1 Corinthians chapter 15. As we continue out study verse by verse, chapter by chapter through this wonderful New Testament book, which originally was a letter written by the apostle Paul to a back-slidden, baby, mixed up, messed up congregation of saints of God in a city called Corinth. We come to 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 29, and we’ll go this morning through verse 34.

Now let me say this. The apostle Paul already has spent a lot of time on the defense of the doctrine of the resurrection in this chapter. Evidently the doctrine of the resurrection was being rejected or questioned by some in the congregation there, in Corinth, so Paul has laid a thorough defense. Then as we saw in last week’s message he starts giving just a description, giving us a better understanding of the resurrection. Now in verse 29 through 34, he shifts back to a defense of the resurrection. So that’s where I’m shifting back. To another message on the defense of the doctrine of the resurrection. Now look if you will at verse 29-34.

“Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I protest, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”

The defense of the doctrine of the resurrection, you could say part three. Part three. We’ve had to previous messages under this title, Paul shifts back to this emphasis again, so that will be our emphasis. I want you to see three chief things from these verses. First of all, that the doctrine of the resurrection gives meaning to our profession. It gives meaning to our profession. Now what I’m referring to is our profession of faith that we make through believer’s baptism.

Now in Baptist life, we begin to call it a profession of faith when someone would come forward, and stand before the church and they would say to the church, I’ve received Jesus Christ as my Savior, either today or some time in previous times, and I’m coming before this congregation to make that public. We would often call that a public profession of faith. But really in the true sense that’s not a public profession of faith. Baptism is the public profession of a Christian’s faith. That’s the place of our profession.

When we are immersed down in that water, that says I believe Jesus died when we’re raised up out of that water, that’s saying, I believe he rose again and he lives forevermore. And also when we go down in that water we’re saying, we want this entire congregation to know something. And hold us accountable about something. That is that we’re going down in the water to say we’ve died to our way of life, we’ve died to our viewpoint, we died to living for self, we are risen now to honor Christ and his plan for our life.

So baptism, the ordinance of believer’s baptism is the profession of faith. And the apostle Paul makes a point in verse 29, that if the resurrection isn’t true, baptism has no meaning. There’s no meaning to our profession, if the resurrection is not true at all.

Now let’s look at this verse 29, let me say this before I read it again. I suppose there are more interpretations of this single verse of scripture than any other single verse of scripture in the Word of God. I consulted every solid conservative scholar that I had in my library, and I’ve got a very good library. And I read many, many different interpretations. One scholar said there are over 300 specific interpretations of this verse. But rest assured, I’ll tell you this morning, what it means. Alright. I’m only teasing. Let’s look at it again. Notice how he words it here in the New American Standard anyway. “Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?”.

“What will those do”, he says, “who are baptized for the dead?” Now let me first of all talk about what this verse does not teach. That is something we can be sure about. The exact meaning, maybe we can’t be dogmatic and that emphatic, but we can be dogmatic about what it does not mean. It does not teach a vicarious baptism. But what I mean by vicarious is the place of or as a substitution for. Now there have been heretical groups from time immemorial, that have sprung up here and there and taught that one person could be baptized for another person that has already died. For example, if brother Norman over here dies, and he was not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then somewhere along the line a family member or maybe a close association of his could come to the church and say, I want to be baptized, because I want Norman to get to heaven. I want to be baptized for him in his place, because he never believed and he never was baptized. That is not what this verse is teaching.

Now we do know from good historians that there was a Greek gnostic heresy in this day that Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth that did teach that believers could be baptized for other believers. And we do know that the Greeks of this day believed that the honors paid to a deceased person somehow benefited their soul. Which is not far off from the Roman church’s teaching of doing certain rights and rituals, even giving money to the church, to help a departed loved one’s soul get out of purgatory and get on into heaven. And then we have the cult called the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, they teach a vicarious baptism, they will even get the records of all the people who have every been lived, ever been born, and they’ll just baptize over and over and over and over again, trying to get those people to some sort of heaven, or to some sort of heaven or some sort of acceptance before God.

