If There Be No Resurrection

Q: What does the Bible say about the resurrection of Jesus?

The Bible affirms that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, which is a vital truth for salvation. The resurrection of Jesus is foundational to Christian faith. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-22, Paul argues that if Christ is not raised, then our preaching and faith are in vain. He emphasizes that the resurrection is not merely a doctrinal point but the cornerstone of the Gospel. The historical reality of the resurrection underpins every aspect of the Christian life, offering hope and assurance of eternal life for believers.

Q: How do we know that Christ's resurrection is true?

Christ's resurrection is supported by multiple witnesses and scriptural prophecies. The resurrection of Christ is affirmed by various eyewitness accounts, as highlighted in Acts 1:3, which states that Jesus showed himself alive after his sufferings by many infallible proofs. Furthermore, according to 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, Jesus was seen by Peter, the twelve apostles, and later by over five hundred brethren at once. This multitude of witnesses lends credibility to the truth of the resurrection. Additionally, prophetic scriptures such as Psalm 16:10 reinforce that God would not leave His Holy One to see corruption, validating the resurrection as God's plan fulfilled.

Q: Why is believing in the resurrection important for Christians?

Believing in the resurrection is essential for salvation and hope in eternal life. Belief in the resurrection of Christ is crucial because, as Paul states in Romans 10:9, confessing that God raised Jesus from the dead is a condition for salvation. It signifies that Jesus' sacrifice was accepted and that believers are justified through Him. Without belief in the resurrection, all semblance of Christian hope collapses, leaving individuals in their sins and without assurance of eternal life. The resurrection assures Christians of their future hope and empowerment for living a transformed life in Christ.

Q: Can someone be saved without believing in the resurrection?

No, belief in the resurrection is essential for salvation. According to Romans 10:9, one must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved. Paul underscores that if Christ is not raised, then one's faith is futile, and they remain in their sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). The resurrection validates the efficacy of Christ's atonement for sin and confirms that those who believe in Him will also be raised to life. Thus, salvation is inherently linked to the truth of the resurrection, and one cannot be saved if they deny this essential tenet of the Gospel.

Q: What happens to those who die in Christ if there is no resurrection?

If there is no resurrection, those who die in Christ perish and have no hope. Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 15:18 that if there is no resurrection, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. This grim reality highlights the importance of the resurrection for the faith of believers. If Christ has not risen, then those who placed their trust in Him will have ultimately lost everything. However, the assurance of resurrection brings comfort and hope to believers, affirming that death is not the end, and they will be raised to eternal life because of their union with Christ.

