In 1 Corinthians 15 the Bible reads in verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand,
by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain.
So I want to spend a moment talking about these first two verses, but this whole chapter
is about the resurrection.
This is pretty much the resurrection chapter of the Bible.
It's well known as being a chapter that deals with the resurrection.
It's just packed with doctrine, and I'm going to try to cover the most important points
as quickly as I can tonight.
But he starts out by saying that the gospel is what saves us, and of course it says in
Romans 1 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Now some people will point out that phrase at the end of verse 2 that says, unless ye
have believed in vain, and they'll try to twist this scripture to say, well see right
there, believing's not enough to save you, they'll say.
Because they'll say that, you know, you could believe in vain.
You might believe and it's vain, so therefore believing's not enough.
Well, need I go through all the scriptures that tell us that believing is all that it
takes to be saved?
I mean, I just quoted you Romans 1 16 which stated that.
But what about that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life?
What about the fact that Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die?
He said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from
death unto life.
He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
He said, well, believing's not enough though, you have to believe and have works.
Yeah, but the Bible says, but to him that worketh not but believeth, proving that it's
possible to have faith without works.
He says, but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness
without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered.
Blessed are the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
So you say, what does that mean then?
Because they say, well, you know, believed in vain, that means it's possible to believe
and not be saved.
No, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
But what he's saying here, obviously, if it's possible to believe in vain, common sense
would tell you that if you're believing in vain, that just means you're believing, you
obviously believe the wrong thing.
Because if you believed in Christ, you'd be saved.
If you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, thou shalt be saved.
Look at the phrase that comes right before it.
He says, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
So he doesn't just leave us to wonder what it means by believing in vain.
He tells us what that is.
It's people who don't even remember what he had preached unto them.
And then he tells us what that is in verse 3, for I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received.
That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and
that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
So according to the Bible here, the good news or the Gospel is the fact that Jesus died
and was buried and that he rose again.
And what the Bible is saying here, it's defining itself for us.
It tells us what the Gospel is.
It tells us that the Gospel saves us, but it tells us that if we don't remember what
the Gospel was, if we don't keep in memory what he told us, then we must have believed
in vain, meaning we did not believe the right thing.
Now let me just give you an illustration of this.
Let's say I give somebody the Gospel, right, and I show them from the Bible how to be saved
and I go through a bunch of Scriptures.
I take them down the Romans road and show them a bunch of Scriptures and that person,
you know, prays a prayer to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save them.
Now I can't really see their heart, right?
I mean I'm just going to take their word for what they're saying, but I can't really know
for sure.
And then I go back and talk to that person a week later and they don't remember a thing
that I told them.
They don't, you know, and I ask them, well what do you think a person has to do to be
saved?
I have no idea.
You know, well Jesus died on the cross, what happened three days later?
I don't know.
Do you think that that person really got saved?
No.
They obviously didn't understand because a lot of people, the reason why they don't get
saved, the Bible's real clear, they don't get saved because they don't understand the
Gospel.
That's the number one reason why people do not get saved, because they don't understand
the Gospel.
And the Bible's real clear on that in Matthew 13 when he gives the parable of the sower.
He says, if anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh
that wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.
This is he that received seed by the wayside.
So the Bible talks about people hearing the Gospel, not understanding it.
And so a lot of times, you know, when you're feeding people all the answers, you know,
you're feeding them all the right answers.
See right here, it says, you know, you might walk them through something and pray with
them, but you know what?
If you talk to that person later and they don't remember what salvation is or they don't
remember what the Gospel is, you know, that pretty much tells you, okay, this person did
not comprehend what I showed them because they're not able to retain it.
You know, when you hear stuff that you don't understand, it's very hard to memorize it
or to learn it or to keep it in memory.
But when you hear something that you understand and it makes sense, you're going to remember
it.
It makes sense, you know, especially, you know, the fact that when you believe on Christ,
the Holy Ghost comes inside of your heart and lives inside you.
If you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you understood the Gospel, you're going to remember
what the Gospel is.
Now, keep in mind, Paul is preaching to people about whom, you know, he's doubting their
salvation.
I mean, their salvation is being called into question because later in the chapter, he
begins to talk about how many of them are now teaching that there is no resurrection.
Are those people saved?
Absolutely not.
And that's what he's saying.
Look, if you don't believe in the resurrection of Christ, if you don't believe in the death
barrel and resurrection of Christ, you're not saved.
And the Gospel is what saves you, but if you didn't believe in the resurrection, he's saying,
you believed in vain.
You believed the wrong thing.
You don't even remember the fact that I taught clearly both the resurrection of Christ and
also the future resurrection of believers.
That just shows that you did not even, you know, understand the Gospel.
You don't even remember what I preached to you.
You're not, you believed in vain.
Whatever you believed was the wrong thing.
Because look, if you believe in Jesus but you don't believe in the resurrection, you
believed in vain.
Because you can say, well, I believe in Jesus.
Yeah, but do you believe the record that God gave of his Son, that God has given to us
eternal life and that this life is in his Son?
Do you believe that that salvation comes through the death barrel and resurrection of Christ?
For example, you know, if you talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Jehovah's false witnesses,
they'll tell you that they believe in Christ, won't they?
