Resurrection Q&A - [1 Corinthians 15:29-49]

Well, at Theological Seminary, they said you always need an introduction to get people's interest and secure them, so today is no different.

My introduction is, we're going to talk about the passage that discusses baptism on behalf of the dead.

Let's open our Bibles. First Corinthians, Chapter 15. If you're a visitor here today, we love it that you're here.

We're preaching verse by verse by verse through the Bible. And so we come to First Corinthians, Chapter 15,

Verse 29. As we just sequentially, consecutively, see what the

God of the universe has revealed to us in His Scriptures. Paul has been telling these struggling

Corinthians. He's been telling them that theology matters. What you believe about God is important because what you believe is hooked with, hooked together with what you do, your behavior.

What you believe, credenda in Latin, is hooked to your agenda, what you do. Doctrine, duty, creed, conduct.

And so it's no different for Paul here, except that he's dealing with the issue of thinking.

He's not correcting behavior in Chapter 15, he's correcting what they believe.

And so some of the Corinthians, for some reason, don't believe there's any such thing as a resurrection.

They don't think that everybody's body will be raised from the dead to stand before God for an accounting.

And Paul says early in Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4, listen, you have to believe in a resurrection because Jesus was raised from the dead.

Christ, the Messiah, died for our sins, was buried according to the

Scriptures. He was raised, appeared to many according to those very same

Scriptures. And so Paul now moves into Verses 29 and following, and he continues to not harp on the idea of what if you deny the resurrection, but he gives more truths and realities that if you deny the resurrection, there is big problems.

And we'll see later in the sermon how this applies to our very lives.

So what we'll do for an outline, I think probably found in Verses 29 through 34, four resurrection realities.

Since resurrection is true, these things need to be considered. And so I think we'll probably get through about three of them today.

That's a very fascinating thing to preach two sermons because then I have to end this morning with you where I ended with the first service.

And so that's kind of a fun thing to do, try to figure it out. I won't call them guinea pigs or anything, but we want to stay on track.

I've also noticed that my font keeps changing because I have to increase it from 11 to now 12 and to now 13 font.

And I have my reading glasses here too, and this bright light, and these. And so I believe that I want a resurrected body.

That's what I believe. But actually, that's next sermon. So let's get to the first truth. The first reality of the resurrection,

I'll put them in positive forms, although Paul is still going to spin them negatively. If you deny the resurrection, what about this?

But let me put them positively. Number one, first resurrection reality. Verse 29, since the resurrection is true, don't be surprised that people baptize others on behalf of the dead.

Since the resurrection is true, don't be surprised when Mormons baptize people on behalf of the dead.

That shouldn't be a great shock. Let's read the verse, verse 29. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

Now, we come to this passage, and it's a debatable passage. There are 42, at least that I know of, 42 different ways to interpret this passage.

I'm not going to give you all 42. My wife said to me, honey, are you going to give them all 42? No, I don't even know all 42.

But I want to give you a few of them, and we have to think through this issue, not to just say, oh, it's debatable, we don't know what was going on, because it really does matter.

Every verse matters, but particularly this one in our context today. Just let me give you a few options of what this could mean.

First thing it could mean is that you actually baptize dead people, that the dead are baptized, physically deceased people are baptized.

Chrysostom said that some bizarre procedures were happening with the Marcionite dissenters.

They baptized people who have died. Now, think about this big picture. If you believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, founded on scriptures alone.

Baptism, of course, it's still important, command by the Lord Jesus Christ, believe and be baptized. But if you believe that you've got to be baptized, like some believe, to go to heaven, it even becomes more important to you, because you say,

I've got a friend who died. They haven't been baptized. I want them to go to heaven. And so this first view says, these people weren't baptized.

We believe, not Paul, but we, these dissenters, believe they've got to be baptized to go to heaven.

We better baptize their dead bodies. So they go. That's the first option.

Marcionites also did something very close to this. And what they would do is, a person would have died, and they wouldn't have been baptized.

And so they would be laying on a table or something elevated, and a live person would lay underneath them.

Underneath the person that had died, and then the leader of the church would say to the dead body, do you wish to be baptized?