In the first Corinthians, the
first letter of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 15, I want to deal with
the question that Paul asked in verse 13 or in verse 12. 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 there be no resurrection
is Paul's subject here in these few verses. And we hope this
morning that by the grace of God and by the enablement of
the divine spirit to be able to say some things that might
be of help to each one of us. that we may grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and be more established
in the faith of the Holy Gospel. There is no historical fact that
is so well authenticated as that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. We believe that Jesus was raised
from the dead and our faith is not based upon opinions but upon
facts. My opinion is not worth the snap
of your finger and your opinion is not worth a snap of my finger. It's certainly, beloved, we must
come to the conclusion that what the Word of God teaches is right.
The facts of the Word as they've been given to us are that which
we must base our faith upon. We must, after all, if we want
a firm foundation for our souls, come down to the matters of fact,
what the Word of God teaches. Now, the great facts of the Gospel
or that God was incarnate in Christ Jesus, and that He lived
here a life of holiness and love, that He died upon the cross for
our sins, and that He was buried in the tomb, the borrowed tomb
of Joseph of Arimathea, and that the third day He rose again from
the dead, and after a while He ascended to His Father's throne
where He now sits. and he shall come by and by,
and in that day the dead in Christ shall rise by virtue of their
union with him." Now very soon in the church at Corinth some
begin to deny this fact of the gospel that Jesus died, that
he was buried, and that God raised him from the dead. They begin
to deny the fact of the resurrection And Paul said, How say some among
you in the church? Now if you please, there was
some saying that there would be no resurrection, that there's
no resurrection of the dead. Now that's in the church. Now
if men outside the church deny the resurrection, we know they're
unbelievers, and they act and speak according to their profession,
and they know not how serious this subject really is, and they
can go around spouting off at the mouth. Oh, they want to,
but in the church? In the church? Are there some
among us in the church, Paul would say, that are saying that
there is no resurrection? Beloved, we must come to see
how important the doctrine of the resurrection really is. I
would like for you to turn quickly, keeping your finger right here,
over to the book of Romans chapter 10. I want to impress this upon
your mind. Somebody might ask this morning,
can I be saved and not believe in the bodily resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead? Can I be saved and believe
that Jesus is still in the grave? Can I be saved and believe that
Jesus has been dead for 2,000 years and he's never been heard
from since. Can I be saved and believe that?
Well, beloved, you cannot be saved and not believe in the
bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna read verse
nine of Matthew. Paul's letter to the Romans,
chapter 10, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now, I want you
to listen to that verse very carefully, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine
heart, and shall believe in thine heart, do you believe in your
heart that God hath raised him, Christ, from the dead? Then,
Paul said, if you believe that in your heart, And if you make
confession of it with your mouth, he said, thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved. Yes, beloved,
we must believe in the fact of the resurrection. Paul told these
brethren, I've delivered unto you the gospel as it was delivered
to me, how that Christ died according to the scriptures, how that he
was raised from the dead. How that how he was buried and
then rose again on the third day This is indeed a fact of
the gospel and let the unbelievers let them talk all they want to
but a believer Believes that Christ was raised from the dead
that he's a living Christ as our brother Had us to sing that
song this morning Christ is alive He's not dead, he's not in the
grave, he has been raised from the dead, and he's seated at
God's right hand. And Paul shows the horrible consequences
which must follow if there be no resurrection of Christ from
the dead, if Christ be not risen. He showed this to be a foundational
truth. And if it was taken away, much
more was gone than these people supposed. Indeed, everything
was gone as Paul went on and as he sets forth here and as
he proves in this chapter. Beloved, let us never tamper
with the truth of God. Let us never tamper with God's
Word. Let us believe what the Word
of God reveals about our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Let us enjoy
the comfort of the truth of God's Word and lean with all of our
weight, the weight of our souls upon the scriptural lessons of
the Word without setting ourselves up ever to be a critic of the
Word of God. It certainly is very dangerous
when one begins to be suspicious of truths that are so plainly
set forth in the Bible. And when a man will set himself
to be a critic of the Word of God, how dangerous that is. The truth is surely believed
