And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we are testified of God, that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if and so the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. Alright, in verse 14. If Christ be not risen, The earlier verses, what did they say? Were some doubting his resurrection? Any hands on that? Were some doubting Paul's day, the resurrection? Yeah, touch it in. I mean, there were some that were doubting the resurrection in general. Okay. I mean, in particular, probably the first reference would be the resurrection of the witnesses. But I think that in the earlier verses they were saying, we were wondering whether the Corinthians in the church or the current beings outside the church who are questioning whether there is a resurrection or not, generally speaking. In verse 12, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you, either Corinth or the local church, that there is no resurrection of the dead? So they're denying there's any resurrection. So in verse 14, what's true if the Lord Jesus is not risen? Paul, go ahead, Paul first. There's no reason for us to go to church, there's no reason for us to read the bible or anything if Christ is not risen. There's no purpose in our life at all, we are just accidents of evolution if that's true. If Christ is not risen, what about that? Yes sir, tell me. Well there's no hope, there's no hope. It's your life. There's no hope of being able to talk or sing. Yes, hello, hello. Yes, Henry. Okay. Hi. Enjoying the Bible study, Randy and I are, and we can hear very, very well. Everything's good. Good. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Henry. Let's wave to Henry and Randy. How are y'all in Canada? We're up in Canada. Thank you. Now if Christ is not raised, where is he now? If he's not raised, where is he? Any hands on that? In the ground. But he wasn't in the tomb. That's right. He was in the tomb, but he wasn't there. If he wasn't raised, he's still in the tomb. If he's still in the tomb, Is it the father's right hand? Any answer to that? Is it the father's right hand if he's still in the tomb? No, he's not. Is he our great high priest in the heavenlies if he's not raised? Is he our great high priest if he's not in heaven? Any answer to that? This isn't what's actually going on. We're talking about if he's not resurrected. That's right. It's a little puzzle. So all these things go into that, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very, very important. And then in verse 14, what else is true of Christ be not raised? What else is true? Questions at bfdbc.org or 856-261-9018. You'll have to hear from those in the audience as well. Give us a call. Yeah, Tammy. All in the church there are false witnesses. All right. Because they said that The Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. They can't have raised him up. Alright. What's another word for false witnesses? Any hands on that? Liars. We don't want anybody to be liars. And if Christ be not raised. All the church are saying he's risen. Now remember the earlier verses. How many people actually physically saw the risen Christ? In the first early chapters, early verses of this chapter. Any hands on that? How many people saw him? Starting with verse 6 and 7 and 8 and 9. Over 500 at once. And then the 12. If you count Paul, that's 12. That's right. If you count Paul, that's 12. All these people, eyewitnesses. Can all 512 or 513 eyes be crazy? See, they're witnesses, they saw him and some are even still alive after this time. That's a lot of witnesses. Sometimes you have to give one witness for a certain event, sometimes two. The court requires two or three if they can, at least the Bible does. So, they're found false witnesses because they said he was raised and he's not. False. Then verse number 16. What is true in this verse? If this is true, is there an if clause? Yes, Paul. It says in verse 16, if the dead rise not, then it is not Christ raised. That's good. Thank you, Paul. That's good. So, what is the logic of it? Go ahead, Ma. People shouldn't realize he's reading from Braille. Yes, he's reading for Braille. Yes, I'm very glad, Paul. Blind Paul, but with Braille he can quote the scriptures. Skill in those fingers. Praise the Lord for that. Now, what is the logic of verse 16? What is the reasoning of verse 16? We read the words, but give a little bit more explanation. Anybody with hands on that can give a little more explanation of verse 16. Go ahead, Paul. The logic there is that he loved us so much that he died. He died to pay for our sins. And verse 15, Tammy. So if you go back to the part where it says, if the dead rise not. So if there is no resurrection of the dead, the dead rise not. No one that dies will rise. They'll just be dust. That's right. And then Christ himself is not raised. Yes, the time, excuse me, Anna. Anna. We're 16. We're 16, 16. Anna, I'm coming, I'm coming to you. Okay, alright, we're 16 now. In other words, do some preachers believe that Christ did not rise? They teach it. They teach false. Now, some may believe it, but may not teach it to their church. If so, why don't they teach it to their church? Any hands on that? questions at bfdbc.org or 856-261-9018 give us a call or comment. If they don't believe that Christ rose bodily from the grave, do they teach that heresy to their church? And if they don't, why don't they? Any hands on that? Why do you think they don't, if they don't believe it? People can get upset if they actually talk