Well, the dead person can't say anything. So the live person underneath would say, yes,

I wish to be baptized. And then the body was baptized. I have been in hospitals before with dear

Christian people, as they have lost their little tiny babies. And I've had a nurse at St.

Vincent's, kindly, with a good heart, and she was tearing her eye, come over to me with her hand like this, and I just received it and put it in my hand and walked away.

And I looked at it, and my hand contained a scallop shell, beautiful scallop shell.

And then it dawned on me, these babies in this person's mind haven't been baptized, and so they need to have their sin gone.

Here is the scallop shell to contain the water, so I could go baptize the bodies of the babies. There's another option here, not baptizing the dead bodies themselves.

But the second option, I think it's MacArthur's option, is that people who are alive now would watch a saint, and they would watch a saint excel in the

Lord. Just think of somebody in your life who you've seen just run the race well.

A Hebrews chapter 11 race by the grace of God, running well.

And you've watched that person. Those people's lives can influence you. And if you weren't a believer and you watched a saint, maybe your grandma or your grandpa, or somebody in the church, and you just really respected them, even though you're not a believer, you watched them finish the race well.

You watched them as Tertullian would say, or Wesley would go on to say, Christians die well. And they died.

And then you thought, you know what? Christianity has to be true. These people have run this race in spite of all kinds of odds, and suffering, and trials, and afflictions.

They've ran the race well by the grace of Christ Jesus the Lord. And even though I'm an unbeliever now,

Lord, grant me faith, because in light of what they've done, in light of their confession, in light of what that dead person has done,

I want to believe and I want to be baptized. Following in the footsteps of those faithful Christians who have died.

And so the response to that exemplary life or faithful influence, as one person says, they want to get baptized.

Well, another option is a dead describes the spiritual state of the person.

Dead describes the spiritual state of the person. All of us are dead in trespasses and sins when we were believers.

And so this describes a person's pre -baptismal condition. As I said this morning, first service, it didn't go over very well, but I said that view just doesn't hold much water.

Option four, this is a very popular view, maybe the most popular. This is the

Mormon view, by the way, vicarious baptism. Notice the text in verse 29, on behalf of the dead.

So a person has died. Still these groups believing that you have to be baptized to go to heaven.

It's not Christ's finished work on Calvary, his perfect life, his perfect death confirmed by the resurrection, and faith as a non -meritorious instrument.

It's, you know, you've got to be baptized to be going to heaven. We know people that haven't been baptized, so I will get baptized in their place, vicariously, by proxy.

I'll be baptized for them. This is a very popular view.

Now, in the middle of all this, I want to remind you, congregation, Paul isn't saying this is a good thing to do.

He's actually using language, do you see it in verse 29? What do people mean? Look at the end of verse 29.

Why are people being baptized? And then he switches in verse 30, why are we in danger?

These people have baptisms on behalf of dead. We don't. He's not saying this is a good idea.

He's describing what's going on. And there were some people around Corinth who did, in fact, baptize people by proxy.

We want people to go to heaven. They need to be washed. We think the washing comes from water instead of the washing of the

Word on the inside. Let's baptize on behalf of the dead by proxy. Paul doesn't express approval.

He believes in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. Romans 4,

Paul writes elsewhere, for what does the scriptures say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Paul believes in salvation by faith. The thief on the cross wasn't baptized and he was in heaven.

Baptism is important, but after belief. My particular view, which is an

Orthodox view, or I guess if it was an Orthodox, I wouldn't hold it. That's, by the way, one of the things you want to do when you study the

Bible is at the very end, after you get your view, you check it. Because if you're the only person in the universe that has this view, then you possibly might be right.

But most likely you're not. My view is simply this. Paul realizes that some pagans baptize on behalf of the dead.

And Paul is saying in his argument, listen, the resurrection is true. Not only has Jesus been raised from the dead, there's something even in the warp and woof of a pagan who realizes,

I'm standing before God one day. God has sent eternity in our hearts and we realize that when we die, we're going to stand before God on that great day.

Pagans even know that. That's what Paul is saying. He wants the deniers to answer the question, if the resurrection isn't true, why do pagans even do it?

