If you will, open your Bibles
with me today to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to speak to us today from
the last verse in this chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse
58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord." My message today will
consist in dividing this text into four divisions. The first
division is simply, therefore. And the second division is, my
beloved brethren. The third division, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And lastly,
for as much as you know, that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. So first, therefore, The directions which the rest
of the verse contain are given because of the therefore. Therefore, because of this, then
do this. Someone has said, and it's often
repeated, but when you see therefore in the scripture, Find out what
it's there for. Because this is true, because
this is so, therefore, do this. That's the way we'll look at
it. Because these things are true, therefore, do these things. Now, the Apostle Paul, like every
writer of the scripture, was divinely inspired by God the
Holy Spirit in the things which he wrote. The Bible is God-breathed. That's what the word inspiration
means. God-breathed. And Paul had said
many truths all through the first 14 chapters of 1 Corinthians. When he wrote the Scripture,
of course, it wasn't divided into chapters and verses like
we have it today. And I'm thankful that the Bible
is divided into chapters and verses because it makes it much
easier for us to find certain places. If I had a big scroll
here today and just rolled it out like this and said, now we're
looking almost to the end of this scroll here, almost to the
end, it would be difficult, wouldn't it, to find our places, but since
it's divided into chapters and verses, it makes it much easier
for us. But we're not going to look at
all of the truths that the Apostle Paul has given thus far before
he says, therefore, but I do have seven truths that I want
us to look at in this chapter, chapter 15. Because these things
are true, these seven things are true, therefore do this. The first thing that is true,
because by the gospel you are saved, therefore. If you look back in the first
few verses of this chapter, verses one through three, 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 you are saved, if you 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, how 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. Because by the gospel, these
to whom the apostle wrote this letter, because by the gospel
you are saved, therefore, the gospel Paul preached in Corinth,
He took the gospel here as he did to many places. And they
received the gospel. Now, that word received, notice
that in verse two. By which also you are saved. No, it's in verse one. The gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received. That word received helps us to
understand what we mean by faith. When the jailer asked Paul and
Silas, brethren, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Well, what
does that mean? to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This word received, Paul says
you receive the gospel. That helps us to understand what
it means to believe in Christ, to have faith in Christ, to be
saved by faith in Christ. When we receive him, we receive
him in these two ways. First of all, we receive him
as Lord. That's what it means to believe
in Christ, to trust in Christ. It means to receive him as your
Lord. First of all, as your Lord, to
become a disciple, to become a learner, to become a follower,
to become obedient unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people confess
to believe in Christ, but they do not obey Christ. That's a
false faith. Faith receives Him as Lord, first
of all. And I say Lord, first of all,
because this is the way we always find these two things in the
Word of God, Lord and Savior. First, Lord. You've heard me
mention Rolf Barnard many times. I remember him many times in
preaching would make a statement something like this. Tell me
who your Lord is. Tell me who your Lord is. Don't
tell me who your Savior is. Tell me who your Lord is. Who
is the Lord of your life? Have you submitted unto Him to
be ruled by Him? to obey Him, to follow Him, to
learn of Him. This word receive, we receive
Him first as our Lord. Up to that point, we've been
calling the shots, so to speak. We've been in charge of our life,
and we will do what we want to do. We will please ourselves. Don't talk to me about denying
self and taking up the cross and following Christ. No, when
we receive him, we receive him as Lord. He becomes the king
of our life. And number two, we receive him
as savior. And that simply means to trust
him, to trust his blood, to take away our sins, That one sacrifice
that he offered for sins, as the apostle says here, that he
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Christ died for
the sins of his people. Now let that sink in. He was punished for the sins
of his people. He satisfied God's justice for
the sins of his people. That means that God will never
come to you if you're one of his children, if you trust in
him and look for satisfaction from your sins, for your sins
rather, from you. Why? Because he's already settled
that score. Christ has as a substitute. He died in our place. He paid
for our sins. And I want you to notice Paul
uses the present tense when he talks about being saved. He says,
by which you are saved. And this is important because
religion, false religion, Many times teaches that a person cannot
know if they're saved or not saved, that they will never know
until they leave this world and stand before God, and then it
will be determined according to their works always, always
according to works, if a person is saved or not saved. No, Paul
said you are saved. When you receive Christ as your
Lord and Savior, you believe in Him, trust in Him, you are
saved. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is Christ is born of God. You know, in John, let me read
you this verse in John chapter one, these verses actually, but
you're familiar with them. In John chapter one and verses, Ten, he was in the world and
the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came
unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received
him. There's that word receive again,
isn't it? Some of my sovereign grace brethren
don't like that word receive for some reason. I don't know
why. It's a Bible word. You receive Christ if you're
saved. When you are saved, you receive
him as your Lord. You receive him as your Savior. Paul says here, but as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. That word power. means right
or the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name. These to receive and to believe
may be used interchangeably as they are there, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. You receive Christ, you trust
in him, Receive Him as your Lord and Savior, and what do you know?
