Four Basic Facts About The Gospel

Transcript

GR 1362
10-14-07
Four Basic Facts about the Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
Gil Rugh

We're going to be in 1 Corinthians 15 today. We are in a chapter that will talk about the rapture of the church, the coming Kingdom that Christ will establish on earth. A very special chapter in the Word of God because it is one of those chapters that focuses attention in a special way on a particular subject—the subject is the resurrection of the dead. Paul has written much in the first 14 chapters of 1 Corinthians, and most of what he has been written has to do with their conduct and behavior as God's people. In fact chapter 15 is the only fully doctrinal chapter in the whole letter, and the theme of this chapter, the subject matter from beginning to end is going to be the resurrection of the dead, the bodily resurrection of our dead bodies. Some in the Corinthian church had been influenced by teaching that taught there would be no bodily resurrection and Paul is writing to correct that.

In 1 Corinthians 15:12, now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now Paul is going to connect the bodily resurrection of people generally, or us as believers to the fact that Christ was raised from the dead. Now the denial of bodily resurrection was a rather common belief in New Testament times. Remember in Judaism the nation Israel had two major parties that were often vying for power—the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Apostle Paul came out of the party of the Pharisees. The Sadducees would be what today we would call liberals, I guess, in that they denied supernatural things. They denied bodily resurrection.

Turn back to Acts 23. The Apostle Paul has been put on trial before the Sanhedrin, the governing body in Israel for the Jews. And it is comprised both of Sadducees and Pharisees, and so Paul in his defense splits the group by declaring that he is being put on trial for believing in the resurrection of the body. Well the Pharisees would support the resurrection of the body, the Sadducees would not. So in verse 7 you read, as he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit. But the Pharisees acknowledge them all. You see, basically, the Sadducees denied supernatural things, including the resurrection of the body. And that's how we remember the distinction between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, you remember. The Sadducees did not believe in bodily resurrection, therefore they were sad, you see. Right? That's how you remember. I remember that from way back when I was a student, that's how I passed my test. All right, so in Israel you had a division, even among the Jews, and the Sadducees were the powerful party. They were the smaller, but the high priest in Israel was a member of the Sadducee party. Now imagine that, here you are. The high priest in the nation Israel and you don't even believe in the supernatural. So that's one group.

Turn back to Acts 17. The Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul, but they did not believe in the resurrection of the body. So when Paul came to the city of Athens in Greece and went to Mars Hill and preached the message of Christ, we read down in verse 30, Paul is preaching on Mars Hill in Athens. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer. Others said, we'll hear him again on this matter. You see, the initial reaction of these Greeks when they hear about bodily resurrection is that's silly, that's foolishness. Because the Greek philosophers taught that there was no bodily resurrection. The soul was immortal, but there would be no resurrection of the body.

Interesting, another occasion where the resurrection was an issue in a letter that Paul wrote—2 Timothy 2. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy and Timothy is ministering in the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians. Here he is writing to Timothy regarding a situation in the church at Ephesus. Ephesus is not in Greece, Ephesus is in Asia Minor, but note what is going on in this church. Verse 16, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place. And they were causing some to be shaken in their faith in the church at Ephesus. These men evidently were teaching that the only resurrection there is, is a spiritual resurrection. That occurs when you believe in Christ. You die with Him spiritually and are raised with Him spiritually. There is no future bodily resurrection. Paul says that is false teaching, and these men need to be stopped.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. Now Paul doesn't say what caused this teaching to get a hold in the church at Corinth. Corinth is a Greek city. Perhaps it was the attitude of the Greeks, the teaching of the Greek philosophers and Greek teachers that there was no bodily resurrection. That would be expected—these people who were saved in the church at Corinth came out of their Greek culture and background. Perhaps they were influenced by this. We're not told, Paul is not concerned about that, but he is concerned to set the record straight that the bodily resurrection is a reality. And rather than starting with the bodily resurrection of people generally, he's going to start with the foundational issue of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel of Jesus Christ can be summarized in four statements. They are contained in verses 3-5. We'll be looking at these in some detail in our next study. But note the four statements. Verse 3, Christ died for our sins. First statement is He died. Second statement in verse 4, He was buried. The third statement is He was raised. The fourth statement is He appeared, He was seen. So those four facts summarize the gospel that you must believe to be saved. As we'll see, the gospel that Paul preached—Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ was raised, Christ was seen. Now crucial in this is the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Again, we'll talk more about these details as we move into this section specifically.