among us that there will be a resurrection of all those who fall asleep
in Jesus. and also of the ungodly. Now Paul declared this doctrine
before Felix. He said that there will be a
resurrection both of the just and the unjust. Let me read just
a couple passages. Turn with me to the gospel of
John chapter five. The gospel of John chapter five,
and let me read verse 28 and 29. Jesus said, marvel not at
this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have
done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. There's going to be
a resurrection both of the saved and of the damned. there'll be
a resurrection of both, the saved and the lost. Now turn with me
to the book of Acts, and I wanna look here in Acts chapter 24
at a passage which Paul, where I mentioned that Paul testified
of the resurrection of both the just and the unjust. The 24th
chapter of the book of Acts, and I'll read to you at this
time, verse 15, notice it. Let me add verse 14, but this
I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy,
that is the Pharisees and the scribes and so on of Paul's day,
so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are
written in the law and the prophets. and have hope toward God, which
they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust." Now, when you
turn back over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul said over in
verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the
first fruits of them that slept. Notice verse 21 and 22. For 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. But every man in his own
order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ
at his coming. Now, beloved, we know that there
is only two places to be, that you're either in Adam, where
all died, If you're not regenerate, if you're not a saved person,
if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, then you're in Adam.
We have Adam, who's the representative of the human race, and all of
us were in him. And when he fell, we were all
in him and we all died in him. We all died spiritually in Adam. When you're born into this world,
you are dead spiritually speaking. And you will not live until you
live in Christ. Christ is the federal head and
the representative of all God's elect. So in Christ we shall
be made alive, but there's another truth here that needs to be set
forth and that is this That in Adam all die and so in Christ
Universally shall all be made to come out of their graves because
of Christ and because of his resurrection power there will
be a resurrection both of the lost and of certainly of the
saved and then also of the lost and but every man in his own
order, but Paul is especially here, his argument with these
Corinthians has to do with believers who will rise from the dead and
stand with Christ in the day of his appearing, quickened with
that life that quickened him when he came forth and raised
up to share the glory which the Father has given to him. Paul
is especially here dealing with the Lord's people here in this
chapter. Now Paul's argument begins here
in the 12th verse and I'd like for us to look at this and Follow
his argument here a little bit this morning in verse 12. He
said if Christ be preached I 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
is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. If there
be no resurrection, he said, Christ is not risen. If the resurrection
of the dead is impossible, Christ cannot have risen from the dead. The Bible says in John 12 that
Jesus was given power, the authority by God, not only to lay down
his life, but also to take it again. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is risen. If the resurrection of the dead
then is impossible, if you say, I don't believe in a resurrection,
I don't believe. way in this life, they fall asleep
and they're sown in their graves. I don't believe that it's possible that the disciples bore witness
that Christ had risen. Not one of the disciples where it says but had certain
questions now paul uh... was going to stand stations and
they had questions about jesus to be alive. Paul testified that
Jesus, that he was dead and now he's alive, that he's alive,
that he came out of the grave. And this is blessed. Let me just
read that to you. Acts chapter one, and listen
to the reading here of the word of God, what the word of God
has to say about the resurrection of Christ is more important than
what we could ever say about it anyway. So let's read here
these scriptures. I wanna read verse three. To
whom also he showed himself alive. Speaking of the apostles whom
he had chosen. to whom also he showed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. So the Lord Jesus showed himself
to the apostles by many infallible proofs, many infallible proofs. All right, and then also there's
another scripture that I'd like for us to look at. And that would
be in the second chapter of Acts and verses 24. Well, there's
about a third of the chapter here that we could read that
have to do with the resurrection. But just let me point out a couple
of things here to you in the second chapter, beginning with
verse 23. Him, that's Christ, being delivered by the determined
counsel for knowledge of God, you've taken him by wicked hands
of crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up. Whom God
hath raised up. They slew the Lord Jesus Christ,