Now, of course, pagans do some things that only pagans do for no good reason, but here it's just a spillover. Since the resurrection is true, you shouldn't be surprised that anyone, let alone

Mormons, baptize on behalf of the dead. It's big news now.

How could anybody ever vote for somebody that believed in that wacky thing? Right, when you hear baptism on behalf of the dead, what do you think, honestly?

I'll tell you what I think. Baptizing dead people. This is about as weird as you can get.

By the way, you should see all your faces right now. So far, no one's sleeping. Mormontopics .org,

official LDS site, I quote, God has provided a way for everyone to receive and accept baptism, even if they do not have an opportunity.

Jesus taught that baptism is an essential gateway to heaven, see John 3 .5. This often prompts the age -old question of what happens to the billions of people who have never had that opportunity.

Mormons believe the answer lies in the doctrine of the baptism for the dead, a practice of early Christians, see 1

Corinthians 15 .29. But lost to the modern Christian world, for those who have died without the opportunity to hear, understand, and accept the full gospel of Jesus Christ, proxy baptism offers the opportunity of eternal life with God.

Baptisms for the dead are not an indication of God's love for all his children. No, they are, it is rather, excuse me.

A proxy baptism is an offering only. Such a gesture cannot make a person a member of any particular church or a

Christian in the next life. A person who has died retains the right in the next life to make choices and is free to accept or reject the baptism.

So, we have good motives, allegedly. We want people to go to heaven. These people haven't been baptized, will get baptized for them.

And by the way, with good semi -Pelagianism still intact, they get to decide afterwards.

I was so interested this week to talk to Pastor Steve Cooley. He is an ex -Mormon elder.

I asked him a question I've never asked him before. I thought I should have asked him the question, but I never thought about this passage very much.

I just thought it was some debatable passage and skip over it. I asked Pastor Steve, how many times were you baptized, proxy baptism, on behalf of the dead?

I don't know if this is going to increase Steve's stature in your eyes or decrease it, but he was a pagan when he did it.

So, it's under the blood, as we like to say in Christianity. Not once, not twice, not three times, but 25 times.

Twenty -five times, Pastor Steve was dunked and then he got saved and he got baptized the first time, the only time as a believer.

So, 26 times. See? Steve's going to be the greeter at the door on the way out.

We want people to go to heaven. We're not trying to be mean if you've got to be baptized to go to heaven, which again is false.

That's a work. That's not grace. Then let's baptize on behalf of other people.

Dr. Ironside said in his book, Random Reminiscences, a discussion he had with a young Mormon elder, and that young Mormon elder said that the members of the

Mormon church were saving more souls through being baptized for the dead than Jesus Christ ever saved through dying on Calvary's cross.

It related one particular lady who got baptized for Alexander the Great, Nebuchadnezzar, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Cleopatra, and 30 ,000 other people.

The elder said to Ironside, I believe in the day of judgment, it will be proven that this lady, being baptized through being baptized for the dead, has saved more souls through being baptized for the dead than Jesus Christ.

Well, since 1840, the Latter -day Saints have been baptizing on behalf of the dead. Is it any wonder that your belief determines your behavior and then you say, we ought to do a lot of work genealogically?

Of course, they're into genealogies because they have baptized the founding fathers of the U .S., all U .S.

presidents, Pope John Paul II, John Wesley, Christopher Columbus, and Adolf Hitler.

It should be no surprise that in 2008, the Roman Catholic Church, the

Vatican Congregation for Clergy, said, stop sending our microfilm and our digitized information through diocese to the

Latter -day Saints. So now, let's think about this for a second, super practical.

If you want me to use this pulpit as a bully pulpit for voting,

I'm not going to do that. If I catch you, I'm going to make sure I smile when I say this, if I catch you handing out voter registrations guide in this building, if I know you really well,

I'll probably give you a knuckle sandwich. If I don't know you very well, I'll say,

I'm sorry, this isn't about that because the king of the universe is going to be on the throne November 8th, 9th, 10th, and we will submit to the sovereign

God and only three votes count anyway, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and they all vote for the same person. And the

Messiah is not going to be elected in November, neither will the Antichrist be.

I mean, the list goes on. This is not about voting issues. But I'm not afraid of social issues and moral issues.