about a bodily resurrection. I talk a lot. What is your question? The question is, if the pastors of these big modernistic churches do not believe in the Bible of resurrection, why do they not tell the whole church, I don't believe he's raised, he's not raised at all, what would happen? It could go both ways. It could be that some churches, well anyway, your answer is what you're looking for. Just because they don't want anyone to know that they don't believe in the resurrection. But I think there is a lot of times in some of those modernistic churches, people that don't believe it themselves. And they might think, what's this preacher saying? Silly nonsense. So I'm saying it could go both ways. Some of the churches, they agree with the preacher, know about the resurrection. Others that do believe in the body of the resurrection, if the pastor told that to the whole church, what might these believers do? Leave the church. And these modernist preachers don't want anybody to leave the church. Yes Bill? If there is no resurrection, then why do we bother to worship? Alright. That's good. Was there a dead Christ in the tomb still? It was the Sadducees. They didn't believe in a resurrection. They didn't believe in a purpose. Right. Yes, Anna. So they were Sadducees. Sadducees. That's right. Absolutely Sadducees. That's right. That's why they were sad all the time. Yes. Yes, Tammy. People that say, pray for the dead. or worship the dead. Some of the different Eastern cultures, they worship their ancestors. Something like that. The price is not raised when we're just worshiping the dead person. The dead person, like some of the heretical people. Somebody said recently, if you want to make a final prayer. It was implied about the person that died. Which most people skedaddled right out of the room at that. Really. What was the camera later? It was at a funeral. And the Catholic who we assume is Catholic, the Catholic undertaker was saying, if you want to make a final prayer by the past. Anyway. The whole idea of being final and that once it's closed, you can't pray. And it sounded like you were praying for the person in the catheter. Don't do that. Go in there and do it. That's right, Bill. How can a dead person hear a final prayer for him? Nobody can do that, absolutely not. Nobody can. You don't pray for the dead. No, right. That's right. Prayers for the Catholic sake, pray for that to get them out of purgatory. That's right. Because the people at the funeral home, that front door, they're Catholics. Yes. So they're going to pray a lot of purgatory. Exactly. We don't believe that. We don't believe that at all. There's no purgatory and you can't bring them out if they were a purgator. Well, she's remembering. Well, I wanted to say this. When Uncle David died, When they took his body in the casket, they must not have covered it up. I don't know what they did, but when it went by me, they had prayers and stuff and letters put in there and I grabbed them all as it went by. It was open when you went by? I can't, I'm a little mixed up. Maybe it wasn't when it was open. It was, but they were moving it. And I saw these envelopes. I don't remember all the details, but I remember I grabbed it and I've forgotten about that till now. Okay. Because they had all different Catholics and everything. I hope those out there who are listening to us finally got to where we could be found. We had a lot of trouble trying to get our streaming on so you could listen. Pastor Dan was excellent in recovering all this material. But if you want to give us a call, call us at 856-261-9018 or email questions at bftbc.org. The 17, 18, and 19. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins. Then they which also have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we have all a man most miserable. That's verse 17. Again, another if follows lots of ifs. What is true if Christ is not raised in this verse? Any hands on that? What is true if He's not raised? Our faith is vain and we're still in our sins. We didn't have victory over death and sin. In what sense would our faith be vain? What would the meaning of that be? It's useless. Absolutely useless? No purpose? And why is it that we'd be yet in our sins? Anna? The wages of sin is death. And us being finite creatures, it would take us an infinite amount of time to pay that price. But Christ, being an infinite being, can pay it off in a finite amount of time. But if, as the hypothetical here is, if he's not raised, And that means that he's still trying to pay for our sins and he hasn't been successful, which means he's not in infinite pain. We're still in our sins because he hasn't finished paying for them. And so it's all saying basically, saying if Christ isn't raised in us, then he can't pay for our sins. He's just, he's not infinite and perfect new God. It's very serious charges, very serious charges if caused in verse 17. And then in verse 18, what also is true if he's not bodily raised? Any hands on that? What's also true? You have time? Those that have perished or died, fallen asleep, they died in Christ are perished. What do you think the word perished would mean in this sense? No, eternal life. Oh, eternal life. As a Christian, our hope and stay and anchor and surety is in His resurrection. People die all the time, but they are not raised from the dead. And He was raised by His own power. By His own power. God raised Him. The Holy Spirit was involved with His own power to be raised again. from this. Did we read 19 