But Paul's point that he will develop in this chapter is first to remind them of the gospel they had to believe to be saved, the gospel that they must continue to believe if they were genuinely saved. Then he will connect the resurrection of Christ, which is an essential part of the gospel, to the resurrection of all people. Verse 13, if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith is vain. Verse 16, if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins. So let me start with something you have to agree on to really be a child of God, to have experienced His salvation, to truly be part of the church, which is the household of God. You must believe the gospel, which means you must believe that Christ died for your sins, that He was buried, that He was raised from the dead the third day, and that He appeared and was seen by witnesses.

If that's what you have really believed, then how can you deny that there will be bodily resurrection for people? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the evidence there is bodily resurrection. And if you deny the resurrection of people generally, that means Jesus Christ would not have been raised either, that means believing in Him for salvation accomplishes nothing. You have a worthless faith. That's how he's going to back into this issue of, will we be raised bodily from the grave. And you'll find that even though there are four statements that can summarize the gospel, you have to be careful in saying, well as long as you believe these four things, other things don't matter. Paul is going to say they matter very much, because if you deny that people generally are going to be raised from the dead, you have denied the gospel, because you have denied the resurrection of Christ. Oh, no, I believe Christ was raised, I just don't believe other people are raised. Paul says that is not an option. To deny general bodily resurrection is to deny the resurrection of Christ and thus the gospel. So these are inseparably joined. And he will have a rather careful argument as we work through this.

It's important to note here, Paul is not setting out to prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That is a given. These Corinthians had heard the message and claimed to believe it. So Paul is not trying to prove that Christ was raised from the dead, but he's going to use the resurrection of Christ from the dead as proof that you and I will experience bodily resurrection as well.

What he's going to do in the first two verses, he's going to remind them of four basic facts about the gospel. That's in verses 1-2. And then he will go through the four basic elements of the gospel in verses 3-5. First he's going to tell them four basic facts about the gospel, and very important foundation. He will even raise the question of whether the Corinthians, and some of the Corinthians have truly experienced salvation, and show the qualifications on that. Let's just walk through this statement by statement.

He begins, now I make know to you, brethren, the gospel. That expression has been used before by Paul, for example back in chapter 12 verse 3. He uses it when he is going to say something to them which is something they know but they are acting like they have forgotten it. I make known to you the gospel. Well they already know the gospel, Paul preached it to them, they received it, they stand in it. These are the things he's going to say. But he started out by saying, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel. It would be like saying, you don't have to make known the gospel to me, Paul, I already know it. But I have to make it known to you because you are conducting yourself like you have forgotten what the gospel is. And that's why, how can you be denying bodily resurrection for people, if you really know the gospel, which involves bodily resurrection of Christ.

Now he calls them brethren, which is a term of warmth. I'm going to say some harsh things, some pointed things. People get offended when you say things to them that correct them. But Paul wants them to know, I'm speaking out of a family relationship, I do consider you a member of God's family, my brothers and sisters in Christ. So there is a warmth. He uses this expression repeatedly through this letter because he often has to correct them. He began in chapter 1 and called them brethren, because I have heard there are divisions among you and I partially believe it. But brethren. So he softens the correction by this expression of warmth. I'm making known to you the gospel. Yuongelian. Compound word, means the good message, the good news. I want to make known to you the good news. What is the gospel? Well its content will be unfolded in verses 3-5—Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ was raised, Christ appeared. That is the substance of the message that Paul preached, the message of Jesus Christ, God's Savior for mankind.

