The Impact of The Resurrected Christ

Transcript

GR 1365
11-04-07
The Impact of the Resurrected Christ
I Corinthians 15:8-11
Gil Rugh

We're in I Corinthians 15, the great chapter on the resurrection of the dead, so if you would turn there in your Bibles. I was thinking this past week what it would have been like in the church at Corinth. Is this the day you are bringing some of your friends and the Apostle Paul has written a letter that will be read to the church. And as you read the letter there are some stinging things to be said. And what would you think if this was the Sunday you brought your friends for the first time to the church at Corinth and the Apostle Paul has had to say, and you have to sit there and hear, in I Corinthians 3, I could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as the men of the flesh, as the infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food. You weren't able to bear the solid food and you're still not able, you're fleshly. There is jealousy among you. And on the letter goes. So much of the letter is correcting the conduct of the church because that's where the concern of Christ is, that's where the concern of the Lord of the church is, that His church function consistently with His Word to bring honor to Himself.

That's the kind of issue that has come up in I Corinthians 15. It's a wonderful, glorious chapter on the resurrection of the dead, but the chapter is precipitated and brought about by Paul having to address an issue of false doctrine infiltrating the church. He says in verse 12, some among you are saying there is no resurrection of the dead. And you understand that is a denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is a denial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can't split and parcel this out and say, I believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in the bodily resurrection of anyone else. Paul says if you deny bodily resurrection, you deny the bodily resurrection of Christ; if you deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, you have denied the gospel. And there is no salvation apart from the gospel. We need to be clear. You cannot break apart or add to the truth that God has revealed. This is not something that can be tampered with, we'll tinker with it, we'll improve it, we'll make adjustments to it. It has to be as God has given it.

So Paul began this chapter by reminding them of the content of the gospel that he preached to them when he first came. It has been five or so years since Paul first arrived at Corinth, bringing the message of Jesus Christ. He opened up this letter in chapter 1 by talking about the fact that he focused on the death of Jesus Christ. I know that wasn't popular at Corinth, it wasn't what the Jews wanted to hear, it wasn't what the Greeks wanted to hear. But it's what God had sent me to preach, so I determined that I would preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that's it. And that's the message you heard and believed. So Paul reminded them in verses 3-5 of the simple facts of that gospel message—Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the scripture, He appeared to Cephas and other witnesses.

Now those are the facts I preached, that's what you claim to believe. Now how can the church be tolerating teaching in its midst that says there is no resurrection of the dead? Just what is the problem? What is there that is not understood? Didn't you really understand the gospel that I preached? Didn't you really believe it? Let me clarify again, and so that's what he's doing—reminding them of what they already knew because they are acting like they forgot it or never really knew it.

Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. First thing to go in the preaching of the gospel. People don't want to hear about sin. I don't go to church to hear negative things, I don't go to church to hear what is wrong with me, I don't go to church to hear I'm going to hell. I don't go to church to hear what God has to say, that's basically what we're saying when we comment like that. I don't want to hear about sin, I don't want to hear about hell, I don't want to hear about judgment, I don't want to hear the fact that I am lost and I need a Savior. I don't want to hear what God has to say. Why go to church? I mean, what's the point? If we don't go to hear what God has to say, why go? Just another social activity to give us something to do on a Sunday morning. If this isn't the Word of God and Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, the Savior of the world, I'd stay home and read the paper, have a cup of coffee, watch the reruns of the football game from yesterday, some of them. And get ready for the afternoon pro games. I mean, why get up early, go to church, roll out of bed on your day off, if God has not spoken. But He has and so it is important for us to understand it and see that we are living in light of it.

Christ died, was buried, was raised, and He appeared. Two basic facts, His death for our sin and His resurrection from the dead. He was buried confirms that He died, He appeared confirms that He was raised. Now the issue in all of chapter 15 is the resurrection of the dead, so that is the point in the gospel that Paul is going to develop. So he made the statement in verse 3, Christ died for our sins. Verse 4, He was buried, He was raised on the third day, verse 5, He appeared. But with that emphasis on He appeared, that will be developed down through verse 11 in this first section. He wants to drive home the point, there are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the confirmation and evidence that His death on the cross paid the penalty for sin. If He did not experience bodily resurrection, there is no salvation in Jesus Christ. We have a crucified Savior, but we have a risen Savior, One who is alive.

