Sunday Sermon: Resurrection for our Perseverance (1 Corinthians 15:29-34)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. First Corinthians 15 is where we are.

Picking up that final section over the last few weeks we've been looking at verses 12 through 34.

And we're going to look at that last bit today, that final paragraph, at least the way that it's paragraphed out here in my

Bible, verses 29 to 34. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version, if you want to follow along with me, starting in verse 29.

Hear the word of the Lord. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

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

Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which

I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking,

I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this section of 1

Corinthians chapter 15 today, as we continue to be reminded of the promise of the resurrection of the dead, we remember

Christ's resurrection. And so, in Christ, we look forward to our resurrection.

And the things we read about bring to our remembrance what we have been told concerning the promise of the glorified body that we will receive on that day when

Christ returns to be glorified in His saints and be marveled at by those who believe, as said in 2

Thessalonians chapter 1. May we anticipate these things.

May these reminders draw our focus, our attention, all the more heavenward.

For as we are told in Colossians 3, set your minds on things that are above where Christ is.

And let that be our heart's desire today. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

So a reminder to you once again of where we have come in this particular section as we've been studying this portion of 1

Corinthians 15. A couple of weeks ago, we were in verses 12 -19 and read about the resurrection for our salvation.

Christ's resurrection so that we might be saved. Last week it was in verses 20 -28 that we read about the resurrection for God's kingdom.

The kingdom that God is building and bringing into this world and that Christ Himself will give to the

Father on that day. And all around the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And then finally we have this that we're reading about in this closing section, verses 29 -34.

The resurrection for perseverance. That we have come to believe in the resurrection of Christ at the start of our faith.

The gospel was proclaimed to us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The promise that we would be raised as well, all those who are in Him.

That's at the start of our journey of faith. And my friends, it is a reality that carries on to the very end of this faith that we have on this side of heaven.

There is a resurrection for our perseverance. We persevere in this faith.

We continue in what we have been told and what we believe and we'll continue in those things to the very end.

If Christ is raised on our behalf, do you think He would let any one of us be lost?

He who died and rose again for us. And so we remember these things that God gave

His Son to die and be raised again so that we also will be raised again and the

Lord will keep us until that day. Right? Amen? So even with these things that are rather rebuking that Paul says in this particular section, this is the aim.

This is the focus. That you would remain fixed on the gospel proclamation that was given to you at the very beginning and don't lose sight of that.

Hold on to it. The Lord will hold on to you. Amen. And so we have here in verses 29 to 34, the resurrection for perseverance.

Now this first verse, verse 29, this was something that I kind of teased out to you a little bit last week.

Paul says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

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

Paul started chapter 15 by offering proofs for the resurrection. Right?

Well the very first way that he begins is just simply by declaring the gospel. Verses 3 and 4,

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

And then he gives eyewitness proof. First of all, the proof is in the scriptures. The proof of these things having happened and why they happen, the scripture tells us of this.

But then that they happen, Paul gives eyewitness accounts. And that's what we have then in verses 5 through 11.

Paul himself even being a witness to the resurrection of Christ, not in the 40 days immediately following His resurrection, but when

Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, he saw the risen Lord. And there is in Christ even a pointing,

Paul that he would become, no longer Saul the persecutor of Christians, but Paul an apostle even unto the

Gentiles. And so then where Paul goes next is he gives an apologetic argument, a logic argument even, for understanding the resurrection of the dead in verses 12 through 19.

But then he gets deeper into the theology in verses 20 to 28 when he talks about the kingdom of Christ.

The resurrection for His kingdom. But now we're coming back to these arguments that he's making again.

That's where we're at in the closing section in verses 29 to 34. And we'll see some of these arguments continue.

The apologetic that he makes for the resurrection of the dead, even making an argument from natural generation, which is what we'll get to in the next section starting at verse 35.

Now, that's not going to be for a couple of weeks, as you probably know. Next week, Virgil Walker is going to be presenting during this hour.

