SERMON OUTLINE

No Longer In Our Sins 1 Corinthians 15.17

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”

1 Corinthians 15.17

Introduction

-Of all the devastating and heartbreaking words we could ever hear “your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins” is the most tragic.

-The Good news is that we do not have to die in our sins if we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

-Comfort, hope, peace and love are the result of no longer being in sin because of faith in Jesus Christ.

We Are Born Sinners

-Many words describe our sinful status before a Holy God summed up with the words, “There is no one righteous not even one.…All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Romans 3.10, 23

What WE Must Understand Not to Die in Our Sins

1) We do not have the means or the power to take away our sins. Not a scale weighing good and sin. One sin tips the scale toward judgment. No other person. No religious system.

2) God provided a way to not die in our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus experienced hell for us. “It is finished” was proved by the resurrection.

3) We must receive the salvation of God for ourself.

Conclusion

-If we die in our sins on the judgment day we will hear “your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” and we will be separated from God for eternity in hell.

-If God has taken away our sins in Jesus Christ on the judgment day we will hear “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world”. Matthew 25.34

SERMON NOTES

No Longer in Our Sins 1 Corinthians 15.17

-Let me begin this morning by asking you to think about some tragic words you never want to hear. Some of you might say I never want to hear the words, “you’re fired”. Someone else might say I never want to hear the words, “I am leaving you and filing for a divorce”. Others might say I never want to hear the words, “your son/daughter died in a tragic accident”. These are all devastating statements of loss which would knock us off our feet and fill us with grief and anguish and pain and a sense of hopelessness.

-This morning I want to tell you that as heartbreaking as these statements might be, there is nothing more severe, and sad, and tragic as the words in verse 17, “your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins”. To have these words spoken to you by God on the Day of Judgment would mean spending eternity in hell, separated from God. None of us would choose an eternity in hell, but hell will be your eternal destiny if you die in your sins.

-In this verse Paul is showing the believers in the church in Corinth what their status before God would be if Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead. If Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation would be worthless. They would still be in their sins. They would be separated from God. The same status would be ours as well. If Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead, all of us would have a worthless faith, all of us would die in our sins, and all of us would enter an eternity separated from God. That would be the greatest tragedy anyone could ever experience.

-The Good News is that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. That means that faith in Jesus Christ to remove our sins is not a worthless faith. That means that those who believe in Jesus Christ will not die in their sins and they will receive God’s gift of eternal life.

-I hope you are not too disappointed this morning because I have started this message by speaking about sin and hell, and the need for faith in a resurrected Christ for eternal life. You may have come here this morning looking forward to hearing a message of comfort, a message of peace, a message of love and hope. Let me assure you that any true message of comfort, and peace and love and hope, must begin with a message on sin, and faith in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

-I consider the message of the Bible to be the most important message in the universe. The message of the Bible is about my sin before a Holy God, and about the consequences of dying in my sin, and about what God has done to save me from my sin through Jesus Christ. For me the message of the Bible about my sin and my salvation in Jesus Christ is the most important message I could ever hear. It is the most important message I could ever hear because my response to what God has done about my sin, determines my eternal destiny. Eternity is a long time.

-The fact that the Bible is God’s message to this world and that the Bible’s main theme is about my sin and God’s answer to my sin, reinforces the fact that God is serious about sin and therefore I should be serious about sin.

-The Bible teaches that everyone born into this world is born into this world a sinner. Here are some words the Bible uses to describe mankind – ungodly, dead in trespasses and sins, sinners, enemies of God, disobedient, children of wrath, without hope and without God in the world, sinful nature, slaves of sin, darkened in understanding, hardened in their heart, impure, greedy, proud, depraved, malicious, gossips, God-haters, wicked, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, slanderers, etc… We are born in sin and God sees us as a sinful people. The Bible sums up man’s sin with these words, “There is no one righteous, not even one. …All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3.10,23) You were born a sinner before a Holy God. There is not much you can do about that. The tragedy is that if you die in your sins you will suffer the consequences of your sins which is eternal separation from God in hell.

