What Is Paul's Gospel? 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Explained Verse by Verse

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Now, for those of you in the studio, you're already back at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. For those of you joining us, I know some of you get up pretty early in the morning in order to watch our program, and about that time I watch the clock and I just prayerfully say, now Lord, just open hearts, because there's nothing I can do if the Holy Spirit doesn't do His work. So anyway, we've had all the past programs on video and books, and now as we've been announcing the last couple programs, we also have all the programs available on the little audio cassette tapes, strictly because we've had such a demand for it. One young lady got it all started, and she said, if I just had one of your audio tapes for my walkman while I'm doing my jogging, well, then a truck driver called, and then a salesman called, and it was just kind of almost miraculous how all of a sudden people started calling wanting the audio tapes. And so we trust that it's the Lord's doing. We're not in this to make a ton of money or anything, but we'll put them out as reasonably as we possibly can. Okay, now we want to get right back into the book. That's what this half hour is for. We just want to teach as much as we possibly can. And now we come into 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and again for a little introduction. Here all of a sudden, Paul, like I said earlier in the book of Corinthians, he sort of shifts gears on us every once in a while. Well here's another one. Here he's just come out of the various problems in the local church with all the things they'd had going wrong, and how he had to correct them. Now all of a sudden he shifts gears, and here comes the chapter that is the greatest chapter in all of Scripture dealing with the resurrection. Now we know the Old Testament was so vague. They knew about resurrection. They knew there was a life hereafter. Job spoke of it. He said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the latter days shall stand upon the earth, and in my flesh I shall see God. Yes, Job knew about resurrection, but for the most part you just don't find much about it. And Jesus spoke of resurrection in John's Gospel chapter 5. Jesus said there's coming a day when everybody who is in the grave, anybody who has ever lived is going to be resurrected. But in all those various portions of Scripture there is not that detailed description of what resurrection is going to entail like Paul does here in 1 Corinthians 15. And so just always remember it as the resurrection chapter. The whole chapter deals with this doctrine of resurrection from the dead. All right, starting with verse 1. Verse 1, "...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you..." And that's how these Corinthians came out of their paganism, is because of Paul's Gospel. "...and I declare unto thee the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand." Now what was Paul's Gospel? Well, in a nutshell it's in these next three verses, but then we're going to go back and look at some of the other ramifications of it. But in these next three verses he says, "...by which you are saved." I know that some people don't like that word, but nevertheless it's a scriptural term that refers to that act of God that takes us out of darkness and eternal doom in our future, and instead places us under His righteousness, covers us with His righteousness. He puts our feet upon the rock. He gives us the lamp unto our pathway. He puts our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He places us into the body of Christ, and we are constantly now a people with a heavenly citizenship and we are headed for a glorious eternity. I was sharing with our Tulsa class the other night, how few believers have any concept of the glory that the Body of Christ is going to enjoy in eternity. Now you want to remember, in eternity it's going to be a whole new ballgame. I think the whole universe is going to be brought back to its origin. I think everything, heaven, earth, everything that's ever been created is going to be brought back to a nothingness and recreated more glorious than ever before, because you see, everything in the universe has been tainted by the old devil himself. And so God is going to create it all new. Now then, I was sharing this with someone on the phone the other day. When we go into that eternal state as members of the Body of Christ, not part of Israel which will enjoy their earthly domain on the new earth, but we're a heavenly people. Now what does that mean? I think we're going to rule and reign in this whole new universe that God is going to bring about, and we're going to have places of responsibility out there. Now you want to remember that in the eternal state there is no time and distance means nothing. We'll be able to go from one end of the universe to the other in a split second of time, so don't let that bother you. But the glory that is awaiting the believer, and then the world down here now thinks we're a bunch of kooks that we kind of shun some of the pleasures of this world for a few years, and they have no concept of the racial. And I mean the racial. What is 70 years to unlimited billions of years? Well you can't even put it into a mathematical ratio. But you see