Let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. I'll pray and then we'll begin the sermon. Let's pray together. Lord, we come to you now in great need of your spirit's help. to understand your word, to see the connections that are made in your word to the glorious nature of your resurrection and what we ought to be and do in this world here and now, Lord, that you've left us in to bear witness to your truth. Lord, would you please bring light and understanding to our minds, help Holy Spirit to remove any distractions that we may have even from the preacher himself. Grant the hearer understanding, grant the preacher a spirit of power. He is in desperate need this morning. In Christ's name we ask, amen. First Corinthians 1558, in the last two times we've been together in this kind of, I guess you would call it a mini-series on the resurrection, we covered the last half of chapter 15, and it was the nature of the resurrection body and the victory that the Christian has over death. So we come now to a closing verse in this chapter. It's one of the longest chapters in the New Testament. And the entire chapter, as you know, is concerned with the resurrection. And verse 58 really is kind of a climax to the chapter, but also a climax to the letter. What has not been explained in the last two messages has been the context of the epistle. So I want to revisit the context of why Paul wrote what he wrote to the Corinthians, and I think that'll be helpful for us. to understand verse 58. So a little bit of a background to the letter. Corinth was really a church plant. It was planted, established by none other than the Apostle Paul himself. He seems to have spent around a year and a half in Corinth from about 50 to 52 AD. And Corinth was thoroughly Greek. It was rich. It was prominent, it was luxurious, it was full of Greek ideas. Paul eventually left this church and he furthered his missionary endeavors after doing so. And when Paul left, things fell apart. The church faced all sorts of problems and they write to Paul, we need answers to these issues. The details of 1st and 2nd Corinthians really afford us as the reader the most detailed information in the New Testament concerning the internal affairs of a local church. More than really any other book in the Bible. So God in his wisdom really chose to lay bare for us the dirty laundry of a local body of believers. Now in this list of problems, in the flow of the letter, there seems to be almost a progression of seriousness to the issues facing the Corinthians. Each of these problems addressed move from internal issues, factions, divisions, to immorality. Then it moves to things like lawsuits among believers. Believers were suing other believers in court and couldn't settle those things amongst themselves. You had marital issues in the church. You had the role of women and their abuse of the charismatic gifts in the church. And he sums up really the first 14 chapters with this line. All things should be done decently and in order. First Corinthians 1440. But I think he saves the biggest problem in the Corinthian church for last. He saves the most serious problem for last and it is a enormous doctrinal problem. It's a problem of the resurrection. There were some in the Corinthian church that were denying the resurrection of the dead. The idea of a resurrection from the dead was utterly repugnant to a Greek mind. Concerning the church, it seems that there were those in the church that thought the issue really wasn't that serious. It really wasn't a core doctrine of Christianity. You really didn't have to hold these things to be a Christian. You can be a Christian and not believe in all that resurrection business, maybe some would say. Maybe in our modern culture you would hear something like this. You can unhitch yourself from that idea. Whatever that conversation may have been, the Corinthian church had a serious question about the resurrection. They wrote to Paul about it. It was a completely rejected idea and they need answers. In Acts 17, this question of the resurrection, it was the topic that sparked the mocking of the crowd when Paul preached. After preaching in the Areopagus against every Greek religious idea, the text records that when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, what does it say? They mocked Paul. So Paul spends the entirety of chapter 15 explaining the resurrection of the dead. He speaks of the resurrected Christ appearing to Cephas, and then to the 12, and then to more than 500 brothers in one group setting. And he says most of those men are still alive today. In other words, if you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, go ask the men who saw the risen Christ. They're walking around amongst you right now. He speaks of the risen Christ appearing to James, lastly to Paul as one untimely born But most importantly, he speaks of the risen Christ as preached among them. This was the gospel he preached to them. If you look at verse 1 and 2 of chapter 15, he says just as much. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you stand, and by which you were being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. And he goes on to spell, it was this gospel that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. This is the gospel in which they stood, which they were being saved if they would continue in the words preached to them. So he then reasons with them on the basis of the risen Christ. And he asks this question. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead. In other words, it's a contrary fact to the gospel to say there is no resurrection of the dead because we preach that as the gospel message. If there is no resurrection, Paul goes on to say, Christ has not been risen. The apostles themselves are liars. Your life is vain. And we as Christians are above all men on the earth to be most pitied. That's how crucial and central the resurrection is to the thinking of Paul. He then explains, as we attempted to understand in those last two messages, the nature of the resurrection. How were the dead raised? Well, if Christ is raised and there is a resurrection, then how is this so? He gives those earthly analogies of the seed. And he reasons that if we are to inherit the kingdom of God, we must be changed as well. This mortal body must put on immortality. And so Paul ends his doctrinal instruction in this chapter in really a doxology, a thanksgiving to God who gave us the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I need to make this point here, and this is one of those places in the message where it's a sermon within a sermon. Think about how Paul is reasoning in this chapter. I think it's worth mentioning here. Paul is not only showing us what to think about the resurrection, the facts, he's showing us how to think as well, okay? He not only gives us the content of the resurrection, but the method. He gives this doctrinal instruction first, and then he goes to the practice. Now, if you're familiar with the New Testament, you know that, for instance, Romans, the epistle to the Romans, first 11 chapters are what? All doctrine. Chapter 12, therefore, in light of these things, live this way. Ephesians, first three chapters, doctrine. Chapters four through six, what do we have? In light of these things, live this way. And we see this in the chapter in 1 Corinthians. The first 57 verses are exegesis, doctrine, and that's what we've covered in part. When we get to verse 58, we see the practical outworking of the resurrection. What should the resurrection do in our lives? How should it affect us in daily living? So he moves from the exegetical content to the practical nature of the resurrection. So verse 58 reads this way. Therefore, what's the therefore? Therefore, it's a hinge, it turns the doctrine into practice, therefore, My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. So we're going to handle this text in three points, as you can see on your outline. And thank you, gentlemen, for doing that. Three points. First, the Christian must be steadfast and immovable in light of the resurrection. Second, the Christian must be always abounding in the work of the Lord in light of the resurrection. And third, the Christian must be confident in the outcome of his labor in light of the resurrection. So, first point, the Christian must be steadfast and immovable. Now, he's dealt with a lot in the Corinthian church. They're knuckleheads, as we all are. and he has labored among them. But even in light of that, he begins his address by calling them beloved brothers. And his first instruction to them is an imperative, an imperative, it is a command. We put an exclamation point after that. It's a command from God, remain steady in yourselves, steadfast, immovable, Now, these two terms are closely related, and we'll impact them as we go. Steadfast. Hadraios is the Greek word for you Greek nerds out there. Hadraios. The Greeks understood this as something seeded, something settled. Concerning the things of the earth, they would ask questions about the elements themselves. What on this earth is truly settled, firm by its very nature? One Greek philosopher who was a successor of Plato pushed the question further by asking, what is absolutely settled or fixed above the relative world? It was a philosophical pursuit to find, if anything, that lay behind the world that could be labeled as fixed or permanent. When things move here from one state of existence, to another. One famous Greek philosopher said this, no man ever steps into the same river twice. It is not the same river, and he is not the same man. We live in a world of flux, in a world of change. Steadfastness, therefore, stands against that which shifts. It's the opposite of change. that which endures in every change and contradiction. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, we would call that the Septuagint, understood this. So as these men translated the Hebrew into the Greek, they used this word to describe God's throne. His throne is hadryos, settled, firm, Psalm 33, 14. This idea of steadfastness is part of what we come to learn about God's sovereignty. His sovereignty is hadryos, it's firm, it's fixed. Whatever remains on earth in any sense of permanence is owed to God alone. God alone sustains the things of the earth. He's made the mountains hadryos, settled. He's made David's throne hadryos, settled. and he must support the work of man's hand for it ever to be called steadfast. The heart of man is only steadfast when it is oriented toward the Lord. Psalm 112 verse seven says this, this kind of man is not afraid of bad news. His heart is hadryas, steadfast, firm, trusting in the Lord. Now, that word may sound