In verse 5 we're breaking into the sentence, we've come down this far. He appeared following His resurrection from the dead to, and he's going to list six different witnesses, those who can confirm the fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ because they saw Him with their own eyes. That word appeared, He appeared, it's a good translation. We get the word ophthalmology from this word, optometrist. It means to see, and He was seen by these differing individuals or groups who can confirm the resurrection is a reality. Now I want you to note something, this is a selected group and Paul doesn't mention all of those that the gospels tells us Christ appeared to. And He does mention some that the gospels don't refer to, but no one in the church at Corinth is himself an eyewitness of the resurrection. So we are 2000 years after the resurrection of Christ and people say, nobody today has seen Him. That's true, but you understand no one in the church at Corinth had seen Him after His resurrection either. All they had to go on was the testimony of the eyewitnesses. That's all we have to go on—the testimony of the eyewitnesses. We have it written for us. What is recorded here is not recorded to prove that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead to an unbelieving people. This is written to remind people who have placed their faith in the death and resurrection of Christ of the facts that they believed, and remind them that they had to live in light of those truths. So we don't come here and say we can prove to people that Christ was raised from the dead, I cannot prove it to you. What we do is present the facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we'll see as Paul will unfold it, the Spirit of God takes that truth and drives it home to the heart and mind of those that He is drawing to salvation in Jesus Christ. That's what brings the power to the message of the gospel. These facts in and of themselves do not save people, it's these facts as taken by the Holy Spirit of God and carried to the heart and mind of the individual that will bring about the salvation of those believing in Christ.

There are six confirming testimonies that Paul mentions, and he mentions them in chronological sequence. You'll note verse 5, he'll start with Peter, called Cephas. Cephas is the Aramaic language for the Greek Peter, both meaning a stone or a rock. He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. That little word then indicating a subsequent appearance. After that, verse 6, to 500 brethren. Verse 7, then to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all to me. So there is a sequence of events here. He doesn't include all the appearances. But the ones he does use he has a purpose for and they will be in sequence, we're really building to his own personal eyewitness testimony and the impact of the resurrected Christ on the life of the Apostle Paul.

He began with Peter, Cephas, and we went through these so we're not going to go back. Then the twelve, referring to that group of twelve, even though now there are only eleven because Judas has hung himself. So during the time of these appearances there aren't twelve, but the twelve becomes a title for the group, even when there are less than twelve present. Then He appeared to 500 brethren at one time, showing the confirmation of this. The gospels don't record this, but Paul tells us about it. Most of those had survived to this point, 25 years or so have gone by but most of them are still alive. In other words, these witnesses could be here. This wasn't some individual hallucination or mind trick, it was 500 people at one time who experienced this personal presence of the resurrected Christ. Then He appeared to James, James was the half-brother of the Lord. James along with the other half-brothers were not believers in Christ during His earthly ministry, so in that sense James is similar to Paul because evidently it was this post resurrection appearance of Christ that brought about the salvation of James, who becomes a key leader in the church at Jerusalem in the book of Acts. And he also writes our epistle of James, as we have it in our New Testament. Then He appeared to all the apostles, and we noted that would have been in Acts 1 in the context of His ascension to heaven, which brings an end to the bodily appearances on earth and His ministry on earth that Acts 1 tells us went on for a period of 40 days between His crucifixion, resurrection and then His impending ascension.

In verse 8 Paul says, and last of all. The final appearance of the bodily resurrected Christ in a unique situation was to me. Last of all as the one untimely born, He appeared to me also. And this appearance to Paul by Christ is the subject matter of verses 8-11. And here he will bring in the fact that it was the grace of God that brought about the miraculous transformation in his life, that made him now a zealous proclaimer of the Christ that he once persecuted. Last of all. This is the last in the sequence of appearances. This bring to a conclusion those who will be eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ. They will be able to tell people, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, I saw Him with my own eyes. That's eyewitness testimony. When Ananias came after Christ confronted Paul on the Damascus Road in Acts 9 and he was struck blind, Ananias the prophet is sent by God to see Paul and restore his sight. And Ananias tells Paul, they have been given to you to see the righteous One, and then thus to proclaim Him. That's in Acts 26:16. In Acts 1:22 the apostles were to be eyewitnesses of His resurrection.

