Not Rising to Be Condemned — Robert B. Thompson

We're going to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. And read along with us. If you're of a mind, it'll be up on the screen. Verses 1 -11 of 1 Corinthians 15. And up in the third heaven there, I'm thinking of a verse I may use.

It's in Acts and search fruit meat for repentance. It's one of the last chapters of Acts. Chapter 26, something like that. If you can find it, I think I'm going to need that this morning. Okay, John left I guess.

The Resurrection as the Center of the Gospel

Alright, here we go. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -11. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the Word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve.

After that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, He appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect.

No, I worked harder than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believe. Now, it's interesting that this is about the resurrection.

We don't hear too much of it these days. Sometimes, I guess in some places we do. But the interesting thing is that there's a whole chapter of the New Testament devoted to this one topic, and it's very important.

We need to think more about it because it's where we're all going. We were just at the funeral yesterday of Kathy's mother, and she will be in the resurrection. We will all be raised from the dead. Every one of us.

And it's a thing that you put in your mind like energy problems and income taxes, and there's other things that have just happened. And there's nothing you can do about it, so to speak. And this is true of the fact that each one of us is going to be raised from the dead.

So you can look forward to that. Because we like to think, well, when I die, that's it. No, when you die, that isn't it. In fact, right at this point, I need John 5 .28 and 29. I'm sorry I didn't give you that, Mike, but I need that.

I kind of go that way. I never get what I'm going to preach on to the last minute, and then I'll not always have everything, my ducks in a row. All right. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in the graves, their graves, will hear His voice.

Now, for those of you that have been with us some time, we're not talking here at all about the first resurrection, which has to do with the holy priesthood. This is talking about the resurrection that's in Revelation chapter 20.

This is the resurrection. The other thing is special. I don't want to go into it now. This is something that all of us will experience. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice.

And that includes you, and that includes me. And then it says, and come out. There may be some who wish they didn't have to come out, but we have to come out. This body that we have, even though it dies and it goes into the ground and eventually decomposes, God is going to put it back together again.

It's going to come out. We say, how can He do that? People have been dead for a couple of thousand years. Well, because God made us in the first place from dust. That's why some people are called dusty.

It's a nickname. Dust. If you can put together a human being from dust, you can do anything. And so there's no problem with whether you were cremated or drowned or what. God is going to put you together.

He didn't have any trouble the first time, and He won't have any trouble the second time. God is God. He creates things with His Word. And you are going to come together, and you're going to come out, and you're going to stand before God.

And that is the basic message of the Gospel. That is the fundamental. That's why Paul says, the Gospel I preach to you, its main point is on the resurrection. And when Paul was preaching in the book of Acts on Mars Hill, he said, God's going to judge the world by that man whom He raised from the dead.

And those, where was that, Rome or Greece? They argued like Greece, but I think it was Rome. But anyway, they start arguing about a man raised from the dead. And it is strange to us. We don't think too much about it, but that's what it's about.

That's what it is all about, is that we're all going to be raised from the dead, and we have to stand before God. And let me tell you, that's a help to us sometimes, because we figure, well, there's people that don't get their comeuppance.

How many know somebody that never gets their comeuppance? They do all kinds of things wrong and hurt people, and it seems like nothing's ever done about it. Do you know anybody like that? Almost everybody knows somebody that never gets their comeuppance.

And we think, how can they get away with that? But they do, and sometimes they go through their whole life harming people and being a general pain in the neck. But I want you to know, everybody's going to get his comeuppance.

Everybody's coming out of the grave. Everybody is going to answer to God for the things He did in this world. Isn't that a pleasant thought? It is if you're doing right. But if you're not, you're hoping it isn't going to happen for a while.

Life's Brevity and Accountability Before God

Well, I'll tell you, life goes by too swiftly. I saw some people yesterday that I hadn't seen in a while, and I thought, man, you're so different. Well, come to find out, I haven't seen them in 15 years.

