Alright, if you'll turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm going to go over some of
these verses, but I'd like to just read through them. Beginning
in verse 11, he said, 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 our preaching is 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, ye are yet in your sins. And 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. But
now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits
of them that slept." Now, it took some time last week to establish
what the gospel is. That's where Paul begins this
chapter, the summation of this letter that he's written to the
Corinthians. And all through here, I've been
pointing out to you how he how He sets forth the preeminence
of the Gospel. All through this book He does
it. He does it in the light of tongues. He does it in the light
of marriage. He does it in the light of all
kinds of things. But He keeps setting forth the
preeminence of this thing of the Gospel and Gospel preaching.
He keeps setting it forth that this is the important thing,
Christ. So I took some time last week
to establish what the Gospel is, and how it came to them,
and how they were given by God the gift of faith. The Apostle
would have us to know that the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ is not some imaginary dream. And that's all it is to
most men. It's like a dream. There's no
hope in it. There's no understanding of it.
argue and say that Christ was not raised from the dead, they're
okay with that. If you want to say that He was
and celebrate Easter, that's okay, whatever you want to do.
It's just like a dream, like something meaningless, something
absolutely meaningless. It's not some imaginary dream,
but it's a fact of history. Not only is this a biblical fact,
but it's a fact of history. It's something that took place
in this world with undeniable facts. And it was wrote down. It was recorded. It had witnesses. Many, many, many, much more witnesses
than what the law. The law only demands two witnesses. He names here over 500. And he's going to have us know that
this is a This is a matter of, it's a fact of history and it's
a vital doctrine taught throughout the Word of God. And so he begins
and tells us that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. And that He was buried and rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures. His resurrection
was vitally necessary both to fulfill that which was written
of Him and also to effectually redeem those that were given
to Him by the Father. And Jesus of Nazareth, having
died on the cross, rose from the dead. Now, as I said a little
earlier, this is an undeniable fact of history. This is not a fairy tale. This
is not a rumor passed down. This is not just a dream that
somebody like that of Joseph Smith in that cult and how he
came upon this and how the Lord... This is not that way. This is
not some private interpretation. What this is, is a matter of
public fact. After His resurrection, our Lord
remained on this earth for over a month. Over a month. Did you know that? More than
30 days he walked on this earth. He was seen by Peter and all
the apostles. He was seen by his disciples. He was seen by more than 500
brethren, Paul tells us, at one time. So let this be established,
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It's an undeniable fact of history. And then secondly, that this
resurrection is as vital to the saving of your soul as was his
death. What good would his death have
done if he had not raised from the dead? And you can't preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ and deny his resurrection. And there were
some in this church probably influenced by the Sadducees who
didn't believe in a resurrection, but there were some in this church
who were attempting to preach the gospel but denying the resurrection
of Christ. Scripture said he was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now, Paul
gives us six things here in the verses that I read to you that
I want you to see, and that would be so if Christ did not rise
from the dead. There are six things here. Now,
he doesn't mention all six of these, but I think he does five
of them. But first of all, here's the first thing. If Christ did
not rise from the dead, then you could just take this book
and throw it out in the yard. Because God would be a liar.
You couldn't believe anything that was in it. Because God said
He would. God said He would. He rose from
the dead. Paul said, I preach to you the
Gospel that Christ rose from the dead on the third day according
to the Scriptures. So, if He didn't rise from the
dead, then God is a liar. because he plainly tells us that
Christ rose the third day. And I'd say this to you, beware
of any man who questions or even attempts to draw suspicion on
the Word of God when he's trying to talk to you about Bible doctrine,
when he's trying to talk to you about salvation, I'm trying to
talk to you about the saving of your soul. If that man comes
and even draws suspicion on the Word of God, turn him off like
a light. Just walk away. Walk away. He's got nothing to give to you.
Any man's sin of God is not going to draw suspicion on the Word
of God. He's going to say with Paul,
let God be true and every man a liar. So I'd say beware of
him. Christ's apostles were chosen
to be living witnesses of the person and work of Jesus Christ. And their ministries were confirmed
of God by miracles and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to God's own will. Hebrews chapter 2 verse
4. So here's the first thing. If
he be not risen from the dead, then God is a liar. And you can
just take his book and throw it out the yard. It would be
meaningless. If this book is wrong, it could be proven wrong
on any point of doctrine, it cannot be the Word of God. It
just can't be. But you can't prove anything
in this book to be false. Alright, here's the second thing.
If Christ be not risen, then the Christian faith is vain.
