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Two weeks from yesterday, we're going to be holding a seminar on finances. Now, some might wonder, well, what's going to be the character and content of this? It does have a particular focus. This is January 30th and 9 to noon. That's not till midnight, OK? But 9 to noon.

Babysitting provided and couples are encouraged to attend together if possible. Sign up in the lobby so that we know how many to plan for and what circumstances to arrange for. And if you're having a need for babysitting, that's great. Put down the ages and we have a column for that of the kids so we have something to plan for there.

At any rate, now how would you know if this Seminar might be helpful. It might be helpful if on getting a pink slip you turn other colors as well. Okay. It might be helpful if you seem to burn through the money. Okay. It might be helpful if the checking account is running on empty when the charge card bills are not. Okay. All right. So anyway, those would be some indicators that this could be a helpful seminar for you. And feel free to come up and ask questions if you have any.

We will move on now to our study of 1 Corinthians. And we're in chapter 15. Last week, as we introduced the chapter, one of the things that we pointed out was the essential nature of the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ, certainly. And the way Paul puts it, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You're still in your sins. The resurrection is not a nice optional add-on to the gospel. It is essential. It is a must. It is an essential ingredient.

The other thing we pointed out, and we'll be stepping into today, we talked about an identification truth about sins. And we pointed out the fact that this is a, quote, secret identification truth. And we'll talk about what that means in a minute here. We also, in last week's handout, had a presentation like this. It showed the poetic pattern of 1 Corinthians 15, first two and a half verses there.

And Paul talked about his preaching of the gospel, which we said that word preaching was actually good-newsing, and talked about their reception of the gospel. He says, that gospel, in fact, you believed, and therefore were saved. Now, he talked about presenting the good news. He talked about good news as a verb. And I mean to pronounce that very carefully. It's good news, not g-news, just so you have that clear. All right. Careful, I'll start talking about moose. All right.

Christ died for our sins was his first point in the Gospel according to the Scriptures. And we point out that that was the Old Testament Scriptures that made that point. Certainly the New Testament underscores that, but it was actually Old Testament that brought that out. We could give an instance, Isaiah chapter 53 is a good case in point. The Scriptures also say that he was buried making it quite clear that he, in fact, did die and that he was also raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, all foretold in the Old Testament.

So what are these verses about? Verses 12 through 19 that Randy read for us here. Paul had put his finger on a basic issue, one that they were having, and it shows up in the very first verse in this passage, verse 12. How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? It's like, what? I can't believe what I'm hearing. How can I be hearing that from you?

Some were at the very least saying that nobody would be resurrected. Some were at the very least saying that. What they were saying was that death was the last and final condition of everyone, even those who believed. Yeah, you can go ahead and believe in Christ, and yeah, you'll be saved, kind of, but you're still going to die. And death is the end. The grave is the last and final destination. That's it. That's what some of them were saying. They either doubted Christ's resurrection or didn't understand the basis for our own salvation.

And Paul will get into more detail on that in a bit. This entire passage here is a series of logical if-then statements. And why does he do that? He wants them to see where their idea that there is no resurrection would end up. If you believe when we're all dead, we're just dead, this is where it ends up. This is the result. This is the logical outcome. of carrying that out. That's what this passage is talking about. So you have in the middle of page one of your handout here, this essentially half page slide that says, if then, if then, if then, he says, if that is true, then we're going to follow the logic, and this is what the resulting conclusion is.

The entire passage we're looking at today is simply that, a series of if-then logical statements. So he leads them down the logical path. When he gets done with this logic of when we're all dead, we're just dead. He gets done with that, life ends up with the Apostles as false witnesses and all the other 500 that testified that they saw Christ, and the rest are just plain pitiful.

That's where he says this ends up. Now, this viewpoint on life, that when you're dead, you're dead, and on death and its various proponents, has people that favor that view and speak openly about that view now as it did back then. The Sadducees, which as it's said, that's why they're sad, you see, among the Jews believe that when you're dead, you're just dead.

Imagine you have to go through all these things in the temple and you have to go and talk about the Law of Moses and you have to do this and not do that. But when it's all said and done, that's all that's happening. You're said and you're done. Okay? That was the belief of the Sadducees, if you can imagine that. And it's hard to imagine what motivates them. I can't tell you. I have no idea. What would motivate someone to believe in God and to say, well, you have to do this and not do that.

And in the end, when you die, you die. Now, what's interesting, what I have here is a picture of an ossuary box of Caiaphas. Let me show you a bigger picture. That is, from every examination point that has been made using historical evidence, this is the bone box of the Caiaphas, the one who interrogated Jesus. He was a Sadducee. What's interesting, on the end of the box, you don't see it, on the end of the box it has his name in Aramaic, first and last name. Every investigation of, for example, the age of the person inside, the time frame in which the box was there, it looks like it's the real thing. This is the box of the guy.

