The sermon, 'Living In The World With A Future Resurrection' by David Green, delves into 1 Corinthians 15:29-34, discussing the certainty and significance of resurrection for believers. The speaker emphasizes the inevitability of death, illustrated through the recent passing of Chuck Norris, highlighting that even the strongest among us cannot conquer death alone. However, through faith in Jesus Christ, believers have hope beyond the grave. The sermon questions the practice of proxy baptism for the dead, a belief held by some groups like the Mormons, and emphasizes that salvation is by grace through faith alone, not by any works such as baptism. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is explored, where he argues for the reality of resurrection and warns against false teachings that deny it. The speaker calls for righteous living and warns that bad company can corrupt good morals, urging believers to be vigilant in their faith and associations. The sermon closes with an encouragement to live with the hope and power of the resurrection, which gives believers a future beyond death.

Take your copy of God's Word and let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, our text will be verses 29 through 34 and the title of my message is living in a world with a future resurrection. Living in a world with a future resurrection. 1st resurrection.

1st Corinthians chapter 15, beginning of verse 29 and going down to verse 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 affirm, brothers, 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 righteously sober minded and stop sinning for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame." So reads the infallible, the inerrant, the all-sufficient Word of the living God. I don't need to tell you today that people die. Death is a reality in our world. It's on the news, it's in the newspapers.

We've all been to funerals. Young and old, it doesn't matter. Indeed, if you're of my generation or older, the reality of death really set in last week with the passing of Chuck Norris. The man was larger than The man was larger than life to a lot of us growing up and even some of us in our older age. He was a man's man, bigger than the big screen.

In fact, people would say things about Chuck Norris, how tough he was, exaggerated things, but things that they didn't say about Sylvester Stallone or some of the other guys. I'm talking about things like ghosts sit around campfires and tell Chotinouris stories. Chotinouris doesn't Call the wrong number, you picked up the wrong phone. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

When Chuck When Chuck Norris plays dodgeball, the balls dodge him. Chuck Norris once had a heart attack. His heart lost. It was said that Chuck Norris doesn't get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.

Chuck Norris, they say, makes onions cry. The flu gets a Chuck Norris shot every year. If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win forever. Here's one Leo appreciate. She likes horror movies.

Freddy Krueger has nightmares about Chuck Norris. And when Chuck Norris' parents had nightmares, they would come to his bedroom. And there's all kinds of them all over the internet and and people would say them From the movies to the to the TV series Walker Texas Ranger whatever we all appreciated Chuck Norris. He wasn't just an actor he really did know how to fight But as tough as Chuck Norris was, not even he could beat death. Even in his old age he was tough.

What was he like, 86, 87 years old when he died. He was still tough. I mean the man was still working out and being active, but he died. But he died. There's a reality here that I want us to think about, and I don't usually bring up movies or movie stars in my sermons, but the reality is this, Chuck Norris could not beat death, not alone anyway.

He could beat a lot of things and a lot of people and he was larger than life and there's stories about Chuck Norris that are very exaggerated. There's something about Chuck Norris that is relevant to our text. And that is that Chuck Norris cannot be death alone, but Chuck Norris left behind a testimony of faith in Jesus Christ, such that we know that as His body is placed in the ground, though His family and friends and people all over the world are going to mourn the loss of Chuck Norris. And the reality is that the grave will not hold him. And someday Chuck Norris will be coming up out of that grave.

Very few of us are as tough as Chuck Norris. In fact, there probably won't be another person like him in our generation, and maybe there will, but very few of us will ever reach the stardom, fame, or fortune of Chuck Norris. I can't do a roundhouse kick like Chuck Norris did, though I tried when I was younger. Thought maybe I could go into the jungles and rescue some Vietnam missing in action people and those sort of veterans and those sorts of things. But I can tell you, The future for Chuck Norris is the same for every believer in Jesus Christ.

