Resurrection's Death - [1 Corinthians 15:12-19]

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I have a question for you this morning as we start. What is more important, believing or doing?
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Would you rank higher what you have to believe or how you live your life?
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Maybe I could try to get at the answer by asking you this. How many people have to -do lists in one shape or form?
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What shape or form? Does anybody have to -do lists? I know you do. If you don't, you should put it on your to -do list list.
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I have a little sticky, an electronic sticky, right on my computer on the far right and it tells me what
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I need to do. How many of you have a to -believe list? These are the things
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I must believe. These are the things that I cannot forget. Without these things, my to -do list means nothing.
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It just goes to show you in our day and age, we are getter done people. We like to do things.
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You never have to command people to get things done, but you do have to reveal in Scripture the importance of believing the right thing.
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We like shows. I like shows where it's extreme home makeover and the people come in and they redo this house and they do something to the house and then afterwards you get a good cry and you feel good that someone was helped.
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You just wish it was your house. So it just creates envy instead of a good feeling for your neighbor.
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Some Martha Stewart, you know there's just these five quick and easy steps you need for a successful harvest decoration in your house.
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We like lists. That's the human heart. And when it comes to gospel and the law, our indicatives and imperatives, our default is over here to do when we need to be reminded that what we believe is more important than what we do.
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It's actually connected because what you believe determines what you'll do. An unwholesome doctrine leads to unholy living.
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And so it's important that you believe things. Even as a church wants to occasionally hanker for, not necessarily this church, but hankering for these sermons where I just need something to do.
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Just tell me what to do so I can be a better dad tomorrow and a better husband tomorrow. And just please tell me what to do.
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Five easy steps for easy Christian living. Paul, as he writes to the church of Corinth, he knows they're carnal.
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He knows they're divided. He knows there's sin in the church. And so he spends a whole chapter on something to help them believe the right way.
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When your children disobey and they're little, if you're not careful, you fall into this paradigm.
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You tell them, stop hitting, use your hands for loving. Stop being lazy, work.
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Don't lie, tell the truth. And you're focused on what they do.
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When we think about it, it's not wrong to do, it's only wrong to do if that's the only thing you do.
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And so what Paul's after is doctrine. Paul's after your mind. What you believe matters.
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The most important thing about you is not what you do, friends. It's what you believe about who God is and who you are in light of God and what
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Christ has done. So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15 and the doctrine of the day, the doctrine that needs to be essential for every
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Christian is the doctrine of the resurrection, the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and the literal bodily resurrection of every body.
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So for Paul, doctrine is important. This whole chant, doctrine divides,
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I want to affirm right now before we go to the passage, true or false, doctrine divides. True, it does divide.
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It divides wrong thinking from right thinking, biblical ways of thinking, unbiblical ways of thinking.
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Doctrine does divide, but doctrine simply is a statement about God, a fact about God.
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If I say to you, God, and you say, I don't like doctrine, what is God? Who is
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God? And so doctrine is important. And for Paul, with a carnal church, the doctrine of the resurrection is the linchpin for everything.
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If you take out the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ, every other domino falls.
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As I said to the congregation to start last service, remember that game with those little wooden blocks and they're all stacked up on each other.
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And if you pull that last block out, you know, you have to take turns. What's it called? Jenga. I knew you'd know that.
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I think Jenga is some kind of voodoo name or something, but you pull that last little piece out and that whole house of cards comes flying down and you lose.
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And for Paul, the doctrine of the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus is essential.
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This is not one of those things, well, Paul, you just need balance. No, this is a non -negotiable.
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You have to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ Jesus, which means you'll believe in the bodily resurrection of every person who's lived and died, and who will live and who will die.
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And does it make sense then that people try to attack the doctrine of the resurrection?
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Well, it only makes sense when you think about it from a satanic strategy. Of course, if the doctrine is a non -negotiable, essential of the
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Christian faith, we're not talking about eschatology, Amal, Premal, who do you baptize, what church government is, but a central doctrine.
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Remember, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -4, this is that gospel Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised the third day, and he appeared to all kinds of people, 500 even at once.
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This is an essential doctrine. So, of course, Satan attacks, and you wouldn't believe some of the people who say there's no resurrection of Jesus's physical body.
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Let me just give you a sweeping overview of some of that so you realize the day and age in which we live.
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There's this full force, frontal assault of people saying, supernaturally, we don't believe in supernatural, so how could there be a resurrection of Jesus?