this is what they can't comprehend. So Paul is now speaking of that which prepares us then for that kind of an eternity, that he said by this Gospel that he is preaching, you are saved, but you've got to know what you believe. So the next part of the verse says, if you remember what I've preached unto you unless you've believed in vain, and then here comes the Gospel, and we've stressed it over and over on this program and in our classes. This is the Gospel. Now I've got no fault with John 3 .16, I'm not going to tell people, don't use John 3.16, don't get me wrong, but listen, John 3.16 doesn't have this part of the Gospel. You have to use this in conjunction with John 3.16 to make sense today. And what is it? How that I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. How that Christ died for our sins when He hung on that cross according to the Scriptures. It wasn't an accident. God had already planned it back in the eons of pre-eternal existence, that He would create mankind, man would sin, and He would bring about a plan of redemption. It was all in the foreknowledge and counsel of God according to Peter in Acts chapter 2. And so now then He received that which He received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, verse 4, and that He was buried. Now we can't leave that out. We have to understand that He was truly dead. That was the purpose of the three days, to prove that there was no life left in Him. And then He rose again the third day and again according to the Scriptures. Now that is what Paul calls my Gospel. Now let's just look at a few instances of that. Turn a few pages ahead to the right and come to Galatians. Galatians chapter 1, and this is all in connection with what he calls the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15. First chapter of Galatians now, and verse 4, speaking of Christ in verse 3, he says, "...who gave Himself for our sins," see, how that He died voluntarily of His own volition. He died that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. And then you come down to verse 6, and this is exactly where so much of Christendom is finding itself again tonight. I don't claim to be the only one with the truth, far from it. But I'll tell you what, we're in a pretty small percentage anymore, and here Paul is dealing with a problem even amongst the Galatian churches. Corinth wasn't the only one. Galatian churches had some problems, and he says, I marvel, I'm amazed that you are so soon removed, or moved away from, Him who called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another." In other words, it's not something completely different. See, then we'd recognize it, and immediately we'd know it's a false gospel. So he said, it's not a totally different gospel, but there are some that trouble you, and they would, what's the word, pervert. Now what's a perversion? That's which twists it out of shape. And so Paul says, you are being moved from the pure gospel that I proclaimed to you, and you're listening to people who are twisting it. Oh, they're basically using the same things I preached, but they're adding to it, or they're taking from it, or they're twisting it, and then it becomes another gospel. Now look what Paul puts on those kind of people. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, speaking of himself, and of course I'm sure he's including Barnabas and later on Silas. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed. Now that's strong language, even for Scripture, but that's what it says. And to be accursed, hey, that's beyond human comprehension. That's to be separated from God forever, see. Verse 9, as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, than you have received, that is from the apostle, let him be accursed. All right, now let's take another look at what he's talking about in Galatians chapter 2, and look at verse 2. Galatians 2, verse 2, and he says, I went up, that is to Jerusalem, to the Jewish believers there ahead of him, and I went up by revelation, and I communicated, see, he didn't talk in some unknown language. He didn't talk into the Jews there at Jerusalem in Spanish or Latin or something like that. He talked to them in their language. He communicated unto them, so that there was no ifs, ands, buts about it. And he says, I communicated unto them that gospel, which I preach, where? Among the Gentiles. Now that gospel was unique, see. Peter and the others hadn't preached Paul's gospel, and they certainly hadn't preached it to Gentiles. I always tell people, you show me anywhere in Scripture that Peter ever had a ministry amongst Gentiles, except Cornelius, of course, and that was a one-time thing. But Paul here makes it so plain that the gospel that he preached among the Gentiles was the gospel that we have to adhere to even today. All right, coming back to 1 Corinthians 15 then. So he says, this gospel, my gospel, the gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of God he calls it, the gospel of grace, the gospel of Christ, those are all titles for this three-pronged fact that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He arose again from the dead the third day. There is no other plan of salvation. There is no other gospel. There is no other way. Now I referred to it in one of my classes the other night, the biblical archaeology. I love to read those letters to the editor, because you get it from the