Now, there is a good possibility and many good scholars believe that it could be that a group in the church has sort of drifted into this heretical thinking, and they begin to baptize for folks who are already dead who were not believers, trying to get them into heaven, that is very possible. And we know that all kinds of crazy heretical beliefs had crept into this immature carnal church. So that’s not at all out of the question, but I doubt that Paul is referring to an actual practice of some little split off group that’s doing this baptizing for the dead. I do not believe that’s what he’s doing.

Now let me go back to my point of why I know it doesn’t teach a vicarious baptism. Well, first of all because baptism doesn’t save. And Paul taught that throughout his writing. Baptism doesn’t save. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 1:14, if you want to jot that reference down, Paul is summarizing some of his ministries in this church, the Corinthian church, and he says, “I am thankful that I baptize no one except these two families”. Now it seems to me if baptism were an essential part of salvation, the apostle Paul wouldn’t have ever said anything like, I thank God I didn’t baptize a lot of you. No, if baptism was an essential component of salvation, Paul would have said, I thank God that every single solitary person that ever said they believed, I immediately made sure they were baptized. But he doesn’t say that. He said, I thank God I didn’t baptize too many of them. Now not to say that baptism is not important, it just means that baptism doesn’t save.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “for by grace are you saved, through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works”, including baptism, “lest any man should boast”. So if baptism doesn’t save you, why in the world in any way shape or fashion, would the Bible teach that you can be baptized for a person that’s already dead and somehow save them. It can’t even save you, much less somebody else you’re being baptized for. So it is possible that this heretical practice had crept into the church and Paul was using and he did this on a number of occasions, he’s using their very heretical practice to prove a point. That is that the doctrine of the resurrection is true. But I do not believe that’s where he’s going.

If it was happening in the church, we do know from faithful historians that it completely disappeared in the next century. The early church fathers wrote about this heresy, and how they kept it out of the churches. We do know in chapter 11 verse 34, the apostle Paul is talking about the things that they need to correct and then he says, there are other things and I’ll set them in order when I get there. Paul was saying, there’s so much to fix in this church, I’m correcting a lot of them by my letter, but those other things I’ll straight out when I get there. Could be, this was one of them. A heretical group sort of sneaked off, and started practicing this vicarious baptizing, being baptized for people already dead, who are unsaved, trying to get them saved, and Paul says, well, when I get there, I’ll straight it out. Maybe that’s what he’s referring to, I do not believe so.

Here’s what I believe is the best interpretation of this verse. First of all, the two questions of verse 29 are rhetorical questions. They need no answer. He doesn’t mean for them to be answered, he’s making a statement. He’s being deliberately obscure here, he’s just trying to make a general point. Here’s what I believe he’s saying. In verse 29 when he starts out and says, “Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?” Now when he says the dead, I believe he’s referring back to Jesus and all other preachers, teacher, or godly Christians who gave the church at Corinth their testimony of Jesus Christ. And he’s saying now, if you believed on Jesus and his teaching, you believed other apostles and other leaders as they testified of the gospel, and if they’re all dead, in other words their teaching was wrong, they’re not going to be raised from the dead, Jesus is still in the grave, why would you be baptized for them, and what they taught you.

Why in the world if the resurrection is false, would you go through the ordinance of baptism based on their teaching? They are still dead and you’re saying in baptism I’ll go down in the water only to rise again, well your baptism doesn’t have any meaning that way. And then the last part of verse 29, “if the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?” If Jesus is still dead, if the other early leaders who’ve now been martyred for their faith are still dead and you believe based on their teachings, then why would you be baptized for a dead leader, why would you be baptized to make a profession of faith in a dead savior. It doesn’t make any sense. I believe that is the point Paul is making.

Your profession of faith through believer’s baptism is meaningless if the doctrine of the resurrection is false. Listen to me friend, we need to put a for sale sign in from of this building, close up shop, forget the whole thing, if the doctrine of the resurrection is false. We’re not a self help society. We’re not a social gospel organization trying to meet the needs of man and help the hurting, and all that, we do those things, but our main mission is a spiritual mission and it is contingent upon the fact that Jesus died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again. If that is false, we should not be here.

