I invite your attention to 1
Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and today
we're going to continue, probably conclude this series of messages
on the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our text is in verse number 12,
in which text we read that if Christ is preached to you that
he has been raised from the dead. Now just look at that one phrase. Christ is preached to you that
he has been raised from the dead. And in the previous messages
in this series, we have considered the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
we considered that his resurrection fulfilled Old Testament prophecies,
Second, we considered that Christ's resurrection was prophesied by
Christ himself. Third, we considered that Christ's
resurrection is declared and described in all four Gospels. And fourth, we considered the
resurrected Christ was seen by many witnesses on various occasions. So there should be no doubt to
this fact. Christ has been raised from the
dead. The resurrection of our Lord
and Savior is a glorious truth to us who are believers in Him. But today we come to the fifth
point, and if you have your synopsis, you can follow along with me.
In this fifth point, we consider that Christ's resurrection has
many doctrinal implications. This is to say that the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is not an isolated doctrine. It is not a doctrine
that you put here and it sits by itself. But rather, this doctrine
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ has a bearing on many
other doctrines as well. And we're going to consider some
of them this morning. First of all, consider that Christ's
resurrection is proof that he is divine. In Romans 1, verse
4, he was declared to be the Son of God. That is a title denoting
his divine nature. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power, that is in a superhuman manner, according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now, he was declared to be the
son of God. What do we know about someone's
son? I have a son. You have a son. You have a son. There are fathers
here today who have sons. What do we know about a father
and a son? We know this. that the father
and the son both have the same nature. Your son has your nature. Your nature is a human nature.
Therefore, your son does not have the nature of a cat, nor
a dog, nor a bird, nor a horse, nor a cow. He's got your nature.
He was born with your nature. Now, God the Father has the divine
nature and He has an only begotten Son. Therefore, the Son has the
same nature as the Father. He was declared to be. The text
does not say he was made to be the son of God. Rather, he was
declared to be the son of God. He has been the son of God even
before the foundation of the world. Go to John chapter 17. John's gospel chapter 17. this high priestly prayer of
our Lord and Savior. John 17, look in verse 1. Jesus
spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
To whom now was He praying? He is praying to His Father. Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that Your Son
also may glorify You. So, we here have a conversation
of God's Son to God His Father. As you pardon me, as you have
given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life,
that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent. Father, I want them to know that
you are the only true God." I had finished. or I've glorified
you on earth, I've finished the work which you've given me to
do. Now watch carefully, verse number five. And now, oh Father,
glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with
you before the world was. What is Jesus here saying? Father,
I'm your son. And I was your son before the
world was made. Jesus was the Son of God from
eternity. He was the Son of God before
he came to the earth. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son. He was declared to be the Son
of God by the resurrection just as he was declared to be the
Son of God on other occasions. When John the Baptist baptized
Jesus in Jordan River and Jesus came up out of the water, God
opened heaven up and said, that's my Son, my only begotten Son. I am well pleased with him. On
another occasion, On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is
with his disciples, and they're looking at him a short distance
away. And all of a sudden, Moses and
Elijah appear. They've been dead for centuries.
But they appear, and they are there walking and talking with
Jesus. The apostles are sitting there
and looking at this because Jesus was transfigured in brightness
and glory. And they're looking, it might
have been as dark as it could have been, but you could see
those three, Jesus and Moses and Elijah. I would have loved
to have heard that conversation, Jesus with Moses and Elijah. And one of the apostles said,
we need to be your three tabernacles. a place of worship, a tent, but
a place where you could go in and worship. We need to build
three tabernacles, one for Moses and one for Elijah and one for
Jesus. Well, God did not thank too highly
of that thought. No, no, no. He opened heaven
again and he said, that's my son, you hear him. Jesus is declared
to be God's son at his baptism at the beginning of his resurrection,
declared to be God's son as he begins his earthly ministry,
and now at the end of his ministry when God raised him from the
dead, God was saying this, that's my son. That son that was with
me before the foundation in the world, that's the one I raised
from the dead. I am not making him to be my
son, I'm declaring him to be my son. He is my son. When we deny this resurrection
of Jesus Christ, it is as much as walking up and slapping God
in the face. God said, that's my son. He was
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Therefore, remember
that night when Jesus showed up and the 11 apostles were there
in that room and Judas had not been there the week before and
Judas said, unless I can put my hand, my finger into the holes
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And Jesus
walked into the room where I didn't call him Judas, did I? It was
Thomas. Did I call him Judas? All right, it was Thomas. But you knew that, you knew that.