And we have to give up our class, very unfortunately for that. So it's been said to all of the

Sunday school classes, it's optional. You don't have to come in for that. But if you want to, then you can cancel your class or you can be in here for the talk that Virgil is going to give.

We don't have a choice in the matter because we have to give up our space. So we're not going to come back to 1

Corinthians 15 for a couple of weeks, but that's where we're headed. And I'm even going to tease that out a little bit today so that you can kind of get a taste of the argument that Paul makes with regards to natural generation.

We know that there is an argument for the resurrection of the dead, even in nature that we observe.

But Paul comes back to making a logic argument here with regards to people have a concept.

They have an understanding of the resurrection of the dead, even though the Greeks think the idea is absurd. Because once again, how did we talk about this?

How did the Greeks perceive this whole resurrection of the dead thing? Like we become zombies.

Yeah. The body rises up that's been decaying in the grave there. Who wants that body?

That's ridiculous. That's absurd. There's not even any muscle. The brain is deteriorated and wilted away.

What sort of strength would that body have coming up out of the grave? Who would want a body like that? So the Greeks would mock that.

They would scoff at that whole concept. Yet, there were still even pagans who believed in a resurrection of the dead.

Though they mocked the idea that Christians believe we would rise again, that our Savior whom we worship rose again, and so we will also rise again.

Even though the Greeks mocked at that idea, they even had in their own religious systems a concept of the resurrection of the dead.

And I think that's really what Paul is making reference to here in verse 29. Look at it again.

Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? So who's he talking about?

Is he talking about the church in Corinth? Were they practicing a resurrection of the dead? Now, we have seen when

Paul addresses the Corinthians, he specifically says, you, right? Go back to verse 12.

Look back up to verse 12 as an example. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of who?

You. How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? So yeah, when there's something going on in the church in Corinth, he's directly going to be addressing them.

So was this practice of baptizing on behalf of the dead?

Was that happening in the Corinthian church? We're not given any indication of that. So this is often a mysterious passage.

I don't think it has to be that mysterious. People will ask questions about, well, was that going on in the first century church?

Doesn't appear to me that it was even Christians. These who were baptizing on behalf of the dead.

This is not a Christian practice. We don't see it anywhere else in the scripture. This is the only mention of it.

So it appears to be something that's going on in Corinth, a practice among the pagans.

So here's these pagans who are making fun of Christians for believing in the resurrection of the dead.

Paul's just simply pointing out they do it too. They even have a concept of the resurrection of the dead.

Look at this religious practice that they, uh, that they do, uh, being baptized on behalf of the dead.

Now, whatever they thought of this particular baptism is uncertain. There were various different kinds of baptisms that were going on in the world.

Even among pagans, baptism wasn't just something that was exclusively among Christians, although that is a, an ordinance that God gave us.

Plus you also had copycat, uh, cult religions out there that would see what the

Christians were doing and they see Christianity growing in popularity. And so they're like, okay, that whole dunking in water thing.

That's pretty interesting. Why don't we try some of that? So it could also be the sort of a thing where they were just copying what they saw

Christians do, but they didn't understand the concept of baptism. They're being baptized in the name of this guy who rose again from the dead.

So why don't we get baptized on behalf of the dead? You know, whatever order or sequence of events was going on there with these pagans, we don't know what their mindset was, but we do know

Paul makes a reference to it to point out to the Corinthians. Even pagans have a concept of the resurrection of the dead.

So how is it that there are some of you who have been told about the resurrection? It was at the heart of the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

How can some of you be sitting there saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? There's even, there's even people there in Corinth that are getting baptized on behalf of the dead.

And if the dead are not raised at all, why are people being baptized on their behalf?

So if the pagans are going to make fun of you for this, if they're going to make this claim that there is no resurrection of the dead, they're inconsistent in their logic because they're still doing this thing as though they believe the dead are going to be raised, that this baptism, whatever it is, is somehow attributed to dead people.