And people do change. Oh, yes. There's wrinkles where there didn't used to be wrinkles. So time goes by faster than you think, especially when you're young. You think, well, I'll never get there, for heaven's sake.

I'll never make 70, and if I do, why worry about it? By that time, we'll all be living on Mars or something. But the fact is, it goes by, and before you know it, you're out of high school, and then you're married, and then life goes on, and you have grandchildren.

I remember the first time somebody called me Gramp. We were at some place. We were at some kind of a resort, and I was supposed to ride a horse. And I guess he thought I couldn't get on the horse by myself, which may have been true.

I don't remember. But he said, I'll help you up, Gramp. I thought, who are you calling Gramp? This has got to be 30 years ago. But it gets away from you, believe me. But we're all moving toward death, which is not bad, actually.

I can see some benefit to it at my age. And we're all moving toward the resurrection, and you want to count on that. And you want to run your life in those terms. Say, man, I'm going to be held accountable for what I do.

Yes, you're going to be held accountable for what you do. Up here, the man said, those who have done good will rise to live. Now, there's a marvelous thing. And that's really the meaning of John 3 .16.

Shall not perish. If you look to the New Testament to see how the word perish is used, usually it's talking about your body. Those on the Tower of Siloam fell over, and they perished. It's usually talking about physical death.

And in John 3 .16, where it says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have life. It's talking about life in the body, because that's what was lost in the Garden of Eden was the Tree of Life.

And so it's important. Now, I know for young people it's not so important. Of course, none of them wants to get killed, even though they act like it sometimes. But actually, if it's put right down to it, that's not cool.

That's not the greatest. But the point is that when you get older, the problem is relationships. That's the whole problem. If it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be any problem. But the problem is saying goodbye.

That's the problem. To your mother, to your father, to maybe a brother or sister, a friend. The problem is, one, when you get into the funeral chapel, there's a very serious spirit in funeral chapels.

Because people realize this isn't something you can go out and fix. I mean, that person is, you're not going to see him for a while. And that's the problem with death is relationships. We don't stop to think that while some relationships are broken, some are restored.

See, because you go, they were talking yesterday about Catherine's mother. Well, people were saying, well, she is going to go with Gordon, with Gordon Bruce, her husband. So she leaves people on the earth, but other relationships are restored.

So the problem with death is primarily one of relationships. Although, of course, people may want to live for a while on the earth. I don't know, once we get in the spirit realm, maybe we don't think it's so hot down here.

But I don't know about that. Haven't never been there. But it's leaving people. It's going into the funeral parlor like several of us did yesterday and realizing this is goodbye for now. Goodbye for now.

And it's a very serious business. Not nearly so serious that there were no relationships problems. So as you get older and you develop all kinds of relationships, husband and wife, father and son, mother and daughter, all kinds of relationships, then you begin to think, death isn't so great because I'm going to miss these people or someone died in your family.

I'm going to miss that person. Like we miss Brian Wagner and we miss some of the other, Don Schulte and the other fellow, Lillian, Jim Grunewald, and others that have passed away. Well, you miss those people.

Don and Audrey, both of them, the Schultes, you miss those people. Isn't that right? And you say, what in the world? So this idea of the resurrection and of living again is a very, there's nothing as important as that, let alone more important.

There's nothing as important as that. Idea that death does not bring an end to things, but we're going to be raised. But it also brings about another point, and that is that those who have done good, see that's the clinker, will live.

And those who have done evil, have done bad things, will rise to be condemned. Now, nobody wants that, but that's what's going to happen. Now, here's an important thing. Did you find that verse in, you got it there, Mike?

Don't put it on yet, but he's got it. All right, now, here's the thing. The gospel of Jesus Christ has sometimes been presented as an alternative to this. In other words, if you accept Christ, you can do evil, and in the day of resurrection, you will not be condemned.

Has anybody ever thought of the gospel in that way? That's a great mistake. It's a great, it's not scriptural. Woo! And it is responsible for the spiritual babyhood and the sin that's in the Christian churches in our days.

