If Christ Be Not Risen

[00:00:00] All right, let's take our Bible and turn to the book of first Corinthians, chapter 15. [00:00:07] 1st Corinthians, chapter 15. We will begin reading in verse number one. [00:00:17] First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse number one. [00:00:35] Let's pray together, and then we'll begin reading together. Our father, as we come together to look at your word now and to see the truth and the fact of your resurrection, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which he overcame death and made our eternal life possible. [00:00:59] Lord, please control every. The heart of every person listening. [00:01:05] Please, Lord, control the things that I say and the thoughts in my heart, the way in which I speak. Lord, please speak to each and every person here. Lord, would you please make these truths clear, clear and plain before each and every person? [00:01:25] Thank you, Lord, that you died for us, that you took our place and our sin being laid upon you, which is judged upon the cross, and you died for us, and you paid the penalty. And then you rose again the third day from the dead. [00:01:42] Lord, we are looking forward to the day when you return, when we meet you, and we see the wounds in your hands and your feet in your side. [00:01:56] So, Lord, bless this service. And, Lord, I pray that you would accomplish great things and ask that your spirit would speak to every person in Jesus name. Amen. [00:02:07] Verse one of first Corinthians, chapter 15, says this. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand by, which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. [00:02:33] 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. Now, I'll pause there. I'm going to keep reading in just a minute, but I'll pause there. [00:02:57] This is. I want everybody to understand something very clearly. [00:03:03] Verse three and verse four. And as we'll continue down through the following verses. This is the core of Christianity. Let me say it like this. This is Christianity. [00:03:15] This is it. [00:03:17] Verse three and verse four encapsulates what Christianity is, that Christ Jesus died for sinners according to the scriptures and that he was buried. Why? Because he was dead, indeed, fully graveyard dead. [00:03:38] And that on the third day, he rose again from the dead, which means he is alive at this moment. [00:03:47] Christianity is. We know the Lord Jesus Christ taught many things, and we believe his teachings right. We believe them to be true. He taught us to love one another. And he demonstrated that love. And he taught us many principles and ethics and morals, and he laid down an example of great compassion and empathy for people. But that is not the core of Christianity. [00:04:14] That is not the core of Christianity. Christianity is about one thing. It is about Jesus bleeding and dying for sinners on the cross and Jesus rising again from the dead. [00:04:30] I've heard media pundits, talking heads, describe Christianity as a philosophy of life. That is false. [00:04:39] Christianity includes many things. Includes the philosophy of life, does it not? Yes. It should alter and affect our lives, yes. [00:04:48] But if that's all we have, that is empty and ultimately vain. [00:04:54] Christianity, listen, please. Is about your soul and my soul's salvation from sin. [00:05:04] That's what it's about. And it's about the high price and the miracle that had to take place to make that salvation possible. [00:05:16] You know, in verse number one, it says, paul, speaking to a corinthian church, says this. He says about the gospel. That is the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received. And there are many who at one point earlier in their life, had received the gospel and accepted those truths, the truths of scripture, and specifically the truths of the gospel. But they no longer hold to those truths. [00:05:46] They have abandoned them. [00:05:49] They say, I used to believe that. [00:05:53] But the truth has not changed. And this Bible, it has not changed in all the years since it's been written, it still says the same thing. [00:06:03] Now we are the ones who change. [00:06:06] Our opinions change at what point it was received. But often it has been abandoned at some point in the intervening time. Verse three and four. [00:06:19] Notice it says, according to the scriptures, Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. That means that Christ, when he went to the cross, the Bible, that is, the Old Testament scripture, the word of God, had told hundreds, sometimes thousands of years beforehand that it was foretold that he would do these very things. His death for us, he, his resurrection for us, clearly told psalm 22, Isaiah 53. The Bible said plainly what he would do and why he would do it, but specifically of the resurrection. Here's what the Bible says in Psalm 16, verse ten. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says, this is 1000 years before Jesus was born in the days of David. [00:07:07] The Bible says, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. [00:07:18] Isaiah 53, verse twelve, 6700 years before Jesus was born. Therefore, it says, therefore I will divide him, Jesus, a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. If you know anything about Isaiah, chapter 53, what you'll find is that word is spoken after the description of his death for sinners. [00:07:41] How is a dead man going to divide the spoil with the strong and divide a portion with the great? Going to be a victor if he's dead. [00:07:52] But he's not. He's alive. And then finally, in Zechariah, chapter twelve, verse ten, again, this is some 500 years before Jesus was born. It was told that they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced. [00:08:10] Jesus pierced on the cross right by the roman