And for you to say this, what do I do about voting for someone, this is in the news, who believes in baptism for the dead?

How can I believe in such a loon who believes that? So I want you to think through it and then you cast your vote the way you'd like to, but here's the way

I want you to think through it. Consider this, you've got one party that MacArthur calls the party that now runs on Romans 1, evil is good and good is evil.

Abortion is good and homosexuality is righteous. They run on a

Romans 1 platform. They don't even know what's right and wrong. Romans chapter 13 basically says, if you're in government, you need to know the difference between right and wrong, and if you don't, you can't govern.

For the rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is a servant of God, the government, an avenger who carries out

God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So what you've got to do is you've got to think to yourself if you're the voting kind.

I've got one party that denies right and wrong, good is evil and evil is good.

But I can't vote for this other person because they're believing in some kind of loony bin deal baptizing for the dead.

Listen, you vote for who you want. But this other party who has

Mormon background, they believe there's going to be a resurrection of the dead and a payday one day because if they didn't believe it, they wouldn't be baptizing dead people.

People ask me the question, can I vote for someone who believes in baptism for the dead? If you'd like to, vote as you'd like.

But at least that person believes in the resurrection. You say, well, I don't want you to talk about politics.

Okay, I'm done. I won't talk about it again. People that baptize other people who are on behalf of the dead realize there is a right, there is a wrong, and these people are going to stand before God and I want them to stand before God properly.

Now, Mormonism is a cult. They deny grace. They deny Christ -exclusive salvation.

But they are pagans who realize there is a resurrection. Positively, all this discussion of baptism, let me ask you the question, do you believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ? And if so, have you been baptized? You could say, well, all this talk about politics and this kind of loony stuff,

I don't think that should be your discussion until you've said, in light of the grace of God in my life, I've had great guilt.

God's grace has been greater in the person of Christ Jesus. And out of gratitude and obedience, I'm going to be baptized while I'm alive.

All right. Point number two, since the resurrection is true, live your life with fearless faith, not faithless fear.

The resurrection is true. So, don't be surprised when people baptize dead people on behalf of the dead.

Secondly, this is what describes Paul. This is what is in Paul's mind.

You ever want to know why a person ticks? This is why Paul ticks, because he realizes who

Jesus is, his resurrection, Christ, and now Paul's own. By the grace of God, Paul is going for it.

To put negatively, if the resurrection isn't true, then hold yourself up in a cave.

But since the resurrection is true, go evangelize, go preach, risk your life for the sake of the gospel, verse 30.

Now, he talks about himself here, distancing himself from verse 29. Why are we in danger every hour?

By the way, if there's no resurrection, why do this? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which

I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I die every day. If resurrection isn't true,

Christianity isn't true, why get eaten by cannibals in the New Hebrides island? Why go there?

Can you imagine John Payton and his wife, and I don't know if the baby was born yet, or they had the small son, and they show up on the shores of Cannibal Island, not speaking the language?

For what reason? They had the notion, the biblical notion, that every one of these people made in the likeness and image of God cannot be saved, except they hear

Romans chapter 10, and we've got to give them that, and if it costs us our life, it costs us our life.

Why didn't Jim Elliott and the other men on that airplane, who landed on the sandbar in Ecuador area, not use their guns to kill the people who are going to slay them, and did slay them with that spear that's over in Gloucester right now at Elizabeth Elliott's house?

Because Jim Elliott knew that if I die, I'm going to heaven, and I get a resurrected body one day.

And if these people die, they will get a resurrected body made perfect for the torments of hell forever.

See, because what you believe determines how you live. Answer to the question in verse 30, why are we in danger every hour?

Because the resurrection's true. The resurrection is true, or it would be a fool's paradise risking my life for this.

Regardless of what the people say, oh, there's no resurrection, Paul says there is a resurrection, and it starts with Jesus, and then you can see it flesh itself out in my life.

I'm in danger or jeopardy every hour. In the original, that is every hour.

That's exactly what it means, every single hour. I'm awake, I sleep, I travel, I stay.

People are trying to kill me. And then he says in the next verse, I've got pride in you. That's almost the nicest thing he says to the

Corinthians. I spent 18 months of my life pouring my life for the gospel's sake into you, and they were going to try to kill me there too.