Truly, they have some concept of the resurrection of the dead. Now Paul asks two questions here, or three questions rather.

The next two questions are more interlinked. So this is the first question. He's asking these logic questions.

Think this through rationally. Consider the people around you, even the people among whom you live, those who will make fun of you for believing in the resurrection of the dead.

Even they are being baptized on behalf of the dead. But what would the sense be in that if the dead are not raised at all?

Now he gets to another question here in verse 30. Why are we in danger every hour?

So you see his apologetic method here, right? He's asking a question to put the

Corinthians in a position to have to think about this. There's a certain name that we give to that form of argumentation.

What do we call that sort of method of asking questions to get answers? Socratic method, right.

Named after whom? Socrates. Yeah. I remember several years ago there was a man in my church who was really upset that I would have anything to do with a system of soteriology called

Calvinism. Now I never stood in my pulpit and proclaimed Calvinism.

I just taught what the scripture said. But he recognized that some of the things that I was saying, talking about God having foreordained his elect from before the foundation of the world, he's sitting there going, oh,

Gabe's a Calvinist. So he started this campaign. He was a

Sunday school teacher at the time and he started this campaign to try to counter some of the stuff that Gabe was teaching about election and predestination and stuff like this.

So I invited him out to lunch one time. I said, I think you and I need to sit down to lunch and be clear on each other's intentions, how you're teaching your class, what

I'm teaching when I am preaching these things from the pulpit. And when we were sitting at lunch talking, he told me,

I am never in my Sunday school class, I am never, never going to teach anything that has somebody's name on it, but Christ's.

I said, okay, what do you mean by that? I said, I'm guessing the, uh, the underlying dig you're making there is that I'm never going to teach

Calvinism. You're right. And then he says, yes, I'm never going to teach Calvinism. I said, okay, well, let's talk about your method, but how is it that you are going to teach your class?

And he said, well, I prefer the Socratic method. I said, really?

The Socratic method even said it. And I said, Socratic. And he said, yeah, you know, where you ask questions to try to elicit from your audience a response.

And I, I said, sure, Socratic named after Socrates. And he was like, uh, uh, you know, now it's not that Socrates invented the method, right?

Surely this existed before Socrates was around. This whole concept of asking questions to get your audience to think and then give you an answer.

So it's not that, that, uh, that Paul is necessarily employing a Socratic method, but that's what we call it.

That's the name that's been given to that particular method. He's asking questions to get answers from his audience, to force them to have to think about this.

So they reason these things through rationally and logically. There's another name for this particular method.

It's a name that actually Vodibachum gave to it and doesn't have a person's name attached to it. He called it expository apologetics.

It's just taking the scriptures and taking what people know and phrasing it in the form of a question so that a person is forced to have to think about what they're hearing.

It puts your mind in a different place when you're hearing something taught, right? There's a difference between me standing up here and lecturing at you and just telling you things and then asking a question of you, expecting you to reply, right,

Paul? Yes. Right. So it catches your attention. It forces you to have to put your mind in a different place to actually think these things through.

And so Paul is doing that with them. Why are we in danger every hour? And he's asking the

Corinthians something that they know about Paul. Where is

Paul when he's writing this letter? Do you remember? What?

No. This isn't a prison letter. So no, he wasn't in prison. Where is he at this particular time?

It's actually said at the end of the letter. It's in chapter 16, but I did it in my introduction too.

Lois, do you know? Yeah, Ephesus was where he was. So they know he's in Ephesus. They know he's writing from there.

He even mentions being in Ephesus in the last chapter. So they know the stuff that he's been through there.

This is probably coming toward the end of his time there in Ephesus because he makes this mention of fighting with beasts at Ephesus.

Now we don't know for sure if the reference there is to the riot that had happened in the amphitheater there in Ephesus.

