Welcome to God's Word to Our
Nation, a weekly broadcast bringing you a message of new life and
liberty. This program is brought to you
each week by the Grace Baptist Church of Canton. We believe
that the Gospel is God's Word to this and every nation. Through
the Gospel, God has shown that our deepest need, the need for
freedom from the guilt and power of sin, can be fully met by His
Son Jesus Christ. Here now is pastor, author, and
conference speaker Albert N. Martin with this week's message. Let us turn this morning to the
great resurrection chapter in the word of God. I refer, of
course, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I shall read in your hearing
verses 1 through 19. And I would ask you to note not
only the things that are affirmed with respect to the historical
validity of the resurrection and its place as an essential
element in the gospel, but especially beginning in verse 12 and going
through verse 19, the close logical connections that the apostle
makes between a denial of the bodily resurrection in general
and an undercutting of the gospel and all of its distinctive blessings. Now I make known unto you, brethren,
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received,
wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold
fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared
to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep. Then he appeared
to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child
untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of
the apostles, that am not fit 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 labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but
the grace of God which was with me. Whether then it be I or they,
so we preach, and so ye believed. Now if Christ is preached that
he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you
that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is
no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised.
And if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain. Your
faith also is vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ,
whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised,
neither hath Christ been raised. And if Christ hath not been raised,
your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only
hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. I want you to work through this
section of the Word of God with me in terms of three great principles
that are found in this passage of the Word of God. The first
one is found in verses 1 and 2. Now I make known unto you,
brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received,
wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold
fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed
in vain." And the principle that the Apostle sets before us in
these first two verses is this, that hearing Receiving and holding
fast to the apostolic gospel is a matter of salvation or damnation. Now, do you see that in the verses?
Hearing, receiving and holding fast to the apostolic gospel
is a matter of salvation or damnation. You see how clearly he states
that. I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto
you, in my capacity as an apostle, and yet with a gospel perfectly
consistent with the other apostles, and you received that gospel,
you stand in that gospel, and by that gospel you are saved,
if, if, If, if, here's the condition, if you hold fast the word which
I preached unto you, except he believed in vain. Whatever dealings you Corinthians
have had with my gospel, Whatever experiences you claim to have
had in virtue of receiving that gospel, it falls short of saving
experience and virtue unless the gospel you heard, received,
in which you now stand, you hold fast in the faith and obedience
of it, firm unto the end. One of the clearest statements
of the necessity of persevering in the faith of the gospel if
we are to be saved. So the first great principle
then that is set before us in this passage is that hearing,
receiving, and holding fast to the apostolic gospel is a matter
of salvation or damnation. It's a matter of life and of
death. But then secondly, see in this
passage that the heart of the apostolic gospel is comprised
of two fundamental affirmations. Both of these affirmations that
comprise the heart of the Apostolic Gospel pertain to events in the
life history of Jesus of Nazareth and their true significance as
declared to us by God Himself. And the Apostolic Gospel contains
an affirmation of two basic facts and their significance as declared
by God. And it's holding to that which
is a matter of salvation and damnation. And that's why I emphasize
it. It is not enough simply to say,
yes, I believe the affirmation of Scripture. Christ died, Christ
rose. And then to place your own significance
upon those events. No, the God who records the events
tells us their significance as well. All right then, what are
the two basic affirmations? Look at the text. Verse 3, I
delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he
was buried. I make that one unified affirmation,
second one, and that he hath been raised on the third day
according to the scriptures, and he appeared. What is the
first affirmation that lies at the heart of the apostolic gospel? Paul said, I remind you of that
which I preached unto you. Here it is. that Christ died
for our sins. It is an affirmation concerning
the death of Jesus of Nazareth. And we have in that affirmation
four elements. Let's look at them very quickly.
