Let's read verses 1 through 6
again. 1 Corinthians 15. Moreover brethren I declare unto
you the gospel which I preached unto you. Which also you have
received and wherein you stand. By which that is the gospel preaching
of the gospel you're saved if you keep in memory if you hold
fast what I preached unto you. Unless it was in vain. But I delivered on the first
of all that which I also received how the Christ died for our sin
according to the script and. That he was buried and that he
rose again the third day. And that he was seen of Cephas
and of the twelve and after that he was seen of about five hundred
brethren at one of whom the greater part remain. unto this present
day but some are falling asleep. If you would read through the
book of Acts which contains many recorded sermons by the apostles
you will see a predominant theme something that is mentioned in
nearly every message that they preach especially the apostle
Paul who's preaching is recorded the most. And that theme is the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because everything depends
on the fact that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died and was
buried. Three days afterward he walked
out of that grave. life. Everything he said depends
on that. If he did not, then we can take
or leave what he said, just another man, just another dead. Everything we believe depends
on that. His resurrection, the fact that
he did, and this is what Paul is dealing with here, what he's
writing about, In fact, he said, he was seen of many, five hundred
at one time, so there would be no doubt. And his resurrection
proves that he is who this book says he is. That he's God in the flesh. This
proves that all he said is true. He said that he would. Right
he said it was several times. He told his boss that. And it proves the fact that our
Lord did come out of that grave proves that what you and I believe. That all our hope all our trust
all our faith all our interest in this one who lived two thousand
years ago. All we believe about him is true. It's real. He's a living person right now. Now Saul of Tarsus, who Paul
used to be, Saul of Tarsus, that old man, was an unbeliever. He
didn't believe that Jesus had risen from he heard he heard
all about that he didn't believe. And he hated all talk about that. He hated. Everywhere everyone
was talking about Jesus there were people. Who were his disciples of this
Jesus of Nazareth and that's all they could talk about. And
they were bold with their message. And Paul hated that. Saul of
Tarsus hated all that talk, and he went about to shut their mouths. He totally rejected all these
claims about this Jesus of Nazareth and his followers. But God, one day, Christ, this
same Jesus, met Saul of Tarsus on a road Saul was headed to
Damascus to apprehend some more of these Jesus followers. And
the Lord Jesus himself appeared to him. And Saul didn't know who it was.
It knocked him down off his high horse. And the Lord revealed himself
to Saul. And that was Saul's message from
there on out. And now Saul is called Paul.
And he writes to the church at Corinth to assure them all of
the absolute fact that Jesus is the Christ, Lord over all,
reigning, ruling, living. And their faith in him, your
faith, is not in vain because he's alive. And in him we live. And so he says in verse one,
Brethren, I declare unto you this good news. This is the good
news. The gospel that I preach unto
you that you have received, everyone who claims to be a believer in
here has received this as truth. Received it and wherein it says
you stand. You stand on this firm. On this
rock solid truth, you have by God's grace, Cast your whole
soul, your whole life, your future, your eternity on this one. This
is where you stand. This is where you live, and this
is where you'll die. Believe it. You see why this is so important?
If he didn't rise, he goes on down to say in verse Verse thirty
two look at it it says if the dead rise not let's eat and drink
tomorrow we die we're wasting our time here. But verse two he says now and
this by this good news a risen Lord. Crucified buried but risen
Lord by which this gospel by which you are saved. Many in here this morning who
can claim something no less miraculous than Saul of Tarsus. It wasn't a vision that you saw,
it wasn't an actual light, you didn't actually see the Lord
himself as Saul did, but nevertheless, when the Lord revealed himself
to you, when the Lord spoke to you for the first time ever through
his word, it was just like he spoke out loud to you, wasn't
it? Knocked you down. Knocked you,
if you're religious at the time, just killed your gods. It is
a miraculous thing, wasn't it? I remember distinctly thinking
I was the only one in that place. Though it was my father preaching,
it wasn't my father at all. God was speaking to me through
this work. A God I didn't believe before.