Back in I Corinthians 9:1 Paul asked the question, am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? So Paul is not defending his apostleship here, but we ought to keep in mind this list of eyewitnesses doesn't keep building and going on down through church history. We are done with Paul. You have to believe the testimony of the eyewitnesses, we have it recorded. Just as the Corinthians might have said, well if Jesus Christ would appear bodily here, that would be the proof. Well, you either believe the testimony or you don't. But there will be no more bodily appearances. Keep that in mind. There is a strong movement among churches today around the world that we have a revival of the apostolic gift. One of the books in my library is entitled, Apostolic Churches, and it interviews with men who are supposedly apostles and now leading churches today in different places in the world. Some of the churches are huge. The problem is, it's a lie, there are no apostles today. Paul was the last one, you had to have seen Jesus Christ bodily after His resurrection. Now we act on the basis of the testimony of the eyewitnesses.

Paul says I was one untimely born. This word untimely. There is a lot of discussion if you want to pursue it in the commentaries. It's not used any other time in the Bible in the New Testament. It's used three times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. There and in other places in Greek writings it can refer to a miscarriage or an abortion. And you can see how that would be, one born out of time, not at the right time, in a unique setting would be a miscarriage or an abortion. I think the translation we have here is as good as any, one untimely born, out of time, ectromity. I think that fits the context of what Paul is saying, I'm a unique case. He appeared last of all to me, and you know what? The appearance to Paul was years after the ascension of Christ to heaven in Acts 1, years after the other appearances. All the other appearances took place within the context of 40 days following His resurrection. You know what? Paul's appearance occurs years after all of those, years after the ascension of Christ to heaven, Christ appeared in a unique and special setting and context to the Apostle Paul. It was an untimely, abnormal birth.

He appeared to me also. The appearance to Paul was not just a dream or a vision. It was a bodily manifestation of the resurrected Christ. This is absolutely essential. That's what makes it unique. Christ will appear in dreams and visions to Paul on numerous occasions. In II Corinthians 12 he says that because of the many revelations that were given to him by Christ. In other writings he talks about the numerous dreams and visions. But this one was special and unique. It was a physical manifestation of the resurrected Christ so Paul could join the other apostles as an eyewitness of the resurrection.

It happened on the Damascus Road, Acts 9, where Paul is not seeking the Lord. He is not going to Damascus to see if he can find out more about Christ because he is really interested in searching for answers. He is going to Damascus by his own testimony for one purpose—to hunt down Christians to imprison them, to do all he can to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. And dramatically and suddenly the resurrected Christ strikes Paul down on that road outside Damascus and asks him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And there we have the remarkable conversion and transformation of the Apostle Paul.

Come back to Acts 26. Paul is giving his testimony before Herod Agrippa and Paul's testimony wherever he went was always the same—Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised from the dead, and He appeared to witnesses. And he's telling Herod Agrippa about his own conversion and when he confronted the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. He tells what he was doing going there and what his life was in Jerusalem, verse 10, this is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priest, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme. Being furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to other cities. And that's what he's going to Damascus for, to continue that on. I mean, Paul was devoting every ounce of his being to the destruction of believers in the church of Jesus Christ. Then he fell to the ground and was questioned of Christ, why are you persecuting Me? And I said, Lord, who are you? He said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Stand up, get on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you. This is the same word in I Corinthians 15, He appeared to Peter, He appeared to the 500, He appeared to James and the twelve, He appeared to Paul. Paul saw Him just like the others did.

For this purpose I have appeared to you, verse 16, to appoint you a minister and a witness. You see there he is going to be one who can testify and he will be an eyewitness kind of testifier, because I saw Him. And I will reveal many other things to you, and your goal will be to preach this message, verse 18, to open their eyes so they may be turned from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. So King Agrippa, I wasn't disobedient. Here Paul before King Agrippa with all his splendor, the position he had as an earthly ruler, having the power of Paul's life and death in his hands and what is Paul telling him? The basic clear, simple gospel of Jesus Christ and testifying how He changed my life and made me new. That's the message that Christ gave to Paul to preach. He had a heavenly vision, he called it in verse 19, with this bodily appearance to him by the resurrected Christ.

