The Charge to Guard the Gospel - Part 5

Well, good morning, you must stop your fellow shipping. It is good to see everybody.

We have a lot of stuff. This has been one of those weeks, hasn't it? Jimmy, his bowling partner for over 20 years passed away in November.

He didn't even hear about it just because of what's going on with, you know, lockdowns and all of these things.

So we want to be praying for Jimmy. It's, you know, to be in lane 25 and 26 for 20 years and then to not bowl for a year and a half and then to go back and find out just a few days later.

And then we had a memorial service for Debbie's dear husband on Saturday.

A number of you made it to that. And if Pastor Stan is watching this video, you and I are going to have a discussion because he came to town to go to the service and I didn't hear a peep from him.

Is that a sin somewhere? We had an epic week in our lives.

On Wednesday. I drove while my wife drove my daughters, my two daughters to their very first paying job.

I want to open with Psalm 104 as I was thinking about what's going on in our country and the sermon series we're in.

If you're visiting, of course, welcome. If you're watching by video for the first time, welcome.

We'd love to see you in church. We have plenty of room to to distance from folks. And it's a very safe place, right?

Because God is here. Amen. And he's watched over this church so well. Psalm 104 says,

Bless the Lord, oh, my soul. Oh, Lord, my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds his chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind, who makes his angel spirit, his ministers a flame of fire.

You and he's talking about God, you who laid the foundations of the earth so that it should not be moved forever.

You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains at your rebuke.

They fled at the voice of your thunder. They hastened away. They went up over the mountains.

They went down into the valleys to the place which you founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth.

May God have his blessing to the reading of his word. So, praise

God. God willing, Ilgen and Lauren will be here on Friday. So, they'll be worshiping with us on Sunday.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday shrinking this message series down.

So, I will have, God willing, this Sunday and next Sunday, we will finish with how to stand firm in difficult days.

And then Ilgen will pick up the last Sunday in June with his first sermon as our pastor.

Amen? And I can't wait. Spending time with that young man is such a blessing and a joy for me.

He is such, he's so teachable. They long to be here. You know they came about a month or more earlier because they just miss us so much.

They want to be with you guys. They want to be shepherding and loving us. And I'll tell you something, as a church family, we couldn't ask for anything more.

Amen? So, what else? Did I forget anything else? No, I didn't, except to pray.

And then David is going to come. Where are you, David? Oh, okay. Oh, I know what else.

It was my last day teaching school for two months, Friday. So, that is a blessing.

And my kids went, amen, we get our dad back. Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning. You are an awesome and a wonderful God.

Lord, we want to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith this morning,

God. We know, Lord, that you laid the foundations of this earth. You said, let there be light and there was light.

You separated the light from the darkness. It was morning and evening the first day.

You saw the light and you called it good. Father God, we think of our nation today.

All that is going on, Father, no matter where we get our news from, we must scratch our head and we just wonder,

Father, what's coming next? So, Lord, we thank you for just this wonderful service for Debbie's husband yesterday, for the comfort that she received, for the beautiful flowers that she brought to our church,

God, to remember her husband and the love that she had and that they shared with one another.

We think of Jimmy, Father, and his dear friend that just to be shocked, the gentleman, they didn't even call him and let him know.

And of course, they couldn't because of all the situation that's going on in our country. We think of the

Huffman's father traveling, visiting family, their son and daughter -in -law back in Maryland, and just the joy worshiping together today.

I know somewhere in that area. Pray for my wife as she continues to recover,

Father, from this bug that has been coming and going throughout the week,

Lord. Thank you that we can gather together so freely, Lord. We are grateful to you,

God. We are so grateful to you for the leadership of this church that opened the doors,

Father, some many months ago. And you have protected us, Father. There's not a single situation that we've had to deal with health wise,

Lord, as a result of being open and singing and fellowshipping God. We're looking forward to Pastor Iljin coming and just all that that means to our church family.

We thank you that we can gather together in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the lordship of Jesus Christ over this world,

Father, that not a bird falls to the ground, that you don't know it ahead of time before the foundation of the world,

Father. You knew you would be here today. You knew what we would be singing, Father, because you're all knowing.