This was religious. And by which you're saying if
you keep in memory if he's just stating a fact here you're saying
if you hold back if you continue the Lord. The word is not saying
that it's conditioned on you. Being faithful in other words
you only say if you keep on keeping on that's not what he's saying
you just state the fact. Because we don't know who's really
say do we until till they die in effect We have some mighty
strong confidence in somebody like Sister Bergie. I never go tired of telling her
story. You remember what Bergie said? The last thing we heard
her say was, she said, he was getting ready to be put in a
nursing home and her reason for not wanting to go there was this. She told Fendi while she was
in intensive care at the hospital, she said, I don't want to go
to no nursing home. She said, I'll have to listen
to all that bad preaching. She rejoiced in the truth, in
the gospel. She didn't want to hear any of
that bad preaching. Bless God. She didn't have to. She didn't last another day.
The next preacher she heard was Jesus Christ himself. I'm here and now this. By which you say if you hold
fast is just the fact if you die in the faith. If you hold
fast verse two. Unless you believe in vain unless
it's all been a sham and a pretense and there's there's a lot of
that that goes on. There have been people that I thought were
believers that had me fooled but God is not So he's just stating
the fact that it's not. It's not my salvation doesn't
depend on me holding out. No, sir. Salvation depends on
being held. My Christ held fast. But now
it's like a little child, you know, you carry a little child,
you're going across the street with a child, you've got that
child in your arm. And if the child makes it across,
It's up to you, but that child at the same time. It holds an
arm of daddy. They're not going to let go,
and I thank God daddy isn't either. So that's a good illustration.
By which you're saved. Verse three, and I've delivered
unto you first of all that which I receive. The only way the gospel will
come out of a preacher's mouth with any. Feeling or any. Conviction is if he's if he's
felt that same gospel. If he knows if he's received
the same gospel if this really happened to him. How that now
here's here here he says what the gospel is it begins a long
description of the gospel I delivered on you first of all first the
good news is this first how that Christ died for our sins, according
to the script. The good news is, first of all,
how that Christ died for our sins, according to, or that is,
to fulfill every Old Testament type. Remember, the New Testament's
not written yet. He's talking to these people.
He says, now, this is the gospel, how that Christ died, that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ, and that he came to die Not just
live, but to die according to the scriptures. Most of the folks
didn't understand, even the apostles didn't understand why he died.
But according to scriptures, Christ came to die from the very
outset, from the very beginning, from Genesis 3, where God himself
first preached the gospel. God is the first one to preach
the gospel. It's the gospel of God. And he's
the first one to tell it. He told it to the first sinner,
Adam. And the gospel was of a woman's
seed who would be bruised by the serpent. That's a picture
of Christ being crucified, being made sin. And from Genesis 3
all the way to the end of Malachi, every story tells this story
of how Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. Let's
just look at one of them. You could turn anywhere. You
could just say any meaning my whole goodness. Yes, you could. Let's just look at one of them.
Genesis 22. It's not the best, but it's one
of them. Genesis 22. Go back to the first
book and old brother Walter Gruber one time said, if you can't preach
from Genesis 22, you can't preach. Genesis twenty-two is just one
of many we could turn anywhere in the Old Testament and find
the story of how Christ died for our sins according to prophecy
of Scripture. Look at Genesis twenty-two. You
know the story how that Abraham was told by God in verse two. He said, Take now thy son, thine
only son, only begotten son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. That
is your only begotten, well-beloved son. Take him. Who's that? Who's that sound like? You're
only begotten. Well, beloved son. Take him, it says in verse two,
and get thee into the land of Mariah and offer him there for
a burnt offering, in other words, kill him and put his body on
an altar. You're only begotten. Well, beloved
son, take him and kill him and put him on an altar as a burnt
offering to God. Now, that was never spoken before,
that was never, who could this be talking about? Why did this
happen? The story of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the only begotten of God, the only begotten well-beloved
son of God, whom God took and put on the altar as a sacrifice,
a burnt offering under his wrath. Look down at verse 6. Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it. He laid this burden
upon Isaac, his son. The whole burden was on his son. And God, the scripture says,
had laid on Christ the iniquity of Esau. He had made him to be
sin. And it says, Abraham took the
fire in his hand and a knife. And they went, both of them,
together. Both of them. Oh, don't you love
this story? Isaac spake unto Abraham, his
father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son.
