Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
that you could join us today. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching this message from
1 Corinthians chapter 2, the second chapter of Paul's first
letter to the church at Corinth. And the title of the message
is Christ Crucified and Risen. Christ Crucified and Risen. Many people today speak of the
word gospel as if the gospel is some kind of a general message
that finds its meaning in clever words of men, things that people
come up with that are unbiblical. Now, the word gospel itself means
good news. But as you know, good news is
only good to certain people. For example, one person may hear
the gospel and it's good news to them. Well, that's a believer,
born again by the Spirit, brought to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. But another person may not be
good news to them. It may be bad news. That's an
unbeliever. You know, the Bible says in John
chapter three, in verse 19, that this is the condemnation, that
light has come into the world. That's the gospel light, the
light of Christ, who is the light. And he says, and men loved darkness
and hated the light, hate the light because their deeds are
evil. The gospel reveals that the only way of salvation and
being accepted with God, being right with God, is the work,
the merit of the glorious person and finished work of Christ alone. And it's summarized that the
blood that he shed in his death, his obedience unto death, obeyed
the law perfectly. went to the cross and died on
that cross, having the sins of his sheep, his elect, not everybody
without exception, imputed charge to him and he satisfied the justice
of God. He paid the sin debt in full
and worked out a perfect righteousness, which God has imputed to his
people. And that's the only ground of
their salvation. And that excludes the works, the wills of man. So if you're depending upon anything
for your salvation, if you have confidence in your salvation
based on anything but Christ crucified and risen from the
dead, then you're in a false hope. and your deeds are evil
because they don't glorify God and they deny Christ and they
exalt you, not Christ. Well, here in 1 Corinthians 2,
listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote. He says, And I, brethren,
when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech, or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God." Now, what
Paul's saying is, I didn't come to you as some golden-throated
orator using clever words of men, entertaining, but I just
preached God's Word to you. I just told you what God said
in His Word. And he says in verse two, I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I preach Christ crucified. I preach the person of Christ,
who Jesus Christ is. What think ye of Christ? What
does the Bible say of Christ? People have many different ideas
about that, but all those ideas are nothing. We have to go to
the Word of God. Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible
teaches very plainly that he is the surety of the covenant
of grace made so before the foundation of this world, the Messiah, the
anointed one that God chose to save his people from their sins.
And in order to do that, and here's the three qualifications. of Christ as the Messiah. Number
one, he had to be appointed by the Father. And the Father revealed
that, for example, it's revealed all the way through the Old Testament.
But it's also revealed, for example, at the baptism of Christ. When
he was baptized by John the Baptist, and the father spoke from heaven
in a voice saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. In one other passage he said,
hear ye him. This is the one whom God appointed.
Nobody else is appointed. God did not appoint Buddha, or
Mohammed, or Confucius, or anybody. else. He appointed Christ, the
second person of the Trinity, God the Son. And that's who he
appointed to be the Messiah. So number one, he had to be appointed
by the Father. Number two, and that's what Messiah
means, that's what Christ means, that's the title Christ is the
Messiah, the Anointed One. Secondly, he had to be able to
do what was required. Now, what was required? Well,
God chose a people and gave them to Christ because He had ordained
all things that would follow in time as he created the world
and then sin entered into the world and death by sin because
all sin when Adam fell that's the sinfulness of man and so
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and so in
order for for God to save his people to the praise of the of
his glory He had to find someone, and I don't want you to think
that God's up there looking for somebody. He knew all along.
But there had to be someone who was able to save his people from
their sins. And Jesus Christ is the only
one who is able. In order to be able, he had to
be God, because only God can create and give life and he had
to be man without sin because man had to die. That's the issue. The wages of sin is death. This
person who is my savior had to be both God and man without sin
in order to die for my sins and pay my sin debt. Christ is the
surety of his people. Meaning that all of the sin debt
that we ran up in Adam and in our own sins was imputed, charged,
accounted to him. And in order to die, he had to
become man. He's the word made flesh dwelling
among us. He's God manifest in the flesh. I always quote Matthew chapter
121. His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. And then verse 23 says, his name
shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted God with us. Over in the book of first Timothy
chapter three, it speaks of the mystery of godliness. God was
manifest in the flesh. Romans chapter 1 it said he was
made of the seed of David made of the seed of David according
to the flesh but declared to be the Son of God with power
and so he's both God and man in one person now to deny his
deity or to deny his sinless humanity is a denial of him So
who is Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh.
