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Voddie Baucham - This Is Resurrection Life · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: If you have your Bibles with you tonight, please open
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  Speaker 1: them to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I say your Bibles,
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  Speaker 1: if you have your Bibles, if you have your phone,
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  Speaker 1: if you have your iPad, whatever else you use to
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  Speaker 1: carry around your copy of God's Word. 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
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  Speaker 1: my assignment tonight is to address verses 35 through 58.
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  Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 35 through 58. Before I
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  Speaker 1: do that, please allow me an opportunity to express my
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  Speaker 1: gratitude to my fellow council members, the Gospel Coalition, to
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  Speaker 1: my dear friends, brothers, and mentors who have given me
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  Speaker 1: this assignment. I'm humbled by this privilege, and I'm grateful
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  Speaker 1: for it. I'm grateful for the way the Word of
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  Speaker 1: God has been preached over these last couple of days.
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  Speaker 1: And every time I came in here to hear the
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  Speaker 1: Word of God preached, I found myself both grateful for
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to hear it and also just praying that
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  Speaker 1: they leave me something. And they left me a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: Grateful to you for your kindness and the way that
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  Speaker 1: you always receive those of us who serve on this
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  Speaker 1: council and pray for us. Please continue to do that. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: this will be my farewell because you have to be
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  Speaker 1: a North American to be a part of the council
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  Speaker 1: and you have to be a North American resident. I'll
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  Speaker 1: be slightly outside of that as of August, living in
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  Speaker 1: South Central Africa. So rules are rules and I have
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  Speaker 1: been kicked out. But Don Carson did it, so it
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  Speaker 1: felt great when it happened. First Corinthians chapter 15. Let's
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  Speaker 1: begin at verse 35, and I'll just read the text.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of those passages that just needs to
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  Speaker 1: be read in its entirety. And it's one of those
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  Speaker 1: passages really that there's a temptation when you read this
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  Speaker 1: text to just, when you finish, close your Bible and
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  Speaker 1: just be done. But someone will ask, how are the
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  Speaker 1: dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?
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  Speaker 1: You foolish person. What you sow does not come to
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  Speaker 1: life unless it dies. And what you sow is not
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  Speaker 1: the body that is to be, but a bare kernel,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. but God
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  Speaker 1: gives it a body as he has chosen. And so
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  Speaker 1: each kind of seed, its own body, or to each
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  Speaker 1: kind of seed, its own body. For not all flesh
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  Speaker 1: is the same, but there is one kind for humans,
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  Speaker 1: another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
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  Speaker 1: There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory
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  Speaker 1: of the heavenly is It says, It is sown in wickedness.
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  Speaker 1: It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.
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  Speaker 1: It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a
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  Speaker 1: natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus, it
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  Speaker 1: is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being.
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  Speaker 1: The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is
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  Speaker 1: not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and
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  Speaker 1: then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth,
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  Speaker 1: a man of dust. The second man is from heaven.
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  Speaker 1: As was the man of dust, so also are those
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  Speaker 1: who are of the dust. And as is the man
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  Speaker 1: of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Just as we have prayed, born the image of the
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  Speaker 1: man of dust, we shall also bear the image of
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  Speaker 1: the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers, flesh
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  Speaker 1: and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
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  Speaker 1: the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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  Speaker 1: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
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  Speaker 1: changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.
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  Speaker 1: At the last trumpet, For the trumpeter was sound and
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  Speaker 1: the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed.
