Gospel Reminders - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 -Rob Kane

Well, good morning.

For those who don't already know, my name is Rob, and it is good to be with you.

I'm the lead pastor at Citizens Church in Westerville.

And we have been immensely blessed.

You guys were planted about a year and a half or so before our church began.

And you guys have been a huge gift to us because some of the same things that you guys have done and implemented, Rick was just able to share with me and said, hey, do it this way, don't do it this way, and just spared us from a lot of difficulty.

So thank you for the way that you have already been a blessing to our church.

It is a gift to be able to be here with myself, with my wife, Danielle, with our kids Finlay, Lennon, and Ezra.

And so thank you very much for allowing me to be here and for the support and for the prayers that you have given to our church over the past couple years.

We have felt them and we are very grateful for them.

Well, a question I want to pose to you this morning is why is the resurrection so important?

Why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ so important?

Skeptics have been asking that question for the last 2,000 years, and they've come up with various different theories to try to debunk the resurrection.

And it seems that as we look in the text that we're in today, that even the church in Corinth, who Paul says in chapter 1, that they are in fact a church.

So it's believers, even they were asking the question of is the resurrection that important?

And the answer to that question, I'll just give it to you on the front end, is that Christ's resurrection is in fact the visible confirmation that he has defeated death.

Christ's resurrection is the visible confirmation that he has defeated death.

John Stott, an English theologian, put it this way.

He said Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion.

The concept of the resurrection lies at its heart.

If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.

If you remove the resurrection, Christianity is destroyed.

And so I like to give just kind of an overall, like one-sentence summary of the text that we're looking at.

And so the summary, if you're taking notes today, if you're not going to get anything else, this is the note to put down.

It's this for 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 11.

The summary statement is because the resurrection of Christ confirms God's grace to us, we must hold fast to it.

Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ confirms God's grace to us, we must hold fast to it.

And so this morning we are in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

We're looking at the first 11 verses, 1 through 11.

And the theme, just so you're aware of kind of what we're looking at here, because we are kind of just jumping right into the middle, even towards the end, of 1 Corinthians.

So it's helpful to know some of the context.

I'll give you some of that here.

The overall theme for the book of 1 Corinthians is unity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This church was a young church.

Paul went to Corinth and he shared the gospel and people received the good news.

And so a church was birthed.

And this young church, as you could expect in first century Christianity, they had a lot of questions.

And so Paul had written to them, and we actually don't have that letter.

If you want to think of it as zero Corinthians, think of it that way.

There's a zero Corinthians that we don't have.

And then they responded, and that's this letter of 1 Corinthians.

Now, Paul had also received a report from Chloe's people.

We see this in chapter 1.

And so the first six chapters, Paul addresses this report that he received from Chloe's people about some of the issues that were going on in Corinth.

Then in chapter 7, he shifts gears and he starts to answer some of the questions that the Corinthians had when they wrote back to him.

So they're a young church, they have questions.

How should we address these various different things?

And there were just tons of problems in the church in Corinth, which is encouraging, because even today, we, 2,000 years later, have all kinds of issues that pop up in our own churches.

Now, some of those problems, just to give you a high-level overview, is are these.

In chapters 1 through 4, Paul addresses the problem of unbiblical divisions within the church.

They were all following their favorite Bible teacher.

I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas.

They were all uniting around their favorite Bible teacher.

And then in chapters five and six, there were various kinds of sexual sin that weren't being addressed.

On the latter part of chapter six, Paul addresses the issue that some of these Christians were going into the public square and suing each other in the public square.

They couldn't handle their problems within the church, which is the terrible testimony to the rest of the world.

So Paul addresses that.

In chapter 7, he addresses some of the issues around their wrong views of marriage and singleness.

And then chapters 8 through 11, he takes those four chapters, those three chapters, and then the first verse in chapter 11, to address the issue where a lot of these Christians, they were elevating their own personal freedoms that they had in Christ above the well-being of one another.