whole spectrum of intellectual society at least, and I almost get a kick out of some of them where they are complaining that some of these people preach only an exclusivist, that's the word, an exclusivist gospel. And I say, amen. That's me. I'm teaching and proclaiming an exclusivist gospel, because that's what this book declares. There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved than the name of Jesus. And that's where it's at, or there is no salvation. Now people are going to an eternal devil's hell by the millions. I know that, because they will not come into this exclusivist narrow way that God has prescribed. Now then, they're going to come back at me and say, well then God isn't fair. Oh no, that's the problem. He's too fair. He has made it available, even though the way may be narrow, but it's available to anybody if they will just simply believe it. Now you see, if God would put on a whole train load of requirements and stipulations and rules and regulations, then I would agree, yeah, God is unfair. He's made the way narrow, and He's made it so hard, no wonder few people find it. But that's not it. The way is narrow, but the way in is so easy, anybody can find it. You know, I've said it on this program before. You go into John's Gospel, Chapter 10, where he uses the analogy of the sheepfold and the door. Anyone who enters the sheepfold has to come in by the door. If he tries to come in over the top, he's a thief and a robber. He's not going to get away with it. And then you know, I'm always making the analogy, where is the door to the sheepfold? Up on some sheer cliff where you've got to have ropes and climbing gear to make it? No. Is it across some roaring river where you have to have some kind of a boat or a raft to make it? Is it across the ocean where you have to be a millionaire and buy a ticket? No. The plan of salvation, the door is on ground level. It's in front of every human being, and all they have to do is believe it and enter in. Oh yeah, it's narrow. But the way in is so simple, and here's where the world is missing it. They cannot believe that you can have eternal salvation, the hope of all that glory, by doing nothing. But that's what God demands, and that's what we learn in the Book of Romans. That Abraham did nothing, and yet he was justified in the same way with us. So now then, Paul goes on to say in verse 5, now remember this is the resurrection chapter. Now then, he's speaking of the fact that he rose from the dead, and as proof of it, he was seen of Cephas, that is Peter, and then of the other 11, or the whole 12 at once. After that, he was seen of over 500 brethren, that is Jewish believers there in the area of Jerusalem, at one time. Evidently they were congregated maybe on a Lord's Day or something, but the Lord appeared to 500 of these Jewish believers at one time, of whom Paul says the greater part remained to this present. Now, near as we can discern, he wrote this letter to the Corinthians in about 59 A.D., so that's about 31 years later. So naturally if some of those fellows were like Paul, probably in their late 20's, early 30's, they were only up in their 60's yet by this time, and Paul says, so they're still alive. They'll still tell you that they saw the resurrected Christ. All right, verse 7. After that event, then he was seen of James, and then of all the other apostles, and then verse 8. Here we come to a choice bit of Scripture. And last of all, he was seen of me also as one, now underline this if you never have before. He was seen of me also as one born out of, or before, the due time. Now when you speak in language like due time, what are you talking about? Now of course I'm a rancher, and we watch the due date of our mama cows, and hopefully we can be aware of when they're about to deliver their baby calf. The due date. You know that's one of the miracles of God's creation. Everything is on His time table. And if you know the day of conception, you can almost tell within 48 hours the day of delivery. All right, Paul is using that as an illustration that he experienced his resurrection power, and seeing the Lord in resurrection as a Jew who was born before the due date. Speaking of delivery of the offspring, now we have to understand that there is coming a day when the nation of Israel will be born all at once. In a day. They could have experienced it, I always maintain, at the time of Christ's first coming. That's what He presented Himself as, the King of Israel. And He performed all those signs to prove who He was. And Israel could have experienced that national spiritual birth, but they rejected it. So then God's time table puts the birth of the nation clear out to the end of the Tribulation now. We teach it as at the Second Coming of Christ. But here's Paul already saved 2,000 years earlier. And so what does he say? I'm like a preemie. I have been delivered prematurely. Now it's a stretch of the imagination when we go 2,000 years, I know that. But nevertheless, the whole concept that he's teaching here is that as He was saved in a moment there on that road to Damascus, miraculously, so also the nation of Israel will yet be saved. Oh, not the 100%, but the remnant. And so this is what he's referring to. That He was like one born before the due date of the salvation of the nation of Israel. And they, too, will yet one day experience that same kind of resurrection power. They