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We're modernists, we're scientists. John Shelby Spong said in his book called
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Resurrection Myth, A Reality, for me, the gospel traditions about the resurrection are pointers toward the truth, they are not the truth.
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Others have said, amazingly, Baptist Professor Hinson said,
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Paul was convinced that the Christ who appeared to him belonged to another order of existence from the Christ that the disciples had known in the flesh.
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The risen Christ has not a physical but a spiritual body. Murray Harris, he used to teach at Trinity, a
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Christ body, when it was resurrected, will neither be fleshly nor fleshy.
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Rudolph Bultman, liberal anti -supernaturalist, the resurrection, of course, simply cannot be a visible fact in the realm of human history.
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It can't be true, the resurrection. Paul Tillich, you probably know that name, said if you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, it's absurd.
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Here's one that will probably shock some of you. Before he became the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, in his book,
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Introduction to Christianity, said this, it now becomes clear that the real heart of faith in the resurrection does not consist at all in the idea of the restoration of bodies.
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Such is the case even though that this is the pictorial image used throughout the Bible. Paul teaches not the resurrection of physical bodies but the resurrection of persons.
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In other words, it seems like the Bible uses language of real bodily resurrection, but it can't be true.
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In his book, Principles of Catholic Theology, he also penned before he became the Pope, the resurrection cannot be a historical event in the same sense as the crucifixion is.
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So you have all kinds of people who deny the literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus.
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And you have people masquerading as evangelicals who say, it's not even important to believe. And I'm setting this up because the second you begin to read
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Paul, if you say, Mike, you're out on one of your aggressive kind of tirades, there you go again.
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What I'm saying now, in light of what Paul says, what I'm saying now is positive, encouraging kind of Caleb stuff.
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This is for Paul, worthy of grabbing the nuclear football and pushing the buttons.
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This is a showstopper for Paul. The literal bodily resurrection you have to believe.
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And he writes that, I have friends who I'm quite sure are Christians who do not believe in the bodily resurrection. I don't want to say these people aren't
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Christians. And so whether you're Jehovah's Witness denying the literal bodily resurrection or like Thomas Wilson who says it's a monstrous fraud, the resurrection is still true.
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We as Christians believe in the resurrected Jesus. Like no other religious figure,
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Jesus has been raised. Every other religious figure, our philosophical leader, is in a shrine, in a tomb, in a grave, in a crypt, and is turned into dust.
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What's left is their memorial, and that is it. The resurrection of Jesus is supernatural, unique, amazing, revolutionary, and mandatory.
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You've got to believe it or Christianity isn't true. There are apocalyptic ramifications for denying the resurrection.
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So let's go to 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, 12 to 19 is our section. And Paul is basically saying this.
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Some people at the Church of Corinth deny the resurrection. This is why it's important, and Paul gives the negative slant to it.
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These are the dominoes that will certainly fall if you say Jesus isn't resurrected. Then in verse 20 to 28, he'll give more of the positive side.
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But for Paul today in verses 12 to 19, with lawyer -like brilliance and logic, he goes through and says, do you know what?
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If you believe what some of these people I just quoted say, or some of the people at Corinth believe, you are in big trouble.
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The real church has always believed in the resurrection because the Bible teaches it clearly. As St.
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Augustine said, the resurrection of Christ is indubitable, the indubitable nature of the resurrected
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Christ. So let me read to you verses 12 through 19. And beloved, as I read them, please look at all the ifs.
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And so Paul is using this language of if to show you that the resurrection is valid, yet if you deny it, the consequences are staggering.
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I always wonder as I read passages like this, people that deny the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus still have
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Easter services. Many of them do. What do they do? What do they celebrate?
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How do they celebrate? This is a non -negotiable.
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You say, Mike, you just need balance. You just have to kind of take the middle road. Sometimes balance is good, isn't it?
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Sometimes, you know, when you're talking to your spouse, and you have to give a little, and she gives a little, and there's ways to do things, and you meet in the middle, and down the middle of the road, there's no middle of the road for Paul.
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Disastrous, epic proportions if you deny the resurrection. Verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead?
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But if there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
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We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised
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Christ. We did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
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For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.
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Then, those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
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Paul says it's unimaginable to deny the resurrection of the body because then you deny
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Jesus was raised from the dead. It's untenable. It's unthinkable. Paul is rigid here, protecting truth.