Well, number one, Paul told us, the doctrine of the resurrection gives meaning to our profession. That is our profession of faith through believer’s baptism. Now number two. The doctrine of the resurrection is the motivation for our perseverance. It is the motivation for our perseverance. Now by perseverance, here’s what I mean. The word perseverance in the original language as its used in scripture, comes from a root word which means to attend. And when they give us the word perseverance, its a strong form of the word to attend. So in a strong way, when you use the word perseverance, you’re saying attend to something, give heed to something. And then it means also to continue steadfastly. So he’s saying, when you see the word perseverance, or you talk about perseverance, you’re saying, steadfastly continue on, don’t let up. Strongly stay with it. Stay the course. Keep on going. Don’t let up. Continue steadfastly and give unremitting care to that task.

So, what am I saying? The truth that we’re going to be resurrected, the truth that we have another life after this one, the truth that this life is only temporary, its not even an mere breath, the Bible says, compared to our next life and our next home, our eternal kingdom. That truth motivates me to keep on for God right in the midst of all the persecution, all the opposition, all the laughter, all the ridicules, and all the misunderstandings this world’s going to bring against me. I have motivation to persevere, because the resurrection is true. The child of God faces, unrelenting oppositions and persecutions. We have motivation to persevere because of the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection.

Now if you would, look down in verse 30. Verse 30, the apostle Paul says, “Why are we also in danger every hour?” Paul’s trying to make a point. He says, here I am preaching the gospel of Christ, which is Jesus died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again. Now, if that’s not true, why would I go out here and put my life in danger every hour for a lie. Paul says, I’m not an idiot, I’m not crazy, but with a lie why would I put my life at risk. And when he says he’s in danger “every hour”, that phrase every hour means all through every hour. All through every hour, it means every moment of every day, the gospel Paul preached put his life in jeopardy. And Paul says, I’ve got better sense than that, I wouldn’t die for a lie. If its not true, I wouldn’t persevere, I’d throw in the towel. In other words, I wouldn’t risk my life for dream without substance.

Some of us sitting in church this morning, you’re giving your life for some pursuit, some goal, some dream, and in eternity’s sense, it has really no substance. Paul says, this is worth giving my all for, its worth sacrificing my life, if it comes to that, because its true, I know its true. If the doctrine of the resurrection was not essential, Paul would have certainly left it out of his preaching. Because it was the doctrine of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection that brought such severe and continual persecution into his life.

Now continue in verse 31. He says, “I protest, brethren” what he’s protesting is the teaching that there is no resurrection. He’s protesting that false doctrine that there is no resurrection of the dead. Then he continues by saying, “by the boasting in you.” In other words, look at yourselves. You, the church at Corinth, you are the best proof that it is true. Because when I came to you, determining he said earlier in the chapter, in the book rather, determining to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And i. e. , the resurrection. When I came to you preaching this simple gospel, what happened. What happened to you secularly, humanistically oriented pagan people of Corinth. One after another, you started getting saved. One after another, you started becoming converted to Jesus Christ. One after another you received the abundant life. One after another of you testified there was a new person living inside of you and the burden and the weight of sin was gone, and you had a love for the God of the universe, and you knew that Jesus was real. He said I protest by the boasting in you, you’re the best evidence that the gospel I preach is true, because look what it did to you when I preached it. How could you now deny it, Paul is saying. Look what its done and how its changed you.

Now look what else he says in verse 31. “I protest, brethren, by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And I love the humility of Paul. Paul is saying this, sure I came to Corinth, sure I preached the gospel, sure I persevered, I didn’t back up, I preached it straight, even though it caused me a lot of persecution, but he says, everything that happened was in Christ Jesus. Paul says, He gets all the credit. He gets all the glory. He gets all the recognition, I’m just glad to be his vocal piece, but he did it all. I’m telling you, it was the greatest day of my ministry when I realized that God has to grow this church. That God has to build this church, that God has to save the souls, and its not up to me. God helps the pastor who believes his church is up to him. Paul says, sure I want to be faithful and be used of God, but God does it all and God gets all the credit and God gets all the glory.