will still see their resurrected Lord and Messiah and King coming in the clouds of glory, and then they will believe in a moment. So that's what he means by being born out of, or before, the due time. Now going on in verse 9. Verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet, or I have not been prepared to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church, or the assembly of God. Now who is he referring to? Those Jewish believers back there in the book of Acts. Let me show you what he's talking about. It never got off the man's mind, and of course I can see why. Because Acts chapter 26. Never forget that Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, of course, Saul of Tarsus was a religious zealot, a fanatic if ever there was one, for Judaism. Now, here comes Jesus of Nazareth, and he's making inroads into Judaism. And so for a religious fanatic, what does that mean? Got to stamp him out. He is ruining our culture. He's ruining our religion. And so Saul of Tarsus takes the lead in persecuting these Jewish believers who had recognized Christ as their Messiah. And he did everything he could to stamp them out. That's nothing new. We know the communists tried to do it for 70 years. Stamp out the opposition. Hitler did it. Every other despotic totalitarian leader will do the same thing. Get rid of the opposition by putting them to death, and then hopefully what you've got left are the pure followers. All right, but now look what Paul writes in Acts 26. Verse 9, I guess we can start. I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, that is, during His earthly ministry, of course, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison. Now, the saints he's talking about, of course, were just simply Jewish believers who had followed Christ in His earthly ministry. And I have received authority from the chief priests. And when they, these Jewish believers, were put to death, see that? Then people try to tell me that the Jews didn't have authority to put people to death under the Roman Empire. Oh, yes, they did. It says so. They had the authority within the confines of their religion to put their own people to death. And they must have put a bunch of them out of the way. And Saul of Tarsus was at the head of it. No wonder he could never get it off his mind. All right, read on. And so having received authority from the chief priests, when they were put to death, I gave my voice, or my vote, against them. What does he mean? When they were brought before the religious leaders and they voted, shall we put them to death or put them in prison? Oh, Saul of Tarsus would vote, put them to death. Why feed an enemy? Get rid of him. Take no prisoners. That was Saul's attitude, see? Verse 11, I punished them often in every synagogue, compelled them to blaspheme. Sound familiar? Hey, that's been the ploy of persecutors down through the ages. Force people to make a choice. Blaspheme Jesus Christ, renege on him, recant your faith in him, or be put to death. And Paul, or Saul, was putting his fellow Jews into that same position, blaspheme the name of Jesus, hate him like I do, or be put to death. And see, the man, after he found out that the one that he was persecuting was the one who really was his Old Testament Jehovah, oh, it just beat him down, and he never could quite get over it. Well, there are many more accounts of how he sorrowed for the day that he had so persecuted these Jewish believers. All right? Back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So he says, I'm the least of the apostles, because I persecuted the church, or the assembly of God, those Jewish believers there at Jerusalem. And then verse 10. What's the first word? But. Oh, I love that little three-lettered word, and there's nothing I like more than when people call and tell me about the flip side. Then I know who they've been listening to, because I don't think anyone else uses the term as much as I do. That's what the word B-U-T invariably means, the flip side. Here he had been the chief persecutor against those who had followed Jesus. But the flip side, by the grace of God, I am what I am. You know another one that I just always think of when I see that word B -U-T? Turn with me ahead to Ephesians chapter 2. Another great B-U-T. Another great flip side. And all I want you to do is to know these, memorize them, or at least know where to find them. Ephesians chapter 2, starting with verse 1, my, how this just speaks to hearts. And you, now he's writing to Gentile believers in the city of Ephesus, believers who were quite a bit above and beyond the carnal believers in Corinth. The Ephesian believers, he never finds real fault with them. And so he says, "...and you he hath quickened, or made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the air, the spirit that now worketh." In other words, they were followers after the God of this world, Satan. Verse 3, "...among whom also we all had our conversation or manner of living, every one of us, even the best of us, and we now were following the spirit that now worketh in the children of this menace, among whom we also had our conversation in times past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the desire of the flesh. We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Then verse 4, what is it? "...but God." Good place to end it. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.