In the sermon 'The Resurrection of Christ, Our Only Hope,' Trent Moody explores 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, emphasizing that the resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of Christian faith. He argues that if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not risen, rendering faith futile and preaching empty. The resurrection confirms the believer's union with Christ, ensuring their future resurrection and eternal life. Moody highlights the historical and scriptural evidence of Christ's resurrection, asserting its necessity for justification and salvation. He also addresses false teachings that deny bodily resurrection, underscoring the essential connection between Christ's resurrection and believers'. The sermon concludes on a note of hope, affirming that because Christ is risen, believers have a living hope in life and death.

Praise the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 12 down through 20. Thus says the word of the Lord, now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

Yes and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now, Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, what words of encouragement and comfort this is. Oh Lord, all of these things would be true if Christ did not rise from the dead.

Lord we would of all men be the most pitiable, the most miserable, the most hopeless, and the most helpless. But now Christ is risen from the dead. And Lord all of our faith, everything that we believe in Christianity hangs and falls upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior from the dead. And so today Lord, we rejoice that we stand before you knowing with sure confidence that Christ is risen and He is our only hope. Yes, in life and in death, Lord, we are so thankful.

God, fill our hearts with joy and Lord, hearts that are here this morning who do not know the joy of Christ as Savior Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit would you save them for your glory and your honor and for their eternal good. I pray in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Oh, what a day that was when Christ burst forth. The grave could not hold him.

Death had no power over him. Oh death where is your victory? Oh grave Where is your victory? There is no victory over Christ. Christ is victorious over all.

Praise the Lord. As we look at this passage this morning, I want you to notice very interestingly the connection that Paul places on the importance of the union with Christ with believers regarding the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as Scott in latter weeks has taught us about our union in Christ and that we are in Christ and that we are unified together as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see it is because of this our union with him that he makes his argument here in this passage regarding the resurrection both ours and Christ's. In fact Paul states that if there was no resurrection of the dead, of believing dead, then Christ is not risen. So it's truly struck me this week as I have been studying in this passage how important, how essential is our union with Christ and the implications of this truth.

You see the truth of Scripture always carry with it certain implications that if this is true then these things also are true. So we must look at it in that way as well. You see believers are in Christ. We are his body. He is our head.

We are his bride. He is the great bridegroom. And we are one with Christ. And because this is true, these implications, these many implications are also true. But Paul is going to argue this doctrine from a negative, as you have seen as we read the passage, he's arguing from a negative just to show us how miserable of a condition that we would be in if the resurrection of Jesus Christ were not true.

How miserable of a people we would be. You see in the teaching of these verses Paul was either dealing with certain false teachers who were denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and denying the bodily resurrection of believers much like the Sadducees, they denied the bodily resurrection, they denied also angels. Or he may be dealing with, or it could be both, that he's dealing with those believers who had brought forth from their life outside of Christ and before Christ that they brought with them certain doctrines and philosophies of the Greeks because they believed in this form of dualism that there was that matter and material things including the body were only evil and that only the spiritual was good and therefore they could not reconcile this bringing back together of body and spirit because that would be seen to them as almost being put back into a prison. You see, I think I understand and can sympathize with those who bring wrong doctrine from their past. Let us be honest, we all bring wrong doctrine with us when we come to Christ.

And that's the purpose of the preaching of the Word of God. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, that's the point. That's the point of Ephesians chapter 4 that Scott just preached. These are the things that as we come before the Word of God, that God brings us to the unity of the faith because we have wrong doctrine in certain areas and we are being sanctified by the Word of God through the preaching of His Word, through the study of His Word, because all of us have wrong beliefs in some form or fashion that the scripture has had to correct. There is a process of our former beliefs that must be put away.

That is sanctification. That is Christ making us more like himself. So this idea that they were denying the afterlife or denying the resurrection of Christ, I don't believe that they were necessarily denying the resurrection of Christ, but they were denying the believer's bodily resurrection. And so they had this disconnection and this disunity of Christ and the body. And what Paul is doing here is making such an amazing statement that we should never doubt again of the unity between believers and Christ between his body and his head you cannot separate those two things we are in Christ in fact the scripture says that we are seated right now in heavenly places in Christ.

So positionally you're in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father because you're in Christ. Even though here we are and we struggle with that understanding of are we connected to Christ? As Christ left us we may be struggling in some difficulty. Has Christ forsaken me? He cannot forsake himself.