The weak, the strong, the rich, the poor, the famous, and those who are not even well known at all. We have a future beyond the grave, and the grave will not hold us. Death is only temporary. And it's the same for every believer. It's not based upon what you have or what you don't have, it's based upon the fact, based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, based upon the reality that Jesus is alive.

And because He lives, we live. There were some in Corinth who claimed that there is no resurrection of the dead. The dead. And Paul is laying out for that church, the church in Corinth, and for us, that there is indeed a future resurrection. And if we were to take verses 29 through 34, and we were to sum it all up, it would be if there is no resurrection, then baptism for the dead and living for Christ is completely wasted.

It's all wasted. In fact, we come to this portion of Scripture and as I said a long time ago I very much was looking forward to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, but we get into this one and we're startled with verse 29. 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? Now I have no doubt, I have no doubt that the Church of Corinth knew exactly what Paul was talking about when he wrote this.

This. But I don't know. I think I know, but I can't say for sure. Verse 29 is a verse that I would probably have never preached from, except just going through this book and trying to tackle every verse in it. And whether you're preaching through a book like this or reading through your Bible and you come to a difficult verse, don't just skip over it.

But really look at it and see what in the world is this talking about? Because let me tell you, there are some people out there who take this verse and make it a proof text for some very wrong things. As we look at this, we can take this verse and we can compare it Scripture with Scripture and get an idea of what he's not talking about. That'll kind of help us to narrow down some things, to be really berean in our study here. We know and can narrow down possibilities by comparing scripture with scripture to know this verse is not the church at Corinth to to baptize for the dead.

Not everything in the Bible is prescriptive. Some of it is descriptive. Some of it is just describing what's going on. It's not meant for us to take and pattern ourselves after it. And I believe this is one of those verses.

He's not advising the church about a dead person being saved by another person's being baptized on their behalf. Baptism was never part in a person's salvation. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.

Verses 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We could say of a truth, that salvation, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anywhere that there's anything about baptism saving anybody, or any other work for that matter. Nowhere do you find anything where the Church of Jesus Christ, any New Testament church, was commanded to baptize anyone who was dead.

In fact, when the commission was given by Jesus Christ over in Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28, it's very clear. Verse 18, 19, and 20, he says, here, and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And so we're to go and make disciples of all nations and then baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.

Teach them to keep all that I commanded you. You see, that's the pattern. We're due to take the gospel to the lost and then baptize the saved. Nowhere are we told to baptize for the dead. There is a teaching out there.

In fact, the Mormons, they teach something called proxy They teach something called proxy baptism. If you've ever done genealogy research, you know that the Mormons, the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I say so-called because they're not, but they have lots and lots of genealogical records. And the reason for that is that they have a practice of baptizing for the dead. They are apostate. They have taken this And they have run with this verse, they use this verse as one of their, kind of their key verse for this practice.

And What they do is they believe that if you die without Mormon baptism, you'll go immediately to some sort of a spirit prison. You'll stay in spirit prison unless and until a living, practicing Mormon voluntarily is baptized for you. And if they are baptized for you, then you can leave the spirit prison and make your way to whatever heaven it is that they hold to. Literally, hundreds upon hundreds, maybe even thousands of baptisms have been done in such a way. And that's why they have so many genealogical records.

They believe in their religion, that they're releasing dead relatives and others from this spirit prison. It's very similar to Catholicism. Catholicism teaches something similar that's maybe not baptism but There's some sort of act or action for the dead to get them out of purgatory. You know, they're doing something for the dead, in other words. There's no such thing as purgatory or spirit prison.

And there's nothing at all someone can do for someone else when death occurs. Your eternal destiny is set once you die. You'll either go to heaven or to hell when your eyes closed in death Luke chapter 16 Now there was a rich man, Luke 16 and verse 19, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table besides even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died, and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried in Hades, and lift up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.

He cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so they may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. And Abraham said, child, remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' bad things, but now he is being comforted here. You are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, there's a great chasm fixed so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able and none may cross over from there to us. And so we see in this what Jesus is telling us is that there was a chasm, a golf, a division between the fires of Hades or hell and paradise heaven such that no one could pass between and so your eternal destiny is set.