They were going to try to hurt me there too. But for you it was worth it, because I believe in the resurrected Jesus, therefore

I believe in the resurrection of my body and your bodies. And so it was great pleasure for me to pour my life into you, mortal danger aside.

And everybody back in those days, if you were a Christian, got persecuted. It wasn't, well, the person at work didn't really like me.

This is real persecution. Why risk anything if death is the end of everything?

But since it's true, go for it. I don't think this holds...

It's not a perfect analogy, but here's what I would say. This is like spiritual skydiving, right?

We have a little thing in our house. I want the kids to be able to... I don't care if you want to bungee jump, skydive, whitewater raft, going to Mars, I might say no to, but just go for it.

But I always tell the kids, make sure you're a Christian before you jump out of that plane with a parachute.

That's the only rule I have. Before you do dangerous things, have a parachute. I'm not saying that we should say to ourselves,

I'm going to be foolish, and I won't plan, and I won't be a good steward, and I won't think through the future issues, but I'm saying since you have a resurrected body guaranteed to you by the resurrected

Savior, your life should show it. And here we live in sleepy little suburbianity, all cloistered around here, us four, no more, shut the door, here we go.

I wonder if I should say this to somebody that I love. I wonder if I should do that. I wonder if I should take my kids to the mission field.

I wonder if I should go to seminary. I wonder this, I wonder that. And Paul says, the resurrection's true.

Dying almost every day, dead. Remember, Paul shows up to the city. He has two questions. One, where's the synagogue?

Two, where's the jail? Because he goes to the one, and he ends up in the other. Why die almost every day when there's no reward, no eternal joy, no pain, no seeing

Christ face to face, no well done, good and faithful servant? And he says in verse 32, he continues it on.

People hated Paul. People were after Paul. People wanted to kill Paul. Verse 32, why do I gain? What do

I gain, rather, if humanly speaking, it's going to be a metaphor of what he says next.

I fought with beast at Ephesus. These were people who were vicious adversaries, people who wanted to kill him.

At Ephesus, you say, well, these are like real lions. Some people think these are real lions. I don't think these were real lions because, one, he says humanly speaking.

Two, if you're a Roman citizen, you didn't have to get thrown into the lions in the arena for gladiators.

Three, if he did get thrown into that arena, he probably would have been dead. Four, he probably would have put it on a list of things that he had been through that we'll look at in just a second.

These were mean people, antagonists who were humans, like the riot that happened in Acts 19 with Paul's understatement here, no little disturbance.

These wild beasts weren't wild animals. They were wild, hostile people who hated the gospel. And Paul said, why would

I deal with these people? Every day, they're going to try to kill me if the resurrection isn't true.

Why don't you turn to 2 Corinthians 11 just for a moment? I want you to see the answer to why Paul does all this is, of course, the gospel.

Of course, it's Christ Jesus, but it's in light of Christ's resurrection and his resurrection. How can you go for it in life?

I've got one life to live. The answer is the resurrection, and you can feel in every verse that very thing at the end of Paul's list here in 2

Corinthians 11. It's like this is the key to unlock life. Walking around afraid of our shadows and afraid we might lose our tax exemption, somebody might tax us when we shouldn't be getting taxed, or somehow people might say something behind our back, there's a resurrection.

Verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 11, let's pick it up early so you can get kind of the feel. And the feel is basically this,

I don't want to give you a list of what the Lord has done through me, but I'll have to give you the list. These other false teachers have their lists, their

CVs, their resumes. Let me tell you something. I repeat verse 16, 2

Corinthians 11, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do, accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little.

What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool.

Jesus wouldn't talk this way. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will too boast.

For you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. You can feel the sarcasm there.

For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, that's what the false teachers are doing, or devours you, that's what they were doing, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.

To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of,

I'm speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. I don't really want to say it, but here it comes reluctantly.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are these false teachers Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?

So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman.

Far greater labors, far more imprisonments, and now comes the list that only the resurrected

Jesus and his resurrected body, Paul, could explain. With countless beatings, often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. The synagogue said, you're a blasphemer, false teacher.