We read about that in Acts chapter 20. We don't know if that's actually the episode that he's making reference to when he says,

I fought with beasts at Ephesus. There were all kinds of animosities that he faced there that wasn't just related to the riot, but that was certainly like the biggest thing that happened in Ephesus during Paul's time of witnessing there.

The biggest opposition that he faced. And when you think about him, when you think about that riot happening in an amphitheater, well that was, that's pretty comparable to the way that prisoners and slaves and things like that would be put in the

Colosseum and have to fight with those beasts in the games. So Paul makes a comparison there to a riot that took place in an amphitheater and saying it's similar to having fought beasts in the

Colosseum. So he says in verse 30, why are we in danger every hour? If the resurrection of Christ does not happen, why are we in danger?

Why would I even put myself through that? And so he continues that question in verse 31,

I protest brothers by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, I die every day.

Let me come back to that. What do I gain if humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus.

If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. So Paul making a comment here about how he puts his life on the line for this.

Why would he do that if the dead are not actually raised?

Now think about the apostles, all of the apostles, and how they laid their lives down for the sake of the gospel.

As far as church history tells us, every disciple of Jesus Christ, the 12 plus Paul, were martyred except John.

And what happened to John? Well not now, yeah, there was one that was boiled in oil, but what did happen to John?

He was exiled, yeah. I mean it was not a cushy life. It was not, oh man, all my other apostle brothers were, yeah, boiled in oil, impaled with a spear, cut through with a sword, drawn and quartered, crucified upside down is the history that's said of Peter.

All different manner of ways in which they died for the gospel. John didn't, he wasn't martyred, he lived to old age, but he was still exiled, he did not have an easy life at all.

These apostles gave their lives for what they saw. How many of those apostles would have gathered around and said, hey, let's develop a religion, we're going to be put to death, but it'll be fun.

You know? I mean, who would do that? Who would make this claim, we saw this, and therefore would die for it if they didn't really see it?

And no one squealed, right? None of the other 12 are going, okay,

I take it back, we faked it, we faked the whole thing, now please spare me. Nobody ever said that. They all died for what they knew, they saw, they believed, and surely what the

Holy Spirit had continued to work in them to develop this courage to suffer and die for the cause of Christ.

There was a video that's floating around every once in a while, I see it on social media, I can't remember.

There was at one point I knew who produced this, but I don't remember who it was now. But it shows the disciples like gathered around a fire, and they're talking about, hey,

Jesus died, so now what are we going to do? Well, let's go steal his body.

And then, after we steal his body, we'll say that he raised from the dead. And then we're going to go develop a religion out of all of this, and guys, this is going to be great.

We're going to be exiled from our homes, we're going to be wanderers on the earth, we're going to be like clamoring for food, it's not going to be famous at all, and we're going to be put to death.

Isn't that great? They're all rejoicing, they're like, yeah, let's go do it. I mean, that's absurd, right?

They died for what they knew they saw, and Peter even says that in Acts 5.

Hey men, you do with us what you think that you've got to do, what you see fit to do with us, but as for us, we cannot help but proclaim what we've seen and heard regarding our

Christ, his suffering, and his resurrection of the dead. They testified to those things in which they saw.

And Paul even makes the same question to the Corinthians. Why are we in danger every hour?

Why would I put myself in a position to have to die if the resurrection of the dead didn't really occur?

I protest, brothers, by my pride which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day.

Now see, that's the right kind of boasting. And Paul does a whole other manner of this kind of boasting even in the next letter, in 2

Corinthians 11. This is the right, like, whenever we think of boasting, you're always just boasting about your accomplishments, right?

I always hated having to put together a resume. I hated it because it's like, well, let me boast about myself in this resume, you know.

Whenever we talk about, whenever we think about boasting, you just boast in all the great things about you, how awesome you are and all the great things that you have accomplished.

But what does Paul say here? I boast that I die every day.