If you ask the Jehovah's false witness, do you believe in Jesus, they'll say yes, right?
But do they believe in the resurrection of Christ?
No.
Therefore, they believed in vain.
You see what I'm saying?
And if I talk to somebody that I, you know, gave the Gospel to last week and a week later
they don't remember it, they obviously didn't get saved, okay?
It's pretty simple when you actually let the passages define itself like that.
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I thought that the Jehovah's false witnesses believe
in the resurrection.
No, they don't.
They say that they believe in the resurrection, but you've got to be careful.
False religions will give lip service to the doctrines of the Bible, but it means something
different to them.
They change the definition of what things are.
For example, you know, a pastor might get up and say, I believe the Bible's inspired.
But what he means by that is, just like Shakespeare is inspired or, you know, just like I was
inspired to paint a sunset, you know, they just mean a different thing by inspiration.
Or somebody will say, well, I believe that the Bible's perfect.
But when they're saying perfect, they mean the definition of perfect that it's complete.
They don't mean what we mean.
When we say it's perfect, we mean that it's without error, okay?
So you've got to be careful with people twisting the definitions of words and twisting what
words mean.
So when the Bible says the resurrection of Christ, the Bible is defining it here because
it says the death, the burial, and the resurrection.
Do you notice how it emphasizes that in verse 4?
It says, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures.
Now the reason it's important that he was buried is this.
Was it his body that was buried or was it his soul that was buried?
You bury a body.
You don't bury a soul or a spirit, right?
And the Bible's real clear.
It says in Acts 2.31, this spakey of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell,
neither did his flesh see corruption.
There's two aspects to the resurrection of Christ.
His soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption.
So there's a bodily aspect to the resurrection, right?
And then there's also a spiritual aspect of the fact that his soul was resurrected from
hell.
His body came out of the grave where he was buried, the tomb where he was buried.
Now the reason that's important is that what the Bible is telling us that we must believe
to be saved is the fact that he died, that he was buried, and that he rose again.
Which resurrection is that talking about or which aspect of the resurrection is it
specifically saying that we have to believe to be saved?
The bodily resurrection.
That means if we believe that the resurrection of Christ was just a spiritual resurrection,
you know, that he wasn't really bodily resurrected, but just somehow his spirit left his body,
you're not believing in a biblical resurrection here because the biblical resurrection that
we're talking about involves the burial of the body and the resurrection of the body.
That's why it says in John chapter 2 that Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up and it says he spake of the temple of his body.
So he said he's going to raise up the body.
It's a bodily resurrection and anyone who denies the bodily resurrection of Christ is
not saved because they don't believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Now you can twist that all you want and say, well, you know, we believe his body was, you
know, his body died and his body was buried, but then the spirit rose.
You know, you can't just switch it up like that.
You know, we're talking about the body died, the body was buried, and the body of Christ
rose again.
He said destroy this temple, temple of his body, three days I'll raise it up.
See the Jehovah's false witnesses do not even believe that Jesus died on the cross.
They believe that he was, you know, dying on a torture stick, but this is not the things
that they go around saying.
They try to act like they're Christian and they're not Christian at all.
They don't believe that the saved go to heaven.
They don't believe that the unsaved go to hell.
They don't believe that Jesus died on the cross.
They don't believe that he rose again.
Here's their version of the resurrection.
Oh, his spirit left his body.
Okay, that's called death.
That's not a resurrection because the Bible says, for as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is at all.
So if the spirit left the body, that's death.
That's not resurrection, but that's what they claim.
Now here's what they go to, and flip over if you would, we're going to get a little
out of order tonight so that I can finish covering this subject.
Go to verse 50 because verse 50 is the verse that the Jehovah's false witnesses will use
in order to prove that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead.
They'll turn to this chapter, they'll ignore the part about the burial, but they'll jump
forward to verse 50 where it says, now this I say brethren that flesh and blood, and take
note of those two words, flesh and blood.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
So what does the Bible say is not going to inherit the kingdom of God?
Flesh and blood, right?
Okay, go to Luke 24, Luke chapter 24, because what they'll say is, well, you know, in this
chapter about the resurrection, he says it is, in a few verses before that, it says that
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
So what they say is that, you know, Jesus Christ, yeah, his physical body was buried
in the tomb, but it was sown a natural body, it was raised a spiritual body, but basically
they're kind of just leaving off the body part and just saying like, it's just raised
a spirit, okay?
Because we know flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God and that it's raised a
spiritual body, so their thought is, well, that means that his body did not rise, just
a spirit.
His spirit came out of his body, okay?
And that's what they say and that's how they twist that.
Now look, do you remember in Luke 24 and also in John 20, well, let's just look at it.
Look at Luke 24 verse 39.
This is when Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection.
Tell me if this sounds like a spirit or if this sounds like a body, okay?
It says, behold my hands, we're in verse 39 of Luke 24, behold my hands and my feet.
Basically behold means look at it.
He's saying behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me and see, watch this,
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have.
Now let me add something.
Was Jesus a spirit or was he a body?
Now, but here's the thing, he was a spiritual body.
You say, well, what does that mean?
What's the difference between a natural body and a spiritual body?
Well, what did the Bible tell us is not going to inherit the kingdom of God?
Flesh and blood.