but God raised him up, having loose the pains of death because
it was not possible that he should be holding of it. Now just listen
to these verses. For David speaketh 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, my tongue was glad. Moreover
also, my flesh shall rest in hope. I want you to get that. I think that's blessed. David
said, therefore did my heart rejoice, my tongue was glad,
my flesh shall rest in hope. What do you mean? Because, verse
27, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. Now that word hell there is in
shul or in the grave. Thou shalt not leave my soul
in the grave, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see
corruption. Now here, David is not speaking
of himself. Listen to verse 29. Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. He's
both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this
day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had 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. That
his soul was not left in the grave. That Jesus was not left
in the grave to see corruption. His flesh did not see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up. whereof we, all our witnesses,
all the apostles, witnesses of the fact that Jesus had been
raised from the dead. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, having received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which you now see and hear. So, beloved, it is evident to
me that the apostles believed all of them in the resurrection
and they were witnesses to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They had met him, they had been with him, they had seen
him and they had even seen him eat a piece of broiled fish and
a honeycomb on one occasion and he said a spirit hath not flesh
and bones as you see me have Thomas, you remember, was invited
to thrust his hand into the side of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he was known by two of them at the time of the breaking of
bread. On an occasion, the scripture here testifies that verses that
our brother read to us this morning, verse 6, that he was seen of
above 500 brethren at once. So the Lord Jesus Christ has
been raised from the dead. He is alive Now you may say well
Christ maybe was raised from the dead But what about his people? How do we know that his people
are going to be raised from the dead? Well beloved, let me say
that Christ is one with his people and Christ is the head of the
body and the head and the body are welded together and Christ
will not be in heaven and his body on earth. He is not going
to leave the bodies of his people in their graves in the earth
while he is in heaven he's going to raise his people from the
dead and they go into the grave in hope in hope they go into
the grave of the resurrection okay then in verse 14 we read
here that he says and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching
vain and your faith is also vain now that what this means is if
there's no resurrection then apostolic preaching was in vain. It means that it was empty, that
there was no message, there was no truth to anything they had
to say. Their preaching was empty and
vain. Now if Christ was not raised,
the apostles were false witnesses. Means that they were liars. Means that they lied on God. They said that they bore witness
that God raised him from the dead. Now if he didn't, then
they were liars. When a man bears false witness,
he usually has a motive for doing so. Well, what motive could the
apostles possibly had in telling a lie on God that he raised Jesus
up from the dead? Because it was all loss and no
gain to them if he had not risen. It was nothing, listen to me
this morning, beloved, as soon as they preached that God had
raised Jesus from the dead, that one whom wicked man had taken
and crucified and had slain. As soon as they bore witness
to the fact that God raised him up, then they began to have trouble,
all kinds of trouble. And I remember reading over there
in 2 Timothy 2, and let me just turn there quickly and read a
verse to you there out of this chapter where Paul was saying,
2nd Timothy chapter 2, is that right? Yes, verses 8 and 9. Well, no, that's not right. Oh,
2nd Timothy, right. I had 1st Timothy here. 2nd Timothy
chapter 2 verse 8 and 9, he says, Remember that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds
but the word of God is not bound. So Paul says, of our Lord Jesus Christ from
the dead got me into a lot of trouble. It got me into bonds.
It's the reason why I end up in jail, is that I'm preaching
that this Jesus that was dead, that now he's alive forevermore,
that he's living at the right hand of the Father. Now I ask, were these men false
witness? I say to you they were not false
witnesses. I say to you that they died for
their testimony. And in the Bible, that's what
a witness is. He's a martyr. Someone who is
willing to die for what they testify. And these men died for
what they testified. And if they were liars, and if
they were false witnesses, Well, there was the most extraordinary
false witnesses who ever lived. These men went to the death believing
that God had raised this Jesus up from the dead. And their witness
is still true 2,000 years since. their witness is still true now
beloved if we suspect their witness about the resurrection then we
must suspect their witness about everything else we must give