So, Lord, thank you that we can gather together. Thank you that we can commit this service to the glory of God and the exaltation of Christ in whose name we pray.

Amen. Amen. David. Good morning.

I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise to the Lord. And let's stand and sing.

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee. Now, count of every blessing.

The king of heaven.

Praise the Lord, the almighty. Good morning.

Scripture reading this morning's from Philippians chapter four, verses one through 13.

Philippians four, one through 13. Therefore, my beloved and long for brethren, my joy and crown.

So, stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore the odious and I implore

Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men.

The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the

God of peace will be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again.

Though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need for I've learned in whatever state

I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things

I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.

Stand and sing in Christ alone and show us Christ. Thank you all for singing.

And at this time I ask Pastor John. Thank you, David. If you have your Bible, 2nd

Timothy, please. So 2nd Timothy chapter one, we come to part five in a six part series.

I have worked. I have taken out the chainsaw of sermon preparation and scissors and scalpel and cut this baby down.

So, God willing we will be done next Sunday. And then Ilgen can take up the baton and take us where the

Lord leads him. But this particular message is the charge to guard the

Gospel that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith, perhaps hours or days before he dies a martyr's death at the hands of a

Roman executioner. And remember under this banner, the banner has been just for months now, how do we stand firm in difficult days, right?

Jimmy has been going through difficult days. We have many, many people that you know that are going through difficult days, through job situations, illnesses, all kinds of things are going on.

How do you stand firm? What are some tools that God has given us, tangible things we can hold onto, like I'm holding onto this, by faith that will strengthen us and enable us to stand firm, to not be tossed to and fro like a wave in the sea.

And this charge to guard the Gospel which is part of, remember, part of standing firm, because as I've said many, many times, what is going on in the

United States of America, the root of it is not politics. The root of it is the lack of the church guarding the

Gospel. It is the church not sharing the Gospel. It is the church not being the light and the salt that we need to be, not standing firm in the truths of God's Word.

And Paul charges Timothy in verse 13 in strong language that I can't emphasize enough in the

Greek. This is imperative, and it's continuous presence.

I'm sorry, continuous tense. Hold fast, keep holding fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

That good thing, that treasure which was committed to you, keep by the

Holy Spirit who dwells in us. So we have a lot of Bible to cover today.

Let us go to the Lord in prayer and ask His blessing on the preaching of His Word.

Father, how thankful we are for this day. And Lord, we do pray that song that we just sang,

Show Us Christ. Show us Christ. Not John, but to show us

Christ through the preaching of Your Word. Where else can we go, Lord? Where else can we go but to the cross, the power of the cross.

We are to guard, not in our own strength. We are to stand firm, not in our own strength, but by the

Holy Spirit. So God, open our eyes of understanding, and as we sang just now, God, that our hearts would receive

Your Word, that it might bear fruit in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we've been learning, one aspect of standing firm in the last days involves believers obeying this vital and sober charge to guard the gospel, to keep that good thing.

And we'll finish up next week with verse 13. We're actually going to go a little bit backwards, but it's okay. And we've looked at some reasons why guarding the gospel is so critically important.

How do believers fulfill and obey the charge that the Apostle Paul makes here to hold fast this pattern of sound words, right?

And to keep the good thing, or guard the treasure of the priceless gospel. What is involved in that?

How do we do this? What is Paul saying? And how should Christians today follow in Timothy's footsteps and obey this charge to guard the gospel?

And if you have your notes, you'll see, first of all, we've seen that this is done, first of all, by comprehending the need to guard the gospel.

Effectively guarding and keeping the gospel starts at the beginning. And the beginning is understanding and accepting and obeying the charge.

As I mentioned, my daughters began their very first paid job this week, together, both of them,

Wednesday. And they thought they were going to get trained. But the training involved, well, this is a table, this is a customer, this is a plate, get to work.

And Johanna, who's a little bit more vocal than the other one, she's like, well, I thought I was going to get some training.

And I told her about when I started as a busboy, my first busboy job, and I was going into the kitchen, because we had these big platters, and we would bust the table onto the platter, throw it up on our arm, and then walk into the kitchen to the dishwasher.

And of course, what did I do on my third day? I tripped on the little threshold into the kitchen, and off they went.