Now, does this verse say that Jesus had flesh and blood in verse 39?
It says, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me, for a spirit hath
not flesh and what?
Now is that different than flesh and blood?
So look, the Jovis false witnesses are saying, see right here, flesh can't inherit the kingdom
of God.
Is that really true?
No, flesh will inherit the kingdom of God, but not flesh and blood.
Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God, but will flesh and bones?
He said he is flesh and bones.
Now look, if Jesus Christ appeared under the disciples and told them to handle him, that
means that they physically put their hands on him, they put their finger in the holes
in his hand, they put their hand into the side, they felt him, they handled him, they
could tell that he was really physically there, then they fed him and he ate and drank with
them to prove that he was there in flesh and bone, that he was physically, bodily resurrected.
So you confront the Jovis false witnesses with this and here's what they'll say, well,
you know, no, it was just a spirit, a spirit that left the body.
And then you say, well, you know, how is he sitting there appearing to them?
Well, he just borrowed a body to do that.
That's what they literally say, ask them.
That's what they'll tell you.
Jehovah provided him with a body that he could use to go back and appear to the disciples.
But it wasn't the same body that he rose in.
So here's what kind of a nonsense that this false cultic religion the Jehovah's Witnesses
teaches, the Watchtower.
You know, and if you ever get the little magazine with the cartoon and the little boy smiling
with the big thing of apples, you know what I'm talking about.
It's all put out by the Jehovah's false witnesses.
And look, here's what they're basically teaching, that God just did this big scam.
He basically makes this body, punches a few holes in the hands on the side, to make it
appear as if it was the same body that was crucified.
So that Jesus could go pretend that he's in the same body that he was crucified in, but
he's really in some borrowed body?
What in the world possesses people to believe this garbage?
I mean it's bizarre my friend, but look it just shows the unsaved are blinded.
The God of this world has blinded their minds of them that believe not, to cause them to
believe such bizarre doctrine that even though Jesus showed up and showed them the holes
in his hands and had them touch the holes, that wasn't really the holes that the nails
made.
I mean where do you come up with this stuff?
You can't, I mean it's very strange.
Now look, the difference between the natural body and the spiritual body is that the Bible
teaches that the blood is the life of all flesh.
He said the blood is the life, the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof.
Okay, well in the natural body, the life giving force of the natural body is the blood, right?
And that basically carries the oxygen throughout our body.
And our blood is the most amazing part of our entire body.
In fact, the most complicated molecule ever discovered in nature is the hemoglobin, the
red blood cell, you know that whole apparatus, is the most complex system that is known in
nature.
It's the biggest molecule.
And remember that one sermon where I wrote out the formula for it, it's like this huge
thousands of atoms make up one blood cell?
So the spiritual body, on the other hand, is not powered by blood.
It doesn't get its life from blood, its life comes from the spirit, do you understand?
So it's flesh and bone.
So when you basically rise again in the resurrection and you get your glorified body that is like
unto the body of Jesus Christ, it's going to be a flesh and bone body, but it's not
going to be a flesh and blood body.
That's the difference there.
And so the Jehovah's false witnesses are blinded so they can't see that.
They can't just understand by comparing 1 Corinthians 15 and Luke 24, I mean it's pretty
simple right when you look at it, but they can't see it because they're blinded by Satan.
Now the Bible says here in chapter 15, back where we were, it says he was buried and he
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen of Cephas
then of the twelve.
After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remained unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
And when the Bible talks about falling asleep, he's talking about the death of the physical
body.
Okay?
Again, not talking about a soul sleep.
Paul said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better for to
me to live as Christ and to die as gain.
So the Bible teaches that when the believer dies, the body without the spirit is dead.
So death is the departure of the spirit from the body, the soul leaves the body.
When Jesus died, his soul left his body.
He gave up the ghost, you remember?
And his soul went down to hell for three days and three nights and then three days later
his soul was resurrected from hell, came back into his body, his body was changed into a
spiritual body, he was risen again and walked out of the grave and so forth.
Okay.
So here, when the Bible says some are fallen asleep, the sleep there, and when the Bible
talks about believers that are asleep in Jesus, he's not talking about their soul and
their spirit, he's talking about their body being asleep.
The Bible says many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
righteousness and some to shame and everlasting contempt in Daniel chapter 12.
And so whatever the Bible talks about sleep, it's the sleep of the body.
The reason that it's referred to as sleep is because the body will rise again.
Okay.
But it's not talking about the soul and the spirit because there are plenty of scriptures
we could go to to prove that those who died physically that are believers are very much
awake and conscious and alive in heaven.
You know, Jesus even talked about, he said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad.
And they said, Thou art not fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
And he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.
And he's basically teaching that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were in heaven.
He said, God's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Okay.
He said, they are not dead, they are alive.
Their bodies were asleep, but they were very much conscious, awake, alive in heaven.
So he says, some have fallen asleep.
Verse 7, after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.
So every single apostle witnessed Jesus Christ after the resurrection.
He spent 40 days among them, okay.
And then it says in verse number 8, last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born
out of due time.
Let me ask this, did anybody see him after the apostle Paul saw him?
No, he was the last one that saw him.
And it says, for I am the least of the apostles.
That's why there are no apostles today, because nobody alive today has witnessed the resurrected
Jesus Christ.
