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Okay, next question comes from a listener in Utah.
What does it mean to believe in vain?
What does it mean to believe in vain?
1 Corinthians 15 verse 2.
Okay, let's see here.
Here we go.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 2
Let's start in verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand.
Verse 2, By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
Okay, here's what you do.
Drop down to verse 13, But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
Verse 14, And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also vain.
So there's your answer.
The word, if, signifies a condition.
And Paul said, if there be no resurrection of the dead, then that means Christ has not risen.
And guess what?
If he didn't rise, my preaching's a lie and it's in vain.
And if Paul's preaching was in vain, then these Corinthians believed in vain.
Why?
Because they believed a lie.
That's what believing in vain means.
Look at 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.
You see, Paul is clearly speaking of his testimony concerning the resurrection.
He's saying that if Christ didn't rise up out of that grave, then I'm a false witness with a false testimony.
And if you believe a false witness with a false testimony, you've believed in vain.
Verse 16, For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
Verse 17, And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. Ye are yet in your sins.
So if we'll just let Bible truth and not man's traditional vanity be our fact finder, our truth guide, it becomes apparent that if anyone has believed in vain, it's because they believed something that was false.
They believed a lie.
And it's not because they didn't believe enough.
It has to do with the information they heard.
Believing in vain has more to do with the messenger than the hearer.
It's the communicator's initial fault for not articulating the correct message.
And secondarily, it's the hearer's fault for not testing what they heard.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:6, Let no man deceive you with vain words.
Galatians 4:16, Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
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