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Truth matters. Truth has consequences. If Jesus is in a tomb rotting, that affects everything.
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If Jesus is now dust, that affects everything. Every so often, you get these kind of weird things that happened this week.
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We found a little fragment of a piece of paper that says Jesus had a wife.
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We found some bones we think they're Jesus's, and all these kind of things come up. Well, they've already proven the one about Jesus's wife to be a fraud.
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But if in fact we find the bones of Jesus, it's over.
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You should have slept in. I don't know why these people were believing it at Corinth.
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We're not told. But there are people there. Look at verses 12 and 13. Now, if Christ, the
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Messiah, the anointed of God, second person of the Trinity, the eternal son that he talked about as the sin bearer earlier in verses 3 and 4 who appeared, verses 5 and following to people, is proclaimed as raised from the dead like I did,
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Paul, to you Corinthians when I was there for 18 months. That's what I preach. I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, his work.
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But then he goes on to talk about the resurrection, of course. How can some of you say?
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Can you just feel the author's astonishment? Can you just feel Paul's perplexed?
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I was there for 18 months. I taught you all these things. It's like me if I, who knows, I moved to Europe and I come back 10 years from now and you say, well,
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I think Jesus just rose spiritually. Jesus rose in my heart, but not physically. I'd say, first I'd say, what's
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Steve been doing? I was there. I taught you the physical bodily resurrection.
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This is amazement language. Sounds like Galatians 4 language. How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?
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Paul said, apostles taught you the truth confirmed in your presence.
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He says in verse 13, but if there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. Remember their big point was, you know what?
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No resurrection of the body. But Jesus had a body and Jesus was raised and if there's no resurrection of our bodies, then there's no resurrection of Jesus' body.
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Why would they believe in such a thing? We don't know. It could be, well, the Platonic people thought, the
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Platonists said, the body is bad, but the spirit's good. It might have just been the culture of the day, the
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Romans who said, you know, when you die, you die, rest in peace. We're not really told, but I do know this, that if you deny the bodily resurrection, you'll begin to live an ungodly life.
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Listen to this, 2 Timothy, avoid irreverent babble for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.
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And their talk will spread like, what, gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth.
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I just imagine I'm on the pike and some big semi swerves right in front of me. How do you swerve from the truth and promote ungodliness, saying that the resurrection has already happened?
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They are upsetting the faith of some. How do you upset people's faith? By saying there's no resurrection from the dead.
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By then implying that Jesus isn't raised from the dead. Everything collapses.
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I'm trying to think of another illustration besides Jenga and linchpins and dominoes.
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But this is it. This thread comes undone and the whole tapestry is over.
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If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. It's a present tense there in the original language, meaning that Jesus was raised in time and still stands today raised, alive.
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Bodily resurrection. So now Paul gives the six negative implications if there's no resurrection.
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And that's our outline today. First service I got through five, and so I think I better get through five now.
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Otherwise, we'll go ahead of the first service. Then I'll never know where I am. So we're going to see the first five that Paul gives.
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He gives six in 1 Corinthians 15, 12 through 19. Negative implications.
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And beloved, I'm just going to let them stay negative. The positive stuff comes later. And so I'm just going to let you keep seeing
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Paul's negative implications of the resurrection. If the resurrection isn't true of Jesus or any body, number one, the first negative implication is preaching is in vain.
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The preaching about good news is in vain. Do you see that in verse 14? And again, using the language of the
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Messiah again. And if Christ the Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.
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Stop right there. It doesn't mean my preaching style is in vain.
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It means the content of preaching. I have good news. Sin's forgiven.
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Lay down your weapons of rebellion and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do, you certainly will be saved.
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If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, this exclamation of good news is really a funeral dirge.
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It's kind of a duck and jive taps, really. I'm saying it's good news, but it's really taps being played in the background.
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The content of preaching is wrong because the object of the preaching is wrong.
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If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, Jesus is a charlatan. If you teach
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Sunday school here and you're talking about God and Jesus raising from the dead, what you talk about to your kids in Sunday school and vacation
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Bible school and your home group, you're a snake oil salesman. Oh, I love these kids.
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No, you're telling them the wrong thing. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, dead men don't rise.
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Yes, they do. Jesus has been raised from the dead. The text there says useless, empty.