And it says, I'm not meet to be called an apostle.
He's basically saying there, I don't deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God.
But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain.
But I labored more abundantly than they all.
And he labored more than any of the other apostles.
You say, well that's a pretty, you know, braggadocious thing to say.
But here's the thing, he's writing here, and it's the word of God, so we know that what
he's saying is true.
So he really did labor more abundantly than they all.
And he says, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
So he's still humble about it, he's giving God all the glory, saying it was the grace
of God, and he's also being humble by admitting his past transgressions of saying, look I
persecuted the church of God.
You know what, to make up for that, you know, I labored more abundantly than they all.
He says in verse number 11, therefore, whether it were I or they, meaning I or the apostles
besides him, so we preach and so you believed.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there
is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain?
Now doesn't that remind you of when he said you believed in vain?
Now he's saying your faith is vain, and what is that tied to?
Not believing in the resurrection.
So again, this isn't saying, oh yeah, see, you can believe in vain, sometimes believing's
not enough, you also have to have the works.
Is that what he means here when he said your faith is vain?
You didn't do enough good works.
That's not what he said.
He said that it's vain because you don't believe that Christ rose again from the dead.
So you've got to let the Bible define itself.
He says in verse 15, yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we've testified
of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not of, if so be that the dead rise not, for
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
Now do you notice how over and over again he's linking the resurrection of Christ with
the resurrection of all the other dead?
He's tying those two things together.
That's exactly what he said in 1 Thessalonians 4 when he said, for if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them.
So we see how if we believe in Christ's resurrection, we believe in the resurrection of the rest
of us as well.
Because of the fact that in the same way that Christ rose, that's the same way that we're
going to rise.
That's why the Bible says in verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become
the firstfruits of them which slept, that slept.
So basically he's the firstfruits, well who's coming after the rest of the believers?
And those two things are inextricably linked.
It says in verse 18, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished,
meaning that they're gone forever.
If in this life, watch verse 19, this is a key verse, if in this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Now let me ask this, is that consistent with the message that Joel Osteen preaches?
Is that consistent with what Kenneth Copeland preaches?
Is that consistent with the typical charismatic prosperity preaching, this gospel, the health
and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel that says, you know what, if you live for God man,
everything's going to be great, you're going to drive a fancy car like me, you're going
to have perfect teeth like me, you're going to live to be 120, you're going to be healthy,
everything's going to be great.
Look, the Bible is teaching here that if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're
still just so happy because we're living our best life now.
Is that what it says?
He said no, we're of all men most miserable.
So that tells me that if Christianity is not real, if the Bible is not true, then being
a Christian is not your best life now.
In fact, you're more miserable than somebody else.
See there are people in this world who might be happier than you living a sinful life,
they're enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, okay, if in this life only we have
hope in Christ.
I mean does everybody see that there?
That you're not necessarily going to live the happiest possible life unless you're looking
at eternity, unless you're setting your affection.
Look, I'm not saying that you can't have joy and happiness now, but it's because of the
fact that you're looking unto Jesus.
But if it was all just, you know, this is just a way to be happy in life, I just go
to church because it makes me happy, well you know what, that's not a legitimate reason
to go to church or to believe the Bible.
Because the Bible says that if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all
men most miserable.
Why?
Because the Christian life involves suffering, okay?
Now a lot of people live a life that is pretty much, you know, suffering free in a lot of
ways.
But those of us that believe on Christ, we deny self and take up the cross daily and
follow him, okay?
And if that's all in vain, then that's a miserable life to, you know, I mean think about Paul.
He's beaten with rods over and over again.
He's receiving forty stripes save one, what, five times or whatever.
You know, he's constantly in prison.
He's giving up a lot of the pleasures of this life.
He's giving up wealth.
He's giving up prosperity.
He gave up his fame and prestige in the Jews' religion.
Everybody's talking bad about him, I mean is that really the best life now?
But here's the thing, if he knows that he's receiving great rewards in heaven, then he's
rejoicing in the Lord and he knows that that's real.
But you know, if he were to find out that it wasn't real, man, that would be making
him most miserable.
So you see how this false lying doctrine that teaches your best life now, let me just explain
it to you.
It's because they don't believe in the next life.
That's why they're trying to live their best life now, okay?
Because Joel Osteen is going to split hell wide open, okay?
Because Joel Osteen says that Hindus are saved and Muslims are saved and everybody's saved.
He's a lying devil and a false prophet, okay?
So of course he's got to live his best life now.
Live it up, man, because you're going to be burning in hell for all eternity.
You better live your best life now, Joel, okay?
Because you're going to suffer like you can't even imagine.
And I believe hell is going to be very hot for him because he's leading others to hell.
He's going to have the worst part of hell, okay?
And he's going to be in the lowest hell.
But let me tell you something, you know, we believe the Bible, we believe in heaven.
We believe in rewards.
We believe in the judgment seat of Christ.
We believe in the millennial reign of Christ.
We believe that in this life is only a vapor that appeared for a little time and vanished
at the way and we are living our lives to serve Jesus Christ because we know that if
we're faithful unto death, he'll give us a crown of life.
We're not just trying to live it up now, our best life now.
And those who are, it's because they don't even believe the Bible.