And so they were free in Christ to do these various things.

However, it was a stumbling block for some other Christians, and so Paul addresses that.

He says, Hey, you should care for one another more than your own freedoms.

So be willing to lay down your freedom for the sake of your brother or sister in Christ.

And then chapters 11 through 14, Paul addresses just how church should happen.

They were coming together and it was super chaotic.

There was a misuse of the spiritual gifts, there was the blurring of genders, there was blurring of distinctions, and some of the spiritual gifts were being used in very crazy kinds of ways.

And so Paul addresses this in chapters 11 through 14 about how to use the gifts that God had given for the sake of building up the church and glorifying God.

And so now we find ourselves in chapter 15, these first 11 verses.

And all of chapter 15 is about the resurrection.

So there's a lot of debatable things throughout 1 Corinthians, and things that even folks in our own church have different opinions on.

But chapter 15, it's a breath of fresh air.

Because if you are a Christian, you affirm chapter 15.

There's no different camps here.

You affirm the resurrection.

Because without the resurrection, we don't have Christianity.

But Paul is writing to this group of Christians because they had begun to question the resurrection.

And so he's reminding them why it's so important.

Some were saying that there is no resurrection of the dead, as you'll see in chapter, or excuse me, in verse 12 of this chapter.

Some were saying there was no resurrection, but Paul is trying to encourage them not to overlook the resurrection.

And so turn, if you would, in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

If you're using a physical Bible, you'll turn probably three-fourths, maybe four-fifths of the way through your Bible.

See Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, you'll see Acts, Romans, and then 1 Corinthians.

So we'll be in 1 Corinthians, and we're in chapter 15, so look for that big number 15, and we'll just start reading right there.

1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Starting in verse 1.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they.

So we preached, and so you believed.

Let's pray.

Father.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you that we get to gather and meditate on it.

To consider what is here.

And Lord, as we consider it, we pray that we would be built up in the faith.

We pray that we would not be like the Corinthians who were forgetting the gospel, who are forgetting the resurrection.

But Lord, help us to hold fast to it.

Help me speak clearly.

And Lord, we pray that your word would not go out void.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

So this morning, if you're a note taker, there are three points to this sermon, because I'm a good Baptist.

And those points are these: a saving gospel, a witnessed gospel, and a transformative gospel.

A saving gospel, a witnessed gospel, and a transformative gospel.

And so after his conclude, after concluding his discourse on orderly worship, Paul now jumps into the Corinthians' uh idea of this gospel that they had been forgetting.

You see this in the first two verses, we see a saving gospel.

So in verses 1, in the beginning of verse 2, Paul's making a point here that we don't want to overlook.

Okay, we don't want to miss this.

He's reminding them of the gospel.

Alistair Begg, one of my favorite Bible teachers, makes a great point about what Paul's doing here.

And it's something that we should not soon overlook.

He says, Paul is in the reminding business, not in the innovation business.

Paul is reminding them of the gospel, reminding them of what he had received.

He's not creating something new here.

He preached the gospel, they received the gospel, and now they're standing on the gospel, which is a fancy way of saying that they're trusting what Paul preached.

And in doing that, they are being saved by the gospel.

Notice that the gospel didn't just miraculously appear in Corinth.

Paul came preaching it.

He came preaching it on his second missionary journey.

And if he had not come to preach it, then they would not have received it and trusted it.

And if they don't receive it and trust it, then nobody gets saved.

There is no salvation.

Paul elaborates on this, this idea in Romans 10, verses 14 through 15.

Romans 10:14–15

He says this to the Romans.

He says, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

And so, brothers and sisters, this is why it is so important for us to not just look at ourselves, for us to look beyond ourselves.

Yes, there is nothing throughout the week more important to the Christian than the Sunday gathering, what's taking place right here.

This should be the apex, this is the first priority of every Christian's week.

However, it doesn't stop here.

