers? Why endure all of that?
If the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, let's
just live like heathen. Let's just live like animals
and eat and drink and be merry and die. Because this is all
there is. Why put ourselves through all
this and insist on this belief in the resurrection if the dead
rise not? Now, verse 33, he says, be not deceived. Evil communications
corrupt good manners. Now, don't you be deceived by
these false prophets who deny the resurrection. Don't even
listen to them. I mean, don't even give them
your ear. Don't listen to them. Because evil communications corrupt
good manners. Now, that's true in a spiritual
sense, and that's true in a worldly sense. You know, that's what
parents all worry about. You know, children, even us,
you start hanging around with people that talk a certain way,
that use language they ought not use, that talk about subjects
they ought not talk about. Do things they ought not do.
Go places they ought not go. You hang around with them long
enough, you become just like them. You talk like them. You
look like them. You act like them. Evil communications corrupt
good manners. And that's true spiritually,
too. You give your ear long enough to someone who's denying the
scriptures, pretty soon you'll start spouting what they say.
You'll start believing them. You just be awful careful what
preachers you listen to. Because I'm telling you the truth.
They'll change you. You won't change them. It won't
happen. Right here in this pulpit is
where the authority rests. You're not going to change the
man here. He'll change you. So you be mighty careful who
you listen to because evil communications corrupt good manners. And once
you start down that road, it's a slippery slope. Once you start
denying great truths like the resurrection, other doctrinal
errors, are sure to follow. I guarantee it. Because evil
communications corrupt good manners and it just gets worse and worse.
So verse 34. Awake to righteousness and sin
not. For some have not the knowledge
of God. And I speak this to your shame. Paul says awake out of
this carelessness. Awake out of this spiritual sleepy-headedness. You know when you're asleep or
maybe you just you know, starting to wake up early in the morning.
And that's when that dream world makes sense, doesn't it? It just
makes sense. This morning, I was dreaming
that we were on vacation driving through Mississippi. I don't
know why, but it made sense when I was asleep. And I got a speeding
ticket in my dream. I was going 35 miles an hour
in a 30 mile an hour zone and got an $1,100 speeding ticket.
And it just made sense that I'd get an $1,100 speeding ticket
for going five miles over the speed limit. That sleepy-headedness,
it's just when you spiritually sleepy-headedness, these things
that are dream world, they're not based in reality of God's
Word. Makes sense. So Paul says, awake
out of that now. Awake out of it. Awake to truth.
Awake to righteousness. Because some people don't have
this knowledge of God. But you do. Now, what a blessing. You do. You've been taught better.
Now, you have this knowledge. And that makes us all the more
shameful to be ignorant of these spiritual truths that are so
plainly taught in scripture. God help us. God wake us up that
we could hear the truth of Christ and cling to him and rest in
him. All right. Lord bless you.