They don't even believe the gospel.
You know, somebody, there was this, you know, I heard on the news there was this elaborate
internet hoax spread that Joel Osteen doesn't really believe the Bible.
Well, you know, it's not a hoax.
But somebody did, they put together some elaborate hoax about how he's leaving the Christian
faith.
How do you leave something that you're not a part of is what I would say to that.
But anyway, it says in verse 20, but now is, so he finished up with all the hypothetical,
well, if Christ didn't rise, none of us are going to rise.
What's the point?
Why do we even do all this stuff?
Why are we even serving God if it's just for this life only?
We'd be better off to eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die, right?
So he says here, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them
that slept.
Now, that phrase is very significant.
First of all, that he's the first one who rose.
You say, well, wait a minute, there were other people who rose.
What about Lazarus?
Lazarus was not resurrected in a spiritual body because Lazarus died again.
Everyone in the Old Testament who was brought back to life was only brought back temporarily
and died again.
Jesus Christ was the first one who died and was resurrected to die no more, resurrected
in a spiritual body.
But not only that, the term first fruits is going back to the feast of the first fruits
in the book of Leviticus and elsewhere.
And throughout 1 Corinthians, you'll find these references to these feasts.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 5, he emphasizes the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Here he's talking about the first fruits.
The first fruits was basically when they would reap their harvest, the very first fruits,
the first ripe fruits, they would bring those and offer those as an offering unto the Lord.
And they would bring those and rejoice before the Levites with the first fruits because
every year there's a cycle of sowing and reaping.
And when those first fruits would come, you know, that is what the Bible is likening the
resurrection of Christ unto because if you look at verse 44, he compares the resurrection
to a seed that is sown or to a grain that is sown.
In fact, go to verse 35.
It says,
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?
Now have you ever heard that saying, you know, there's no such thing as a stupid question?
Have you ever heard that saying, the only stupid question is the one that you don't
ask?
Well guess what, that's wrong.
There are a lot of stupid questions, I don't know who told you that.
Because look what the Bible says next.
Some man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?
Well that sounds like a pretty good question, right?
Well look what the answer is.
Thou fool.
It's basically saying like, you idiot.
And basically, when people are asking this question, they're not just asking a legitimate
question here.
They're trying to attack the doctrine of the resurrection by saying, well with what body
do they come?
I mean, you know, if you die in the ground and your body decomposes and it rots and pretty
soon there's just bones and then the bones decay, so how is that going to arise?
You know, it's just like, you idiot.
I mean that would be the modern day vernacular here.
Now you know, he said, thou fool.
Somebody sent me an email a couple days ago, you know, why would you ever call anyone names?
Jesus never called names, ever.
And they said, maybe you'll find some Old Testament prophets that called names.
But Jesus never.
And I'm thinking to myself, okay, vipers, serpents, and Jesus called them fools in Matthew
23.
He said, ye fools and blind.
He called them whited sepulchers, he called Herod a fox.
I mean he went through the animal kingdom, you know, railing on these people.
So to say that Jesus never called names is just simply not true.
He called Peter Satan.
I mean what's a more offensive name than to call somebody Satan?
Now I'm not saying to call people names for no reason because the Bible does warn us in
Matthew 5.22 about getting angry with your brother without a cause, about saying to your
brother Rekha or saying to your brother, thou fool.
But some people misinterpret that, that it's never right to say thou fool.
Well no, he's talking about without a cause.
He's talking about for no reason.
Here he has a pretty good reason to call these Jehovah's Witnesses fools, you know, because
they're basically denying the resurrection of Christ.
And so he says here, thou fool, thou which thou sowest, talking about sowing a seed,
he says that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it
may be chance of wheat or some other grain.
What's he saying?
He's saying when you put a seed in the ground, it's not like just this big giant seed appears
and just gets bigger and bigger, right?
What he's saying is the thing that grows out of the ground is not the same thing that you
put into the ground, is it?
So you put a seed into the ground, it basically breaks apart, part of it is going to decompose,
part of it is going to perish, right?
And then that basically becomes the embryo for the new life that's going to come up.
And the thing that comes up out of the ground looks completely different than what you put
into the ground, okay?
And isn't that what he's saying here about the resurrection?
He's saying, look, it is sown, verse number 42, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption.
It is raised in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body.
Yes, the natural body decays and decomposes.
Job said in chapter 19, you know, and after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God.
So he said that worms would destroy his body, but he said in my flesh shall I see God.
Remember they're saying like, oh, flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom of God.
He didn't say in my flesh and blood, but he said yet in my flesh shall I see God.
He said at the last days, he said I know that my redeemer liveth.
Job said at the last days he'll stand upon the earth.
He talked about the second coming of Christ.
He talked about the resurrection.
He talked about those that would be asleep in the grave until the heavens be no more.
And he described these things and Job's teaching is completely consistent with 1 Corinthians
15 here.
He said worms are going to destroy the body, but yet I will see God in my flesh.
What does that mean?
A new body, a spiritual body, a different type of body than what was sown.
Now look, certainly there are elements of the seed that are in that plant, that make
it into that plant, right?
But it's just a different, it's a different, you know, thing altogether.
So he says here it's sown a natural body, it's raised in the spiritual body.