And he qualifies his boasting as being boasting in the Lord because that's what he said at the start of the letter in chapter 1, let he who boasts boast in the

Lord. So his boasting is, I die every day. That's a very humble boast, that I die every day.

What would he mean by that though? I mean, Paul's still here, he's still writing this letter. So what does he mean by I die every day?

Yeah, dies to himself, right, right. Gives his life to Christ. He's doing all things that he does for the glory of Christ, not for the glory of himself.

I put my life on the line every day. I crucify myself for the cause of Christ every day.

What do I gain if humbly, well, humbly speaking, if humanly speaking, he says,

I fought with beasts at Ephesus? What do I gain from that? Why would I put myself in that position to have to face a riotous mob in Ephesus of thousands of people that wanted to kill me?

People who were shouting great is Artemis of the Ephesians because they hated the concept that Jesus Christ is

Lord. Why would I put myself in that position if the dead are not raised?

If I never saw the dead raised, and if I myself didn't believe that the dead would be raised.

Then he goes on to say, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Now that statement comes from Isaiah 22, 13, where instead of mourning over sin as God instructed and so be saved, the

Jews responded to the siege of Jerusalem with feasting and drinking. It's just as Providence would have it.

I just went through this in my podcast on Thursday, just last week was in Isaiah 22, because I'm going through Isaiah and the

Old Testament study on Thursday. So just talked about this, the Oracle of God that was given from the prophet

Isaiah to Jerusalem is that the enemy was coming to lay siege to Jerusalem. And it says there that the men, the leaders of the people of Jerusalem are already dead.

Not that they had been slain, but Isaiah goes on to say they've been slain without the sword.

And this was a reference to their cowardice. They would not fight back. They would not lead the

Jews against the enemy. And especially they would not lead the

Jews to humble themselves before the one they really needed to humble themselves before.

The one who is actually bringing this enemy against them because of their sin, God. They wouldn't humble themselves before God.

And instead, knowing that this enemy is coming upon them, what did the Jews do instead?

This is it. We're all going to die. So how should we handle this?

Go before the Lord and repent before we have to stand before Him in that final judgment? They feast.

Kill the fattened calf, whatever animals we got left, let's get them. Before the enemy gets them, let us have them.

Drink the wine, eat the barley, kill the fattened calf, let us eat and drink, and be merry because tomorrow we're dead.

Making the most of their situation before we have to die. But how should they have responded to that situation?

With mourning and tears. Have mercy on us sinners.

They did not really believe that the judgment of God would have them that way.

Which is why they felt comfortable just eating and drinking. This could also be the influence of Epicurean philosophy among the

Greeks, who did not believe in an afterlife and so enjoy the best life that you can.

Yeah, your best life now, right. Before there was Joel Osteen, that was hedonism.

That was the hedonistic philosophy of the ancient Greeks. Enjoy your best life now. And so either way, you could apply that.

It comes straight from Isaiah, Isaiah 22, 13. But even the Greeks probably said something very similar.

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Remember the Greeks did not believe that there was a resurrection of the dead.

Now Paul had made the argument earlier, well clearly they do, because you see in their religious practices, they have the baptism of the dead.

But in their proclamations of their own beliefs, they would say there is no resurrection of the dead. When a person dies, that's it.

The body becomes worm food. There's no afterlife that we go on to. We just cease to exist.

And so if that's going to be the end, then enjoy all the best things that life has to offer you now, because eventually you're going to die and that's going to be it.

Now of course, not every Greek could enjoy that. There were poor, there were sick, there were the informed, or the infirmed rather.

They're not enjoying their best life now. It's like the worst that life has to offer.

That's what they're experiencing. But the philosophies of the Greeks nonetheless remained, enjoy what you got, because this is all that there is.

And what a hopeless thing. What a hopeless conclusion.

I really, in my spirit, and even somewhat in my frustrations, I wish that that was the linchpin argument that would win atheists.