We are then, after we're gathered, we're scattered throughout the week, and God has placed us in unique places so that we can take the gospel to those that He's placed around us.

We've been entrusted with that gospel to proclaim the good news so that others may receive it and trust it and be saved by it.

Don't let the gospel stop with you.

Don't be a cul-de-sac Christian where the gospel comes in and has nowhere to go so that it just goes back out.

Let the gospel come in and continue to go through.

Let the gospel be used by you to share it with others.

Don't let it stop with you.

So look in verse 2.

Paul now gives a word of warning to these Corinthians.

In the second part of verse 2, he says, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believe in vain.

So he says, You're being saved if you hold fast.

And then he implies that if you don't hold fast, then you've believed in vain.

And so a question that could naturally pop up, especially for us Protestants, who believe that we are saved by grace alone, not through any works.

Question that pops up is does that mean that they're saved by the work of holding fast?

Is that what Paul's getting at?

You're saved if you hold fast, you have to do this work first of holding fast, and then you'll be saved?

Well, it's a good question.

But to answer it, the answer is no.

We're not saved by works.

The New Testament's clear that we're saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, and this is by God's grace alone.

Ephesians 2, in fact, could not be any clearer.

So if you have any question about that, just slowly read through Ephesians 2.

But rather, holding fast to the gospel is evidence or proof that we have, in fact, been saved, that we have, in fact, acquired this salvation.

Danielle and I, we like to take the kids apple picking each fall.

And we go out to Utica, there's a great spot out there, and we know that there are lots of apple trees there.

There's a lot of other things going on too, but we go for the apple trees.

Now, those apple trees, this time of year, in the winter, don't have apples on them.

However, it doesn't mean they're any less of an apple tree.

But when the apples do show up around summertime, that's evidence, that's proof that they were apple trees all along.

And so by holding fast to the gospel, that serves as evidence or proof that we are, in fact, followers of Christ, that we have received God's grace, that we have been saved.

John writes about this in 1 John.

There were a group of Christians who had been among them for a while, a group of people among these Christians for a while, and these people went out.

They left them, they departed from the faith.

And so this group was concerned.

Like, how do we how do we even understand this?

And so we read about this.

Uh John writes about it in 1 John chapter 2, verse 19.

1 John 2:19

He says, Those people went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out, that it might become plain that they are all not of us.

So John is saying that because they went out, that's evidence that they were never of us to begin with.

They enjoyed the benefits of being in that community, they said some of the right things, but the gospel hadn't penetrated their heart.

So a question, I mean, a lot of us can probably think of those who have been in that situation, where they seem to have made an outward profession of faith, but they've since departed from the faith.

And so, what do we do with that?

Some of those people seem to have shown a lot of fruit.

Well, there's there's two possible answers.

One is that that person is a Christian, and the Lord will bring him or her back.

Philippians 1, verse 6, Paul says, I'm sure of this.

Philippians 1:6

That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

So if God has started a work in an individual, if he has implanted the gospel in that person, given his grace, his saving grace to that person, he will bring them all the way through to salvation.

So that's option one.

The person will in fact come back.

They may have gone wayward, they may have been backslidden for a time, but God will complete the work that he began.

Option number two is what John was writing about.

That that person was, in fact, never a Christian to begin with.

Rather, he or she believed for a time, but as Paul puts it here in verse 2, that person believed in vain.

And so, Paul is trying to encourage these group of Corinthians to hold fast to the gospel.

And he reminds them that all who receive trust and hold fast to that gospel will be saved.

All who receive, trust, and hold fast to that gospel will be saved.

All those who recognize their need for a savior, recognize that we are sinful, that we do need to be restored to God, that we have in fact rebelled against him.

And when we entrust ourselves to Christ, when we entrust ourselves to him to be that savior, we are trusting that he has in fact taken away all of our sin.

We're believing that Jesus' payment is sufficient to cover all of that sin, to satisfy God's requirement for justice.

