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Today, Pastor Jack teaches that many are willing to die for what they believe in. But, what have other global faiths really cost them? The eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus so held onto their experience that they went on to be exiled, martyred, or imprisoned knowing that they would be saved eternally.
The post What Are You Talking About? – 2B first appeared on Pastor Jack Hibbs.
This morning, then turn if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 this morning, as we are continuing on in our study, really part two of a message entitled, “What are you talking about?” And we’ve come to 1 Corinthians 15 that argues profoundly the effects, the power, the evidence, the witness of the resurrection. And we know from our previous studies that the church at Corinth was experiencing a debate. One in the church believed in the resurrection of Christ and thus the resurrection of the dead according to the Scriptures. The Old Testament teaches it, the New Testament teaches it, but there were those who did not believe, much like the Sadducees in the time of Christ. They were priests, they were religious leaders, but they were of a group of people who did not believe in the bodily resurrection of those who have died. And part one, we studied the first point and the introduction to the concept and the doctrine of resurrection. It is awesome to realize my friends and I think if you really put your heart to it, you’ll agree that we cannot even begin to pretend that the life that we live is somehow a momentary vapor and that’s all that this is the entire purpose for living is what we’re going through right now, that we live, we eat, we drink, we sleep, we die. We don’t believe that. We have been made people, creations by the hand of God to think eternal thoughts. You’re not an animal. The Bible says you’ve been created in the image of God and so you think deep eternal thoughts and you wonder and you speculate and you think about and you ponder about life after death. For some of you who don’t have any concept of God at all, you wonder, is their life after death? What happens when we breathe our last? And we looked at that in part one of our message. Today as we consider part two of 1 Corinthians 15, in a moment we’ll read it verses 12 to 21, we talked about the amazing, absolute crowning display of God’s power in resurrection, conversion and that is the bodily, physically resurrection of the dead. The Bible says all people will rise from the dead, believers and nonbelievers, that’s an amazing thought isn’t it? The Bible says that some will be resurrected from the dead. Listen to this, technically it means John chapter 5, Daniel chapter 12, that there will be those resurrected from the dead who will be resurrected to a life without Christ bodily now. Imagine that, bodily resurrected to live a life without Christ in hell to experience a forever form of death. The Bible calls that the second death. See, man, you just lost me there. Is that a contradiction? Not at all. In the end there will be those who die in this life without Christ, without salvation. The Bible says on the day of judgment there will be resurrected from the dead, stand before God and in their bodies they will be resurrected to live out a living death if that makes sense. To suffer and go through a living death in an age of timelessness, the word is aonial, post aonial, epic upon epic of time where there is no time. And you see, man, that’s depressing. Yes, it’s depressing. That’s why Jesus came and died on the cross and rose again from the grave. So you wouldn’t have to go there. Again, don’t think for a moment God wants you in that terrible place. He’s done everything to keep you out of that place. But thank God the Bible says there’s the resurrection of the dead of those who have died in this life, believed in Christ, and their bodies are physically resurrected someday and they’ll stand before the Lord and they will enter into a resurrected bodily, glorious existence with Christ forever. It’s called heaven. It’s called actually, technically in theology, the day of God. I like that. Not days of God, the day of God. And in our own life we know, for example, when we’re having a great time, when things are going wonderful, time seems to go by what? Slow or fast? Fast, just like that. If you’re sick all night and you’re suffering and it’s a difficult time, does time seem to go by slower, fast, slow? Isn’t that something? Think about that. Just the way that we are wired speaks to us and flirts with us as it were regarding eternity. We know that God’s physical manifestation of His presence is everywhere. In Romans chapter 1, verse 20, the Bible says, “For since the creation of the world, the observable universe, His invisible attributes are clearly seen.” Being understood by the things that are made, what is that? Even His eternal power in Godhead. So what? So that they, we, people, are without excuse. Down deep inside you have thoughts about God. In Psalm 19, verse 1, the Bible says again, “A testimony of His physical creation that speaks to us, the heavens declare the glory of God that word heavens is the observable atmosphere that you have from ground level to the starry space.” But watch this. The heavens declare the glory of God. I say that’s true. And the firmament shows forth His handiwork, the starry host of deep space, for example, the constellations, the stars, the planets, all of it speak about and leave evidence for us to examine the great power of God. So here we go, picking it up, 1 Corinthians 15 and your Bibles, look at verse 12. We covered last time in part 1, verses 12 to 14. We’ll finish it off today. Now if Christ has preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Here’s our study for today. Verse 15, “Yes, and we are found to be false witnesses of God, liars, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ whom He did not raise up. If in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. Then also those who have fallen asleep or died in Christ have perished. They’re annihilated. There’s no existence of them or they’re in hell.” Verse 19. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiful, pathetic.” Verse 20, “But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep or those who have died.” That word means, again, “believing in Christ” at the time of death. For since by man came death, a reference to Adam, by man also came the resurrection of the dead, a reference to Christ. Pray with me one more time. Father, we ask that as we get into these closing points of this message, that we are seen before us none other than a divine argument from heaven itself regarding life, life after death, the purpose and meaning of life here and now. And that someday all of us, atheists or not, believer or not, we will all see the face of God someday in eternity on good terms or bad terms. That decision you’ve left up to us, you’ve provided everything for us. So Lord, I pray this morning that we would truly confront the deep inner dwellings of our thoughts and the consciousness of our soul that we today would take these things seriously as we look to these grand arguments regarding the resurrection of the dead. Father, we pray in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, “Amen, last time in our study we looked at this church and we’ll touch on it before we get into the closing points.” When we looked at the title of the message, what are you talking about? We wanted to make sure that we approached this in the very spirit of what Paul was speaking about. And a great, awesome sarcasm, Paul being Jewish, being brilliant, but speaking into the Greek culture, he argues to them and with them regarding some divine sarcasm. And so we’ve lifted out of the sarcasms the title of the message, what are you talking about? He would say to the Corinthian believers, he would say to us this morning, “When we speak about things as being either a non-believer or a believer, it is natural for somebody to say to us, ‘What are you talking about?’ When we say, ‘I’m a Christian, the world should say to us and I hope they do say to us, what are you talking about when you say that you’re a Christian?’ As somebody says, ‘I’m not a Christian, we need to ask them, remember, I challenged you last week to do this, when somebody says, ‘I don’t believe in God, don’t let them off the hook, don’t let them get away, you say to them, you ask them, please, you just said you don’t believe in God, what are you talking about? Tell me why, let people defend themselves, let people give argument, why? As we looked at this very important truth, that Christianity’s relevance is anchored to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, amen? We don’t have to go around trying to apologize or create an argument as to why we’re Christian. The reason why we’re Christians is because we’ve been convinced, we know better, based on what? The fact that Christianity’s relevance is not based upon a church’s name, it’s not based upon a movement, it’s not based upon a denomination, isn’t that right? Awesome. It is based upon the relevance of Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead and we looked at those arguments foreign against and we looked at three things, opposition, because the world’s going to oppose us on this, I don’t believe it. Remember, don’t let them get off the hook, ask them why, but we looked at this, three things, opposition can only strengthen the arguments. You want to argue, you want to discuss, you want to debate resurrection? Let’s talk about it. Let them debate you. You see, past or I’m scared, I don’t know if I can do that. Listen, of course you and I cannot do that. You and I are only supposed to present ourselves available to God. The Lord says, I will, and this is great, for those of you who have been on mission trips or gone street witnessing, for example, it’s terrifying. Tell you, what? Oh, it is terrifying. Here’s the best part though. And you go and you see, especially on mission trips, it’s the best because you’ll be on some city square, some street someplace in the world and we get you all prepared, we get you all prayed up and we go and we get deployed on some street someplace in some part of the world. And we train you to ask the Lord, Lord, give me a divine appointment. Show me who I’m supposed to speak to because there will be thousands of people. Lord, show me who to speak to. And you guys, those of you who have been, you’re going to say, yep. Those of you who have never been, you’re going to say, you’re nuts and I’m going to tell you it is true. Yes, it’s true. I’m nuts and yes, it’s true that God is faithful because you’ll say like that you’ll just be walking or you’ll be standing in the city square somewhere in the world and you’ll just say, Lord, just give me that divine appointment. Show me someone. Burden my heart with someone right now who needs to hear. And when you’re and you’re just talking, praying like that and someone in a crowd will stand out. And I can’t explain it to you. It’s almost like they have a light on their head like this. And you’ll walk up to them. You say, excuse me. Oh, you’re from America. Yes, yes. But that’s not why I’m here, being from America. I’m here because I’m a Christian. Oh, we don’t believe in Christianity. Well, that’s