funny to you, but I guarantee you, if you've read your New Testament, you've said that word, sort of. You've probably read it when, well, we read it last week, actually, when Jesus was standing before the Sanhedrin. Sanhedrin, that's just a transliteration of that word into English. The word means counsel, and it has this idea of being fixed, a firm body of interpreters of the law, the sunhedrion, the Sanhedrin. Now, earlier in this epistle, In chapter 7, Paul explains the steadfastness of a man whose passions are under control toward a betrothed. That's that idea of being steadfast. He urges the Colossians in Colossians 1 that those who are reconciled to God must remain steadfast in the faith, not shifting from the gospel. And here in our text, we are called to be steadfast in the truth and certainty of the resurrection. Whatever philosophical ideas were infiltrating the church, whatever hopelessness was being propagated, whatever supposed fresh idea was on the scene in Christianity, they had to remain steadfast. Christ had overcome death. We have to see this imperative to remain steadfast in that context. Turn back just a few verses here, verses 54 through 57 when this perishable puts on the imperishable, this mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Death. Where is your victory? Death? Where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. Power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, This steadfastness has to be seen in light of the fact that Christ has swallowed up death in victory. This is our future hope, beloved. He has swallowed up death forever in victory. Now, remaining steadfast is a tall order in a changing world. It is a tall order. Our culture, and sadly it seems Christianity, has pressed what we would say the gas pedal to the floor and is driving itself over the cliff of insanity. This is not only in the world, but it's in the church. And we're doing this at a breakneck pace. In our country, statistically speaking, we are approaching the tipping point of a simple majority on core issues of the Christian faith, on issues of God's nature, whether other religions are a valid path to God, whether or not man is born innocent, and on and on and on. There is virtually no difference theologically in the church than is in the world. The church believes the same things the world believes. There is a simple majority statistically in our culture that proves that. When weighed on the scales, what the world believes and what the church believes on core Christian truths is virtually equivalent. And those beliefs are heterodox at best and heresy at worst. They just are. If you've never visited the website stateoftheology.com, write that down. It's a website created by Ligonier Ministries. And they go out and they poll the church and the world. And they ask them core questions of Christianity and truth. And you'll see what I mean by a simple majority. The church believes no differently than the world these days, beloved. It just doesn't. So Paul here is advocating that the Christian not move, to be seated, to be settled in the truth of the resurrection, because it affects everything. It affects everything. He would say it earlier like this. If the truth of the resurrection is moved, your life is vain. What are you here for? What has God left us here for? It affects everything. And we'll see that in a moment. If this pillar is moved, the entire structure falls. Steadfastness has to do with not really the facts of your convictions, okay? It has to do with the strength of them. Not just the facts themselves, and they must be the facts. But steadfastness has to do with the strength of your convictions in the various circumstances you meet in life. The question we could ask ourselves is, do those facts endure? Will we hold fast? Will we stay steadfast in light of all the changes around us? This is the idea that Paul's after, a strong determination to stand on the truth of the resurrection by the power of God. Now, this is not some determination we drum up in ourselves. This is reliance upon God to remain steadfast. That's what orienting our hearts toward the Lord means. If we are believing the gospel, if we're strong in the Lord, we will endure every change and contradiction to it. Remain steady in the truth of the resurrection, Paul says. This is a gospel-driven strength. This is a gospel-powered life. And we'll see how important that is in just a moment. But secondly, and closely related to this word steadfast, is the word immovable. Immovable. Be immovable. Another imperative. It's closely related to steadfastness. Steadfastness is this positive term denoting strength. Immovability is this term denoting permanence. Be permanently strong. Paul is saying something like that. It's a fact of life. We know it. Nothing in this life in the flesh is permanently strong. All things waver. The strength of youth gives way to the shakiness of age. We would like to think our love remains strong, but it wavers. The resolve to finally finish your honey-do list gives way to exhaustion and defeat. That's a confession before you all. Please don't add anything else. But in our passage, Paul commands that we must have unwavering strength in the truth of the resurrection. There must be something in our life, there has to be something in our life that does not waver. The certainty of the