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  Speaker 1: For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and
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  Speaker 1: this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable
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  Speaker 1: puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality,
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  Speaker 1: then shall come to pass the saying that is written,
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  Speaker 1: death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is
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  Speaker 1: your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting
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  Speaker 1: of death is sin and the power of sin is
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  Speaker 1: the law. But thanks be to God who gives us
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  Speaker 1: the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers,
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  Speaker 1: be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Amen. Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. There is so much here. So let's
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  Speaker 1: delve into it. As I read this text, one of
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  Speaker 1: the things that stood out to me was the fact
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  Speaker 1: that Paul is actually being pastoral here. He is doing apologetics, absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: in this chapter. But at this point, there is pastoral
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  Speaker 1: ministry happening. There is a sense in which he is
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  Speaker 1: dealing with the doctrine of the resurrection from a practical
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  Speaker 1: pastoral perspective. Paul has provided a convincing apologetic for the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine of the resurrection. He offered three lines of argumentation
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  Speaker 1: in order to prove his point. First, there was the
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  Speaker 1: argument from authority, what the scriptures say in verses 1
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  Speaker 1: through 4. Second, there was the argument from evidence, the
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  Speaker 1: account of eyewitnesses, including himself in 5 through 11. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: he offers an argument from logic. If there is no
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  Speaker 1: such thing as the resurrection, then there are seven things
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  Speaker 1: that must follow as inexorably as night follows day. And
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  Speaker 1: after he has done this, he goes back to the
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  Speaker 1: fact that he's already proven that Christ has been raised
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  Speaker 1: so that his argument is confirmed. However, having won the
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  Speaker 1: day and proved his point, Paul is not content to
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  Speaker 1: merely stand triumphantly over the bodies of his defeated foes.
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  Speaker 1: This for him was about more than winning an argument.
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  Speaker 1: He moves beyond apologetics and returns to poimenics. He goes
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  Speaker 1: from proving his point to pressing his point, from orthodoxy
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  Speaker 1: to orthopraxy. He goes from the fact that the resurrection
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  Speaker 1: is true to the reason why it matters. And it matters.
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  Speaker 1: As the quintessential pastor-apologist, Paul takes the opportunity to shepherd
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  Speaker 1: the sheep toward their ultimate hope. And he does so
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  Speaker 1: by employing his oft-used practice of dealing with a question
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  Speaker 1: as though being asked as he writes. He does this
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  Speaker 1: in a number of places. He does this in a
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  Speaker 1: large section or in several large sections of the book
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  Speaker 1: of Romans. And here he begins with, but someone will ask.
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  Speaker 1: There is this practical point here where he has proved
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  Speaker 1: that the resurrection is true. And now he's proving that
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection is essential. And he doesn't just do it
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  Speaker 1: in an ethereal way, but he does it in a
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  Speaker 1: way where he deals with a question that he has
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  Speaker 1: either been asked before or he knows he's going to
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  Speaker 1: be asked based on his understanding of the human condition
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  Speaker 1: and the way people relate to this kind of information.
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  Speaker 1: But is this question valid? And what does this question reveal? Well,
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  Speaker 1: But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With
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  Speaker 1: what kind of body do they come? We know what
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  Speaker 1: happens to things when they die. We know what happens
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  Speaker 1: to people when they die. We understand death. We don't
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  Speaker 1: know what the resurrection looks like because we've never seen
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  Speaker 1: a resurrection ourselves. All we have is the record and
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  Speaker 1: testimony of the witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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  Speaker 1: all those years ago. That's what prompts Calvin to write,
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing that is more at variance with human
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  Speaker 1: reason than this article of faith. For who but God
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  Speaker 1: alone could persuade us that bodies which are now liable
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  Speaker 1: to corruption will, after having rotted away or after they
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  Speaker 1: have been consumed by fire or torn in pieces by
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  Speaker 1: wild beasts, will not merely be restored entire but in
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  Speaker 1: a greatly better condition. Do not all our apprehensions of
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  Speaker 1: things straightway reject this as a thing fabulous, nay, most absurd?
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  Speaker 1: I resonate with that. The first time I saw a
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  Speaker 1: dead body, I was 17 years old and an unbeliever.
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  Speaker 1: I had never heard the gospel. I still wouldn't hear
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  Speaker 1: the gospel for another year or so after that. I
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  Speaker 1: was raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother in drug-infested,
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  Speaker 1: gang-infested South Central Los Angeles, California. And when I got
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  Speaker 1: old enough To find a little trouble or for a
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  Speaker 1: little trouble to find me, my mother shipped me out
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  Speaker 1: and we moved from South Central LA all the way
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  Speaker 1: across the country, three days on a Greyhound bus to Beaufort,
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina, where we then lived with our oldest brother
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  Speaker 1: who was a retired drill instructor in the Marine Corps. Hoorah.