the reason why I want to talk to you. Can I ask you why? And they will engage you and they will talk. Number one, you opened yourself up to God. You were willing. Number two, you asked God to create a divine appointment. He’s faithful to do it. Number three, listen, you begin to speak. Guess who shows up? Guess who speaks through you. You will begin to share with people and you’re the one being blessed. You’re the one that’s been blown away. So, man, I didn’t know those verses. Some of you know what I’m talking about. Versus come up out of your life that you had and remember for 10 years. And it comes up and it comes out and you go, wow, I mean, you don’t go. You don’t say, wow, in front of the person, you just go inside. Mike, this is awesome. And it’s effective. It’s powerful. And the more you do that, the more exciting it becomes. And the beautiful part about it is you become more burden for their soul than they are for their own soul. Why? Because God has given His love in your heart for them. It strengthens the argument. We saw also that opposition can only steal the investigation. S-T-E-E-L. Strengthen. Here we look at the arguments to investigate them. The truth is Christ resurrected from the dead, your argument is steal against falsehood because you’re in the truth. And then thirdly, we saw last time that opposition can only sharpen the faith. When people come against you and say, oh, you silly Christian, oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Oh, you Christians aren’t listening. That kind of opposition only strengthens your faith because you begin to see the word of God at work in your life and you begin to see the power of God’s word upon their lives. And the Lord will never let you be hung out to dry as you stand for Him ever, ever. He’s amazing. He’s awesome. Here we go. Point number two in our study this morning. What are you talking about? Number two, it’s all about Jesus being raised from the dead. All about Jesus Christ being raised from the dead. We look at it this way. Look at verses 15 to 16. The evidence existed in advance. Write that down. Would you? That the evidence existed in advance regarding Jesus Christ being raised from the dead. He says, verse 15, yes. And we are found to be false witnesses of God if Christ is a ridden, risen from the dead. Because we have testified of God. In other words, we’re saying our message is not from us. That’s the great thing as a Christian. We’re not making this up. The message is from God. We announce that to you that he raised Christ up from the dead. And if Christ is not risen, look what he says, whom he did not raise up, then we would be liars. If in fact the dead do not rise, verse 16, if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. I’m going to ask you Bible students to circle the word there in verse 15, testified. The word to testify is where we get the English word martyr. It means to stand, to stand and give testimony. Watch this. Have you ever been to court? Have you ever given testimony? Or have you ever sworn an oath? You will put your hand in the Bible and you will say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help me God. You are now under oath and that word is to testify means this. What I’m saying, I’m speaking accurately and it is so true that I stake my life on it. That’s what we’re saying. That’s why to lie under oath is to sacrifice your life. At least that’s what wasn’t the old days. Today you can get away with murder, but it’s to testify. Post as I am testifying and he does this sarcasm in the sense that he’s saying, if we’ve testified that Christ has risen from the dead and it never happened, then listen to what we’re doing. We are testifying under oath a lie. We’re calling God a liar because the Bible speaks from Old Testament to New that Christ would be risen from the dead and that we are accomplices in this lie one with another and it’s all a big falsehood if Christ isn’t risen from the dead. No church, the truth is the evidence has existed in advance. Very quickly, you guys ready? I want you to write this down. We don’t have time to develop it. You can do it later at home with your homework. Jesus Christ testified as the Messiah in advance. Psalm chapter 2, write it down, Proverbs 30, verse 4, write it down. Zachariah 9, verse 9, write that down. The book of Jonah, write it down. Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, write that down. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, Micah chapter 5, verse 2. Isaiah chapter 60, am I going too fast? Where did I lose you? Micah 5, verse 2. Isaiah 7, 14. Isaiah 9, verse 6. What did I say after that? I said what? Isaiah 60, thanks to him, Isaiah 60 to really 66, those chapters. And we could go on and on. Start there and see who the Bible is talking about and what will become of him. Psalm 22 says he will be crucified in his hands and in his feet, 1,000 years before Jesus was born. Check of that. The evidence existed in advance that Jesus would be resurrected from the dead. The Messiah of Israel. Because the Bible says that the Messiah would live forever. If you’ve got a Messiah who’s the sacrifice of the world, how is it that he lives forever? He’s none other than the one resurrected from the dead. Very important. I’m going to ask you to consider a few things. We talk about one who testifies. I gave you this last time. I want to give it again. Atheists will argue that they cannot believe in Christianity or even entertain it because they don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. They say that because they don’t believe in the Bible. They don’t believe in the Bible, they say, because they don’t believe in the existence of God. Just because they say that they don’t believe in these things does not make those things not true. That’s important to know. So what are we to say to somebody who says, “No, Jesus isn’t risen from the dead and there’s no evidence for that?” What’s interesting is you take this Bible, the an errant word of God, and you apply these rules. They’re very simple, you guys. In fact, you would do this with any book. I’m going to give you five things. Number one, ask yourself, ask your friends who don’t believe, “What does the book say? Forget about your opinion. What does the Bible say?” That means you got to read it. I have found most people who criticize the Bible have never read the Bible. Have you noticed it? Read the Bible. It won’t kill you. The most famous book of all time, you ought to read it. Read the book. Why? You do. What is that book, in this case the Bible? What is its historical evidence? In other words, is what’s mentioned in the book? Is it nonfiction or fiction? If you were reading some Stephen King book, you would ask the same question. Is it real or not real? Ask yourself, “What is the historical evidence of the book?” Now this is going to cause you to have to do some fun research, but everybody’s to do it. So, number three, what does the examination of the book proclaim? You’ve examined it? What does it say? You ought to write those things down. By the way, I think every individual owes this to their own honesty. Number four, like any book and its claims, you need to examine or interview the witnesses. You can do that. You can cross-examine the witnesses of this book, the Bible. Forty different authors producing 66 different books, and you can interview them in antiquity, in history. Number five, whatever our conclusions are, we will form an opinion or an argument from the data captured or the data gathered. This is normal thinking. Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who are in education, you guys know what I’m talking about? It’s called critical assessment or critical thinking. You’ve done your research, you’ve come to a conclusion based upon the research. This is your opinion based upon your findings. And listen, if the evidence is overwhelming, then you have become confident regarding your findings, and you will defend them because you cannot be persuaded off of them. I do not want. God help us. We’ve got to go in for open heart surgery. I want an expert digging into my chest cavity. I don’t want somebody guessing. I don’t want somebody making it up as it goes along. And I don’t want the guy having graduated from some Peruvian school. I’m not not in Peruvians. I just made it up. Sorry, I love you. I’m from Peru. Some Peruvian Veterinary and Training Center. No, no, no. I want a Johns Hopkins or, you know, I want a UCLA heart surgeon. And we’re talking about eternity here based upon Jesus Christ being resurrected did from the dead. And the Bible says that the evidence has always existed. The Bible says Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, “For the Word of God.” I know you may not believe it. I’m being sarcastic right now. I know you do. I’m just, just play with me. The Bible says of itself, because we’re all bunch of skeptics, we’re investigators. For the Word of God is living in powerful, quite a statement. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. All right, is that true? I don’t know. Not sure if I believe it. Well, it’s able to pierce even to the division of soul and spirit. The eternal you and your mind, how your mind thinks. Watch this. And the joints and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intense of the heart. Says what? The Bible of itself. True or false. This is cool. Because if right now you are a major doubter, you can read certain areas of the Bible. Start in John’s Gospel, for example. And you will either fall in love with Jesus or you’ll get in a fight with Him. And it’s so funny because He’ll never swing back. You can swing, punch, cry, kick, just freak out. And He’ll just wait there until you’re tired. And He’ll say, “Are you done now?” What’s your problem? You read John chapter three. You said that you read there that I died for the sins of the world. And you were doing fine until you read about me who when I came and died and rose again from the dead, that I did that for sin. It says there that you love darkness more than you love light. It says there that you love your sin more than you love life. And for that Jesus would say, “You got upset at me for that.” You see, I don’t believe in the Bible, but then when you read the Bible, you actually believe it at why? I can prove it because you read it and you’ll get upset. Think about it. I don’t believe in God. Why do you not believe in God? Because I was abused as a child. That’s why you don’t believe in God? You understand what you’re saying? This is what you’re saying. I don’t believe in God because I was abused as a child and I wanted Him to come and rescue me and free me and set me free and be my savior and run in and scoop me from that horrific childhood. And that’s why I don’t believe in God. My friend, just by your protest, you just admitted you believe in God because you’re upset and you’re angry and you’re punishing the one whom you say doesn’t exist. You don’t believe in Him because He didn’t rescue you so you think. I cannot presume to begin to believe or pretend that I know the ways of God. I only know what’s in this book. But listen, if you grew up in a dysfunctional home, if you were abused as a man or a woman or child boy or girl, all I know is if you’re listening to this message, right now, God knew you’d be here today. God knew with all the stuff