I make known to you the gospel. This really is the subject of the first eleven verses, then he'll show how that impacts the whole issue of bodily resurrection which will lead in to talk about future things, and what is ahead for us regarding our resurrection, the kingdom, and so on. I make known to you the gospel. Down in verse 3 when we get there, he'll talk about that he received this gospel. The subject of the gospel is a key part of Paul's writings in the New Testament. The word gospel is used 76 times in the New Testament, 60 of the 76 times it's used by the Apostle Paul. So you can see this is a key theme that permeates his writings. His life was about the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ.

Turn over to Galatians 1, and Paul is concerned about the fact that the Galatians, the people in the churches in the region of Galatia, are departing from the truth of the gospel. He's reminded them of this gospel in verse 4 where he says that Christ gave himself for our sins, that he might rescue us from this present evil age. He's concerned, verse 6, I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another. A play on words there, you're going to a different gospel, but it's not another, and he uses two different Greek words. You're going to a different gospel, one that is totally a different kind of gospel. It's not another gospel. It’s not a variation of my gospel. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached, he is to be accursed, anathema, condemned to hell. Paul said there is only one gospel, there can be no variations, there can be no adjustments, there can be no alterations in this gospel. Even if an angel from heaven would make a change in this gospel, he's going to hell. Now this is a serious matter. Verse 11, I would have you know, brethren, the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. We'll have more to say about this in our coming studies. The fact is, Paul received this directly from Christ. It's not a different gospel than the gospel Peter preached, because Peter also received it from the Lord. But Paul's point is, I don't hold to this gospel and preach this gospel because Peter taught it to me, James taught it to me or others taught it to me. No, I preach this gospel because Christ taught it to me. And that establishes the fact that it's an unchangeable gospel.

So come back to 1 Corinthians 15. I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, and I'm going to elaborate on the gospel with four relative clauses, each beginning with which, for our purposes. So you'll note, it's the gospel, and each of these elaborate on that gospel. It's the gospel which I preach to you; secondly, which also you received; thirdly, in which also you stand; fourthly, by which also you are saved. And he'll qualify that state of their salvation with two conditional phrases—if you hold fast and unless you believed in vain.

Let's look at these four statements that elaborate on the gospel that Paul preached. That's the first thing he says, I make known to you the gospel which I also preached to you. And that I preached is just the verb form of the word gospel. So it's the same word, you have the gospel, I make known to you the gospel, which is a noun. We all remember our English grammar, right? And then I preached it to you. That's just the verb form of the same thing. Yuongelian, and then yongalidzo is the verb, you can hear it in English. Same word, “the good news.” So I make known to you the gospel which I “good newsed” to you. Now that wouldn't make a great English sentence, but I preached this gospel to you. That's the message I brought to you. In Acts 18 when Paul came to the city of Corinth he preached the gospel to them, that message that is contained in verses 3-5—the death, burial, resurrection and appearance of Christ—to the Corinthians. And they believed it.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. Paul began his letter by unfolding and reminding them of the message he had preached to them when he came to Corinth. In verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Baptism is not part of the gospel. There's a place for baptism and our obedience when we have believed the gospel and been born into God's family, but baptism is not part of what saves you. Paul said God didn't send me to baptize people, He sent me to preach the gospel to people. Not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. You know there is something that offends people, that is repulsive to people in the simplicity of the gospel, to be told that they are sinners, under the condemnation of God and on their way to hell. And God's Son, Jesus Christ died on a cross to pay the penalty for their sin. He was buried, He was raised from the dead. And if you will turn from your sin and place your faith in Him and Him alone for salvation, you will be saved. People find that offensive. I have my own beliefs, I have my own religion, my church teaches differently. Well Paul says, I don't make any adjustments in the gospel to be more appealing to men. Verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. If you were here back in our study a long time ago of chapter 1, remember that word translated foolishness here, the Greek word, we get the English word moron from it. It's moronic, it's stupidity, it's dumb. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. Verse 21, since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Jews look for signs. Greeks search for wisdom. We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness, to the called of God the power of God, the wisdom of God.