She's doing it on her arms. So, number one, we have to, we have to understand, we have to comprehend the need to do it, or we're not going to do it.

Amen? Okay. Secondly, believers guard the gospel by understanding the vital importance of having a biblical

Christology. As the Scripture teaches, no biblical

Jesus, no biblical gospel. The cults do not have a biblical

Jesus, so they are not preaching a biblical gospel. When you go to a church, and Jesus is on the cross, notice this cross,

Jesus is not on the cross, friends. The Jesus we serve is risen from the grave.

Amen? He was buried, and He rose again after three days. Third, by understanding some of the key and fundamental doctrinal elements of what the

Bible teaches about Jesus Christ. You cannot have a biblical Christology if you don't know what the

Bible teaches about Jesus. So, effectively guarding the gospel requires having a solid understanding of some of the key elements and truths that God's word teaches, and we have been looking at four.

One of them is the virgin birth. One of them is the deity and the humanity of Christ.

The third is the lordship of Christ. And finally, the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

And as I quoted last week, the only Christ is a biblical

Christ. All revisionist Christs are nothing but shadows of the

Antichrist. So, we've looked at the virgin birth. We've looked at the, briefly, these are all brief thumbnails, humanity and deity of Christ.

We've looked at the lordship of Christ, and we left off last week with the lordship of Christ, and I want to go with you to Matthew 27.

Matthew 27, because we're going to move to the resurrection of Christ in a moment.

And if you take a look at Matthew 27, verse 63, the fourth and the last

Christological truth that I want to examine with you is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.

And what I hope we can appreciate, maybe you've been going to church for many, many years, and you will understand the importance of what

I'm about to say, which is that next to the virgin birth, perhaps even more attacked throughout the history of the church, right up into this very day, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.

And what is important to understand, I think is helpful, is that the attacks against the resurrection began even before Jesus died on the cross, was buried, laid in the tomb for three days, and rose again.

The attacks began even before that. For example, when Jesus died, the

Pharisees gathered together, they went to Pontus Pilate, Matthew 27, verse 63, saying,

Sir, actually look at verse 62, on the next day, which followed the day of preparation, so Saturday, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying,

Sir, we remember while he was still alive, how that deceiver said, after three days

I will rise. Therefore, command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say to the people, he is risen from the dead, so the last deception will be worse than the first.

So the resurrection has been, and will be, until Jesus comes again, attacked. It will be a focal point of anyone seeking to warp the gospel, or diminish the gospel.

And again, as I said, even before the resurrection happened, the day after Jesus gave up his last on the cross, it was already being attacked.

Now go to 1 Corinthians 15. This is where we'll spend most of the time, 1

Corinthians 15. It has been under attack in the first years of the

Church's existence. There's false gospels. Maybe you've seen them. One of them is called the Gospel of Thomas. Best -selling books.

What was that thing somebody just asked me about? Oh, my mind's blank.

Movies. I mean movies, like super popular movies, specifically questioning the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.

Now, take a look at what the Apostle Paul says here, beginning in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you stand.

Now, here we're about to read a micro, miniature gospel theology.

Okay? You're about to get the full gospel in just a couple of verses, and then we will circle back to these verses next week.

But take a look. Here's the gospel in which you stand, by which you are saved.

And here we are again. If you hold fast that word which

I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, suggesting that it's possible to believe in Jesus Christ, to hear the gospel, please listen, it's possible to hear the gospel, to believe in God, to believe in Jesus Christ, and that belief to be empty, meaning it's not saving faith.

And here it is. For I deliver to you, first of all, that which

I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the

Scriptures. There it is. A miniature gospel statement.

Two verses. And verse 5, after He rose again,

He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep or died.

After that, He was seen by James, then by all the other apostles. Then, last of all,

He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, whom am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.

It wasn't empty. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me.

Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Now, please put your thinking cap on.

Now, if Christ has preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.

Yes, and we are also found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom

He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then

Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.

You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep, died in Christ, have perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Wow, you cannot read that and not get a dry throat, constricted.

But please look at verse 12 again. If Christ has preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?

What is the apostle Paul saying here? He's saying that Paul and the other apostles, those that were with him on his missionary journeys, and the apostles still in Jerusalem, preached that Christ had been raised from the dead.