But we're also believing that his payment is sufficient to assuage the wrath of God that is rightly going to be put against our sin.

So we're trusting that he has taken away and paid for all our sin in full, but we're also trusting that his righteousness is now ours.

God takes away our sin through Christ, and then he gives us Christ's righteousness.

So in taking it away, we trust that he has sufficiently removed it, paid for it in full.

And when he gives us his righteousness, we are trusting that he has sufficiently given us all that we need to be brought into the presence of a holy and righteous God.

It's not, this is going to sound strange, but it's not actually enough just for our sin to be taken away.

Because that just puts us in a place of neutrality.

We actually need a foreign holiness and righteousness to be brought into the presence of a holy God.

And Christ does both.

He takes and pays for our sin.

And then he gives us his perfect righteousness.

And so, in summary, Paul is trying to encourage them that we need to continue to confess our need for forgiveness, and we need to confess that Christ is sufficient to pay for that sin and give us the holiness that we need to be right with God.

And so, all, all of us in here, hold fast to that truth.

That Christ is the one who answers both of those questions.

The one who provides the necessary righteousness and removes our sin and pays for it in full.

And if you're a Christian, proclaim this.

You've been entrusted with it.

Take it to those around you.

You have co-workers around you who are not believers, and God has placed you at that job and given you those skills and put those people around you as your coworkers for a reason.

He's placed you in the neighborhood that you're in for a reason.

To take the gospel, to find ways, to get the gospel to those who are far from him.

Be reminded of this, Christian.

That when you sin, that guilty verdict that was upon you has been removed.

Your sin has been paid for in full.

You don't need to make penance.

All of it has been done in Christ.

When Christ was on the cross, he said, It is finished.

There is no more payment that you need to pay for.

Rejoice in that.

You're free.

And this is good news.

If you're not a Christian this morning, thank you for being here.

If you don't like anything that I preach, I'm just not the one who normally preaches here, so give it another chance.

Come back next week.

However, if you have any questions about this gospel, seek out a Christian around you.

Seek out one of the pastors, Rick, Jimmy, or Ron.

I I would love to have that conversation with you after church.

You're welcome to come up to me and ask me more about the gospel.

I would love to have that conversation.

Talk to somebody.

And so, moving forward, not only do we see that this gospel is proclaimed by the By Paul, but it was also witnessed by many.

So in verses three through eight, we see a witnessed gospel.

And so at the beginning of verse three, we see Paul is delivering that which he received.

Again, we said he's in the reminding business.

He's not in the innovation business.

He didn't invent it.

And he says something similar in Galatians when he's talking to the Galatians in chapter 1, verses 11 through 12.

He says, For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul is reminding them of what he received from Christ.

And Paul points out that this gospel includes at least three things.

One, Christ's life and death.

Two, Christ's burial, and three, Christ's resurrection.

His life and death, his burial and his resurrection.

And to eliminate the resurrection, friends, nullifies the gospel.

We must hold to the resurrection.

And then so looking at these verses, verses three through eight, Paul identifies two kinds of witnesses.

Just to help the Corinthians understand, hey, don't forget this.

There are two kinds of witnesses here who affirm everything that I'm trying to tell you about the resurrection.

The first one is the Old Testament scriptures.

And the second one are eyewitnesses.

So in verses three and four, we see that the Old Testament scriptures bore witness to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

We see that the Messiah's death was predicted in Isaiah.

Isaiah 53.

We read, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt.

And in verse 11 we read, By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

So that twofold.

See this in Psalm 1610, where the psalmist points out that God will not abandon his soul to Sheol, that he will not let his holy one see corruption.

So there's a sense in which his holy one that he sends will die.

Sheol being the realm of death.

So that holy one will die, but he won't abandon his soul to Sheol.

He won't let him see corruption.

There's hints of the resurrection there.

And then in Hosea 6.2, we read that after two days he will revive us.