resurrection must be immovable in us. Whatever else is shaken, Whatever you gain or lose in this life, you cannot move from the fact of the resurrection. We cannot be shaken here, beloved. The man who doubts, the man who is movable, James says it this way, is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. He's never the same from moment to moment. The face of the sea is always changing. His convictions are always changing, and he's never the same man. That person must not suppose, James says, that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. So the man who is wavering in faith cannot receive by faith the things of the faith. So Paul tells us we have to be steadfast, we have to be immovable. This is something the Corinthians were struggling with. They were struggling with shiftiness, shifting around with what they thought. And it affected how they lived. Second point, the Christian must always be abounding in the work of the Lord. The Christian must be always abounding in the work of the Lord. So the Christian is commanded to remain steady and to not move in the truth of the resurrection, but he also commands us to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. It's the Christian, I think Paul would say something like this, it's the Christian who is fully gripped by the truth of the resurrection and that hope that we have beyond the grave, that is most easily and most readily bringing heaven to earth. Let me say it another way. The most heavenly-minded man, you know the phrase, is the most earthly good. You've heard that question, right? He's so heavenly-minded, he's no earthly good. What you're seeing in that person is a disconnect between what they believe and how they live. Because Paul reasons here for 57 verses about the resurrection and the facts of it and says that should be eminently practical in our lives. The most heavenly minded man is the most earthly good. And we're commanded to be always abounding and about the work of the Lord. Think about it, beloved, it's the only work that lasts. It's the only work that lasts. I've been, I'm 40, I've been in the same company for 20 years. I'm the owner of the company. But I've been with the same company for 20 years. That's unheard of for a 40-year-old. Most guys have had 15 jobs by now. When I lay down in the grave, that work will not last. It goes with me there. I put it all back in the box. And I write dumpster on it, because that's where it's going when I die. But the work of the Lord always lasts. Our most concentrated prayers, our most concentrated efforts at all times should be centered around and driven by the work of the Lord. Paul says always abounding in that work. And he says we should abound in it. abound in it. Paul uses this word in light of the joy that the resurrection brings. It's not just an intellectual fact to Paul. It puts gas in the engine to get things done. Salvation has been inaugurated. Now are the times of abundance, beloved. What revelation do we have that our brothers in the old covenant did not have? What clarity do we have now? Theirs was a very shadowy revelation. And what do we have now? We have the substance. We have that which is clear to us. They labored in the Lord. Those men of old labored in the Lord, but they labored under a shadowy dispensation of truth. They understood dimly, and as far as they could act, They acted under that shadowy revelation. But the substance has come. The fullness of time, as Paul would say, has come. All of the exploits that we read about in the Lord in Hebrews 11 are done in light of things not yet received, promises not yet received. And they were mighty exploits for the Lord. And Paul reasons here. that we can do and should be doing so much more. Always abounding. When we consider the work that ought to be done, I'm always struck by Christians who say they're bored. I just don't get that. The bored Christian is an oxymoron. It's an oxymoron. There are hearts that have not bowed the knee to Christ. There are nations that do not know the name of Christ. There are lives that are untransformed. There are places where the worship of God does not exist. Talk about fuel for missions. My goodness, how could you be bored? I wonder how much could be branded as really lackluster within the sphere of Christianity simply because we're bored with the truth. Just bored. We're uninspired by something so revolutionary as a man rising from the dead. Sin's power has been broken, beloved. Can we not work in light of that? Death's sting is gone. Will you feel that power? No, you will not. Can you not labor heartily in light of that? Maybe we could defend our dullness by begging the case of sincerity, yet having no opportunity. I doubt it, however. I often wonder, and it stops me in my tracks, I often wonder how the church of old did so much with so little, and we seem, modern Christianity seems to do so little with so much. We have an embarrassment of riches, an abundance of riches. We have enough Bible translations to sink a ship. There's just so many things that we've been blessed with. The Christian, because of the certainty of the resurrection and the clear light that we now have in the revelation of Jesus Christ, The Christian ought to be the most fruitful, the most creative, the most ingenious, the most imaginative and hardy adventurer for the cause of the Lord. Christopher