You know that you have been born again, born of the Spirit of
God, and that you are saved today. In other words, if Christ were
to come right now, or if you were to go out into eternity
right now, just now, if you breathe your last in this world, If you
have received Christ, He has given unto you everlasting life. This body, this tent in which
we live, it'll fall, it'll be turned back to the dust, but
you yourself as a child of God have everlasting life to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. So that's the
first thing. by the gospel you're saved, therefore. The second thing, because there
is a union between Christ and believers, therefore. Notice that in verses 12 through
16. Paul says, 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 is vain. Because there's a union between
Christ and believers, that if you deny the resurrection of
Christ, then there will not be a resurrection of believers. If you deny the resurrection
of believers, then Christ is not risen. Now, how is that so? Because of the union. Because
of the union which exists between Christ and his people. And I
would try to illustrate it like this. If you were in a building that
was burning and you were going to perish, If someone came to your rescue,
a fireman, and saved you, he would save all of you, wouldn't
he? You wouldn't just say, well, he saved my head. No, he saved
you. You wouldn't just say, well,
he saved my body. No, he saved you. Christ is our
head, and we are members of his body. There's a union which exists. It is an eternal union that exists
between God and His chosen people. Because there's a union between
you and Christ, if you're one of His children today, therefore,
therefore. And third, because Christ is
every believer's representative, our federal head. Therefore,
verse 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. Just as Adam represented all,
all men, all who are in Adam, he represented. And when Adam
died, we died in him. All men died in him. And because
all that are in Christ, because he lives, because he represented
those that are in him, then we live also. That's true both physically,
that's the way it's being used here in this chapter, speaking
about the resurrection of the body. But it's also true spiritually,
that all that Christ represented received life. He's the firstfruits
of them that slept. A fourth reason, because the
end is coming, therefore, in verse 24. Then cometh the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath
put down, put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. Because the end is coming. And
this end here is speaking of the end of his mediatorial kingdom. That the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God man, he's reigning today. All power He said, He's given
unto me. As God, He has always, as the
Son of God, He's always had all power. He's always reigned, ruled
everywhere as God. But as the God-man, He was given
a kingdom, and He is the king over His kingdom. Remember He
told Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. Oh, but His kingdom
is real. But one day, When the end comes
here, he's going to deliver up this kingdom unto the Father,
and God shall be all in all, the scripture says. And because
that's true, therefore. Number five, because God has
promised believers a glorious resurrection. Look at what he
says in verse 42. Because God has promised believers
a glorious resurrection, therefore, verse 42, so also is the resurrection
of the dead. It is sown in corruption. The body, the house that we lived
in for however many years, God gave us life in this world. Just
as soon as the spirit departs, The body itself begins to corrupt. It begins to go back to the dust,
doesn't it? It's so when we bury the body
of our loved ones, we bury that body in corruption. Oh, but when it's raised, it's
going to be raised in incorruption. It's going to be like the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ, His resurrected body. It is sown
in corruption, is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. Body as honorable as physical body,
the physical body in which we live, just as soon as we die,
all that honor is gone. It's sown, it's buried in dishonor,
the body is. But when it's raised, it's raised
in glory. It's sown in weakness. You never
have seen a corpse carry its own casket out to the cemetery
and let itself down in the ground, have you? No, it's sown in weakness. Paul Bearers, we need someone
to help us. Undertaker, we need someone to
help us to bury our body. Why? Because we have no strength,
it's dead. It's sown in weakness, but it's
raised in power. It's sown a natural body, but
it's raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body. That's what the Lord has promised
you as one of his children. One day, your body, if you die
before he comes, it's going to be buried, going to be put out
of sight. You know, Abraham, we're all
familiar with Abraham. His wife was named Sarah. She
must have been a very, very beautiful woman. You know the story. You know the story. Abraham had
her lie twice, telling those kings that she was his sister
because she was so beautiful that Abraham was afraid that
they would take her and kill him. But you know what? The day came when she died. And
what did Abraham say? He asked the sons of Heth to
sell him that cave that he might bury his dead out of his sight. A beauty that turned to decay. God has promised us a glorious
resurrection, a body like unto his that will shine like the
sun, the scripture says. Shine in glory. Therefore, and
then a sixth thing, because the Lord is coming again. We see
that in verse 51 and 52. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye. at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we
shall be changed. You might say, well, preacher,
it doesn't say anything there about the Lord Jesus coming again. No, it doesn't. But if you look
at 1 Thessalonians chapter four and verse 16 and compare the
last trump What's going to happen? For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again. He could come today. He could