that went on in your life. He had to bring it to this moment to tell you, I love you and I was watching over you and through all of that terror, through all of that horror that you went through, it made me weep, it made me cry. But I knew there would be a day of redemption coming for you, a day of forgiveness, a day of salvation, a day of hope. And even though all these things were done against you, the fact remains that all of sin and come ashore to the glory of God. You don’t need to repent of being abused. God would say you need to repent of the thoughts and of the sins and of stealing that cracker and of lying to your friend and all the other stuff that goes on in our lives. Jesus says, I love you and I, he says with a never-lasting love, Jeremiah 31 says, I have drawn you to myself. Absolutely loves you. So your resistance against the resurrection of Christ and against Jesus and against the Bible is truly rooted in the fact that you’re trying to convince yourself that you don’t believe in God, but you’re angry at the God that you say you don’t believe in, which proves you do believe in Him. You just didn’t like the way things turned out. And I want you to know this. When you think or say things, I don’t like the way things turned out. They have not yet finished turning out. It ain’t over yet. And God wants to change things. He has transformed millions if not billions of lives since creation. What do you have to say about that? He changes people’s lives. There’s the eyewitness accounts of the resurrection. So held, so tightly and close, as I said last week, of the disciples that they went to their grave, tortured to death, for believing in Jesus Christ’s resurrection. You say, “Well, Jack, what you’re really saying is, do I have something to believe in so much so that I would die for that thing?” Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. And you might say, “Well, Pastor, I’m going to come right back at you. A lot of people die for what they believe. Doesn’t make their story right.” And that’s true. Buddhist die for what they believe. Hindus die for what they believed. You guys, this is terrible memory, but it’s my era. For the Vietnam War era, how many times did some of us of that era see Buddhist monks in the streets in Southeast Asia on television, douse themselves in gasoline, light themselves on fire in protest of the war? What did that prove? Didn’t the Bible say, “I give myself to be burned and have not loved, yet it profits me nothing.” Think of that. A lot of people die for stuff that they believe in. Listen, let me give you a little tip. It’s best to die for something you believe in that is powerful enough to raise you up from the dead once you’re dead. Muslims die for what they believe in. They send their children into death’s way. Believing in what they believe in. Doesn’t make it right. So yeah, but you know, you’d be in a Christian, you said, “Are you living for something worthy of your life?” That’s right. I’m asking that question. Listen, I guess in a nutshell, I’m saying this. Usher’s open the door. People are going to run out now. Get ready to evacuate the building. What I’m going to say is 100% true. Just people won’t say it. All of us are dying for something right here right now. Oh man, I’m dying for sex, man. Yeah, that eventually kill you. Oh man, I’m dying to make money. Oh, that eventually kill you. I’m dying. Look at all these people over there, working out right now on a Sunday morning. I can see the building from here. They’re working out right there at that health club. Blown gaskets, getting hernias. Right. I’m not knocking it. I need to do that. I need it. I’m not knocking it. I need to do that. I need it. I’m not talking to save you. You’re still going to wind up getting hit by a truck or having some two put down your throat. Get sick. Something’s going to happen. For whatever you’re living for, can it save you eternally? Can it go beyond the grave? So here’s the punchline, “Vacuate the building.” Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam. Name it. Think of it. Ask yourself the simple question, “What has their gods or their god, their doctrine, done for them?” Look around the world, ladies and gentlemen. What has their gods done for them? What kind of culture does their book or books or gods produce for them? Look at their worlds. Look at their culture. Don’t look at the National Geographic version. Find out the truth and ask this question forever. What has their god done for them? And look how their women are treated. Look how their children are treated. Look how their animals are treated. Look at the cleanliness of their environment. Look at their participation in culture. And this, I believe, is the litmus test for all professing faiths. Ask yourself, “What has that belief system done for the world?” I’m already in a t-shirt. Somebody here had it on and I thought it was pretty cool. It was written in an Arabic font, but it was obviously English words in an Arabic font, but in English words. And it said, “Stop blowing stuff up on the shirts.” And I said, “I’m buying that. I’m going to buy a fleet of those shirts.” I’m going to… Now, as a Christian, we should… Our shirt should say this. Our shirt should say, “Jesus loves you.” “She will, my shirt, no say that, my point, exactly.” God loves you. That’s why Jesus Christ is risen from the dead because He loves you. Think about this. Look at verse 17. The evidence existed in the time of Christ Himself. And if Christ is not risen, then look, number one, your faith is futile. Circle the word “futile.” But you are still in your sins. Circle the word “still.” Wow. This is an awesome argument. You guys, as we closed