Let me read a few verses to us.
Let's begin reading here in 1 Corinthians 15 and let's begin in verse 12.
1 Corinthians 15 and verse 12. Now if Christ be preached, that
He arose from the dead, I 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, your faith is also vain. Yea, 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 raise not. For if the dead raise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, you are yet in your sin. then 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. 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, afterwards
they that are Christ that is coming. Now let's skip down to
verse 29. 29 Else what shall they do which
are baptized for the dead, if the dead raise not at all? Why
are they then baptized for the dead? 30 And why stand we in
jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing,
which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. If after
the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephius, what advantage
is it to me if the dead raise not? Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die. Be not deceived, evil communications
corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin
not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your
shame. Paul is teaching us here in these
passages I read to you. THE DOCTRINE OF THE PHYSICAL
RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. He raised from the dead
physically and He offers two proofs for them here. I didn't
read them to you but they are in verse 4. He offers us the
proof of the scriptures. Christ raised again from the
dead according to the scriptures. And we find it through the scriptures.
God promised David in the Old Testament that of the fruit of
his loins he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. Paul proved
it by scripture. And then in verses 5 through
8 he offered physical evidence. A lot of people want physical
evidence. We don't have any today but they had it back then because
over 500 brethren saw the physical resurrected body of Jesus Christ.
And you know not a one of them ever took back what he saw. Now
that's amazing in itself. You can't get two fellows hardly
to agree on anything for long. But here's 500 men until the
day they died, they never once recanted. They said, we saw Him,
we ate with Him, we touched Him, we handled Him who is the Word
of Life. And after proving Christ's resurrection
here, He proceeds here in verse 20, in verse 22 to prove the
resurrection of the saints. And he does it by representation. He proves here that since Christ
Jesus raised from the dead, all His people must raise from the
dead. Because Jesus Christ is not a
private person. He never did anything for Himself.
Everything He did, He did to represent others. That's what
He proved there in verse 20. Now is Christ risen from the
dead and became the firstfruits of them that slept. And then
we're told when this is going to happen. In verse 23, at His
coming. He's coming again. And when He
comes again, the dead in Christ will rise. Now some in the Corinthian
church here in verse 12 that I read to you was saying that
there's no resurrection of the dead. But Paul being an apostle
and firmly believing, had this revealed to him that Christ was
raised from the dead. He taught these Corinthians and
us all to, that Jesus Christ was a true representative of
His people. Look what He said here again
in verse 13. If there is no resurrection of
the dead, the dead saints, then Christ Himself is not risen because
Christ did not rise for Himself. That's what he's telling us.
He did not rise for himself alone, but for those that he represented. And if he didn't rise, then they'll
never rise. But since he arose, Paul said
that's a surety that all the saints shall rise because of
him. And then here beginning at verse
14, he gives us some awful consequences Christ not being raised from
the dead. He has several of them. Look at the first part of verse
14. And if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain. Our preaching is foolish and
useless. Why is that? Well, the whole
basis of our preaching is that God raised Christ from the dead.
He is the Son of God and He raised from the dead. And if I'm preaching
that and the grave still has power over him, then my preaching
is foolishness. It means nothing. I'm preaching
in vain. Then he goes on in the last part
of verse 14 and tells of other consequences of Christ being
not raised from the dead. Not only is our preaching vain,
your faith is also vain. If preaching is vain, then faith
is vain. What he's probably talking about
here is the system of teaching. The doctrine of faith. Everywhere
the Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ was going to raise from
the dead. If He didn't raise from the dead, what happens to
this whole system of teaching? It collapses, doesn't it? It
collapses. His living, His dying, His burial
profits us nothing if He didn't raise from the dead. And then
He goes on in verse 15 and look at this. Yea, we are found false
witnesses of God. Why? Why so? Because we have
testified that God raised Christ from the dead, whom He raised
not from the dead, if so be that the dead raise not. This was
the message of the apostles, that God had raised Christ from
the dead. And you know they believed that.