It's vain. Faith believes in a risen Savior
and knows that His resurrection is God's public declaration of
His acceptance of all that was accomplished by His Son. Faith
looks to an ever-living High Priest who is able to save them
who come unto God by Him, save them to the uttermost. Faith
grasps that. Faith believes in an eternal
union of the Church and Christ as one, and therefore finds assurance
that we are all raised up together with Him and seated with Him
in the heavens. Faith believes in an atoning
sacrifice that Christ took into heaven itself, having obtained
thereby eternal redemption for us. And faith looks to a reigning
King, who by virtue of His person and work is now seated upon the
throne of glory ordering and arranging all things and ruling
over all things for our good and His glory. If Jesus Christ
is still in the tomb, then faith in Him is in vain. Alright? Here's the third thing. If Jesus
Christ be not risen from the dead, then all gospel preaching
is for naught. You're just wasting your time.
It's wasting your time. And I'll tell you, I'll give
you several reasons for saying that. First of all, because apostles
and evangelists and pastors are the gift of the ascended Christ. It's the resurrection of Christ.
It's the resurrected Christ who gave us the commission to go
preach. But if He be not raised from the dead, then I have no
commission. Do I? You see the very commission to
go preach. Our preaching would be in vain
if Christ had not risen from the dead. Preaching is the commission of
the resurrected Christ. And if Christ be not risen, we
have no commission to preach. We've got no message to preach.
We preach a risen Savior. But I have no message if He was
not risen. I not only don't have a commission,
I don't have a message. And I have no understanding of
the Scriptures of Christ being not risen from the dead, because
I'm pointing you to Scriptures who says He was resurrected from
the dead. So I've got no commission, I've
got no message, and I have no understanding. I've got no reason
for anybody to believe. In fact, Paul goes so far as
to say we'd be false witnesses of God because we said He did
raise Him from the dead. And then another sense is that
those who have heard us and believed all that they had done. You're gathered here this morning,
some of you, and you believe what I preach to you. You find
hope in what I'm preaching to you. But that'd be a vain. That'd
all be vain. That work would be vain. If Christ
had not risen from the dead, we'd become the laughing stock
of the world. So if Christ be not risen from
the dead, our preaching is in vain, Paul said. And our preaching
is vain for another reason. The Holy Ghost is the gift of
the ascended Christ. Christ said to His disciples,
it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll send
Him unto you. But He couldn't send Him unto
us if He be not risen from the dead. You see that? And if the Holy Ghost is not
sent to us, what good would preaching do? That'd just be like arguing,
wouldn't it? You'd just sit there arguing.
They give you their opinion, you give them your opinion, and
there's no power to ever take that truth home to the heart. And it's vain thirdly because
we'd be pointing men and women to a Christ who was not there. If Christ be not risen, our preaching
is vain. And then fourthly, if Christ
be not risen, we're found to be false witnesses of God. Preachers are ambassadors of
God preaching to men and women an effectual reconciliation through
the resurrected Savior. But this couldn't be so if Christ
is still in the temple. If Christ be not risen, we're
false witnesses of God. And the man who denies the resurrection
of Christ denies the basis of his own calling. How could he
say, I've been called of God to preach, If the Christ whom
he says called him is still in the town, he denies his own calling,
and he takes away the reason for the calling, and he denies
the power behind it. I cannot preach to sinners that
we are accepted in the Beloved if the Beloved was not declared
accepted by His resurrection. And then, fifthly, if Christ
be not raised, we are yet in our sins. were yet in our sins. The only evidence that Israel
had of an accepted atonement. I want you to think about this.
Some of you here may not even know what I'm talking about.
The bulk of you have been here through our studies in the Old
Testament. But in Old Testament times, under the types and figures,
the high priest would receive a sacrifice. And that sacrifice
he'd take and put it up on the altar, And he'd take its blood
and he'd go within the tabernacle. He'd go through the first door
and go beyond the veil into the holiest of all. Nobody could
see that transaction. Nobody could see what took place
in there. They didn't know if God was blessing
him or cursing him. They didn't know what was going
on. They had no evidence of that transaction being accepted of
God until that high priest appeared the second time. When He came
out of that tabernacle with His hands raised high and blessed
the people of Israel, then they knew that His sacrifice was accepted. Christ was raised from the dead. He was raised from the dead.
It matters little to the world whether
He came forth from the tomb or not. It is just something to
debate about. But it's not for the sinner.