Nothing can be done to change where you are or where your loved ones are at. Once the lights are off, once you're dead, you're dead, and you go on. Your body is here, but your spirit, your soul goes on into an eternity. As a believer, you go on to heaven, but as an unbeliever you go on to hell. And so what does this passage mean?

Baptism for the dead. What's going on with this in 1st Corinthians chapter 15? If he's not prescribing to the church at Corinth for them to be baptizing for the dead, what is he doing here? Well, there's been 2, 000 years of church history. Praise God that in that time there have been many preachers, commentators, and great men preachers and commentators and great men who have looked at the scriptures and many of them have written about it.

And so I'm thankful to have a lot of their writings at my disposal. We live in a blessed age. And so what I did was I started pulling out some commentaries, study Bibles and things to see what other men wrote about it. And lo and behold, there's no consensus on this passage. A.T.

Robertson, in his Word Pictures on the New Testament, he said this passage remains a puzzle. Stanley gives 13 interpretations, he wrote, no one of which may be correct over 30 have been suggested. So that's what A.T. Robertson wrote. Barnes, Albert Barnes, in his great work, Barnes notes, he said, there is perhaps no passage of the New Testament in respect to which there has been a greater variety of interpretation than this, and the views of expositors now by no means harmonious in regard to its meaning.

I'm not going to stand here today and read to you every commentator and what they said on this subject. If you want to go home and dig through your books and do that sort of thing you can. I'll just give you two possibilities here and I'll tell you which one I'm leaning to. I wanted to take some time to say what it's not because there are some people out there who take this verse and run with it with some wild ideas and and I hope you understand this is not teaching proxy baptism. But one possibility of interpretation is this.

This is the view that John MacArthur took. He said that those who are baptized refers to living believers who give outward testimony to their faith in baptism by water because they were first drawn to Christ by the exemplary lives, faithful influence, and witness of believers who had subsequently died. Paul's point is that if there is no resurrection and life, and no life after death, then why are people coming to Christ to follow the hope of those who have died? So in other words, I mean, just bring this down to the way I understand that MacArthur was thinking here, and this may be a reasonable way to think of this verse. If you had a faithful grandfather, grandmother like I did, and they're dead, You can go to their grave and see where they're in the body, in the graveyard there.

So they're no longer with you, they've already passed on, but you're following in their footsteps in the faith. Why? Why? If there's no hope beyond the grave. If your end is going to be the same as theirs, and that is someday you're going to be put in the grave and that's the end.

Why not just go do something else? What's the point? If everybody in the world just and lives and then dies, then why bother with Christianity if there's no resurrection? So that's one way of looking at this verse. And maybe, just maybe, that's what Paul had in mind.

There's another possibility here, and this is one I lean towards. Ezra Gold, G-O-U-L-D. G-O-U-L-D. He was a Baptist commentator, a contemporary with John Brodus. This is the position he took.

It's possible that Paul is bringing up some superstitious practice that some held to and is using this as an argument. It's a very inconsistent argument to say there is no resurrection and to also say, if the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? And Paul wasn't condoning this at all. He wasn't advising the church to do it. What I believe is possible is that he was pointing out that there were some, maybe even the ones who were saying that there's no resurrection, that they were being baptized for the dead, some sort of superstition that they were doing.

If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? So it's worded as if someone else is doing it. Then you get to verse 30, he says, why are we also in danger every hour? So he switches the pronoun usage here. So maybe that's the example that's being thrown out there.

Is there some who are being baptized for the dead? Why are they doing it if there's no resurrection? I don't believe that it had infiltrated. If this is what was going on, I don't believe it had infiltrated the church at Corinth. It wasn't a problem.

