IF ye keep in memory... believed in vain... What Does 1 Cor 15:2 Mean? | Bible Questions & Answers

[Music] good evening everyone welcome to the columbus bible church live stream question and answer session we're glad that you could join with us tonight if you're here you know that uh our starting time is now 7 30. so we're going to start at 7 30 eastern time go to around eight sometimes we may go longer but that'll be our goal that will be to go to eight we may sometimes have more to say um but thank you for joining us i do have two announcements that i want to cover tonight and the first one is i want to talk about a website that i'm going to encourage you to check out the website is called the intelligence ledger it's written by a very good and really a great friend of mine in chicago the idea of this website is that it's designed to be an intelligence briefing on the most important news of the day it's it's fact based it involves research it doesn't involve exaggeration or fake news or hyperbole or so on it's very fact-based and it is a reliable source of information i'm encouraging and i'm recommending this site to you because what i am noticing is during the whole kovid 19 experience there's a lot of really crazy things being said many of those things that are being said are not true and as people of faith as people to whom truth matters we we need to be accurate in what we say and we need to be accurate in in the things that we endorse and so this is a source of information that i would encourage you to uh to consult i think it's a helpful one there's a recent article i'm going to scroll down here there's a recent article on the title of it is debunked pandemic there's a video that's gotten a lot of rounds recently it's gone viral and it's about it's the title of it is pandemic and there's some real questionable information in that video so i'm i'm encouraging you number one to visit this site in general as a good source of news the debunked pandemic article is outstanding and i would encourage you to read it if you think with me about acts 17 verse 11 get there if you would acts chapter 17 verse 11. acts chapter 17 verse 11. these were more noble than those in thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and notice what they did and search the scriptures daily whether those things were so part of being a student is that what you do is you search things out so with regard to the scriptures you need to search things out so we appreciate you watching our program we appreciate you considering the information that we're going to share with you but you need to search it out for yourself you need to not rely upon us to be accurate we could have things that are wrong we could be tricking you i suppose there's all sorts of things you need to search it out for yourself well by the same token and i'll just give you an example of something i've seen i recently saw a social media post and here's here's a summary of the post the person says your position is wrong do your research here's a link to a video and the idea is well i did my research because i spent some time on youtube and what i would share with you is that doesn't qualify as research research actually involves not just watching videos but it involves reading and consulting original sources and analyzing them for yourself and so i would encourage you to do that so just just an encouragement uh take take that as a you know a word of exhortation if you would the second item i want to share with you is this this is a this is a fun this is sort of a heartwarming story i recently had a brother reach out to me and what he said is i would like to send you a box of electronic audio bibles and they look pretty much like this and what the brothers said is i've used this this electronic bible all the time i uh i put headphones on and i listen to it while i'm going to sleep i'll play it during the day and i'll just go over the scriptures again and again and again and it brings the scriptures to mind and i learn verses and it's been a benefit to me he asked can i send you a box of these and would you find a way to give these away to people that you think would benefit from them and i said well you know that's very kind of you to do that if you send them to us we'll figure out a way to try to get these into the hands of people that would benefit from them now many of you probably have bible apps on your phone that you use and so this this product may appeal to some of you more than others but what i thought i would do is this you know my desire is to to get these bibles into the hands of people that would benefit from them and so if you're interested what i would ask you to do is to reach out to us send me either an email through the columbus bible church website or you can private message columbus bible church on facebook let us know that you're interested and let us know how you think you might benefit from the product we'll have to figure out you know we may not be able to ship everywhere in the world there may be limitations about that i know we have an international audience but our desire is to get these into the hands of people that can benefit from them so if you if you're interested let us know we do reserve the right to evaluate the requests and and sort of make what we think is the best decision we feel like this is a stewardship that's been entrusted to us so we we need to handle it in a way that we think is best but if you're interested please reach out so we we appreciate the brother for doing that he obviously just has a heart to get the word out and so i'm not going to name him i don't think he really wanted to be named but we do appreciate him and his his charitable nature with that let's open in prayer and let's jump right in father god thank you for this time we thank you for your word we pray lord that we would be instructed by it help us to set aside our own traditions and instead believe what you have written it's in the name of the lord jesus christ that we pray amen the question tonight is a simple question what does first corinthians 15 verse 2 mean so turn with me to first corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to start we're going to start in well let's start in verse 1 i guess moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel which i preached unto you which also you have received and wherein you stand so paul declares the gospel i'm going to skip verse 2 for a minute for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how 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 so verse 1 paul says he's going to declare the gospel and verses 3 and 4 give us an excellent summary of what the gospel is for today christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures verses 3 and 4 are commonly used by people teaching the gospel because it's a very simple condensed clear description of what the gospel is doesn't have anything to do with our works it has everything to do with what christ did he died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day now i read to you verse 1 and i read to you verse 3 and 4 and so people sometimes ask the question why did you not read verse 2 well let's look at verse 2. first corinthians 15 and verse 2 by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what i preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain now verse 2 is quite interesting because it has the word if and it has the word unless so verse 1 talks about the gospel but then it says in verse 2 by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory so it sounds like there's something conditional unless you have believed in vain so the question people want about is there something that i have to remember is there something i have to recollect to recall to be saved is there a way that i can believe in vain maybe i don't live quite the way i should and therefore i believed in vain and what happens i know in often what i do is the reason i don't cover verse 2 is when i'm trying to give a simple presentation of the gospel i don't want to get in all of the details of explaining verse 2. but it might be good to spend at least one session getting into all the details of verse 2 so that everyone has clarity around what it means so that's what we're going to do tonight our focus is on understanding verse 2. is it teaching that salvation is somehow conditional or dependent and there's some way that you can lose it the answer is no but let's see why that is so here's point number one point number one there are different types of salvation in the bible not every salvation is salvation from hell so let's look at some verses together get exodus chapter one exodus chapter one studio audience is messing around a little bit tonight need to knock it off exodus chapter 1 exodus chapter 1 and notice with me verse 17. but the midwives feared god and did not as the king of egypt commanded them but saved the men children alive so you remember what that is in exodus 1 what has happened is the king of egypt has said to the the midwives when there's a hebrew child being born kill it and what the the midwives do is they say you know they come up with some basically they lie to pharaoh and they say well the hebrew women deliver too quickly and we can't get there in time and they're so sorry we did our best but we just couldn't and they're lying through their teeth but good for them good for them right better to lie to pharaoh than to kill the innocent newborns well notice verse 17 they saved the men children alive obviously that salvation is not salvation from hell that salvation is salvation from physical death in other words they're preserving the physical life of the child that's not salvation from hell get with me deuteronomy 22 deuteronomy chapter 22 i once had someone say to me that every time the word baptism appears in the scriptures it's a reference to water baptism and the easiest way to test that is you just pull up blue letter bible you type b-a-p-t wild card you read 50-60 verses and it's obvious that's not true well that's what we're doing here with the word save or or salvation we're looking at multiple appearances of the word to see if in fact saved is always saved from hell deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 27 for he found her in the field and the betrothed damsel cried and there was none to save her i'm not going to get into all the details of what that verse is about but when it talks about there being none to save her it's not talking about there was none to preach the gospel and tell her how to believe on the lord jesus christ it it has a reference to none to save her from physical harm that salvation there is not salvation from hell it's salvation from being the victim of a crime look with me at deuteronomy chapter 28. deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 27 the lord will smite thee with the botch of egypt and with the emirates and with the scab and with the itch and whereof thou canst not be healed the lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart and thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore and no man shall save thee and the salvation there is obviously deliverance from the wrath that god is going to impose so that salvation is a salvation from god's punishment look with me at first samuel chapter 4 first samuel chapter 4 there is no substitute for reading verse after verse after verse what paul said in acts to the ephesian elders is that he shunned not to declare unto them the whole council of god which means that he evaluated all of the scriptures he taught all of them so there's no harm in reading too many verses it's just not something to be concerned about first samuel chapter four verse three first samuel chapter four verse 3 and heir the lamp of god went out in the temple the lord where the ark of god was and samuel was laid down to sleep and that is actually chapter three so let's try again first samuel chapter four verse three and when the people were coming to the camp the elders of israel said wherefore hath the lord smitten us today before the philistines let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the lord out of shiloh unto us that when it cometh among us it may save us out of the hand of our enemies is that salvation from god's wrath or is it salvation from earthly physical enemies it's salvation from their military physical enemies it's not salvation from hell look at me at first samuel 23 first samuel chapter 23 verse 2. therefore david