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  Speaker 1: And I got out of trouble. Quick, fast, and in
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  Speaker 1: a hurry. However, several years later, having moved to the
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  Speaker 1: great state of Texas, I got a phone call. My
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  Speaker 1: cousin Jamal was dead. All of a sudden, I was
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  Speaker 1: reminded of the things that my mother had rescued me
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  Speaker 1: from by taking me away. I was reminded as I
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  Speaker 1: contemplated my cousin who was six months younger than I
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  Speaker 1: who had become a drug dealer and who depending on
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  Speaker 1: which stories are accurate somehow found himself in a bad
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  Speaker 1: situation and at 16 years old was shot in the
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  Speaker 1: back of the head and he lay dead. I traveled
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  Speaker 1: back to Los Angeles and I stood there over his
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  Speaker 1: body and I had no hope. I stood there over
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  Speaker 1: his body and all I could think was that this
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  Speaker 1: is over, this is it and not only is this
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  Speaker 1: over and not only is this it but what do
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  Speaker 1: I have to look forward to other than this? What
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  Speaker 1: more is there than this? And so I resonate with
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  Speaker 1: this idea that this is not something that is easy
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  Speaker 1: for us to grasp. And yet Paul rebukes Corinthian unbelief. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's something difficult to grasp. However, this is something that
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  Speaker 1: God has said in his word. It's one thing for
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  Speaker 1: an unbeliever to not have categories to deal with death.
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  Speaker 1: It's another thing for individuals who are associated with the
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  Speaker 1: church of the living God who have heard about the death, burial,
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  Speaker 1: and resurrection of Jesus Christ to say, I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: that can happen. And so he says, you foolish people.
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  Speaker 1: Paul does not say, hey, I understand how difficult this
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  Speaker 1: is for you to grasp. I get that. He says,
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  Speaker 1: you foolish person. This is not a mere insult. The
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  Speaker 1: language here is designed to press home a point. Paul
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  Speaker 1: was not just insulting the Corinthians who disagreed with this
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  Speaker 1: because he felt like calling them a name. The point
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  Speaker 1: that he was making was you have the evidence of
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  Speaker 1: the word of God. You have the evidence of apostolic teaching,
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  Speaker 1: but you also have the evidence of general revelation. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: I just can't comprehend how something could die and be
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  Speaker 1: buried and then come back again. You foolish person. What
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  Speaker 1: did you eat today? It probably died and was buried
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  Speaker 1: in one form and then came back in another form.
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  Speaker 1: God has shown you not only through his word but
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  Speaker 1: through the things that you see even in nature. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: you've determined not to believe. Which means that you have
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  Speaker 1: to accept an alternative answer. And what is your alternative answer? Well,
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  Speaker 1: your alternative answer could be some sort of platonic dualism. Docetism,
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  Speaker 1: Corinthian Gnosticism, some idea that basically matter is bad and
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  Speaker 1: because matter is bad, this whole resurrection thing with Jesus
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  Speaker 1: wasn't really a resurrection at all. Either he wasn't really
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  Speaker 1: human because God would not inhabit sinful human flesh and
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  Speaker 1: he only appeared to be human, didn't leave footprints, for example,
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  Speaker 1: or he was human but his deity merely came upon
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  Speaker 1: him at his baptism, and then left him there at
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  Speaker 1: the cross. But the idea that he was fully human
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  Speaker 1: is completely unacceptable to this kind of dualistic thinking. And
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  Speaker 1: so if you're not going to believe the resurrection, you're
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  Speaker 1: probably going to believe something like this, and Paul refutes that.
