WEBVTT 00:00:00.001 --> 00:00:14.000 If you have your Bible turned to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, how much would you give to live forever? 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:27.000 How much would you give if you didn't have to die, didn't have to face what Brother Wallace faced last night? 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:39.000 She'd just live forever. How much would you give if you knew they have, or they would have, the technology in a few years to bring back the dead? 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:55.000 And though you may die, your body could be frozen and kept safe until the time they had the technology to bring your body back to life so that you could live again? 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Ted Williams, who was a major league all-star baseball player, did just that in 2002. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:31.000 He commissioned his body to be frozen as soon as he died in the hope that he could live again, that technology would advance to bring that feeble body of his back to life, longing, scratching for life. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:39.000 We all want to scratch for life as long as we can and have life. How much would you give? 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:47.000 Would you give $100? Would you give $1,000? How much would you give? 00:01:47.000 --> 00:02:28.000 I want to encourage you today, knowing that there is life after death, there is the technology available in the Holy Spirit to bring dead bodies back to life, that though Brother Wallace dies and his body will be put in the grave, that very body will one day be put back together, and the soul will be reunited to that new body, and he will live forever. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:38.000 Do you not understand that there is life after death and that there is a resurrection? How much would you give for that? 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:47.000 The world would give everything for it, but they are not willing to forsake all to follow Jesus Christ in order that they may live forever. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:53.000 What I want to do is work through this text. I want to charge you. I want to charge myself. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:58.000 I want this at the very end of the sermon. Every time I preach a sermon, I will always think this question. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:04.000 What is the main objective of the sermon? What do I want out of the sermon? What does God want out of the sermon? 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:18.000 How do we impress and apply and take this sermon to our hearts so there is not just an intellectual stimulation, but it is something we are leaving with a new commitment, with new faith, with new resolve. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:24.000 What I want out of this sermon, I will tell you up front. Usually I wait until the end to bring this out. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:33.000 I will tell you at the very beginning, I want all of us, if you are lost, if you are saved, I want every one of us to say I am going to give everything that I might live forever. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:43.000 I want you to do it willfully, joyfully. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:54.000 Let's read our text. Starting at verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:00.000 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.000 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.000 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:22.000 We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:30.000 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is fruitile and you are still in your sins. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ, those who have died, like Brother Wallace, have perished. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:54.000 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Now what was going on as we talked about preceding this text, the Corinthians were being influenced by some form of protonosticism that looked at the physical body as something that is evil, it's not something that's eternal. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:19.000 What's eternal is the soul, and it doesn't matter what happens to the body. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.000 Therefore, God wouldn't take that which is physical, which is tainted with sin. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.000 He wouldn't bring that back. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:33.000 The goal is to be in some form of Gnosticism, the goal is to be released from the body, not to be united to the body. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:39.000 Salvation is to be free from the physical, not brought back to the physical. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:43.000 The physical world and the physical body needs to be expunged. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.000 We need to get out of it. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.000 That's the salvation, is to be free from the body. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:06:05.000 And so they were denying the future resurrection, the literal physical future resurrection of the body on the last day, as if the soul just goes with the Lord, but the body forever stays in the ground, never to be resurrected. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:06.000 That's what they were teaching. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.000 At least some within the Church of Corinth was teaching that. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:23.000 But what Paul is saying in this text, if you deny the future literal bodily resurrection of the dead, of the saints, then you undermine everything about Christianity. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 The whole kit and kaboodle falls apart. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:35.000 It's a fatal error to deny the physical bodily resurrection of the dead. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:43.000 It's a fatal error because all of Christianity hinges upon the fact that there is the resurrection. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:51.000 And so he gives seven things that fall apart, seven truths that fall apart if there's no future resurrection. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:07:00.000 That is, it's kind of like the gospel has this one little thread that flows through the gospel. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:07.000 And if you pull that thread, if you start pulling at it, you don't just remove the future resurrection of the saints. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:11.000 You're going to remove the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 And once you do that, everything starts tumbling down. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.000 The whole gospel falls apart. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:26.000 The Old and New Testament is no longer inerrant, and God Himself is a liar. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.000 Everything falls apart. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:30.000 And let's look at that. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:42.000 First of all, if you pull the string of and deny the future resurrection of the body, then you're going to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:48.000 You see, denying the resurrection of the dead has an immediate consequence. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:53.000 If there's no resurrection of the dead, then that means Christ didn't raise from the dead. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.000 This is verse 12 and 13. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there's no resurrection of the dead? 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:07.000 But if there's no resurrection of the dead, then here's the obvious conclusion. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Then not even Christ has been raised from the dead. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:15.000 You know, Christ, it wasn't a phantom, His physical body that was laid in the grave. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:25.000 That physical, tangible body, that body was the one that was resurrected to the point that they could touch the nail prints in His hands. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:28.000 That body rose from the dead. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:34.000 And if you deny that your body, so we'll get a totally different body and it's not going to be this body. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:41.000 No, we don't understand completely what that new body is going to look like, but this is the seed of that body. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:47.000 It's not just a replacement body, it's a resurrection. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:53.000 And if we deny the future resurrection, we're going to deny the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:59.000 And you've got to understand, once you deny that Christ rose from the dead, then everything is destroyed. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:10.000 Once you say Christ didn't raise from the dead, then look, verse 14 says, "Our preaching is in vain." Verse 14, this is the second consequence. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.000 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:22.000 In other words, every gospel sermon is based upon the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:31.000 And if you're denying the resurrection of the dead, then all the preaching, especially the apostolic preaching is vain. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:47.000 Acts 33, the apostles went around preaching the gospel and it says,"With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." I mean, that's what they were preaching. That was the pinnacle of the sermon. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:56.000 Yes, Jesus died for our sins and buried, but here's the pinnacle, that He didn't stay in the grave, that He rose forth. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.000 And that's the victory. If there's no resurrection, there's no victory. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 And that's Christ is still in the grave, that means He was defeated. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.000 And if He's defeated, there's no hope. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:13.000 No hope is in the fact that Christ didn't stay in the grave. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:32.000 You see, on the road to Caesarea Philippi when the Lord Jesus was going to be transfigured, He stopped and asked the disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And Peter says, "Some people think you're Elijah. Some people think you're John the Baptist. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Some people think you're just a prophet. They think you're somebody, but no one's saying that you're the Son of God." And then Jesus looked at them and says, "Well, who do you say that I am?" And Peter says, "You're the Messiah. You're the Son of the living God." And Jesus says, "You didn't learn this in a textbook. You didn't learn this from others. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:07.000 Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Because you know who I am, I'm going to tell you who you are. You're no longer Simon. You're Peter. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:33.000 And upon this rock, I'm going to build my church, and I'm going to give you and the apostles the keys to the kingdom of heaven, which is the gospel message, by the way. I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom, and as you preach that gospel, you're going to open up the gospel, the kingdom to all who believe. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:42.000 And I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom in this church discipline and who you lock the kingdom to, what you mine on earth will be bound in heaven. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:55.000 But though you know who I am, this is the strange thing about that story. Jesus says, "Don't tell anybody." Wait a minute. They're supposed to take the keys and preach the kingdom. They're supposed to preach who Jesus is. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:09.000 That He's the Messiah. That He's the Son of God. But Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone yet." And why did Jesus forbid them to share the knowledge of who He was? 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:17.000 It's because they weren't ready to use the keys to the kingdom because they didn't yet know that the Son of God had to die. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:23.000 They didn't really realize at that time that the Messiah would be crucified. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 In fact, that was the first time Jesus began to tell them of His crucifixion. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:44.000 And Peter rebuked them. This can't happen. And that's when Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan." And it wasn't until after Christ rose from the dead and they remembered these teachings that it dawned on them that Christ had to die and suffer and be resurrected. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.000 And it's only then were they commissioned to go into all the world and preach the gospel of the kingdom. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:53.000 If you don't have the resurrection, you don't have the full gospel. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:59.000 And without the resurrection, there's nothing to preach. Of salvation, there's no hope. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:09.000 And this is why the Lord says, "Sway until you know the full truth." And after you know the truth, then go and preach. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:18.000 But if there's no future resurrection, then this whole gospel, this whole message is useless, meaningless, powerless. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.000 So this is the second consequence of denying the future resurrection. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:29.000 Thirdly, if you deny the future resurrection, you're going to unravel the whole integrity of the Bible. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Look at verse 15. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:49.000 "We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ whom we did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised." You see, this is the apostolic witness. We came preaching this message. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:58.000 And if you say there's no resurrection, then you're saying that our preached message, our gospel, our testimony, you're saying we're liars. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 And listen, if the apostolic message is a lie, then the New Testament is a lie. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:08.000 If you deny the future resurrection of the body, you're denying the integrity of the New Testament. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:15.000 But not only the integrity of the New Testament, the Old Testament prophesied of the future resurrection of the body. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:23.000 Isaiah 26, 19, "Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust awake and sing for joy. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:31.000 For your dew is the dew of light and the earth will give birth to the dead." That's amazing testimony of Isaiah. 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.000 Talking about the resurrection of the saints. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Daniel 12, verse 2, "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, and some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." You understand, if you're denying the resurrection, you're denying the Bible. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:54.000 You're saying the Bible's not true. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:57.000 Both the Old and New Testament. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:03.000 You're saying God is a liar, that He's mistaken. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.000 Fourth, if you deny the resurrection of the dead, you're unraveling your own faith. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.000 We see this in verse 16 and 17. Look with me. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:24.000 "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." Your faith, verse 14, says is vain. It's empty. It's useless. You're believing a myth. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:31.000 Your faith doesn't do anything other than it has a certain reality that's going to save you. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:35.000 Your faith doesn't save you. The reality that your faith is anchored in saves you. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Jesus saves you, not your faith. His resurrection saves you, not your faith. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:45.000 And if you take the ground and the basis of your faith away, all you have is a lie. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.000 And your faith in a lie does you no good. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:57.000 Long as you have faith, strong faith is nothing. It's the object of faith that is everything. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:03.000 So you take that object of your faith away, what do you have? 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Uselessness, blindness, superstition at best. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.000 You see, one, our faith is a byproduct of the resurrection. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:32.000 1 Peter 1.3 says, "Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." You've been born again because Christ raised from the dead. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:40.000 You have faith because you've been brought out of death, spiritual death, because of the power of the resurrection. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:46.000 And so you take the resurrection away, then you're stuck in your depravity, you're stuck in your dead state. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.000 No power to believe. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.000 Secondly, if you take away the resurrection you have no object to believe in. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:17:11.000 Romans 10.9 says, "Because if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." You see, believing that Christ is resurrected is the central element, one of the central cardinal truths of the Gospel. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:16.000 This is what saves us is believing in this truth. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:27.000 But not only is our faith of no account useless, our whole salvation is undermined. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:31.000 This is the fifth thing. Look at verse 17. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:44.000 "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." Why did Christ die? This is the glorious truth. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:50.000 Your sins, He didn't die because He was a sinner. He was sinless. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:58.000 And the wages of sin is death. That is, Christ would have never died if it wasn't for our sins being imputed and given to Him. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.000 You know, they couldn't kill Him, they couldn't stone Him, they couldn't push Him off a cliff. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:08.000 They tried to kill Him multiple times, but He always slipped out because the Bible says it wasn't His time. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.000 He couldn't be killed because He was sinless. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:19.000 He says, "No one can take my life." He says, "No one can take it. You can't kill me. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:27.000 You have angels that will protect me." I'm sinless and only death comes to sinners. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:38.000 The only way He could die is He willfully takes your sins and they get taken off your account and be transferred to His account and He dies because of your sins. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:44.000 We have to realize this. We are the ones responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:52.000 Why did He die? Because we sinned. He had to die if He was going to represent us. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.000 He died because of us, but He rose again because of Himself. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:01.000 Once He died, He took our sins with Him. This is the glorious truth. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:31.000 I mean, we should shout for joy. We should just like, "Oh, is this really true?" We should shout for joy knowing that our sins, all of them, past, present, future, the ones I'm even committing as I preach this sermon, all our sins have been put onto Jesus and when He was put into the grave, our sins were put in the grave and then God judged them and had all wrath poured out on all the cup, every ounce of wrath, not a drop left, poured out on Jesus in the cross. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Then He took the sins and He buried every one of our sins into the grave. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:41.000 They're buried there and when He rose, the sins remained in the grave. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:48.000 They didn't come out with Him. They stayed, but He came out of the grave because He was sinless. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:55.000 The grave looked for sin, looked for His sin and they couldn't find sin in Him. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.000 And so the grave spit them out. So you don't belong here. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:20.000 He overcome death by His death because He was sinless and because He was sinless, He rose from the dead with victory, conquering the devil, sin, all powers of darkness. He comes out of the grave as the champion, our champion. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.000 And if you take the resurrection away, we don't have that no more. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:33.000 Hallelujah, He'll roll. The most glorious day of all of history. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:39.000 Don't take that one away. He rolls the victor. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:46.000 Our sins still are in the grave, never to be dug up again. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:54.000 But if He didn't raise from the dead, then we still have our sins. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.000 If He didn't come out of the grave, it proved that He was a sinner. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:04.000 And if He is a sinner, then we are a sinner still. And we are hopelessly lost. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.000 If He didn't come out of the grave, we had no other hope. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:15.000 We had another chance. That was it. That was the one and only shot we had. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.000 So if you take that away, then we're all condemned still. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:29.000 Then we would die and never live again. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:33.000 We'd be hopeless and those who have died would be hopeless. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.000 Look at verse 18. This is the sixth consequence. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:46.000 "Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." I mean, I was there last night after our event. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:55.000 I got the call, go to the nursing home. I saw Brother Wallace. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.000 As Greg said, a saintly, godly man. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:06.000 You could tell the corpse, there was no soul there. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:10.000 And I was thinking about the sermon I was going to preach today when I was looking at him. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:24.000 It has said, "Think the Lord for the resurrection." That body, it won't stay cold and lifeless. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:27.000 It's the blessed hope. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:37.000 This is why we can say we do not weep and grieve of others who have no hope, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:45.000 "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:55.000 For this we declare to you by the word from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left unto the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:04.000 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command and with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.000 The dead in Christ will rise first." What a glorious day. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:11.000 That day is coming. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:36.000 Christ is coming back and says, "The trumpet is going to sound and he's going to have a large voice." He says, "Just as he said to Lazarus, 'Rise up and he's going to say to all those who have preceded us in death, who are in the Lord, 'Rise up, Reverend Wallace.'" He's going to come up out of the grave. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:43.000 I mean, only if Ted Williams knew that. 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:48.000 Only if he could have understood that, that it was free, you didn't have to buy it. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:57.000 That he didn't have to worry about his body being brought back and restored. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:03.000 Seventhly, if there's no future resurrection, then we of all people are to be most pity. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:07.000 That means we're wasting our lives. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:17.000 The King James says, "We're to be the ones that will be considered the most miserable." I mean, here's the thing about Christianity. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.000 This is not just a part of our life. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:27.000 You know, if I'm wrong about some investment, I'm putting a little bit of my eggs in this little basket, but I've got eggs all scattered around. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.000 I'm diversified in where I'm putting my hope in, and I'm pursuing this and pursuing that. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.000 I've got my family. I've got my career. I've got this. I've got that. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.000 And one of these may not go too well, but I've got a lot of other things. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.000 I'm hedging my bets, if you would. 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:46.000 I've got a lot of other things to rely upon when this or that doesn't go too well. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:49.000 But that's not the nature of Christianity. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:51.000 Christianity is not something you just add to your life. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:53.000 That's just a part of my life. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.000 If that happens to be false, well, that's all right. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:59.000 I still lived a pretty good life. I still had other things. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:02.000 It's not the end of the world if Christianity is a lie. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.000 I put a little hope in that, but I didn't put all of my hope in that. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:08.000 I had a backup plan. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 I still did other things that I enjoyed. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:18.000 You don't pity me. I've got other hopes. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.000 That's not Christianity. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.000 That's not the nature of it. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:30.000 The reason we would be above all people most miserable and to be pitied is because that's all of our hope. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.000 That's our life. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:36.000 That's everything. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:44.000 You know, one of the things I know about true Christians, this is like when the signs and evidence of a true Christian is like, it's amazing. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:48.000 This is the joy of being a pastor. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.000 My whole life is about Christianity. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.000 My job is Christianity. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:56.000 My study is the Bible. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.000 I read books about the Bible. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:00.000 I talk to people. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.000 When I get with you guys, you guys, hey, can I have a meeting with you? 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.000 Can we eat lunch together? 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.000 I say, sure, sure. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:10.000 Let's get this lunch appointment and let's meet. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.000 You know what we talk about? 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:14.000 You talk about? 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:20.000 And I'm thinking, all you guys want to talk about is the Lord Jesus. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.000 It's like, I think that's all that I get to hear is the Lord Jesus. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:26.000 Like, why is that? 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.000 Why is that? 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Why are you so fatuated with the Lord? 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:31.000 Why is it always on your mind? 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Why is that the heart of your affections? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.000 Why is that the thing that you want to talk about the most? 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:41.000 Because it's your life. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:43.000 It's not just a part of your life. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:44.000 It's a section of your life. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.000 It's everything to you. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:52.000 And if that's not true, then your whole life is ruined. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:53.000 Your whole life is off. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:56.000 Your whole life is a lie. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:04.000 If that's a lie, then your life is a lie. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.000 We don't follow Him half-heartedly. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:10.000 To be a Christian, it's all or nothing. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.000 It's all or nothing. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:17.000 We forsaken everything to follow the Lord Jesus. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:20.000 We have no plan B. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:27.000 In fact, you can't be a Christian if you have plan B. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.000 So if this is a lie, then our whole life is a scam. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:32.000 This whole thing is a mess. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:36.000 This whole, everything we're doing here is a scam. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:41.000 Every dollar you put in the offer plate, you got scammed. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:49.000 Every prayer you prayed was just a big lie. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:55.000 All the tears you prayed and repentance useless. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:00.000 But let me end this sermon by telling you a reason why we know it's not a lie. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:05.000 Why we know that Jesus rose from the dead. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:08.000 Yes, if you take that away, it undermines God. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:10.000 It undermines apostolic teaching. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:13.000 It undermines the Scriptures, the gospel, faith, hope, and our purpose. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:14.000 It undermines everything. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:23.000 But let me give you in conclusion why we can be certain we're not to be most pitied. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:29.000 One, because of the veracity of the Scriptures themselves. 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:31.000 Paul builds his arguments. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 Yes, he says, "I've seen them." There's 500 people saw them, the Apostle saw them. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:39.000 But he builds everything on the foundation of Scriptures. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:29:02.000 In verse 3, it says, "For I delivered to you as first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he raged on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." It's the fact that the Scriptures is the foundation that tells us that Christ died and rose again. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.000 And the Scriptures are infallible. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:22.000 The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3, 16, "All Scriptures are inspired of God or breathed out by God." John 10, 35, Jesus says, "The Scriptures," looking at the Old Testament, He says, "The Scriptures cannot be broken. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:29.000 I come to fulfill every last jot and tittle, because the Scriptures cannot be in error. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:48.000 They cannot be broken." Matthew 5, 18, "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth passes, not one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Every ounce of the Old Testament has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.000 The Scriptures cannot be broken. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.000 And why is the Scriptures reliable? 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.000 Because God is reliable. 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:00.000 The Bible is the Word of God. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:14.000 That is, the Bible is as authoritative and without error and trustworthy as God is authoritative without error and inspired without trustworthy. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:23.000 Numbers 23, 19, it says, "God is not a man that he should lie or a son a man that he should change his mind. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:39.000 He has said, and he will not do it, will he not do it, or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" Titus 1, 2, God who never lies. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:45.000 Hebrews 6, 8, it is impossible for God to lie. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:56.000 2 Timothy 3, 2, 13, "If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself." You can lie, I can lie. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:59.000 We've lied, we've been mistaken. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:01.000 Sometimes we lie out of purpose. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:04.000 Sometimes we lie because we're in error. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.000 We don't mean to. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:11.000 But God, being all wise and all-knowing, never makes a mistake. 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:19.000 And being all-powerful, he cannot deny himself. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.000 For God to lie, God had to cease to be. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:31.000 If God lied one time, his own self-existence would disobey. 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:35.000 He would crumble in on himself like a black hole. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:47.000 God cannot deny himself. He cannot be any other thing than holy and pure and truthful. 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:53.000 Thus we can trust the Bible. We can trust God. 00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:00.000 This means that we can be certain that our sins are forgiven. 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:05.000 Christ died because of our sins being imputed to him, as I've already said. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:11.000 How do I know that I'm forgiven? 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:15.000 How do I have peace and how can I rest at night? 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:18.000 How can I have all this guilt and this shame and this disgrace? 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.000 How can I live with myself? 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:26.000 How am I ever going to have peace with God and have a clean conscience? 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:33.000 We can because Christ rose from the dead. He conquered death. He conquered our sins. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:49.000 We don't have to live in fear of God and the fear of the Day of Judgment any longer, for there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:53.000 Because Christ rose from the dead, we too have hope. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:59.000 We have hope. I know we don't think about this much, at least I don't. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.000 You know, we all know to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:13.000 But the full salvation is the redemption of our bodies. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:19.000 We'll see later in 1 Corinthians 15, God didn't make for our souls to be unembodied. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:23.000 It's almost like being naked. Something's just not right. 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:29.000 We desire to have our body. God's made us that way. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:44.000 And we can be certain there is a future day where the saints will come up out of the grave, resurrected from the dead. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:55.000 Now here's my last closing word, and this is where I bring things back to where I started and told you upfront what I wanted out of this sermon. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:58.000 And I want you to really seriously contemplate this. 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:31.000 Ted Williams spent a lot of money, made an endowment so that he could hopefully, one day, be restored to life with this vain empty hope that somehow technology would catch up and bring his dead. And then if they did happen, he would still be an old man. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:39.000 If all we had was this life, then we would be most pitied. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:47.000 Ted Williams is to be the one who is to be pitied. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:35:02.000 If you're here and you don't know the Lord, and I know there are some of you who do not know the Lord, you think to yourself, I want my life. I want to do my thing my way. I want to have fun. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:09.000 I want to I want to sit and do it without any consequences. I just want my life. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:14.000 Do you not know that your body is going to be in the grave soon? 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:18.000 The worms are going to eat your body and you're going to you're going to go. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:22.000 You brought nothing in this world. You will take nothing out of it. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:26.000 The Bible says if you seek to live for this world, you're going to lose everything. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:31.000 You're going to lose everything. Everything is going to be gone. 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:33.000 It doesn't matter if you're rich. It doesn't matter. 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:37.000 If you're famous, it doesn't matter. You get all your life's dreams. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.000 You're to be pitied. Who's to be pitied to this world? 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:45.000 Not Christians, not poor, despised little Christians are not to be pitied. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:50.000 Who is to be pitied? Is the rich, famous, wealthy that do not know the Lord? 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.000 That's all they have is this life. This is all they have. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:58.000 And where they're in the grave, that's it. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:05.000 Until the they wake up in hell, wake up under the wrath of God. 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.000 No more pleasures, no more of this world. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:18.000 Everything's gone. Never to be retrieved. 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:38.000 Those who give up this life in this life, those who forsake all, I mean give up all, they gain everything. You gain everything. It's amazing. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:59.000 But Molly, who we just baptized last week, Molly O'Connor, I think she's about 10 years old, precious little saint, I got to examine her, ask her about her faith. 00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:04.000 And what I'd asked her is what I asked a lot of young Christians. 00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:12.000 I asked her, Molly, would you give up everything to be a Christian? 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.000 Would you give up everything? 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.000 It's like Jesus when he met the rich young ruler. 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:24.000 The rich young ruler says, Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:27.000 And Jesus says, okay, this is what you must do. 00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:31.000 Sell everything you have, all your riches. I know you're rich. 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:35.000 Sell it all, give to the poor, then come follow me. 