And Isaac said, Behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the
lamb? For a burnt offering. Where's the lamb? Abraham said,
My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. I'll never forget when I first
heard I first heard that from Scott Richardson. Brother Scott
said he preached on it. God will provide. God was in
Christ reconciling the world himself that one who came was
God will provide himself. God was in Christ and God to
be holy and just and yet justify a sinner had to have a burn offer
for himself. God will provide for himself
and God will provide himself a lamb. He was the lamb that
make it the tone for ourselves the blood and so they both went
together read on and they came to the place which God told him
of and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order
bound Isaac his son Isaac is not a little boy here. He's carrying
a large load. He's a young man, perhaps in
his 20s. And the father couldn't have
bound Isaac unless Isaac was willing to be bound, could he?
But Isaac, being an obedient, loving son that he was, willingly
submitted to his father in this thing of being bound. He knew
he was going to be put to death. And he did it, he submitted to
it. And what does the scripture say? That Christ was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He willingly came
here to be made sin for his people, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And he was bound
by the law. And it read on, it says, he was
laid on the altar upon the wood, Christ was put on Calvary's tree,
and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay
his son. It was God that bruised the Lord
Jesus Christ. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. People didn't kill Christ. God did. God says, I kill. And it was God who killed his
son on Calvary Street. Well, in this story. It says,
verse eleven, the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out
of heaven, said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, Here am I. And he said,
Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto
him. For now I know that thou fearest God. See, thou hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted
up his eye. What a story. Lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram. A male lamb, that
is, a male sheep, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And
Abraham went, I think he first cut Isaac loose from that, the
inbound that got him off that altar. And it says, Abraham went
and took, or that is, lay the hold on the ram. And here's the
gospel in a line, people. And he offered him that ram up
for a burn offering in the state of in the place of as a substitute
for his son. Now, right, there's the gospel.
In a word, substitution. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
substitute, Paul says, I'm preaching to you the gospel, how that Christ
died as a substitute for our sin like that ram. Isaac was
supposed to be killed, but he wasn't. Why? Somebody was killed
in his place, a ram. And Jesus Christ, our substitute,
died in the stead of his people. Go back to the text now. He was
punished for their sin. But now, go back to the text,
our Lord's death is of no value. Unless. He rose from the dead. Of no value unless he rose from
the dead so all first says I'm writing to you the gospel I'm
preaching that I preached unto you and that you receive and
you believe where in you stand how the Christ died for our sin
and it's spoken from Genesis to Malachi how that the Christ
would come to be a substitute to pay the penalty to pay the
price for our sin God must punish sin, he will by no means clear
the guilty, and we're all guilty and come short of the glory of
God. The scripture says a soul that sinneth must surely die,
but God in mercy and grace made his only begotten well-beloved
son to be a substitute, to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He'd swap places
with us. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all and laid on us the righteousness of him. Substitution. This is the gospel. This is the
good news. This is where we stand. This
is how we will stand before God someday. Accepted. Holy. Unblameable. Unapprovable in God's sight.
Because Christ died and God justified it. And this is just one of many
stories you could turn to any page in the Old Testament to
find this story of substitution, of bloodshed, and it all speaks
of Christ. But it is of no value unless
Christ rose from the dead, verse 4 said, and that he was buried.