Look down in chapter 2. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. We constantly feel the pressure to do something with the simplicity of the gospel to make it more appealing to people, to look more scholarly, to look more intellectual, to make it more acceptable. Paul said I made no alterations when I came to the city of Corinth. I know the Jews want to be impressed with wisdom, but I didn't come to impress them with wisdom. I came to preach to them the simple message of Jesus Christ. Verse 2, I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Verse 4, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. You didn't turn to Christ in faith because you were impressed by the wisdom that I displayed, you turned to Christ because the Spirit of God took the truth of God and drove it home to your heart, and you believed it. So that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Something tragic happens when we alter the message of the gospel, and we think because many people respond and “make a decision,” or join our church. Therefore, we are successful. But it's a tragic thing for people to be presented and adjusted gospel, a gospel with alterations and their faith really rests in the wisdom of men, the cleverness of men, not in the power of God. And that faith does not save. Paul will make that clear again in chapter 15.

In 1 Corinthians 9:16, Paul says, if I preach the gospel I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Remember Galatians 1? Christ revealed the gospel to me, He ordained that I would preach the gospel. I can't do anything else, that simplicity of Paul's life and ministry.

Look in Romans 15, the end of verse 15 says that Paul ministers because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Paul says, I'm like a priest and I have the gospel, and I give it to people, and people hear it and believe because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And those people who hear the gospel as I preach it and believe are like a sacrifice offered to God. That's what my life is about, Paul said, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. So the first thing that Paul says about the gospel is that's the message I preached to you, I preached the gospel to you. So this is not new. Five or six years ago when I came to Corinth I preached the gospel to you. Secondly, he says, it's this gospel which you also received. They received the gospel, and since they believed it they responded in faith to that message that Christ preached.

Turn back to I Thessalonians 1, Thessalonica was another city in Greece, still further north of Corinth and Athens, and Paul came and preached to the Thessalonians. Look at verse 5, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Verse 6, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with joy and the Holy Spirit. And the result was, the end of verse 9, you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from wrath to come. Verse 4 of chapter 2, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. Verse 13, for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is—the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. That's the evidence that God is at work, when His Word is proclaimed and people respond and believe it. We are not called to make the Word more appealing, to dress it up so it will appeal to men of intellect. We are called to preach the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God takes that and drives it home to a heart, and by the power of God people are marvelously saved.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. In John 1:12 John wrote concerning Jesus Christ. He came to His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His name. Those who received Him are those who believed in Him. So Paul says, I came with the gospel, I preached the gospel to you, you received the gospel, you welcomed it, you believed it. It's the gospel, thirdly, in which you also you stand. Now the first two clauses here modifying the gospel—the gospel which I preached to you, the gospel which you received—for those verbs Paul used the aorist tense, a Greek tense, and it's often used to refer to simple past events. So this would be the tense you would use for a past event, they are past tense. Paul refers to something that happened in the past—the gospel which I preached to you. He did that several years earlier when he came to Corinth. Which you received. They did that several years earlier when he preached the gospel to them. But now he changes his tense, in which also you stand. He uses the perfect tense here. The perfect tense refers to something that happened in the past, but the results continue in the present. So it's the gospel in which you stand. We might say in which you have been standing. They took a stand in the gospel when they received it, but they continued to stand in the gospel today, Paul says. It's the gospel in which you stand. It continues to be true of them. Now what he's doing now is working them to the point to show that if they were truly saved, they continue to stand in the gospel. Because if they are denying bodily resurrection, they are abandoning their stand in the gospel. Now he hasn't shown them that connection, yet, but that's where he is going. But when you have truly received the gospel, you continue to stand in the gospel.