Last part of verse 31 he says, “I die daily.” The apostle Paul says, every day I know I’m going to face opposition. Every day I know I’m going to face persecution, every day I know I’m going to be misunderstood by well intending people, he said, and I’d throw in the towel. But every morning when I get up, I just die to what I would like, I die to what I would enjoy, and I say God, what’s your will for my life. Now how can Paul get up every morning die to his own plans, die to his own fleshly desires, because he knows this life is temporal. He can persevere on because the resurrection is true. Its the motivation for his perseverance.

Now look at verse 32. He said, “If from human motives, I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus.” Now the phrase “human motives” means this. If I’m in this thing for what good it will do me, if I’m in this ministry for what it will help me concerning earthly goods or worldly goods. So if I’m out there facing this first persecution for me and the way he words it in the next phrase verse 32, “I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus.” Now we do not have any record that Paul actually, literally was thrown into the coliseum like many Christians were. And had to face wild ferocious beasts. As a matter of fact, history tells us that in the Roman coliseum when they persecuted Christians that the first part of the show, they’d just bring out common Christians that no one knew and they’d throw them to the lions and the bears and the beasts, and have them torn apart. But then for the main event, they would bring out an Apostle or a prominent pastor and throw him to the beasts. That did happen to Christians by the Romans.

But I believe Paul here is writing figuratively. I believe he’s saying, I have so many men, so many people, so many who are against me and working to stop my ministry, its like fighting wild beasts all the time. Paul says, if that’s what it, just for my human gain and for my earthly gain I’m doing all this, “what does it profit me?” verse 32. It profits me nothing. In other words, if the doctrine of resurrection isn’t true, I’m crazy. Would make any sense what I’m doing. Put your Bible ribbon or your finger there in 1 Corinthians 15 and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11, would you turn there.

Hebrews chapter 11. And look at verse 33. Look at the record of some of the people of God and what they faced. And I believe they persevered through this because they knew that the resurrection was true and they had a life after this one. It says, “who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they went about in sheep’s skins, in goat’s skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill treated”, look at verse 38, I love this verse. “Men of whom the world was not worthy”. Did you see that phrase. They were God’s men, in a godless world. And the word of God said they walked down here for a while, but the world wasn’t worthy of them. What a statement. “Wandering in deserts and mountains, caves and holes in the ground”. That’s what its like for many, how did they keep going. How did they go on and not deny the Lord. They persevered, because the motivation of knowing that there’s a better life, and there’s another resurrection, there’s another kingdom I’m going to inherit, so I can make it honoring my Lord, no matter the persecution or the opposition.

Now look at the last half of verse 32 back in 1 Corinthians 15:32, of 1 Corinthians 15. Let me just read all of it again. “If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” You heard that phrase before, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Now that is an exact quote from Isaiah chapter 22, verse 13. Now here’s the setting of Isaiah 22:13. Israel began to trust her military might to protect her from her enemies, instead of trusting God. Now it wasn’t wrong for Israel to work hard at having a great military and do the best they could to have all the military might they could muster. But the point was in their hearts, the people of Israel put their confidence in their military, not in God. That’s wrong. That’s wrong.

And so in judgement, in punishment, God allowed Israel’s enemies to gain the victory over them. And in the final days of the siege of Jerusalem, as the enemy was pounding on the walls and they would be coming over in just a few days and defeating the portions of Israel about the walls of the city, the Bible says in Isaiah 22:13, “Israelites looked at one another and said, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we’re going to die”. What’s the point. Instead of mourning in sin and repenting of their lack of faith in God, they just turned over to sin and the lust of the flesh and said, let’s live it up, let’s indulge in the desires of the flesh for tomorrow we’re just all going to die.