Judas was not there, he'd already gone to his own place. But Thomas
was there, he had doubted, and Jesus walked into the room, and
the other 10, they had already seen Jesus, but now you can imagine
Thomas, his jaw has dropped wide open. His mouth is agape. And Jesus walked up and said,
here, Thomas, Go ahead and put your finger inside that hole
in my hand. Here, go ahead, put your hand
right here. Put it right in the side. And
what did Thomas say? He didn't have to. He looked
and he says, my Lord and my God. God had raised Jesus from the
dead and declared him to be the Son of God. That is, declared
him to have the divine nature. And Thomas looks at him and he
says, that's my God right there. My Lord and my God. That Jesus
Christ, that is God's Son and that is my God. declared to be
the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. Then furthermore,
Christ's resurrection is proof that he has justified his people,
Romans 4 verse 25. He was delivered up to death
because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Go back to the prophecy of Isaiah
chapter 53. the prophecy of Isaiah chapter
fifty-three. Let's read about Jesus being
delivered up because of our offenses. Isaiah chapter fifty-three in verse four. Isaiah chapter
fifty-three and then verse four. Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Why did he bear them? Because they were laid on him.
God took all the iniquities of his people The believers, God's
elect, God took all the sins of his people and laid them on
Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ took them all,
right here. Put them on my shoulder, Father,
I'll take care of this. And he took all the afflictions
of God's people and laid them on him. And then what do we read? We esteemed Him stricken, smitten
by God, and afflicted. He was delivered up because of
our offenses. When He is there on that cross,
He is delivered up, He is raised up, He is crucified. There He
is, suspended between heaven and earth, and God smites Him.
He was delivered up because of our offenses, delivered up to
death. because of our offenses. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon Him. And so this is what Paul means
when he says in Romans 4, verse 25, that he was delivered up
because of our offenses. All our sins, the sins of God's
people were laid on Christ. And because of that, he was lifted
up on a cross and delivered up to death. He had to die. Now,
when he died, what did he do? Still there in Isaiah chapter
53. Look in verse 11. Halfway down in verse 11. By
his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall
bear their iniquities. Who is said to do the justifying? Yes, it is God who justifies
in one place, but here it's Jesus Christ. He will justify many. What was he doing on that cross
there when he is stricken and smitten of God and afflicted?
What is he doing? He is shedding the blood. that
will justify God's people. He has taken his blood and there
in his death he has gone into that holy place in heaven and
he has taken his blood and he has put it there on the mercy
seat before God and God says, I'm satisfied. Christ in his
death justified God's people. They are justified by his blood. Therefore, God says, he's already
done the justifying, raise him up from the dead. He was delivered
up to death because of our offenses. He was raised from the dead because
of our justification. He has accomplished what he came
to do, and therefore, the resurrection is proof that Jesus Christ has
justified God's people with his own blood. There's more. Number three, Christ's resurrection
is proof that he is the man by whom God will judge the world. Acts 17 verses 30 and 31, we
read, God now commands all men everywhere to repent. There was
a time when our forefathers And I'm talking about yours and mine
as Gentiles. I suppose all of us here are
Gentiles. Our skin colors may be different,
but we are Gentiles. We were not born Jews. And in
Old Testament times, God gave the law, and he gave the covenants,
and he gave the promises, gave them to the Jews. He didn't give
them to our forefathers. Our forefathers were worshiping
sticks and stones and every little thing you can imagine, all right?