inquired of the lord saying shall i go and smite these philistines and the lord said unto david go and smite the philistines and save kela what god told david to do is to go fight the philistines and save kilos save this city not saving the city from hell he's not saving the inhabitants in there from hell no doubt there were some people in the city of kela that probably died as unbelievers and if they did then where did they go they went to hell but david is saving the city in that he is delivering it from oppression he's delivering it from military subjugation get with me acts chapter 27 acts chapter 27 acts chapter 27 acts 27 and we'll look at verse 20. now this is when um paul is is on the boat and they've taken they've run into rough storms and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us all hope that we should be saved was then taken away well did paul lose his hope that he would be saved from hell no what what is the the what are they hoping they're to be saved from they're hoping to be delivered from a physical peril right they're in the midst of this tempest and they see no way out of it that's a physical salvation look with me at first timothy chapter 2. first timothy chapter 2 and we're going to look at verse 15. now this is a verse that people reach all kinds of wild conclusions about let's just read it first timothy 2 15 notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety so the salvation there is saved in child bearing well that that can't be by that can't be salvation from hell can it is the way a woman or a family gets saved as they bear a child and they're now saved from hell i mean that doesn't even make any sense the salvation when you read it in context is salvation from deception so what have we seen so far in point one the bible uses the word saved many many times and it often uses the word saved where it has nothing to do with salvation from god's wrath it has nothing to do with salvation from hell because you can be saved from lots of different things you can be saved from military defeat you can be saved from your enemies you can be saved from perils at sea you can be saved from doctrinal deception so when you whenever you see the word saved you need to ask yourself saved from what what salvation is being described or referred to in the context so that's the first thing we need to understand to understand first corinthians 15 verse 2. here's the second thing we need to understand go get with me first corinthians chapter 15. first corinthians chapter 15. notice verse 2 by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what i preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain now notice there preached as past tense with what i preached unto you look at verse one brethren i declare unto you you the gospel which i preached unto you past tense i declare present tense the gospel which i preached past tense unto you which also you have received past tense and wherein ye stand present tense so do tenses in the bible matter can you just ignore them well they're just small things don't worry about it no big deal right what's the verb tense between friends well of course the verb tense matters doesn't it and so what we need to understand is that paul previously preached the gospel unto the corinthians so notice this with me uh look at look at verse three let's see it again for i delivered unto you that's that's past tense i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures now get with me first corinthians chapter 1. what i wanted you to notice in verse 15 is this paul said multiple times that he preached the gospel unto them previously so in ver in chapter 15 when he says i declare unto you and he talks about something he preached unto them in the past he's declaring to them something currently that he had previously told them now look with me at first corinthians 1 verse 2. unto the church of god which is at corinth to them that are sanctified in in jesus in christ jesus called to be saints if paul writes first corinthians to people who are saints then they have already believed the gospel before he wrote the letter right if he addresses them and he calls them saints they're already believers that's unavoidable right look with me at first corinthians chapter six first corinthians chapter six first corinthians 6 verse 11 and such let's just look at verse 9 know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of god paul gives a long list there are people that will not inherit the kingdom of god now notice verse 11 and let's notice the verb tense and such were some of you you used to be that past tense but you no longer are and such were some of you but ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the name of the lord jesus and by the spirit of our god so here's what i want you to get it's absolutely clear first corinthians is written to saved people it's written to saints it's written to people that are already washed they're already sanctified that are already justified when paul says the gospel which i preached past tense unto you it's absolutely clear that he has previously told these people the gospel and they have believed it and that's what makes them saints he didn't wait i mean think about it this way did paul go to corinth spend a bunch of time there leave later on write an epistle wait 14 chapters and then tell them how to get saved is that the first time you ever told them how to get saved i mean no one in the right mind believes that they had previously heard the gospel from paul and believed it okay so what does that mean paul previously preached the gospel to the corinthians before first corinthians 15 that's the second point we need to understand so now here's the third point we're going to put these two points together since the corinthians are already saved you know that from first corinthians 1 and they're already saved from hell right because to be a saint you're saved from hell the salvation referred to in 15 verse 2 must be salvation from something other than hell you follow me in first corinthians 1 when paul calls them saints in 1st corinthians 6 when he tells them they're washed they're sanctified they're justified they're already saved from hell okay in first corinthians go back to first