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It's a sham. What's true of you if you teach the
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Bible to people down at the Worcester Common or anyplace else is exactly what is truly true about people today that we look at, about L.
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Ron Hubbard, about Mary Baker, Eddie Glover, Patterson Frye, about L.
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N. G. White, about the followers of Sun Yung Moon. When I listen to those people and they talk about things and it's always do, do, do, do, what they say,
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I hear and I say as a Christian who believes in the resurrection, that is bad news and that is vain, that is empty.
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They're false teachers, they're charlatans, they're shams, they're frauds, they're after people, power, money, sex, something, but they're not after the glory of God.
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How would you like to be a moony? I used to have nightmares about being a moony. My roommate when
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I was first out of college in California said, you know what, we're living down by the beach so all the money is going to the rent at Newport Beach.
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And he said, I have free meals now I can get. It's on Sunday nights, free meals, all you can eat.
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Really? Yeah, where? The Hare Krishna's serve it down at your thing. You just have to hear them do a little Hare and a little
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Krishna and you're set. And I was an unbelieving person, but I knew.
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These people are going to put something in my food or something. Something's not right with these people. What they're saying has no content.
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Besides, this is a false teaching. Paul says, you know what, if you don't believe in the resurrected
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Jesus, you're talking to people who have sin problems and you just take a Band -Aid and you just slap it on the jugular vein of their problems, lacerated jugular vein.
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No resurrection, no Damascus Road. No resurrection, no Emmaus Road. No resurrection for Paul said unthinkable, untenable.
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The consequences are too extreme. The Jesus who's a phony fraud, cheat, liar must be true because if he hasn't been raised from the dead, he's not savior, sovereign, redeemer, counselor, and friend.
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Everything hinges on the resurrection. Romans 10 says that if you confess with your mouth
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Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God, what, raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
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For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be, but if he hasn't been raised from the dead, you will be disappointed.
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You haven't seen anything yet for disappointment. Secondly, the second implication of denying the resurrection of Jesus and every body, the second implication is your faith is in vain.
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And you can just read that in the rest of verse 14. Just kind of letting the text preach. Eric Johanson was very happy.
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He said, I preached this at the sunrise service, last sunrise service, and he said, your points are my points.
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The student says to the teacher, you came out with the same outline I did. Well, we came up with the same outline because this is the text outline.
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So I was very happy for that. Even though I wanted to take credit for it, I could not. Faith is in vain.
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Do you see that in verse 14? If Christ has not been raised, if the Messiah is still dead, your faith is, and again, with emphasis on in vain.
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The way that's written is that's highlighted. It would be yellow highlighted. Your faith is in vain, empty, null, empty set, zed, void of effect, of no purpose.
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Can you imagine if you deny the resurrection of Jesus, your faith is in vain because it has the object, your faith has the object of a dead savior.
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And you know what that means? What are the implications? It means you have to work for your salvation. You have to be good.
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Holy good, totally good, absolutely good. You have to earn your way to heaven.
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And you know, here's the bad news. Even if you resolve today to never sin again in your entire life, one of those sins in your past would be enough to damn you.
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And Paul says, without the risen savior who's conquered your sin, your faith is empty, fruitless.
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I need perfection now. Hebrews 11 says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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Paul says you deny Jesus a resurrection, your hope is a figment of your peyote smoking.
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It's just some kind of opium dream. You just made it up. Go to some sweat tent and walk out and say, you know, this is what
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I think I should do. Paul goes on. I should call this like the boa constrictor effect of Paul.
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This is the anaconda where if that thing was wrapped around you and you breathe in just a hair, what does it do?
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It just constricts more so that your air is restricted. Thirdly, Paul says, negative consequence of denying the resurrection is we apostles then misrepresent
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God, and so does every other teacher too for that regard. If you ever picked up the Bible and taught something, you've misrepresented
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God too, if the resurrection of Jesus isn't true. Verse 15, we are even found.
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Now, remember, beloved, when you read the word we, you have to be careful and not default to you and Paul, right?
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We, Paul and I, we, the church of Bethlehem Bible Church, you have to just think through it. And so, Paul has already said,
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I've received this gospel from Jesus, and we've passed it down to you.
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We apostles teach this. This is uniform doctrinal teaching from the apostles.
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So, that's what he means here. We apostles, of course, it would be us too if we ever taught the
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Bible, but the context is we apostles are even found to be misrepresenting God.