Why did Christ stay in the grave three days? Why did he stay in
the grave three days? That there would be no doubt
that he's dead. Right when our Lord came to where
Lazarus was. And. He said, roll back the stone
and they said, Lord, he's been dead for four days. He's been
dead by now, he's stinking. You let it if our souls leave
our body, they're going to immediately start corrupting. That's the
reason you've got to get them in the ground quickly if you
don't embalm these bodies. Within a matter of a few hours,
they start corrupting us, thinking it's evident, especially after
three days. No, for a fact, he's dead. He's
dead. So Christ was buried in a tomb. But it says he rose again the
third day, according to the scripture. He was crucified according to
the scripture he was buried and he wrote. The third day according
to the scripture there's several scriptures we could turn to but
I love that one I think it's in Hosea I didn't write it down
where it says. After two days he'll revive us
on the third day. You're glorified. That he'll
will not the scripture says will not leave his soul in hell or
suffer his Holy One to see corruption. Christ's resurrection. So the
good news is first, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scripture. And all of God's people, their
sins are gone. They're paid for. How do we know
that God accepted that? Because Christ came out of the
tomb. He rose. Now here's the whole Old Testament
type of the high priest. going into the Holy of Holies
with the blood, this is the best prophecy of Christ rising from
the grave. The high priest would go into,
you know, most of you know this story, would go into the Holy
of Holies with the blood of a lamb, one man, just one, would go into
that Holy of Holies with the blood of a lamb and offer that
blood on a what? Mercy which was on the arc and
all of this is a picture. Well, he had on his garment. He had two things on the border
of his garment. You remember? Bells. Bells were sewn on the hem of
his garment. And pomegranates. Fruit. Symbolic fruit. All of this is a picture of crime,
but even those bells, as long as the people heard those bells
ringing. See, he's in the holy of holies with a holy God. And as long as they heard those
bells ringing, everything's all right. God must not be angry. But the real proof that God accepted
the blood on the altar. that the people's hands were
at home. When that priest came out. And they all knew God accepted
the atonement he accepted the blood and so Christ came out
of the grave. Three days like except and we're
except. And he made the offering by the
job he went to the holy of holies not made with hand but in the
very presence of God not without blood but not a lamb's blood
but his own precious blood. And what did he do while he was
there? He obtained eternal redemption and he came back three days later
to tell us you're accepted. It's done. Transaction is done.
All my people's sins are paid for. And death Has lost its thing
and conquered. I mean. Well. Look at our text
here it says so in verse five it says he was saying of Cephas
that's I think Peter and then of the twelve. And verse six
and he was saying that they've seen over five hundred brethren
at once of whom the greater part remain under this present some
are falling asleep. read on down and saying of James
and last of all of our say he was made of me also as of one
born out of time but I'm not I'm the least of them and I'm
not fit to be called possible but he did appear to. He really
did. Now let me remind you that. Back then anyone who really confess
and believe. That one named Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ. And went around telling people
that, their lives were in danger. I mean, their lives were in danger.
This wasn't, you know, like now, where everybody, it's just real
popular. It's real popular. You can get
rich on it. If you put a fish on your business,
you'll get more business. Put a little fish on your side
out front, you'll get all these good Christians new business
with you. That's why they do that. It's real popular. There's no persecution. There's
no hatred. There's no lives. Not back then,
buddy. Your life was in danger. And they were all killed. The
early church persecuted. Something terrible killed the
martyrs and so forth. Well. Paul says, I saw him. I saw him
and Have you seen him? How about here now? He's still
alive. Same Lord. May I be so bold as
to say that I've seen him? I haven't seen a vision. Neither
have you. Neither has anybody in our day. Our Lord prayed. Do you remember
our Lord prayed in John 17? He said, Lord bless the father. Less those who will believe according
to their work. Those who will believe in the
future who will not say that I will not appear to. Actually
appear to but yet will. Through the preaching of the
work. That's what he said and as he said my sheep will hear
my voice. Not. Though it's a man yet Christ
said my feet. It all of I know. And I'm not
a man and my feet will hear my voice every one of my feet he
said a stranger they won't hear but he'll they'll hear my voice
I'm going to call them all by name I know the ball and I am
personally going to call them off they want to hear from me.
And I'm going to reveal myself to them really not a vision But
through the preaching of the gospel, it's a miracle, it's
a mystery, but it's no less real. Have you seen his glory, his
person? Do you see him, Christ, in the
pages of this book? Have you seen him when the preacher
has been preaching Christ, that God gives him, gives the word
liberty? And you see him so clearly and
you believe. We've seen his glory. Let me
give you a little illustration of it. Is there anyone in here who is
not? If you've never met him, John,
ever seen it. Well, I have a brother. His name's
Daniel. He's alive. What if you said
to me, I don't believe that. No, I don't believe that. And no, really, he is, John.