On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

So there's already these foreshadowings, these hints.

There's going to be a holy one who's going to taste death, but he's not going to see corruption.

He's going to be raised up.

The scriptures anticipated Christ's resurrection.

Paul's trying to encourage the Corinthians, don't let go of the resurrection.

We've got multiple witnesses here, the Old Testament scriptures, but now he also points out in verses 5 through 8 that there are many eyewitnesses.

So he begins to list them.

He says there was Cephas, who was Peter.

He says the twelve, the disciples.

And he says, more than 500 brothers.

And I appreciate Paul's honesty here.

He says, look, there's over 500 brothers, some of which have died.

Okay.

But most of them are still alive.

So if you want to go ask them, go ask them yourself.

Ask them.

Did Christ raise from the dead?

Also appeared to James, the brother of Jesus Christ, and the leader of the Jerusalem church.

He appeared to all the apostles.

So we see that he appeared to the twelve, but there's also a sense in which there are more than more apostles than just the twelve.

An apostle just means sent one.

And so what Paul is likely referring to here are the sent ones, the 72 sent ones in Luke 10, where he sends them out two by two.

So he's referring to those whom the Lord has sent out.

But then Paul says, last of all, himself.

And so Paul is making the case to the Corinthians that there is no reason to doubt the resurrection.

Not only do the scriptures attest to it and foreshadow it, but also there have been eyewitnesses, and he says, Go, go find them.

Go talk to them.

I'll give you the list.

I'll tell you who you need to find.

Go find them.

Talk to them.

The resurrected Christ was not only foretold in the scriptures, but he also appeared to five to six hundred witnesses, not just a few, hundreds upon hundreds.

And so the resurrection, again, of Jesus Christ is necessary for the gospel.

If Christ didn't raise, then death still holds victory over him.

And if he didn't raise, then our faith is in vain, as we see in verse 14 of this chapter.

Paul says, if you don't believe it, go ask one of those five to six hundred individuals.

But don't reject it without looking into it.

He says, I'm giving you the resources to look into it.

Don't reject it without looking into it.

Hear the people to check.

Hear the scriptures to check.

And so if you're not a Christian this morning and you haven't embraced the resurrection, I would encourage you, don't reject it without looking into it.

And I don't mean listen to your favorite podcast or a YouTube video of some guy in his basement.

I'm talking about a published work.

Read something by somebody who subscribes to the resurrection, who gives a defense for it.

If you're not sure where to start, I'll give you four book recommendations, all of which are easily accessible.

The first one is The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

The second one is More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.

The third one is The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas.

And the fourth is Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, by Nabeel Qureshi.

And if you want to know any of those, again, just come see me afterward.

I'll share with you what those are.

And if you are a Christian, you have a friend who is questioning the resurrection, those, one of those four would be great.

But here's what's important.

Is that this is how one theologian puts it.

He says, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said.

If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?

The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead.

If Christ did rise from the dead, then we must embrace everything that he says.

If you're a follower of Christ this morning, remember that Christ's resurrection is the source of our hope.

If he didn't rise, then we don't have any hope that we will defeat death with him.

Hermann Babink, a Dutch theologian, so he went from English now over to the Dutch, he says, in the resurrection, Christ himself and we with him were justified.

His arising was the public declaration of our acquittal.

Christ's resurrection was the public declaration of our acquittal, that all who are in him are now innocent.

And so if you are a Christian and you are overwhelmed by your sin, whether that's past sin, whether that's present sin, meditate on the resurrection.

But your sin has been paid for.

Continue to fight against sin.

Don't cozy up next to it and get comfortable with it.

But know that it's been perfectly paid for by Christ.

And the evidence of that is that Christ rose from the dead.

If you've entrusted yourself to Christ, that sin is paid in full.

Rolls-Royce used to be known as the car that never breaks down.

And there was a wealthy Englishman who was driving his Rolls-Royce through the French Alps, feeling good about this vehicle that he just purchased.