come today. But he will come on God's time. Whatever day God fixed in eternity,
for the return of his son, He's going to come, whether men believe
it or look for Him or anything else. He's going to come again
because He said He would. If I go away to prepare a place
for you, I will come again. Yes. Therefore, because the Lord
Jesus Christ is coming again. And then one last thing, because
Christ gives us the victory. Therefore, he gives us the victory
over death. We don't have to fear death,
why? Because he's gone before us. He's taken the sting out
of death. We don't have to fear the grave,
why? Because he came out of the grave. We don't have to fear
the law, the law which says, this do and thou shalt live. And if you offend in any point,
you shall be punished. But we don't have to fear the
law. Why? Because he obeyed the law in
our place and in our stead. Sin, we don't have to fear sin
anymore because he has saved us from our sins. Therefore, now the second point,
my beloved brethren, you see that word love? in the word beloved, and all of the questions that
I'm going to ask just now, they are all answered by that one
word, love. Why? Why is anyone saved? Are you saved today? Why is anyone
saved? Why were believers chosen in
Christ for him to be their head, their representative? Why were you chosen and put in
union with Christ from before the foundation of the world? Why has Christ given us the victory
over death? over the grave, over sin and
death and hell. Why? It's all answered, isn't
it, in that one word, love. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son, his only begotten
son, to be the propitiation for our sins. And all of these questions
are all answered with that one word, love, the love of God. It all begins with God's love.
All the blessings, they all flow out of his love for his people. Now the third part, be you steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. This begs the question, what
is the work of the Lord? If we are to abound, if we are
to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, what is the work of the Lord? I want you to turn back
with me to Acts chapter 13. There's a lot of things and a
lot of people that talk about they're in the work of the Lord,
they're doing the work of the Lord, but what is the work of
the Lord? Well, here in Acts chapter 13,
this took place in the church at Antioch. We read, now there
were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger and Lucius
of Cyrene and Manin, which had been brought up with Herod the
Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul
for the work whereunto I have called them. the work of the,
what is the work of the Lord? The Holy Spirit separated Paul,
the Apostle Paul and Barnabas from this church that they might
do the work, the work of the Lord. And if you look in chapter
14, after they had finished on, this was their first missionary
journey, Paul's first missionary journey, Verse 26 of chapter
14 says, and thence they sailed to Antioch from whence they had
been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they
fulfilled. What is the work of the Lord?
The work of the Lord is preaching the gospel. It's preaching the
gospel. And every child of God, we all
have a part in preaching the gospel. That's
the reason he said, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord. It's not just the
preacher. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And you notice here, back in
chapter 13 of Acts, verses one and two, Verse three tells us that, and
when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them,
they, that is the church, these leaders of the church, they sent
them away. They sent Paul and Barnabas away. But then notice the next verse,
so they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed. And
if you read through chapters 13 and 14, you see they did the
work of the Lord. They went from place to place
preaching the gospel. They went forth preaching the
gospel. That's the work of the Lord. It's also called the work
of the ministry. And Ephesians chapter four and
verse 12. That doesn't mean that every
child of God is to be a prophet, that every child of God is to
be an evangelist or pastor or teacher, but all, it does mean
that all, every believer is a witness. Our Lord told His disciples before
He ascended back to the Father, to tarry in Jerusalem until they
received power from on high to be witnesses unto Him. Now, most of the time when we
hear that word witness, we think, well, that means to talk to someone
about the Lord Jesus. Well, that's true. That is witnessing,
but that's not what the Lord said. He just said, you're going
to be a witness unto me. And every child of God, we witness,
we witness every day in our life when tragedy or Something unforeseen
comes upon you, the way you deal with it, the way you handle that,
your witness to Christ, your conversation, the way you talk. We witness of Christ doesn't
just mean to speak of him. It does mean that, but it means
much more than that. The way we live, our speech,
our confidence, Our confidence and our priorities
all enable us to witness unto him. Is coming to the worship
service important to you? You witness by showing that it
is important to you to hear the gospel, the fellowship with the
people of God. You are a witness unto Christ
and giving when we give. We're being a witness unto Christ
as the gospel goes out. The last thing the apostle says
here in this verse, for as much as you know that your labor's
not in vain in the Lord. Now the only reason that can
be so, and it is so, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I
know sometimes we get discouraged and we think, well, What's the
use? You know, it seemed like nothing's
happening, nothing's going on. What's the use? Your labor is
not in vain in the Lord. Why? That's true because God
is absolutely sovereign in all things. He's working his counsel
out according to his will. It's God, the scripture says,
who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Think of this verse in Isaiah.
