Now, so far through our studying
the first 14 chapters of this epistle, we've seen several different
problems, both doctrinal and behavioral problems that have
come up in Corinth. Now here in chapter 15, Paul
starts to deal with another problem that has come up. There were
those there who were denying the resurrection of the dead.
If you look down in chapter or verse 12 of chapter 15, Now,
if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? If you'll hold your
place there and turn over 2 Timothy 2, I'll show you what message
has caused the folks there to question and deny the resurrection
of the dead. 2 Timothy 2, verse 16. But shun profane and vain babblings. For they will increase unto more
ungodliness, and their word will eat, as doth a canker, of whom
is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred,
saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow
the faith of some." Now what these two fellows were saying
in this message reached Corinth, that there's not an actual resurrection
of the physical body, there's only a spiritual resurrection.
These fellows would say when Scripture speaks of the resurrection,
it's only speaking in pictures or an allegory. It's not speaking
of reality, the resurrection of your physical body. And they
said that because they did not understand the physics, the science
of how a dead body that had returned to the dust can be raised back
to life. They didn't understand it. So
they said, well, Scripture is just speaking in pictures. That's
not reality. And this is a very serious problem.
The resurrection of the dead is one of the pillars of the
gospel. If there's no resurrection of the dead, we don't have a
gospel to preach and we don't have a gospel to believe. That's
what we'll see as we go down through these verses this morning.
This is a very, very serious problem. So Paul begins in verse
one of chapter 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand. Now, he begins saying, it seems
that you've forgotten so much of the gospel that I taught you.
Let me remind you by declaring unto you the gospel. And when
he says declare, he means declare again. Let me declare unto you
the gospel again. And I know this about preaching
the gospel. If we're going to preach the
gospel correctly, you must repeat yourself, repeat over and over
and over again. And we do that for several reasons.
First, we preach the gospel over and over again. First of all,
because it's safe for us. It's safe for us to to hear the
gospel repeatedly because we're prone to forget, just like the
Corinthians were so prone to forget. Second, it's good for
us to hear the gospel repeated because a child of God never
gets tired of hearing the gospel repeated over and over and over
again. But more importantly than that,
a child of God feels their need to hear the Gospel preached over
and over and over again. It's not just so we don't get
tired of it. We need it. It's our life to have to feed
on Him. Third, it's good for us to hear
the Gospel repeated because hearing the Gospel over and over and
over again is what will strengthen us, establish us, enable us to
stand in the Gospel See, Paul said, this is the gospel that
I preached unto you, which you received. You received it in
faith and so much joy when you first heard it. And now you stand
in it. And that word stand means to
stand unmovable, unshakable. We will not move away from this
gospel. And Scripture has a lot to say
about standing in the gospel. I wrote down three verses here,
I'll just read them to you. This standing in the gospel is
important. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 2, by whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, unmovable,
not going to move away from it, wherein we stand and rejoice
in the hope of the glory of God. In Galatians 5 verse 1, Paul
told us to stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Don't move back to that, stand fast. And 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or by our epistle, you stand fast, brethren. And that's
what you'll do if you've heard the gospel, you've received it
in faith, you'll stand fast unless that profession is a false profession
or unless you've been deceived by false prophets. Because look
at verse 2. By which, by this gospel which I declare unto you,
by which also you're saved, if you keep in memory what I preached
unto you, unless you've believed in vain. Now, a sinner is saved
by believing the gospel, believing the gospel of Christ, by receiving
the message of Christ in faith. And believing the gospel, believing
God's gospel, is not optional. It's not, well, you can believe
another gospel or you can believe this or you can believe that.
It's believing the gospel. There's just one gospel. Paul
said it's not another. There's one gospel. It's the
power of God and the salvation. This is the gospel we receive.
This is the gospel wherein we stand. And that profession of
faith, you know, we claim I believe that gospel. Well, that profession
is just an empty, vain profession. If that faith doesn't persevere
to the end, if that profession stops, And you quit, start believing
something else or you just, you know, I know people I don't believe
anything anymore. If that happens to a person,
all that proves is they were either a wayside here or a thorny
ground here because true faith does not end. Look at Hebrews
chapter three. Faith persevering to the end
is the evidence of salvation. If I save myself, That'll end. If I conjured up this faith myself,
it'll quit. But if God gave it, it'll persevere. If God's the one who did the
saving, it's forever. Hebrews 3, verse 6, but as Christ,
but Christ is a son over his own house, whose house we are
if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end. That's the evidence of salvation.
If we hold fast the confidence firm to the end, look over down
in chapter But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to
the end. 1 John 2, verse 19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, if
that faith had been genuine, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not of us. They went out that
it might be made manifest that that profession of faith was
empty. It wasn't genuine faith in Christ. Now, salvation. is of the Lord
in its entirety. Salvation completely, entirely
is dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to end.