out last time study together, we pick up this same logic, this same way of arguing that Paul presents. He says, “Your faith is futile. Your faith has absolutely no power at all.” Guys, listen, before we move on, this is what he’s saying. If all this isn’t true, then how do you explain Paul would say the fact that your faith is so dynamic and powerful and able to accomplish so much in this world if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead? Now look, in our 21st century, you might want to come back and say, “Well, I haven’t seen any dynamic, wild, awesome faith like that.” Well, that’s too bad. That’s sad. Because Paul’s entire argument is, if you truly believe in Jesus Christ, you should be witnessing radical lives whose faith is anything but futile. Isn’t that cool? Secondly, you’re still in your sins. This is a great argument. I sounded when you were right there. This argument’s fantastic because it means this. How is it then if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead that you have experienced such power and liberty from your sins? You see his argument? Can someone say a minute? Do we know this in the 21st century that we can say, “Yep, I used to be this and I’m no longer.” Can you say that? Can you say, “I used to do that? I don’t do it anymore.” Not, listen, here’s the great part. It’s not that you just don’t do it. It’s that you don’t want to do it either. Are you getting me? Jesus is not risen from the dead than explain the incredible power of God that has changed your life. He said that that’s not happened and you’re still in your sins. Your sins are still like this. Look, just hook you and pull you along. Now women, you’re like this. I’m just based in this on experience. This week, Lisa and I went up to San Luis Obispo, took a little couple of day break, beautiful place. They have antique stores there. And Lisa, she’s like this. Just, “Oh, wow.” Okay, let’s go eat now. Women. Oh, wow. Look at this. Women are just, it’s like, “Oh, look at that.” Guys, it just happened that in that town, there’s, I don’t know where the money comes from, but there goes a Porsche, there goes a Ferrari. So Lisa’s looking in the windows of the stores. I’m looking out on the street. Both of us back to back. “Oh, wow.” Lusting, I’m sure, coveting, sending. “Oh, I need that thimble.” Or, “Boy, I could sure get to hospital visitations much faster in a Porsche.” “Lord, don’t you want me to have one?” But we’re pulled like that. But listen, do you remember the days when Arsene pulled on us and we did exactly as it commanded? We even picked up the phone and made plans to set. Hey, next week, you want to do that again? Now we don’t do that. Our heart’s been changed. Lisa’s, listen, Christ has risen, proof is your sins have no power over your life anymore, and your faith is actively dynamic. Paul says, “Explain that one, will you?” I love how practical that is. Under this verse 18, look at this. The evidence exists in our day. Right now, verse 18, then also, third argument. Those who have fallen asleep, those who have died in Christ have perished. Proverbs 4, 23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart.” Watch. “Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” The word wellspring means fence, barrier, guard, limit, borders. That’s an awesome verse. That should be on our computers. That should be on the front of whatever Facebook or chatroom, something or whatever. Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it, flows forth the issues of life. That’s serious, above all else. Warning, he says, warning, warning, guard, build a moat and a wall around your heart. What goes into it? Why? Because out of it flows the issues of your life. In the reason why you may be perverted is because you indulge in perverted things. The reason why you may be materialistic is because you indulge in materialistic things. The reason why you’re arrogant and self-willed is because you indulge in arrogant, self-willed things. How does that happen? Listen, I’m old enough to know or remember when the computer was invented. And they had a jingle back in those days. Garbage in, garbage out. Everybody would say, “Well, this is a stupid computer. I don’t know what it’s doing. I can’t believe it. I just did this.” What is it doing? It’s only doing what you asked it to do. It cannot do something that it’s not programmed to do. And our hearts are the same way. Build a fence around your life. Eye gates, ear gates, right? Mind gates, build a wall. Before I let her in, him in, that information in, how will it benefit my life with God, my friends, you do that and you’ll shut down gossipers. You do that and you’ll shut down liars. You do that and you’ll shut down evil things. And boy, I tell you right now, you do that and you’re going to be an oddball in this culture. I mean, our culture has gone wacko, evil, crazy, weird. And people are talking about some movie. There’s some big movie out there that’s in 3D. And I don’t even know anything about the movie until I heard some guys say in the radio. Well, you know what? It’s a little too scary for me. This is a secular radio station, a news channel. And the guy says it’s too scary for me, a lot of blood and guts. And since I heard that, I don’t need that. You guys, the less scary movie I saw, I was in high school. It was the exorcist. That’s the less scary movie I saw. You want to know why? I got saved. Oh, well, aren’t you? Holdier than that. No, no. I got saved and became a Christian and found out that stuff’s real. Head spinning around and split pea soup flying out of the face. You say, when do you tell him to come with me? I’m a pastor. We go to doors and I’m not going