Now this is why we bury the dead.
This is what it's picturing.
I mean when someone dies and you put that person's body in that coffin and you put it
into the earth and you put the earth over it, what are you symbolizing?
You're symbolizing that we're planting a seed here.
This body is being sown into the earth and it will eventually be raised again in newness
of life as a spiritual body.
That's why I do not believe in cremation.
And this is why I don't want to be cremated.
I'm not saying to put me in some gold-plated coffin, but for crying out loud, bury me in
the earth.
Bury me out of your sight, you know, whatever.
I'm not saying something fancy, but good night.
You say, well it's cheaper.
I mean I think it's a tragedy how much it costs to bury people now.
People are already grieving, they're going through a hard time and then they have to
deal with this financial burden of paying thousands and thousands of dollars for a hole
in the ground.
I mean it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but it used to be in the old days, you know,
you'd be buried out behind the church or something, you know, and, you know, would to God that
we were, you know, able to do that today and maybe someday we'll have a cemetery behind
our church or something, but, you know, it's probably not going to be zoned right or whatever.
But anyway, what I'm saying is that, you know, spend the money, you know what I mean, to
at least bury somebody.
Because the Bible talks a lot about burial and it talks about in Ecclesiastes that it's
dishonorable if you don't have a burial.
So, you know, I want to be buried, so raise the money or do whatever you have to do, you
know.
I have enough money to bury myself, you know, to pay for my own burial, you know what I
mean?
So anyway, I mean why do people get cremated, right?
Because it's cheap.
But I mean, you know, I don't want to be, and obviously look, if you cremate somebody,
that's not going to change what happens to their soul.
That's not going to change the fact that they're resurrected.
Or at least if they got cremated, at least bury, you know, what's left, right?
At least bury something.
Sow something to the earth.
But you know, I just, if I see that the burial of a body is a sowing of a seed, if it pictures
that resurrection, you know, what is a cremation picture?
Like you're burning in hell or something, you know?
So it just seems like a heathen thing to do.
And obviously if a saved person is cremated, they're still going to heaven, they're still
going to rise again.
No question about that.
But I don't want to do this kind of a pagan, you know, heathen practice of torching people
when they die instead of burying them.
Okay.
And I'm not trying to offend anybody if that's what happened to your loved one, you know.
And I have loved ones who were cremated and so forth.
But you know, it wasn't up to me.
Nobody asked me, you know, because I wouldn't cremate my loved ones.
But anyway, it says in verse number 21, for since by man came death, by man came also
the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Again, emphasizing the fact that there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ.
You know, if you're going to be made alive, if you're going to be resurrected, it's through
Christ and Christ alone.
But he says, but every man in his own order.
So we're talking about the chronological order of the resurrection.
He says, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming, then
cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet, the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is dead.
Now this is a very important passage about the second coming of Christ and about the
rapture, if you want to call it that, or the first resurrection or when the dead in
Christ will rise first and we which are alive and remain are caught up together be with
them in the clouds.
Very important because the Bible here gives us a very clear timeline of the resurrection,
does it not?
He says, Christ the firstfruits.
Now those who are these followers of Peter Ruckman or those that are these dispensationalists
or you know, and they say, well I'm not a hyper dispensationalist, I'm just a dispensationalist.
It's like shut up, it's all a bunch of false garbage.
It's like, well I'm not a hyper-Calvinist, you know, what are you then?
I'm just a kind of Calvinist, I'm just kind of a dispensationalist, I'm not kind of anything.
You know, you're kind of following lies.
So dispensationalism is a false doctrine and it's not kind of right and it's not well just
don't take it too far and nobody wants to say that they're hyper because you know what
hyper means?
Too much.
So who's going to say, I'm too much of a dispensationalist?
Therefore is anybody really going to admit that they're hyper anything?
So guess what?
These people that say they're a dispensationalist, they're really a hyper dispensationalist because
even if you're one ounce dispensational, that's too much.
So it's a stupid word game to say, well I'm dispensational but I'm not hyper dispensational.
If you go find the guy that they're calling hyper, he'll tell you he's not hyper.
You know, and if you find the one that's, you know, I'm a four-point Calvinist or five-point,
it's all false doctrine and we shouldn't even be dabbling in it, okay?
Stay away from it.
It's not biblical.
And this is what those that are, you know, these that believe in a pre-Trib rapture,
okay?
And look, if you believe in the pre-Trib rapture, I don't know what, you know, you need to watch
that movie, okay?
But anyway, you know, if you believe in the pre-Trib rapture, you don't read the Bible
much or you've been severely brainwashed by your church because the Bible clearly says
it's after the tribulation and there's so much scripture to prove that.
But those who believe in a pre-Trib rapture or a dispensationalist or hyper dispensational
or they're these ruckmanites, this is what they'll teach.
There are seven raptures, seven raptures in the Bible.
And then they have all these different resurrections too.
They've got multiple resurrections.
People say, well, you know, there's a resurrection before the tribulation.
Then there's a resurrection partway through the tribulation.
Then there's a resurrection at the end of the tribulation.
Then there's another resurrection after the millennium and have all these different resurrections
going on.
Now, look, what does the Bible teach here about the resurrection of the dead?
It teaches that it comes basically in three stages, including the resurrection of Christ.