There is a tragic teaching in the church today that you make a decision for Christ, and no matter what else takes place, as long as you made that decision, you received the gospel at some point, you are saved no matter what else happens. The problem with every error or heresy, there is an element of truth in it. The element of truth is when you truly believe in Christ, when you truly receive the gospel, you are saved for time and eternity. But what is often misunderstood is when you have truly received the gospel, truly believed in Christ, the power of God works in your life in such a dramatic life-changing way that you continue to stand in that gospel. You don't abandon it ever, never, ever do you abandon the gospel. It's the gospel in which you stand.

Look over in 2 Corinthians 1:24. The Corinthian church had a lot of problems, but they did stand firm in their faith in Christ. Look at verse 24, not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy. For in your faith you are standing firm. That's the evidence they truly had received the gospel, truly believed. If they don't stand firm and continue to stand firm, that perfect tense denotes a permanent condition. It happened in the past but it continues to be true. You took your stand in the gospel the moment you believed in Christ, but you never leave that stand, you continue to stand firm in your faith, continue to stand in the gospel.

Go back to Romans 4:25, and you have a summary of the gospel at the end of chapter 4, where you have the righteousness of Christ credited to those who believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. He was delivered over because of our transgressions, was raised because of our justification. You see that emphasis on the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. So you come into chapter 5, therefore having been justified, declared righteous, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. We entered into this position and we continue to stand here. The gospel is not something I believed when some time in the past, maybe when I was a child, maybe when I went to a special meeting, and then I've gone on with my life. The gospel is something I believed in, I took my stand in, and to this day fifty years later I stand there. And I will stand there until Christ comes. And those who are not standing there never truly received the gospel or were saved. That's where Paul is going, and we'll see that in a moment.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. Paul is reminding them of the gospel. It's the gospel which he preached to them, it's the gospel which they received, it's the gospel in which they have been standing, it's the gospel by which you are saved. And we have another change of tense. The first two tenses—which I preached to you, which you received—remember, were aorist, past tense. Then the gospel in which you stand, that was a perfect tense, denoting that they have been and continue to stand here. Now he uses the present tense, it's the gospel by which you are being saved. And he uses a passive voice, a passive voice, something is being done to you. Active voice, you are doing something. We've had the active voice, I preach this to you, you received this. But now you are being saved. And the emphasis here is on the work of God in the life of the one who has heard the gospel, received the gospel, taken his stand in the gospel, and now the marvelous power of God is at work in that life, accomplishing the salvation of God. You say, I'm glad I was saved completely and fully when I believed in Christ. Yes you were, because when you believed in Christ, you entered into the salvation that God provided. But it's not done, yet. He is preparing us for the glory of His presence and the ultimate glorification of the body, and that's where we'll be going with the whole subject of resurrection as we progress into this chapter. So God's work of salvation continues in your life. Philippians 1:6 Paul says, I am confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus. That is God's ongoing work of salvation.

Very serious matter, so serious Paul is going to qualify this statement, you are being saved, with two conditional statements—if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, and unless you believed in vain. You are being saved, God's work in a life is ongoing. You know that's a beautiful thing. How tragic that people have come to think of salvation as just a point in time and then they think they just go on with their lives. My life may be a life of sin, but that's all right, I trusted Christ back then. Sometimes we as parents are guilty of this. We want so badly for our kids to be saved, that we want to put all our hope in the fact that when they were in 6th grade I know they prayed to received Christ. So now it doesn't matter what else they do, I know they're saved. You know that's not a beautiful salvation, the beautiful salvation that the scripture presents is when God enters into a life with His power and He totally makes that person new. And you know what? He never leaves. The Spirit of God takes up residence in that life, and now the power of God is resident there to continue God's work of salvation and molding and shaping and producing the character of the living God in that life in anticipation of the time when we will experience the glorification of the body. And brought into perfect conformity to what God intends us to be. It's this gospel by which we are being saved. Its work continues in the life.