spear. Now, how is that going to happen? Are they going to go inside of his tomb and look at a long, long, decomposed body? No, no, no. That's because he's alive. This speaks of a time when Jesus returns. And finally, the jewish people see the one who came for them to be their savior. And they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. [00:08:37] But look at verse number five, because often we look at verse three and four, we say, what is the gospel? What is the gospel? It is, number one, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Number two, that he was buried, thereby verifying he was truly dead. There have been people through the years that have tried to argue that Jesus was not really dead, but he was dead. He was buried. Number three, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. But there's a fourth point, verse five. [00:09:13] And that he was seen of Cephas. That's Peter, then of the twelve. That's the twelve apostles. After that, he was seen of above more than 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present. But some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time. [00:09:42] What is this? [00:09:45] This is a description of all the witnesses. Not, maybe not all the witnesses, but a good number of the witnesses that saw the Lord Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead. They didn't have visions. They didn't have dreams. They physically were confronted with a living human being that had risen from the dead. Few of them actually saw him die on the cross. They literally saw him take his last breath and his body go pale and limp, hanging by three nails from a cross. They had seen that with their own eyeballs, and then afterward had seen him alive with the prints of the nails and the wound in his side still visible. [00:10:34] Now, if there's. Listen. [00:10:38] Any event in history that can be attested to by this many people is considered an event that has actually occurred. [00:10:54] There are many events that happen in our world. How many people saw the cargo ship hit this Francis Scott key bridge? How many people actually saw it? It was not 500. You know why? Because it was like 130 in the morning. [00:11:08] There might have been literally a handful of people that saw it happen. But assuming we didn't have Internet, no video or anything like that, if we had seen that, if people had seen that and testified, no. The cargo ship, I saw it. The lights flickered, and then it hit the main pillar of the ship of the bridge, and then the bridge came crashing down. You know what? Everyone would believe that's exactly what had happened, because it doesn't take all of that much to establish a fact. [00:11:34] And if a fact cannot be established with 500 plus witnesses who were eyewitnesses, then it cannot be established ever by any means. [00:11:47] The witnesses of Christ's resurrection is the final point of the four points of the gospel. [00:11:53] And in this chapter, special emphasis is placed upon this fourth point. Why? It is extremely significant. [00:12:02] Please hear what I'm going to say. [00:12:05] Because it establishes the factual basis of the resurrection of Christ. [00:12:15] That Jesus rose again from the dead is not just a teaching of Christianity that has been passed down from church to church and generation to generation. [00:12:30] It is an historical fact. [00:12:33] You say that's crazy. Okay. [00:12:37] I implore you to examine the evidence. Notice what it says in verse six. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present. But some are falling asleep. At this point in history, the majority of the eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection that had seen him alive, many of them were in intimate proximity to him. [00:13:05] The majority of those people were still alive and able to give testimony to that, to that which they had seen. Now, if we can look at that and we can disbelieve that, all that this does is record that fact, that there were that many witnesses. [00:13:22] Listen, we don't have to have witnesses alive in 2024 to prove the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and we don't have to have a body. Obviously, if there was a body, it wouldn't be true. [00:13:36] This is recorded for us in scripture to cast away any doubt. [00:13:45] Many of you know that we were missionaries in Cambodia. [00:13:49] And Cambodia went through from 1975 to 1979, went through a period in which the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia. Many of you know that you've heard of the killing fields. [00:14:01] Do you know why we believe that happened? [00:14:05] Because there are people who live through it and testify to what they had seen, nobody doubts them. Well, there are a few younger people that doubt it, but nobody has any legitimate doubt about that. It is an established historical fact, and that was before the days of Internet and all that. [00:14:24] Why do people refuse to apply that same logic to the resurrection of Jesus? [00:14:31] So the proofs of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ are presented here. Number one, they had already received this truth and it had already transformed their lives by its power, the power of the resurrection. That's number one. Number two, the scriptures told us he would rise, and that's mentioned here as well. And number three, there were many, not a few, many contemporaries and living witnesses of that actual event. [00:15:02] This is an argument that Jesus rose again from the dead. In truth, I'm going somewhere with this. Look at verse twelve. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how, say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead? [00:15:21] That's not too unusual of a statement, is it? That's something you would expect to find on maybe a college campus. [00:15:29] People can't rise from the dead. That's a scientific impossibility. I agree. [00:15:35] It is true. Scientifically impossible, because death is a fact, one of the absolute facts of human existence. It is a very mysterious thing. In fact, somebody has described death. I've heard someone describe death as flying up in an airplane at 30,000, 20,000ft in the middle of the night without a parachute. They open the door and you're just jumping out. [00:16:00] That is death. It is a mystery. [00:16:05] There's no way around it, there's no means to avoid it. And there's no trick that can enable you to escape it. Death is certain, and once it's done, it's done. There is no coming back, no matter how much we wish it. [00:16:22] And so people say, when we say we believe Jesus rose from the dead, they think we're from another planet. [00:16:32] No, I actually believe that Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, is alive at this moment, physically alive. [00:16:43] I'm crazy, right? I'm crazy. Me too. [00:16:50] What we're saying, though, is we're not trying to prove a scientific fact. [00:16:54] What we are actually saying is that we sincerely believe, and we believe it is a fact that the almighty God intervened into human history and performed the greatest miracle of all, miracles to raise Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. We don't believe it was done by science. We believe it was done supernaturally. [00:17:23] So, yes, we believe God intervened in this world. Yes, that's true. [00:17:30] And many people at that point, that's where you lose them because they do not believe that God does that if he exists at all. [00:17:39] And they do that despite the fact that there are testimonies and witnesses and evidence and proof that in any other circumstance would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt the historical accuracy of an event. Yet they will not, by virtue of the hardness of heart and the blindness of sin, will not acknowledge the resurrection of Christ. [00:18:05] Verse 13. [00:18:07] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? All right, that seems pretty obvious. People can't rise from the dead. Well, if that's true, then Jesus is certainly not alive because he died. [00:18:19] Even if we didn't know about the cross and all that, that was a long time ago. [00:18:27] So follow the logic. Verse 14. [00:18:29] And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vein. [00:18:39] What is our preaching? [00:18:41] And notice this as our preaching. Paul speaking to the church at Corinth. He's not talking about my preaching as in my sermons. No, he's referring to. Listen. He's referring to my peeps. [00:18:56] Your message. [00:18:59] Your message. [00:19:01] Not to just the preachers and the pastors and the evangelists and the missionaries. No, he's referring to the message that you believe and that you tell others our preaching is vain. But what is that message? You know what? That message, it is certainly not the morals of Jesus, although we believe that, right? We teach it. You know, if you come to choice hills regularly, you know, we look at the Bible and we try to examine it, and we try to obey it and follow what the Lord says. We believe those things, but that is not the core message, and it's not the example of Jesus, although we want to follow that as well. The core of our preaching is that the savior died for sinners. And rose, that is the definition of Christianity. And if you take that out of it, you have removed the DNA of Christianity. You have removed the most important part. You only have. Listen. If it was an egg, you only have the shell. It's empty. Worthless. [00:20:05] Worthless without that truth. [00:20:15] And if Christ is not risen, why do we preach? We'd be preaching lies. And it certainly would not have any power to affect the life of any person. Because it's untrue, you see? Untrue. Let's keep reading. Verse 15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God. You see that? Why is that? Why are we found false witnesses? That's just another way to say we're found to be liars. [00:20:48] Here's why. [00:20:50] We're found to be false witnesses of God, because we are asserting something. If Jesus had not risen from the dead if he is not truly alive. Here's where we, every one of us in here that believes this truth. Here's where we are. We are liars. [00:21:05] We are asserting something as fact that is not true. [00:21:12] Now, here's where I want you to understand something about Christianity, about the scripture, that Christ rose again from the dead. This is not a matter of just church doctrine or a nice moral lesson. You know, in other words, we tell ourselves, well, Jesus did it, and it's a good example of overcoming obstacles or some. It's not. We cannot frame the resurrection of Christ in some moralistic type of way like that. It just gives us strength to go, to go the next step in life. [00:21:43] That's not what the resurrection is about at all. [00:21:47] This is not something we tell ourselves to console ourselves about our faith or some way we've invented to set Christianity apart from other religions. No, no, no, no. [00:21:59] And there are some people that say, you know, I'm a Christian, and, you know, Christianity teaches Jesus rose. So I believe Jesus did. But here's the question I want you to ask yourself. Did he actually rise from the dead? [00:22:14] That's the question. It's not about what Christianity teaches or whatever. It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with, is this an historical fact or. No, not. [00:22:23] Because if this is not an historical fact, it's a lie. And it's a lie that I have been promulgating, and it's a lie that you have been propagating, and it's a lie. You, in fact, are found as a sinner against God because you are violating one of God's commandments, which is, thou shalt not bear false witness if Jesus is not alive. We're all liars that believe and have taught that. [00:22:54] Then it says in verse 15, we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up. If so be the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, he repeats, then is not Christ raised? Verse 17. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. [00:23:18] It's just a puff of smoke, nothing to it. [00:23:23] It's vain first because it's false. [00:23:29] If Christianity is anything, it's about the truth. Amen. [00:23:34] You know, listen, religions, they can teach whatever. [00:23:39] They can teach, like, they could teach that some God laid down and became a mountain. [00:23:45] They can teach that somebody went to a rock and ascended to heaven. [00:23:50] They could teach that there was some whatever. I mean, this is not nuke. Religions have had their stories and their midst for millennia. This is not new. But the question is, is it true? [00:24:10] Is it true? [00:24:13] If it is false, our faith is vain. [00:24:20] If we. Listen, please. If we hold something, we say we believe something, but that thing that we believe is actually a falsehood, it's not real. [00:24:32] It's useless. [00:24:34] It's not about making ourselves feel better. It's not about following the doctrines of our church. No, no, no. If we put our trust in something that is not actually real, it's useless and it's going to do us no good. [00:24:50] And in the end, we will be ultimately disappointed because we will not receive the thing we hope for and the thing which we believe and what a terrible place to be in. Think about it. Think about outside of faith. Think about your hope, your trust resting on something, and you just. You long for it and you hope for it and you trust it. And in the end, it's not even real. It's all fake. It's all fantasy. It's all smoke and mirrors. You see, this is the Lord. Listen, the Lord places the wager on this historical fact. If Jesus is not alive, it's all fake. [00:25:32] It's all a fantasy. [00:25:37] Further, our faith would be vain in that case, because the one in whom we believe is a liar, Jesus, because Jesus said that he would rise. [00:25:57] So we unashamedly say that if. [00:26:01] That if the resurrection of Christ is not an historical fact, the whole of Christianity comes down with it. [00:26:08] If the resurrection is true, if Christianity is true, forgiveness of sin is then also true. Heaven is real, and our hope of heaven is real as well. If, however, the resurrection is false, none of that is true. It's a mirage. [00:26:24] We're left, as I said, with a shell of high moral laws none of us can keep. And in the end, nothing. [00:26:32] Emptiness, vanity. [00:26:38] Listen to this. You've probably heard these verses before. In Romans, chapter ten, verse nine, says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We think. Yes, that makes me feel good. But what if he's not risen from the dead? You can believe that all day long and it won't matter. [00:27:02] You're not saved. [00:27:04] You're not going to heaven. You see what I'm saying? [00:27:08] Because you believe something that's false. You see, this is why we side with the truth, whatever it be. We're not afraid of that. We're not afraid of the truth. We're not afraid of the claims of the scripture, to be exact, examined, to see if they're real. [00:27:29] He goes on to say this in Romans ten, for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. All right, you can believe that with your heart all you want. But if it's all fake, there is no righteousness. It's empty. [00:27:47] What does it say, though? Listen. What does it say about people trusting in false systems of religion that are not true? Look, everything can't be true all at the same time. Things that contradict cannot all be true simultaneously. [00:28:10] Only in our fancy and in our feelings and in our sentiments can we hold totally contradictory things. The world, it's good for you. It's good for you, and your truth is good for you. But for me, no, no, no. The question is the truth, what is real? [00:28:31] And the resurrection of Christ is real. Amen. [00:28:37] Verse 17. [00:28:38] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. And look at the next phrase. Ye are yet in your sins. [00:28:47] Now listen to this. I'll read these very quickly because I know I gotta finish. [00:28:51] Matthew, 1621. From that time forth, Jesus began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again. The third day. Mark 931. [00:29:09] The son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him. And after that he is killed he shall rise. The third day, Luke 1832 says this, for he shall be delivered unto the gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge him and put him to death. And the third day, he shall rise again. [00:29:36] Are you full yet? Well, I'll give you one more, just in case. John two, verse 19. Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, the body, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, 46 years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. [00:29:56] Jesus said he would rise. Now follow me. Now, Jesus repeatedly many times said, they're going to kill me, and I am going to rise. The third day. [00:30:10] But if he didn't actually rise, he's a liar. [00:30:17] And if Jesus is a liar, you have no savior. [00:30:23] And if you have no savior, please listen. [00:30:26] You have no hope of heaven. [00:30:29] You're not getting there on your own. [00:30:32] The Bible says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Ephesians two, eight, nine. For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. [00:30:49] Romans, chapter four, verse five. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Listen, if you think you're gonna go to heaven because you're a good person, you're wrong. I'm sorry. I say this with compassion, but you're not getting there. There's only one way. Jesus is the way, because there is a huge wall, a thick, huge, enormous, impenetrable wall between you and God. And that wall is sin. Your transgressions against God's law. You're not going to. The only hope you've got is that a savior died in your place. That's it. [00:31:31] That is it. And rose again. [00:31:36] Have you trusted in that savior? [00:31:39] Are you at this moment? Is your faith resting in Jesus blood shed for you? Or are you resting in the good things that you've done? [00:31:51] You see, if Jesus did not rise again, he's a liar because he said he would. And if he's a liar, he's not a savior because he's unfit. He's a sinner just like you. [00:32:01] And without a savior, without a savior, he's. We are hopeless. [00:32:09] Jesus would be a liar, a sinner, an imposter. [00:32:15] Listen to this. This is by ha Ironside, a quote. He says this. It is useless to laud Jesus as a teacher while denying his bodily resurrection. He himself predicted it. So you say, well, jesus was a great teacher, a great moral and philosophical teacher. But then you deny what? The parts he said about his resurrection. He's no longer a good teacher because he's a liar. [00:32:39] He's peddling falsehoods, you see? [00:32:43] You think, well, that's okay. Well, God will forgive me. No, he won't. [00:32:48] Forgiveness is not something that God just willy nilly gives out to people because he's nice. Forgiveness is a total restoration, a putting away of our sin against God, who is holy. [00:33:01] And because God is just and righteous, his forgiveness requires that a payment be made for sin. The Bible says that we are forgiven by Christ's blood shed for us. [00:33:15] And since we're the ones who have broken God's law and are therefore sinners, we must have a substitute or we must be judged ourselves. Jesus was that substitute, and he died in the place of sinners on that cross. [00:33:30] But none of that matters if he's a liar and he did not rise. [00:33:36] There's no savior, there's no salvation. [00:33:40] Verse 18. [00:33:42] Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Those that have died trusting in Jesus, they're in hell. [00:33:52] You know, you think about, well, that's them. What about me? You know, the truth is, I mean, just speaking frankly, there's only a few short years between those that have fallen asleep in Christ and us, right? We're walking in their steps. I hate saying that. I mean, to be honest with you, I hate saying this, but that's the truth. [00:34:10] We're all just a few short years are going to be exactly where these people are in verse 18, fallen asleep, died, gone on, passed on. [00:34:19] And if these people who trusted in Jesus are perished because, in fact, Jesus did not rise, what hope do we have? [00:34:27] None. [00:34:29] What that means is there's no heaven. [00:34:40] There's no heaven, there's no hope, there's no freedom from sin. Those that have trusted in Jesus, who passed on before us, we're not going to see them again. They're perished. That's what the word says. Perish. That's the same word used in John 316 for those that do not believe in Christ. Same word. [00:35:02] And every one of us is heading in that direction. [00:35:07] If Jesus isn't risen, he's certainly not returning. [00:35:13] And if he hasn't risen, there's certainly not a hope for us who have trusted in him that we're going to be raised from the dead and go to be with him without sin to live with him. That's not going to happen. All of it's fake. You see, I basically described every major tenet of hope in Christianity, and all of it lands squarely upon the truth of the resurrection. [00:35:36] Verse 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men, most miserable. In other words, look, we have tried to follow the Lord's, the Lord's law, and we have put away the pleasures of sin. We have desired to walk according to God's word, right, and not do those things and indulge ourselves in all those wicked things. [00:35:58] But there's no use. [00:36:01] It's all smoke and mirrors. It's all a fantasy. If Jesus has not risen, I'll tell you what. Up to this point, this chapter is pretty miserable. [00:36:11] But this is his point. If Jesus is not risen, what? [00:36:19] But verse 20, this is where we finish. [00:36:24] But now is Christ risen from the dead? [00:36:32] The truth is that Jesus is risen. He is. He did rise and at this moment, he alive. [00:36:42] So here's what I want to say to you. [00:36:46] The first thing I want to ask you is, as a matter of fact, do you believe that Jesus is actually alive. I'm not asking for mental assent to some doctrinal statement. [00:36:58] I'm not asking for your to be a signatory on some catechism. [00:37:04] I'm asking you if you believe that it is a fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners on a cross, is actually alive at this moment. [00:37:14] Now here's the other question. [00:37:17] If he is alive and your faith is not squarely resting on him and him alone, all those other things that I talked about with Jesus, about his resurrection are also true. [00:37:36] He's coming again, the very same person. [00:37:41] He will judge us all according to our works and give us according to our works. [00:37:49] There is a heaven if he's alive, and there's also a hell. [00:37:56] There is a salvation to be had. There is a way to get forgiveness, and there's judgment to be received if we refuse the offer, the free offer of eternal life that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for. [00:38:12] You see, if Jesus is alive, all those things are true. [00:38:18] And if Jesus is alive, then every single one of us is standing before him with the decision to make whether we are going to trust in Jesus or reject him for the love of sin, he is alive. [00:38:36] Let's pray.