Why we're such a lousy testimony. People say, well, you're no better than I am. We say, well, Christians aren't perfect. They're just forgiven. Blah, blah, blah. And then we go on to live. This is not Bible.

Christians are supposed to be perfect. Jesus said, be perfect. You say, well, it can't be perfect. Well, you can be in His terms. He's not asking you to be perfect dead, but He wants you to be perfect today, which anybody can do.

And if you've done something wrong, and you're sweating it, then when I get through here, you need to come up here and tell God about it. And I'm going to tell you why this is not an alternative. You don't come to Jesus in order to keep on doing wrong things and still rise to live.

That's not the way it works. What you sow and what I sow, we're going to reap. And accepting Christ does not change that. It can't change. That's a kingdom law. You can't change that. Well, you say, well, how does it work?

Repentance Rather Than Mere Profession

Well, with God's help, I'm going to tell you how it works. When you come, now we're ready for that verse in Acts. All right. Now, I want you to see how the apostle Paul preached, what he preached. And this appears several times in Acts, this thought.

And it's very critical to our thinking. When the apostles preached the gospel, they did not preach, let Jesus into your heart. You won't find it in that book of Acts. You can read to you where the ink off the pages.

It isn't there. That is not what they preached. They did not preach being born again. You can read the book of Acts until the ink comes off the pages. You will not find the apostles being preached, being born again, or let Jesus into your heart.

That is not what they preached. And check it out. And if you find it, then you just tell us how much you put in the offering, and we'll give you double your money back. It isn't there. Yeah, I'm sure what I'm talking about, because some of you will come by and say, we put $1 ,000 in the offering in cash.

Anyway, all right. Now, what the apostles preached was repentance. That's the key. They preached repentance. Sure, they preached faith. Sure, they preached God's love. Sure, they preached the blood. Sure, they preached water baptism.

But the main thing they preached was repentance. Now, let me explain to you what that means. It does not mean feel sorry. It does not mean feel sorry. Sorrow will work repentance. But they didn't come preaching be sorry for your sins.

They didn't come preaching be sorry for your sins. They preached repentance. They preached quit it. In fact, you can remember in the book of Acts where in one city, I forget which one, they brought all their magic books.

Evidently, they'd practice a lot of magic in that city. And they had a big bonfire. That's repentance. That's what repentance is. Now, when we come to Jesus, we feel a need. Maybe we get scared thinking about someday we're going to be raised, and we don't want to come out of the grave and face an angry God.

So we think maybe we better do something about it. And maybe Jesus has something to do about it. So we come to the Lord Jesus, and we profess faith in Him. We recognize that He died for our sins, that He shed His blood as an atonement, a payment, for our sins.

We don't have to straighten up and become perfect and then Christ accepts us. Don't misunderstand me with repentance. It is a come-as-you-are party. You come with all your sins, all your guilt, the hateful things you've done, the crooked things you've done, the filthy things you've done.

And you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you ask for His forgiveness through the blood. And that's in the book of Acts. It's a gospel of forgiveness. You'll find it. Forgiveness is in the book of Acts.

And we might be forgiven through Jesus. All right, now, this is what God commands you. This is what God says. He did it. He paid for your sins on the cross. He did that. You don't have to do that. He did that.

That's a finished work. You cannot add to it. It's done. But there's something that we do. And if we don't do our part of the contract, the contract doesn't work. Like we'll see later in 1 Corinthians 15.

You have received it in vain. You can believe in vain. It says that, 1 Corinthians 15. You can believe in vain. Okay? Now, how many here have ever signed a contract of any kind? You know that contractual law is a very important part of what you call jurisprudence.

That is the exercise of law. Contractual law is very important, and it arises every day. There are problems with contracts. Now, in any contract, there are two signatures. There is two people come together, and they make a contract, and they both sign it.

Now, if you break a contract, if you break contract in this country, you're in trouble. You don't break contracts. There are penalties for breaking a contract. If one person breaks that contract, that contract is no longer valid, because the contract depends on two people to be valid.