He doesn't address it head on like he does the resurrection problem, because the resurrection problem, that had infiltrated the church. There were some who were causing issues with the folks at Corinth. Whatever the case may be, we do know two things for sure. Number one, we know he's not teaching proxy baptism like the Mormons teach. And number two, we know that the church of Corinth, they knew exactly what he was talking about, because he didn't have to go into any deep explanation of it.

He mentions it and just moves on, and it's not brought up anywhere else in any other epistle or passage anywhere in the Bible. Verses 30 and 31. Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brothers, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If there's no resurrection, then why risk our lives?

Why not just enjoy this life? Why risk it for the life to come? Paul used himself as an example here. I die daily. His life, his ministry was self-sacrificing.

Why would he risk life daily if there is no life after death? He goes on, If from human motives I fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Some take this verse as literal, that Paul had literally fought wild beasts at Ephesus, and maybe he did, but there's no record of that happening. Dr. Luke, when he took ink to parchment and wrote the history of the church there in Acts, he didn't record of anything of the sort happening.

He wrote of Paul, he wrote of Ephesus, didn't write of any wild beasts. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul wrote of many life-threatening things that had happened to him, but he didn't mention this at all. So, verses 23 through 28, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 23 through 28, he says, 23-28, he says, Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as if insane, I more so. In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death, Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes lest one.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Night and a day I've spent in the deep. I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers in the sea, dangers among false brothers.

I've been in labor and hardship and many sleepless nights, starvation and thirst, often hungry and cold, without enough clothing. Apart from Such external things there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches Who is wit who is weak without my being weak who is made to stumble without my burning concern You see he mentions all sorts of things, but he doesn't bring out this thing about fighting wild beasts. So it may be figurative. Maybe he did fight wild beasts, literally, but it could be figuratively that he's speaking here. Battles with Satan, who is a roaring lion.

Men who are savage like wild animals. Herod, who is called a fox, Nero the lion or a lion. He did face wild beasts, whether figurative or literally. We know that he faced many terrible things even in Ephesus. And so he brings these things up.

The battles that he faced, whatever they were, they were terrible. And he says, if he fought them from human motives, what is the profit? And indeed, if the dead do not rise, there is no profit. There is no profit. Christianity is costly.

We who are here in America, we may not have had happen to us like what Paul happened, but we all have lost something. Have lost something. Maybe a friend. We've got scars, not physical scars, but spiritually, that have come as a result of being a Christian. And if there's no resurrection, we may as well pack it up and go do something else.

If the dead are not raised, let's just eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Let's just eat, drink, play on our phones and get the newest iPhone, the newest iPad, the best entertainment package on TV, rot away our brains until the day that we die, and entertain ourselves until we end up in the grave. That's what he's saying here. If there's no resurrection, if there's no hope beyond the grave. He's pulling, of course, from the Old Testament when he writes this about let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

We die as he goes on. Let's go over there for a moment. The passage is in Isaiah. Chapter 56 and verse 12. Come they say, and let us take wine, let us drink heavily of strong drink.

Chapter 22 verse 13 of Isaiah Instead behold there is joy and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we may die. For tomorrow we may die. The world has an attitude that no, there's no, There's no concern of eternity. And why should we be concerned of it if there's no resurrection of the dead? This is what he's laying out before them.

He's telling them, essentially, stop with the hypocrisy. If there's no resurrection, if there's no hope beyond the grave, quit pretending to be Christian. Do not be deceived. Verse 33. Bad company corrupts good morals.

So not only does he pull from the Old Testament, but he pulls from a Greek poet. That's what this quote is in verse 33. This was a Greek poet that he quotes from. And we know that Paul was familiar with the Greeks and their poetry. He used the same kind of tactic on Mars Hill in Acts 17 and verse 28.

He said, for in him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are his offspring. And So to this carnal church, Paul not only pulls from the Old Testament, but he also pulls from Greek poetry in order to wake them up from their slumber. They had allowed false teaching to creep in such that some were saying there's no resurrection of the dead. He says, wait a minute, this has got to stop. And he lays down the argument that if it's true, there are some terrible things to think about.

