WEBVTT 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:14.800 Now, if we're gonna be a people who make disciples, right, one of the critical things about that process is that we have to fight to protect and preserve the gospel. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.760 Because it is the gospel that makes the church. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.600 It is the gospel that makes you a disciple of Jesus. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:28.800 And it is the gospel that will bring others into this joy-filled salvation that we're talking about. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:55.039 And so I would want to put forward that the church's primary responsibility is not in the acts of service and ministries of mercy, right, that we could find ourselves in, feeding the poor and helping the marginalized oppressed or liberating those who are suffering, but that actually our primary endeavor is to fight to protect the gospel. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:04.400 Because the gospel has always been threatened by the surrounding culture that the church finds itself submersed within. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:14.079 Ever since the very first church, the gospel became threatened because culture always was applying pressure to the church. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:28.239 They were applying pressure to the church to change the message so that it would be something that would be more savory, more easily received by the surrounding culture that the church found themselves within. 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:32.879 We see this in all kinds of different ways, both secular ways and even religious ways. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:44.959 The whole work of Paul's uh writing to the church at Galatia was that the surrounding culture of Judaism had come into the church, and they have said, yes, faith in Jesus is great, right? 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:46.560 But it's insufficient. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:47.840 It's actually not enough. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:52.079 You have to have faith in Jesus, plus you have to be circumcised. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:58.640 And Paul labors in Galatians to say that Jesus plus anything equals nothing at all. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:00.560 You lose the entire gospel. 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:17.680 And so the religious outside culture had crept into the church and it shaped and formed the message of the church rather than the message of the church going out into the culture and shaping and forming their own understanding and worldview that they might be reconciled to God through Christ. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:25.280 But the Corinthian church that we are going before today experienced the same issue, but in a secular way. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:40.159 You see, these were Greek believers, these were newly converted Greeks that Paul had labored to share the gospel that he had received with them that they might believe and be saved in the gospel of Jesus. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:41.919 But there was one problem. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:49.439 The gospel of Jesus is saturated with the idea and the uh theology of resurrection. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:53.039 Without resurrection, we have no gospel. 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:55.439 But Greek thinking, right? 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:11.520 This culture of people who prided themselves on logic and their ability to obtain this special knowledge uh through their own enlightenment, they had no place for resurrection within their worldview. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:35.039 And so what was happening in the Corinthian church is that they were loosing their grip on the gospel of Jesus, and they were having the message changed and transformed by the pressings of the surrounding culture they were submersed in, rather than allowing the gospel to inform them and for them to be sent out and change and transform the culture around them. 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:52.240 Now, we actually see in a Greek tragedy uh uh from 458 BC, uh it says this once a man has died and the dust has soaked up his blood, there is no resurrection. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:04:05.599 So this is written 458 BC before Christ, and now we see the Corinthian church uh they're actually adopting this very worldview of which they were redeemed out of through the gospel. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:10.560 And it's causing the Corinthian church to actually change the very message. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:27.759 What they were believing was that there was no physical resurrection from the dead, that they actually experienced the fullness of salvation in their spiritual dying with Christ and their spiritual being raised with him into new life through the new birth. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:45.680 So they believed that the fullness of salvation was experienced in a spiritual sense, but that there was no physical resurrection to be looking forward to, no more salvation to be obtained because resurrection had no place within their worldview. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:05:05.040 And so Paul's coming in to chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians to contend against this errancy because what he's helping them understand is that if they just change or alter or twist even one part of the gospel, they lose the whole thing altogether. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:15.839 And Paul's gonna use strong language about this new message that the Corinthian church has fabricated and is now circulating throughout the church. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:44.319 He's gonna bring about this warning that all of what they have confessed to believe would be vanity if they abandon even this one aspect of the gospel, that Christ literally, physically resurrected from the dead, and that we who are in him will be physically resurrected at his coming again also. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:06:04.720 So as we dive into 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 11, here's what I want us to try to understand is that we have to be on guard as a church that the culture is able and works to come into the church and to shape and form its message. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:25.439 Our job, our work is to preserve and protect that gospel message and then to be sent as missionaries into the world around us that they might experience gospel transformation, restoration, and renewal, not be changed by the culture ourselves. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:31.439 And so in verses one through seven, what we see is this that the gospel is of first importance. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.399 The gospel is of first importance. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:44.720 Paul begins to confront their errandcy by reminding them of the gospel of which he preached to them, of which he himself had received. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:52.079 Paul received the gospel of Jesus from the physical resurrected Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:58.399 This was Paul's kind of boasting in some sense that he received the gospel from Christ himself. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:01.920 This established him as an apostle within the church. 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.560 But but he didn't do this in isolation. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:17.839 Paul eventually goes before the Jerusalem council of some of the other apostles within the church, and he has the gospel message that he's preaching affirmed by these other apostles. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.319 So he's received it from Christ. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:37.120 He's had it affirmed by the apostles, and he's saying to the Corinthian church, you have to remember, let me remind you of the gospel, not a gospel, not some gospel, but the gospel of which I myself even received. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:49.120 They had received the untainted, pure gospel of Jesus' life, death, burial, and physical resurrection from the dead. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:57.920 He says, This gospel I preached, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.040 Paul's giving them some sense of encouragement. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:07.040 He says, I know that there were some among you who received this gospel when I came and I preached it to you. 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:23.120 And there was an effect that was witnessed by the Spirit working in your life, that you would proclaim Jesus' Lord, that you would say with joy that Jesus has died for your sin and raised again from the dead, that you might have new life. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:27.360 And he's seeing this because he affirms that some of them are standing in this, right? 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:30.079 They're being loyal to the claims of the gospel. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:35.759 It's not that Paul's coming in saying the whole church has loosened its grip and abandoned the gospel entirely. 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:41.519 He's encouraging that there are some who are still standing in this faithful good news. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:53.279 But then, as Paul does, in the way that he masterfully is able to craft an argument, he puts this statement in there, and by which you are being saved. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.279 He communicates this ongoing reality of the gospel. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:05.919 You see, the Corinthian church had believed that they experienced the fullness of salvation in their spiritual death and their spiritual rising again. 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:11.600 In their understanding of the message of the gospel, there was nothing to be obtained any further. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:16.559 There was nothing to look forward to of more salvation that would be applied to their life. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:18.720 And Paul's saying it's not over yet. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:21.200 You haven't experienced the fullness of it yet. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.200 You are being saved. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:28.720 And he's communicating this already not yet tension of the gospel. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:37.919 We have already been resurrected with Christ in a spiritual sense, but we have not yet been resurrected with Christ in a physical sense. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:53.440 This is for those who are in Christ when he comes again to consummate his bride, the church, that those who have fallen asleep, those who have died in Christ are physically, literally resurrected into glorious bodies. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:58.240 And that is where we rule and reign with him in the new creation in new heavens. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:04.960 This is what we are looking forward to with this eager anticipation as the church. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:15.039 You see, in the Corinthian understanding, there would be no place for more salvation to even be necessary because they've already obtained the fullness of it. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:22.240 And here, Paul in his opening statement informs them, no, there's still salvation to be obtained. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:29.360 There's still something to look forward to, most certainly the physical resurrection of our bodies. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:32.639 And Paul then inserts this clause. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:40.399 If you hold fast to the word I preach to you. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:45.279 Man, that is a weighty statement. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:59.279 If you hold fast to this gospel message, if you refuse to let go, if you white knuckle the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:03.600 In our life, I think we're tempted to white knuckle a lot of things, right? 