I've seen him. I've heard him. No, John, I don't
believe that. No way. Forget it. I'll tell
you how John would or might believe. is if my brother would call him.
Huh? Is this John Chisholm? Yes, it is. This is Daniel Mayhem.
I'm Paul's brother. Called to believe. That may be
a poor illustration, but this is exactly what the Lord Jesus
Christ does to reveal himself to all of his people. And though
the world says That's about as good an illustration as I can
get. But though the world says, I don't believe this. I don't
believe in this Jesus. I don't believe in Rose. I don't
believe he's coming again. He called me. Didn't they call
you through the word? Oh, yeah. Called by our God.
I believe. Does the world's unbelief affect
you at all? Does it bother you? I mean, really, does it? I don't
believe it. Well, we sang that song. You ask me how I know he lives.
He walks with me. He talks with me. I see his hand
and everything. He's real. I don't believe it.
Well, just go on then. Die in your unbelief. Maybe the
Lord will reveal himself to you. Call me. Call me. They call you. This
is how he calls all these people to the word through the preaching.
Now, who does Christ appear to them? Who does he reveal himself
to? Who does he call? Well, not many wise, mighty and
noble and scoffers and all that. Why should he? Why would my fleshly
brother call up anybody just to prove himself? Without him,
I wouldn't. Would you? Hey, brother, so-and-so
down in Rocky Mountain doesn't believe you're alive. Well, do I care? But I tell you who he will call
is who he chooses. He doesn't have to call anybody,
but who he chooses. And make himself known. And that's
exactly what the Lord does. Not many wise, mighty, or noble
are called. God has chosen the foolish thing,
begs to reveal himself to, and they all believe. I had my daughter
one time when she was three or four years old, standing at the
window. Sammy, you and Hannah, write everything down. Honestly,
get a book. We wish we'd have done this,
don't we? Get a book, and everything she does, and it's going to be
every day, something, write it down so you won't forget it.
I'm serious about that. Well, one time she was standing
at the window and there was a storm and thunder and light. A powerful
storm outside. She's standing there. Standing
there looking out there. She said, Dad, I see God. That's right. Meteorologists don't. Hear his voice when thunder people
said thunder but God said he said I glorified your name and
I glorified again. I hear him. I heard what he said. I just thundered. He didn't speak
to you. You see that? See that lady? I don't believe
it. Well, he didn't. Our Lord said in John 10, you
believe not because you're not my sheep. As I said unto you,
my sheep hear my voice. I seek God. I don't. He's not to reveal himself to
you. He had to me. Didn't you, Kelly? He had to
show himself to you. Huh. That's who he reveals himself
to. Not many mightier, wiser, nobler. Verse 9 and 10, Paul
said, I'm less than the least, but by the grace of God, I am
what I am. And so I preach, verse 11, whether
them or me, We preach and you believe. My wife and I were talking
about this yesterday, about God's sovereign electing grace. The
only reason that I'm standing here this morning and my brother
named Daniel is not. See, my brother named Daniel
doesn't believe this. He rejects it hands down. He's a college professor. He's
one of those wise. Mighty and noble. And I was a
nobody, a railroader. The only reason that he's not
standing here this morning preaching to you, and I'm a infidel, is
the sovereign electing grace of God. Some of you have relatives,
don't you? That don't believe. Robin, why
you and not your brother? The sovereign electing grace
of God, right? Right, Henry? Because God chose
him. That's why you praise him, the
praise of the glory of his electing grace. Who believes that God's
electing grace? Who rejoices in it? The elect. The elect. And it's not a doctrine,
they're just amazed That God chose him. Why me? They don't say, why not him?