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And he asks us better here to be false witnesses. This is court language. You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me
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God. I do, but I'm going to lie and I'm going to be a...
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If the resurrection isn't true, Paul isn't an apostle, he's a false apostle. Misrepresenting God because we testified, can you imagine, under oath, before God, about God, that he raised
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Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. Paul is not going to let them get off the hook.
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Some of you deny the resurrection. If you do deny the resurrection, then when
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I lived among you and poured my life out to you and you saw my life, it's not really a good life that you saw.
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I'm an imposter. I'm a fraud. I'm a charlatan. I'm telling you the wrong thing. Paul moves from being a murderer and God makes him into a liar.
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The Bible teaches that Paul was a murderer and then he was an apostle. I wonder how
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God thinks of people standing up, saying things for him and about him that aren't true.
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I think God likes that, standing up. By the way, if you ever teach the Bible, you realize the weight of that when it says in James 3, let not many of you be what?
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Teachers, for you incur the stricter judgment. Standing up, can you imagine?
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I mean, I love my job, but if you want to pray for me, pray for me as I stand under the weight of God says to you, thus says the
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Lord. That's why I could get up and talk in front of 100 surgeons and not say, not feel any pressure except, you know,
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I want to look good in front of these guys and sell my equipment, guys and ladies. But then the first time
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I ever had a Bible study at my home with two people, one other couple and Kim, and I was teaching
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Ephesians, I was scared out of my mind. By the way, if you teach the Bible and you're not scared, you shouldn't teach the
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Bible. Here's what God says. Now, for Paul, the argument is this.
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If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, we apostles and everybody else says, Jesus has been raised from the dead.
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God says so. Deuteronomy 18, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name,
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God says, that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall...
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It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God and it's more fearful to fall into the hands of a living God when you've been lying on his behalf.
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Not only Paul would be considered a liar, but Jesus would be the arch liar.
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Jesus said in Luke 18 to the men before he died, everything that is written by the prophets about the
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Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him and insult him and spit on him.
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They will flog him and kill him. And on the third day, he shall what? Jesus said, rise again.
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On the Emmaus Road, Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures and told them, this is what is written.
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The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
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If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, Paul is a liar, the apostles are liars,
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Jesus is a liar, and the Old Testament scriptures are lies too. This is untenable.
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You should ask yourself the question, your home church, your home group, your home ministry, the people you listen to on the radio and the
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TV, if the doctrine of Jesus goes out the window, the resurrected Jesus, could that ministry continue?
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Because if it could, you ought not to be watching them. Joe Osteen does not need a resurrected
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Savior to charm the money out of your pockets. He doesn't need a resurrected
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Jesus to be good, do good, God wants you to succeed. But for Paul, if Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, we need to have some nightline expose on just the fraudulent, charlatan
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Christianity throughout the centuries who have bamboozled millions out of more than their money.
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Christianity isn't good advice. We don't need anyone to tell us to love our husbands, to love our children, to love our wives, to be good neighbors, to be good moral citizens.
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But you need a resurrected Jesus to have good news about sins forgiven, declared right before God on the basis of another.
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God raised Jesus from the dead. To vindicate
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Jesus' words, it is finished. Jesus not raised from the dead, two things should go through your mind.
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If Jesus wasn't raised from the dead. One, Jesus sinned because the wages of sin is what?
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Death, he died for his own sin. Option two, Jesus is not raised from the dead. The father didn't say amen to I am finished.
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I mean, excuse me, it is finished. He wasn't finished. The unbelievers say he's finished. Jesus is raised from the dead to confirm and affirm
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I finished the work you gave me. And so if Jesus is raised from the dead, he either lied or the father did not think the sacrifice was a sweet -smelling aroma.
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Can you just imagine getting up talking for God and it's not true? Paul says, I'm misrepresenting
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God. That's a huge thing. Listen to Jeremiah. This is how God thinks of people who speak for him and they don't speak for him.
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For who among them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and hear his word? Behold the storm of the
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Lord, wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest. It will burst upon the head of the wicked. Context is people who are speaking for God who aren't speaking for God.
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The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart.
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I send these prophets. I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
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Jeremiah goes on to say, speaking for God, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the
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Lord, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I'm against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongue and declare, declares the
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Lord. Behold, I'm against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and by their recklessness.