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:23.600 We tend to have our firm grasp on the things of this world, whether it be our success in our occupation or our prosperity with inside of society, or whether it's our children that we white knuckle or our spouses or whatever it is, we tend to lay hold and grasp for things that perish with us. 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:29.679 And we are called as the church to hold fast to the gospel alone. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:41.679 Because when we let go of that grip, we are going to be tempted to abandon the hope of the gospel and place our hope in something other than the gospel itself. 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:47.840 And the consequence of that, Paul lays before the church in full view. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:51.360 Unless you believed in vain. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.159 Unless you believed in vain. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.799 Unless their faith wasn't genuine and sincere. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:06.320 Unless it was a faith that produced no real effect in their hearts. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:16.320 You see, the apostle is going to equip the church in how to discern the genuineness and sincerity of someone's confessed faith. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:27.200 When someone confesses that they are a believer in Jesus, when they say that they're a disciple, a Christian, a Christ follower, Paul is going to equip the church in how they discern the genuineness of that. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:38.320 And it's not some momentary reality all the time, it's this progressive uh uh course toward holding fast to the true and faithful gospel of Jesus. 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:47.919 It is in the evidence of our holding fast to the gospel that we can have uh confidence that the faith we confess is true. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.320 And this is what Paul's pointing to. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:59.120 Unless what you what you said out of your mouth, unless of what you confessed was just vanity, hopelessness, despair. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:14.080 You see, Paul was encouraging the church to hold fast to the gospel that he had preached, not to hold fast to the one that they had fabricated and that was now circulating throughout the church. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:24.399 The vanity that Paul's referring to is this devastating reality, a life of false hope, a life that is absent of any sense of security. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.919 They would have no assurance that they were ever truly saved at all. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.639 Their life would be utterly hopeless. 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:47.759 You see, it's only by holding fast to the faithful, hope-filled gospel of Jesus do we have true security, that we have any sense of real assurance that we have been saved, that we are being saved, that we will be saved at his appearing. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:51.840 And then Paul reminds them of this gospel that he preached to them. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.600 He says, He says, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:10.559 This language of delivering that Paul is using it is rooted in this rabbinical practice of transferring authoritative knowledge to their own disciples. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:11.120 Right? 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.600 It's something that's handled with care. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.720 It's not handled haphazardly, like me. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.360 I I am full of useless information. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:26.080 I was talking to someone, you want to take me to trivial night because I remember the most useless things, right? 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:31.039 But I also communicate that information in uh falsities. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:39.360 So uh I may say things, but you better double check what I say because I believe that I actually heard it somewhere and then I say it, but I probably am wrong. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:41.919 And so maybe you don't want to have me at trivial night. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:52.399 But uh but here, we're not dealing with some useless information that we can handle haphazardly, that doesn't have any effect if we transfer this knowledge wrongly. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:56.799 No, we're we're dealing with something of eternal magnitude. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:13.039 And Paul is pointing to the way that rabbis would take the word of God and they would carefully and tenderly and cautiously hand down this knowledge to those of whom they were discipling in God's revelation. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:19.200 What was handed down to Paul is being handed down now to others. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:23.120 And Paul says, This is what I delivered to you. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:28.080 This wasn't some kind of uh information just fabricated by man. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:31.519 It wasn't contrived by some enlightened thinker. 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:42.080 This was the divine revelation of God that was suspended in mystery for a time, yet revealed fully in Christ, now able to be transferable one to another. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:49.679 We got to think about the way that the gospel is meant to be transferable in its very nature, right? 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:51.759 It is something that we communicate. 00:15:51.840 --> 00:16:03.519 It's a message that comes out of our mouth that we hand deliver to others around us that they may find the same hope that we have been able to find in his salvation. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:05.759 And so we've something to communicate. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:17.440 It's not something to harbor, it's not something to keep for ourselves, but it's transferable in its very nature because it is fundamentally a message to be declared. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:31.279 It's absolutely critical that what is being transferred, what is being handed down, passed on, must be preserved and protected above all else. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:34.240 And what was it that Paul delivered? 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.000 What was this gospel? 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:43.200 Well, he says in 3b through 8, he says this that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:43.840 That's key. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:45.679 We're gonna highlight that in a moment. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:52.159 That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:58.480 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:05.599 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:18.000 In its most distilled form, we see the gospel as this that Jesus died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day. 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:21.440 That is the essence of our faith. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:27.440 That and that alone is what we put our hope in. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:32.240 Because it is the only thing that is hopeful. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:40.400 And Paul is working to preserve this beautiful and glorious gospel message. 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:55.279 And one of the things that he does, I think, that is so uh necessary that we have to point to, is that he anchors the gospel message to the revelation of God himself in accordance with the scriptures. 00:17:55.599 --> 00:18:04.240 You see, the gospel was not fabricated by the wisdom of man, the gospel was put forward to destroy the wisdom of man. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:07.359 It was something that was transcendent. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.119 It was God's gospel, for God is the gospel. 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:20.319 And he was so kind and loving toward us that he would reveal it so that we may be able to take hold of it for ourselves. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:30.799 You see, he's saying that this gospel is not made by me, it's not contrived by the apostles, it even transcends mankind as a whole. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:33.279 It is divine in its very essence. 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:41.519 We have no liberty, nor do we have freedom to be able to change and alter the message of the gospel of Jesus. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:49.599 We have one obligation that which we have been entrusted with, we protect with everything we have. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:54.000 It's not our message, it's his. 00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:00.319 Paul has established the authority and authenticity of the gospel message beyond himself. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:13.200 And notice how Paul even labors in the second part of this in communicating all the different eyewitnesses of who saw Jesus physically, literally raised from the dead, right? 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:14.480 And why is he gonna do that? 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:20.880 Why is he gonna take three out of the eight uh verses that we just read and put forward? 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:26.160 These are all the people who raised saw Jesus raised from the dead. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:30.799 Because this is the very part of the gospel that was at risk of being let go of. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:38.160 This is the very part of the gospel that was being changed and altered, that was leaving the Corinthian church with no gospel at all. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:46.799 And so Paul's saying, you want to have a worldview, you want to be so shaped by the culture that you're gonna dismiss and reject the resurrection of Jesus. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:48.079 Well, let me tell you something. 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:56.240 I'll point out to the brothers, Cephas and James, these 500 brothers, me, even myself, we saw him raised from the dead. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:12.240 You can go ask them about their eyewitness testimony, and they will tell you yes, Jesus raised from the dead, and in his physical resurrection, we long for our own physical resurrection, where death truly has no hold on us any longer. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:30.000 You see, the Corinthian church was left with no gospel at all, with no power to save, with no assurance of the faith they confessed. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:41.599 Paul says, This gospel is of first importance, because by it we are being saved. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:53.359 The essence of our faith is built upon this message, this heralding of good news that Jesus died for our sin, that he was buried and that he physically resurrected on the third day. 00:20:53.599 --> 00:21:02.160 As Paul's going to declare later on in this chapter in verse 17, he's gonna unpack when he says, unless you believed in vain, right? 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:12.000 Now he's gonna come down in verse 17, he's gonna unpack the weight of that vanity, that your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:16.400 If Christ has not been raised, here's the scope of your vanity. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:22.079 We're not just talking about, oh, you kind of got something wrong, or hey, you messed up, champ, but it'll get them next time. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:22.720 No. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:30.799 Your faith is futile, worthless, hopeless, destitute, and you're still in your sin. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:36.400 You've experienced no genuine salvation, you're just full of happy thoughts. 