corinthians 15 verse 2 first corinthians 15 verse 2 where it says by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what i preached unto you well that that's not right as far as hell they're already safe from hell period end of story think about this with me when you believe the gospel in other words when you believe that jesus christ died on the cross for your sins was buried and rose again the third day give me a list of everything else you need to do to go to heaven for all eternity nothing there's no works there's no water baptism there's no giving there's no witnessing to people there's no tithing there's not even remembering the gospel you do realize there are people that believe the gospel and then develop mental difficulties and they don't even know their own name right there are saved people that forget information so what's going on in first corinthians 15 look with me at first corinthians 15 verse 12. now if christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead now you realize that when paul writes a letter he is writing a letter in response to the circumstances that exist so when you think about first corinthians 5 and he talks about there is fornication among you as such as not not as so much as named among the gentiles he's aware of a problem there and he's writing to address it first corinthians 15 12 what is he trying to address here there are saints in corinth that are saying there's no such thing as the resurrection how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead he's responding to that concept look with me at verse 19. if in this life only we have hope in christ we are of all men most miserable what paul's saying there is this as as paul thinks about this life did paul have a lot of troubles he was shipwrecked he was stoned he was beaten with rods he had all kinds of problems but paul looked forward to eternity future and he reckoned those small little speed bumps as not relevant but what happens if there is no resurrection what happens if there is no next life then what are you doing right why go through all this suffering after suffering after suffering if you just die and that's it paul says and this is on the authority of the holy spirit if in this life only we have hope in christ we are of all men most miserable now look with me at verse five and that he was seen of cephas then of the twelve after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain under this present but some are falling asleep after that he was seen of james then of all the apostles and last fall he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time now what paul's dealing with in first corinthians 15 is the suggestion that there's no resurrection of the dead so what does he do in verses five to eight well he was seen of peter he was seen by the twelve he was seen by 500 people he was seen by james he was seen by me what's he doing he's saying here's proof point after proof point after proof point after proof point what do you mean there's no resurrection of the dead i just gave you 515 witnesses or so notice with me verse 13 and we're going to look at verse 13 to 19. but if there be no resurrection of the dead what paul does in verse 13 is he says okay let's consider and remember recall it was verse 12 where there was some say there's no resurrection of the dead well in verse 13 what paul does it says okay well let's consider that let's take for a moment that there is no resurrection of the dead what would then follow but if there be no resurrection of the dead then is christ not risen okay well there's no such thing as the resurrection of the dead that means jesus christ didn't rise and if christ be not risen then our preaching is pointless and by the way not as only are preaching pointless but your faith is pointless verse 15 yea and were false witnesses because we have testified of god that he raised up christ whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not for if the dead rise not then is not christ raised and if christ be not raised your faith is vain and ye are yet in your sins then they which also which are fallen asleep in christ are perished see what he does in verse 12 some of you claim there's no resurrection of the dead well let's think about it if there's no resurrection of dead then then christ didn't rise from the dead and then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain and then we're false witnesses and then everyone that died before has died in vain and your faith is in vain there's a series of of consequences that follow from the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead now get with me second timothy chapter two and while you're turning there i'm going to give you a preview what what first corinthians 15 2 says it says by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what i preached unto you now is verse chapter 15 verse 2 is is that meaning that if you forget the gospel if you let it slip out of your understanding if you fail to recall it does that mean that you're not saved well get with me second timothy chapter 2. ii timothy chapter 2 2 timothy chapter 2 and look with me at verse 13. ii timothy 2 13. if we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself second timothy 2 13 is one of the most powerful eternal security verses in the bible see here's what happens what happens if you believe the gospel in other words you believe that christ died for your sins was buried and rose again the third day and then let's say the next day you decide the bible is false paul is a heretic what's actually the case is scientology is true i believe in the papal authority of tom cruise and i think he's an infallible source of truth and i religiously watch the mission impossible movies and i take them as canon and so basically you renounce everything that is holy decent and true do you go to hell look what that verse says if we believe not so you quit believing but what happens yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself there is something profoundly powerful that happens when you believe the gospel when you believe the gospel you are sealed by the holy spirit under the day of redemption your salvation becomes unforfeitable unforfeitable you can't lose it even if you try to give