And now Paul says, some of you are saying that there's no resurrection
of the dead, therefore Christ is not risen. And since that
is so, your whole system of faith is vain, and God Himself is a
liar. We've made Him a liar, because
He's the one that said, I swear and will not repent. You're a
priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Not only have
we made Him a liar, but listen, and I say this foolishly, He
is a liar. If Christ is not raised from
the dead, everything God told us is a lie. That's an awful
consequence of Christ being not raised from the dead. Somebody
said, why does it matter? It matters a lot. It hangs essentially
upon His resurrection. And he mentions three heart-wrenching
consequences in verse 17 and 18 of Christ being not raised
from the dead. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain. Now the first time he says this,
he's probably talking about the doctrine of faith. The whole
system. of faith, that we believe God,
His promises and Christ's work and His resurrection. The whole
system falls. But here He seems to be speaking of the grace of
faith in our hearts. We have this grace of faith to
believe that Jesus Christ raised from the dead. I believe that,
don't you? I'm with those apostles. I believe
and I'm sure that thou art the Christ. And I can say of the
resurrection, I believe the Son of God raised from the dead,
and He's seated at the right hand of God. You believe that
in your heart, don't you? If you believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. What
if you continued all your life in that faith, and you got to
the end of the way, and you found out that Jesus Christ, after
all, stayed in the grave? Your faith is vain. all your
life long of believing Him, it was vain. It was useless. Isn't
that a heart-wrenching thing? Paul said that's the way it is
if some of you are right, if Christ did not raise from the
dead. And then he mentions this awful thing. Not only is your
faith vain, but you are yet in your sins. What use would it
be to believe Jesus Christ died for our offenses? if He didn't
raise again for our justification. If He didn't raise again, you
know what that means? That means His offering wasn't
accepted of God. That means His merit wasn't enough
to put away sin. And therefore, He is still in
the grave. You and I are still in our sins.
We're condemned. We're guilty. There's no help
or any hope for us. If Christ did not raise, then
our sins are not atoned for. And we're still in them. We're
still cursed of the law and we'll be damned because of it. And
here he mentions this thing in verse 18. They that are fallen
asleep in Christ are also perished. All the brothers and sisters
who have died in Christ, they died in their sins and they perished. Their bodies have perished without
any hope. They'll go back to the dust and
that'll be it. If their souls are mortal, their souls have
been annihilated, they're gone, they're like some animal, but
what if their soul is immortal? What if their soul lives on?
Then their soul perishes without any hope. They perish in their
sin. I know people that I believe
were dear saints of God. that I believe, believe the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know something? If Christ
is not risen from the dead, theyíre perished. They have perished. Their bodies are perishing and
their souls are going to perish if Christ didnít rise from the
dead. Oh, we go on here then in verse 20, and we love this,
ìBut now is Christ risen from the dead and became the firstfruits
of them that sleep.î Now Heís risen from the dead. Paul told
them there in verse 19, If in this life only, we have hope
in Christ. If our hope in Christ is for
this life, we're miserable, aren't we? We are absolutely miserable. And we'll see that in a minute
when the Apostle Paul gets around to it. But now, now is Christ
risen from the dead. And here in verses 21 and verse
22, Paul takes what would have caused us a great amount of fear
and anxiety. and even despair, and He turns
it for our encouragement and comfort by proving to us the
effects or consequences of our two representatives. How did
death come into this world? How did death come? Well, He
told us, didn't He? Look in verse 21. For since by man came death. Now, we know how death got into
this world, don't we? One man sinned and death came. Do you believe that? The only
way we know that is by the Scriptures. One man. How sure are we that
it came in? You say, Bruce, I'm absolutely
sure. I'm convinced that's what the Bible says. By one man sin
entered unto the world, and death by sin. Okay then. How does life
come? How does life come? Are we sure
of this? I'm just as sure of how death
come as I am how life come. I'm just as sure how life comes
as I'm sure how death came. Just as sure as death came by
Adam, life comes by Christ. That's what He's saying, isn't
it? Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. Here in verse 22. Here's something
else we know. We know it by experience. Look
what He said in verse 22. For as in Adam, all die. We know that by experience, don't
we? All of us are dying. I tell you, every day we see
somebody die, we experience the reality of what it means to be
an Adam. And I believe that's why we die. The Bible completely satisfies
us as to why death came and to why you die and why I die. Why
do we die? In Adam, all die. Well, look
at this. Look how He turns this for our
encouragement. Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. If death came by one man, then
you and I can believe that life came by another man. If the grave
came by one man, then you and I can believe that resurrection
came by another man. Awful, awful things came by Adam. But that just goes to prove that
good, good things came from Christ. and by Jesus Christ. Our death
in Adam is a sure proof of our resurrection in Jesus Christ. That's what he said. Now, in
verses 24 through 28, Paul got somewhat sidetracked. Boy, he
often did that. His heart was so full of Christ
and the knowledge of Him, and he'd be writing, and he'd think
of something, and boy, off he'd go on it. And he'd ride and then
finally he'd catch himself and come back. He was just so full,
so full of Christ and his work, where he is and what he's doing.