In other words, Paul is saying, that’s the way an unregenerate heathen mind thinks. Beause they don’t believe in a resurrection, they don’t believe in a next life, they just believe this life is all there is. And that’s what Paul is saying, if there’s no resurrection, then we ought to just follow that heathen philosophy. Let’s just all live it up for tomorrow, we’re just going to all be gone, that’s all there is. This was a very common teaching in the ancient world among heathens. Listen to what one Greek historians said about the Egyptians. In social meetings among the rich, when the banquet was ended, a servant would often carry around among the guests a coffin. In the coffin was a wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted to resemble a dead person as nearly as possible. The servant would show it to each of the guest and then he would say, gaze here and drink and be merry, for tomorrow you’ll die and be like this.

Its a common heathen viewpoint. And Paul simply says hey, if the resurrection is not true, let’s don’t persevere, let’s don’t remain steadfast, let’s don’t hold our convictions strong, let’s give in, let’s throw in the towel, let’s indulge in the flesh, let’s eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. The point is, the resurrection is true. And it is our motivation to persevere on, regardless of what happens to us. Regardless of the persecution, regardless of the opposition.

Now let’s go to our third main point. Not only is the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection give meaning to our profession of faith through baptism, not only does it give motivation for us to persevere, no matter what happens, but thirdly it is the mainspring of our principles. The mainspring of our principles. Now the word mainspring means the most powerful motive or cause. What is the most powerful motive, or the most powerful cause, listen now, that enables me to hold to Christian principles in this world. What is that. Its the truth of the resurrection. That’s I’m a citizens of another kingdom. Now listen, therefore while I am here temporarily, I’m going to live by the principles of that higher kingdom. I’m here on this earth, yes, but I’m only here temporarily, my permanent home is in the kingdom of heaven, where higher principles and higher rules abide and so while I am here, I’m going to hold to those higher principles and those higher rules, because that’s what I am, that’s where my citizenship is. That’s my mainspring for holding on to my principles while I’m down here, is that I’m going to be there one day with my Lord, in that true kingdom.

Now look at 1 Corinthians 15 again. Look at verse 33. Reflecting back on what he said in verse 32, Paul says, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.'” Now he just said we ought to just eat, drink and be merry, we’re going to die, but he said, now wait a minute, you know I didn’t mean that literally, I’m making a point. “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.'” Now this was a quote from an ancient heathen poet named Menander. And so Paul’s using this old ancient heathen poet to make his point. In other words, if you continually expose yourself, to error filled teaching, and immoral living, listen, it will begin to corrupt your mind and your life. That’s a powerful point.

If you continuously entertain and receive and listen to heathen unbiblical instruction, if you continually hang with, become intimate with people who live unbiblical immoral lives, it will influence your mind and your life. That’s what he’s saying. False doctrines as we expose our, and some of us pride ourselves in our intellect, and we want to dabble here and study here and learn there and read this and read that when we know up fronts it, its not biblical, it, its off track, its not grounded in biblical truth, but we’re going to study it and we’re going to figure it out, and we, we, want to be broad minded, we want to learn, we want to understand. And what happens, satan uses that concept of being broad minded, open minded, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, the free thought society that’s so popular, in our world today, and satan uses that to begin to dull and darken and bring down your thinking and bring you away from biblical thinking, and pretty soon he can bring corruption to your mind and corruption to your lifestyle.

False doctrines, you see not only poison the mind, they also demoralize the life. That’s what Paul is saying. Listen to what Edwards said. He said “the doubts of some Corinthians, concerning the resurrection of the dead, was the consequence of their intimate intercourse with their heathen neighbors”. They kept hanging with their heathen neighbors. And their heathen neighbors would say, hey, this Christianity is a good ideal, its about behavior modification. Its about people loving each other. Its about people helping one another. And all that supernatural stuff in your beliefs, you Christians at Corinth, ah, that’s not important, that resurrection stuff, that supernatural stuff, all that’s not important, that doesn’t fit our Greek philosophy. If you’ll knock that stuff off, you see you’re compatible with all of our Greek philosophies, and they would hear that, they would discuss that, they would be open to that, they would listen to that, they would talk about that, and pretty soon they were beginning to reject essential Bible doctrines.