to tell you. I don’t need that kind of stuff. It’s just entertainment. Not where I come from. It’s real, man. I don’t need that. I don’t need to see a movie. I’m in a movie. He says, those who have died in Jesus, well, then they’ve gone to hell. They’ve perished. And the Bible here is telling us that we know as believers when a saint, when a brother or sister dies, we rejoice. You guys, we often call our funeral services here. Graduation services. Because that’s more appropriate. Third and final point, we’ll end right here. What are you talking about? When you say, for God still loves the world. Are you crazy? In verse 19, we learn this, that God has placed within us the pursuit. Why? Because he loves us. Look at verse 19. For if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are a whole man most to be pitied or pitiable. I love this. Boy, do you hear Paul? Isn’t he? Because on the negative side, a non-believer would say, finally, that guy’s got it right. You dopey Christians. You only have hope in this world. You’re blinded. You’re following a game. It’s a joke. And you, I pity you, Christians. Paul says, hey, I agree. I agree with you. If Christ isn’t risen. It’s so great. He’s saying, I would be right with you, brother. But the truth is Jesus is risen from the dead. Now watch. In a sense, in a moment, I’m going to be speaking code. I have to be careful. I don’t speak Christianese and lose some of you. This is dangerous. When we say that for God so loved the world. And that we, we as Christians say, oh man, hope in the Lord. Or my hopes in Christ. You and I know exactly what we’re talking about. We speak that heavily language. Okay, you come up and speak Mandarin to me. And I don’t know what you’re saying. I don’t get it. It’s sad to say I was born in San Diego, but I don’t know a stitch of Spanish. I mean, I know like San Bernardino, Los Angeles, El Segundo, and Santa Ana. I know that. Burrito. Burrito. I know that. But outside of that, I know, I know nothing. I won’t know what you’re talking about. I wish I did. But listen, when we say, oh, hoping Christ man, the world doesn’t get that. And might as well be Mandarin. So what is he talking about? For God so loved the world. What? Because listen, justifiably the world comes back and says, for God so loved the world. Look at this world. It’s all messed up. God loved this. I wouldn’t love this. And if God is loved, then why is all this murder taking place? And if God is loved, then why is all this starvation, suffering and evil taking place? Read the Bible. He answers that at length. This is a world resisting the love of God, demanding its own way, telling him, stay out of my life. I’ll do it my way. And it’s a falsehood. Did you see the falsehood this week? By the way, something you want to talk about how messed up man can make things? You need to dig a little deeper as to what’s happening in Syria. Don’t be fooled by CNN and Fox News and all those other factories of buffoonery. I’m serious. Notice they’ll say, well in Syria today, 200 young men were killed at the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Get outside international news. Find out who died. How did they die? Why were these young people killed today? Find out who they are. You know what? Overwhelming. Christians are being slaughtered in Syria right now. Your brothers and sisters. You’re not going to get out of CNN and watch this. What does the world do? Nothing. Do you know what though? You ended this week? It not only did nothing. But did something. The UN did do something finally in Syria this week. They pulled out and left. They said it’s too unstable. That’s the ways of man. We have the uniforms. We have the talk. We’ve got all the badges and whistles. But we’ve got no power. In my dear friends, listen. Jesus, when it comes to spiritual salvation, life here and now. And forevermore, Jesus Christ put within your heart the pursuit of God. The Holy Spirit does this. Don’t pity us. Because we know the truth. The word piti or pitiable by the way in the Greek is the word miserable. Have you ever seen Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables? I encourage you to go and watch the movie today. Well, that’s Father’s Day. Go do something else. Victor Hugo’s movie, Les Miserables with Liam Neeson. The actor Liam Neeson. It’s got to be the version with him in it. Why? It’s all about salvation, the law, grace and love. Victor Hugo wrote it that way. The miserable. How is the miserable, the pitiable delivered? Love. The law can never deliver the miserable. It only condemns the miserable. God gives the law to show us our condemnation so that we turn and say, “Jesus saved me!” And he says, “Yes!” And we are no longer pitiable. Look at this also, almost done. For God still of the world that He has promised to welcome us at the end. He has promised to welcome us at or in the end. But now Christ is risen from the dead and He has become the first fruits of those who have died. That is awesome. Boy, I don’t have the time to develop this. Just write this down quick if you would. What is Jesus saying? Or what is Paul the Apostle saying? This is amazing. Leviticus chapter 23, “Jod it down for future study,” verses 10-11. “God told the nation of Israel way, way back then that you shall take the wave offering that is dedicated to the Lord, wheat, barley, grain.” And it says, “On the day after the Sabbath, the priests shall wave it or present it before the Lord.” Okay? The wave offering, the first fruits offering. You wave it. What comes in? You give to God first. If it’s your paycheck in this modern era or if it’s apples where you come from. The first of it goes to God. Watch this. You wave