yet? We're in that. Oh, Anna, go ahead. I think when it's spoken of, like, the power of this resurrection, that's phenomenal. It's like an explosion, as opposed to just the earth burning. That's like an explosion, because that's how powerful the doctrine is, because it's like an explosion, like it shakes and then also I think when he wrote it talks about the ground shaking sort of earthquake like this very good then in verse 19 I'll look it up while she's looking it up in verse 19 What does this mean if in this life only we have hope in Christ? What does that mean? What does that imply? Pastor Dan? Oh no, it's good. It's good. Okay. It's not true. It's not true. That's right. But if it were true, the last part, what does the last part of this verse mean? Any hands on that? Yes, Tammy? Well, I mean, it's all related to the resurrection and Christ not being raised. Our life here is just... There's no eternity. We're just going to die. Everything that we suffer is for nothing. Was Paul's life miserable? If you want to look at that. Physical life. Any hands on that? Was Paul's life miserable? When? Before? To his life? Yeah. After he saved? Yes. Why was it miserable? Paul's life. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. After he was saved. Great earthquake. The angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, and procured from the keeper to shake, and became as dead men. What are you reading? Very good. Matthew 28, verse 2. Behold, there is a great earthquake. 28, 2. Well, thank you very much, Anna, for God you found that. Now, verse 19. Why is he saying, if in this life only, we have over it? We're all men most of the time. In other words, if there's no future. Now was Paul miserable? I asked that question before. And was he miserable? Did he have hope? He had hope, that's true. But if there's nothing ahead of us, all the suffering here on earth would be a miserable suffering. Was Paul suffering at all for Christ? You wouldn't be able to stay for me, for to me it lives Christ to die of pain. So everything that he suffered would be pointless. Now did Paul suffer? Yes. Where is it found? 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, that's right. How many sufferings does it mention there? I counted them because I'm working that in the book of 1 Corinthians. I counted them so I know the number. That's good. A few more. What's your question? How many things did Paul suffer? Nineteen. Nineteen, you got it. Nineteen different things Paul suffered. Why did he suffer these things? Why did all the other people around him suffer these ways? Some did. I know, but completely? Why? What was it that made him to suffer? He was a chosen vessel. All right, what else? He hurt, I guess. Well, I'll tell. He preached the gospel of Christ. He was for the Lord Jesus and fought with all these false teachers and all these things. He preached the truth and people didn't like it. So they suffered him, shipwreck and all these other things. It's a terrible thing. He stood for the Lord because he had purpose in life and life after, everlasting life as well. So his life, though it had been very troublesome with persecution, But he had hope in the Lord in the future and not just simply in this life only. We didn't read, oh yeah, faith. And he had a thorn in the flesh, someone said. Yes. I thought Erickson was having eye trouble. I don't know how he got that. Well, the Bible says that she had bad eyes. There's a verse in the Bible. She was large letter-eyed. She was large letter-eyed, yes. That's right. And you would pluck out your own eyes. There's another thing that may be about his foreign address. What was the other one? His speech. His speech. It was contemptible. Speech was contemptible? Speech was contemptible. Yes. His letters are waiting. That's right. So maybe it's a speech impediment or maybe it could be the eyes. But we don't know exactly. But let's go ahead and read verses 20, 21 and 22 together. Go ahead, Anna. It's like if grace may not raise, like if there's no life after this life and eat, drink and be merry for a moment and die. But that's not what Christians do. So that's why we're miserable. Because we're not eating, drinking and merry and this life is all we have and we're not enjoying it to the fullest as the world would say. Because we're thinking of eternity. And if there is no eternity then we're miserable because we're not... Yes, and if those people of the world are not genuine Christians, just eating and drinking and making merry and sinning and all that, what do they have to look forward to in their lives? Eternal death. Do they know they're looking forward to eternal death? No. They do not. But it's the truth that they are looking. There will be eternal death and hell if they do not know the Lord Jesus. Yeah, Bob? Yeah, Paul, go ahead. It also says, you know, Very good. And what if they don't have any teeth? They're dumb, you see. That's true. In other words, Bonnie, you don't understand what we're talking about? Those that are lost and not Christians, they don't think they're looking forward or have eternal damnation and hell and everlasting fire. But they will, because the Bible very clearly delineates that. Even though they don't know about it, even though we tell them about it, they say, I don't believe that junk, that Bible stuff, that's what they say, they just do it away. Questions at bftbc.org or 856-261-9018. All right, we read 20, did we not? Okay, let's go, 20, 21, 22. For since the Lord became