For those who don't know, Rolls-Royce is a very expensive vehicle.

And he's feeling good about how he just has this vehicle that's not going to break down.

And as he's driving through the Alps, he hears a twang.

And the car begins to sputter, and he finds himself broken down.

And so he's not super pleased.

So he calls Rolls-Royce and they send a mechanic immediately.

Mechanic is flown out, fixes the vehicle, and the man's on his way.

About six months later, this wealthy man recognizes that a bill never came.

And he says, Look, I can afford it.

I know it's an inconvenience to have people fly out here.

I'll pay my bill.

I'm curious as to why it hasn't been paid.

And so he calls in to Rolls-Royce and he talks with somebody and he's trying to get his bill paid for.

And the person on the other line of the phone says, This says, We're very sorry, sir.

I found your account, but it appears there's no balance for you to pay.

As we at Rolls-Royce have absolutely no record of your Rolls-Royce ever breaking down.

Rolls-Royce, the car that never breaks down.

But just as Rolls-Royce absorbed the cost of that repair, so too God has absorbed the cost to repair our relationship to him.

And when you die, your life will be laid bare before God.

Hebrews 9 tells us it is appointed for man to die once.

And after that comes judgment.

So after you die, there's no extended period afterward to where you can make things right.

It's you die, and then after that comes judgment.

So there's no time afterward to get things right.

Your life will be laid bare.

But if you're resting on Christ to remove your sin, then the verdict pronounced over your life at that time of judgment will be a resounding innocent.

And the judge will say, I have absolutely no record of this person ever sinning.

Therefore, there is no balance to pay.

And you will be able to walk freely into the eternal reward that perfect righteousness earns.

Not because of your perfect righteousness, you lack it.

But because of the righteousness that has been given to you through Christ.

That has been affirmed through his resurrection.

The reward that Christ earned, yet freely gives to all who ask him for it.

And again, if you want to know more about that, please seek somebody out.

Ask them.

So not only does this gospel save, not only was it witnessed to by the scriptures and many others, but it's also a transformative gospel.

So in the last few verses, verses 9 through 11, we see how this gospel transformed the Apostle Paul.

He shares his background.

He says he's the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.

Now, why is that?

He gives us the answer.

He says it's because he persecuted the church.

And Luke records this for us in the book of Acts.

At the stoning of Stephen, we see in Acts 7 that those who were stoning him cast Stephen out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Now Saul is just Paul's Hebrew name.

And then, as the narrative continues, the very next chapter in Acts 8, we read that Saul approved of Stephen's execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered.

Let me see in verse 3, Paul saw, or but Saul was ravaging the church.

And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

So prior to his conversion, Paul's mission in life was to murder and imprison Christians.

That's what he did.

And Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, calls himself the greatest of all sinners.

Said, there is no greater sinner than me.

He says this when he's writing to Timothy that the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

So if you feel overwhelmed by your sin, know that Paul was a greater sinner than you.

And I don't know each of your stories.

Maybe there's somebody in here who has made it their point to make their life mission be to imprison and to murder Christians.

But I'm guessing that that's not anybody in here.

And if you feel overwhelmed by your sin, think of Paul, whose life mission was that.

And the Lord still extended grace to him.

God intervened.

We see this in verse 10.

But by the grace of God, Paul says, I am what I am.

And his grace to me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

So in response to God's grace, Paul works hard.

He works hard.

He noticed that this grace was given to Paul prior to his work.

It wasn't that he worked hard and then God said, Oh, you know what?

I should give this guy grace.

It's he's given the grace and then he works hard in response to it.

Paul didn't earn God's grace, otherwise, it wouldn't be grace.

His work was a response to it.

But in fact, God's grace is what enabled Paul to work hard.

He says, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

And so, Christian, glorify God by acknowledging God's grace in your life.

By responding to his grace with good works.