And in my sensibilities, I feel like that it should be. Like an atheist who believes that there is no

God, there was nothing before I was born, I have no consciousness of anything existing before I was born, so therefore when

I die, I'm just going to go back to that state again. I'm going to cease to exist. I'm not even going to know there was anything.

And when you encounter a person who believes such a thing, you try to tell them, then this existence is absolutely hopeless.

And morality is entirely a social construct. You can't actually say that anything is good or bad.

And so the only things in this life are good are anything that brings your body pleasure. And so why tell a serial killer that they're wrong for going out and killing a bunch of people when that's, for them, that's pleasure.

I enjoy that. So let me enjoy the best that life has to offer me, and then we all die.

I'm helping you get there faster. That's what the serial killer would say. I wish that was the linchpin that would win an atheist over to recognize logically and reasonably, and these atheists claim to be people of reason and logic, right?

I use logic. I don't need a God. Well then logically, there's no purpose to this existence.

There's no meaning or purpose to anything we do. You're just brain gas.

Your brain farted and you had a thought. But there's nothing good or bad about it.

And I wish reasonably that would be the thing that would just make them go, oh my goodness, you're right.

I haven't even stopped to consider there is no meaning or purpose to this existence if there is no

God. But what do the scriptures say about that mentality? Psalm 14, the fool has said in his heart, there is no

God. And Romans 1 .18, they suppress the truth with what?

Their unrighteousness. They love their sin, and so they hate

God. Dwayne? The atheists that I have encountered, I'll put it that way, that repel what you just said are those that have thought through that.

They have adopted a philosophy that they're atheists. But we're in a generation now that we're watching a non -believing -in -God society.

Post -Christian is what we call it. Yeah, Russell and I were talking, Franklin Graham had a stat the other day.

70 % of people under the age of 20 are not even believing in God. So we're getting into this category where Paul's argument might be more viable because they haven't developed the philosophy of atheism.

You see where I'm going with that? Right. Okay. But boy, there's a need out there that's incredible.

Because if not, our society will be exactly what you just described right there. Right. Yeah, and to say that, don't hear me saying don't use that logic argument because it doesn't work.

Right. Paul used it. And so I think it's reasonable to use it. If we couple this with Scripture and the hope of the

Gospel, then the Spirit is going to penetrate that heart of stone to see the truth, to open their eyes to the reality of their situation and even the judgment that would come upon them because of their sin.

That's a work that the Holy Spirit would do. I'm just simply, you know, I'm expressing the frustrations of my own flesh, as it would be, that I wish that that would be the linchpin argument.

It just doesn't seem to carry a person there. It breaks my heart, too.

Because you want them to understand that there's that resistance through a good friend of mine.

I ask, well, what happens when you die and you're asleep, just like you are now?

Right. There's nothing left. I'm gone. There's more. So that's the frustration

I feel, too. And why are we frustrated, Wayne? Why do we want them to change their minds?

Well, we love them, for one. Exactly. We love them. Because we know what happens on the other side.

Because the Spirit, by His grace, has opened our eyes to the reality of our condition and our situation and our need for a

Savior. And we would patiently endure and try to give such arguments to friends of ours who are lost, so that they would be convicted.

And may the Lord, in His goodness, open their eyes to the truth. Absolutely.

And that's in 2 Timothy 2 .25, that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness, and then who may grant repentance?

God may grant repentance, after leading them to a knowledge of the truth. So, we entrust ourselves to God, we understand what the

Scriptures say, and use those arguments where they are applicable, where we have opportunity to do so with friends of ours.

And may the Lord open their eyes to the reality of our condition and our need for a

Savior. Now, Paul is speaking to a people who should know better, right?

He says to them, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. That is a logical conclusion, if the dead are not raised.

It would be a logical conclusion if there's no resurrection of the dead. Just eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

But then Paul goes on to say in verse 33, do not be deceived. Now, he made one quote in verse 32, and now he makes another quote in verse 33.