But the one who interrogated Jesus was a Sadducee, who, by the way, did not believe that there was a Messiah. That was a teaching of the Pharisees. So when he asked Jesus, point blank, are you the Christ? It was something he didn't believe in to begin with. So that's the Sadducees. Aristotle, among other Greek sophists, philosophers, believed that there was no afterlife. Nothing after death. That's it. When you're dead, you're dead. That's all.

What's interesting is, here's Paul in Acts 17. He spoke to Epicureans and Stoic philosophers. as he was there on Mars Hill. Now, the Epicureans did not believe in an afterlife either. And the Stoics, they weren't sure. They argued among themselves, and they weren't quite sure how to put that up. But it was a philosophy, no afterlife, that was common in Paul's day, the Epicureans being a case in point.

It was very likely that some of these philosophers' teachings were coming into the church there at Corinth. And they said, yeah, I initially believed in Christ, but after all these philosophers, they're pretty sharp guys, so I'm not sure I believe in the resurrection. And Paul was saying, what? What sense does that make? You don't believe in a resurrection that's been witnessed by over 500 people, by the way, myself included. Speaking of Paul, not Vern, okay?

In our own day, there are atheists and some of other persuasions who say that when you're dead, you're dead. That's it. When you go to the grave, that's as far as you go. You're not going any further. Now, atheism, just so that we understand it clearly, is a belief that there is no God. It's not a statement of, I don't know, or I don't know God. It's a statement, categorically, there is no God. Now, just so we have it clear, I want to lay this out. An atheist is someone who is absolutely certain that absolutely nothing created absolutely everything. Now that requires a dizzying intellect or some kind of intellect. I don't know how to categorize it. Now, what's interesting is a study has been done since 1990.

These are the growth rates by color of atheism in the United States. And what's curious is the capital of atheism, the highest growth rates have been up in the Northeast United States. And in the Western United States, the state right just north of us, Wyoming, is sort of the capital of growth of atheism, which is real curious. Atheism is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States. Yeah, religion, isn't that interesting?

And we said some of other persuasions who say that when you're dead, you're dead. Thomas Paine, you may have heard the name, was one who moved to the colonies from Britain in 1774 and two years later published a document here, Common Sense, which was instrumental in stimulating and supporting the American Revolution. He was hopeful of an afterlife, but he said, well, we really don't know. Later on, he wrote a more thorough treatise on his idea of theology, which was all, I hope there's an afterlife. I'm not so sure. I can't tell. We'll see. In the last decade, there's been quite a bit of excitement among some Christians.

A fellow by the name of Antony Flew, who for years was a very outspoken atheist. He was even a friend of C.S. Lewis, if you've ever heard of that name. By the way, I understand why they call him C.S. Lewis. His name was Clive Staples, and if I had a name Clive Staples, I might just use the initials too. Anyway, He was a friend of C.S. Lewis, obviously born 1923.

He's been around a while. Lord knows how much longer he'll be around. Now, he changed from outspoken atheism to deism. That's not the same as the biblical teaching of God. But he did come to a place of saying there is a God. It's not the God of the Bible. Christians got very excited about this. As a matter of fact, his book published a couple of years ago here, There is a God. It certainly made a lot of waves. It got a Christianity Today Book Award.

However, he still does not believe in an afterlife. He finds that the historical evidence for the resurrection is most impressive, but he still doesn't believe in the resurrection of Christ. And so actually his belief in God, and this is very important to note, believing there is a God doesn't save anybody. Believing there is a God doesn't save anybody. It's belief in Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. That is what saves. What does Paul do? He carries this on.

He says, if that's your premise, then here is where the logic takes us. He says, here's the if, here's the then. He follows the basic principles of logic in order to say, all right, if you guys want to believe there is no resurrection, let's just see if you like the end result. Is that really what you have in mind? So Paul's if assumed the truth of their premise for the sake of pursuing the logic to its conclusion. Now, I need to make a point here.

There are places in Scripture where, in the New Testament particularly, you will see the word if, and it means it's assumed to be true. Some people say, oh, well, if I see an if, I just put since in there. That's not always a good idea, and this is a case in point. The if is intended in some cases, and this is one of them, not to assume that it's true and make it like a sense, but he says, if you believe that, only for the sake of argument, let's see where that leads. And so, he didn't believe in himself, most certainly not. He says, I personally have seen the Lord. So his point was not to assume it was true because he believed it, but to assume it was true for the sake of argument and then see where that leads. His major premise, he spells out there in verse 12, there is no resurrection of the dead. That was the premise in this if-then series of arguments. Now, suppose someone told you that there are no cars or vehicles of any kind.