That's what made him able to save his people from their sins
by his death. And so as a result of his death,
what happened? He satisfied God's law and justice. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression, made an end of sin, brought in everlasting
righteousness. He sealed up the vision and the
prophecy and he entered into the holiest because he was raised
from the dead. Christ crucified and risen from
the dead. Crucified and risen. In order
to be the proper Savior, number one, he had to be appointed by
the Father. Number two, he had to be able to save us from our
sins. And number three, he had to be
willing to do so. And the Bible says that Christ
was very willing. He made this statement, I believe
it's in John chapter 10, but there's other places he made
this. He said, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down willingly. He gave because He had in mind,
number one, the glory of His Father, number two, the salvation
of His people, and number three, His own exaltation. So Christ
met all of those qualifications. And Paul says here in 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 2, I determined not to know anything among you except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that includes His resurrection
from the dead. And in that person, that glorious
person, and in that great work that he did, comes forth what
the Bible calls the righteousness of God. God is just to justify
sinners through the glorious person and the finished work
of redemption. by Jesus Christ. The sins of
God's elect were laid to His charge, our sin debt, and His
righteousness, the full payment of all the debt of my sin, was
laid to my charge. That's why Paul wrote in Romans
4 and verse 6, of the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. And God cannot charge his people
with sin. So he said, I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Now, Paul in his epistles, and along with Peter and John and
all, they dealt with many subjects, but they dealt with no subject
outside the light of this gospel truth. And if God, the Holy Spirit,
brings you under the conviction of sin, this message will be
good news to you. Now, if you're depending on anything
else other than Christ crucified and risen from the dead, other
than His blood and His righteousness for your salvation, if you're
looking to your works, if you're looking to your decision, you're
looking to your own free will, whatever it is, If you're depending
on those, then you're lost. And this message is not good
news to you. But what I pray for you is that
God will use this to bring you to a conviction of sin, knowing
that if God ever gave you what you deserve, it would be death
and hell. And knowing that if left to yourself,
you would not choose him. I know that about myself. When
I first heard the gospel, the true gospel now, oh, I heard
false gospels. I grew up under a false gospel
of salvation conditioned on sinners. And it was up to me. I made the
difference. Well, that's a false gospel.
And so if all those false gospels, it's my prayer that God will
bring you to a conviction of sin to know that you have no
hope, but in Christ Jesus, Christ crucified and risen from the
dead, his blood alone, his righteousness imputed alone. And Paul goes
on here in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 3, he said, and I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, all the things
that they went through, Paul in his own weakness and trembling
and all of that, he said in verse four, now listen to this, and
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."
You see, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, Romans 1.16
and verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, that is, the knowledge that God reveals
in His Word of Christ crucified and risen from the dead, to that
knowledge received by God-given faith, and that's what faith
is. Faith comes to us by the gift of God in the new birth. And so from faith to faith, for
as it is written, the justified, the just shall live by faith.
And what that means is those who are forgiven of their sins,
by the blood of Jesus Christ, and those who are justified,
accepted with God, based on His righteousness imputed, they live
spiritually by looking to and resting in Christ. Hebrews 12,
two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And so that's the demonstration
of the spirit of power. when a sinner is brought to believe
in Christ and to repent of his own dead works? All those things
that before we knew Christ, we thought recommended us unto God.
You remember Paul in Philippians 3? He said, I was a Hebrew of
Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I kept the law, all that. He
thought those things saved him and recommended him unto God.
He said, but in light of Christ crucified and risen, the righteousness
of God in Christ, I count all those things but dung that I
may win Christ. be found in him not having my
own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ his faithfulness to do what he came
to do the righteousness of God which is by faith we receive
it by faith God imputes it to his people and then in his appointed
time he brings them under the gospel and they receive it by
God-given faith and that's what he's talking about that's the
demonstration of the spirit and of power Now, today in religion,
people think, well, the demonstration of the Spirit and power is when
they begin to speak in tongues or they dance around or jump
over pews or when they have these emotional feelings. Listen to
me. None of that is the demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. It's belief. It's coming to a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the
dead as the Lord my righteousness, my hope, my ground of forgiveness,
all of that. And he says this, now listen
to what he says, let's read verse four again and go on to verse
five, because this shows you the purpose of it. He says, and
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith," this is verse five, that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Over in 1 Corinthians
chapter one, he told us that those who are called by the Spirit
under the gospel, he says that Jesus Christ is the power of
God. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
God. So if your faith is in Jesus
Christ crucified and risen from the dead as revealed in the word
now, not just the historical fact, but in the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ, that's a demonstration of the
Spirit and of power. I had a lady years ago who came
to visit our worship service on Sunday morning, and I preached
out of 1 Corinthians 15. In fact, I'll just read that
to you. This was my text on that particular
morning, 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul's talking about the gospel
message in verse one, and here's what he says. He says, moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the good news, which
I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein
you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. Now
the if there, and I always caution people on this, when you see
these if passages, concerning the people of God and their believing
and their continuing. It's not a conditional if. In other words, he's not saying
you're saved if you do this, and if you don't, you're lost.
