I. To Deny the Resurrection Means our Preaching Is in Vain.

The word "vain" in the text is the Greek word Kevon which means "empty, groundless and void of all truth and meaning." Let me go a step further and point out how denying the resurrection makes our preaching meaningless! There are two ways:

1. The Message We Preach Is the Gospel.

It is the Gospel (Good News) of the Resurrected Lord who has been raised to give us the privilege of living forever in the presence of God. Therefore, to deny the resurrection of Christ makes our living forever impossible.

I stood in the empty Garden Tomb in the Holy Land as Johnny Hall sang, "Because He Lives." The certainty of meeting my Dad, whose funeral I conducted the preceding Friday, was never more real than when I realized Christ was alive and as I stood there, I knew Dad was in Heaven with his wife, my mother. That Bishop would prefer to leave me with no such certainty.

2. The Message We Preach Is Jesus Christ. Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and the resurrection is the proof that God accepted His sacrifice for our sins. Romans 1:4 says, "And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." To deny the resurrection then is to wipe away our certainty of not only deliverance from the penalty of sin but also deliverance from the power of sin.

II. To Deny the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Means our Faith Is in Vain.

I would like to take the Bishop to the Brooklyn Tabernacle and introduce him to a former transvestite. He has forsaken his sinful life-style, is now married and has a family. How come? The answer is that he heard that Christ died for his sins, was buried and rose again and that Christ wants to not only forgive him but give him the power to live a godly life. That man is proof that Jesus Christ is alive and that Romans 5:10 is true: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

All of this is impossible unless Jesus Christ is alive. It is impossible to make any impact on these sinful life-styles without the power of the Gospel of a living Christ. I spoke at the Brooklyn Tabernacle a little over a year ago. So many responded to the invitation that I went down from the platform to better understand if they understood. I made some amazing discoveries. Unless you have the Gospel, what hope can you possibly give to a person with AIDS? They were there. If I didn't believe I have a powerful Gospel from God, I would have run from that church because I have no solution apart from a living Christ.

III. To Deny the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Means We Are First Class Liars. Read I Corinthians 15:15: "Yea, and 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 that the dead rise not." If Jesus is not alive, you have been supporting me to go out on weekends to lie! That is exactly what the text says.

The New Tribes Mission Crisis Management Committee, on January 31st, marked the third year in captivity for Rick, Mark and Dave. It has been extremely difficult for the families to carry on with their lives during such an extended period. Birthdays and holidays have passed for the children, all without the presence of their fathers. Patti, Tania and Nancy have done a remarkable job of bearing the burden and raising the family, but they too are weary of this ordeal. Pray for them that they would continue to avail themselves of God's grace each day and that their husbands will soon be released.

What you have just read is an absolute waste of life and effort if Jesus Christ is not alive.

We have become a people who do not want to offend because we want to be liked. It is time we returned to what the Bible says about fake teachers. The Bible doesn't tolerate them. The Prophet Jeremiah states that false teachers walk in lies: "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah (Jeremiah 23:14). Micah 3:11 states the motivation of false teachers: "The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us."

The New Testament is not kind either, as in II Peter 2:12-17: "But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unright-eousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever."

I have been teaching the New Testament book of Galatians on Songtime. In my teaching, the words "so soon" in Galatians 1:6 have been haunting me. Paul reminds the Galatians that shortly after he left, they defected. This reminds me of the importance of repetition; i.e. day after day we bombard the mind with Divine Viewpoint. God, because He is Omniscient, knows who needs the book of Galatians and because He is Omnipotent He can cause people to tune in. At Songtime, we also have the distinct advantage of repetition but we must be there on the radio dial to make this possible.

Religious radio's listenership continues to grow with an estimated weekly audience of 12.5 million, according to the Religion and the Media Quarterly. The audience of 1,405 U.S. Christian stations is up 1.6% since last Summer. I do not believe that Songtime USA is better than the other programs, but we are different. I use a team of people to help me teach Divine Viewpoint and illustrate it. Then we add the element of music and prepare the audience for the teaching. Go back to all the evangelists of the past and to Billy Graham in the present. They all used music to prepare the audience for Divine Viewpoint. I have been broadcasting since 1948 48 years! Longevity has proven to me that radio is the most inexpensive and effective vehicle for communicating Divine Viewpoint. Unlike television, radio has the advantage of the imagination factor, meaning that everyone listening has a different image of the team. Because of this, Songtime should aim for the 1,405 stations because with the Lord's backing we can get people back to the realization that the Bible is all-sufficient (Psalm 19:7-9). There is no substitute!

Because of this, I have enclosed a special Easter envelope. The fact you have taken time to send it in will tell me that you understand what I have shared and you want to help us make a difference both on radio, the weekly audio magazine cassette and the special cassettes to our service personnel in Bosnia. Ask for a copy of the cassette so you will know exactly what we are saying to our troops in Bosnia. And if, for any reason, you can't hear the daily program, send for the weekly cassette, Songtime Audio Magazine. There is no charge for this faith-supported ministry and it highlights all of the teaching plus the best interviews.

Here is the issue: The people who respond to this appeal are people who believe that Jesus Christ is alive. Let me prove what I have just stated with I Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

He is Risen! We cannot deny that!

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