Come back to I Corinthians 15. Paul says this is remarkable, and he never got over the grace of God in his life. You talk about how unfit, unworthy, but that just magnified God's grace. Verse 9, for I am the least of the apostles. Not fit, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. We read his testimony. He went everywhere doing all he could to persecute Christians, to imprison them, to have them put to death. He was there in Acts 7 when Stephen was stoned to death, giving his hearty approval. I'm the least of the apostles. I mean, those were men who had to be saved by God's grace as Paul did, but none of them had been involved in a program of persecution of believers. None of them had given their lives totally to destroying Christians and persecuting the church of God. But Paul had. He said I'm the least of the apostles, I'm not fit or worthy to be called an apostle. I persecuted the church of God.

You know Paul never got over the grace of God. And any time he's going to talk about his sin and the wretchedness of his life before he confronted Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, he always puts it in the context of the transformation God brought about in him. So he doesn't mire down in a puddle—I can't get over my past, I'll never be able to forgive myself, I persecuted the church, I was there when godly Stephen was stoned, God could never use me, you don't know about my parents and my childhood and how I was raised, and I have so many things to overcome. You know what? They all got overcome on the Damascus Road. Now Paul can say honestly, I'm the least of all the apostles. I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. He goes beyond that because in Ephesians 3:8 he says, I'm the least of all the saints. He never lost sight of what a vile godless man he really was in his pre-conversion days, how unworthy he was of the love and grace of the living God. But he doesn't park there. He never forgot that, but he doesn't live there, he doesn't dwell on that. That's not the amazing thing. He doesn't forget what a vile sinner he was, all that does is magnify to Paul how great the grace of God is that could save a sinner like him.

So you have the wonderful statement in verse 10, but by the grace of God I am what I am. What a statement. You ought to have it underlined in your Bible, or highlighted or circled. That's true for every single one of us by application, who have come to trust in Christ. By the grace of God I am what I am. Paul doesn't in any way try to make his past prettier, make an adjustment. It's not, I've been thinking about these things, I was contemplating, I was a seeker, I was searching. I was as bad as you could get. I was the worst of the worst, if you want to get to it. But by the grace of God I am what I am.

Turn over to Galatians 1. Paul there is talking about the gospel again, those who would corrupt the gospel. Paul would not give a fraction of an inch to anyone who in any way would alter the gospel. The first part of the chapter he talks about even angels can't preach another gospel. We want to come down to verse 12, this gospel was given me by revelation, it's the word of God. Verse 13, you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, I tried to destroy it. And I was going places in Judaism, advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral tradition. Paul was passionate about defending Judaism, and Christians were proclaiming a message you could not be saved by keeping the law. And for that I thought they had to die. Through His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, and on he goes. It was by grace. This is what I was, this is what I was doing, and God's grace intervened in my life. And He had planned that from before my birth, and now in His time. Nothing about what I did, nothing about my efforts toward God. God had planned this, that He would intervene in this vile enemy's life and totally make him new and then make him a proclaimer of the gospel.

Look in Ephesians 3. Paul talks about revelation he has received from Christ. So Paul has received much revelation and he received revelation concerning the church and the work of Christ that had not been revealed before, where God was going to join Jews and Gentiles together into one group, one body, called the church. Verse 6, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ to the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the give of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. For Paul this is amazing. To me, the least of all the saints, I am the most unworthy. Not only of the apostles, but of the saints. You know one of the things that happens when you truly come to salvation in Christ and understand something of the grace of God by His grace, you no longer try to minimize your sin. Well, I was looking for God, I was ............ You know, I was a wretched, vile sinner and He dramatically intervened in my life. This is a process that may have been going on, but I understand it was the grace of God drawing me and moving me to that confrontation with His Son where I understood and realized by His grace that Christ died for my sin, He was raised from the dead. He is the only Savior and I am trusting Him and Him alone.