Paul says, bad company corrupts good morales. Now let me throw some verses at you, you may want to write down, to show you how strongly the Bible teaches this principle of being careful, to what you listen to, what you entertain, and what you expose yourself to as far as teaching or a lifestyle. In 1 Timothy 1:3, Paul instruct Timothy to stop certain men from teaching false doctrines. Now Timothy was the authority under the apostle Paul, and what Paul was saying, if you let these guys keep teaching these erroneous things in your congregation, then they are going to begin to pull men away from the truth. You’ve got to stop them, Paul tells Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:3.

In 1 Corinthians 6:14, the apostle Paul tells us very clearly that Christians should not have intimacy with unbelievers, that means if you’ve got a choice in it. Because as you run with them, you play with them, you fellowship with them, they are going to begin to corrupt you and bring you down. Bad company, Paul says, corrupts good morales. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Verses 6 and 14. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14, the apostle Paul makes a strong and bold command that a believer should not associate with another believer, who is willfully living in sin. That’s the most polluting influence of all. Because they carry the label Christian and they live in immorality, therefore to your fallen mind and your fallen understanding, their corrupt lifestyle has more credibility, because they have the label Christian.

And don’t we, when we get in our flesh run around looking for some professing Christian preacher, pastor, teacher, deacon or friend, that can make us comfortable in our sin. I’ve had more than a few come to my office and say, (knock, knock, knock), preacher I need to ask you about something. Then they’ll ask me the question, I’ll give them the Bible answer, they will say, you’re the only preacher that told me that. All the others didn’t say that. I say, they need to open their Bibles. You see, folks are running around looking for something to compliment, make them comfortable. And so when you intimately run with, fellowship with another believer whose living in rebellion, you will pull yourself down.

Now it doesn’t mean you’re to be unkind to them, rude to them, or unloving, but you ought to be clear and you ought to be straight. “Brother, I love you, and I’m no better than you, I’m a wicked sinner, as a matter of fact, I’m so wicked and fallen I can’t run with you right now because it will pull me down, I’m too weak”. Amen. Humble yourself. But tell them the truth. 1 Corinthians 5:11, same principle. Paul commands them not to associate with believers who are living in willful, open rebellion. Now we’re not talking about believers that say, “man, I don’t like this sin, man I want this sin out of my life, man I want to do better”, hey, we love those folks and take them in and help them. We’re talking about the guy that says, “I don’t care what you say, I don’t care what the church teaches, I’m going to live like this, I enjoy it, I don’t think its wrong”. Paul says, you’d better stay away from that. All I’m doing, I’m giving you all of that to show you Paul’s point. Bad company will corrupt good morales.

Now let me give you the premise of this and then I’ll move on to verse 34. Here’s, now listen to me, are you listening. Humanism says you’re good. Humanism says you’re not a sinner, humanism says you’re your own savior, and you’re your own god and you’re ultimately good. Therefore you can receive any influence, any exposure, entertain anything and its not going to hurt you, because you’re good enough to handle it. Christianity says, you’re fallen. Christianity says you’ve got a depraved heart. Christianity says your heart is wickedly and deceitful and can be easily deceived. Christianity says because you’re fallen in sin, you’re vulnerable to become more corrupt if you expose yourself to corruptible influences.

So we see we start as, now listen to me, you can reject Christian truth if you want to, but you’ll be the fool on judgement day. You can say, I’m strong enough, I’m big enough, I’m moral enough, I’m upright enough, I have enough discipline, I’m going to tell you, that is the statement of a fool. You have something Paul didn’t have and Timothy didn’t have. Cause they said, we ought to guard ourselves from those influences, because we have a fallen heart, we have a fallen nature, and our fallen heart and nature will lust for that kind of thing if we exposure ourselves to it enough.

Now look what he says in verse 34. Four parts here I want to point out. First part, verse 34, “Become sober-minded”, become sober-minded. You know what that literally means. Wake up. That’s what it means. Its a startling wake up call. Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth. Like I am speaking today. And some of you are sitting there and you begin to question the authority of the word of God. You begin to doubt the sufficiency of scripture for every day life. You begin to question the values and the teachings and the absolutes of the word of God. And Paul says to a believer whose drifting in that direction, stop, wake up, wake up. Wake up. And you’ve let the Greek culture and the heathen influence drag you away from truth. Wake up, wake from your drunken stupor. In essence he is saying, your minds are drunken and darkened by the seductions of sensualism, from your heathen culture and the fumes of intellectual pride.