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When I did not send them or charge them, so they did not profit this people at all, declares the
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Lord. Paul says, if I say Jesus isn't raised from the dead,
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I misrepresent God. And verse 16 says, and if dead are not raised, not even
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Christ has been raised. I remember Pradeep reading 2
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Peter during Scripture reading several weeks ago, 2 Peter chapter 2. All those false prophets,
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Paul would be one. He would be like a waterless spring. He would be spouting loud boasts of folly, and he would be promising freedom while he, in fact, was still enslaved.
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I mean, the favorite verses of the Bible turn into nothing. Because Christ does live, we too shall live,
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John 14. Acts 5, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you put to death by hanging him on a cross.
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He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and as a savior to grant repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins.
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But if Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, it's all just a big farce.
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Proverbs 19, two times it says within four verses, a false witness will not go unpunished.
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The fourth negative implication is found in verse 17. If you say there's no resurrection of the dead, let alone
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Jesus from the dead, you are still in your sins. Verse 17, for if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
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Notice the personal language Paul uses there, the personal pronouns. They're plural, but within the plural body there at Corinth, they're individuals.
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And this could be true for you singularly or plurally. If Christ has not been raised, you and your faith is futile, and you sitting here right today are still in your sins that you have committed.
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It's either the anaconda effect or it's the noose getting tighter around the neck. Now, verse 14 used the word empty, and it meant null, void.
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Here, he uses the word futile. Sometimes, it still is translated empty, but it's a different word, and it means aimless.
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Can you imagine if Jesus' words and actions aren't true,
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I'm going to raise myself from the dead, I did rise from the dead, then what's said of unbelievers is true of us.
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You shall die in your sins. How would you like to die in your sins?
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I know people on their deathbed, and a good thing to ask the person is, are you afraid to die?
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Maybe a better question would be to an unbeliever, are you afraid to die and then bear your sins for all eternity?
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What does Psalm 130 say? If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
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That's why we need a savior. Who can stand in light of the thrice holy God with sin? Look at that refrain in verse 17.
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At least, it's a refrain in my mind. You're still in your sins. You're still in your sin. You're still in your sin.
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I don't want to be still in my sin. I want to be forgiven. Just think if the forgiveness declared to you by Almighty God through His word is fake.
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Remember those sins you did? Remember those sins that you don't really want to bring up anymore because you're racing this way.
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But if you're racing this way to a dead savior, then you better go rehash those sins over again in your mind because you're going to pay for them.
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Who wants to pay for their own sins? We need a savior. And without the resurrection,
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John Stott said, there was no ray of light, no flicker of hope, no prospect of rescue. These verses are all lies.
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My favorite verses are all lies. 1 Peter 2, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.
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Lies. One of my favorite verses, 1 Peter 3, Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust.
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False. 2 Corinthians 5 .21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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Fairy tale. Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
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For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Made up.
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Hebrews 9, Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await
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Him. Sham. Behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Even the man who was among women the greatest, he was a fraud.
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Can't take away sins if you're a dead Savior. See, for Paul, this can't be true.
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Not because he's trying to wish it to be something else, but because he knows and he has seen and he's been commissioned.
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It goes on, 5th and finally for today, even though Paul gives 6, the 5th negative implication, our consequence to this disastrous truth, which is no truth at all, is found in verse 18.
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If you deny the resurrection of Jesus and every body, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
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Verse 18, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. This is conclusion language he uses in the
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Greek, as a result is what he means by then. Now, some of you here certainly have had loved ones who have died.
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I know personally many of you have loved ones who have died. And for some of us, by the grace of God, we have loved ones in our family who have died trusting in Christ Jesus.
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But if the resurrection isn't true, those people that you want to see again in heaven, those people that you've buried and you've realized that on their lips has been, for me to live as Christ and to die again, dying on their lips with my mother's words, absent from the body, present with the
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Lord, it's a farce. You deny the resurrection of God the
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Son, then the people that you love who have professed Christ are dead and gone and rotting are worse.
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This is why Paul has exercised on this. Because even here, do you see what his language, the euphemistic language of fallen asleep?
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We've seen that in 1 Corinthians a lot, chapter 7, chapter 11. Here in chapter 15, used four times.
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1 Thessalonians 4. Paul takes the sting off the death of a believer by calling the believer dead but with the words fallen asleep.
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Because when you look at a body and it's dead, it looks like the person is sleeping because for the
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Christian, for everyone, they'll be raised from the dead. But for the Christian especially, he'll be raised from the dead to go be with the
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Lord. And so even this euphemistic language, Paul, why bother? These people who are fallen asleep, they're dead.