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  Speaker 1: If you're not going to believe the resurrection, what do
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  Speaker 1: you have, reincarnation? That somehow this is just your earth
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  Speaker 1: suit and you'll leave this earth suit and you'll go
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  Speaker 1: to another earth suit. And it may be an animal
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  Speaker 1: and it may be a bird. It may be a pig.
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  Speaker 1: It may be a... We have to treat animals well. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because that may be a dearly departed relative. That won't do.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps some kind of nihilism. The whole Lion King circle
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  Speaker 1: of life type thing. That it really doesn't matter at all.
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  Speaker 1: We die and we go back to the dust and
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  Speaker 1: we're just consumed into this endless cycle or circle that happens.
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  Speaker 1: There's a group called the Urban Death Project and recently
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  Speaker 1: they floated the idea of using dead human beings as fertilizer.
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  Speaker 1: We use other dead things. Why not use people? You see,
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  Speaker 1: the first thing that resurrection life does for us is
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  Speaker 1: that it addresses our anthropology, our understanding of the very
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  Speaker 1: nature of man. This doctrine affirms the dignity of humanity.
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  Speaker 1: The fact that Christ took on flesh. And that he
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  Speaker 1: was then dead and buried and was raised again. He
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  Speaker 1: did not merely discard his flesh and go back to
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  Speaker 1: his heavenly home. He took this flesh with him in
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  Speaker 1: its resurrected form. And that says something about the inherent
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  Speaker 1: dignity of humanity in its entirety. The fact that human
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  Speaker 1: beings as whole beings have dignity inherent to them. It
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  Speaker 1: says something about the way we think of ourselves and
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  Speaker 1: about the way that we think of other people. This
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  Speaker 1: says something about the sanctity of human life at every point.
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  Speaker 1: God could have had his son come in another way,
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  Speaker 1: but he did not. God could have skipped over those
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  Speaker 1: insignificant aspects of human existence, but he did not. God
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  Speaker 1: did not have his son skip over those aspects of
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  Speaker 1: human existence because they are significant. And so Christ comes
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  Speaker 1: into the womb of a woman and experiences the entirety
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  Speaker 1: of human development. thereby sanctifying it and saying to us
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  Speaker 1: from the moment of conception that is human life that
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  Speaker 1: is worth being honored. The resurrection teaches us this because
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  Speaker 1: he takes that flesh back up. There's this statement. Look
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  Speaker 1: at what he says. He goes back to creation and
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  Speaker 1: interestingly enough what he does beginning in verse 39 is
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  Speaker 1: he takes days four, five, and six of creation and
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  Speaker 1: he does them in reverse. Watch him in verse nine.
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  Speaker 1: For not all flesh is the same. But there is
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  Speaker 1: one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds,
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  Speaker 1: another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies,
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  Speaker 1: but the glory of the heavenly is one kind and
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  Speaker 1: the glory of the earthly is another. There is one kind.
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  Speaker 1: One glory of the sun, another glory of the moon,
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  Speaker 1: and one glory of the stars, for stars differ from
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  Speaker 1: stars in glory. So the idea here is that there
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  Speaker 1: is a glory of the human body that is not
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  Speaker 1: the same as the glory of other things, not the
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  Speaker 1: same as the glory of other bodies. That's why even
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  Speaker 1: a nihilist will not pass by a dead human being
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  Speaker 1: and act as though there is nothing wrong. I don't
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  Speaker 1: care what you say you believe. If you see another
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  Speaker 1: fallen human being, you don't simply step over and walk by.
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  Speaker 1: There is something in us that understands this inherent dignity
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  Speaker 1: of humanity. This is why you can pass by a
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  Speaker 1: car accident and if it looks as though someone has died,
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  Speaker 1: you can be laughing and jovial and playing. But the
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  Speaker 1: moment you realize that a human being, even though you
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  Speaker 1: did not know him or her or whether it was
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  Speaker 1: a him or her, someone is dead and you're not
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  Speaker 1: the same. Because there is a different glory associated with us.