And some of the people in the Corinthian church, like this, much smaller, but like this, in the church, they would be saying,

I'm a Christian. I'm going to sing songs with you. I'm going to sing, show us Christ with you. I'm going to sing, because He lives, we can face tomorrow with you.

I will pray with you. But there's no resurrection from the dead. And they're not going to stand up here and say that.

They're going to say it over coffee on your way out the door. Hey, by the way, that was a wonderful sermon, wasn't it? By the way, Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead.

There is no resurrection from the dead. Once you die, you die. Who believes that? Do you know?

Jehovah Witnesses, unless you're one of the 144 ,000. See, this wasn't a theory.

This wasn't a conjecture. They were saying this was certainly as fact, there's no resurrection from the dead.

And this attack on the gospel was not just happening in Corinth. Paul warns in 2 Timothy later in the book, which we don't have time to read all the passages, they were questioning the denial of the resurrection.

And listen, it was actually overthrowing the faith of some of the people in the church.

This is why it's so important that we're grounded in a biblical Christology. So when another

Christology comes along, another Jesus comes along, we know whom we have believed.

Understand? What is going on in the church is we have people that are not people of the book.

So the false gospels come in. Amen? The false Jesuses come in.

The number one convert to the Mormon Church come from Christian churches. Christian churches.

So this attack, here it is in the church in Corinth. It was in Ephesus. It was in, to some degree,

Thessalonica. It's overthrowing the faith of these early believers. So that's why we must be grounded.

We must be rooted in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now, what about the importance of the resurrection to having a biblical

Christology? What does God's Word say about the resurrection? Why is it so important to the gospel and so important when it comes to what?

Guarding the gospel. Now, in this chapter, there's probably more, but I found six reasons why the resurrection is so important, and I put them all in your notes.

You might want to follow along. You might want to be thinking through the significance of each of these truths when it comes to standing firm in difficult times, when it comes to being grounded in a biblical

Christology, when it comes to guarding the gospel, because we serve a risen

Savior. He is in the world today. Number one, the resurrection is so vital because if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, our preaching, the

Apostles preaching, our preaching would be vain or empty. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, it would mean that the

Apostles preaching would be empty. Take a look at verse 15 or verse 14.

If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty.

So what he's saying is if Christ did not rise from the dead, his preaching, the word empty there is if you think of an empty cup of glass, an empty glass on the counter, you're missing the significance of this word, because in the

Greek, the word means, listen carefully, the word means devoid of any physical, spiritual or moral material value.

See, my glass sitting on the counter that's empty does not have that kind of emptiness.

It's still a glass and it'll hold water, right? We're talking about a word devoid of any physical, spiritual or moral material value.

In other words, as empty as empty can be. And Paul is saying that if Christ is not risen from the dead, then the

Apostles preaching was completely and totally meaningless. It was like a rain cloud with no rain, a lion with no teeth or claws.

How important is guarding the doctrine of the resurrection to the charge, to guard the gospel? If the resurrection didn't happen, the

Apostles entire ministry would have been meaningless. Their teaching, listen to me, their teaching, their ministry, their miracles, and even their martyrs deaths would mean nothing.

Number two, if there was no resurrection, not only would the Apostles preaching and our preaching be vain or empty, the

Christian faith would be empty. The last part of verse 15, your faith is also empty.

Same word, the Corinthians faith, our faith,

Christianity, everything that we hold to be true would be meaningless, completely without value, no point to any of it.

And Paul drives this point even further in verse 17, when he says, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.

You're still in your sins. Look at that word futile. It's even stronger in the

Greek. Paul's saying that if Christ is not risen, the Christian faith is of no use.

It is empty. It is worse than a car without gas.

Could you come to church this morning? If you got in your car, turn the key and there's no gas, would it go anywhere? Yeah, but it's still a car.

You can stay warm in it, right? No, you can stay really warm in it today. No, we're talking about completely and totally useless, powerless, lacking truth.

See, every one of you would laugh right now if I told you that I'm going to go find a cliff this afternoon and go fly, jump off of it and go fly, right?

What would you say? Well, he's lost his mind. Yeah. No, it's futile.

What are you talking about, John? Come on. You'd hit me. I know what my kids would do. They'd hit me up the side of the head with a two by four.