Our election is dependent on Christ. We're elect in Him before
the foundation of the world. Redemption is entirely dependent
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Either He redeemed us and paid
for our sins or we're still in our sins. Redemption is entirely
dependent on Christ, on His blood, on His sacrifice. Our calling,
Wayne mentioned in his prayer, our calling to the preaching
of the gospel, that calling is entirely dependent on the Lord
Jesus Christ. His sheep hear His voice. They
know His voice. They follow Him when He calls.
The keeping of our salvation, this keeping unto the end that
we're talking about here, is entirely dependent upon Christ.
It's not dependent on my strength. It's dependent on His faithfulness.
And that's such a good thing, because every one of us, human
beings, are so prone to wander and forget. We're so easily distracted. That's why Scripture refers to
God's people as sheep. Sheep will just wander off. They're
so dumb. Just like we are. We'll wander
off and forget. If we don't have a shepherd to
keep us, we'll wander off. Just sure as the world. Keeping
our salvation does not depend on the strength of our memory.
Because our memory fades. I mean, what a fickle thing is
our memory, our human mind. Keeping our salvation depends
on the perseverance of our faith. And even that doesn't depend
on us, does it? If God gave the faith, it'll
continue to the end. It's dependent on his faithfulness.
I read this this week. You cannot believe in vain. Because if you believe, it'll
never be in vain. That belief, that faith will persevere to
the end. Now you can hear in vain, but you cannot believe
in vain. Impossibility. That faith, if
it's God-given, will persevere to the end. Now verse 3, Paul
reminds them of the gospel that he preached to them. He said,
For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.
Here's the gospel that I first preached to you. Same gospel
I preached to you today, haven't changed a bit. This is the gospel
that Paul received straight from the Lord Jesus himself. Now,
we preach the same gospel Paul did. He received the message
from the incarnate word. We receive it from the written
word, but it's the same message. And Paul says this is the message.
Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Now, that's
the message, but we're going to understand exactly what that
statement means. I think we need to break it down.
It'll help us. Christ died for our sins, according
to the scriptures. Well, who is it that died? The
Lord Jesus Christ. God's own son became a man so
he could be our sin bearer, so he could be our substitute, so
he could be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He became
a man so he could become our substitute. and bear the penalty
of our sin, bear the punishment that our sin deserved. And what's
the punishment our sin deserves? Death. So Christ, God's own Son,
became a man and He died, bearing the penalty that our sin deserves.
Well, for whom did He die? Well, He died for those of the
Scriptures described. He died for God's elect. Back
on the Day of Atonement, in the Old Testament, the high priest
had a breastplate, and on that breastplate were inscribed the
twelve tribes of Israel. Everything that high priest did
that day was for those twelve tribes. That sacrifice that he
offered, putting the sins on the head of the scapegoat, all
that blood, sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat, all that he
did was done for those twelve tribes, and those twelve tribes
alone. He didn't do it for all the tribes
of the heathen that lived around them. those 12 tribes. Well,
that's a picture of God's elect. Christ didn't die for every son
of Adam. He didn't die for the whole wide
world. He died for his people, his elect. And every name of
those elect, that number that no man can number, was written
on his heart. That's who he died for. In our
Lord's great high priestly prayer, right before he went off for
that sacrifice for our sins, he prayed, I pray not for the
world, but for them whom thou hast given me, for they are thine."
That's who he died for. Christ died for sinners. What
did he tell us Pharisees? I didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And if you're a sinner, Christ
died for you. That's who he died for. Well,
how did he die? This is important. How did he
die? He was crucified. according to the Scriptures.
When Christ died, He fulfilled every prophecy of the Messiah
that was written of Him in the Old Testament. Scripture said,
Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree. So He hung on a tree. He was crucified. He died bearing
the curse of His people. The curse that we deserve. He
died like the lamb that God killed to clothe Adam and Eve. Remember
after Adam fell, they realized they were naked? God killed a
lamb to clothe him. That's how Christ died. He died
to clothe the nakedness of his people in his righteousness.
Christ died fulfilling the very first prophecy of the Messiah
in Genesis 3. The seed of woman came and crushed
the serpent's head. Now the serpent bruised his heel,
but Christ crushed his head, put him out of business, fulfilling
that prophecy. Christ died as Abel's lamb. What
was the difference between Abel's sacrifice and Cain's sacrifice?