-The Good News is that the Bible not only describes man in his sins but also teaches us the way out of sins through Jesus Christ so that we do not have to die in our sins. Here are three points you must understand so that you will not die in your sins.

1) The first thing you must understand is that you do not have the means or the power to take away your own sins. No amount of good works can pay for your sins or remove your sins. Nowhere does the Bible teach that God judges whether you get to heaven or not by using a scale where good works can tip the balance in your favor. One sin on the scale tips the balance toward God’s judgment and you cannot reverse that judgment with any amount of giving or selfless sacrifice.

-You must understand that no other person can take away your sin. Many around you may declare that you are a good person but they cannot take away your sin before a Holy God. A counselor may proclaim you forgiven and enable you to transfer your guilt to someone else, but these things only temporarily take away a sense of guilt. They can never take away your sins and remove your guilt before a Holy God.

-You also must understand that no religious system has the means or the power to take away your sins. No sacrament, no priestly pronouncement, no sacred ritual or chant or vow or pilgrimage can take away your sins. Religion may give you a false sense of acceptance with God but this is a worthless faith. One day God will declare that your faith in a religious system is worthless and you will die in your sins and suffer the eternal consequences of your sins.

-In your sins you are without hope and without God in this world and will also be without hope after death unless you understand what God has done in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to take away your sins.

2) Second you must understand that what you, or another person, or a religious system cannot do, God did. God provided a way for you to have your sins taken away from you, forever. God’s way of removing sins from you is the only way that sins can be removed. You can try to find another way to get rid of your sins if you want to but only God provides the way to remove sins so we can be accepted by Him forever.

-God’s way of removing sins is through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross for your sins. God willingly punished Jesus Christ for your sins and then willingly credited to you the righteous life of Jesus Christ.

-When Jesus was on the cross, God put your sins upon him and then poured out His judgment upon him. We read of God’s judgment poured out on Jesus for our sins at the cross when God the Father turned away from Jesus and Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” That forsaking of Jesus by His Father was Jesus experiencing the hell you deserved for your sins. The punishment for all my sins and your sins was paid for when Jesus Christ died on the cross. That is the message of Good Friday.

-After experiencing the eternal judgment of my sins and your sins on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished”. What was finished? The sacrifice for man’s sins was finished. God could now take away my sins and your sins forever. Jesus Christ paid the full price for all my sins and your sins and God was now able to take away sins and give the gift of eternal life to those who believe.

-How did God prove that Jesus took away our sins and finished his work? God proved all His work was finished by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection was God’s absolute assurance to everyone that He accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for sins and that He would take away the sins of those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

3) The third and last thing you must understand is that God offers to take away your sins in Jesus Christ but you must receive it for yourself. Like medication offered for the cure of a terminal disease so you must receive God’s offer to take away your sins because Jesus Christ has paid for them. We receive God’s offer to take away our sins by asking God to take away our sins because Jesus Christ paid the penalty for those sins. By asking God to take away our sins because of Jesus Christ, God takes away our sins and receives us as one of His children. He shows us we are one of His children by putting the Holy Spirit inside of us who then cries out to God as Father.

-On the day you will stand before God for judgment you will hear God say one of two things to you. If you died in your sins because you did not believe you were a sinner before a Holy God, and you did not ask God to take away your sins in Jesus Christ, you will hear God say to you, “your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins”. What a tragic day that will be. There will be no possibility of reversing those somber words. You will spend eternity in hell separated from God.

-But if God has taken away your sins in Jesus Christ and has made you one of His children and you have followed Jesus you will hear God say to you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world”. (Matthew 25.34)

-Those are the words I am expecting to hear when I stand before God because I know the my faith is a true faith and that my sins have been taken away by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and by his resurrection from the dead. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for my sins is a true message a comfort and peace and love and hope.