Wake up. So, how important is the doctrine of the resurrection to having a biblical solstice and to guarding the

Gospel? Third, if there was no resurrection, Christians would be spreading a lie. Look at verse 15.

Yes. And we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise.

See, if Jesus wasn't raised from the grave, the apostles preaching would have been empty, vain, completely without value.

Secondly, our faith would be meaningless. There would be no Gospel, no good news for fallen man.

Now, third, if there was no resurrection, it would mean that Christians are nothing but liars.

And look carefully. You can see this in the English even, because in verse 15,

Paul takes us into a courtroom because he uses the word, do you see it? Testified. See, we have a courtroom.

Paul is talking here about a lying witness. He is talking here about someone who has raised their hand, put their hand on the

Bible in a courtroom, and said, You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and what? Nothing but the truth, so help me

God. Which, by the way, is going by the wayside in courtrooms. Did you know that? You don't put your hand on the

Bible in some courtrooms anymore. Yeah.

No. Isn't there something called court TV? Isn't there?

Is that like, I don't have cable. Is that a cable channel, court TV? Yeah, watch it sometime.

No, don't watch it. Read your Bible. Delete that. Victor, please delete that part.

Paul's talking about himself here. He's talking about the other apostles. He's talking about all these witnesses. Do you see how many witnesses, right?

He was seen by Cephas, then by the 12. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, right? He was seen by James.

He was seen by all the apostles. Last of all, he was seen by me. We're all standing here. We all put our hand on the Bible. We all swear to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth.

So when it comes to guarding the gospel, if there was no resurrection, it would mean that every time a

Christian passes out a track, every time a Christian invites someone to church, every time

God opens the door for us to share the gospel, every time a Christian told someone,

I will pray for you, every time a believer says grace at dinner, every time a believer thanks

God for their food with unbelievers as guests in their home, every time a believer goes to church, they're nothing but liars.

Now, fourth, if there was no resurrection, Jesus Christ himself would have been a liar.

To me, this is the consummate attack on Jesus as he's revealed in scripture. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, it would mean that he was a liar.

John 2 .19, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and in three days,

I will raise it up. Matthew 16 .21, from that time,

Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised on the third day.

Matthew 12, Matthew 12, verse 40. Therefore, well, that's not where it is.

It's not Matthew 12. Oh, there's Matthew 12. It'd be help if I was in the right chapter, right?

Jesus answered and said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet

Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Over in Matthew 20, Matthew 20, verse 18. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the

Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And on the third day, he will rise again.

Jesus taught that he would be raised from the dead and to the woman who came to Christ's tomb on the first resurrection morning and wondered where his body was.

Matthew 28, verse 6. The angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek

Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he is risen.

As he said, come see the place where the

Lord lay. See, if the resurrection did not happen, then any reasonable person is left with only one conclusion when it comes to Jesus Christ, and that is that he was a liar.

If Jesus Christ lied about the resurrection, why trust anything else he said or taught?

If Jesus Christ lied about the resurrection, we might as well throw away everything else, might as well just toss the

Bible in the basket, right? In the basket? No, in the trash. Fifth, let's go back to 1

Corinthians. If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead,

Christians would have no hope for the future. Look at this, verse 18.

Then those who have fallen asleep died in Christ have perished. Now, if we had the time to trace the doctrine of the resurrection through the

New Testament, you soon find that what the Bible teaches us about the resurrection shows us that Christ's resurrection from the dead is a guarantee, it is a guarantee of the future resurrection of his people.

So, if Christ himself did not rise from the dead, the future guarantee to his people is what?

Worthless, right? Jesus would be a liar, Paul would be a liar, because Paul couldn't have been any clearer when talking about the

Christian's future hope. Go over to 1 Thessalonians, just a couple of books over, not far.

1 Thessalonians 4, 13. 1

Thessalonians 4, 13. I mean, this is the heart of a pastor right here.

This is my heart this morning right here. You can't, you know, who can know what the heart, right? It's deceitful above all things.

But here, I know this is Ilgen's heart. I know this is my heart. I know this is Paul's heart. This is any true shepherd, under shepherd of Christ.

Look what he says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren. I say this to Jimmy.