It's an evidential if. In other words, if you continue
to believe, this is what Paul's saying, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, That's evidence that you've been saved
by grace, that the Spirit has demonstrated His power to bring
you to conviction and faith in Christ and repentance of dead
work. That's an evidence, not a condition or requirement you
must meet in order to make it there or to attain it. And the
reason we know that is because of the gospel message, which
is the preaching of the terms of the covenant of grace. And
the covenant of grace is one-sided in the sense of the origin and
the source of it. Now it's not one-sided in the
sense of this. God is the origin and the source
based upon the personal work of Christ, but his people are
the fruit and the result, the product of that covenant. You
see that. So he says in verse three of
1 Corinthians 15, he says, for I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. Verse four, and that he was buried
and that he arose again the third day according to the scriptures. And my point in that message
that I preached on that Sunday morning, which this woman visited,
is that it's not just simply that Christ died, was buried,
and arose again. Now he did die, he was buried,
and he did arise from the dead. And those facts, those historical
facts, are essential to the preaching of the gospel. You cannot preach
the gospel and deny that Christ died on the cross for the sins
of His sheep, that He was buried, which is evidence that He really
died, it wasn't a hoax, He didn't just swoon, He died, the death
that was required, and that He arose from the dead. And if you
leave those historical facts out, you've left the gospel.
But my point in that message, and I believe the message was
entitled, According to the Scriptures, is not just that he died, but
how he died and for whom did he die. Christ died as a surety,
having the sins of his people charged to him. and He died that
death as the complete and total and final and perfect payment
for their sins so as to secure their entire salvation. Christ
did not die on the cross conditionally or just to make salvation possible
if sinners would believe or choose Him or cooperate. Because if
He did that, we would all be damned forever. His death was
not a blanket pardon conditioned upon what we would choose or
do because the Bible doesn't teach that. His death was the
complete security of the salvation of all for whom he died and there'll
be no sin, perish in damnation for whom Christ died. He said
it in John 6, 37, All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And
this is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I would lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. So how do I know if Christ died
for me? Well, if he died for me, at some
point in time, God the Holy Spirit is going to bring me under the
preaching of the true gospel like you're hearing it now, and
he's going to give me life from the dead. He's going to bring
me to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. and he's going to bring
me to repentance of dead works and calls me to live my life
looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith. That's
how I know. So he died according to the scripture. He was buried and he arose again
according to the scriptures. What does the word of God say
about his resurrection? His resurrection was brought
about because he by himself as the surety, the substitute, and
the redeemer of His people, He accomplished the perfect righteousness
of God by which we are justified. accepted with God, forgiven of
our sins. And that was the controlling
factor. That was the settlement of the
whole issue. And that's what he's talking
about. Now, when I finished that message, according to scripture,
the lady was walking out of the church. She said, well, I thought
the gospel was just simply the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. And I told her, I said, well, it includes the historical
facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But how
he died, according to the script, what does the word of God say
about his person? What does the word of God say
about his death on the cross and being buried? What does the
word of God say about his resurrection? You see, if you're thinking that,
well, all of that was done in order to make salvation possible,
then you don't know what the scriptures say. And that was
my point. Well, back here in 1 Corinthians
2.5, he says that your faith should stand in the wisdom of
men, should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Salvations of the Lord. And so
verse six. He says, how be it we speak wisdom
among them that are perfect. Now the word perfect there has
to do with how we stand before God in Christ, not how we are
in our state here on earth. Here on earth, God's people,
for whom God chose before the foundation of the world, for
whom Christ died and redeemed, who are justified, the just shall
the above say. That means they're forgiven of
all their sins by the blood of Christ. They are declared righteous
in God's sight by His righteousness imputed. And they're perfect
in Christ, legally, representatively. But in ourselves here on earth,
we're not perfect. We're still sinners saved by
grace. We still struggle with sin, the
warfare of the spirit and the flesh. We still desire to be
like Christ in every way. And we won't reach that goal
until we die and go to be with the Lord. So he's saying, how
be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the
wisdom of this world, This is not a worldly message, this is
a heavenly message. It's the gospel of God. Nor of
the princes of this world that come to naught, the nobles of
this world, the intellectuals, all of that, the rich, the strong,
it comes to nothing. Verse seven, but we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery. The mystery means this, that
God has to reveal it. And he says, which God ordained
before the world unto our glory. That's Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. And it must be revealed, under
the preaching of the Gospel, in the power of the Spirit, for
sinners to be brought to faith in Christ and brought to repentance
of dead works. That's the power of God. That's
the Spirit of God. That's the gospel, the good news
of salvation, conditioned on Christ and on Him alone. I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.