The blood. Abel's sacrifice, that lamb was
a bloody sacrifice. Our Lord died a bloody sacrifice. Offering that precious blood
as a sacrifice to the Father because Scripture says without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. What blood? My soul, what blood? The blood of God. Shed for me
and you. Can you get over that? He shed
His blood for wretched sinners. This wasn't the blood of bulls
and goats. The blood that didn't cost nobody
much. Just the blood of an animal. This was the blood of God's own
Son. Who died at the hand of the Father. Pure, sin-atoning blood. to wipe
away the sin of God's elect. That's how he died. Christ died
as that ram caught in a thicket by its horns that Abraham took
and offered up in the stead of his son Isaac. Christ died as
a substitute. Seen in Scripture, hanging there,
suffering and dying as your substitute, bearing the punishment that you
deserve, that I deserve. He died as a substitute. He died
as Noah's Ark, keeping all of his people safe. The wrath of
God still fell, but instead of falling on us, it fell on our
substitute. And we're protected from that
wrath, hidden in Him, preserved, given life, because we were in
Him. He died as a scapegoat in the
wilderness. You remember the high priest
confessed the sins of the people and the head of that scapegoat.
And a fit man took him out into the wilderness. Way out there
where nobody could see him anymore and left that goat and came back.
And that goat was never seen from again. Christ died that
scapegoat as the fit man who took our sins away, never to
be seen again, never to be heard from again. That's how he died.
He died according to the scriptures, but our gospel doesn't end there,
does it? He died also fulfilling the picture of Jonah. who in
three days came out of the belly of that great fish. See verse
four, he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. Christ died and he was buried. The stone rolled in front of
that tomb. But he rose again in three days,
just like Jonah. To the human being, the rest
of humanity looks like he's dead and gone. He came out of that
the belly of that fish in three days, vomited up on the shore.
Christ arose, rolled back the stone and rose victorious according
to the scriptures. Look at Isaiah chapter 26. This
wasn't something that should have been a great big surprise
to anyone. The scriptures, Old Testament scriptures foretold
it. Isaiah 26 verse 19. Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust, ye that have returned to the dust, for thy
dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the
dead." They're dead and buried, but the earth is going to cast
them out. They're going to arise again. Look over at Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, verse 9, and he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. He
died between two guilty, wicked thieves and made his grave with
the rich. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man,
the Lord laid in his tomb, a tomb in which no man had ever lived,
ever lain before. He laid in that tomb, the tomb
of a rich man, dead. But he's not going to stay there.
He died, but look at verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
But he's going to rise again. Look over in Acts chapter 2.
After our Lord has ascended, Peter, preaching, explained the
Old Testament scriptures to these folks that Christ was Old Testament
scriptures always told us he is going to rise from the dead.
In Acts 2 verse 23, Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken him by wicked
hands and crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it. For David, speaking concerning
him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For he is on
my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
in the grave, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.
For thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt
make me full of joy with thy countenance. Now, men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. that
he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto
this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection
of Christ. David was not speaking of himself,
he was speaking of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell or in the grave, neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus, hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
See, he was explaining the Old Testament Scriptures to them.
Both the Old Testament Scriptures and the New Testament Scriptures
plainly tell us Christ is going to rise from the dead. But this
vital, precious truth was being denied in Corinth. And I'll tell
you this, if Christ did not rise from the dead, we do not have
a gospel to preach. We have no good news to preach
if Christ is not raised from the dead. Because if he's not
raised, our sin's not gone. If he's not raised, the Father
did not accept his sacrifice and he's laying in that tomb
today. What did Paul say in Romans 4, verse 25? He was delivered
for our offenses. He suffered and died for our
offenses and was raised again for our justification. He was
raised again to show our justification that that sin's gone. It's been
put away. He couldn't rise again if the
sin wasn't gone. He was raised again as evidence
of our justification. And if Christ is not raised,
the gospel's not good news. If Christ is not raised, all
we can do is tell a story of a kind man who made a valiant
effort to save his people. He showed His love on our behalf. Oh, how He loved us. And He did
everything He could to save us. But He couldn't do it. Because
He wasn't powerful enough and we're too sinful. That's the
fact of the matter if He's still in that tomb. But the Gospel
declares He was resurrected. He was raised again so we do
have good news. And this is no fairy tale. There
are many witnesses to this truth. Look in verse 5 here in our text.
and 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 in this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. Scripture
says, By the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word
be established. If two or three reputable brethren
tell you the same story, believe it. What about 500? What about all these brethren
that are eyewitnesses to this? Our Lord appeared to the women
at the tomb. Later that day, He appeared to Peter, then to
the twelve. And He didn't appear to the twelve.