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  Speaker 1: And the resurrection of Jesus Christ affirms this. It transforms
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  Speaker 1: our anthropology. Not only does it transform our anthropology, but
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  Speaker 1: it also transforms our soteriology. There is a bridge statement
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  Speaker 1: here beginning verse 42. So is it with the resurrection
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  Speaker 1: of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised, imperishable.
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  Speaker 1: It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory.
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  Speaker 1: It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
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  Speaker 1: It is sown a natural body. It is raised a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is
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  Speaker 1: also a spiritual body. So this glory, there's one sense
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  Speaker 1: in which the glory of the human body is different
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  Speaker 1: than the glory of other flesh. But there's also the
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  Speaker 1: sense in which the glory of the resurrected body is
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  Speaker 1: different than the glory of our bodies as they are now.
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  Speaker 1: And this leads into this second movement where this changes
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  Speaker 1: our soteriology. And look at what he does in this section.
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  Speaker 1: In this section, we are introduced to the idea of
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  Speaker 1: the first Adam and the last Adam. Thus it is written,
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  Speaker 1: the first Adam became a living being. The last Adam
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  Speaker 1: became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual
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  Speaker 1: that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.
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  Speaker 1: The first man was from the earth. A man of
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  Speaker 1: the dust. The second man is from heaven. As was
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  Speaker 1: the man of the dust, so also are those who
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  Speaker 1: are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven,
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  Speaker 1: so also are those who are of heaven. Just as
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  Speaker 1: we have borne the image of the man of the dust,
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  Speaker 1: we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: He's been resurrected and we're going to be resurrected. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because we are united with him. There is the idea
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  Speaker 1: here and the hinting of federal headship. The concept was
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  Speaker 1: introduced earlier this morning, but let me delve into it
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more because Paul is dealing with the
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  Speaker 1: idea here that the resurrection is real for us because
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  Speaker 1: our union with Christ is real for us. We have
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  Speaker 1: actual union with Jesus Christ. In fact, death for us
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  Speaker 1: is the direct result of our union under the federal
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  Speaker 1: headship of Adam so that in Adam, all of us died.
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  Speaker 1: Our resurrection then is connected to the change of our
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  Speaker 1: federal headship. But why are we all guilty in Adam?
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  Speaker 1: The same reason that we are all forgiven in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Earlier on, verses 21 and 22, he says, for as
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  Speaker 1: by a man came death. By a man has come
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  Speaker 1: also resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died,
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  Speaker 1: so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Folks,
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  Speaker 1: this is why the virgin birth matters. Jesus is not
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  Speaker 1: under the federal headship of Adam. Excuse me. And if
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  Speaker 1: somebody can give me a towel or something, because they're
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  Speaker 1: wearing me out with these lights. Got me preaching out
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  Speaker 1: of my clothes, y'all. So this is why the virgin
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  Speaker 1: birth matters. So those who say, you know, the virgin birth,
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  Speaker 1: we can take it, we can leave it, it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 1: All we need is Christ as our example. No, if
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  Speaker 1: Christ is merely our example and there was no virgin birth,
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  Speaker 1: then he stands condemned because Adam is his federal head,
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  Speaker 1: as are all of those who come by natural generation. However, because,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, Because of the virgin birth, he is not
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: under that federal headship. This is why his impeccability matters.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: This is why it matters that Jesus did not sin.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: A recent worldview survey found that some 45% of professing
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Christian teenagers believe that Jesus sinned during his earthly ministry.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I know two things. Number one, they don't understand the gospels.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: And number two, they're not being catechized. The most basic
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: catechisms deal with this. What kind of life did Christ
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: live on earth? A life of perfect obedience to the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: law of God. Little bitty kids are asked these questions.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: But you see, we've come to believe that theology doesn't matter.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Paul doesn't believe that. He believes that the doctrine of
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the resurrection matters on a very practical level. Because if
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: you don't get this doctrine of the resurrection right, then
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you don't understand that you are under Christ's federal headship.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: And you don't understand the significance of his active and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: his passive obedience. That in his active obedience he kept
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: the entirety of the law and was actually righteous. Thereby
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: he's able to impute actual righteousness to you. And in
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: his passive obedience, he accepts in himself the death that
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: you owed to God but could not pay. Therefore, we
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: can impute to him our sinfulness. And because of this
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: double imputation, we stand before God under the federal headship
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ, not only forgiven, but righteous. And we
