1Corinthians 15 Series, Study #1 by Chris McCann, originally aired June 21, 2015
Good afternoon and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. Today we are going to start a new series of studies that look into 1Corinthians, chapter 15. It is a chapter that discusses in detail the resurrection of the dead and today we will begin in 1Corinthians 15:1-11:
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. 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: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred 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 of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which *was bestowed* upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether *it were* I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
I will stop reading here. 1Corinthians, chapter 15 is a fairly long chapter of 58 verses and we have relatively little time left before October 7, 2015, especially since these will be Sunday studies and there are only a few more studies in which to look at this chapter. We do not have time to go verse by verse, but we will look at it, section by section, and discuss pertinent information we find in each of these sections.
Today, we will mostly look at 1Corinthians 15:1:
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
This is an important verse and, of course, all that God has to say in His Holy Word is important, but in this verse it speaks of the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, and Paul says, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand.”
What Gospel is this? There are many people, especially in the churches, that say, “It is the Gospel we have preached, the Gospel that was declared to us and that which we received,” and they mean it is the Gospel that their churches have traditionally accepted and affirmed. This becomes an important distinction because we are living at the time of the end and God has said in His Word to Daniel, “Seal the book to the time of the end,” and then “knowledge shall be increased.” That is exactly what happened as God opened the Scriptures and revealed much information that had been sealed up until the proper time and season; then God opened the understanding of His people to see these things and to obey them. That is the reason we learned of the end of the church age and the command to come out of the churches, but the churches which had been operating for centuries never had that kind of doctrine; they never preached it or declared it; they never received it in their traditions of church history. There is no mention in their creeds or confessions of the end of the church age, except possibly for the Premillennial position, where they might talk about that, but that came pretty late in church history. So the churches say, “That is heresy. That is not the Gospel that was preached or declared to us and not one we have received and, therefore, you have another gospel.”
Let us compare what we are reading here in 1Corinthians 15 to Galatians, chapter 1, where God moved the same man (the Apostle Paul) to write. It says in Galatians 1:6-7:
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
The word “pervert” basically means “to change.” To change the true Gospel of Christ would be to pervert it and it would then become another gospel. That is why the Apostle Paul was moved to say, “Which is not another.”
Then he goes on to say in Galatians 1:8-9:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any *man* preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Again, that word “received” is the same word we are looking at in our verse in 1Corinthians, so it is definitely expressing the same idea that one must hang on to what we have preached unto you and what you have received of us, and nothing else.
Again, this is where some people will say, “Well, we never heard about an end of the church age before.” Or, some others say, “Well, we never heard that Christ died and made payment for sin before the foundation of the world and not in 33AD. That has never been preached to us, declared to us or received by our church, so it is another gospel.” Do you see how they are doing this? Basically, according to that kind of understanding, any doctrine that their church has not preached, declared or received over its long history is “another gospel.” That is all they have to say about it: “Go check our church history. Check our confessions and creeds. Check our traditions and you will not find it taught that Christ actually made payment for sin at the foundation of the world.” The churches have not “received” that and, therefore, to them it is another gospel and that is what some people are trying to say today. They use that kind of argument: “If it was not declared, preached or received, it is not the true Gospel. You just came up with that.”
Of course, it is just now being proclaimed, just like the doctrine of the end of the church age and just like annihilation as the judgment of God rather than a place of eternal suffering in hell and other doctrines that are just now being proclaimed. It is because of progressive revelation, as God opens up His Word to reveal these things at the time of the end. Some fight against that idea because they cannot fight against these doctrines using the Bible to prove them wrong, so they revert back to the argument that it has not been “received” or “declared” and, therefore, it is a false gospel.
Is that correct? If that is true, then nothing is true that is being taught by God’s people as they teach, preach, declare and receive these things over the last several years (during the Great Tribulation and now during Judgment Day) . Then one cannot understand the Great Tribulation or Judgment Day or any of these things because it goes against what their churches teach.