Come over to I Timothy 1:12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. And why did God save me? Well verse 16, yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. You know Paul says, God saved me I know for one reason. I was the chief of sinners, the worst of the worst, and that just testifies to anyone He can save you, too. You can be saved, whatever you've done, however vile you are. You know why? He saved me and I'm the worst. You couldn't be any worse than I and if His grace is great enough and powerful enough to save the worst of sinners, me, He can save you. You see Paul never lost sight of that. Sometimes the longer we're believers we forget what we were and then we have this idea, we get so impatient with sinful people. How could they do that? It's so vulgar, that's so vile. I just don't even want to be around them. And just what were you? Think about it. What were you? Jeremiah the prophet says, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. You were an exception? You weren't so bad so the Lord decided to dust you a little bit and then save you? There aren't any such people. You know that's the view of the Pharisee—I thank you, Lord, that I am not a sinner like other men. I may be a sinner, but I'm not a sinner like other men. I know I was a sinner before Christ saved me, but I never sinned like they sin. Maybe you didn't do all the vile things they did, but as a holy God looked at your heart, He saw a heart just as vile, just as sinful, just as corrupt, because that's all that is there. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, He says through Jeremiah the prophet. I may not have had time to grasp how utterly sinful and wretched I was, but that's what I was. And if I truly come to saving grace, believing in Christ, now I see my sin in the context of His holiness. That makes everything different, that puts everything in a different light, a new light. Before I saw myself as a sinner compared to another sinner who was more overtly wicked than I, and I thought I'm pretty good. Now I see myself in the context of a holy God and I realize I fall so completely, utterly, absolutely short of His glory, and I'm under condemnation. That's Paul's testimony, wherever you read it, it's the same. And he never lost sight of that. I shouldn't forget that, now that I've been saved 30, 40, 50, 60 years. And I forget it. Remember, I was a sinner, I was lost and without hope, but I searched for the Lord until I found Him. You did not. He searched you out when you weren't interested, and if it weren't for His grace that reached down to where you were and drew you to Himself, you'd be lost today. That's the way it is for all of us. It's by grace. By the grace of God I am what I am.

Come back to I Corinthians 15. Important to understand, the grace of God does not occur at salvation and stop. The grace of God takes hold of us and transforms us and makes us new as it did Paul on that Damascus Road. And now we have a life that unfolds as a life enabled and empowered by the grace of God. So Paul says but by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain, empty, to no effect, fruitless. I mean, that just wasn't an experience at a time, but it transformed me. And that grace that took hold of my life at that point in time has been with me ever since. Note the end of verse 10, the grace of God with me. That's where we're going. This idea that somehow God saved me here and His grace was poured out upon me in an isolated moment in time and then I may or may not go on. His grace takes hold of my life, it never lets go. He who has begun a good work in you will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus. His grace never lets go, it makes you new and it continues on.

The evidence? His grace did not prove vain, empty, fruitless. But I labored even more than all of them. This sounds like we've moved from Paul acknowledging and talking about his sinfulness, to the grace of God, now talking back like Paul is elevating himself. I labored more than all the apostles. It could be taken either more than any one of them or all of them put together. That doesn't sound very humble to me. I just want you to know I was the least deserving of all the preachers you could know, but God's grace saved me. And that wasn't a fruitless grace because I've worked harder than any of them and all of them put together. You say, that doesn't sound very humble. But what is demonstrating is His grace didn't prove vain. This doesn't make me a better person than they, but Paul did labor more than all of them. What do you know about the other apostles? The first part of Acts we hear about Peter. Who wrote 13 of the New Testament books? Peter wrote 2, Paul wrote 13; John wrote 5, Paul wrote 13. Who established more churches than the Apostle Paul? Who do we know received more revelation than Paul? To whom was given the knowledge of the mystery of the church? Paul. Well I have to say, God probably saved him because he was a unique person. No, where does he go again? It wasn't I, I wasn't the one doing this hard laboring. You know what it was? The grace of God with me. When God's grace enters a life, it changes that life, makes it new, and that life now ............ Remember our earlier study in I Corinthians 6? You are not your own, you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. That grace takes hold of me, changes me, makes me new and now I am His, including this body. Therefore, glorify God in your bodies. It's not yours, it’s His. His grace was with me, His grace made me what I am. So I labored more than they all because God's grace was poured out on me in a special way. That means Peter is inferior to Paul? Not as an apostle. That Peter failed because he didn't labor as much Paul? No, God used Peter to write two very important books of our New Testament. Was John a less faithful servant? No, but he didn't labor as much as Paul. But God will use the Apostle John to write the gospel of John, I, II and III John and the awesome book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that concludes our Bible. Paul says I labored more than John, too. And God had prepared him for it, His grace was with him. And all the other apostles, you know what? Peter and John had to be home with their wives, their kids. You know where Paul was? He was out beating the fields, planting churches. He didn't have the responsibility of a wife and children. Peter had to go home and see his wife once in a while. John had to take care of family matters. Paul free to pour all of his life, all of his energy into the service of the Lord. He labored more than they all. But it was the grace of God with him.