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: can actually anticipate the resurrection of our bodies. Amen. That
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: doctrine matters. If Christ is not actually righteous, then he's
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: no better than Buddha. He's no better than Gandhi. He's
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: no better than Confucius. He's just an example, and you
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: can take him or leave him. But if he was
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: born of a virgin... lived a sinless life, died a
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: vicarious substitutionary death. Rose in a victorious confirming resurrection. Has
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: ascended to the right hand of God. Is there making
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: intercession for us. And is one day going to return
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to judge the living and the dead. And to gather
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: his people unto himself. And to take them where he is.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Then this doctrine matters. Let me hasten here and look
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: at the third movement. Because in the third movement, we
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: see this picture of how resurrection life changes our missiology.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Our anthropology, our soteriology, and then our missiology. In this
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: last section, he starts by using a familiar passage and
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: was already dealt with earlier. This is a parallel passage
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: to a passage that we dealt with earlier. But let's
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: move down here several verses and look at what we
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: find here beginning at verse 54. When the perishable puts
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: shall come to pass the saying that is written, death
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory?
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Oh death, where is your sting? So the only way out... Again,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: last time I checked, the death rate was one per person.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't look today, but I'm pretty sure it hadn't changed.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: We all go that way. It is appointed unto man
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to die once and then the judgment. And so every
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: man everywhere is asking the same question or will eventually
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: ask the same question. How do I die? Avoid being
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: defeated by that last enemy. Because you can't whoop him.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: You can't buy him off. You can't appease him. You
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: can't outrun him. You can't exercise enough. You can't eat
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: well enough. There is nothing you can do to avoid
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: being overtaken by this enemy. But what the resurrection says
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: is that you can overcome this enemy. Death is swallowed
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: where is your sting? You see, when you stand over
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: a believer, it's not the same as standing over an
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: unbeliever because when you stand over a believer, you know
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: that because of his union with Christ, his federal head,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that he will raise just like Christ raised from the dead,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: that there is a resurrection coming. And so this sting
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and this victory is gone. But look, there's more. The
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: sting of death is sin and the power of sin
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: is the law. Well, sin and the law have been
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: dealt with by the active obedience of Christ. That's why
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: this sting has been taken away. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the Lord, knowing that your labors The question is, what
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: is this labor? How do we read this? Is this
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: labor referring to anything that we do? Or is it
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: referring to something more specific? And usually we read this
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and we read it as though it's anything that we do.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I believe there's something more specific being referred to here.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Go back to verses 31 to 34. And here in
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: his argument from logic... He presents something very similar. He says,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I protest, brothers. By my, actually go, sorry about that.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: 14 to 19. 14 to 19. And if Christ has
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: is vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: because we testified about God that he raised Christ whom
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: he did not raise. If it is true that the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: not been raised, your faith is futile and you are
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: hope in this life only, we are of all people
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: most to be pitied. So when he talks about your
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: labor not being in vain, he's referred to this idea before.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: But to what does he refer? He refers to our
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: gospel ministry, to our proclamation of the gospel, but also
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: to our holiness and our life of faith. Later on
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: in the paragraph just before this paragraph, the first paragraph
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: in verse 35, 31 to 34, I protest, brothers, by
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and do not go on sinning. For some have no
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. Again,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: what are we talking about? The proclamation of the gospel
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and our life of faith and righteousness. This is the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: labor that's not in vain. The labor that's not in
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: vain is gospel labor. This labor of righteousness because of
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the gospel and its impact on us. And this labor
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: in the gospel as we proclaim it so that Christ
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: might have the fullness of the reward for which he died.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: That's the labor that's not in vain. Is it because
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: we're guaranteed success? No. It's because we're guaranteed that we're
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: gonna transform our culture. If we do this, your labor
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: won't be in vain. You'll transform your culture. You'll transform
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: your community. No, you may not. Yet, you can labor
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: in the gospel, persevere in righteousness, pursue holiness to the
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: glory of God, Not achieve any of the outward things
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that you so desperately achieve and still say that your
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: labor has not been in vain. Why? Four things. Because
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: our labor means that the true effectual gospel goes forth.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: And that's never in vain. The proclamation of the truth