But, here is the problem. If they were a perfect church and sound in doctrine and did not make mistakes and has not taught erroneous things, then maybe that kind of argument might have some basis in fact. But what do you do when your church has traditionally taught, for instance, that the Pope is infallible and whatever the Pope says has the power and authority of the Word of God? Or, what do you do if you are Reformed Church that thinks the church itself is the pillar and ground of truth? They are basically saying that it is their corporate church that is the authority and not the Bible itself and the living God. Those things are wrong. The Pope does not speak infallibly and the church is not the pillar and ground of truth and we can find all sorts of wrong teaching, historically, within them. For example, the doctrine of divorce is built into the Westminster Confessions, as they permit divorce in the case of adultery, and so forth. There are all kinds of errors and wrong teachings that the churches traditionally held to and, of course, today error is all over the place. What about the doctrine of free will? The churches today preach it, declare it and receive it in tremendous numbers, but does that make it right? No, it does not.
We cannot just go along with the idea that whatever the churches have traditionally preached or received is the Gospel because we would end up with “other gospels” that would go against what they were trying to protect. They were trying to protect against forming another gospel, but if you hold to what the churches have traditionally taught, then you would be following another gospel.
So, what is in view here in our verse? Let us look at the idea of receiving the Gospel and not receiving the “traditions of men” or the traditions of the church. It says in Mark 7:2-3:
And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
So they “received” the tradition of the elders. Then it goes on to say in Mark 7:4-5:
And *when they come* from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, *as* the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
The word “received” is the same word is in 1Corinthians 15:1. This could just as well be the kind of words the churches use today. As God’s people receive and proclaim these doctrines that have been opened up at the end of time, it is as if the churches come to them and say, “Why do you not receive the tradition of the church fathers and elders? None of the church fathers followed these things.”
Here is the answer in Mark 7:6-9:
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with *their* lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching *for* doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
And this is the problem of the corporate church. In many instances they have rejected the commandment of God and substituted their own traditions on doctrines like divorce, baptism and many other things. They substitute the traditions of a respected Reformer or respected church father and it is built into their confessions or creeds and becomes their denominational stance. The churches then receive and uphold that tradition and they will keep it until “death.” Nothing will change. You cannot argue it. They will not permit you to show them their error from the Bible. They will respond, “You do not understand. This is a Presbyterian Church and we hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith. We have no intention of changing and if you do not like this doctrine, you probably should go find another church.”
Of course, today the church age is over, but this was how it had been, historically, when the people of God would question these things. There was no discussion and there was no way they were going to change those doctrines and their errors were built into the foundation of their churches and it was not the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is why we have to be very careful and always hold to the traditions of God over the traditions of men. Either one can be “received,” as one can receive the true Word of God or one can receive the traditions of men. Some churches did receive the true Word of God on some points, like the trinity or like election. That was good and fine and they did the right things in those instances, but in other ways they had not received the true Gospel, but they had switched to the traditions of men.
This is what God has been “correcting” now at the end of time as He opened up the Bible to reveal the traditions of God. Let us turn to 2Thessalonians 3:6:
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
I thought it necessary for us to look at this verse because the Apostle Paul is saying, “withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.” You can see why churches get it into their minds, “If anyone does not follow our traditions, they are walking disorderly, so let us excommunicate them and drive them out.” However, the Apostle Paul is not referring to the traditions of men, but he is referring to another tradition which has been received, which is the true Gospel, the Word of God, the Bible. If we go back to the previous chapter it says in 2Thessalonians 2:15:
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
What are Paul’s epistles? They are the Word of God, the Bible, which God moved him to write down the words that we have in all the epistles that God moved him to write. They are all the Word of God and they are the “traditions” to which he is referring. When he says, “by word,” it could refer to the rest of the Bible, whether in the Old Testament, the Gospel accounts or the epistles written by other prophets. When he says, “our epistle,” he is referring, in particular, to the ones God moved him to write. Those are the “traditions.”
Turn back to 1Thessalonians 2:13: