I invite you to turn with me
back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. My subject this morning is Christ,
the firstfruits. The firstfruits. Now the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which is what this chapter is all about, and consequently
our resurrection in Him, which is almost always read at funerals,
1 Corinthians chapter 15, some portion of it. But it's absolutely
meaningless to the man or the woman who has no understanding
about the fall of man. If man didn't fall, then there's
no reason for resurrection. And this is a startling fact
to most who hear it when you talk about the fall of mankind
in the garden. It's startling. They've never
heard this before. It's startling to them. Man's
fall and man's utter condemnation in the garden. And the reason
it's so startling to men and women is actually It has three
reasons. It's three-fold. You talk to
somebody, you're down here at the store and you meet somebody
and your conversation turns to religion and they ask you some
questions and pretty soon you're telling them what you believe
and you begin to talk to them about the fall of man. Whoa,
wait a minute now. Wait a minute. What are you talking
about? What are you talking about? It's startling to most men and
there's three reasons for it. First of all, it's not a part
of his experience. He didn't fall. I never fell. Have you fallen? It's not a part of your experience.
You didn't fall. Adam fell. And our fall is in
him. I personally haven't fallen anywhere. I come forth from the womb speaking
life. My fall happened back yonder
in the garden. It's not a part of my experience.
And so the first time I ever heard about the fall of mankind,
it startled me. What are you talking about? What
are you talking about? He didn't fall. Adam fell. There
was never a time when we were innocent and godly, and then
fell into sin. We were born in sin. That's all
we've ever known. David said, the wicked are estranged. You know what that word means,
estranged? It means alienated. Alienated. The wicked are alienated from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Psalm 58, verse 3. He said in Psalm 51, I was shaped
in iniquity and conceived in sin. Sin is all we've ever known. Darkness is all we've ever had.
Destruction and misery are in our ways. That's what the Word
of God said. Sin seems normal to a natural
man. It's normal for him to rebel.
That's not an alien thing to him. That's normal. He'd been
rebelling since he was born. It's normal to them to hate.
It's normal to throw a fit when you don't get your way. It's
normal to them to covet. It's normal to them to have no
fear of God before their eyes. It's normal to them, it seems
logical to them to worship God with their hands and attempt
to praise Him by their sacrifices and promises and good intentions.
It seems normal because he walks in the vanity of his mind, having his understanding darkened,
being alienated or estranged from the life of God through
the ignorance that's in him. And when he hears a preacher
talk about the fall of man, he quickly surveys his own experience
and he can't find any common ground. He can't find any common
ground. I've never fallen. And then the
second reason why this is so startling to men and women when
you preach it is that, and it shocks them, is because it's
contrary to everything that they've ever been told. Totally contrary. False religion teaches that babies
and small children are born in innocence. And then they reach
the age of accountability, whatever that is, and then they consciously
choose then what direction they'll go. The whole idea of the judgment
and condemnation of God on mankind as a whole is as foreign to false
religion as light is to darkness. If babies weren't sinners, they
wouldn't die. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. If babies weren't sinners, they
wouldn't die. And it's foreign to men because
of the same reason it is to natural men. It doesn't find a place
in their experience. Never mind the passages in the
Word of God where it's taught. It doesn't fit their experience.
It takes from the Word of God only those things which He can
relate to His own experience. If men can't find a common ground
in what you're saying and their own experience, they're going
to shut you down, ain't they? He'll bend and twist the Word
of God until He can make it make sense to them. And men and women
who are not taught of God, who will not submit themselves to
the things of the Spirit of God, who are unlearned and unstable,
it says they rest, W-R-E-S-T, they rest the Scriptures. What does that word mean? It
means to violently twist. Twist something that can't be
twisted. We've been pulling wires out
of the new church, and some of those big 220 wires are a pretty
good size, and they're twisted up, and some of them are soldered
together, and some of them have fasteners on them. And I'm going
to tell you something, you're not going to take your bare hands
and untwist them wires. You're going to have to get a
pair of pliers and do it. The Word of God can't be twisted. But men violently, they would
pressure, bend and twist the Word of God. They try to wrest
the Scriptures, and it says, to their own destruction. False
religion cries, peace, peace, where there is no peace. False religion calls men and
women to exercise a free will which they don't have. It causes
men and women to choose something that's not theirs to choose.
To hope in something where there is no hope. To rest in something
that offers no rest. The scriptures give pictures
of this all through the Old Testament. They said it's like a bed that's
too short to lay on. Your feet hang over the end.
You can't rest. It don't fit. Some of you big
men in here, you lay down on these little beds. You go to
visit your in-laws or something, and they put you on this little
bed that belonged to their kids, and your feet hang all the way
in. You can't rest. And worse than that, the old
prophet said they got covers, but they're too short. They don't
cover you up. You pull it up around your neck,
and your feet stick out. And you get your feet covered,
and then you're cold up here. You can't rest. There's no rest
in it. And they call you to rest, but
there's no rest in the things they call you to believe. False religion is anti-Christ. They're anti-everything concerning
Jesus Christ. And they deny the fall and condemnation
of men in the garden. The preaching of mankind being
dead in trespasses and sins is shocking to men because worldly
religion denies it. It's contrary to everything they've
ever heard. And the third reason men and
women are shocked by this truth is because it shatters all their
hopes and dreams. There's a warfare that takes
place in the hearts of chosen sinners when God begins to call
them out of darkness. And the weapons of this warfare,
he said, are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to
the... Now watch this. To the pulling down of strongholds. What's he talking about? Talking
about your hopes and dreams. Your hopes and dreams. Those
fantasies whereby you were deceived. And it cast down imagination. and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and it brings into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." That's 2 Corinthians
10, 4 and 5. Persuasion and protest will not
do the work. Legislation and tougher laws
will not win the day. There is a strong man, and that
strong man keeps his goods at peace. He rules the house. He
rules by deception, but he rules. And he rules that house until
one stronger than he comes in and takes the house from him
and spoils his goods. Nothing is going to happen. Nothing
is going to happen. The Word of God teaches that
all mankind, every son of Adam, In every age is fallen and corrupt
and under the condemnation of God. What does God have to do
to condemn a man? Leave him alone. Leave him alone. He's already condemned. Isn't
that what that says there in John chapter 3? He's condemned
already. He that believeth not is condemned
already. Romans chapter 5 verse 18 said,
As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation. He's born that way, and He's
raised that way, and He's taught that way, and He lives that way,
and He dies that way. When Christ came into the world,
when the eternal Word was made flesh, when the second Adam appeared
and lived and died and rose from the dead, He become the firstfruits. The firstfruits. He is the first
begotten from the dead. Jesus Christ came into this world
as a representative man. We were represented in Adam and
condemned in Adam, our feral head and beginning. So Christ
is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. He's the firstfruits. When I
think of the curse of God on man and when I think of the utter
depravity of his nature, the utter rebellion of his heart
and the utter blindness of his understanding, Generation after
generation, son upon son, daughter upon daughter, every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart, only evil continually. All of
his righteousnesses as filthy rags, all of his good intentions
deceitful. His whole heart deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, all having sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But not the God-man. Not the
God-man. He was tempted in all points
like as we are yet without sin. He went about everywhere doing
good. Who is this man? It's obvious
he's not born of Adam. It's obvious that Adam's curse
is not manifested in him. Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? The Scriptures declare him to
be the Christ. Well, who's the Christ? What
is that? We sing about it all the time.
What is the Christ? The Christ is the promised seed.
He's the seed of woman. God said to the serpent after
the fall, He said to the serpent, I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Who's the woman's seed? It's the virgin-born Son of God. He is the firstfruits. He's the
firstfruits. Why did He come? For the expressed
purpose of redeeming a people chosen of God before the world
began. In Galatians 4, verse 4, it said,
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of children. Jesus Christ as our representative
took our place under the law of God and obeyed His law for
us, served God in perfect obedience for us, loved God with all His
heart, soul, mind, and strength, lived for 33 1�2 years under
that law without sin. Without sin. And by His obedience,
He has become the end of the law for righteousness, to every
one that believeth. And as our substitute, he took
our place before the bar of God, burying our sins in his own body
on the tree, suffering our shame, suffering in our room instead,
suffering in our place until he drank the last bitter dregs
of our condemnation. God emptied. God emptied Himself of all His
wrath upon our substitute until the perfect justice of God was
fully satisfied. Then our Lord's body was taken
off the cross and wrapped in linen and laid in a tomb, sealed
by a great stone and guarded by soldiers. And on the third
day, the angel of God rolled away the stone and our Lord sat
up in the tomb And very peacefully, not in a hurry, took off those
linen garments and folded them and left them neatly folded,
laying there on the stone. And after a month, above a month,
He ascended back into glory where He sits as absolute Lord and
Sovereign over all things. He's the firstfruits. He's the
first fruit. He's the evidence of the harvest
yet to come. That's what the first fruits
were in the Old Testament. They were offered up to God.