That word labor, interesting word to put in the context of God's grace working. Copiao, it means to toil to exhaustion, draining labor. Here I thought if it were God's grace it wouldn't be so hard. But Paul says I gave every ounce of my strength, it wore me out, I was exhausted in the work of the Lord. It was God's grace doing it, we ought not to forget. That doesn't mean that God's grace has entered our life, He takes hold of us, He's using us. It ought to be easier. That's not what the Bible says. It will drain every ounce of your strength. And you know what? His grace will be sufficient to keep on enabling you. It's His grace that is enabling you. I thought it was my hard work. But God's grace doesn't work in my life apart from my labor. So it's not me, I don't get the credit. It was His grace with me. But it wasn't an empty grace because I labored more than they all. The toil is an evidence of the transforming grace in his life.

Turn over to Ephesians 2. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they were like him in many ways. Verse 1, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Understand that, that's true of every single one of us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. There are only two kinds of people in this auditorium—people who are dead in their trespasses and sins and people who were dead in their trespasses and sins. Only two kinds of people—people who are dead in their trespasses and sins and people who were dead. Verse 5, even when we were dead in our transgressions, after he talks about what we were like and we serve the devil and we were by nature children of wrath like all the rest of unbelievers. When you think you were unique and not as bad, you read Ephesians 2 and it says we were like the rest. But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved. You see we didn't do anything, we couldn't do anything. We were dead in our sins. His grace intervened, raised us up, seated us with Him in the heavenlies. You know what will happen? In the ages of eternity, verse 7, He'll be able to show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You know what you and I will be in 100 million years? We'll be trophies of God's grace, we will be there demonstrating how gracious the living God is. There will be angels there, but they won't be trophies of His grace because they never experienced redemption, they never experienced redeeming grace. The angels who sinned will be in hell. We will be there as evidences of the wondrous grace of God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works that no one should boast. How do people think they're going to be saved by their good works, by keeping the Ten Commandments, by participating in the sacraments. Sad, sad, sad. Not as a result of works, that no one may boast. So see, works have nothing to do with it. We're not done. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. You are not saved by your works, but you are saved to do the work of God. Which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. That's what Paul is talking about. By the grace of God I am what I am, and I labored harder than them all, more than them all. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me. That's it. God's grace brings about that walk, that service, that toiling for Him. Why don't people quit? I've sometimes been asked, why do the people in your church serve so much and do so much? It's the grace of God in their lives. And the reality of it, they can't do otherwise because God's grace has taken hold of them. And now that it has saved them, they are doing the works that He ordained beforehand for them to do. And that is an evidence of His ongoing grace in our lives.

Back up to II Corinthians 12. Here Paul is defending his apostleship and he's talking about the many revelations that God had given to him. Verse 7, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, all that God had revealed to him, much of which now is contained in our New Testament. There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. And I asked the Lord three times for deliverance from this affliction. And the response of the Lord was, verse 9, He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. I won't remove the affliction, Paul, but My grace is sufficient. And My grace at work in you wants to use these afflictions in this weakness for a greater manifestation of My power. Paul says, most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. My bodily weakness, my bodily affliction just gives occasion for the power of God to be manifest in a greater way, and that's what life is about for me. So bring on the weakness, bring on the affliction, bring on the suffering. His grace empowers me to have a greater testimony for Him in weakness than it would in strength. You see it's all about grace. Grace isn't something so I can have a testimony and say, I trusted Christ when I was 13 years old. Now nothing much else has happened in my life since, but I know that I trusted Christ back then. So I'll be going to heaven. Nothing else happens you said? That grace of God that totally transforms a person and makes you new, that takes hold of your life so that that life, that body is now His and nothing has happened in your life since? I tell you, you never experienced the grace of God. There is no saving grace that starts and stops and that's it. Saving grace takes hold of a life and it goes on the rest of the life. The just shall live by faith, and that's not just the initial saving faith. That's the beginning of living a life of faith by the grace of God.