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:44.000 And the rich young ruler contemplated the cost of discipleship, and the rich young ruler left away sad. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:46.000 Have you ever been there? I've been there. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:53.000 And I've witnessed enough people and I see them contemplating the cost of Christianity, the cost of discipleship, and I've watched many people. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.000 I've seen it in the counseling room, in my office. 00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:06.000 I've seen probably 15 cases to 20 cases where I'm hurting the cost out, and I'm watching them contemplate, do I want to give up sin? 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:10.000 Do I want to forsake sin and follow the Lord, or do I want to go after sin? 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.000 And they're truly in their mind weighing the decision. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:21.000 And I've watched them hang their head, leaving the office, and I'm weeping for them because I know they're being so foolish and blind. 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:24.000 They have no clue what of the cost that they're making. 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:28.000 Do you understand that you're going to lose everything for just 10 minutes of pleasure? 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:30.000 Do you not see how insane you are? 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:36.000 But they're so blind, they're so enslaved to the sin, they don't even see how enslaved they are, do they? 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:38.000 And it breaks my heart. 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:40.000 Can you not just see that you're going to die and go to hell? 00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:45.000 What kind of trait is this? 00:38:45.000 --> 00:39:08.000 And so sometimes as we think about the cost of discipleship, and as we think about forsaking all to follow the Lord, we think of it from the lids of the rich young rulers like,"Oh, I just don't know if I can give up. That's expensive." We start weighing, we feel like, "Oh, I'm going to have to give up this and give up that." And I look to Molly and I said, "Do you understand you're going to have to give up your parents?" And I knew that was going to be a hard one. 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:21.000 I knew that one's going to be tough to ask a little girl,"Are you willing to forsake your mother and father?" I mean, don't ask that to little kids. That's not fair, but I did. 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:25.000 And Molly's answer was the best answer I've ever heard. 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.000 In fact, I'm still contemplating it. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:47.000 She said this, "I know God is good and He's loving, and He would only do what was good and loving to my parents so I can trust Him with my parents." So yes, I can give my parents to God. 00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:55.000 That is someone going from the rich young ruler who doesn't want to do it and hesitant to the man who found the treasure in the field and for joy. 00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:00.000 So all that he had is like, "Oh yeah, I'll give Mom and Dad up. 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.000 I'll give my sister up. I'll give my house up. 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:05.000 I'll give my business up. I'll give my wealth up. 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000 I'll give my life up. I'll give my reputation up. 00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:10.000 I'll give up everything. Yeah, you're kidding me. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.000 Sure, I'll give up everything. Do you not know what I'm getting? 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:22.000 Life! Christ! Righteousness! Forgiveness! I'm getting everything in this trade. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:30.000 Sure, I'll give up life to get eternal life." So I want you to end. 00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:40.000 So some of you, let's make some application for us so that you don't leave thinking, "Okay, that was good for salvation." You are Christians. We do what I do. 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:42.000 You pick up your life back. You give it to the Lord. 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:45.000 But you've got a little business and you worry about your business. 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:47.000 You've got a marriage. You worry about your marriage. 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:49.000 You've got children. You worry about your children. 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.000 And you begin to worry. You begin to worry. 00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:54.000 And that's you taking control back over your life. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:56.000 You want to be in control. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:41:01.000 God says, "Listen, just give it to me." And let me ask you this. 00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:07.000 Would you rather be in control of your life, your business, your marriage, the things you care about? 00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:22.000 Or would you rather know that there's a loving God who's all wise that has your best interest in mind and His glory in mind to say,"I've got this. I have your health. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:27.000 So that might mean I might die. I might lose my business. 00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:33.000 Yeah, you may. But you're going to be resurrected. 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:35.000 You're going to get everything. 00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:43.000 You can trust Him with everything you have because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:45.000 That's the good news. 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.000 That's why the resurrection is vital. 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:53.000 Let's pray. 00:41:53.000 --> 00:42:00.000 Lord, we see such good news in Your Word, such truth, so precious truth. 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.000 Lord, we can live off this truth. Every word we can live off. 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:08.000 We can meditate on it and just find such good food in it. 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:17.000 It nourishes our soul, increases our faith, puts joy in our heart and faith in our heart as well. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:20.000 Lord, we bless Your name. 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:25.000 We bless the name of Jesus for taking our sins and dying for us. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.000 And we thank You, Jesus, that You rose from the dead. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:33.000 We stand in Your victory and we worship You for it. Amen. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:38.000 Amen.