Okay? Now, salvation is a contract between God and you. It's not one side of this. Paul said, but God is one. That is, there's one person who signs it up there. You're not the only one who signs it. God signed it on the cross in the blood of Christ.

God signed that contract on the cross in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what God did. Now, you have to sign that contract if it's going to be valid. Have you ever had the experience where maybe the bank came to you with something and everything was all signed and everything, and you had buyer's remorse, and you didn't sign it?

So, the contract never became valid. And when we, as I'm afraid is true of many American Christians, have never signed our part of the contract, that contract is not valid. And they can't say, but God said.

God said, yeah, I said I signed it, but I said you have to sign it. And if you don't do your part, that contract is not in force. Make any sense? Alright, now, what you have to do, and this is what the apostles preached.

First, you have to believe. You can't get anywhere if you don't believe. And then, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. You are to be baptized in water. Stan, we haven't had a baptism in a while.

We need to, when you get back, we need to rustle up. See, if any of you have never been baptized, you need to see Stan, and we'll have another water baptism. We've got a nice baptistry, and it's always a wonderful service when people are baptized.

The Bible says, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. It doesn't say, he that believes and if he thinks he has an idea, he might like to get baptized someday, he should be saved. It says, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

How many believe it's a good idea to do what God said? And not try to second-guess God and say, well, I think that's stupid, or I'll ruin my hairdo, or I'm embarrassed in front of the people, or whatever the thing is.

That doesn't wash. That's a peculiar application there. It doesn't wash in water baptism. God said, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. And this is the reason. This is the reason. Water baptism is a drama.

It's a simple drama that reveals that you of your own free will have repented. It means that when you go down in the water, you are saying that I'm through with my former way of life. I'm through. What you're seeing down here is the end.

Jesus said it is finished, and you're entering into the finish. That doesn't mean when you come up, you're going to be perfect. It doesn't mean that at all. It declares your intention. And then you've got to live it out every day.

That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, by which you're saved if you do. And what is that? It's the second time I referred to that. Yes, in the second verse, he says, by this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain. And holding firmly to the word means, according to the epistles of Paul, that you are putting away, as the Holy Spirit helps you, you're putting away the things of the flesh and following the Spirit.

That's what Paul taught in almost every epistle. He spoke about putting aside the things of the flesh and following the Spirit. So that's what he means when he says, hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you believed in vain. You broke the contract. You didn't do what God said. So here you come, and you believed, and you come before the elders of the church, and they say, well, have you repented?

And you see, repentance, where were we on that one? I want to show you something about what they taught. And this isn't the only place either. What is that, the 27th, 26th chapter? 20th? OK. Yeah, 26th.

I thought it was pretty near the end. I preach that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. See, it isn't just let Jesus into your heart. It isn't just be born again.

Be born again is not a word to preach to sinners. Being born again is a word to Christians. As it says in 1 Peter, when he's writing to Christians, he says, being born again. You just talk to the unsaved about being born again, and they don't even know what it means to be born again.

Being born again means that Christ is growing in you. There's a new life growing in you. I'm talking about the start. I'm talking about not being condemned in the day of resurrection. That's what I'm talking about.

Salvation, Works, and the Meaning of Repentance

All right, to show you that accepting Christ is not an alternative to John 5, 28 and 29, that if you do bad, you'll rise to condemnation. Accepting Christ is not an alternative to that. Accepting Christ means that you have repented, and you're proving that by what you do.

It doesn't say, I have repented. You do something. If you're a drinker, you quit drinking. If you need help, there's help in the church. If you're smoking and ruining your body, you quit it. I mean, the Bible says, don't defile the temple of the Holy Spirit.

If you do, God will destroy you. As we see all around us, people drink, smoke, do drugs. What happens to your body? It's destroyed. That's what it says. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

You prove your repentance by your deeds. If you don't, you say, I accepted Christ. I let Jesus into my heart. Now I'm born again. I took the four steps. And then you keep on like you were? Whoa! That's not Bible.