You get not 40, we'll be nice and give you 39, but it almost kills you. Severe beating.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. How do you execute people in the

Old Testament? For blasphemy, you stone them. Three times

I was shipwrecked. But when he wrote this, it had been three. Acts 27, you can add another one, four in his life.

A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak?

Who is made to fall and I am not indignant? I must boast. If I must boast,

I will boast of these things that show my weakness. God and Father of the

Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. Damascus, the governor under King Eratos was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in a wall, or in the wall and escaped his hands.

Why would Paul do all that? If this is a pipe dream, if this is all a lie, then

Paul, coast, take it easy. But since it's true that you're raised from the dead with your body to receive the reward on that day, then

Paul says, I am full throttle, I am all out. Question I could probably ask you is, if I look at your life, if you look at your life, your friends look at your life, the

Lord looks at your life, do you live a life in response to the grace of God that shows you believe the resurrection?

Well, you know, I just got to, everything's got to be safe. You say, well, I like to safely invest my funds in the 401k.

Fine, but you need to live your life in resurrection realities. What's the worst thing that can happen to you?

They kill you and you get a new body anyway. What should we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? It's Romans 8. Romans 8 also says, the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

How do you live a life full of faith instead of fear? The gospel is real, the resurrection is real,

I will be raised from the dead. We are untouchable until that ordained day.

I like to say to my kids, 10 ,000 gang members can't kill you unless God has ordained it, and 10 ,000

SWAT team members can't protect you if it's your day. Paul says,

I've got my eyes on Christ, the resurrected Savior, and in light of his promises, I'm going to be resurrected too.

So it's danger, danger, danger, danger, danger. Why do you repeat that so many times? He could have just said, in danger in this and that and that, but it's danger, danger, why?

Because I believe the resurrection is true and I've got my eyes focused on Christ. Second, you start looking down and not looking at who

Christ is, then the fear factor comes back. Colossians 3 says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

I love the story of Florence Chadwick, 1952. She swam across the

English Channel and now she starts at Catalina Island. She's going to swim to Long Beach. She swims for 15 hours and with one mile to go, it was so foggy, she has to quit.

Don't quit, they said from the boat. She said, I can't see my destination. Short time later, she tried again, 60 days passes, and she said,

I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land, I might have made it. And now that I can see the land,

I made it. And so, she finished keeping her eyes on what the goal was. All right, number three,

I was going to stop there, except we can't stop because we didn't stop their first service.

So, I think you'll be glad. Number three, since the resurrection is true, live in light of judgment day.

Live in light of the day of reckoning. Since the resurrection is true, I wouldn't be surprised if people get baptized on behalf of the dead.

I would live a life that says, I believe in the resurrection with fearless faith. And thirdly, live in light of the day of reckoning.

If the resurrection is not true, A, you should have slept in. But B, what should you have done?

Verse 32, if the dead are not raised, second half of verse 32, if the dead aren't raised,

I mean really, what should we do? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If there's no resurrection, live it up.

This is the world's model, motto rather. There's model by the world too. Now, does your

Bible in fact show that it's an Old Testament quote with italics, everything's bold, everything is large caps, there's a little node, asterisk, something there?

Yes, because this is from Isaiah 22. God has brought in the hordes of another nation to chasten the disobedient

Israelites. And Israel's response should have been what? God, we're sorry, we repent, please forgive us.

Let's get the dust out, let's get the ashes out, let's get the sacrifices out, let's get the wailers out, let's get the weepers out.

Please God, give us somebody like Moses to stand up and say, God, forgive them.

Here comes judgment that we deserve from another nation to help us. And what do you think they did instead in Isaiah chapter 22?

Well, the text tells us, because this is a quote from Isaiah 22. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

God's not really real, it's all hopeless. Show me the world where morality has collapsed, and I'll show you a world that says we don't believe in the resurrection.

School, work, home. There's no resurrection. And let's just try to confirm that in our hearts a little bit too.

Let's create something that no people who lived in the days of the Bible would ever think of, pagan or believer.

Let's create something that guarantees that we don't answer to anybody, and it's called evolution. Because if evolution's true, we answer to no one.

So what is the paradigm of the evolutionist? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you're a monkey.

I don't know what it is. The other way around. Why aren't there things in between humans and monkeys?