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: of the gospel is never in vain. The proclamation of
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the truth of the gospel will always accomplish that which
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: God intended. for it to accomplish and that is never
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: in vain. And so we pound away and we pound
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: away and we pound away. Brothers, do not give up
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: on preaching the gospel. It has happened from time to
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: time and from place to place. where preaching gospel just
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to get it done. And so we put
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: our faith and our hope and our trust in various
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: programs and means of manipulation. building a better mousetrap, trying
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to find out what we needed to do in order
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: to bring them in because therein lies our success. No,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: our success is in our faithfulness in the proclamation of
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the gospel. Do we want people to be saved? Absolutely
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: we do. We want people to be saved by the thousands,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: by the millions. but not so that we can say
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: we were good at what we did, but so that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: we can say I rejoice, I rejoice in Christ having
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the fullness of the reward for which he died. Secondly,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: our labor conforms us to the image of Christ in
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: true righteousness when it is gospel labor. There are two
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: chapters here that are put back to back there in
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the book of Romans. In Romans chapter 5, Paul talks
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: about this idea of that federal headship with the first
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Adam and the last Adam again. But then he comes
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: to chapter 6. And in chapter 6, he asks another
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: very important question. Turn with me to the Left, if
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you will, and look at Romans. The end of Romans
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: chapter 5 and the beginning of Romans chapter 6. That
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: last paragraph from Romans chapter 5 beginning in 18. Therefore,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: all men. For as by one man's disobedience the many
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: were made righteous. Now the law came in to increase
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounds all the more.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: our Lord. Chapter six, what shall we say then? Are
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: no means. How can we who died to sin still
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: live in it? Do you not know that all who
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: death we were buried therefore with him in baptism into
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: death in order that just as Christ was raised from
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the dead, there's the resurrection, by the glory of the Father,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: we too might walk in newness of life. So the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: resurrection is not just so that we can get up
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: on that great getting up morning. The resurrection is also
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: a picture of us walking in the newness of life
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that we have right now. Why? Why? because that resurrection
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: life is mine right now. Martha learned this. Oh, Jesus. Oh,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: if you had just been here. Jesus, I know if
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. If
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: you had come before my brother died, you could have
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: done something, because I've seen you do things, and I
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: know you can do things, and you could have done
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: one of the things that you do, but now he's dead.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: He's been dead for days. It's too late. Jesus does
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: not say to her, I got some one day stuff
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: for him. Oh, because one day. He doesn't even say,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to call on my father because my father,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: he can fix it. What does he say? I am
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: death's not enough to hold him. And if Christ is
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: the resurrection and the life, then resurrection life is not
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: just something that I look forward to, and it is that, amen?
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: It is something that we look forward to, but there
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: is also a sense in which that resurrection life is
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: this current reality, this already not yet reality in which
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: we walk. And why? For holiness. For holiness. for righteousness,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: for hope. Thirdly, our labor prepares us for His coming.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Prepares us for His coming. We heard earlier today My
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: brother spoke about the first time that he preached at
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: a funeral. I remember the first time that I preached
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: as a funeral. I remember the first time as a
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: pastor that I preached at a funeral. And all of
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: a sudden, it just dawned on me. A pastor is
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: not just an administrator. A pastor is not just a
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: hand holder. A pastor is not just A preacher, a
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: pastor is not just a counselor. A pastor is not
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: just all of these things that we do. But I
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: stood there and for the first time I had shepherded
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: someone to the grave. And I realized that's what we do.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: That's what we do. We're so used to people just
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: getting up and leaving. They don't like the color of
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the carpet. They don't like the music. They don't like
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: how you preach. They don't like this. They don't like that.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: And so people just go and they go and they go.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: But sometimes people don't go voluntarily. Sometimes God takes them.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: And in those moments, we realize that That everything that
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: we did in their life before that point, all of
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: a sudden, right now, has renewed meaning. Why was it
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: important that I preached to that person? Because this day
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: was coming. Why was it important that I counseled that person?