Bad company ruins good morals. Now, the interesting thing about that statement is, it's not a quote from Scripture.

And I remember years ago, when I was studying through 1 Corinthians, that baffled me. Because I was like, I thought for sure

I saw that somewhere else in the Bible. But that wording is not found anywhere else in Scripture.

Bad company ruins good morals. Now, there's certainly a nature of that wisdom that is given in the book of Proverbs.

It's not worded exactly that way. But you'll find multiple Proverbs that could be applied exactly that way.

Bad company ruins good morals. If you keep the company of fools, guess what you become?

Foolish. You don't gain wisdom keeping the company of fools. You become a foolish person.

And so there are different commentators, I guess is the correct word, that have theorized what

Paul is quoting exactly. It could have been something else from the Epicureans. It could have been another Greek philosophy.

And Paul was just bringing it to their attention. Remember that even the pagans understand this concept.

So why don't you understand it? Since Paul concludes this section by saying, I say this to your shame.

I'm going to give you Gabe's theory here on what he's quoting exactly. You want to hear Gabe's theory? I think he's quoting his previous letter.

I think he said this to the Corinthians in that previous letter that we don't have record of before 1

Corinthians. Remember when we talked about that at the very beginning? Like there's a prequel to this that the

Spirit in His wisdom just decided was not going to be retained for us today. Paul makes a reference to that former letter in chapter 5.

So it could be that it was in that letter when he was telling them things to that church before he said to them, bad company corrupts good character.

And he brings that to their attention again. I've already told you this. Be reminded of it.

And that he has to repeat it to them to get the point across is why he says, I say this to your shame.

You've already heard it, but apparently you haven't yet learned the lesson. Bad company ruins good morals.

That's Gabe's theory anyway. That he's even quoting himself from his previous letter. Why does he say that?

Doug is asking a Socratic question. So why does he say?

Right. Who was in their company? Who was in their midst? Right.

Who were doing what? What were these people doing? These very people who live by this philosophy, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

There is no resurrection. Remember that? How can some of you say that there is no resurrection? They're letting them remain in their midst as though church is a social club.

So I'm glad they're coming and being a part of us. I wish they would believe in the resurrection of the dead, but they don't, so they're leaving those who deny the resurrection of the dead in their company.

And what is it doing to the rest of the Corinthians? Causing them to doubt that the resurrection actually happened.

And if we doubt the resurrection, what's going to be our philosophy in life? Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Tomorrow doesn't matter. Get the best of what you can get out of today. And so Paul says, don't be deceived.

Bad company that you're leaving there in your midst ruins what you have come to know, the truth about the gospel and the instruction that Christ has given.

Wake up from your drunken stupor. As is right. And do not go on sinning.

I recently did a video in which I was telling people to stop a certain sin.

I won't go into it, but just to provide this example. So I said, stop doing this.

And one person commented, that's ridiculous. That you're just telling people to stop doing something.

You may as well just be telling them to stop sinning. And I quoted 1 Corinthians 15 34, wake up from your drunken stupor and stop sinning.

That is actually an instruction in the Bible. How do you have the power to do it?

The Holy Spirit within you. Yes. The Holy Spirit that has given life to your mortal body so that you might be obedient to the

Lord from the heart. That you might desire to live in holiness and righteousness, which you didn't desire before the presence of the

Holy Spirit in your heart. But now you do. And Paul even says in Romans 8 11, it's the very power that brought

Jesus Christ back from the dead that dwells in you. So certainly you have the power to resist sin and live righteously, right?

To hear this word and be convicted and know I need to stop sinning and live righteously unto the

Lord. That to continue in sin, to have heard the message of the gospel and the resurrection of the dead and yet continue in the passions of your flesh.

That's a drunken stupor. But wake up from it as is right.

And don't go on sinning. And then Paul makes this statement, for some have no knowledge of God.