up the new testament and we must begin to try to find us a new
bible we've got to find another bible if we say that the witness
of the apostles about the resurrection that they lied about his resurrection
then we need to get us a new Bible. They taught that his resurrection
was proof that his sacrifice had been accepted for our justification. Paul said in Romans that he was
delivered for our offenses, but he was raised again for our justification. Paul said that he was raised
for our justification. Well, do you know that when the
Lord Jesus was in the grave, he went there And if he had not
have been brought out of the grave, then he would have never,
if he hadn't brought out of the grave, he couldn't have justified
anybody. He went in, he was crucified, slain for our sins, and then
he was in the grave, and God accepted the sacrifice that he
made when he died, and that's why he raised him up. He raised
him up, and that's proof, that's receipt, that God has justified
all of his people. Well, Paul included himself in
the benefits of the resurrection. Well, how did Paul learn about
the resurrection? I think this is most interesting.
You remember that Paul made the statement here that when talking
about Christ, he said, he was seen of James, then of all the
apostles in verse seven, and last of all in verse eight, he
was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. He said,
he was seen of me. Paul said, I saw him. I saw Christ
myself. Well, when did he see him? Well,
it is commonly believed that Paul, that he saw Christ when
he was converted on the Damascus road. That when he heard this
voice and when Jesus spoke to him and said, I'm Jesus, whom
you are persecuting. Paul said, who are you, Lord?
And he said, I'm Jesus. whom you persecuted. And so it
is commonly believed that it was on the road to Damascus where
Saul of Tarsus actually saw the living Christ. He spoke to him
and I believe that Paul says, this is when I saw him. This
is when, and I bear witness to you, I spoke to that Jesus that
was dead and he is alive. I spoke to him. And then there
are others that believe when Paul was caught up into the third
heavens and saw things that were, that he could not speak of, that
was unlawful to speak of, that it was at that time that he saw
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, whichever it was, he actually,
according to his testimony, said that he was seen of me also.
He was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. Now,
can't you understand how one would become a tremendous witness
by the power of God of the resurrection if he actually seen the Lord
Jesus Christ? if he actually saw Christ, the
resurrected one, after the time of the crucifixion, can you not
see how that would grip a man's soul and make him a witness in
power of the resurrection? Well, that's what Paul said,
I don't come behind the other apostles. They all saw Christ
after he was raised from the dead and so God took me out and
gave me the same privilege He gave me the same privilege. I
witnessed that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Now then,
if there is no resurrection, Paul says in the next place,
he says then, he said, your faith is vain. Verse 17, if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Now, beloved, if there is no
resurrection, faith becomes a delusion. As we have to give up the apostles
and all their teaching if Christ did not rise from the dead, so
we must conclude that everybody that ever heard them preach and
everybody that ever believed what they preached, that they
all have received a lie, that they've been deluded. That's
what Paul is saying here. Those who are resting in Christ.
Those who say, I was converted preacher. Those who say, I became
a new creature in Christ. Those who say, the Lord Jesus
came into my heart. He lives in my heart. My life
has been changed. I am new, born, newborn in Christ. Beloved, It's a delusion. It's
all a delusion if Christ was not raised from the dead. Every
time the Lord Jesus Christ saves somebody, he puts in an appearance. He makes an appearance. He comes
and indwells a believer through the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ
comes and saves a sinner. He reveals himself in the heart
as the living Christ when he saves somebody. Paul says, if
Christ be not risen, then everybody who's ever testified to have
faith that they're saved, every one of them has believed a falsehood. It's shared delusion, your faith
is fixed on a falsehood. Upon a life I did not live, upon
a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity. And beloved,
if Jesus did not die, if he did not, if he does not live, then
what do I have to hope in? It's upon a life that I did not
live, it's upon a death I did not die, hangs my whole eternity. And if Jesus did not, if he was
not resurrected, then it means the father did not accept his
death on the behalf of his people and therefore I have no salvation. I have no salvation. We have
not a ray of hope from any other direction. not
a ray of hope if Jesus was not raised from the dead I don't
have any hope and neither do you we don't have any dependence
on anything else but Jesus crucified and risen we believe that he
was crucified as we said to pay for our sin and that when God
raised him from the dead God said I accept that and if you