In verse 29, he comes back to his subject now of the resurrection,
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And he's going to present
some new arguments concerning the resurrection of Christ. In
verse 29, here's what he says. Let me read this to you, what
the Amplified says. Amplify says this, what do people
mean by being themselves baptized in behalf of the dead? If the
dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for the dead? Now what in the world does it
mean being baptized for the dead? Well what it means, you're a
believer is baptized in regard to the dead. They're baptized
concerning the dead. Now I want you to turn over to
Romans You can hold Ephesians, turn over to Romans chapter 6
and look at this. Romans chapter 6 and look here
in verse 3. There's three things baptism symbolizes. I wish I'd
have known all this when I was baptized, but I didn't realize
all of this. But there's three things that
Paul tells us here that baptism symbolizes. One is death. It symbolizes the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 3. Romans chapter
6 and verse 3. Know you not that so many of
us as were baptized unto Christ were baptized unto his death? What does death do? It's symbolic
of the death of the Son of God. He died. What does baptism do? It symbolizes that. But not only
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it symbolizes our own death. Look in verse 1. What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? We are dead to sin. Look in verse 6. Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that we henceforth should not serve
sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin." And what do you do
with a dead person? You bury him, don't you? Our
baptism in water symbolizes the death of Christ, and it symbolizes
your own death. You're in union with Christ and
what does that mean? That means you were crucified
with Him. You died with Him. So you're burying this old man
who is dead. That's what it symbolizes. Christ's
death and your death with Him upon the cross. It symbolizes
something else also. It's symbolic of His burial. Look
in verse 4. Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism unto his death. What do you do with a person
that's buried? You sprinkle dirt on him, don't you? A lady died
yesterday there in our hometown and they sprinkled some dirt
on her. They didn't sprinkle dirt on her. They buried her. What do you do with a person
that's dead? You bury him, don't you? When Christ died, they buried
him. Now the Apostle Paul tells us
here that we are buried with Him by Baptism. Now we're not
literally buried with Christ. This is symbolism. But in the
eyes of God we are. We're so in union with Christ,
when He died, we died. When they buried Him, they buried
us. And that's what we say in our
Baptism. We're buried with Him by Baptism. And then in verses
four through five and in verse eight, it's symbolic of a resurrection. Look in verse four again. Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism unto death. Look at this. that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of His dead,
we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." And look
in verse 5, verse 8. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him. So here's the
three things that baptism represents. It's symbolic of the death of
Christ, the burial of Christ, but something else, the resurrection
of Christ. So what did Paul mean then when
he said, you know, why are people baptized for the dead? Why are
you baptized for a person who has died and buried and rose
again if you don't even believe in the resurrection. Then why
were you baptized for the dead? Christ died and you were baptized
showing His death. He was buried and you were baptized
showing His burial. But you were also come up out
of the water symbolizing His resurrection. When they put you
in the water they didn't keep you there. They raised you. When Christ went to the grave,
He didn't stay there. God raised Him from the dead.