Well, the Lord gave the law to Israel and the gospel was given
to Israel in the law. It was not given to our Gentile
forefathers. Now you need to realize that
there are degrees of punishment in hell. There are no degrees
of rewards in heaven, but there are degrees of punishment in
hell. Now, our Gentile forefathers
could have joined Israel if they wanted to. They could have. There
were a few who did, but our Gentile forefathers didn't want anything
to do with that worship of the Jews, hated the Jews anyway for
the most part. But since our Gentile forefathers
did not have the law and the gospel, God overlooked, in a
way, their wickedness. As I said, there are degrees
of punishment in hell. God is not going to punish a
man who never heard the gospel like he's going to punish a man
who heard the gospel many times and refused to believe it. And
it is my own personal opinion that the worst place in hell
is reserved for the man who deliberately preaches a false gospel. Deliberately
preaches a false gospel. He knows this gospel is true
and yet he preaches free will and works. You don't think God's gonna punish
him the same way He's gonna punish man who never heard the truth,
do you? No. So therefore, there was a time
in ancient times when certain people were not judged harshly
for not having heard the gospel and not believing. But now, but
now, what do we read? God, now, commands all men everywhere
to repent because He has appointed a day on which He will judge
the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising Him from the dead. Now this is interesting. Who is going to judge at the
final judgment? It's going to be God. God will
judge. You can look at the references.
I give you three of them. Psalm 98, Psalm 96, 13, Psalm
98, verse 9. In those references, we read
the psalmist say, Jehovah shall judge the world in righteousness. Jehovah will do it. When we stand
to be judged at the final judgment, it is Jehovah who will judge
us. But it will not be Jehovah the
Father. Jesus said, the Father judges
no man but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all
should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." Notice,
the Father will judge no one, commits all judgment to the Son. When we stand before Jehovah
to be judged, it will not be Jehovah the Father judging us,
but rather Jehovah the Son. who will be judging us. And this
judge not only will be Jehovah, it'll be a man. Or, more precisely,
the God-man. And God has declared that Jesus
Christ will be that judge by raising him from the dead. That can be a terrible thought.
That should strike fear into the hearts of people. We who
have rejected Him, He was despised and rejected of men, wanted nothing
to do with Him, they beat Him, they whipped Him,
they nailed Him to a tree and crucified Him. And then God raised
him from the dead and he says, you people who murdered my son,
he's gonna be your judge. He's gonna judge you. Can you
imagine? Can you imagine how dreadful
it would be if you have done some terrible crime against someone
And when you went to court and stood before the judge, the judge
was the one you had done the crime against. Imagine how you
would feel. Well, God raised Jesus from the
dead and he said, that man's gonna judge you. Oh, I'm gonna
judge you, yeah, but I'm gonna judge you through Jesus Christ.
God has declared this by raising Him from the dead. And when we
stand before the judgment seat of God, it will be the judgment
seat of Jesus Christ. And we're going to stand before
Him whom we despised and whom we rejected. If that is not reason enough
to believe the gospel, Think about it. I'm going to
stand before that judge and I'm going to say, you know what?
I have pierced him with my unbelief. I have blasphemed his name. I
most certainly am glad I have believed his gospel because he's
judging me now. I hope that every one of you
can say the same thing at that final judgment, because God declared
that Jesus Christ will be the judge of all men, and he did
so by raising him from the dead. Number four, Christ's resurrection
is proof that God's people have a living hope regarding future
bliss. 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy. I'm glad God doesn't have just
a little bit of mercy. Abundant mercy has begotten us,
made us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and then undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven
for you. Think about this. If you're a
believer in Jesus Christ, you have an inheritance in heaven
and it is reserved for you. It's just there waiting for you
right now. Who are kept by the power of
God through faith, to be revealed in the last time. Now, what we
find here is that we have this living hope. There is, there
I suppose is a dead hope. A dead hope is when you're hoping
for something that you know cannot happen. Here's a dead hope. A
dead hope is getting your report card and
you have to take it home to your mother and it shows that you've
got F's across it. I suppose they still give F's,
right? All right, you got F's and you look at it, oh no, I've
got to go show this to my mother and my father. And you put it
into your book bag to take it home because you have to and
you're hoping that on the way home your F's turn. at least
the C's, okay? Please, when I pull that report
card out, let it be C's and not F's. Or better, give me an A
or two. Please, no F's, no F's. Folks,
it ain't gonna happen. It's a dead hope. What is a living
hope? Here is the living hope. God said He's gonna raise believers
from the dead. And then He raised Jesus Christ
from the dead. And if He did it for Him, He
can do it for me. That's a living hope, you see?
