Let us turn in our Bibles today
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. which also you have
received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, now that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last
of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles
that am not made to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. and his grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach, and so you believed. 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 is our preaching vain, and your
faith also vain. Yea, and we have 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 first fruits of them
that slept. Let's stop our reading here with
verse 20. When the Apostle Paul met with
the elders of the church at Ephesus, he was a prisoner on being taken
to Rome, and he was given permission to meet with the elders of the
church. And he warned them of these two
things. He warned them, first of all,
grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. In other words, he warned them
of outsiders coming in to the church, and they were wolves
in sheep's clothing, not sparing the flock, the people of God. And secondly, he warned that
there would be men among them which would speak perverse things. If you look here in verse 12
that we read just a moment ago, we see that already in the church
at Corinth. There were some in this church
who were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Notice that in verse
12. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you, how say some
among you that is here in this church at Corinth already some
grievous wolves had entered in Grievous wolves not sparing the
flock. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we, as long as we are in this world, are on dangerous
ground. And we must always be on the
lookout for false teaching that would be brought into the church. And not only false teachers who
would come into the church, but Among those who are in the church,
men would try to lead people after themselves, usually. That is the way it goes. It's pride, seeking preeminence,
something of that nature. But the point I'm making is,
so early on, after Paul had warned The church at Ephesus, actually
it was probably after this he warned the elders of the church
at Ephesus, but in the church at Corinth, there were already
some among them who were bringing in a teaching that is contrary
to the truth of the gospel, that is part of the gospel. If you
look back here in verses three and four, Paul said, for I delivered
unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now, no question,
that's the heart of the gospel. That's the heart of the gospel,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And he died as a substitute in
the place, in the stead of his chosen people. But that's not
all, is it? Because Paul goes on and he says,
and that he was buried, which we usually understand to prove
that he was dead. He didn't just faint or was in
some kind of a swoon or a coma or something like that and was
not really dead. No, he was dead. That was a penalty
for sin. death and to save his people,
his church, he had to die and pay that penalty for the sins
of his people. But he didn't stay dead. Yes,
he was buried and they made his grave, Pilate did, as secure
as was possible after rolling a stone over the mouth of that
cave, then sealing it, and then with guards there to stay. But
Christ came out of the grave. That stone was rolled away and
Christ came out of the grave. How he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. What does
it mean according to the scriptures? He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He rose according to the scriptures. Well, the scriptures, when Paul
wrote this, was the Old Testament. That's all they had then, right? The Old Testament. And in the
Old Testament, it had been prophesied from the Garden of Eden, actually. When sin first came into this
world, when Adam disobeyed God, God foretold that the seed of
the woman would bruise the head or crush the head of the serpent.
And then you follow that all the way through the Old Testament,
how that the Redeemer, the promised one, would die, would shed his
blood, would redeem his people. He died according to the scriptures. And it's important to see this
because so many people teach that he died for the whole world,
that he died for every single solitary person who's ever walked
on the face of God's earth. That's not according to the scriptures. When you follow through the law
that God gave to Moses and the types and pictures of his death,
It was for a particular people. That is, it was for the nation
of Israel that the high priest entered into the most holy place
and placed that blood on the mercy seat and before the mercy
seat. It was for the people, the nation
of Israel that God, that the high priest confessed over the
head of that scapegoat, the sins, not of the Amorites and the Philistines
and the All the other eyes, no, but the children of Israel. And
that was a picture. We know that. That was a type.
He died according to the scriptures. The scriptures had testified
from the very beginning how that the deliverer, that God promised
the Savior, the only Savior, that he would give his life,
he would shed his blood in the place and to redeem his chosen
people. And it was also pictured that
he would rise from the dead according to the scriptures. And I think
we see this when Abraham took his son Isaac. God had commanded
him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. And when you read through that,
I believe that's the 22nd chapter of Genesis, you see the three
days involved there. And it was on the third day that
Isaac was delivered. It was a picture, it was a type
of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan. You know, there's a controversy
among some people whether Satan is a real being. There's no controversy
among God's people. We believe the word of God. We
believe the scripture. And the scriptures tell us, yes,
Satan is a fallen angel. He's a real being. And he especially
attacks the truth about, first of all, the person of Christ.