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:42.400 That good, you know, a news flash, Peter Pan isn't gonna make you fly to the shores of glory. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:45.200 It just won't. 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:49.359 You see, to alter the message is to lose the power. 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:59.759 We must hold fast, we must white knuckle the gospel message unless our own confession of faith and the labor of our ministry as the church are. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.839 Are all in hopeless vanity. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:03.039 And let me say something. 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:10.079 I don't want to look back 25 years down the road and just point to all of it as vanity. 00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:16.400 Because we let our grip loose on the gospel of Jesus. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:29.680 Because we allowed the culture to come in, whether it be the religious culture or the secular culture, we've allowed it to come in and alter the very message that we've been entrusted with. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.160 We can't let that happen. 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.519 Paul says in verses 8 through 11, I am what I am by grace. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:48.880 Paul shares briefly at the end of this passage his own personal testimony, how the grace of God turned him from being a persecutor of the church to an apostle within the church. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:54.480 And I love how Paul is portraying this humility about himself, right? 00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:02.960 That he was found unworthy to be a minister of the gospel of grace, but the grace-filled gospel of Jesus has made him who he is today. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:11.599 I believe that Paul here is humbly submitting himself before the church so that the gospel might be magnified among them. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.039 I come out of traditions where we just pastor worship. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.000 And it's the goofiest thing in the world. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:25.920 There's like serving positions of armor bearers, and you have like a briefcase and a Bible, and you go out before the pastor, and he's got bodyguards and all this junk. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:26.559 It's trash. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:27.519 Here's what they want to do. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:29.519 They just want to shine a light on themselves. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:44.480 They want to magnify themselves amongst the people because they want to build their own kingdom with inside of the church so that the people serve their agendas and plans rather than truly submitting themselves to the gospel and what it demands out of our life. 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.000 And uh, my rant is done, but we're not gonna be about that business, right? 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:48.960 That's not us. 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:54.240 The day I have an armor bear, just vote to fire me, whatever it is, right? 00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:57.519 We're not a voting church, but some of you can. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:23:58.640 Nonetheless. 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:12.480 Um, Paul constantly throughout his ministry, constantly throughout his ministry, uh takes the low road, seeks to humble himself so that the gospel might be magnified. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:22.079 He doesn't want the light on him, he wants the light shined upon the gospel of Jesus because he knows he has no power to save his audience. 00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:28.720 He has no ability to present a hope to them that would be residing within himself. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:40.480 The only thing that he could do to faithfully love and shepherd the flock that God has put him in is to point them to the true and faithful shepherd Christ Himself. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.240 May it never be that we point you to us. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:52.799 I love that some of you just call me Justin, or worse, you don't call me pastor or most holy bishop or uh whatever. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:56.960 Because I'm never going to try and point you to me. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.240 I'm a I'm a horrible savior. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:02.400 And so are you. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:21.359 We should always work, whether we're fathers or husbands, wives or mothers, friends or neighbors, pastors or lay people, to point one another, to shine the light, not on ourselves, but on the gospel of Jesus. 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:22.720 And this is what Paul is doing. 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:28.319 He's he closed the section, he says, whether then it was I or they, who gives? 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:29.839 Right? 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.240 So we preach and so you believed. 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:43.200 He's not worried about who gives the message, he's worried about the integrity of the message and the effect that it produced in the hearers who received it by faith. 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:51.279 To believe, to have faith in the true and faithful gospel message of Jesus is to have saving faith. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:55.440 That message and that effect is worth magnifying. 00:25:55.759 --> 00:26:00.000 Paul never showed a desire to magnify himself, to point people to himself. 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:04.240 He knew that within him there was no hope, there was no power. 