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It's like when you bury a cat or a dog. I know we're sad. I hate to think about when I have to bury my dog.
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I won't let you know about it, but I'll just tell you ahead of time. I'll cry like a baby. It's my dog.
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I love my dog. I know your dog doesn't have a soul, but mine does. No, but when you, you know, it's like when
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I was growing, I wasn't growing up, a kid down the street was growing up and I was just a brand new seminary student and this mom comes down the street and says, you know, our cat just died and I don't have a husband here and I've got this son and could you do a memorial service for the cat?
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You're a pastor. I said, well, what's the cat's name? Trying to stall.
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What's the cat's name? Jumps a lot. Well, you show that you're made in the image and likeness of God because you name things and you are sovereign and in your sovereign naming, you call it
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Jumps a lot. There's more to that story, but I can't tell it right now. Let's just get back here.
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I will tell this for a point. If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, then there's nothing left of your family members except what you remember seeing them in the tomb and how they looked and how they all eventually smell.
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I actually found Jumps a lot dead and didn't know what to do because I had to quick go get in the operating room and I could not be late.
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And so there's this dead cat laying in my front yard. I don't know whose it is. And so I quick put it in a garbage bag and then put it in a box.
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I thought I'll have to get home and deal with it because I've got to be in the OR. And then later
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I found out who it was, Jumps a lot's owner. And I went to go help bury the cat and I accidentally tore the bag after about a day and a half in the sun.
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Paul says, this is not an emotional appeal for Paul, it's a logical appeal. If you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, your loved ones who trusted in Christ are said they did, first of all, it's the wrong
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Christ, but second of all, they're just a rotting, stinking piece of meat.
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The dominoes don't end for Paul. What's worse than a Christless eternity?
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A Christless eternity thinking you're going to be with Christ though. Even today
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I'll meet people and they think they're going to heaven, but I know by their profession and their life, they're not going. It'd be one thing if you said,
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I'm going to live like hell now, and I'm Anton LaVey and I'm a Satanist and I'm going to go there and party with my friends.
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They'll still be in for a rude awakening. There'll be no masochists in hell. But still when you think you're going to die and go be with Jesus and then you're going to go be tortured forever, justly because of your sin against this great
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God. Paul said it is untenable. The last enemy for the person believing in a non -resurrected
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Jesus will have not lost its sting. This is worse than paganism.
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At least paganism, you just live it up now and then deal with the nothingness later. Paul's going to talk about that in a minute.
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One of the commentators spun this positively and he said this and it's just really good.
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Looking back at the previous verses, we can reconstruct the positive version of Paul's soteriology out of his negative statements.
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Christians are not in a pitiable situation, but a desirable and enviable one. They're not lost, but saved.
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They're not in their sins, but forgiven and justified. They do not merely have hope for this life, but look forward to the eternal glory that will accompany the resurrection from the dead.
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You've got to believe in the resurrection from the dead. You've got to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, or else you will be like the philosopher around the
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New Testament who said, the hope of the resurrection is the hope of swine. The good news contains the resurrection and you ought to believe it and you ought to preach it.
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And if you say, I don't believe in supernatural things, friends, one day you will, but I want you to believe now so that one day won't be what you deserve it to be.
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Free grace found in the risen Savior. Let's pray. Holy, holy, holy is the
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Lord God almighty. The whole earth is full of your glory. Father, thank you that although you were holy and are holy, you're also kind and compassionate and have delivered to us by his will and your will,
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Christ Jesus, the Lord, the eternal son who cloaked himself with flesh 2 ,000 years ago, lived a perfect life, born under the law, accomplished redemption at Calvary, confirmed by the fact that you raised him from the dead.
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And one day he'll be returning, the risen Savior who now sits exalted preeminently at your right hand.
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We as a church, Bethlehem Bible Church, would ask, Father, your good mercies upon us that we would never deny the literal resurrection of your son.
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And if so, Father, close this place. Father, for each person, I pray that you would help them realize this undergirding, this spiritual rebar must be held onto by the hands of grace and faith.
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The resurrection of the body is true. And Father, then help us to live in light of what we believe.
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Help us to do what we know. And Father, if there's anyone here who is not a Christian, Father, I pray that you would cause them to repent, cause them to be born again, cause them to believe in a resurrection of the body.