believe in Christ then I accept you. But Jesus had to be raised. And I don't have any dependence
on anything else. I've got nothing else. I'm out
of business if Jesus was not raised from the dead, and this
church, we'll shut down, this'll be our last meeting. Never meet
again. If Jesus didn't come out, of
that grave, then we got nothing, we got no reason to meet. And
we're, of all men, most miserable. Okay, now next Paul says, if
there be no resurrection, then they remain in their sins. Verse
17b, ye are yet in your sins. Ye are yet in your sins. Can
you bear the thought that you're still in your sin? Can you bear
that thought? The suggestion alone terrifies
the soul and chills the blood. Yet, in your sin, yet in your
sin, never to escape from sin's guilt, means that you will die
in your sin, means that you go off into eternity, ever son of
Adam, lost forever, no hope, no salvation, still in your sins,
still in your sins. Now those that are in Jesus Christ,
they're out of their sins. They're not under sin's condemnation
anymore. That's what Romans 8, 1 teaches. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, no judgment,
because judgment fell on Jesus. And God raised him up and said,
this is proof of the fact that I'm satisfied for the sins of
all my people. I'm satisfied. And so here we
have Paul saying that if Christ be not raised, then we're still
in our sins. What an awful thought. What an
awful thought. I would not want to live another
hour if I was still in my sins. I would not. If there was no
hope to escape them, why would we want to live? If there was
no hope, but to meet a thrice holy God in judgment, face all
of our sin, to face it, God having not been satisfied for our sins,
still in our sins. What a terrible thought. Isn't
it wonderful not to be in your sins? Isn't that wonderful? Praise
God, praise God, not to be in your sins. Well, if you're in
Christ, you're not in your sin. There's no sin in him. No sin
in him. And God will look at him and
all of his people are in him. And what God sees in him is what
he sees in all of his people. No sin, no sin in him. And I'm glad God raised him from
the dead because that tells me that the Father said, I'm satisfied
with your substitute. I'm satisfied in what he did.
He died and he paid the penalty of sin. You're not in your sin
any longer if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. See how
ridiculous these people, some among you, say that Christ be
not risen. See how ridiculous that is? Anyone
deny the resurrection cutting off their own nose to spite their
face. I'll tell you, we believe in the resurrection, all right?
Then no atonement has been made, at least not one that's satisfactory.
If Christ has not been raised, he went to the grave, a hostage
for us. If what he did upon the tree
had not satisfied the justice of God, then he would never come
out of the grave. You make a note of that in your
mind. Suppose then that he was buried 2,000 years ago and nobody
had ever heard from him since. What an awful thing. Think what
our position would be if I stood here just to preach only a dead
and buried Christ. That's all I had to preach. Dead
and buried. Dead and buried. No message,
no gospel in that. No gospel. The gospel is he was
dead, he was buried, and he's alive. and he's seated at the
right hand of God, making intercession, pleading what he did on our behalf. He's alive. The book of Revelation
says, and I always like this, he that was dead and was alive
and is now alive forevermore. Don't you like that? I love that. Praise God, I love that. My spiritual
head is alive. I don't carry no cross around.
because my head, my spiritual head, my substitute is alive. And I don't carry no cross around
around my neck. If Jesus never had paid the debt,
he never had been at freedom's set, the poet said. And now both the surety and the
sinner are free. You believe that? They're free.
Out of the grave. And we're in him, seated in heavenly
places. Good is done. Take me out and
bury me, but don't go off sad, saying, well, that's the end
of that fella. No, no, no, no, no. I'm free. I'm free in the
Lord Jesus Christ, having been raised together with him. And as sure as Christ came out
of that grave, I came out of it. Now then, if there be no
resurrection, we have to hurry here. Then he goes on to say
in verse 18, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ,
they are perished. Now what this means is that if
there be no resurrection, then all the past dead that have ever
died, that they went to hell, they perished. Everybody that
ever has died, Paul said, they all perished. All those who fall
asleep, whatever they believed, they perished. Make any difference
what they believe. There is nothing but the resurrection
of Jesus Christ going to save a man. You must believe in the
resurrection of Christ. You must believe in it. The pious
dead. Somebody said, well, maybe they
were annihilated. No, they'd be in worse shape
than that. Because you see, they were annihilated. The end didn't
come. They still had to face the judgment.
They perished in the flames of an eternal hell. They died. They told us their hope on their
deathbed. Many have testified, my hope
is in the shed blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No
avail. They perished if Christ be not
raised from the dead. You see how important this is?