They say, why me? And if God ever chooses you and
reveals himself to you, that's what you'll say. Oh, boy. That's what Paul said, I'm less
than the least. I can't believe it. Paul before thought he was
the best there was. Now he's telling I'm less than
the least. I don't understand why God chose me. Even so, Father,
it seemed good enough. Oh, he said, go on, he says in
verse 13, though, if there's no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then
our preaching is vain. What I'm doing, my occupation,
what I'm doing this morning, if Jesus Christ, that one two
thousand years ago, didn't actually come out of the grave, what I'm
doing this morning is the most useless thing on earth. And that's
what most people think. And you being here, you're wasting
your day off. If all you've got off is Saturday
and Sunday, why are you here? You could be at the races. You
could be at Darlington. If there's some bones in a grave
over there, it belonged to that Jesus. Y'all are a bunch of fools. That's what he says. For dead
rise not. Your faith is vain. And you're
yet in your sins and verse 18. Look at that. You see how serious
this is. Those with fallen asleep in Christ, those who died believing,
trusting Christ. Well, that was a wasted life,
died too soon. My sister died at 42, her life
was cut short, wasted. It's over. If Christ be not risen. That's how serious it is. If in this life, verse 19, all
we have. Verse 19, if all we have right
now is hope in Christ. We're a miserable bunch of people. But. Now. Verse 20. Christ is risen. Yes, I tell you who's really
miserable. I tell you who's really in a
sad state. These people are living for things
that rot and die and decay. I tell you who's really miserable
is people is all they've got is what's here. People who live for the city.
You know, sex in the city. What a happy bunch of beautiful
people. They're miserable people no knowing. We look for a city
whose builder and maker is God. It's coming down out of the sky.
Can you believe it? I sure do. New Jerusalem prepared
as a bride for her groom. Oh my, I'm not glad to
look like young people. Do I look miserable to you? Now, granted, there are some
people in religion all over the world that look pretty miserable.
They are in our county. You see them everywhere. They
look pretty miserable. That's not of God. Religion, true religion,
doesn't make you miserable. It makes you, really, it makes
you very happy, joyful. It brings sorrow. With knowledge
comes certain sorrow, but It gives you a peace and a contentment
that you never had before. And really, Tammy, really, it
gives you more enjoyment of things than you had before, doesn't
it? Realizing who made it, who gave it to you and who just richly
gives you all things to enjoy and how much he gives you. That's right. That's the reason
he's going to create a new earth. There's nothing wrong with this
earth except for sin. And God's going to create a new
one. Much like the first one, but without sin and we're going
to enjoy them. With a sinless heart. Sinless heart. Now I'm looking forward to it,
aren't you? Well, Christ is risen and he's become the first fruit.
I got to quit. He's the first fruit of them
that slept. Like that corn of wheat, our
Lord said must fall in the ground to die. To bring forth fruit. He's the first fruit. You bury a little corn of wheat
or a kernel of something, a little shriveled up, seems like a minor
little thing, and you bury it and it's forgotten. Oh! Watered, comes up and bears fruit,
oh, hundredfold, thousandfold. Christ, oh, His death was life
to His people. And read on down, I got to get
to this. It says in verse 21 and 22, since
by man came death, that is by Adam, we all died. By man, the
second Adam, Christ, came also the resurrection of the dead.
Everyone has died on this earth, exception of a couple, by God's
purpose and will. Just a couple here and there.
You know remember enough just walked on in law Elijah carried
up on a whirlwind. Our Lord. Row he died but he
rose walked out of that grave himself but every one of us are
going to die. We're going to die because that's
what we get. That's what we get, our father,
Adam, is sent, but we don't. So in Adam all die, verse 22.
Even so, in Christ, those who believe Christ, those who truly,
truly believe Christ and rest in Him and are in Him, shall
be made alive. And it doth not yet appear I
doth. This is what we're going to go on Wednesday night to study
the rest of this chapter, how We have a new body and what it's
made up of, and I love the end of this chapter. It talks about
death. Where's your sting? Stay tuned. But all in Christ,
all true believers in Christ, this is not the end. This is
not the end. You need not be miserable. This
is not the end. It's just the beginning. Why? How do you know? Because Jesus
Christ lives right now. He's alive. He ever lives right
now. Stephen saw Him, didn't he? I
see Him. The right hand of the majesty of the Lord. Have you
seen Him? Okay. Let's sing a closing hymn. Brother Gabe?