The person. Who is he? Who is he? Men would tell us and Satan would
have us believe he was a good man. He really was. He was a great man. But that's
all. He was just a man. That's the
way Satan works, isn't it? No, he was a man, absolutely. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, yes. But he was more than a man, he
was God. God manifests in the flesh. And
Satan not only attacks his person, but he attacks his work. What
did he accomplish? Persuading man that yes, What
he did was good, but you've got to add your part. You've got
to add your part to make it effectual. You've got to do your part. God's
done his part, now you've got to do your part. No, when the
Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, he said, it is finished. And the work of redemption was
finished for his people. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Now, the resurrection of Christ. Luke tells us, we know Luke wrote
the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, but he tells us in the
first chapter of Acts that Christ showed himself alive after his
passion, that is after his death, Christ showed himself alive after
his passion by many infallible proofs. In other words, there
can be no question. These infallible proofs, the
Apostle Paul mentions several of them here in this chapter
we read just a moment ago. These witnesses, we won't go
back through them again, but through verses five through eight,
And Paul mentions the fact there were 500 that saw the Lord Jesus
Christ alive after his resurrection. And he says some of them are
still alive when he wrote this letter. In other words, look,
if you don't believe me, find some of these people. You can
still question them. You can still ask them. They're
still here. He showed himself alive by many
infallible proofs. To these disciples that he showed
himself, we know that they could touch him. He said, reach hither
the hand and place it on the mark where the nails had been. In other words, he had a body
that could be touched, that could be felt. He came out of that
grave, not just in spirit, the body that he was joined to as
God came out a resurrected body, a glorified body, but the same
body. The same body. And he said they
could touch him. John says they handled him. They
saw him eat. They were afraid. They thought
he was a spirit themselves at first, didn't they? He said,
do you have anything here to eat? Well, they didn't have a
big banquet, did they? They had some dried fish and
honeycomb. Those were the followers of Christ,
the disciples of Christ. I have to be careful. I'm tempted
to go off here. I'm tempted to go off the rail.
When I see the disciples of the Lord, what they had to eat, and
what these so-called preachers today claim to be followers of
Christ, the sumptuousness that they live with, the wealth that
they amass. No. People have followed Christ
out of love, not out of the things of this world. Like I said, I have to be careful.
But I want us this morning to think about four things. Four truths that his bodily resurrection
declares. Number one, His bodily resurrection
declares that he is God. He is the son of God. He declared this in the beginning
of his earthly ministry when he said, destroy this temple. And he was talking about his
body, this temple. That's what we live in, a temple
made of clay. He said, destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up. The resurrection of Christ,
as you look in the scriptures, the New Testament, you will see
that sometimes His resurrection is said to be the work of the
Father. And sometimes it's said to be the work of the Holy Spirit.
And sometimes it is said to be Christ raising Himself. For instance,
in Acts 10 and verse 34, We read him God raised up the third day
and showed him openly. In 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, for
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. So the Father raised him, the
Spirit quickened him, raised him to life, Our Lord raised
himself. In John chapter 10, when he's
speaking about himself as a good shepherd, he said, no man taketh
it, that is his life, no man taketh it from me. I lay it down
of myself. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. And he
did so. You say, well then, who raised
him? God did. God did. There's one God, but He exists
in a trinity of persons, doesn't He? Who raised Him from the dead? God did. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 1 and verse
4, we read, He was declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. His bodily resurrection declares,
first of all, that he is God. He is who he said that he is. He said, I and the Father are
one. One in essence. One in will,
the Father is eternal, so He is the eternal Son. The Father
is omniscient, so He is the omniscient Son. All the attributes that
we think of as attributes of God are true of Him as God, because
He is God. And His resurrection declares
that He is who He professed to be. I and my Father are one. I was speaking with a man just
recently who denies that Jesus is God. He said he's a prophet. He was a prophet, but no, not
God. I said, well, he said he's God. Did he lie? Did he lie? Oh, no, no, he didn't. Well,
how could he be a prophet if he says he's God and he's not
God? Oh, he's God, he's God. And his resurrection declares
it. Number two, the second thing, it declares, his resurrection
declares that God's people are no longer in their sins. No longer in their sins. One day, and this is recorded
in the eighth chapter of John, The Lord was speaking to some
religious leaders of the Jews, Pharisees, and he said this,
you shall die in your sins. You shall die in your sins. Someone said, well, doesn't everyone?
No, no. There are those who have the
Lord Jesus Christ as their representative, as their redeemer. who stood
as their surety, who bore their sins and his own body on the
tree. Then when he was raised from
the dead, Paul says in Romans 4, he was raised again for our
justification. Now the Lord Jesus told these
same men that he said, you shall die in your sins. He said this,
I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins, for
if you believe not that I am, if you believe not that I am,
if you do not believe that he is God, the eternal I am, the
same God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush, I am that
I am. If you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. Now, we live in such a lawless
age in society. People die in a lot of different
ways, in a lot of different places. But wherever you die, you must
not die in your sins. You must not die in your sins. If you die in your sins, that
means that throughout all eternity, you will suffer the just, righteous
wrath of God, the eternal wrath of Almighty God. If you die in
your sins, that's what's going to happen. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on the cross, we know from the word of God that there were two
other men crucified that day, two male factors, one on one
side and one on the other side. Now when you think about those
three crosses, those three men on the cross, and we know the
Lord Jesus Christ was on the middle cross, we know that from
the word of God. The man on the middle cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he died for sin. He died for the sins
of his people. He died for sin. It was foretold
of him, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity, the sins of
us all. The man on one cross died in
his sins. He was born a rebel, he lived
a rebel, and he died a rebel, and he died in his sins. There was another man on that
other cross who died free, free of sins, without sins. You say, how did that happen?