That I would compare to what Paul is doing here. He is saying, look, the resurrection is so evident, I have seen Christ myself multiple times. I myself have talked to people who have seen Christ. Matter of fact, there are over 500 people who have seen Christ. What you are denying is something that is quite evident to a great many of us. There is a massive amount of testimony here. to say that there is no resurrection, it actually is a little silly. And especially when I myself am writing to you and testifying to you, and you can go check it out if you want, 500 other people have seen him rise from the dead.

So his major premise in this logical if-then argument is there is no resurrection of the dead, which he says, I've seen Christ resurrected, so that's not very smart. Nonetheless, he says, I'll follow that. So the major premise, no resurrection of the dead, obviously he himself did not believe it. The minor premise, which he did believe, was that Christ had died. The conclusion, if the above is assumed, those two premises, then Christ was not raised either and that's a problem. You don't believe in mountains.

That is, mountains of evidence. We looked last week briefly at a quick summary of the mountains of evidence that Christ was resurrected. I mentioned just a few minutes ago Antony Flew. Antony Flew, who was an atheist up until a few years ago, has said, the evidence for the resurrection is most impressive.

It's the best evidence of any miracle of all of the religions. but he still doesn't believe it, and that's a problem. A person must believe that Christ was crucified, buried, and raised. Aside from being contrary to the overwhelming empirical evidence that Christ did in fact rise from the dead, and we summarized that for you last week, the major premise that he did in fact not rise from the dead has huge consequences, as Paul is about to show.

The preaching of the apostles is not only vain, that is, it is of no effect. It doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't have any impact. But also, the faith of the believers is also in vain. You're putting your faith in something that will go no place, that will have no impact whatsoever. He says, how do you like that? It makes all of us apostles a liar. And all those believers believing something that's not going anywhere. Just like the cars, right? People are saying and believing useless, worthless, empty things if Christ is not raised. We're gathering for nothing. I'm preaching for nothing. It's all of no effect.

In verse 15, he says, it makes the apostles and all those who testify, 500 plus people, All those who testify that they have in fact seen Christ rise from the dead makes them all false witnesses. They must all be telling a lie. All of them. It means every one of the false witnesses, and a great many if not all of these are Jewish, that under Jewish law in the land of Israel, that giving false testimony would be something that would make you subject to the death penalty. testifying that Christ was raised from the dead, when in fact that's a lie, according to the testimony of these skeptics in Corinth, would get you the death penalty. And of course, what does that mean? You're going to go to the grave sooner. And that will be the end. He says, how do you like that?

They would all be guilty of a capital offense. Verses 16 and 17, Either Christ rose from the dead, or it's all one big fat zero. It's all worthless. Either he rose from the dead, or this whole gospel thing is nonsense. It doesn't mean a thing. Paul maintained the premise that Christ died, and we assume he even means that Christ died for our sins. But what good does that do if Christ was not raised from the dead? The gospel falls apart. Because if what they say is true, you're still dead. So what if Christ died for your sins? Dead is dead, isn't it? Christ's resurrection from the dead is so essential to the true gospel and how we were saved that lacking that one part makes it all fall apart. Either we have the whole gospel or no gospel at all.

Now, here is the secret. Ready for the secret? Now obviously this is tongue-in-cheek, so you have to understand that, but this is the secret identification truth. An identification truth that seems to be often overlooked is that unbelievers are positionally in their sins. They're stuck in them. Ever have something? Well, you've seen dogs do it. You know how they do it and shake their skin?

I can't do that. You probably don't want me to. Anyway, they'll shake water off themselves by doing this strange little twisty thing. Well, unbelievers can't get sins off like that. They're just stuck on them and there's only one way to get it off. They can't do anything about it with one exception.

And that is to believe. And that's only because believing makes God do something about it or allows God to do something about it. Those who believe are made to be in Christ. You see, the unbelievers in Adam and they're in their sins. Those who believe are in Christ and by faith in Christ have a righteousness from God. You either have Adam's sins or you have Christ's righteousness.

That's the only way to get out of being in those sins. Here's the way Christ put it in John 8, verse 24, Therefore I said to you, and He was talking to the Jewish leaders who were skeptical, I said to you that you will die in your sins. Where are they? In your sins. Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Stuck. Can't get them off, no matter how you shake your skin. And dying in your sins was a problem. And of course, they really liked to hear that, right? 1 Corinthians 15, 17, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, of no effect. You are still where? In your sins. Stuck. Being and remaining in one's sins until death as an unbeliever is a ghastly place to be.