Oh, they were so proud. I’m intellectual. I can take my intellect and I can find out what’s good, bad, right or wrong, I can take my intellect, I can discern, I can discover, I can experiment, I can expose myself and with my great intellectual mind, I with my human rationalities, and with human reason, I’ll discover what’s good, what’s right, what’s pleasing to God. Paul says, fool, wake up. You don’t decide what’s good, bad, right and wrong with human reason, or human intellect. Hitler did that. Mussolini did that. Jim Jones did that. The enemies of God do that, we go to this book. And we make our mind and our emotions line up with the absolutes of the word of God. Wake up from your drunken stupor. You’ve been lulled into it, seduced into it by the culture around you that you’ve allowed to have too much exposure and influence on your lives.

Now listen, some of you work in situations, and in that situation you work in, there’s a person or persons, or there’s a teaching, or its an environment that totally contradicts the truth of the word of God. But you are responsible for digging in the word of God, you’re responsible for memorizing and meditating the word of God. You’re responsible to go to your small group, your Sunday school teacher and say, “listen, I’m in an environment that will surely bring me down, that will corrupt my thinking and then corrupt my heart, corrupt my life, I want you to hold me accountable. I want to memorize scripture, I want to work on this thing, I don’t want to get led astray, i want to be sober and awake and stand on what’s right. But I want to be honest and humble, I know I’m vulnerable, just like Paul was, Timothy and everybody else. I want to stay strong”.

So Paul tells the Corinthians you’ve been intoxicated by those who live for the gratification of the senses. The five human senses. And those who glory in mere human reason. That’s why he tells us in Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ”. In other words, if you want your faith, that means your confident that the truth of this book is right. If you want that to grow, you need to get in this book, you need to hear this book preached, you need to hear this book taught, you need to memorize and meditate on this book, if you do not, even though you are saved, you’ll be led astray.

Pretty soon when the humanist comes along and he says, “you know, we’re all just animals. And the major pursuit of life is just self actualization, self fulfillment and happiness, and therefore if a woman has a child in her belly, and its going to hinder her self actualization, if its going to hinder her self fulfillment, if its going to hinder her realization as a person, then she ought to be able to terminate that pregnancy”. If you don’t stay in the word of God, you’ll begin to say, “well, that makes sense”. You’re already drifting. Now start talking about infanticide. Hey, the first domino that fell was abortion, fell with a resounding thud, now we’ve got infanticide, coming right on the heels. Now they are telling us well, you pull a full term baby, all the way out, the only thing left in the birth canal is just the baby’s head. And we can go in there and cut open the back of the baby’s head, suck the brain contents out, pull that baby out, throw it in a trash can, after all, some where, some time, some how this may help the mother, so she should have the freedom, her self fulfillment, her self actualization, her whatever, and so therefore it makes you think, well, there could be something to that.

Why is it that we have intelligent, prominent, sophisticated men and women in this country, proposing such things. And Christians, we can get lured into that. And on and on and on and on we could go. Issue after issue after issue, getting away from God’s truth, drifting into the thinking of the world. Bad company corrupts good morales.

Well, I’ve got to hurry on, my time is gone right now, but I’m not stopping. “Become sober-minded,” he says, “as you ought.” The next phrase is “as you ought.”. That just means its the right thing to do. If you find out you’re drifting along, and you begin to think like the world thinks, and you don’t line up with the Bible, its right to wake yourself up. And get back on track. Arouse yourself out of this self delusion that you’re under.