Because he looked unto the Lord, he called unto the Lord, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord
spoke to him, telling him, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. You see that, those three crosses?
One man died for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for the
sins of his people. One man died in his sins. He
was an unbeliever. Another man died without sin. His sin had been put away, been
taken away. When the Lord said, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise, what does that mean? That means
his sins were taken away. That has to be so. There's no
way he could enter into heaven if he had any sin left, if his
sins had not been put away. Look back with me just a moment
to Psalm 24. In Psalm 24, beginning with verse
three, we have this question, who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? That is to the house of God. We refer to it as heaven. Who's
going to heaven? Who's going to enter into paradise? Our Lord told that man, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? Notice, he that hath clean hands. Well, wait a minute, preacher.
That man, how could you say he had clean hands? He was a malfactor. He was a thief. No, he had been
a thief, but his sins had been put away, been washed away. He entered with clean hands.
He entered with clean hands, a pure heart. You mean to tell
me that that man had a pure heart? Absolutely. Absolutely, he did. Not in himself, but through the
person and work of Christ. In Christ, accepted in the beloved. He was accepted in Christ. Yes,
he had clean hands. Christ had clean hands. He never
did anything sinful. Yes, he had a pure heart. Christ
always loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his
mind. who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Yes, there was this man who died
for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. That other man died in his sin,
but one man, praise God, died without sin. God's amazing grace was displayed
at the cross, wasn't it? We sang that hymn a little while
ago, at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light.
At the cross, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not
talking about that wooden instrument upon which he was nailed. We're
talking about what took place there at the cross. the eternal
Son of God died to satisfy Almighty God and His justice. His amazing
grace was displayed at the cross by Christ bearing the sins of
many, and His grace was displayed in the Lord snatching one of
His chosen out of the very jaws of death. I mean, in the last
hours, the last day of His life, The Lord Jesus Christ, the dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I,
though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Yes, and God's justice
was displayed there at the cross, wasn't it? God punished the sins
of his people in his son. And that rebel, he died in his
sins. And God's justice is displayed. People like to blame God for
men going to hell. No, man's brought this upon himself. He's brought this upon himself.
It was man who sinned against God. Yes, one man was saved by grace. And it just comes back to the
Truth that we've stated many times, and you've heard it, you
believe it, I trust you know it. Everyone who is saved, we're
gonna give all, we give, we're not gonna do it, we do it, we
give all the glory, all the praise to God. And those that die in
their sins have no one to blame but themselves. No one. The third thing, it declares
that those who die in the Lord are not perished. Since Christ is raised from the
dead, then those fallen asleep in Christ are not perished. We read that here in verse 18
of 1 Corinthians 15. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished, if there be no resurrection.
Since Christ is raised from the dead, then those fallen asleep
in Christ are not perished, have not perished. You know, Christ,
along with other New Testament writers, they use that word sleep
when speaking of the death of a believer. When Lazarus died, for instance,
in John chapter 11, I love these words when our Lord spoke to
his disciples and he said, our friend Lazarus has died. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.
I frantalize with sleep. Nobody's afraid of sleep. We
welcome sleep, don't we? A weary man, he welcomes sleep. No believer, no child of God
should be afraid of death. Why? Because for the believer,
it is spoken of as sleep. Paul did this in 1 Thessalonians
4 when he said, I would not that you be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which have fallen asleep. They haven't perished. This body,
this tabernacle in which we've lived, we come into this world
in this tabernacle and we know in the beginning it was made
from the dirt of the ground and it's going to lay in the grave
just like it was sleeping and it's going to turn back to dust,
but the soul, soul doesn't sleep, to depart, Paul said, to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. Amen, that's right. I've never experienced it, of
course, so I can't speak from experience, but from the word
of God, when a believer breathes that last breath, have you ever
watched someone breathe? Not someone die, rather. Now
that last gasp, I mean they're laboring and breathing and then
there comes a point they seem to stop and you say they're gone
and then there's one last gasp for breath when a believer dies. That last breath. No doubt we
open our eyes immediately in the presence of Christ. To depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. One last thing. The resurrection of Christ declares
that we live because he lives. You see, he is our life. He is
our life. And we try to illustrate it like
this. He said, because I live, you
shall live. That's what he told his disciples
in John 14. Because I live, you shall live.
Now, my head is alive. So is my little finger. It's
alive. Christ is our head. And we believers are members
of his body, the church. And because he lives, the head
lives, and because we're in union with him, we live. We have eternal life and shall
never die. He said, whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Someone pointed out one time
that a person can drown in just a few inches of water. That's
true, isn't it? But as long as the head stays
above the water, ain't going to be no drowning.
Just not going to happen. And the head, Christ, is alive
and alive forevermore. And if you're in union with Him
today by faith on your part and He's in you by His Holy Spirit,
you shall never die. Never. Well, may the Lord bless
His word to those here today.