He says, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper
in the thing whereto I send it. God sends his word out, and when
he does, it always accomplishes his purpose. Every time, just
like this morning, as the gospel is being preached, the gospel
is a saver of life unto some, and it is a saver of death unto
others. That's the way it always is.
Every time the gospel is preached. Every place the gospel is preached. God's Word doesn't return unto
him void. Years ago, reading the life of
Charles Spurgeon, one of the things that they told that had
taken place in his ministry, you know, if you've ever lived
in a third world country, you know that they don't waste anything. You know, poor folks have poor
folks ways. They don't waste anything. When
you go to the store here and buy something, they put it in
a pretty package, you know, and all of that. Well, in a third
world country or a poor country, they'll use yesterday's newspaper,
wrap it up in that. You go to the market and buy
some salt, they'll tear you off a little. They've got the pages
cut, you know, they use everything. Well, Mr. Spurgeon, they used
to have a, stenographer would come to his services and take
down his message and the next day it'd be printed in the paper,
in two of the London papers. And someone one day took a page
out of that paper, just happened to have his sermon, and they
wrapped something up and put it on a ship and sent it to Brazil. That's a long way. That's a long
way from England, isn't it? You know someone in Brazil opened
up that package, they start looking, what do they have? They have
the message of Christ, the gospel. God has so many different ways,
and he's working continually. We can't always see it, but we
know this by faith that God is working, Our work in the Lord
will never be in vain. Don't be discouraged. Don't feel like quitting and
giving up. I know sometimes everyone does,
but we shouldn't. Why? Because your work, your
labor in the Lord is not in vain, never will be in vain. Let me
tell you one more story. This was something that happened
to two men in our church. recently. They go out to the
park. You know, we have Article 1 of
our Constitution guarantees us free speech, doesn't it? And
that's a great blessing. But you know, you don't have
freedom to preach the gospel everywhere here in Houston, in
public places. And so two of our men, they go
out to the park. And they've got a place, they've
told me, they kind of moved them way off out there and left field
so nobody would see them, you know. And they can stand there,
they've just got a certain area, they can stand there and they
can preach. And, of course, people coming
by, and recently they were, one was preaching, one was giving
out tracts, and this man came by and he took a tract and he
walked on a ways and then he turned around and came back And
he asked this question. He said, why are you giving out
a tract by J.C. Rall? And they said, because he preached
the gospel. The tract preaches the gospel.
He said, you know, he said, I'm originally from India. And I
translated, for banner of truth, I translated two of J.C. Rall's books to be printed in
India. And he said, you've got other
tracks there by Arthur Pink. Let me take some of these, and
I'm going to use them to make other copies. And I assume he's
going to take those copies back to India. God is going to find
his people. He's got a people in this world
that he loves, that he chose, that Christ redeemed and he is
going to cross their path somewhere between the cradle and the grave
with the gospel. And that's a wonderful thing
that we have, you have a part in that. If that man takes those
tracts or that tract back to India and gives them out, prints
them, you have a part in that. by your giving, because the tracts
they give out, the church furnishes them. One of the greatest blessings,
as a pastor, I feel like our church was ever given, is when
Brother Cliff Heller was publishing or having the Bible, which he
had translated, printed, And our church got to help in paying
for that. That was one of the greatest
blessings. Only eternity will reveal how
God has used this church. So let's never get discouraged. Let's keep on keeping on, as
the old preacher used to say. Keep on keeping on. And let's
trust God and believe God for great things. William Carey,
missionary, Baptist missionary to India, remember that was his
saying. Trust God for great things, attempt
great things for God. May the Lord bless His word to
all of us here today.