I mean, this passage, it could not be any clearer.
He said this is the order and now look, this is the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians
15, and he says this.
He says, look, here's the order.
Every man in his own order.
He says, Christ the firstfruits.
That's step one, the firstfruits, okay?
But that's not a resurrection of believers.
That's just a resurrection of Jesus only.
One guy, one person, the Lord Jesus Christ himself resurrected.
So Christ the firstfruits afterward, okay, did everybody get that, afterward, they that
are Christ's at his coming.
So let me ask this, is there a resurrection of believers before Christ's coming?
No.
Because there's Christ the firstfruits, then afterward there's they that are Christ's that
is coming.
So wouldn't you say that the resurrection of believers is going to occur at the coming
of Christ?
Couldn't be any clearer, could it?
Okay, now let's see if this is consistent with 1 Thessalonians 4.
1 Thessalonians 4 says this, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the
Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
So when does 1 Thessalonians 4 say the dead are going to rise?
At the coming of Christ.
When does 1 Corinthians 15 say that the dead are going to rise?
At the coming of Christ.
So it's pretty clear, isn't it?
Pretty simple.
Very consistent.
You say, well don't confuse the rapture with the second coming of Christ.
Two different things.
Okay, well is that the third coming?
You know, is this coming 1.5?
Look, the rapture is the coming of Christ according to 1 Thessalonians 4 and according
to 1 Corinthians 15, because what happens first?
The dead in Christ rise first.
And that happens at the coming of Christ.
Okay, very consistent.
But keep reading.
So he said, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's that is coming, then,
do you see the word then?
So isn't he telling us what comes next?
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.
So when does Jesus deliver up the kingdom to the Father?
After the millennium, right?
It says, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and all power.
This is when he puts down that final rebellion in Revelation 20, and it says, for he must
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
When does that take place?
The great white throne after the millennium, when all enemies are put under his feet, every
knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, and then look at this, the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is dead.
So that is when the final resurrection of the dead takes place.
Okay, go to John 5, John chapter 5.
So the Bible is crystal clear here in 1 Corinthians 15 that there is Christ the firstfruits, then
there is a first resurrection of believers at Christ's coming, and then there's a second
resurrection of believers after the millennium, right?
So we have Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's coming, then cometh
the end.
And the end is defined for us as after the millennium, when everything is put under his
feet, and he delivers up the kingdom of the Father, the last enemy that shall be destroyed
is dead.
Now look at John 5 and tell me if that's consistent with what I've just explained.
It says in verse 28, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that
are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good
under the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil under the resurrection
of damnation.
Now this is talking about in one hour, all that are in the grave is hearing his voice,
and some rising to a resurrection of life, and some rising to a resurrection of damnation.
Not a resurrection of life, they're not coming back to life.
A lot of times people misunderstand the word resurrect to mean come to life.
Resurrect means to raise up, but he's going to raise up the dead and they're going to
remain dead.
Because in Revelation 20 he said, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
So it's still dead.
The dead are judged out of those things which are written in the books, then they're cast
into the lake of fire.
So again, this is talking about one hour when they will all hear his voice.
Now those that believe in a pre-trib rapture, here's what they'll say when you show them
this verse.
So that hour there, that's talking about two events that are over a thousand years
apart, they'll say.
They'll say those two events, you know the resurrection of the just and the resurrection
of the unjust, are taking place over a thousand years apart and yet God uses the word hour.
Isn't that amazing?
No, it's not amazing, it's not true.
It's not right, that's not what hour means.
An hour is 60 minutes, okay?
And if the word hour is ever used metaphorically, it's talking about a specific moment in time.
You know, a certain time has come, this is your hour, you know, this is your time.
We're not talking about two events a thousand years apart, that wouldn't be an hour.
There's no way you're going to make an hour out of that, okay?
I don't know where people come up with this stuff, but basically what this is referring
to, according to Jesus, isn't Jesus saying there's going to be an hour when every single
person in the grave, here's what everybody who's in the grave, and they will all be resurrected
at the same time, and that the good and the evil, the just and the unjust, will all be
resurrected at the same time, one group to be damned and one group to be saved, right?
And to be brought to life.
Well, what is this referring to?
Let me ask this, is it referring to the first resurrection?
No, because at the first resurrection, also known as the rapture, that's when only the
believers rise, okay?
The unsaved do not rise in that resurrection, but according to 1 Corinthians 15, go to Revelation
20 if you would, according to 1 Corinthians 15, there is another second resurrection that
takes place after the millennium, right?
Because he says, here's the order, Christ the first fruits, after the day that Christ
is coming, then at the end, he talks about death being destroyed.
He talks about a third resurrection.
I'm not going to call it the third resurrection, I'm going to call it the second resurrection,
because Christ is the first fruits.
It's the first fruits and there's the first resurrection of believers and the second resurrection
of believers.
Boom, boom, boom.
It's so simple, but people have tried to make it complicated because they've lied.
And it says in Revelation chapter 20 here, when it describes these exact events, it's
perfectly consistent with 1 Corinthians 15, it says in verse 4, and I saw thrones and
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which did not worship
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or
in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
So we're talking about here the first resurrection, which takes place before the millennium, right?
Which takes place at the coming of Christ.