it back you can't because what's happened is you have been spiritually baptized into the body of christ and there is no part of the body of christ that goes to hell so what you will do is you will go to heaven in a state of unbelief now the judgment seat of christ may be awkward because you get you may get questions like why did you reject the authority of the king james bible in favor of tom cruise why would you do such a thing that's obviously an act of the flesh but what second timothy 2 13 demonstrates is that once you have believed the gospel you can't lose it even if you quit believing it let me take it a step further even if you go start preaching a false doctrine now your rewards will be affected but it cannot affect your salvation because your salvation is sealed forever in the moment that you believed so when first corinthians 15 verse 2 says if ye keep in memory that has nothing to do with salvation from hell now let's go back to first corinthians 15 again and i want you to so let's look at 15 verse 2 again by which also you're saved if ye keep in memory what i preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain now what some people do with believing in vain is they say well you believed but you didn't make the necessary changes in your life you still sinned and you didn't walk in all the truth that you needed to walk in so you believed in vain that is a very irresponsible way to interpret the scriptures among the reason that's irresponsible is when you read that section of the verse unless you have believed in vain the first thing that should go through your mind is what does it mean to believe in vain and then you should then think well maybe i should read a little so go down to verse 14 14 and if christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain well there's believing in vain your faith is also vain if what if christ be not risen that's a true statement if christ be not risen then your faith is vain look with me at verse 17. and if christ be not raised your faith is vain so believing in vain in first corinthians 15 verse 2 doesn't mean you believe the gospel and then you live like an idiot so god revoked your salvation believing in vain is what would happen if christ wasn't raised from the dead now look with me at verse 12. and let's go so go to verse two just one more time by which also ye are saved if you keep in memory notice what it says here what i preached unto you so now we need to figure out what paul preached unto you look at verse 12 now if christ be preached that he rose from the dead well you can clearly understand then what's going on in verse two what paul did is he preached to the corinthians that christ rose from the dead so here's what's going on it's actually really really simple let me just tie it together verses 3 and 4 is a description of the gospel the gospel is christ died for our sins he was buried he rose again the third day verses 1 and 2 make clear that paul had previously shared this information with the corinthians what verse 2 is saying is simply this by which also ye are saved the salvation there is not hell if you keep in memory what i preached unto you unless you have believed in vain here's what the gospel does are you ready i hope you're ready it's coming gospel saves you from hell in an instant the moment you believe it you're delivered from hell you never go there but you realize the rest of your life can be a lot of misery and pain and uncertainty and doubt what paul was writing about in first corinthians 15 there are some corinthians that started to say there's no resurrection of the dead well if they said that it wouldn't affect their salvation but what would their mental state be like how would you feel about life if what you believed was the following you know what we are we're just basically a collection of chemicals in water and what happens is when we die we will return to the earth we're basically just dust we go back to dust all we are is dust in the wind i might write a song about that and that's all we are we're not spiritual creatures we don't have a spiritual eternal existence we're just material well that would be depressing wouldn't it that would render all of life meaningless and pointless by the way think take it one step further if there is no resurrection which is what paul's dealing with in first corinthians 15 then guess what all the loved ones that have gone on you'll never see him again all the loved ones the friends you have now you'll never see them again because what happens is you die and we put you in the ground and that's the end of you the gospel saves your soul in a moment from hell the gospel saves you on a daily basis from misery because you need to remind yourself of the lord's resurrection his victory over death and your eternal position in the heavenlies see what what the gospel does is it tells us there's a life after this one we're not just material creatures there's an eternal blessed existence that awaits us that's what paul's dealing with in first corinthians 15 he's dealing with the salvation from despair of not believing in the resurrection that's what first corinthians 15 2 is about praise god he has given us a gospel so powerful that not only does it save our soul from hell in an instant it saves us from despair every moment of the rest of our lives if we keep in memory the resurrection of the lord jesus christ now we went a little long today maybe that's a a bad omen of things to come that may be what we do i don't know but we wanted to share that information with you thank you for joining with us let's close together in a word of prayer father god we do thank you for the resurrection of jesus christ we thank you because it demonstrated that he was the true son of god and he had victory over death and and by your grace we can participate in his in his victory over death that we can have an eternal place of blessing in the heavenlies in your son we thank you for that we rejoice in that we give you all the glory it's in the name of the lord jesus christ that we pray amen [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do you

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Length: 41min 10sec (2470 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020