So come back to I Corinthians 15. We wrap up with Paul's wrap-up in verse 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, so we preach and so you believe. Literally, whether then I or they. There is an abruptness here. In other words, whether it was me as an apostle or it was the other apostles, doesn't matter. So we preach, present tense, so we are preaching. In other words, no matter whether you hear this gospel from me, you hear it from Peter, you hear it from John. No matter, it's the same gospel. There is only one gospel, this is it. This is what we are preaching. No matter which of the apostles is doing the preaching, you only get one gospel, the same gospel. And so you believed. This is a crucial point. We think we preached the gospel, but people don't come; therefore, we ought to make some adjustments and do some other things that will make it more attractive and draw them and make them more interested. And then they'll over time want to believe. That's not the way God works. He works the way He worked in Paul's life, works the way He worked when He sent Paul to Corinth. What did Paul say? I kow the Jews want signs, I know the Greeks want wisdom. We don't give them what they want, we give them what they need. I determine to do nothing but preach Christ. That's it. I preach Christ. And by the grace of God the Spirit of God takes the message of Christ and brings it to the heart of a person so they recognize and realize their lost, sinful condition and turn from that sin and place their faith in Christ and are made new by the power of God's grace.

Turn over to Romans 10. The Apostle Paul is going through the gospel again. He started out chapter 10 by testifying to the religious zeal of Jews, the Israelites. He prays for their salvation, he says in verse 2, they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. That's what Paul had, a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. Not knowing about God's righteousness, seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. That's true of every single unsaved person you talk to of religious people. They may have a zeal for God, they may be passionate about it, but they're seeking to establish their own righteousness. They're trying to do it by their works, by their religious activity. And in doing so they reject the righteousness which God has provided. He goes on to talk about Christ's death, His resurrection and so on down through this section.

Verse 8, we are preaching the word of faith. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That's the only way of salvation. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed, he goes on. Verse 14, how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Verse 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. We have a lot of confusion. People think they're doing a lot of things, they gather crowds, these are people coming and they think they're getting saved. Yet the Bible never says we ought to try to get a crowd, it never says we ought to .......... We ought to preach Christ, preach Christ and let God do what only God can do. I cannot change a heart. I can tell you the wonder of the beautiful message of the gospel. Christ died for your sins according to the scripture, He was buried, He was raised from the dead according to the scripture. He appeared to witnesses, He's alive. And if you will place your faith in Him and Him alone, God will cleanse you from your sin, make you new and you will become His child for time and eternity. But people don't want to hear that today, they don't come to hear that. That's not particularly where they are in our culture. That's too bad, because that's the only message of salvation, that's the only way to get saved. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The only message that saves is the message of Jesus Christ. And it is an act of God's grace that any sinner believes in that message, and so our responsibility individually and as a church is to proclaim Jesus Christ. And our desire for everyone who sits here is that they would hear the message of Jesus Christ and believe that He died for their sin and was raised from the dead..

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your grace, a grace that is magnified, that is surpassing what we could grasp or understand or consider that you would save us lost, sinful human beings. So easy for us to think of ourselves as righteous, as good, as not such bad people. Not perfect, but not bad, until we see ourselves in light of your Word, see ourselves in light of your holiness, to see that our sin is so serious, so awful, so terrible that your Son had to go to the cross to die for our sins, to pay our penalty so that we through faith could receive the free gift of eternal life. Lord, I pray first for any who are here who have yet to trust in the Savior, that this might be a day of salvation for them. Lord, I pray that we who have trusted Him might never move from that message in the slightest way. May we never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we share that message with friends and family, fellow workers so that by your grace the Spirit of God might do a work of salvation in hearts with the gospel. That's our desire. In Christ's name, amen.