Now let’s go on to the next one, number three. The next phrase here he says, “and stop sinning.” The phrase sin not means, do not go on missing the mark. His point is, those who begin to leave the word of God behind, they expose their hearts and minds, they expose themselves to heathen teaching, heathen instruction. Let me say this right quick. A lot of heathen teaching and instruction comes under the label of Christianity today. Do you understand me. It comes under the label Christianity, but its not. Liberal theology, liberal Christianity is just secular humanism, with Christian clothing put on the outside. That’s all it is. So he says, don’t go on missing the mark in your thinking. Wake up, its the right thing to do. Get back on track, get in the word, let that decide your values, your convictions, your code of conduct for this life.

Then the last phrase there, “for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” Some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame, literally he means, I speak this to move you to shame. I want to bring shame to you, I want you to be ashamed. Here’s his point. He says, some of you, in the church, have become back slidden, and you’re back slidden to the point that you’re glorying in your ignorance of God and ignorance of God’s truth as revealed in scripture. He says, now, being ignorant of God and his truth, that’s normal for the heathens. Now that’s a shame to you. Folks, its normal for the liberal media, its normal for them to come a perverse unbiblical conclusions. Its a shame when a child of God comes to them. Paul said, some have no knowledge of God, we expect them to teach and believe those things, but you children of God, should not. Why? Because you’re a citizen of the other kingdom. You belong to a higher kingdom. And you ought to walk down here according to the values and the truths and the rules of that higher kingdom, not the values, truths and rules so-called truth and rules of this fallen kingdom that you presently live in.

Now let me give you two paths satan uses. Satan uses two paths to pollute a believer. Are you listening, now stay alert through this. Two channels, two paths satan flows his pollution through in order to ruin your life and your witness for Jesus Christ. Number one, is through the heart to the life. Through the heart to the life. Here’s what I mean. Proverbs 4:23 says, “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life”. Watch over your heart, that includes your mind, will and emotions. Because from that flow what? The springs of life. Here’s what he’s saying. Satan is going to try to get you influenced, exposed, instructed, with heretical teachings that are all in this world. And if he can get that in your heart, at least a little bit, he can make that come down and impact your life and bring immorality into your life. You listen to what I’m telling you, are you listening very clearly. You show me a person that gets into liberal theology, liberal Christianity, the ecumenical movement, they began calling us the radical right, heard that before. You show me a person, listen, when they get their theology away from the word of God and they’re based on man’s reason, you watch me, pretty soon they’re living in, or promoting immorality. Whether it is homosexuality, lesbianism, and a million and one other immoralities. Every single time. Satan says “first if I can be it through your heart then I can get it to effect your life. If I can get you off sound doctrine and sound theology in your thinking a little bit, I’ll start demoralizing your life”.

Alright, he has another channel he’s just as pleased to do it this second way. Number two. The second channel or path that satan brings, his pollution to poison the believer is, from the life to the heart. From the life to the heart. Here’s his point. If satan can get you to run with immoral people, if he can get you to hang with immoral people, he’ll begin to get you living like those people. At least to a degree. And now listen, your conscience then will be guilty. You’ll feel condemned. You’ll feel sinful. You’ll start redefining God and redefining theology in order for it to cooperate with your guilty conscience. Try to make your conscience feel better.

You know why people reject the authority of scripture? Because scripture contradicts them. Are you hearing me. They’ve gotten in a lifestyle of immorality and this book rebukes their immorality. So they got to change their theology to be comfortable with their immorality. Satan will use either channel to pollute and corrupt a believer.

First of all we talked about from the heart to the life. You see, listen, a man’s philosophy and a man’s theology will dictate his morality. But also a man’s morality will dictate his theology and his philosophy. Paul says, if you see this happening, wake up. Wake up. Its the right thing to do. The heathen are suppose to believe these things and live immorally, but when you do it child of God, its a shame. Its a shame.

That’s what Paul is saying. What is his point? Come back to the true doctrine of God, come back to the true teaching of the word, and for their situation, that means come back to the true doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Cause when we know we’re resurrected, and we know we’re going to live with him forever in heaven, we know we’re citizens of a higher kingdom, and that gives us motivation to hold to our principles of Christian conduct.

So Paul in defense of the resurrection first of all says, the resurrection gives meaning to our profession. It gives motivation for our perseverance, and it is the mainstream of our principles as we live down here.