But that's another story. For you,

Christian, for me as a Christian, Paul is going to help us in this section by saying this.

We are going to be raised, therefore we should live in light of the cross and in light of eternity, and we should have good morals.

Not because morality saves, morality damns, but obedience in light of the cross.

If we have a lot of guilt, Heidelberg Catechism says, and we've been receiving more grace because of who

Jesus is, and we receive grace at Calvary and beyond, we should live lives of gratitude. We will all stand before God on Judgment Day.

You say, wait a second, that doesn't seem right. Well, I think it's probably the least popularly preached view in all of Scripture.

Judgment Day for Christians. Now, some might be saying, well, I know the unbelievers, they get Judgment Day, so I know they probably just want to live it up, but there's not going to be

Judgment Day for us, and yet we're going to see next week, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, there is a judgment seat for Christians called the

Bema Seat Judgment, where thankfully, we're not judged for our sins, we're not judged for our transgressions, we're not judged for our missing the mark, we're not judged for anything like that, because Jesus paid for it at Calvary, right?

It is finished. But we are judged what we've done in our bodies, whether good or worthless.

There's a Judgment Day for you. Judgment Day is coming, so much so that Martin Luther said,

I only have two days on my calendar. Now, I have a little iCal for my Mac, and I can say, let me see the year view.

It's pretty small when you do that, but let me see the year view. Let me see the month. And I actually can say,

I want the start of the week to be Sunday. I hope your calendars have the start of the week Sunday, just for the legalism in me, that I just want it like that.

No, just because that is the first day. I could say, just show me the day, show me the next five days, show me the list.

I can make it say whatever you want. You know what for Luther? He said, I've got two days on my calendar, and only two.

Because he knew that even though he didn't have to pay for his sins, thankfully, there still was a

Judgment Day that we're going to look at. Luther said, I've got two days on my calendar, today and that day.

Because if you realize that day is coming, then you live a life knowing my body will be raised from the dead, and I will receive from God rewards, not based on sin, but based on what

I've done, deeds in the body, good or bad. We'll see that next week. If there's no resurrection for Christians, live it up.

Jesus addresses this very issue. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide inheritance with me.

He said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

So he told them a parable saying, the land of the rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall

I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.

And there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry.

But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared.

Whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Now that's for the unbeliever. Not rich towards God and having the object of faith, Christ Jesus, and holding on to it by the instrument of faith.

That's a pitiable person there, that unbeliever. So we as Christians, we don't have that day, the great white throne day.

We have Abima day. And so we should be doing the same things, living in light of the resurrection today and that day.

This is good for us to make sure we think eternal thoughts, not just temporal thoughts. I love the story about the person that had the

Ferrari and they were in the mountain, snow storm, slid out of control, deep precipice is coming, and the guy jumped out last second, made it, but his arm got sheared off at the shoulder.

Laying there bleeding, the trucker passes by. The guy says in a state of shock, my

Ferrari, my Ferrari. The trucker says, what about your arm? He looks down, he says, my

Rolex, my Rolex, right? If there's no resurrection, live it up, pagan.

If there is a resurrection, Christian, don't be surprised people baptized for the dead.

Don't live your life like, you know what? Here's my little life right here. We are free.

The worst thing can happen is you get killed and you get a new body. And also say to yourself, I do have this body for a reason.

And that reason is in light of the grace of God and the personal work of Christ Jesus, I want to respond not out of duty necessarily, not out of just strict obedience necessarily, but out of gratitude.

Lord, thank you for doing this. And you've said you're holy and you've called me to be holy. And I want to live in light of that because there's a judgment day for me too.

My body will be raised. Got one life to live and live in light of the one life

Christ lived for you. Let's pray. Thank you father for our time in the word.

How exciting is scripture? How convicting, how encouraging, how glad we are that we aren't like the pagans who have to stand before you.

Like in that parable in Luke 12. But now we've been given the righteous robes of Christ Jesus.

Christ has earned for us heaven. And to think that our bodies get redeemed too.

Father, remind us this week, maybe it's through the aches and pains of our body that we get a new one.

And until we get a new one, father, would you help us to live in light of the cross as we seek to please you with our bodies.