The next verses, however, show that getting out of being dead in one's sins takes place because we who believe are made alive with Christ. Based on what? Based on His resurrection. If Christ was not raised from the dead, then there is no such thing as being alive in Christ either, but in fact, Christ was raised from the dead, and we are made alive. Ephesians 2, 1, and then verses 4 and 5.

But you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Similarly, in Colossians 2.13, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, that is, with Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Either you're dead in sin, in your sins, or you are alive in Christ and in His righteousness. So verses 18 and 19 in this passage Spell it out this way, that if the grave is the other end, if everything ends at the grave, if when you're dead, you're dead, then those believers in Christ who have died are just really, really dead. Christian, dying, nah, just dead.

That's it. No hope. If Christ has not been raised, then we have hoped for nothing. No effect. How many of you like empty hope? You like to hope in things that are absolutely foolish and unreal? We who believed are to be the most pitied people on the planet. since we had an empty, false, vain, worthless, of no effect hope. Even we would call it a hopeless hype.

If. If. That is, if the grave is the utter end. I was going to make a joke about milking cows or something, but I'm not going to do that. If the grave is the end of all of us, Christ included, then we who believe are truly the most to be pitied. If that's the end, then yeah, it's pretty sad for us. This is a pretty pitiful hope to have then, if that's actually true.

But Paul had already, in the passage we looked at last week, pointed to a mountain of evidence that Christ did indeed rise from the dead, right? Impressive enough that Antony Flew, the fellow who doesn't quite believe it, says it is the most impressive evidence of any of the religions that someone actually rose from the dead. Well, I think he's understated the point. But if we take this premise and turn it around the other way, suppose we don't assume, since Paul doesn't believe it obviously, that the dead are not raised.

If we don't assume that Christ himself was not raised, then what does this passage look like? And this is not one that's on your handout. But the passage reads quite differently. And it reads like this. Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, and if there is a mountain of evidence that Christ did indeed rise from the dead, then how do some among you say, contrary to the testimony of literally hundreds of living people, that there is no resurrection of the dead? It's like the picture we showed of the cars. How do you go around saying there aren't any cars if people are moving around the way they are, right?

But since Christ has, in undeniable fact, been raised, then our preaching about his resurrection is the truth, and your faith is of infinite value, not worthless, not of no effect, but of great effect, effect on into eternity. The grave is not the end at all. We apostles and all the about 500 others who saw Christ resurrected are found to be faithful witnesses of God because we testified truthfully that God raised Christ, who he did in fact raise. For since Christ has in fact been raised, then your faith in Christ is eternally priceless. And that's something no Visa card can touch. You are still in his righteousness, and all those also who have fallen asleep in Christ will see him face to face. Since we have not hoped in Christ in this life only, may Jesus Christ be praised.

Paul's point with this passage is not to leave us in a state of depression, but rather to show these people who had begun to introduce this idea, probably from secular philosophy, and not from the evidence, to show them, this is how this looks. Do you like where this lands you logically, aside from the fact that you're flaunting and pushing aside this mountain of evidence?

But Paul is saying, in fact, here, Christ did rise. 500 people witnessed it. And he says, I'm included in that list. I saw him myself more than once. And as Paul writes this, he's wanting them to understand not only is there this mountain of evidence, overwhelming evidence that Christ was in fact brought out from the dead.

Not only did he rise from the dead, But it has an impact on every single one of us forever, for eternity. And that grave is not the end. One of the things that Ephesians chapter 1 points out is that the standard of maximum power in the universe is resurrection of Christ. That's the magnitude of God's power to reverse a death eternally, forever. And it is on that basis on which we also have a hope. Not an empty hope, not an I hope so kind of hope, not a wouldn't it be nice if kind of hope, but a certain hope. A hope that says Christ is alive and I am alive because of him. And one day, I hope it's today, I'll see him face to face. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that as Paul steps through the what if kinds of logic here, that in the end, he is not trying to prove the case, but to show how hopeless it is. But thank you that based on the truth, we have a certain hope. We have a hope that is absolute. We can, of all people, be the most hopeful people. And that because of this abundantly supported testimony that Christ did, in fact, rise from the dead, that we, in fact, have a hope of seeing Him face to face, perhaps even today.

And we thank you, Lord, for what you have spelled out here. Thank you for Paul's insights and understanding into the essential nature of the resurrection, as well as its absolute certainty. Thank you that we don't have to believe that there is no you. Thank you that we don't have to believe that absolutely everything came from absolutely nothing, but rather that absolutely everything was created by your hand. We thank you for your amazing, infinite, marvelous grace. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.