You are his body if you are his. He cannot forsake his own. So we find here Paul arguing his point of the resurrection based on the premise that if the dead are not raised then Christ the Savior is not raised. That's how connected you are to Christ. That's what Paul was wanting them to understand because without the resurrection of Christ there is no hope.

We have no hope. We are of all men hopeless and the most pitiable. Now it's always important for us to remember that what we believe as I said earlier carries with it certain implications, certain truths. If one thing is true then by logical implication another thing by necessity is either true or false and we learn through the scripture this way. Case in point, one time I was speaking to a person regarding the believers eternal security, that their salvation was sure that they could not lose what Christ had purchased, to which I wanted him to see this implication that such a belief, a belief that you could lose what God had guarded and what God had done affected their belief in the atonement and the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The work of Christ on the cross. This man would never have questioned the atoning work of Christ, but he did not see the implication of believing that if you could lose your salvation then what Christ did was not sufficient and we fall back into a salvation by works and not by faith in Christ alone. So there are certain implications that we see and Paul lays these out for us here that if we are not resurrected at the resurrection when Christ returns, if there is not a bodily resurrection of the believer, then Christ was not raised. That's how connected this doctrine is. That's how connected you are in Christ.

That should give you an abundance of joy to know this. Because he has risen from the dead, you in Christ will also rise from the dead. You see, now we have here Paul making this argument in 1 Corinthians 15. So he's building up his defense of the bodily resurrection of the believer, again based on the fact of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you deny one, Paul says you're denying both of them.

So let us look at this again, verses 12 and 13. He says, now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. Oh God, help us. If there was no resurrection of the dead, we would be hopeless.

So my first point is this, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. Again, I'm arguing this from a negative, so there will be a lot of negative things here that are bringing forth into your mind, but we will not end there. We will not end there. The one, as I said, is dependent upon the other. Therefore, the previous verses that we read this morning in our scripture reading are foundational to the argument that Paul is now making and let me read those again for us.

1st Corinthians 15, 1, moreover brethren I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you which also you received and in which you stand but which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all, which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen by Cephas and then by the 12 and after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained to the present but some have fallen asleep After that he was seen by James and then by all the Apostles and then last of all he was seen by me also as one born out of due time. And so he lays this foundation that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is based upon the scriptures and if Christ is not raised or if we Are not raised in the bodily resurrection then Christ is not raised You see the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament.

It is amazing how many times we read this in the Old Testament, how many times Jesus himself told his disciples about the resurrection and yet they did not see it. It is much like maybe some of you here this morning, you've heard the gospel preached a thousand times. You have sat under the preaching of God's Word and you've never heard the gospel. Not that it was not preached, But you did not hear. God has to, through the power of the Spirit, give you ears to hear and a heart to understand the preaching of the gospel.

There are those here this morning who will hear this message and leave without Christ. That grieves me to no end. But there are those I pray by the working of the Spirit of God who came in this morning dead and they will leave alive in Christ knowing that Christ is risen indeed. That their life is no longer the same. That is my prayer for each of you who have come in here not knowing Christ and for you who know Christ that your faith will be built up and that your heart will be full of joy and that full of thankfulness to know that Christ is your hope in life and in death.

That is my desire for you. You see, these eyewitnesses were still alive during the time in which Paul was writing this. The letter to the Corinthians was written and was verified by Paul himself on the road to Damascus. In fact, according to one pastor, George Beurter, Pilate himself wrote to Tiberius, the Roman emperor, assuring him that Christ, who was a very extraordinary person, and who had been put to death at Jerusalem, was risen again. Tiberius proposed to the Senate at Rome that His name should be enrolled among the number of the gods.

No. His name is above every name. Because at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. All others will bow the knee to King Jesus. There are none beside him.

There are none above him. All are below him. They will all confess the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this message that Paul preached and that they had believed was that the resurrection of Jesus was proof that he was and is the Son of the Living God. But there were some among them who said there is no resurrection.