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Because this day was coming. Why was it important that
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I evangelized that person? Because this day was coming. Why
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: was it important that I held that person's hand? Because
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: this day was coming. Why is it important that I
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: do all the things that I did with that person
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: with all of the rest of these people? Why? Because
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: this day is coming for all of us. We are
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: preparing people to meet God. Entertainment doesn't do that. Coddling
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't do that. The gospel does that. And when we
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: grasp that, it changes the magnitude and the gravitas of
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the ministry that we have. Finally, our labor gives us hope.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Our labor gives us hope. You know there's a huge
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: difference between standing over a 90 year old man and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: preaching a funeral before a bunch of people who are
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: nodding and smiling Because that 90-year-old man has lived this
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: long and full life and knew the Lord and loved
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the Lord and standing in front of a casket this big.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: How do you stand up in front of a casket
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: this big and preach looking into the eyes of parents
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: who only had moments with the child. You better have
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: the hope of the resurrection. How do you stand up
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: and preach to a husband and five young children when
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: a 42-year-old mother who went into the hospital because she
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: was feeling bad a few days later was dead from
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: an infection? How do you do that? You better not
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: try to reason your way out of that one. It
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: is the hope of the gospel and the hope of
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the resurrection and the reality that this is not our
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: home and that we are being prepared for something more
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: and that because of the resurrection of Christ that changes
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: our anthropology. We think about these people differently and their
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: wholeness differently. Because it changes our soteriology, we think about
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: what Christ has done for them and for us differently.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: And because it changes our missiology, we think differently about
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the way we utilize that moment and what we say
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: and why we say it. And now we know our
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: labor is not in vain. This is why the doctrine
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: of the resurrection is so important. This is why it
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough for Paul to just win the argument. This
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: is why it wasn't enough to have people just confess, okay,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: I believe that it's a possibility. No, that's not enough.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: You can't do that. This is your life. This is
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: who you are. This changes the way you understand yourself
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: as a human being and every other human being. It
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: changes what you mean by justification and adoption and sanctification
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: and glorification. And it changes what you mean by why
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: we do what we do in gospel ministry and in
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: righteous living. Everything is changed when we understand the resurrection
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. And this is why we stand over
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: those elements time and time again and remind our people
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: time and time again. Whenever we eat this bread, drink
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: We obey. Always be resurrection centered. Why? Because there is
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: no gospel without the resurrection. Therefore, if we're not resurrection centered,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: we are not gospel centered. Let's pray. Oh God, how
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: we thank you. Oh how we rejoice in this great truth.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: how we rejoice in this great hope. As we get
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: older and as our hair gets grayer and as our
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: bodies break down and move more slowly and as diseases
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: and infirmities come, we are reminded again and again and
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: again that we won't be here forever. And yet as
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: that reminder comes, There is another great reminder that you
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: hold out before us regularly. This reminder that Christ has
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: defeated that final foe. This reminder that death doesn't have
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the last word. This reminder that because of his active
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: and passive obedience... because of his incarnation and wrapping himself
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: in flesh, because of him taking our sin upon himself
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: and dying and paying the price that we owed and
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: because his resurrection has announced to all that you have
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: accepted that payment, we have hope in the face of
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: our impending death. We have hope As death is all
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: around us. We have hope. In the midst of situations
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: and circumstances. That seem hopelessness. We have hope. Because Christ
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: was dead. But he is dead no more. He is risen.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: We rejoice in this truth. In Christ's name. And for
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: his sake, amen.