Number one, the office in which he died. He does not say, my
gospel is this, that Jesus died for our sins, though it was Jesus
of Nazareth who died. but he places the emphasis upon
his official office as the Christ. You see, Christ is not just a
name like I have three names that identify me, Albert, Newton,
Martin, but they are official titles. that describe and define
His office and function as the Savior of sinners. And when Paul
says in this first affirmation, Christ died for our sins, he's
underscoring the office in which He died. Christ means the Anointed
One. It is the New Testament counterpart
of the Old Testament Messiah. It is God's long-promised prophet,
priest, and king. God's final and glorious revelation
to men. The One through whom God would
redeem His people as that One anointed of God would bring about
a redemption in His capacity as the anointed Prophet, Priest
and King. Prophet to teach us the will
of God. Priest to sacrifice and intercede
for us. King to subdue His and our enemies
and to reign over us in grace. And the office in which Jesus
of Nazareth died was his official office as God's Messiah. But then notice the purpose for
which he died. Christ died hupere, for our sins. The purpose of his death had
directly to do with our sins. And bound up in this simple phrase
is the whole reality of human sin as an offense against God. Sin that demands death and judgment
and punishment. Sin that is taken so seriously
by God that nothing less then the enfleshment of the second
person of the Godhead could give us a person adequate to pay the
penalty for the sins of men. Then we have the pattern within
which he died. Look at the text. Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. Everything pertaining
to his death for our sins was according to the pattern previously
marked out by the Old Testament Scriptures. And what's the proof
he really died? Look at the text. And was buried. What they took down from the
cross was a corpse, a lifeless, bruised, blood-spattered, disfigured
corpse. And his burial, his impugnment,
was the proof that he really died. Now this is the first and
fundamental affirmation of the Apostolic Gospel. died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried. And listen, if
you don't hear that, and receive it, and hold it fast, and have
all your hopes pinned upon it, and your life molded by it, you
will not be saved, you'll be damned. That's what the Scripture says.
You say, you are the most arrogant man I've ever heard. My friend,
blame my arrogance on my God. My God has spoken in His Word! And He has said, it is this Gospel,
which hearing, receiving, standing in it, holding fast, is the instrument
of our salvation. Let God be true. and every man
a liar. But the heart of this gospel
has a second affirmation, a second affirmation. And what is that
second affirmation? The second affirmation is this. Look at the text. Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried and that he hath been raised on the
third day according to the Scriptures and he appeared. You see, to
put it in temporal terms, Easter rests down upon Good Friday. If you misunderstand the significance
of Good Friday, you'll miss the meaning of Easter. That's why
the gospel is called the preaching or the word of the cross. Paul
could say, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and him as crucified. If you and I do not understand
the first affirmation, we'll never make sense out of the second.
And so we are given the first. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. Now the second affirmation, and
that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
and that he appeared, or that he was seen. Now notice again,
four elements. The office within which he was
raised, it's the same Christ of verse 3a. Christ died, and
he, Christ, hath been raised. He was raised as He was crucified
in His official office as God's Messiah. The One anointed to
deliver His people is Himself first delivered from the pangs
and from the bonds of death. And it is within that office,
his official office, as Messiah, that he is raised from the dead. Then the factual statement of
his resurrection, he hath been raised on the third day. And
what the translators here tried to do was to show the difference
in the Greek tenses. The tenses for death and burial
are aorists. He died once for all, definitive. He was buried once for all, definitive. But he hath been raised, it's
a perfect tense, and as you Greek students know, that points to
action accomplished, and the results of which continue on
into the present. And so he who died once for all,
buried once for all, He has been raised and in the resurrection
state He now is and ever shall be to all eternity. He hath been
raised and maintains the reality of resurrection life and existence. And this on the third day, according
to Jewish reckoning, buried on Friday, part of the day is taken
for the whole, On the Jewish Sabbath, that old Jewish Sabbath
is with Him in His tomb, and it's buried, and it never came
out of the tomb. And on that first day of the
week, the risen Lord comes out of the tomb, leaving the Jewish
Sabbath in that tomb, and bringing out of it with Him the original
day of rest. the Lord's Day Sabbath now bursting
with all the glorious dynamics of the new creation. And on the
third day, He was raised and remains the risen and the living
one. That's why when he appears to
John in the book of the Revelation, he says, I was dead and I am
alive forevermore. I was dead, but I am alive forevermore. The factual statement of his
resurrection. It wasn't an idea. It wasn't
a noble concept. It wasn't the springing forth
of all of the life in the spring that somehow cast its life-giving
ethos into the tomb. And though Jesus of Nazareth
still lay on that slab, somewhere or another there is a religious
spirit. No, no, no, no, no. The one who
died, whose body had a spear thrust in it. whose blood could
be felt if you put your hands there as it dripped down his
dying form, that same Jesus came out of the tomb, alive forevermore. And what was the pattern of his
resurrection? Look at the text. According to
the Scriptures, It happened exactly as the scripture said it would,
and in the apostolic preaching, we don't have time to look at
it, but you'll see in passages such as Acts 2, and then again
in Acts 13, where they take Old Testament scriptures and prove
that the resurrection of Jesus was prophesied in the scriptures. And the pattern of his resurrection
like the pattern of his death, it accorded with the scriptures. It was no notion imposed upon
the Christian faith by overly enthusiastic first or second
century zealots, as some liberals say. Humble Jesus of Nazareth
never made great claims about himself. It's his followers who
did. Nonsense. The Old Testament scriptures
pointed to the fact that the one who would die would be raised
from the dead. And what was the validation of
his resurrection? Four times the verb is used. He appeared. He appeared more
literally. He was seen. He was seen. You don't see notions. You don't
see phantoms. You don't see noble ideas. Now we've looked at two principles
and taken the bulk of our time and briefly now in closing, we
look at the third. What was the first principle?