How could they say such a thing? The implication of this, as I said before, is far reaching. The resurrection of the dead believers is dependent and confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself. Because he lived, you in Christ shall live also. The one fact of Jesus Christ's resurrection is proof that you also, your bodily, your body will be resurrected if you are in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ did not live and die and resurrect for the sake of himself but for our redemption so that we could be made right with God and it brought all glory and honor to himself for what he has done. His resurrection was the proof that he was who he said he was. Romans 1, 3, and 4 says this concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. That was the proof that He was who He said He was. In fact, our justification itself is dependent upon the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Romans 425 says this, who was delivered up for our offenses and was raised because of our justification. If Christ is not risen you are not justified. You are not right with God as he goes on and he tells us this. So if there is no resurrection of the dead as some of these Corinthians were professing then Christ is not risen and as Paul says and the apostles preached he was. It is upon this one point that all Christianity stands or falls.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what the apostles went preaching. They preached Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. That was the gospel that they preached. That was what got them thrown into prison.

John Calvin writes, the groundwork of the argument to be drawn from Christ to us in this former inference is this, his resurrection is the foundation of ours and what was accomplished in him must be fulfilled in us also. This is our hope in life and death. This is the one of the key doctrines that must be believed. It must be believed. You cannot be saved if you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We see this in Romans 10 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Do you believe this? Do you believe that Christ rose from the dead? You see if Christ is not risen, this is the first implication, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. I'm wasting my time here this morning and yours if the resurrection is not true but I bet my life and eternity that it is.

It has been proven, it has been preached, and I preach it to you today. Christ is risen from the dead. You see, the very foundation of Christianity is destroyed if there is no resurrection. In this Christian religion, what is it that you are hoping for? What makes it different than any other religion of the world?

If it was not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then I would be wasting everyone's time this morning. But because he lives, We have hope. Christ rested the whole of his claims of being the Messiah upon the fact of his resurrection. And so did the apostles. And this one point is the centerpiece of the gospel.

Without the resurrection, there is no gospel. What is the good news of a dead savior? What is the good news if you can go and look at a man in a tomb? There is no hope in that. There is no joy in that.

It is the centerpiece of the gospel. It is the glory of the gospel and it shows the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very purpose of God in sending Christ into this world was to bring himself glory through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what it is. We have all been born into sin.

Sin is our great problem. The wages of sin is death. All that sin had the sentence of death upon them for all have sinned. Therefore Christ has come as the conqueror over sin and death and the Redeemer of his people." So the whole gospel is depended upon the acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, that God accepted what Christ did. So the very proof of this acceptance was seen in the resurrection as I just read there in Romans 425 is that it was proof of our justification.

His resurrection was showing that we are justified, that God said well done my beloved son, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. He pleased the father. He satisfied the wrath of God as Isaiah 53 teaches us. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Think of that.

God looks upon you in Christ and is satisfied. That can only happen because of what Christ did. A savior in the grave, as I said, is no savior at all. Therefore, preaching without the resurrection is no preaching at all. So this morning I will preach to you the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and I will not do it with shame.

I am proud of the resurrection of my God. He is the one who has saved me and redeemed me. So in fact this was the central theme of the Apostles preaching as well. I do not stand alone as I preach this. It says in Acts 4 verses 1 and 2, now as they spoke to the people the priest the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

Can you imagine that the resurrection of the dead being so offensive that they would arrest them and put them in prison and flog them and say, do not go and preach in this name anymore. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ is offensive because the implications of Christ's death, his burial and his resurrection have to do with God not being pleased with man. That's what made them so upset. They thought through their religious action and their busyness in their religion that they would please God. Do you think that?

Maybe if you come to church enough, pray enough, give enough that God will be pleased? My friends, he will not. Christ is the only one who pleases the Father. And if you are in Christ, he is pleased with you. He looks upon you as his own beloved son, and he is satisfied.

Isn't that good news? That's good news my friend. That's the good news of the gospel. This message was in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and so if Christ did not raise from the dead then we have no hope And this also implies that we would have a vain faith is what he said here in 1st Corinthians he says in verse 13 but if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen verse 14 and if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty. It means it's void there's nothing there.

I was explaining this to my children last night I guess it was at the dinner table and I said what is he speaking about here if you said you were thirsty and in need of drink and I handed you an empty cup, what good would it do? It would do no good. But see the opposite is kind of true when it comes to Christ. What good would it do if I offered you a grave that was full? It's the empty grave that does you good.

It is the empty grave that gives you hope. It is the empty grave that Christ rose from the dead. That is how you have hope and that is what your faith is based upon. You see, this was the message that they preached. If I stood here and preached to you this morning a dead savior, one that's still in the grave, and you remained in that same faith, believing in that dead Savior, your faith is vain.