The church at Corinth was in danger. And Paul is warning them, trying to get their attention, by quoting from the Old Testament, by quoting from the Greek poet, trying to get their attention. The close association with these fellows would corrupt the simplicity of their faith By the secret silent influence of their words, in conversation and example, their lives would be influenced. They had some great preachers. They had Paul, Apollo, Cephas.

They were all bickering over those guys, but somewhere along the line somebody was whispering in the ears of the church of Corinth and saying, there is no resurrection. That wasn't what was being preached from Paul. That wasn't what was being preached from Apollos. That wasn't what Peter was preaching. This was something that was slipping in through the back door, as it were, privately, secretly, underhandedly.

Paul tells them, hey, what your Greek poet says is true. Bad company corrupts good morals. Understand something, dear child of God, whether you're young or old, be careful who your friends are. Be careful who you hang out with. Be careful who you listen to on a day-to-day basis.

Watch out who you listen to or watch on your screens, who you associate with and those sorts of things. Seek out friendships with God's people. Look for things that are good. Avoid the bad. Over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6.

Beginner verse 14. Beginner verse 14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what?

What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols, for we are a sanctuary of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean. I will welcome you. I will be a father to you. You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Chapter 7 verse 1 says, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." So this text is often used in the context of marriage, but marriage, but it's not limited to that.

This is true in regard to friendships, business, associates, fellowships, all of these things. And we've seen what was going on at Corinth. On one hand, they were bickering over good and godly preachers who preached the Word of God and held to the truth of the resurrection. But on the other hand, they were listening to someone or some group, whether inside the church or outside the church, someone who had got the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead. There was a disconnect that was happening at the church at Corinth.

One would think, oh that church over there they got problems. They're bickering over preachers, but they're all good preachers. So they're settled in the faith. No, they weren't. No, they weren't.

And this is the reality. A church can have good and godly pastors, great preachers, But when that pastor leaves or that pastor dies or whatever, it may fall into terrible errors if they're not careful. And so the warning is, be not deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Verse 34 of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15.

For some have no knowledge of God, I speak this to your shame." Become righteously sober-minded. Become righteously sober-minded. The word, the wording here denotes to become sober after drunkenness. Maybe we haven't been around that sort of behavior too much, but think of it like this, to wake up from a deep sleep. It's time to wake up, it's time to sober up, is what he's telling the church at Corinth.

You got to get out of this stupor that you're in. Snap out of it. In the context of this chapter, their sin is the denial of the resurrection. He says to stop sinning. In the broader Letter, though, there was a lot more going on, weren't there?

And maybe he had all of it in mind. They were arrogant. They thought. They thought that they had it all going on. Some of them were bragging about their knowledge remember we read about that and about chapter 5 or so Been a few chapters back But he said, some have no knowledge of God.

They prided themselves in their knowledge. There were heretics among them who were in their midst who were saying there is no resurrection. Those who knew better should have been telling them the truth about God, but they weren't. They were just letting it happen. He says, I speak this to your shame.

The way he words this, I kind of get the idea that If He would have been in their presence, He might have spiritually done to them the way we physically do to people when they need to sober up or they need to wake up, kind of shake them a little bit. Say, man, you gotta wake up. Man, you gotta snap out of it. You're ruining your family. You got work to do.

You gotta get on this. You can't sleep all day. You can't keep going in this. This? Paul was willing to have this conversation with them and he had to because they weren't willing to have the conversations that needed to be had with those who were around them.

You see, he says it there, Some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame." So we bring this to a close. What tremendous power the resurrection of Christ has. What wonderful hope it gives. Jesus rose from the dead and He is alive.

And we also will live. Because one day He will raise us up to be with Him eternally. What greater incentive, what greater motive could we have for coming to Him, for serving Him, for living for Him, and for telling others about Him. We do live in a world with a future resurrection for the child of God. This gives us great hope.