That's American version of have your cake and eat it too. How to be a Christian without really trying. All this in heaven too. That isn't the gospel. This is the gospel. Turn to God and prove your repentance, that when you were baptized in water, you meant that you were through with your all way of living.

You left it in the water and it went down the drain when David Borman unplugged it. You can go stand and look at all your bad behavior going down the drain, out into the main trunk line and out wherever it goes, probably into the ocean.

God knows how simple we are. And He gives us simple things that we can see and understand. You can go down in the water when you come up. You are forgiven through the blood. You have left your sins there.

You're a new person in Christ. Oh, you haven't been entirely where we can say old things have passed away and all have become new. But you've taken a step. And at that moment, you are perfect in God's sight.

Now, am I making sense? What I'm talking about is not being condemned. Maybe we need to go back now to John 5, 28 and 29. All that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth. They that have done good.

He didn't say them that believe in Me, them that are born again, them that whatever. He said those who've done good. Now, how many know what it means to do good? Say, I don't have the foggiest idea. I'm a Christian and I long ago became confused about righteousness.

Christians are the only people on earth that do not understand what righteousness is. Somebody give me an example of doing good. Yeah. What? Help your neighbor. And certainly, as a thing to do good. You see the poor and you have opportunity and you feel it's God's will, assist them.

Tell the truth. Mind your parents. Everywhere but here. Mind your parents. It's doing good. It's something you do that's good. Mind your mother when your father speaks. Do good. Be honest. Tell the truth.

Keep your word. Be helpful. Be kind. And I say, well, what does that got to do with being a Christian? Everything. Those that do good. I'm enjoying this thoroughly. I mean, it doesn't take much preparation to keep saying the same thing over and over.

Those who have done good, don't let anybody say, yes, but. I'm saved by grace. That's not the purpose of grace is to change the Word of God. Well, how does it come together? It comes together when you realize that you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself.

And you say, I need help. And you come and the elders of the church say, receive your forgiveness through the blood of Christ. And now God wants you to be baptized in water, washing away your sins. So the Bible says, washing away your sins right down the drain.

That's something we all can understand. Even if we're not so wretched as to be a theologian, we can understand your sins going down the drain. All right, now after that, you have to show each day works that demonstrate your repentance.

If you go back and do the same things again, you didn't repent. You just went down dry and you came up wet. And nothing went down the drain. Because you never really in your heart resolved to change. You know, one of the biggest problems that people have with an addiction, such as alcohol or smoking or drugs, one of the biggest problems that they have is that they want to change, but they don't want to change.

I do, but I don't. Pray for me, I'll be delivered from alcohol. But in their heart, they're not positive. That's what they want. But they feel that they should be prayed for it. But the devil won't go anywhere, because you haven't made up your mind.

You're double-minded. Let me tell you a simple formula, and you can do it at the altar today if you're of a mind. If you have some problem in your life that you know is not Christian, it's not what God means by repentance, maybe someone you have not been able to forgive because they harmed you so much, God does not want you carrying around bitterness in your heart.

You'll be surprised at how many girls are mad at their mother. I mean, they're 30 years old, they're still mad at their mother. Or sons at their father. Or whoever with whoever. Maybe you're mad at your brother or sister.

I mean, God doesn't want to bless that. You say, well, it doesn't matter much. Let me tell you, it matters a lot in God's sight. And you say, but how do I get rid of that? Or I'm hooked on drugs. I've got to have my little pipe when I go home.

Or a glass of beer. How does that hurt if I have a cold glass of beer on a hot day? Well, how it hurts is that it interferes with the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit works on your central nervous system and so does beer.

Much less Jack Daniels. It works on your central nervous system. And it was alright in the Old Testament because they didn't have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, but we do. You get one beer and you never prophesy in this church because I'll tell you from experience with people, it will affect what you say because it works on your central nervous system.

That's why it says in Acts, these people aren't drunk because it's too early. The idea is we'll get drunk later. But they were full of the Holy Spirit. Don't believe everything I say, Rebecca. I mean, you've got to weed through the things.