Columbus, boring. Lewis and Clark, boring. Magellan's trip from Spain, boring. Climbing Mount Everest, boring. What are these things, beloved, in comparison to preaching a gospel that raises a dead man to life? Through us, the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ ought to spread everywhere. And this work must abound, Paul says. Gospel-fueled resurrection hope is the only energy that will sustain our work for the Lord. How many things in this life threaten our ambitions? How many times was Christian threatened to turn away on his journey to the celestial city? Were it not for the hope set before him, he would have had ample reason to return or even turn aside. This is a command from Paul. We must be always abounding in the work of the Lord. If you are to be such, you must have a steadfast and immovable grip on the truth of the resurrection. Hardy, abounding, never ceasing work for the Lord is a response of a heart gripped by grace. That's why the early church did so much. They saw the man rise from the dead. Again, we have to consider these things in light of their immediate context. Paul has just left the subject of the conquering of death by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And yes, motive for obedience to God comes from the bare fact that he said it, I get that. God said it, we ought to do it, right? But the immovable strength and ever-abounding nature of that obedience only comes from absorbing into our minds and fleshing out in our lives the grace we have received. We have a future hope. We can obey God on the bare fact of it, but the strength of those things comes from knowing we have a future hope. Matthew Henry said it like this, the most cheerful duty, the greatest diligence, the most constant perseverance becomes those who have such glorious hopes. Well, what is this work? What is this work? There's no need to be obscure here. Paul mentions it twice in one verse, work and labor, synonyms. What is the work? It is the work of the gospel. And this work can be seen to have, I think, primarily two things in view. First of all, the work of the gospel can be seen as the spreading of the gospel among the unbelieving world. The spreading of the gospel among the unbelieving world. It's what the Lord left the church to do. Go therefore, Matthew 28, 18, and make disciples of all nations. It's no wonder, if you read Matthew 28, that this commission comes right on the heels of the resurrection. Seems like that's the way Paul's reasoning here in 1 Corinthians 15. Chapter 28 in Matthew begins with, he is not here, for he is risen. And it ends with, go, go, go. Go beloved. Peter reasons this way. Think about what he says about us and the purpose for which God has left us here. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may sit and debate theology until you die. That's not what the text says. You are a people for his own possession, that purpose clause. You may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You have been left here to proclaim the excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he's left you here. Isaiah 43, 21 says that he formed you. that you might declare his praise. So first, this work is the work of the gospel and the spreading of it among the unbelieving world. Are there people you know, people you work with, people in the grocery store you see on a regular basis that you could speak to Christ about? Are you praying for those people? Do you see them the way God sees them? Do you believe that he's left you here to proclaim his excellencies? He is excellent. Secondly, this work of the gospel can be seen in, I would say it's something like this, whatever contributes to the building up of the church. This is how Paul began to reason with them in chapter 15. He reasons from the gospel. It was the thing of first importance, he says. He delivered to them of first importance what he also received. Not only that Christ died for our sins, and hallelujah, amen, but he was also raised on the third day. How much does a resurrection play into our thinking on a day-to-day basis? This is how Paul described Timothy's work just a chapter later. Flip over to chapter 16 in 1 Corinthians. Look at verse 10. When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord as I am. Timothy was about building up the church and the spreading of the gospel among the unbeliever. We could say more particularly, as Paul says in chapter 14, we ought to be striving as believers excelling to build up the church, striving to excel in building up the church. We ought to be about the gospel work of comforting one another. Paul reasons in First Thessalonians 4.18 from the resurrection that we can comfort one another with these truths. When we lose people that we love, we can comfort one another in the truth of the resurrection. This gospel work in building up the church is the work of prayer. For this reason, Paul says in Ephesians 3.14, I bow my knees before the Father, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Holy Spirit in your inner being. Our most fervent prayers ought to be for the church. And it's the work of peace and agreement. We're knuckleheads. We don't like one another sometimes, and we must repent. Paul says in Philippians 4 too, I entreat you Odia, and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Christians are peacemakers in the