And that's what baptism has to do with. Paul said, in your baptism,
you show the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. And he said, if you don't believe in His resurrection,
then why are you baptized? Why are you baptized? That verse
is a little bit hard to get a hold of, but I think that's what he's
meaning by it. Look back over at our text again.
Look in verse 30. Here's something else. So he
uses the baptism. Their baptism is symbolic. If
you don't believe in Christ, then don't be baptized if you
don't believe in His resurrection because baptism signifies a resurrection. And then he says in verse 30,
And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? And he said to you,
If there is no resurrection of Christ, why in the world am I
putting myself in such peril and such danger almost on a daily
basis? Boy, he did, didn't he? Look
over here. Hold it again. Look in another
passage. Look over here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And look in verse 23. And look what this man suffered.
Look at the risk he took. The perils he endured. No wonder he said, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we're miserable. Verse 23 of
2 Corinthians 11. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool, speaking of these false apostles. I am more,
in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews, five times received
I forty stripes, save one. Three times was I beaten with
rods. Once was I stoned. Three times
I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been
in the deep, in journeyings often, in pearls of water, in pearls
of robbers, in pearls from my own countrymen, in pearls by
the heathen, in pearls in the city, pearls in the wilderness,
pearls in the sea, pearls among false brethren. in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and neckiness. Besides those things
are without that which comes upon me daily, the care of all
the churches." Man, look at the jeopardy this man put himself
in. The pearls endeared. And he said,
you are telling me there is no resurrection? Then why am I suffering
all of this? Why not just eat, drink, and
be merry like most of the world is doing? No, he said, there's
a cause for it. There's a reason. I've got a
hope that there's a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust. And look back over here in our
text again in 1 Corinthians 15 and 31. If after the banner of men I
have fought with beast at Ephius, what advantage it is me, if the
dead race not? Let us eat, drink, and be merry.
Let us eat, drink, for tomorrow we die." And I would paraphrase
this something like this, that surely as I suffer and endure these That's as sure
as I am that there's going to be a resurrection of the dead. Well, our life, brothers and
sisters, our life, our life in this life is just a trying thing. But if you could be convinced
in your heart, and I know what we say sometimes, I've heard
some dear brethren say, if it wasn't for A life to come. I'd
still serve the Lord anyway. I know what we say. But listen
now, let's be honest with each other. Are we really that way?
I mean, when the pearls... Who would put himself through
this just to come to the end of the way and say, this is it?
Man, I wouldn't do it, would you? I'm sorry. Maybe I just
ain't made up like a lot of people. I'm just a sorry character, that's
all I can say. I'm just being honest. And Paul
was being honest. He said, if that's the way it
is, if our Lord is still over there in Jerusalem in a tomb
somewhere, then let us eat, and let us drink, and let us be merry,
and let us live the life of ease, and dog eat dog, and get by the
best we can. and be happy as we can because
this life is the end. But that's not it, is it? That's
not it at all. He said, I protest by your rejoicing,
which I have in Christ Jesus. Paul said, I rejoice in you folks,
but just as surely as I rejoice over you in Christ. That's how
sure I am that there's a resurrection. And he made this statement in
verse 31, that I die daily. Let's look at that just for a
minute. I die daily. What did he mean
by this? He died daily. There have been
so many interpretations of this, but let's just look at it like
we think maybe he meant. We know one way he died daily. He said, man, I fought with men
as if they were beasts at Ephesus. I don't know if he ever had to
fight with beasts or not. Maybe he did. Men were fighting
with these beasts at this time. They had these arenas that they
would throw them into, and you fought. If you killed a beast
on their terms, then they set you free, called you a hero. I don't know if that happened
to this man or not. But sometimes in the Bible, people are called
beasts. The Cretans were called evil
beasts. The Lord Jesus referred to Herod
as a fox, didn't He? John the Baptist called them