They were evidence. They were a token of the harvest
yet to come. Listen to this here in 1 Corinthians
15-21. For since thy man came death,
that's how it came. That's where you fell. That's
how you fail. Since by 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. Very quickly, let me give you
three things concerning this resurrection of Christ that ought
to motivate you and encourage you to put your trust in Him. First of all, because this resurrection
of Jesus Christ declares God's full and total satisfaction with
everything Christ came to do. You think about that. Perfectly
satisfied. Christ cried on the cross, it
is finished. And God declared by His resurrection
that He was satisfied. Listen to the words of our Lord's
high priestly prayer just before going to the cross. He says in
John 17, verse 22, He said, The glory which thou hast given Me,
I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one,
I in them, and thou in Me. Now listen to this, that they
may be made perfect in one. in one. Dare I even think such a thing. Perfect in one. And yet here
it is. Here it is, right here in the
Scripture. Plainly declared in the Word of God. Made perfect
in one. Made perfect by a divine union
which declares a oneness in which He could be made sin and I could
be made righteous. sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And by that offering
and by that sanctification, He perfected forever all them that
He sanctified. Made perfect in one. He was delivered for our offenses. Now listen, and raised again
for our justification. When God raised Him from the
dead, He declared His full satisfaction with all that the Son had accomplished. And when God raised Him from
the dead, He quickened us together with Him, raised us up together
with Him, and made us sit together with Him in heavenly places. I don't have to wait until the
judgment to find out if the person and work of Christ is sufficient
to save my soul. I see it when God raised Him
from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand. That is
the end of the argument for the apostles all through the book
of Acts. This same Jesus that you crucified,
God made Him Lord. He's not down there with David,
whose bones we have to this day, whose flesh corrupted, This man
never saw corruption, but as it was written of him, he didn't
see corruption. God raised him from the dead,
and He seated him at His own right hand. God declared the
full sufficiency and satisfaction of Christ our Redeemer when He
raised him from the dead. And then he tells us, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Are you listening? Yea, rather,
that is risen again. Here's the argument. Not only
that He died, but yea, He risen again, who's even at the right
hand of God. Christ, our first fruit. declares
the full satisfaction of God with all that Christ did for
chosen sinners. And then secondly, the resurrection
of Jesus Christ guarantees all the believers present and future
hopes. Henry was out walking one day. He was having a little back trouble,
and the doctor told him to get out and walk. And he was walking
up and down 13th Street there, and he ran into a another man
who went to the same seminary that he went to down at Temple
University. And they talked for a minute
and finally that fellow turned around and looked at him and
he said, Henry, are you still saved? Henry looked at him and he said,
is Christ still on the throne? Do you see where your hope is? Is Christ still on the throne?
Because that's where my hope is. As long as He sits on that
throne, I'm safe. I'm safe. If that's where my
hope is. Jesus Christ is our guarantor. He guarantees all that God has
promised. All the promises of God in Him
are yea and amen. They're unquestionable. They're
not ifs, they're yea and amen. He's our hope, which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast in which
entereth in to that which is within the veil, Hebrews 6.19. Our Lord has taken possession.
He's king over God's kingdom and all of the promises of God
in Him are yea and amen. Take all the ifs, somebody said,
attached to the promises. and put them on a chain and place
them around the neck of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And then thirdly,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ marks the first of many. Did God raise our federal head
from the grave? Then in Christ shall all be made
alive. Do you wonder Do you wonder? I tell you, I'm not 26 anymore. That grave is getting closer
and closer every day. Do you wonder? Do you wonder
will Christ raise you from that grave? He raised His Son. He raised His Son. Did Christ
raise our federal head from the grave? Then in Christ shall all
be made alive. 1523, But every man in his own order
Christ the firstfruits, and then they that are Christ that is
coming. There is not the least chance
that any of God's elect shall be left in their darkness and
unbelief. There is not any possibility
that any man chosen of God unto salvation will perish under the
curse of God. The resurrection of Christ guarantees
His calling. It guarantees His regeneration,
and it guarantees His keeping. Whom He did predestinate, them
He also called. Isn't that what it said? And whom He called, He justified,
and whom He justified, He did also glorify. Because your sons,
Paul said, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. I'm going to tell you something.
I don't preach because I think I'm clever or because I think
I can do better than somebody else. I don't encourage folks
to support the ministry because I think we can reach somebody
that's never been reached before or any of those things I preach
because preaching is the means given. Given by Christ who guarantees
by His person and works and by the giving of this gift of His
sovereign spirit to awaken all His elect. That's why we preach. We preach because His resurrection
guarantees the calling of His elect. It guarantees the means
that He before ordained. He said, listen to what He said. He said, all power is given unto
Me in heaven and earth. All power, power over all. It
tells us over in the book of Colossians, power over all principalities
and powers, things present. All these things. All powers
given unto me in heaven and earth. Now you go preach. You go preach. You go preach. How do I know
all that power is given unto Him? God raised Him from the
dead. God raised Him from the dead.
You see what I'm saying? He guarantees. He guarantees. He guarantees the calling out
of all His elect. They're all going to hear. Every
one of them. They're all going to hear. They're all going to come. They're
all going to look to Him. They're all going to repent.
Every last one of them. How do I know that? Because He's
seated at the right hand of God. And He must reign until all enemies
be put under His feet. And the last one is death. Death. He'll put it under His
feet.