If you hold fast the word which I preach to you. I always found English boring in school, and I would periodically go to summer school what I forgot to learn during the year. And you know the Lord must have a sense of humor, because I always did better in math than grammar. Then I went to Bible college and seminary and you know what I had to do? I had to learn Greek and Hebrew, and they're talking about verbs, nouns, and all these parts of speech. How am I going to know what a Greek conditional sentence is? I don't even know what an English conditional sentence is. You know what I had to? I had to go get an English grammar and start over and learn English so I could know what we are talking about in Greek. All of that to say, this is a conditional sentence. And in Greek they have several kinds of condition. This is what is called a first class condition. A first class assumes that something is probably true. We do that with our conditional sentences today. Sometimes we do it with the inflection of our voice, implying we know this is true. Well you can come along if you want to. Well, we know they really want to, so that's not a doubt that they do. So here, that's the way this is. If you hold fast the word which I preached to you, and I am assuming you are holding fast to the word. But it's not a guarantee. You are being saved, the power of God is continuing its work in your life, you are truly saved, you truly receive the word. This is reality, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you. If you hold fast to the gospel which I preached to you, basically is what he is saying. If you don't, that will be an indication you never really received the gospel in a saving way. Multitudes of people have made a profession of faith, multitudes of people have come to believe in Christ, but they don't hold fast to the gospel. They were never really saved. You say, who are you to judge? I am not anyone to judge, but the God who is the judge of all men has said, this gospel is the gospel by which you are being saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you.

Turn over to Hebrews 3, and the book of Hebrews unfolds the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ in some detail, comparing and contrasting it with the Old Testament system of the Mosaic Law. Look in Hebrews 3:6. We’ll just break into the sentence. But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are. We have become part of the family of Christ, of God's household, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. You know saving faith is an enduring faith. Faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ is an ongoing faith in the gospel. If you hold fast. Look at verse 12, take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance, firm until the end. How long? Well he seemed to have believed, and he seemed to do well, but then fell off. Well you remember the parable of the soils Jesus told? There was the seed of the Word of God that fell on shallow ground and it sprang up and it looked so great, but it had no roots. And it soon withers and dies. Saving faith is an enduring faith, because the work of God is ongoing in the life. We are being saved. God didn't save me and drop me, He saved me and made me His own. He made me new, He took up residence in my life. Now as we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, our bodies are the temples of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, and the power of God is at work in our lives. And so we hold fast to this gospel which is so precious to us, and we hold it firm until the end. The warning in Hebrews 3:12 is be careful. Some of you may not have a believing heart. You've gone through the motions, you may have an emotional feeling associated with that, but the reality of it is unless you hold fast to the gospel, you're not truly saved.

Turn over to Hebrews 10:23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For He is faithful who promised. That's the issue. I believe the truth of the gospel, I believe what God has promised, and I haven't stopped believing that since the day I placed my faith in Christ. And by His grace I will not stop believing it.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. This is the gospel by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the gospel which was preached to you. Second condition, unless you believed in vain, except if you believed in vain. In other words, and this is another first class condition, you are being saved if you are holding fast. Now I think you probably are, but there is another possibility that I see can be true, too. Except if you believed in vain, emptily, to no purpose, without comprehension. A word used a number of times in the New Testament in a variety of contexts. The point is clear, maybe you didn't really understand the facts of the gospel. That's the terrible thing about we're preaching a message about Christ today, but not talking about sin. Nobody ever gets saved, truly saved in a biblical sense, who does not come under the conviction of the Spirit of God for their sin. That was why Christ sent the Spirit into the world—when He comes into the world, He will convict the world of sin. People are getting saved because they want to be happy, getting saved because they don't want to go to hell, getting saved because they want to have a good marriage. And they have no concept of their personal sin and guilt before God. We'll pick that up with the gospel as we move into verse 3. The first step in understanding the death of Christ, and it's for our sin. Amazingly, some who claim to be “evangelical, Bible-believing Christians” are denying the death of Christ for sin today. Yet they still claim to be Christians. It's an appalling, terrible thing. And even as false teaching was infiltrating the church at Corinth, the church at Ephesus, so we see it going on today.