I want you to pay very close attention, maybe this sermon is a little bit too doctrinal
for you, but get some smarts and listen up.
I want you to pay very close attention for the next few minutes, because I'm afraid I'm
going to lose some people, because I'm trying to make this as simple as I can, but I really
want you to pay attention, because this is really key here, very important what I'm going
to say over the next couple minutes, listen.
He says here that they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
That tells us that the first resurrection takes place before the millennium, right?
Because they come up and they live again, and then they reign for a thousand years,
okay?
That's the first resurrection.
Okay, now those that are pre-trib will say that this is not the first resurrection.
Why?
Because they believe in a pre-trib rapture.
Well here it says that in the first resurrection it includes people who have been beheaded
for not taking the mark of the beast.
That means they went through the tribulation, right?
So this proves a pre-tribulation rapture is stupid.
Because it shows here that the first resurrection, and they'll say, well the first resurrection
comes in three stages.
Okay, is that what 1 Corinthians 15 taught?
No.
It taught Jesus' resurrection, afterward they that are Christ's is coming, then cometh
the end.
So with that in mind, doesn't it make sense to call this the first resurrection?
Because we're not counting Christ, because he was the first fruits, that he was not a
believer, he was the Savior himself.
They that are Christ's that is coming are the first fruits, okay?
They come up before the millennium, and they include people who went through the tribulation
because they've been beheaded for Christ in many cases.
Okay, but here's the part that I really want to drive in, because there are some people
who mistakenly think that the first resurrection or the rapture takes place after God has poured
out his wrath.
Now here's why they come to that conclusion, because they're reading the Bible chronologically
here, and they see basically the wrath being poured out in Revelation, okay?
And they see basically the vials of God's wrath being poured out, and then after that
they come to chapter 20 and say, well here, he's saying these people are resurrected and
they're reigning with Christ, therefore they say that they're resurrected right at the
very beginning of the millennium after the wrath is poured out.
Because basically what we believe is that the resurrection takes place, you know, post-tribulational,
but that it's pre-wrath.
Because the Bible is real clear when this takes place.
It takes place when the sun and moon are darkened, okay?
He said the sun is darkened, the moon is darkened, then they see Christ coming in the clouds,
the trumpet sounds, he gathers the elect.
Then after that he pours out his wrath, and his wrath is encompassed in the seven trumpets
and the seven vials, okay?
Now, those who believe that chapter 20 is describing the resurrection are wrong, and
I'm going to prove it to you, but you have to pay close attention, and if you pay close
attention you'll see without a shadow of a doubt that that post-wrath paradigm is false.
Let me prove it to you.
Because the Bible here is describing those who came up in the first resurrection as sitting
on thrones and ruling and reigning for a thousand years.
Does that mean that they're just now being resurrected in chapter 20?
No.
They've already been resurrected years earlier.
Not pre-trib, no, of course not.
Post-tribulational but pre-wrath, because they do include those that were beheaded for
the cause of Christ, which proves that they went through the tribulation, but they were
not there for the outpouring of God's wrath.
Here's the proof, and obviously there's lots more proof, but here's the proof from this
passage.
It says in verse 5, the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
That's the key right there.
This is the first resurrection.
Now think about this for a moment.
If those who believe in this post-seven years, post-Daniel 70th week, post-wrath resurrection,
this rapture that takes place after God pours out his wrath, you know that we're going to
be here while God's pouring out his wrath, that we're going to be here for the whole
seven years, if that were the case and the rapture were taking place at this point in
Revelation 20, why would any dead be left in the grave that would live again when the
thousand years are finished?
Think about that.
Who understood what I just said?
Put up your hand.
David, is it making sense?
About two people.
Let me try to explain it better.
If after the wrath is poured out and everything, and we're in Revelation 20, the millennium
is about to start, if this is when the first resurrection is taking place, then wouldn't
all believers be caught up?
Doesn't the Bible teach that?
So who are the dead that are going to live again a thousand years later?
Well you might say, oh well that's the unsaved, because the saved, they're all going up and
then the unsaved are remaining in the grave.
Wrong.
The unsaved are not going to live again.
Because when they stand before God are they alive or dead?
He said I saw the dead.
It's not a resurrection of life, it's a resurrection of damnation.
They stand before God dead.
So when it says the rest of the dead lived not again, who are we talking about?
Saved or unsaved?
Anybody who's going to live again is saved.
Anybody who lives again is saved because the dead, the unsaved are never going to live
again.
They stand before God dead.
This is talking about the second resurrection, which takes place after the millennium.
Because remember 1 Corinthians 15, Christ the first fruits, after the day that our Christ
is coming, then cometh the end, and he talks about a post millennial resurrection.
Jesus talked about it when he said in one hour, the saved and the unsaved will all be
resurrected.
Okay?
One's a resurrection of life living again, one's a resurrection of damnation.
So in order for people to be left in the graves that are called the rest of the dead, and
he's saying the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years are finished,
that would mean that there would have to be a period of time between when the first resurrection
and the rapture happened and when they begin to rule and reign with Christ a thousand years.
There would have to be a period of time for other believers to die that would be considered
the rest of the dead that are not going to live again.
So what's the Bible telling us here?
The Bible's telling us that the dead in Christ rise when the sun and moon are darkened.