It's not for the sinner. His only hope is that Jesus Christ
is the propitiation for his sin. That Jesus Christ, his substitute,
bore his sins in his own body on the tree. That he appeared once, the Scripture
said, in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Listen to this. Here's the hope
of the Christian. Here's the hope of the man who's
being saved of God. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Don't stop there though, does
it? Yea, rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God. If Christ be not risen, ye are
yet in your sins. If Christ did not rise from the
dead, He is of no more value than a lamb or a goat or a bullock. He is no more than a type if
He didn't rise from the dead. The Scripture said, Sin when
it's finished bringeth forth death. By one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. Sin bringeth forth death. It
takes a resurrection to bring forth life. That's what this
resurrection is all about. And then the sixth thing, if
Christ be not risen from the dead, Paul said, we are of all
men most miserable. We're most miserable. 1 Corinthians
15, 18. Tells us that all those which
are falling asleep, all those whom we walked behind as they
carried them to the grave, and lowered them down in the ground,
and covered them up with the dirt, and we all stood there,
and we saw that, and we were comforted because they had hope. We had hope in the resurrected
Christ. And we have hope that in that
day, that body will be raised from the dead. Be given a new
body. And that its spirit, even now,
goes to be with the Lord. They also which are falling asleep
in Christ, if Christ be not raised, they're perished. They're gone
forever. Gone forever. So if in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. The Gospel. I try to emphasize
this every time I preach to you. The gospel is that which gives
hope to dead sinners. It gives hope to dead sinners.
But if there be no resurrection, if Christ be not raised, we have
no good news for the dead and the dying. And all those who have left this
life hoping in Christ, hoping to live in Him, hoping to be
changed, hoping to be with Him, they've all died and perished.
They were looking for something that will never come to pass.
Christ is our hope. He's our hope. This one appointed
of God who was with God in the beginning and is God come into
the flesh. This one who was born of a woman,
made under the law. This one who is our federal head
and representative. This one who is our righteousness,
our sin-bearing substitute, our great high priest and king. If
he be not raised, then we are of all men most miserable, because
we have no hope past this life. The Christian hope is a hope
that transcends the grave. It goes past the grave. Churches
today minister to men over a period of time. They're ministering
to their fleshly needs. They're ministering to their
bodily needs and their needs as far as homes and food and
shelter and all that kind of stuff. They minister to men there.
But the gospel ministers to men's souls. It ministers to the destinies
of men. It transcends the grave. That hope transcends the grave.
The grave is just the doorway into glory. It's all death is
to the believer. It's just a doorway into glory. Christian hope is a hope of everlasting
life, everlasting joy, and everlasting peace. I read through the Psalms. Here are just a few of them.
David said, His righteousness. That's ours, isn't it? His righteousness. His righteousness is everlasting.
His kingdom. Are we not in the kingdom of
God? Listen to this. His kingdom is everlasting. His strength. We need His strength,
don't we? And our weakness is His strength.
Listen to this. His strength is everlasting.
His light, oh, that light, shined in this dark heart and gave me
some knowledge of who He is, why He came, and what He did,
and where He is. Gave me hope of everlasting life.
That light, David said, is everlasting. And then he tells us, Whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The trouble with today's so-called
Christian hope is that it denies the necessity of His coming and
the sufficiency of His sacrifice and the power of His resurrection. Look back to 1 Corinthians 15,
and I'll bring this to a close. Look down at verse 20. But now
is Christ risen. He's risen from the dead and
become the firstfruits of them that slept. Colossians 1.18 said,
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning.
Listen, the firstborn from the dead. I tell you, without that
resurrection, without Him being the first fruits, without Him
being the first begotten from the dead, nobody else will ever
be begotten from Him. That's what, when Paul over there
in Ephesians chapter 1 is talking about you entering into some
knowledge of the power, the glorious power of His resurrection, that's
what he's talking about. He's the firstborn from the dead,
the first to rise up by His own power and sufficiency. And He
is the firstfruits of all that is to come. His resurrection,
are you listening, guarantees mine. His resurrection guarantees
mine. He's my guarantor. His ascension
and His seat upon the throne guarantees my acceptance with
the Father. Because I am one with Him. If
the Father has accepted Him, He has accepted me in the Beloved. Listen to this Scripture. Whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Now next week, the Lord willing,
we are going to talk about His heavenly reign. This gospel that
I preach unto you, it declares a resurrected Savior. And when
God raised Him from the dead, He ascended up into glory, and
God gave Him a name above every name. And He reigns. Absolutely reigns. Not just in
power, He's always reigned as God, but He's talking about His
mediatorial kingship. He reigns there for the salvation
of your soul. He reigns and he's Lord. He does reign. And that's what
Paul begins to tell us here in this chapter. Thank you.