Unless you believed in vain, to no purpose, you didn't really understand what the gospel was. You want to be sure people know what the gospel is when you call them to faith in Christ. It's not just some emotional response to believe in Christ, make your decision for Christ, become a follower of Christ, get on the bandwagon. You have to understand the gospel. You must know Christ died for our sin, and the issue is you were under condemnation, you are going to hell. Doesn't matter if you are a member of this church, doesn't matter whether you were baptized in this church, doesn't matter whether you are a teacher in this church. Unless you have truly turned from you sin and placed your faith in Christ alone, you are going to hell. This is the gospel—Christ died for our sin, He was buried, He was raised because He did everything necessary. People are trusting Christ plus their baptism, plus communion, plus the sacrament, whatever, their church membership. They didn't understand the gospel.

That's where Paul is going. Because you're denying bodily resurrection, makes me wonder, did you really understand the gospel that you claim to believe? If you believe in something that you didn't understand, you didn't really understand that Christ died for your sin, you didn't really understand He was bodily raised from the dead, you weren't saved. You believed to no purpose. He didn't say they didn't believe, he said they believed in vain, to no purpose, it accomplished nothing. You understand the demons have faith. James 2 says the demons believe, and their faith is so strong, they tremble. The demons believe and tremble, but the demons are not saved. So we need to be careful that we don't believe in vain.

You are being saved, the power of God continuing its work. But I'm concerned, are you letting go of the gospel? Are you holding fast to the gospel? If you're denying bodily resurrection, you're not. The other alternative is you believed to no purpose. It wasn't a saving faith. Remarkable. Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 1, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Quoting from the book of Habakkuk. Paul said this is the gospel, I'm not ashamed of it. The gospel is God's power for salvation, and that power comes into a life to transform a life and make it new when a person hears the gospel. It's the true message of Jesus Christ—His death for our sin, His resurrection and victory—and places their faith in Him alone. They receive Him, they receive that message, they believe it. It's God's power for salvation. That's the beginning of a life of faith, for the just shall live by faith. You enter into life and you continue now a life of faith.

That's God's salvation. What a beautiful salvation. It's a salvation that He has accomplished for us and now gives as a free gift to all who believe in Him. We ought to examine ourselves. Paul will tell the Corinthians at the end of his second letter to them, examine yourselves to see if you are really in the faith. You may have been raised in this church or another church, done many things, but have you experienced the power of God in salvation in your life. Have you really heard the gospel and received it? Have you taken your stand in that gospel truth and continue today in that truth? The power of God at work in your life in accomplishing His redemptive work of salvation, molding and shaping you, preparing you for glory? Do you hold fast to that truth? If not, the only other alternative is you've believed in vain. But He's a gracious God, offering that free gift today to all who believe.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the wonder of your person. It's amazing to consider that you, the Lord of glory, the Creator of all, should choose in mercy and love and kindness and grace to send your only begotten Son to this sin-cursed earth to suffer and die on the cross so that He might bear our sins in His body on the tree so that we through faith in Him might die to sin and live to righteousness. Thank you for the beauty of the gospel, thank you for the power of the gospel, thank you for your ongoing work of salvation in our lives. Lord, I pray your Spirit would search our hearts and minds, lest any of us should be guilty of falling away from the living God, of having believed in vain. We desire, Lord, to have our faith in you, and you alone, the work you've done in your Son. And by your grace we'd be faithful to that truth until Christ comes again, in whose name we pray, amen.