Don't drink booze. You cannot live a victorious Christian life when you're all ameliorated, whatever that means, with alcohol in your central nervous system. You can't do it. It takes the steel out of you that you need to serve Jesus.

So, should Christians drink? No! But what if they're Italian and they all drink? Don't drink wine or any alcohol. I don't care what your custom is, where you live. All those people are just worldly people.

And God does not judge them because they drink. They drink because they don't know any better. But when God calls you out to be a saint, a Christian, saint means holy one. Holy one. And you say, well, I can't get through the day without my glass of wine.

Well, get up to the altar. You can certainly live without your cold beer or your glass of wine or your shot. Lemonade, what is that? I don't know nothing about that. I'm too old to know about that stuff.

I don't need it. I know enough garbage, I don't need that. Don't drink! Well, go out and do it and see it. And God will not bless you because I told you plainly that it's going to harm you. You will not live for Jesus and drink.

Believe me. I don't care what they did in the Old Testament or Timothy's stomach problems. I'm telling you from experience that you cannot be at your best with alcohol in your system. And let me tell you, the demonic pressure is so great in this area, it is so tremendous that you have to be with it all the time.

You can't even get mad at somebody. First thing you know, you'll have them by the throat. Why is that? It's because of the demonic pressure. Husband and wife start off in some little argument. First thing you know, she throws a frying pan at her husband.

Never meant to do that. She never meant to do that. She can't have this. Things are all over us. You've got to be at your best. And you can't be at your best when you've got alcohol. I don't know where I'm going.

I've been here 25 years. I've never preached like this about alcohol. So, somebody in here is a lush. You can count on that. That's an old term. You probably won't remember that one. Somebody here is having a problem with booze.

Well, I'm not saying that's a word of wisdom or anything. I'm just saying that it came to my mind. All right. So, what do you do? So, here you've got a problem with booze or drugs or lust or you're fooling around with somebody else's wife or husband or God knows whatever it is.

And you're trapped in this thing. You say, I don't want to do this. I know it's wrong, but I can't help myself. What do you do about it? What do you do about it? Someone said, if God wanted you to smoke, He'd have put a chimney in your head.

He doesn't want you to smoke. That's a perfect way to ruin your health. I can't think of a better one. I mean, that's a top ten. You can live without it. The reason people have a cigarette hanging out of their mouth is they're not secure.

They've got to have something to show they're all right. And the same thing holds true for profanity. The reason most people, men particularly, swear is because they're trying to build up their courage.

They can't talk normal English because they feel they've got to build themselves up to where they do something rash or show how tough they are or something. You don't have to swear and you don't have to smoke.

And you don't have to do nasty things. There's other things in life. All right, so let's say you're trapped in something like this. What do you do? Four things. These are the four steps of salvation, the real ones.

The Four Steps of Salvation

These are the real four steps of salvation, not the ones that got cooked up out of a personal worker's handbook. All right. First, you describe plainly to the Lord and to the spirit realm, you have to get it out of your mouth.

It's as if we confess our sins and you don't confess your sin when you're thinking about them. Homologia, out from the mouth. Confess your sins. That's Greek. I'm talking to our resident Greek scholar back there.

All right, now, you call that thing sin, not your psychological deviation, your aberrant behavior. You call it sin. The Bible's about sin and righteousness. It's not about deviant behavior. Sin. What I'm doing, Lord, is sin.

It's sin. I'm mad at my mother. That's sin. I'm unkind to people. That's sin. I'm harboring bitterness in my heart. That's sin. I'm a great Christian and I go to camp and then I say to the other campers, do you think it's all right if we do a little pot?

Do you think? Do you think? I mean, the Iron Duke got about as much character as a jellyfish. Heard preaching for 10 years and then goes to camp and says, do you think it's all right if we do a little pot?

What do you think? Do you have a backbone? No. Are you a man or a mouse? Pass the cheese. You confess it as sin. S-I-N. In case you misunderstood me. Sin. The second thing you do is you denounce it.