vipers. Satan's called a roaring lion. Paul faced these enemies. Every day he faced them. And
every day he could have died. He laid his life on the line
every day. I die daily. Potentially, human
speaking, if the Lord don't uphold me and keep me in this world,
I'll be gone today. I'll be gone today. That's what
He's saying. I die daily. But you know, can't you and I
relate to this? How far are we from death? Don't we potentially
die every day? In a sense, they tell us when
we're born that we start dying. If our body didn't replenish
itself, We die because we're dying. We're dying. The body has to constantly replenish
itself. But think of this. We may be
in just as much peril as this man was, and we don't even know
it. We don't count our heartbeats
by the hour, do we? You can count them by the second. And we can potentially go at
any time. We can die before we leave this
building. These lungs can quit pumping
and we can die. Between here and where you and
I live, there's a thousand and one accidents, as we call it,
that could take place and kill us. Some enemy could see us and
shoot us or kill us. We die daily too, don't we? We
potentially die daily as you and I live in this world. Look
at it this way. We die daily this way. Portions
of our bodies already dead. Already dead. Like I said, if
it didn't replenish itself, we'd soon just die. We'd just keep
dying. We're dying before we die. We're
dying before the final stroke, aren't we? I'm 64 years old. 64 years of my life is already
gone. It's dead. It's gone. I'll never get it
back. My strength, my strength of youth and my middle age, it's
dead. It's gone. I'll never get it
back. Dreams that you have when you're young, how many have we
buried? Lost opportunities have breathed out their breath a long
time ago, haven't they? Many hopes, many comforts that
we entertained, They're gone. We buried them. We die daily
too, don't we? We die daily. There's a moral
sense, I think, in which the Apostle Paul died also. He said
this, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with its
affections and lust. Isn't there a passion in you
that has to die daily? Isn't there something that goes
out after this world that has to be crucified? Self-denial
every day. And in that self-denial, there's
a death to die. A crucifixion to be made. Is not dying to the flesh and
its cravings dying? Yes, it is. Fourthly, I think
the Apostle Paul would mean this. He was ready to die. every day
of his life, this man come to the conclusion that he was ready
to die. Here's what he said, I know whom
I have believed. I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. What did he commit? What had
he committed to the Lord? Everything. His salvation, his
life, his living, and his death. How he should die, when he should
die, why he should die, by whose hand. He faced this before he
ever got to death. He faced it. I think it takes grace to do
that. I've tried to do this myself. But I don't know what kind of
mental condition I'll be in when I come down to face death. But
I wish I could do like this man did. Face it before it get there. committed to the Lord. I'm dead
already in my own eyes. I live for His glory. I live
to do His will and His service. I'm facing death. I'm dead to
this world, dead to self, dead to family, dead to everything.
That's what he said. David said this when he was a
young man. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth, unto Thy hands I commit my spirit. That's what Christ said on the
cross, wasn't it? David said it while he was a young man.
I wish you and I could say that and die. But that's something
I guess we'd have to say daily. I die daily. Oh God, give us
grace. In verse 32, Paul fought with
these devils, these beasts, these men. And he says here in the last
portion of this, be not deceived, evil companionship corrupts good
habits, corrupts good manners. And what he's saying is this,
you got those of your friends that don't believe that Christ
raised from the dead, be careful about taking them as your bosom
buddies. Be careful who you hang out with and get too close to.
Hang out with those who have a good hope in Christ. That's
where you'll get strength. You may think, well, I'm going
to hang out with this fella, and I'm going to get to be bosom
buddies with him, and he believes in this false Christ who's still
in the grave. I'm going to be an influence
of it on him. You know what usually happens? It usually winds up
influencing you. Ain't that the way it usually
goes? Evil influences the good. That's the way it happens so
often. Come out from among them, Paul says, and be ye separate. There shall be a resurrection,
both of the just and the unjust. And there's a judgment, there's
a heaven, and there's a hell. And thank God that there's a
Christ who died and was buried and rose again, not for himself,
but for us. for us. Mr. Baker, would you
dismiss us?