Walk in those good works that God prepared beforehand for you to walk in, Ephesians 2.10.

But also glorify God by recognizing that as you do walk in those good works, that it is God's grace working in you.

It's not you earning it.

It's God enabling you to do that.

Perhaps you aren't a follower of Jesus, and perhaps you've done awful things, and maybe even you're thinking to yourself, I'm even worse than what my closest friends recognize.

Know this.

God knows.

God knows your sin.

He knows your wickedness, he knows your depravity, even better than you know it.

And yet, his grace is available to you.

He has said in John 6 37 that whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

He doesn't say, whoever comes to me except for the murderers, whoever comes to me, except for the idolaters.

He says, Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

God's grace is extended to you.

Paul says, We preached.

And so you believed.

Are you believing this?

Are you believing this gospel?

That God's grace is in fact yours if you would repent and believe in the gospel.

Because the gospel not only saves, but it also transforms God's people.

We're a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Paul went from being a persecutor to an apostle, from being a murderer to a proclaimer.

And we're prone to forget this.

Paul had to remind the Corinthians because we're prone to forget.

We are just as human as the Corinthians were.

And like the Corinthians, we're constantly in need of a reminder of the gospel, of the resurrection of Christ and the transforming power that that has.

We're constantly in need of a reminder that forgiveness is, in fact, possible, that it is offered.

Not through trying to be perfect, but by trusting in the perfect one.

The one who gives us his perfection if we ask for it.

Not through being sinless, but by trusting in the sinless one and the one who removes our sin if we ask for it.

Christ gives and takes away.

He gives us his righteousness and he takes away our sin.

He gives us his righteousness and all the rewards that come along with his righteousness, including eternal glory with God.

And he takes away our sin and all the punishment that goes with it.

Hold fast to this, Christian.

Hold fast to the gospel that was preached to you.

Hold fast to the gospel that you received.

Hold fast to the gospel in which you stand and are entrusting yourself to.

Hold fast to the gospel which saves you.

Don't be one who believed in vain.

As Paul's writing to the Corinthians, don't be one who believed in vain.

Hold fast to the second Adam.

Set of training this past week, and this guy was just pointing us to the fact that the scriptures have a little bit of a pattern to them.

He goes, gospel, desert, gospel.

He goes, garden, wilderness, garden.

We see the gospel in the beginning, and we see a second Adam fulfilling what the first Adam could not fulfill.

And then we get to inherit an eternal garden in Christ Jesus.

The first Adam had everything in his favor.

There was no sin in the world when he was created.

He had everything he could want to eat.

And he failed.

The second Adam had everything against him.

He was fasting for 40 days.

No food, nothing to eat or drink.

And that's when Satan attacks him.

And yet he's faithful.

The first Adam deserved death because he sinned and he was not resurrected, because the wage of sin is death.

But the second Adam did not deserve death, yet took on death on our behalf.

And because he didn't deserve it, he rose victoriously over it.

Death could not hold him.

He is no longer in that grave.

As we just sang, not in me, great song, by the way.

I love that you guys added that in.

I circled it because I want to add it to our rotation as citizens.

But there's a powerful lyric in there that says, But Jesus died and rose again.

The power of death is overthrown.

My God is merciful to me.

But don't miss the last line.

And merciful in Christ alone.

If you are in Christ, you get to taste the mercy of God and the grace of God.

If you are outside of Christ, if you are entrusting yourself, if you are entrusting your works, or trusting anything else, then you will be the one to pay for your sin.

And any type of rebellion, any type of sin against an eternal God requires eternal punishment.

So you can entrust yourself to yourself and pay for it yourself, or you can entrust yourself to Christ and know that it's been paid for.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too will all who are united to him.

As we said at the beginning, because the resurrection of Christ confirms God's grace to us, we must hold on to it.

We're prone to forget it, just as the Corinthians were.

But we must hold on to the resurrection and to the gospel that we have been entrusted with.

Let's pray.