It's empty. It's useless. It does no good. But I preach to you this morning a living Savior who is even now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. He is sitting at the right hand of God and ruling over both heaven and earth at whose name let angels prostrate fall.

Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. And because he is risen indeed and is alive forevermore, my friends, we have the promise of the resurrection of our bodies as well. The third inference that we see is that if there is no resurrection, then the apostles, he says, are found false witnesses of God because they've testified that God has raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. You see my friends this may seem elementary to some but I tell you that it is essential for without the resurrection there is no salvation. Just think of the implications of this one false doctrine concerning the state of our bodies after we die.

This was the topic of the false teachers. I have met people personally who deny the bodily resurrection. We will be resurrected, our bodies. They will be made new. How do I know this?

Christ was resurrected in his body, and his body we will have one like unto him we will have the bodily resurrection when he returns and so there are some who think that this is of little or no importance but what you believe about this doctrine affects what you believe about the resurrection of our Lord. For if the dead do not rise then Christ is not risen. Let's play close attention to what these false teachers were saying. They denied the ability for those who had died to be raised to life again. They could go and see their graves.

You see why this would affect them. I mean, there are some people who now, they have what's called a decoration day, and they will go and place flowers on those graves. There's nothing wrong with placing flowers on a grave, but they're going there because those people are there. Their dead bodies are there. Their spirit is not there.

And these people would go and they would see these graves and they struggled to understand, how can God bring forth that dead body? But Christ can do all things. Is anything impossible for God? No, nothing is impossible for God. God can bring anything back up from the ground.

He made the world and all creation from nothing. How hard would it be to make it back with something? Not very difficult. He can do all things. This is why our bodily resurrection is so connected with the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ died, unless they deny the true bodily death of Christ, which other false teachers have done throughout history. They believe that there was a separation going on there. I'm not going to get into all the false teachings. We want to look at the true teaching. But in this passage these people were not necessarily denying the existence of the soul after death but the ability of the dead body to rise.

So Paul states this repeatedly and emphatically to prepare us for what he is about to say next. What comes next is the crux of the issue. Verse 17, and if Christ is not risen, your faith is devoid of force, truth, success, and result. So therefore it's dead. It's a dead faith if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and a dead faith won't save and think of the implications of that.

A dead faith does not produce good works for faith without works is dead therefore if it's a living faith there will be righteous works that prove the living faith. You see the implications of Scripture. It happens all over the Scriptures. If this is true, if I have a true faith in the true living God and he has created me in Christ Jesus for good works and my life is devoid of good works what do you say of my faith it is dead it's not true living faith But those who have a true living faith and the true living Savior have works that prove that because we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, Ephesians says, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. For remember death is not the main problem.

Death is not your main problem. For to live as Christ and to die is gain. What is the problem? What is all humanity's problem? You see, death is only the symptom of the problem.

The real problem is our sin that separates us from God. That's the problem. The real problem the world does not understand. The world is not concerned about the problem. They're concerned about the result of the problem.

Boy, have we seen this true in the last two years. People terrified of dying. Can you imagine if people were so fearful of sin as they were of COVID. Think about how people have guarded themselves. Mask, double mask, triple mask, gloves, whole body suits, driving in your car by yourself with a mask on.

I'm just saying. What if you guarded your life from sin with such passion? Because sin's the problem. That's not the problem. Think of it.

What difference would this world be? What they don't realize is that they should be fear, They should fear not death, but they should fear their sin, for the wages of sin is death. Our greatest need is not to be rescued from physical death, but to be rescued from our sin, which is an offense to God, and that's only done through Christ, and it was only accomplished because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see physical death and eternal separation from God and hell for all eternity is what should terrify the world. So let us recap the implications for a moment of the denial of the resurrection of the dead.

If you deny the resurrection of the dead then you're denying the resurrection of Christ. If you deny the resurrection of Christ then your faith is futile, empty, and vain, and all preaching is empty and vain. If Christ is not raised, then your faith profits you nothing, and you're still in your sins. For Christ's resurrection is essential for our justification. If it be the case that there is no resurrection, then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

All those who have gone before, think of all of the believers, all of the saints, all of the people that we read about who have stood strong for the gospel, if Christ is not raised, they've just perished. This is yet another horrible implication of the denial of the bodily resurrection of believers and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So all of our brethren who have died believing in Christ died in a vain faith, if that's the case. This implication that they are actually dead in their sins, That's what it means. God forbid.

For Christ was not raised for our justification then leave us dead in our sins. He came to save us from our sins. For the proof of God's satisfaction was that Christ rose from the dead. Then finally Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand that if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christians have no hope and are of all people the most miserable or pitiable. He says in verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

This was Paul's last miserable conclusion. If there is no resurrection, the whole world should pity us. To have a faith that is only good for this life is a hopeless and temporal faith. If our Faith in Christ only makes us better in this life. It is no hope after this life.

And then truly we are of all men the most miserable and pitiable we should be felt sorry for. Just this week I was speaking to a man who told me a story of what his mother-in-law told him regarding the faux wedding of her son with another man. When confronted about this eternal judgment that her son would face, this was her response. I think it's wonderful that he would be willing to give up heaven for the love that he will have in this life. I almost I almost fell out of my seat.

Can you imagine a mother saying that? But the truth is, if there is no resurrection, the Apostle Paul would agree. He says in verse 32 of the same chapter, if the dead do not rise let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. For the Christian Christ is everything. To live is Christ and to die is gained.

Everything that we live for and hope for and hope to even if we die for is wrapped up in this promise of the risen Christ. If he did not rise, then we have no hope of being redeemed from our present condition of sin and the misery and corruption of our flesh. We are a people who find our greatest hope not in this life. We are not hoping that this is our best life now. We are hoping that this is as bad as it gets.

We are living for Christ. We are going to live for him now and we will enjoy life with him for eternity. But take away the resurrection and we become a miserable people indeed. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. You know especially those living in Paul's day when Christians were hunted and reviled and threatened and stripped of every earthly comfort that they possessed.

To be a Christian in that setting was much different than it is in our day. If they only had hope in this life, truly miserable they would be. I cannot help myself. I cannot leave you on such a down note. So I won't.

Where I'm going to leave you is this. Verse 20 says, But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. But Christ is risen from the dead. That is our joy. That is our hope.

That is what helps us through. We know that he lives and because he lives we shall live also. Christ is risen indeed. There's no more need to speak of the possibilities of him being still in the grave. Christ is risen and for all those who hope in him they too shall rise with him.

And now I want to share with you some scripture, just scripture on top of scripture that I pray will fill your heart with joy and gladness. Romans 6 5, for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Colossians 2 12 and 13, Buried with him in baptism, Wherein you also are risen with him Through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised him from the dead, And you being dead in your sins And the uncircumcision of your flesh, He hath quickened together with him, Having forgiven you all trespasses. Ephesians 1, 19 through 20, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places. Acts 2 24 through 28 whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of it.

For David speaks concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou will not leave my soul in hell. Neither will thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life thou shall make me full of joy with thou countenance." Acts 13, 38, be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Romans 10 9 through 13 that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and thou shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whosoever believeth in him shall not be put to shame for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and 2nd Corinthians 414 knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. Does that give you hope? Does that give you joy? Brothers and sisters, this is our hope in life and death. It is Christ.

He is risen today. He is risen indeed. So what does the fact of the resurrection mean? I'm gonna undo all of those negative things I just said. Are you ready?

The fact of the resurrection means Christ is not dead, but he is risen. The fact of the resurrection means our preaching is not empty, but full of hope. The fact of the resurrection means our hope is not empty, but it is a living hope. The fact of the resurrection means I am not standing here this morning as a false witness before God, but I speak the truth in God. God has raised Christ from the dead.

The proof of the fact of the resurrection is Your faith is not futile, but it is a faith that produces works of righteousness for the glory of God. The fact of the resurrection is we are not still in our sins, but we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ." So says 2nd Corinthians 5. The saints who have died have not perished, but they live with Christ awaiting the resurrection of the body that is coming soon. We are of all men not the most pitiable, but rather the most to be envied, for we have a living hope in a living Savior.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. For he has risen, he has risen indeed. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we are overwhelmed with the power of the gospel.

Lord, we sit here today because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lord it never gets old. Lord I thank you that you have called us to preach and to hear preaching about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, what glorious truth, what good news you have given us that we can be redeemed from our sins through the power of the gospel. Lord, would you save today?

Please, oh Lord. And Father, encourage that heart that may be down. No matter what that problem, the power of the gospel has the answer. Fill our hearts with joy, O Lord. I pray in Christ's name.

Amen. Thanks for watching!