Who is it that has no knowledge of God? The lost, apparently it's some of them that are even sitting in that congregation.

Which is why Paul has to go on to say, I say this to your shame. It's not the first time in this letter he said that.

He said it before when talking about matters of discipline that weren't happening in the church in chapters five and six.

So you're not disciplining those who are in your midst that you're letting remain there who are ruining your good character by their bad behavior, by their false beliefs.

Some have no knowledge of God. Why are you letting them stay there? Look ahead at the end of chapter 16.

At the end of chapter 16, I'm talking very end, verses 21 to 24. The closing of the letter.

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Look at verse 22. If anyone has no love for the

Lord, let him be, what? Accursed. And then our

Lord come. Although some of you may have a translation that says Maranatha. Because that's what that word means.

Lord Jesus come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.

Amen. So he gives a statement at the very end of the letter. That if there's anybody who doesn't know the

Lord, let him be accursed. And so there's a statement there to the

Corinthians. You need to do something about this. Don't let the immoral remain in your midst.

For some have no knowledge of God. And I say this to your shame. So here's the questions, here's the logic arguments that Paul has put forward to the

Corinthians. And his aim and his objective in this, in the reason why he's phrased these things in this way, is so that they would persevere in the truth.

You're losing ground. You are being way too flippant with this basic bedrock truth of the gospel that we proclaim to you.

You're acting glibly. You need to wake up from your drunken stupor and don't go on sinning.

You need to continue to persevere in the truth that we gave you at the very beginning. This is one of the reasons why

I love the book of Hebrews and why I come back to it as often as I can. I try to read through all of Hebrews at least once a year.

Hebrews is a letter in which the people are warned not to fall into unbelief.

That's the objective of the letter. Be reminded of the gospel that you've heard so that you don't fall into unbelief like our fathers did in the wilderness.

So that letter has been written with such passion that the hearers would know the gospel and see

Christ and how he fulfilled all these things in the Old Testament. How he is the greater high priest. He is the greater

Moses. He is the greater word. He is the greater David. He is the greater sacrifice. So that we would hold fast to Christ who is the solution to all things and will deliver us into his eternal kingdom if we persevere to the end.

That's the objective of the letter of Hebrews. And I think Paul is making that point with the Corinthians here in this closing section we've looked at today verses 29 to 34.

The resurrection of Christ. Believe in it. And persevere in it.

Unto the day of glory when we enter into the presence of God forever. When we finally receive that resurrection of our bodies.

Right? And then you have the argument from natural generation.

Which is what we're going to get to in a couple of weeks. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come? We're all going to rise up as zombies. That's why

Paul says in verse 36, you foolish person. I love that response. It's like, because with Paul it's like,

I'm glad you asked that question. That's good. Let's think about that. No, he goes, you idiot.

Come on, you even know this from nature. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body to be but a bare kernel perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed, its own body.

And as said in Philippians 3, we have this promise that Christ will raise our lowly bodies and transform them to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

Amen? Believe it. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we come to a conclusion on this lesson, as we have pondered these things and these proves, these arguments that Paul puts forward for the resurrection of the dead, may we hold fast to it and continue and persist in this belief and hold to the message of the gospel that was first given to us.

I pray that we also learn from the way that Paul had framed these arguments with the

Corinthians. We learn that we are not to keep bad company but to continue with the saints, pursuing love with the saints as Paul had instructed

Timothy to do with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. We would keep good company with our brothers and sisters in the

Lord. And we also learn from this how we might ask questions and share the gospel with those who do not believe so that they will come to the knowledge of God and be saved.

May we have a heart for the lost that desires for them to come to a knowledge of the gospel.

May we not continue in a drunken stupor but even in the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us, we stop sinning and we do righteousness so that the

Lord may find us faithful servants on the day of Christ. It's in Jesus' name that we pray and all

God's people said, Amen. This is

When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours.

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, gospel -teaching,

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study