death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even in Christ shall all be made alive. Alright, 20. What is the conjunction but for? What type of conjunction is it? Adversative. What does adversative mean? What is it contrasting, verse 20? All the things. If he's in life only, see Christ didn't die. But what is true in verse 20? Positively true. Any hands on that? What is positively the case? Christ is risen from the dead. And what else is true in verse 20? What else is true in verse 20? He's the first fruits of them that slept or had died. He was the first one to be resurrected. What does first fruits mean? He's the first one that was resurrected. The first one to be raised and not die. It's a feast of the Jews. The first fruits is the first of their harvest. It's the fourth feast I believe, isn't it? It's on the third month. Is it? I think it is. It's Pentecost. Then first fruits a little bit later on. It's first fruits and Pentecost. Let me see. First fruits is in the first month. That's okay. So Passover, unleavened bread, first fruits. The first month, the third feast is there. That's right. First fruits of them that slept. Very important. and he was first to be raised and not ever die again. Was there any resurrection of people while the Lord Jesus was here? Yes, number one to raise. Lazarus as well, that's right. There are three of them. Jairus' daughter, Lazarus' daughter, and Widow Nain's son. But did they probably die again? Probably died again. And what about those brethren that were raised after the Lord Jesus was raised. How many were they? In other words, remember their son that was raised after he was raised, who saw them? Where did they go? In Jerusalem they saw all these people that were raised again. Did they die again? Yes, they must have been scared. But they did die again. But Lord Jesus, the first fruits, was raised from the dead and never died again. And so he was the first fruits. I wonder when they died again. Was it after Jesus left? I don't know, but we just assume that that's the case. I don't remember all that, it doesn't say it, but we're just assuming that's the case. Yeah, Bill. In Ephesians chapter 4, that Jesus descended into hell and raised those who were sleeping on the paradise section. I saw you there today, tonight. You did a good job waiting on us. Go ahead. The Paradise section, we could say it was emptied or we could say it was moved to heaven. Yes it was. So they weren't necessarily all resurrected at that time. All the souls were. That's right. Spirits and souls were raised and all to heaven. Yes, Ma? Well, I read something and it's not confusing, but the Old Testament things don't come up in Scripture. The resurrection of Israel is a little bit later, that's right. But that's not the resurrection. As Anna said, the spirits and souls were taken to heaven, but not their bodies. Because Christ had not died, the blood was not applied to the mercy seat. It was not paid for, so he couldn't be with God yet. So now when we die, the ashes of our bodies are present with the Lord. But at that time, they were in Abraham's bosom. Well, here actually was not. It wasn't being in the third heaven. And now now they are in the third heaven, but yet they won't be. reunited with their bodies until after the tribulation. That's right. The tribulation things are also resurrected. And it talks about the souls are living all the time, how long, and so forth and so on. Yes, that's right. The actual resurrection is not specifically dated, but we think it is after the tribulation is completed. That's our thought. All right. So that's number... Yeah, go ahead. Because the tribulation, I mean, we... We often refer to it as a segregation station, but it's sort of a continuation of the original station because it's like the church changes are inserted into the middle. But then the editor, the time. And what is that time called? We call it the Tribulation. What is another name in Scripture? Times 8. What else is it called? Daniel 7 years week. So that's the 7 years of Tribulation. That's true. So, what verse are we on now? 20 or 21? We started a little bit late. We can close now, it's 10 after, if you want. And take this up, Lord willing, next Thursday. If you'll all be here, we hope so. Didn't hear a lot of people. The people, normally a lot of them, maybe because they couldn't pick it up, maybe they couldn't hear us. We got hurt from several people, so let's pray for them too. Any other comments or questions before we start at verse 21, Lord willing, next Thursday. Glad to see Faith and Evan here. That's great. Thursday night. Come again. Come next Thursday. Any other comments or questions before we close? If not, let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father, we do thank and praise Thee for Thy Word, this 1 Corinthians 15, a resurrection chapter of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Death could not hold Him. The bonds of that grave could not keep Him there. He rose again in accordance with Thy Word. We thank Thee for it. And He's the firstfruits of those who were dead. And one day, those of us who are genuine Christians When we die and our bodies are laid in the tomb, in the grave, when He comes back, our spirits and souls will go immediately into heaven itself. We thank You for this great privilege and we haven't trusted Christ in vain. Go with us and bless us. Bring us back on the Lord's Day on Sunday. Help us with our streaming of soil. In Jesus' name we ask and pray. Amen. Thank you for coming.