Thomas wasn't there. Judas was dead. But He means
those men who became the apostles. Later, He appeared to 500 brethren
at once. You see, God hadn't done anything
in a corner. Concerning His Son, God never did anything in a corner. When he was born, God hung a
star over his head, over the place of his birth, and sent
a legion of angels to sing and worship him and pronounce his
birth. Throughout the Lord's ministry, he went very publicly
preaching. Our Lord's crucifixion, God made
sure everybody knew what was going on. He hid the sun from
the sky. When the Lord was resurrected,
the other dead arose and walked. The brethren saw him and he appeared
to all these people. God doesn't do anything in a
corner. And about 26 years after his resurrection, Paul's writing
this epistle and many of those 500 were still living at that
time. Some of them had fallen asleep. Some of them had gone to glory
already. And you know why they did? Because Christ rose from
the dead and they could follow him. Then Paul says he appeared
to James and then to all the disciples as he ascended back
to glory. And the early church faced much
persecution because of their belief in the resurrection. This
is no small thing. The Sadducees, they had a lot
of power. They didn't believe in the resurrection
of anybody at any time. So they attacked them. The philosophers,
the smart people, belief in the resurrection is too dumb for
them to believe. They wouldn't believe in the
resurrection. So they attacked them, scoffed at them, made fun
of them. The religious Jews. had a serious stake in denying
this resurrection. If Christ was raised from the
dead, they're in serious trouble because if he's raised from the
dead, they killed God's son. This is the Messiah and they
killed him. But if they could get people
to deny the resurrection, then they could deny Christ, that
they could deny Jesus was the Christ. So they harshly persecuted
these eyewitnesses because if they could get them to deny,
that Christ was raised from the dead and they could deny He was
the Christ. They could deny their need of
Him. They could deny their need to run to Him and beg for mercy.
But nowhere in Scripture, nowhere as far as I have ever heard in
recorded history did one of these 500 ever recant. None of them. They were eyewitnesses. They saw it. They believed Him.
Now, verse 8, Paul says, and last of all, He was seen of me
also as one born out of due time. Last, the Lord Jesus appeared
to the Apostle Paul. He taught him the gospel, made
him an apostle. And Paul said, I saw him as one
born out of due time, an abortive. Now, I looked at that word this
week and I found two definitions of it, an abortive. First, it
means posthumous, means he was born after the death of his father.
And that's when the apostle Paul was born again after the death
of our Lord, after the death of the Lord, he was made an apostle
or it means a miscarriage, one who was born too early and born
dead. But Paul was given life just like all of us. He was born
dead, wasn't he? But he was given life. And what basically whichever
definition of that is really the accurate one is probably
both. Paul was made an apostle. not
according to the normal pattern of life like the other apostles.
So he says in verse nine, for I am the least of the apostles,
that I'm not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted
the church of God. Every one of us here, every child
of God can identify with this statement. I'm not worthy to
be called the child of God, not worthy. Every believer say that
I'm the least of all believers because I And just fill in the
blank, whatever it is we feel we're so unworthy. I grew up
being taught the gospel. Practically every day at home,
Sunday school, the worship service, it was the worst rebel, just
my soul did not worthy. Paul says, I persecuted the church.
The people later, he's willing to risk his life for, to preach
the gospel to them. He said, I persecuted them, I
killed them, I put them to death. And that's true, we're unworthy,
just how, we can't even say how unworthy we are. But God made
us objects of his mercy and his grace anyway. That's why Paul
writes in verse 10, 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
that was in me." Now we're called, we're redeemed, we're justified
by grace. It's not by works. If you're
unworthy, that's obvious to you. It's not because of something
I've done, I'm unworthy. It's because of God's grace.
And Paul says, I am what I am. by the free grace of God. Well, Paul, what are you? If
you are what you are by God's grace, what are you? Well, the
same thing you are. Chosen of God. Called of God. Redeemed by the Son. Regenerated
by the Spirit. Sanctified and justified in Christ. Pardoned. You're forgiven. You're washed in the blood. You've
been given faith in Christ. That's what you are. You are
those things. by the grace of God. And Paul
was made an apostle. He traveled more than the rest
of them. He preached more than the rest of them. He established
more churches than the rest of them. He saw more people converted
under his ministry. He suffered more for the gospel
sake than the rest of them. Because of God's grace. It wasn't
because Paul was such a wonderful man and so, you know, powerful
speaker. It was because of God's grace.
God's grace called him to the work. God's grace enabled him
to do the work that God called him to. Because God's grace is
never bestowed in vain. Where God shows his grace, there's
a change. It's never in vain. So, verse
11, Paul says, Therefore, whether I or they, so we preach, so you
believed. See, it doesn't matter who you
heard preach the gospel. As long as they are preaching
Christ, it's not who is preaching, it's who is being preached that
you heard. It doesn't matter which servant
of Christ you heard preach, because they all have the same message.
Every servant of God has the same message. It's Christ. And for the child of God, that's
the message they believe. When they hear it, they believe
it. That's it. That's the message,
the power of God unto salvation. I'm out of time. I got a lot
more notes here, but we'll quit there and I'll just pick up there
next week. All right.