body of Christ, not divisive. And it's also putting one another in remembrance of the gospel constantly. This is something I think is really strange and lacking in modern Christianity, and I've heard it from several people, it's like the gospel is that elementary thing we believe, and now that we're mature Christians, we move on to bigger and better things. There's greener pastures past the gospel. I think it's a fool's errand to think we have moved on from the gospel to better things. This is why we ought to be always putting one another in remembrance of these things. Many professing Christians think this way. We're saved, beloved, think about this, we're saved by the same thing that sanctifies us. You're saved by the gospel, right? Believing the gospel. Well, guess how you're sanctified? By believing the gospel. The same thing that saves is the same thing that sanctifies. The gospel is that thing which will occupy the minds of the redeemed, you and I, for all eternity. Ephesians 2 7 is a wonderful verse. I encourage you to go look at that. It will be the contemplation of heaven forever. We're not going to go to heaven and float on clouds and play harps and talk about baseball. The gospel is going to occupy us for all eternity. We'll never carve out the corners of it. We'll never discover the depths of the riches of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Paul reasons this way with the Corinthians. And he's reasoning this way with us. Doubting or forgetting the central gospel truth of the resurrection made the Corinthians really useless to the culture. Useless, sluggish, easily pushed around. But for the Christian, there is every reason to always be abounding in the work of the Lord. He is risen. He is risen, beloved. Well, thirdly, lastly, the Christian must be confident in the outcome of his labor. We must be steadfast, we must be immovable, and because of the resurrection, we must always be abounding in the work of the Lord. But Paul closes this chapter on the resurrection by telling the Corinthians that they can have a sure knowledge that what is done in the Lord will not be forgotten. It will not be forgotten. Working for Christ, laboring in the Lord is no risky business, even if it costs you your life. Even if it costs you your life, there is a reward. This is what Paul means. We can know for certain our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Now, this reference to vanity here is kind of sprinkled throughout the chapter. and throughout the epistle. Earlier in the chapter, he states that if Christ is not risen, what I'm doing right now is absolutely vain. I'm standing up here as just a, I don't know what, label me. It's vanity. And our faith, beloved, is in vain. But we see here in this passage that our labor is not in vain. And he speaks in the present tense. He doesn't say, do things for the Lord now and your labor will not be in vain, future tense. He says your labor right now is not in vain. One commentator, I think, states it aptly here. He says, the reality of the future resurrection colors everything about the reality of the present. In the Lord here, in the Lord now, you can heartily labor and know that your labor is not in vain. Now, how can we know this? Paul speaks of a settled knowledge. You can know that your labor's not in vain. Well, there's a few points here. First, I think we can know that our labor's not in vain because God has promised that it would not be in vain. We have to consider the promises of God. Proverbs 19, 17, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Matthew 10, 42, whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. Second Corinthians 9, 6, whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Colossians 3, 23 and 24, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Hebrews 6.10, for God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do. In Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 4, kind of comparison verses here, Paul says something like this, whatever we suffer here, he will abundantly reward us there. And we gain a sense from these passages that we're not just spinning our wheels serving Christ here on earth. If we labor for the Lord, there is a reward. We will not be forgotten. This is the most general context I think we can speak of in regard to laboring for the Lord and a reward. But secondly, we can know that our work in the Lord is not in vain when it is done according to his word. His word is utterly sufficient. Isaiah 5511 is a beautiful passage. Just as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth and brings forth seed for the sower, bread for the hungry, so shall the word of the Lord be. It shall not return empty, but will accomplish his purpose. So much that is done in the name of Christ is done apart from the word of the Lord and in the wisdom of men, and that's why it fails. That's why it fails. Hudson Taylor said it best, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. Well third, and this is the more immediate context, is the resurrection of Christ. We can know that our work in the Lord is not in vain because of the risen Lord, because of the risen Christ. This is what ultimately and continually should energize us in our work for the Lord. It energized the apostle Paul, and he did many great exploits for the Lord. If he is risen, beloved, and the Christian, you and I, are risen with him, seated with him in the heavenly places, there is nothing in vain that is done in the Lord. The vanity that death pronounces over all the world's works is true, but the vanity that death would pronounce over our works has been totally reversed. There's this connection Paul is making in the context of the resurrection that touches really the first pages of the Bible. The first man was called to labor. Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took the man out of the wilderness and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. He was expelled, a place where abounding work and the fruit of it was to be brought forth. It was good soil. Fruit multiplied easily, life was easily sustained. There was work, but there was an abounding supply of fruitfulness and power to do such things. It was pure life. It was pure life. It was a life without vanity. Because of sin, however, this world and the work in it was put under a curse. Genesis 3.16, cursed is the ground because of you, Adam. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Work was not sinful, God himself works, right? But the vanity of work was part of that punishment. But in the Lord, Paul states, in the Lord, our labor is not in vain. Here we find the great reversal. And it's a great reversal. It is a grand reversal. Death has been destroyed. The lasting effects of it have been robbed of their power. The Christian can labor now, knowing that he will find a sure reward. We no longer hear, as Christians, that looming sound. You are dust, and to dust you shall return. Forever silent, is that preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. There's one place where our labor is not empty expenditure of energy in a vain exercise, ultimately brought to dust. Labor in the Lord is and never can be in vain. The point is this. Our first work was and is under a curse. Because of and only because of the resurrection of Christ, can our labor, which is in the Lord, be sufficient grounds to believe that it is not in vain. We labor here, beloved, because we live in light of an eternal reality. Matthew Henry says this, those who serve God have good wages. They cannot do too much nor suffer too much for so good a master. If they serve him now, they shall see him hereafter. If they suffer for him on earth, they shall reign with him in heaven. If they die for his sake, they shall rise again from the dead, be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality, and inherit eternal life. Verse 58 ends in such a way, it leaves the sluggish Christian without question. Yet, should he ever find himself not so fully convinced, it places him firmly back at the beginning, back to the gospel. It seems, therefore, that the heavenly-minded man is the most, in fact, earthly good. I want to leave you with one final closing observation, one observation. Let us avoid as much as possible an eternity of holy regret. Let us avoid as much as possible an eternity of holy regret. I'm sure, I'm not sure, that there's a single soul in heaven who would say, I did enough for the Lord. We will rest in him there. We will rest. Amen. But I believe that heaven will be full of what I would say is holy regret. How could you sing his praises in light of his glory, except in the knowledge that he was worthy of so much more? Do the saints in heaven have no self-reflection? Are we some sort of narcissistic, maybe sociopathic creature that has no capacity to see the glory of God and think about what we ought to have done while on earth? Is there no understanding in heaven of things left undone here? Is there no memory of sin? If we see him dimly here and we feel the pains of our conscience here about things left undone, will there be an eternity of holy regret when we see him clearly there? When he holds out his wounds, beloved, before you, and his wounds are there, when he holds out his wounds for you, for you to contemplate In all his resurrection glory, will we have no reference to the things we have left undone? What will be the memory of our life here on earth? What I'm saying is this, what am I driving after? I'm asking you one question. Is he worthy? Is he worthy? Is he worthy to spend and be spent for him? I pray that God give us an understanding of how worthy he is to be used of him, to glorify his name. Can we not hear the angelic host saying something like this? Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. You have one life, beloved. You have one life. It is short. You have an eternity to remember it. How will you remember it? Let us avoid as much as possible an eternity of holy regret. As the hymn writer says, and we'll close here, only one life, yes, only one. Now let me say thy will be done, and when at last I hear the call, I know I'll say t'was worth it all. Only one life, t'will soon be past. Only what was done for Christ will last. Let's pray. O Lord, would you grant us a deep sense of understanding to know and feel the weight of the resurrection glory that is to be ours, the hope and the joy that is set before us that we may be useful to you here. Help us to be a salve among the miserable. Hope to the faint-hearted, Lord, and to hold forth the light of the gospel to a lost and dying world. We know that our labor's not in vain. We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul. In Christ's name we pray, amen.