I say this to Debbie. I say this to anybody facing loss in their life.

Concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who died, lest you have sorrow as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so,

God will bring with him those who sleep, those who die in Jesus. What is

Paul saying? If Christ rose, then his followers will also rise. And look what he says in verse 18.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. If there was ever a motive to share the gospel besides the command to do so, it's when we lose a loved one.

When we lose a neighbor or a friend that we love, we can ask ourselves a very hard question.

Did I ever take the time to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ?

You understand, right? There's no guarantees, correct?

Even today as we leave this building, right? You know, there's a big, huge traffic jam right there at 99 and 50.

Did you know that 99 is closed from the 50, four miles south, north and south?

We go some way home that we're not used to. We get in a car accident.

What a motive to share the gospel. Hey, if they don't want to hear it, our hands are clean, amen?

Do you have an interest in spiritual things? No, I don't. Okay, end of story. No, yes,

I do. Are you concerned about where you will, what will happen after you die? If they say yes, that God has opened the door for us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, if there was no resurrection, it would mean that we are without hope. There would be no comfort for our loved one.

Therefore, comfort one another with these things. First Corinthians 15 again. One more reason.

Six and final point is in verse 19. If there was no resurrection,

Christians would be the most pitiable people on the earth. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men, the most pitiable.

Paul says, if there was no resurrection, then Christians would be the most pitiable people on the earth.

You see, we would be hard -pressed to find more depressing, a more depressing word than the word pitied here.

You only find it two times in the New Testament. It means unhappy.

It means sad. It means depressed. It means despondent.

And it actually could be translated really wretched.

I think I've been that way once in my life when I had pneumonia. I had pneumonia once. Didn't even know

I had it. Went to the doctor. They did the whole, you know, oh, you've got pneumonia. Three days coughing like I've never coughed in my life.

I was, everything hurt. I was wretched. Asked my family.

They wanted to move. Boy, what a wimp you are. What is it about men and being sick?

I hear we're just big babies. Are we, Pam? Yeah, Pam's going, yeah, yeah. I've waited. No, you're not going to get involved in that one.

She's saying, don't involve me. Don't rope me into this problem. It's okay.

So I'm only here one more. No, I'm here more, but you only get, I only get to do this like one more time next

Sunday. So I'm going to ride it. Here's some perspective on being pitiable.

If there was no resurrection, then Jesus died for nothing. If there was no resurrection, then

Jesus was scourged for nothing. If there was no resurrection, then our Lord wore the crown of thorns for nothing.

If there was no resurrection, Christ suffered death by crucifixion for nothing, which physicians have proven is the most terrible and horrible methods of execution ever devised by man.

If there was no resurrection, then Stephen, the church's first martyr was stoned to death for nothing.

If there was no resurrection, then the apostle Paul was beheaded for nothing. If there was no resurrection, the apostle

Peter was crucified upside down for nothing. If there was no resurrection, the writer of Mark's gospel was dragged through the streets until he was dead for nothing.

James was thrown from the top of the temple in Jerusalem for nothing. The blood of the martyrs, nothing.

Friends, how important is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to being grounded and rooted in a biblical

Jesus? How important is the resurrection when it comes to effectively guarding the gospel?

If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead, the apostles' preaching would be empty.

If there was no resurrection, all of Christianity would be meaningless and worthless. If there was no resurrection,

Christians would be spreading a lie. If there was no resurrection, Jesus himself would be a liar. If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead,

Christians would have no hope for the future. If there was no resurrection, Christians would be the most pitiable people on earth, and there would be no treasure to guard.

Thomas Jefferson. Sound familiar? One of the founding fathers of this country.

Boy, I was with a young man yesterday. What's today? Is today

Sunday? Friday.

And he's a young man that won a scholarship to a university, full academic scholarship, $25 ,000 a year, $28 ,000 a year, and had to write these various essays.

And he was telling me about these essays going all the way back to the Federalist Papers and John Adams.

And I'm driving, and I'm trying to follow. Okay, wait, wait, slow down, slow down. You know, because this stuff is like so. But Thomas Jefferson.

He was a principal writer of the Declaration of Independence. He became the third president of this country, and many people would say he was a great man.

Now, you probably know this. He believed in God, but he was not a Christian. He was a theist.

In fact, he didn't call himself a theist. He called himself a deist. So even though, listen, even though he believed in God, he didn't accept the miraculous in Scripture.

Now, he was a very intelligent man. He did a lot of writing, and he even went so far as to edit his own special version of the

Bible, in which he deleted all references to the supernatural. When he came to the

Gospels, when he came to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, listen, he deleted everything that Jesus said and did, except his moral teachings.

Listen to the closing words of Jefferson's revised

Bible. Ready? There laid they

Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulcher, the grave, and departed.

That is it, the end of the story. There laid they

Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the grave and departed.

Friends, beloved, that's no Gospel. Friends, that makes the

Christian faith meaningless. That means Christians are spreading a lie. That makes Jesus a liar.

That means there's no hope for the future, because Jesus and all his followers are still in the grave.

And would you go in your Bible with me to Revelation 22? That's the last chapter of the

Bible, Revelation 22. And would you look with me, please, at Revelation 22, verse 12?

And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give everyone according to his work.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, which, by the way, means he had no beginning and no end, right, when you break it down.

The first and the last, look at verse 20. He who testifies to these things, surely

I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, what come, Lord Jesus?

Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychiatry, wrote, and finally, there is the pain,

I'm quoting, there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably ever will be.

Death, a painful riddle, not according to my Bible. Christians have victory in death and over death because of Jesus rising from the dead,

John 14, 19. Because I live, you will also live. Because he lives,

I can face tomorrow. The Bible tells us no greater love has this than a man lay down his life for a friend.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die a horrible and cruel death on the cross.

Guarding the gospel requires being grounded in pure Christological truth, consistently increasing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ who lived life on this earth, fully God and fully man without sin. Jesus Christ who was, is, and always will be

Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ who tells us, I am coming quickly to give everyone according to his work.

I am the alpha, the omega, surely I am coming quickly. And how I would end would be the end of the

Bible. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

What? Amen. Would you bow your heads with me? I want to give you a moment.

First of all, to make sure that you know for sure, you know absolutely for sure what will happen two seconds after you die.

I cannot answer that question for you. Do you know for certain as you sit in this building or watch this video, what will happen two seconds after you die?

If you don't, then you need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And I'll be down front.

I'm not going to embarrass anybody. We can talk about that. And secondly, another thing to pray about, and I'll give you time to do that.

Have you ever shared the gospel? Have you ever told anyone about the good news of Jesus Christ?

And maybe you don't know how. Well, very soon, God willing, very, very soon, we will be starting a class on sharing the gospel here.

But ask God to open the doors. You have the gospel. I've given it to you. Next Sunday, I will give it to you again in very shortened form.

That's what the world needs, your neighbor, your loved ones. Are you praying for them?

Are you praying that God would save them? So take a moment before David comes to close us in a closing song.

Take a few moments to pray, reflect on the message. Maybe the Lord prompted your heart in a particular area.

And I'd like to give you a few minutes to pray about that right now. Father God, you know that we are weak vessels.

As Jesus said to the hypocritical Pharisees, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

God, you tell us don't look at the speck on our brother's eye when we have a log sticking out of our own. Lord, I pray for our church.

Pray for everyone here. God, that we would be challenged in this area of guarding the gospel.

First of all, we have to know we're saved as we will review next Sunday. A sincere faith is where it all starts.

Standing in difficult days means having a sincere faith. Then it means guarding the gospel.

It means knowing our Bibles. It means being people of the book. And you know how Bible busy we are.

Father, we see it every day in our lives. We get up, we got to go to work. We got to take that first phone call.

We got to check that text message, that email. And before we know it, it's 10 o 'clock. Before we know it, it's three o 'clock.

And we've barely given you a thought. Lord, forgive us for that.

We can't change the habits of life, God, apart from your work in our life.

You have to do it. Father, you have to save us. We can't save ourselves. And we can't grow in Christ ourselves.

So please help us, God. May this word truly be implanted in our heart that it might bear fruit.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. David and Barb. Well, if you're going to glory in something, glory in the

Lord. And let's stand and sing our closing song. I will glory in my Redeemer. Keep the charge of the

Lord thy God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, commandments, judgments, his testimonies, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you go.