I'm driving it home to you. I want you to see something before
we close here this morning. They can never rise because only
through his resurrection is there resurrection for the saints.
But we're confident that they were not deceived. We are confident
that all the pious dead, all those who fell asleep in Jesus,
all of those who died trusting in Christ, that everyone of them
are with the Lord today. We believe that. We believe that
with all of our hearts. Now lastly, I want you to look at this, verse
19. He says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we're of all men most miserable. Now, what does he mean by that?
Well, he means that our source of joy is all gone. It's every
bit gone if Christ was not raised from the dead. We're of all men
most miserable. We have hope in, we have no life
apart from Christ. Christ is our life. That's what
the Bible says in Colossians. Christ who is our life shall
appear again. He's coming back. for his people,
but he is the life of a believer. We have no other life. Believers have given up fleshly,
sensuous lives. They've given it up. We have
now learned superior things. We love the things of the Spirit
of God. We have high hopes, which make
our hearts leap for joy only because of the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And if in this life only we go
around saying, well, we got hope, we got hope. What about them
apostles? Suffered imprisonment, death, martyrdom in this life,
gave up this life and said, what was it Paul said? He said, I
count not my life dear unto myself. This life, he gave it up. He
served God in this life. If there's no resurrection, well,
Paul said, man, what a fool we are. How miserable we are. We've lived our life for the
Lord and we gave up and denied the flesh and denied our flesh
life. Gave it all up and there's no
resurrection, well, be the most miserable people alive suffered
all my life to preach the gospel and there's no resurrection my
my how miserable well we have a hope our flesh shall rest in
hope of the resurrection Job said this he says though after
my skin worms destroy this body Yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another." That's what he said. I believe he knew what
he was talking about. He believed in the resurrection.
Now, you may say, Preacher, just what was you driving at this
morning? What was you driving at? Well,
let me just give you what I was driving at. Can you listen to
this? I believe if you'll listen to
this, it's simple as it can be, but I want you to get it. I do
not know of any passage of scripture which more thoroughly than this
passage throws the stress where the stress must be, not on man,
but on Christ alone. If he didn't come out of that
grave, it's curtains. You agree with that? Don't you
say that's what Paul taught here? Well, that's what I've been about
this morning. I'm telling you that the stress
is on him. It's always been on him since
he became surety of the eternal covenant before the foundation
of the world. The stress is on Jesus. It's not on you. It's not on
me. It's on him. Isn't that right? The stress
is on him. Praise his name. Now, if you
want salvation, if you want to be saved, if you want to be a
child of God, then you know what Paul said? He said, confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God
raised him up from the dead and thou shall be saved. That's what
he said. On the authority of the word
of God, I give you that scripture. Confess with your mouth that
you believe that Jesus is God, and that he died on a gory tree
to satisfy sin's debt, and that God, when he was buried, raised
him up. He's raised, he's alive. Believe
it, confess it with your mouth, and you'll be saved. Father,
we thank you this morning for this privilege, and we regret
our inability to preach as we'd like. but yet we thank thee for
this glorious and precious truth. May the Lord Jesus Christ, as
he is alive, may be more alive, more alive. We cannot make him
more alive than he is, but may we be more sensitive to his life
and to the fact that he ever lives to make intercession for
us. Thank you for raising him from the dead, Holy Father. Thank
you for the life that we have in Him. Thank you for that certain
hope we have of the resurrection, and even our flesh is gonna rest
in hope. We thank you in Jesus' name,
amen.

If There Be No Resurrection

What does the Bible say about the resurrection of Jesus?

How do we know that Christ's resurrection is true?

Why is believing in the resurrection important for Christians?

Can someone be saved without believing in the resurrection?

What happens to those who die in Christ if there is no resurrection?

Sermon Transcript

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Articles

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Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

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About

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If There Be No Resurrection

What does the Bible say about the resurrection of Jesus?

How do we know that Christ's resurrection is true?

Why is believing in the resurrection important for Christians?

Can someone be saved without believing in the resurrection?

What happens to those who die in Christ if there is no resurrection?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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