I've got a living hope that I know that God is going to do for me
what He did for His Son, Jesus Christ. He's going to do it for
all His people. It's a living hope. I live by
this hope. I'm convinced. that one of these
days, when I die and they put my body in the grave, it's gonna
come back up. I'm convinced of it. I am convinced
of it. Number five, Christ's resurrection
is proof that all his people will also be resurrected. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, verse 20, reread. Christ is risen from the dead
and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Notice, the firstfruits. You know what the firstfruits
are? Our brother back here has a garden
in his backyard and he's gonna, you know, plant some trees and
plant some bushes that are going to grow crops. And let us say
that he has put a mango tree out. And he sees that that first
mango is beginning to bud and beginning to fill out. And if I should come up to visit
him and say, Oh, Brother Anthony, there's a mango on your tree.
May I have it? If it's the first one off the
tree, he's probably going to say, no, it's mine. It's the first fruit. Besides,
it would be just plumb rude of me to ask a man for the first
mango off his tree. All right? No, that's his. That's
his. He's going to watch that mango. He's going to watch it so that
it does not fall too early. He's going to watch it and then
when that first mango is fully ripe, guess who gets to eat it? Him. It's his. He earned it,
all right? And he's looking forward to it
because he knows he can judge how the rest of the mangoes will
be by the first one. Oh, let's hope that first mango
is sweet, all right? And sure enough, it's sweet.
He's so happy, all right? And I come up to see him the
next day. He says, go ahead, Moose. You can have one of those
mangoes on the tree now because I just had the first one. Remember,
the first fruits were the sweetest. But now under Israel, the first
fruits did not belong to him. They belonged to God. They belonged
to God. And you took the first fruits
and you gave them to God, and then God would give you everything
else that came up. The firstfruits were precious
to God. What do we read about Jesus Christ?
He has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The firstfruits. When God raised
Jesus from the dead, he gave the promise to me that I'm going
to raise you too. He's the firstfruits. The one
that's precious to me, He's the firstfruits. I have raised Him
from the dead, and I'm going to raise the whole crop of believers
from the dead. And Jesus Christ in His resurrection
is the guarantee and the earnest that God is going to raise me
from the dead. I'm convinced of it. Because
God has raised Christ the firstfruits, He's going to raise the rest
of the harvest as well. Now one more, and we'll close
with number six. Christ's resurrection is proof
that he has conquered death and Hades for himself and will do
so for his people. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 54 through
57. We read, so when this corruptible
has put on incorruption, that is in our resurrection, and this
mortal has put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written in Isaiah 25, 8 and Hosea 13, 14.
Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? Thanks be to God who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm gonna die one
of these days. That's called death. Death is
gonna come visit me. And then I'm going to Hades. Hades in the sense, not of the
place of punishment, but to the place where my body will rest
until the day of the resurrection. Death has come and slain me. Hades now will contain me when
I'm dead. But when God raises me from the
dead, I'm going to stand up and I'm going to look at death
in the face and say, hey, death! Where's your thing now? It's
gone. Hey, Hades, where is your victory
now? Look at me. Death slew me. I'm alive. Hades held me. I'm here. I've won. How did I win? Through Jesus
Christ and his resurrection. When Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead, He walked up to death and he says, I won. He walked up to Hades and he
said, I'm no longer in you. Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna
do that for every one of my children. They're all gonna shout their
victory over death in Hades. In that day of the resurrection,
remember, look at death in the face and say, you lost, I won
through Jesus Christ. Look at Hades, where you once
were, your body had lain. I'm no longer there, I'm here,
thanks to Jesus Christ. And his resurrection gives me
hope and it is my proof that God is gonna raise me from the
dead. Now, do you see why we love this
doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ so much? We rejoice
in this doctrine. This is good news to us. God
declared his son to be his son. God demonstrated that we were
justified by the blood of his son. God has shown to us that
he raised the first fruits, he's raising the rest. God has fulfilled
that hope that we're gonna be raised from the dead. And when
we're raised from the dead, God's gonna say, you are the overcomer. You are the victor through Jesus
Christ. Oh God, our Father, hear our
prayer, we pray. And we pray that We might walk
out of this building today believing in this resurrection of Jesus
Christ, that we might be ready to stand before him who was raised
from the dead. To your glory in Jesus' name
we pray, amen. Up from the grave he arose, with
a mighty triumph for his foes. He arose a victor from the dark
domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah Christ the rose