it before the Lord. It is the offering of the first fruits. Listen. In Leviticus 23-11 it says that you shall do this the day after the Sabbath. Matthew 28 verse 4. Now, on the day after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, when it began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, but the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.” He’s not here, but is risen. He is wave offering first fruits before the Lord. Jesus Christ is the first one resurrected from the dead. Never to die again. Remember Lazarus? He died. Remember he died. And then Jesus resurrected them, but according to the Scripture, he would have had to die again. That stinks. Jesus is resurrected from the dead. He’s the first fruits of the dead. The day after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, from the book of Leviticus to Matthew chapter 28, the Scripture tells us that it’s Christ that is raised and waved as the offering of first fruits. Listen to this. When Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, it was Passover. He was the Lamb of God, taken away the sins of the world. When He rose again from the dead, He was the first fruits promising, fulfilling the Old Testament Scripture, but promising us eternal life, that we would never have to experience death that separates us from God. He is, listen to this, “Leviticus 23-6 says that on the 15th day of the same month, it is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord.” John 6, 41, says, “I am the bread of life which came down from heaven.” He’s talking about the Bible, so I’m not the two same things. Pure undefiled, holy bread that if you eat of the bread as it were, not bread bread, if you eat of Christ, you’ll live forever more. He’s promised us all the way through to the end, and here’s what we end right now. Verse 21, “For God has provided to us the way.” What are you talking about? “For since by man came death,” that’s Adam. “By man, capital M in your Bible on man, also came the resurrection of the dead.” That’s Jesus. This is great. Why don’t we die? Because the Bible says of sin. Well, how did that happen? Because of one man, Adam. You say, “You have an Eve sin first.” Yes, she’s sin first, but she came out of Adam. That’s the only time a man can say that. We’ve all come out of women, out of a woman. Eve didn’t come out of a woman. Isn’t that freaky weird? Eve came out of a man. His name was Adam. And she was deceived. The Bible says by Satan. Apparently, Adam was not there because the Bible tells us when Adam saw her having fallen sinned. The Bible says that Adam took of the fruit and ate also. Eve was deceived, the Bible says. Adam willfully walked away from God to be with her. He said, “That’s so sweet.” You know, it’s stick that in your ear because God probably could have made another woman and we’d all be fine. We’d all be in Hawaii today with no sin. Adam looked at her. Looked at God. He was fine. God, her. God, her. I’m going to go with her. And he willfully enters into sin. The Bible says, “He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness that is of God through faith in Him.” Jesus Christ left heaven, came to this world, took upon Himself willfully our sins because He loved you so much. You see, that’s a sad story. No, no, no, no. Three days later He rose again from the grave. And my dear friend, by your choice today all can be well. And you can be on your way to heaven, forgiven. Heavenly Father, we pray and we ask in Jesus’ name, Lord, that right now, O Father, that there would be those here and I know the argument, I remember in my mind the arguments going on inside right now. And it’s so dynamic because right now as I prepare and as they prepare to hear the invitation to make a decision for Jesus, there will be those in this room right now saying, “I can’t do this. I can’t, I, I, what if and all these are all these acts of resistance in your mind going on right now.” And when I give you opportunity to accept Christ right now, you’re going to flip in your argument and say, “Oh, I can’t be this simple. I can’t be this easy. What else do I have to do? What, what good deed must I do to undo my past?” Your mind and your logic right now could very well be in a place of torment right now. And I’m asking you to take a deep breath and relax because God so loved you that He gave His only Son Jesus to die in the cross for your sins, to pay the debt for all the wrongdoing you’ve ever done. And you know this, when your conscience bothered you that was wrongdoing, that was the Holy Spirit saying, “What are you doing?” And over the years your sins have kind of racked up on a scale and now you can send up a storm and it barely bothers you. You become callous and cool-hearted. And the Lord today wants to cut back the dead skin of your unrepentant heart and give you a nice, supple, soft heart to the things of God. My friend, it’s called conversion. It’s called being saved. It’s salvation. And it’s yours if you want it. True worship must come through choice. And I’m asking you to right now to choose Jesus. That would mean that right now you would say, “Lord, forgive me of my sins personally. I’m not pointing my finger anymore to anybody else. I’m asking you to forgive me now.” And I’m asking you to come into my life, God, and change my life. I’m asking you to do this because I believe Jesus died and rose again from the grave. Father, for those that are praying that prayer right now, I pray that you would overwhelm them by the consciousness, presence, and the peace. The Holy Spirit. As they proclaim Christ today risen from the dead, their Lord and Savior. Jesus, name me, man. Church, let’s stand together right now.