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:14.160 He was what he was by grace, and that grace, that gospel message, was what he labored to point people to because it saved all those who believed. 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:20.079 It is solely by faith in the gospel, the good news of the finished work of Jesus, that we're saved. 00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:30.160 And so this fundamentally makes the work of the church and it makes the work of every Christian above all else to hold fast to the gospel. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:34.240 I actually believe this is the crux of this passage of Scripture. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:44.079 This statement, if you hold fast, is what all of Paul's laboring in in this chapter for the church at Corinth, what it hinges upon. 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:52.559 If we hold fast, we must, as the church, as a Christian, hold fast to the gospel. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:27:11.839 This edification Paul gives to the church is for them to not lose their grip, to not let go, or to worse yet, to not grab hold of something else altogether, that that pursuit and endeavor would end in vanity, in futileness. 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:22.960 The gospel was being lost, and the apostle was laboring to take their hand off the vain hopes of the culture and to put it back onto the eternal hope of Jesus' finished work. 00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:36.079 I love how the physician Luke, uh Luke, who wrote the gospel of Luke, but also wrote the book of Acts, he uses the same Greek word that Paul uses for hold fast in a nautical sense. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:40.720 He means it into steer toward or to arrive at. 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:48.240 If we can look at the the big idea, this beautiful picture of what's being uh put before us in the text. 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:53.359 It's as if we are these Christians on a journey, right? 00:27:53.440 --> 00:28:01.440 It is the gospel that makes us sojourners and pilgrims that we are journeying toward our destination of heaven. 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:14.799 And it is by grace, through faith and the gospel message of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, that we both become pilgrims and we arrive at our destination of glory. 00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:25.680 It's as if faith was the vessel, this ship that carries us through this life and onto the eternal shores of the one that lies before us. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:32.960 The surety of our destination lies in holding fast to the helm of the gospel. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:43.279 To reach the shore of heaven, we must not allow the wind and waves of the culture to cause us to let go and release our grasp. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:45.759 We will certainly be tossed to and fro. 00:28:45.920 --> 00:29:05.839 And in that, in this sojourning through this foreign land, we will experience the temptation to let go of the helm of the gospel and to lay hold of false, hopeless cultural realities. 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:23.839 You see, the culture will declare to us that the gospel is insufficient, that it's ineffective, that it's outright necessary, and in this pressure that it applies to us as the church, we are going to be tempted to change and alter the very message of the gospel. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:32.240 So that, and our hope is, right, our good thinking is that then the culture will actually receive the message that we have to offer them. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:42.000 If we just change it a little bit, if we just adapt it to fit, if we just twist this little section, maybe then they'll actually receive what we have to offer. 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:48.559 But we are offering them no hope. 00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:58.480 That pursuit, that pursuit offers the world nothing but an empty and powerless message. 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:06.160 It causes them to board a sinking ship and to arrive at a destitute destination. 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:19.039 We must contend to hold fast to the helm of the gospel, to white-knuckle the faithful and true message of Jesus and the outcome of our journey, the destination of those we live on mission for. 00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:20.720 It depends on this. 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:24.799 It depends that we hold fast to the gospel. 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:29.839 Yet many of us, even in this room, are like the Corinthian church. 00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:36.640 We have allowed the culture we are in to alter and change the gospel that we have received. 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:45.119 Now, it may be in subtle and nuanced ways, but its end effect is to leave us with no true gospel at all. 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:49.680 Many of us, we hold fast to a different gospel. 00:30:50.559 --> 00:30:56.000 As I said before, the church is continually working to navigate the cultural tides, right? 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:17.920 It's good and faithful for as we find ourselves within a culture that we're able to navigate its waters, that we're able to have the conversations they're having, that we're able to answer the questions that they're asking, that we're able to critique the culture in the ways that it is living out God's good design unfaithfully. 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:29.440 That is a part of us as the church, but it has to be something that comes from and flows out of the faithful preaching of the gospel first. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:37.200 That we preach Christ crucified, that he died for our sins, that he was buried and that he was raised. 00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:44.480 And it is from faith in that that now we can actually live faithful lives from it. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:52.880 But we see where the church actually has changed their message because of the pressure of the culture around them. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:32:03.759 If we look at the progressive culture we find ourselves in, we see churches all over the place collapsing to the societal pressure. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:23.599 The way that they are uh uh trying to push our understanding of sexuality and gender, the way that they're trying to inform and shape our worldview of ethnicity and cultural division, the way that they're trying to uh promote uh uh uh godlessness, right? 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:29.759 We're seeing that the church has been buckling to this and they've been changing the message for decades. 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:31.119 For decades. 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:32.480 Here's what happened. 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:37.920 Long time ago, that the church believed this because they heard it from the culture. 00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:50.160 If you stop preaching sin, if you stop preaching hell, if you stop preaching God's judgment upon unrepentant sinners, the culture will receive your message. 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:52.480 And what did we do? 00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:57.359 We put before them on a silver platter a gospel of works. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:12.640 If you're just nice, if you're just kind, if you just do good, if you just work for the flourishing of those around you, then obviously God would be obligated to love you and to accept you into his family. 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:17.839 You can work your way into heaven. 00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:31.039 And here's how you know when really we've gone way off course, is when the culture perceivedly is just jumping onto the ship that the church is steering. 00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:33.599 When all reality, what's happened? 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:37.839 The church abandoned their own ship and jumped onto the one of the culture. 00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:48.160 And no wonder that the culture, who's gonna be who like I know that there's people wicked enough to where they're like, oh, you know, dig wells in Africa, let those people die. 00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:49.519 Like those people exist. 00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:56.640 But by and large, do you think the culture was really not gonna get on board the ship of just do good and be kind and make everybody live better? 00:33:56.880 --> 00:33:57.279 Right? 00:33:57.519 --> 00:33:59.759 God has a purpose and a plan for your life. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:13.360 Uh maybe if, let me say this: God has a purpose and plan for your life, if you bow your knee to the Lordship of Jesus and you repent of your sin for which he came and died for, this, yes, God has a plan and a purpose for your life, right? 00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:20.880 But we we preach this prosperity message, we preach this good works message, and we've lost the power of the gospel. 00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:25.360 You you saw this on documentaries that were just released on some of the mega churches. 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:38.960 And what you saw in churches, and I was just saying like Hills Song and Bethel and so forth, like this, is when they had to speak the truth of scripture about sin, the congregation was confused. 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:41.280 They had no idea what's going on. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:50.480 I thought if I just came here and was a good person and did great things, and God just accepted me for whoever I was, and everything was great and happy and go lucky, and he has a purpose and plan for my life. 00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:53.360 And hey, happy thoughts, Peter Pan, keep flying. 00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:54.320 Right? 00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:58.400 And then they're confused when you actually have to preach the Bible. 00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:05.039 And they reject it, they they remove themselves from it, and the whole organization collapses. 00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:07.840 We we did this in the social justice gospel. 00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:16.639 When the fruit of the gospel becomes the focus of the church, we are in jeopardy of losing the gospel altogether. 00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:25.599 We are supposed to live out rightly and faithfully the implications of the gospel, but that cannot be our focus. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:31.760 Because you don't get to heaven by digging wells in Africa and giving shoes to orphans and making sure that you're a good person. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:32.800 You don't. 00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:44.639 And I'm sorry for anyone who has put their hope and trust and faith in that because the church has damned you in there letting go of the helm of the gospel that we were entrusted with. 00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:53.039 If we owe church the culture an apology, it's not for calling out their sin, it's for telling them that they were okay. 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:56.400 That's where we owe the culture an apology. 00:35:57.199 --> 00:35:59.920 But but let me say something very clearly. 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:04.400 We live in a radical progressive culture at this moment. 00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:05.920 But can I tell you something? 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:07.360 It's a distraction. 00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:13.360 It's a distraction from the Trojan horse of hyper-conservativism that's creeping into the church. 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:23.039 And it looks great because it might have a reform bow wrapped around it, and it might be packaged with language like gospel-centered and all these other things. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:25.119 But here's what it's promoting. 00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:43.840 If you can discipline yourself rightly, if you can pull your boots up and become more of a man, if you can be the alpha of your family, and you can make sure that your kids get a classical or homeschooled education, and you can raise your own harvest of fruits and vegetables and slaughter your own deer. 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:51.840 If you can do all these amazing things, God will have an obligation to bless you and show you favor and accept you. 00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:53.760 And you know what it is? 00:36:53.920 --> 00:37:05.599 It's the prosperity gospel that we've called trash and garbage for years on over, repackaged with some bow that we can accept it better, but it just puts forth moralism instead of the gospel. 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:19.519 If the message that comes out of our mouth is able to be received and embraced by an unbelieving, unregenerate individual and applied to their life where they're convinced that the outcome will be better by it. 00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:26.880 We have failed to preach the gospel, we preach works-based salvation and a moralism that has damned them where they stand. 00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:30.079 Do we understand this? 00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:35.199 Our goal is not to be more manly, like the hyper-conservative. 00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:39.599 If you vote this way, if you think this way, if you have these ideas, look at the loud voices. 00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:43.840 They're not even believers in Jesus that are constantly saying these things. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:51.679 And then you have the church that hasn't been effective within culture for some time, sees how Joe Rogan has all these young uh men listening to his pocket. 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:57.519 Well, maybe we need to promote killing elk and doing all these, and this is how you redeem yourself in masculinity. 00:37:57.679 --> 00:37:58.480 It's garbage. 00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:02.079 Stop trying to be more of a man and seek to be holy. 00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:04.320 That's what Christ has called us to. 00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:06.320 Not to be a man, but to be holy. 00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:08.400 Not to be a woman, but to be holy. 00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:22.239 And it's in that holiness that we understand biblical masculinity, biblical femininity, and the only way that we can aspire to such holiness is by faith in the gospel of Jesus, because Christ makes us holy. 00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:26.639 Let this pulpit fall to the ground. 00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:36.480 If we preach some trash, works-based salvation, where if you do this or do that, everything's gonna be great in your life. 00:38:36.800 --> 00:38:41.360 Because we have not loved you well, if we have. 00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:22.559 No, he's not over there, he's white knuckling the wheel, people. 00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:25.840 Anyway, what do I do with Liam? 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:27.360 He loves to drive my car. 00:41:27.440 --> 00:41:28.159 So you know what we do? 00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:35.280 We get on the street, I put Liam in my lap, and Liam grabs hold of the steering wheel, and he drives us down the street. 00:41:35.679 --> 00:41:37.280 And you know what he does? 00:41:37.519 --> 00:41:47.760 Everything that's around him in his peripheral tempts Liam to either one, take his eyes off of the destination, or to two, let go of the wheel. 00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:55.039 Constantly, if it's a dog, if it's a mailbox, if it's a blade of grass that just looks a little different of a color, it doesn't matter. 00:41:55.280 --> 00:41:57.119 It's the temptation is what? 00:41:57.280 --> 00:41:57.599 Huh. 00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:00.159 But you know where I'm at? 00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:04.480 I got my hands gripped around that steering wheel. 00:42:04.719 --> 00:42:06.159 And you know what we always do? 00:42:06.400 --> 00:42:09.119 We always arrive at our destination. 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:14.960 We always pull into that parking spot in our driveway and we say, We're home. 00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:17.519 That's Christ for us. 00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:24.639 We don't put our trust and confidence in our own white knuckling ability. 00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:26.079 We're like Liam. 00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:34.159 As the culture around us draws our attention to it, we're constantly gonna be taking. 00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:35.840 You know what I have to do with Liam? 00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:40.000 Hey, bud, put your hands back on the wheel and let's keep going. 00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:44.719 I pray that Jesus' goodness does that for us. 00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:51.280 If we make it to the shores of glory, it won't be in our own boasting. 00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:57.519 It'll be because we know that Christ white-knuckled us and held us fast. 00:42:58.639 --> 00:43:00.960 And so that we put our hope. 00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:09.360 So our hope this morning, our vision for us is that we would hold fast to the eternal gospel of Jesus. 00:43:10.239 --> 00:43:13.280 May this be the legacy of Sacred Mission Church. 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:27.920 That we didn't abandon, that we didn't let go, that we didn't grasp hold of false hopes around us, but that we stayed held fast to the gospel that we've been entrusted with. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:28.880 Let's pray.