We saw it in verses one and two, hearing, receiving, holding fast
the apostolic gospels, a matter of salvation or damnation. Secondly,
The heart of the apostolic gospel is comprised of two fundamental
affirmations. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures and was buried and he has been raised the third
day according to the scriptures and was seen. Here's the third
principle. The reception of any human opinion
which cancels the validity of these affirmations of apostolic
gospel destroys the gospel and leaves us with no hope. The reception
of any human opinion which cancels the validity of the affirmations
in the apostolic gospel destroys the gospel and leaves us without
hope. Where do we find that? Look at
verse 12 and following. If Christ is preached, and he
is, that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among
you there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul had received
word that among the Corinthians, whether church members or people
infecting, trying to infect the congregation from without, whether
these were perverse men from within, wolves from without,
we have no way of knowing. In my study, it's not uncovered
anything definitive. But this much we know, there
were some who were saying there's no such thing as the resurrection
of the dead. The concept of dead bodies coming
to life is foolish. And Paul goes on to say, all
right, you Corinthians, you want to flirt with that stuff? Let
me tell you what it does. You flirt with that human opinion
that there is no such thing as bodily resurrection. And this
is what you do. Verse 13. If there is no resurrection
of the dead, if you accept the premise dead bodies can't come
to life, then Jesus Christ who had a dead body, he can't come
to life. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain.
You're yet in your sins. Yet in your sins. Now, I ask
you as we close. Do you, sitting there this morning,
find yourself at peace in the knowledge that your only hope
for life and salvation rests totally, unreservedly, in this
Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures and
was buried? and hath been raised, and stands
in resurrection light according to the Scriptures. And in believing
that, you know you're not following a cunningly devised fable, for
he was seen, he was seen, he was seen, he was seen, and eyewitnesses
have borne witness to the reality of his resurrection. is your
only hope for life and salvation in that Christ and in what He
has done in His own life history as interpreted by God Himself. It is that gospel which hearing,
receiving, holding fast is the alone instrument of your salvation
and mine. But thank God it is the instrument
of our salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. That brings us to the conclusion
of this week's broadcast. Our speaker has been Pastor Albert
N. Martin, and you've been listening to God's Word to Our Nation.
If you would like to hear today's message again, or share it with
a friend, it is available on audio cassette. To order your
cassette, simply call 1-800-722-3584. That number once again is 1-800-722-3584.
These cassettes are distributed by the Trinity Book Service. God's Word to Our Nation is sponsored
by the Grace Baptist Church of Canton. We have made this commitment
because we believe that the only real answers to the many concerns
of our society are found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we
want to share those answers with you. In a moment, we will be
giving you our number and we encourage you to call and let
us know if you've been helped by this program. The Grace Baptist
Church is located on Michigan Avenue, two miles west of Interstate
275. Every Sunday morning we have Bible classes for all ages
beginning at 945. Our worship services follow at
11 and again at 6 in the evening. You are warmly invited to join
with us as we worship the Lord together. If you need more information
you can call us at 397-2900. That number once again is 397-2900.
Thank you for tuning in and please plan to join us again at this
same time next week. for God's Word to our nation.