Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Today, folks are thinking about an event
called the resurrection. I don't want to focus on the
event. I want to preach Christ who is
our resurrection. There's many who gathered this morning
in the dark and they waited and they watched the S.U.N. rise. And sadly, most left that service
as in the dark as they arrived at that service. We see the S-O-N rise by looking
into the scriptures. That's where we see Him rise
is in the scriptures. Through the preached word. So
I want to preach Him to you. The resurrection is a person.
The Lord Jesus. Verse 1. Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand. by which also you're
saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. and that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After
that he was seen of James, and then of all the apostles. And
last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due
time." Now the scriptures that Paul speaks about here are the
Old Testament scriptures. Over and over and over and over
we read in the New Testament and we read that the Lord did
something that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Everything
that he did, everything he suffered, it was according to the scriptures.
The Lord Jesus is the one that all the scriptures speak about.
And He's the fulfillment of everything written in these scriptures.
The Word is concerning Him. He's the message. He's the message. He's the salvation. He is the
purpose for which the world was made, for which all the scriptures
were given. He's the subject of everything
that was worked out in the scriptures. He's to see Christ, the Savior
of His people. In John 5.39, the Lord said,
search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. Most people are searching them for that reason, trying
to find life by something they can do. And he said, and they
are they which testify of me. When he was speaking with the
men on the road to Emmaus, beginning at Moses, and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. In Acts 3.18, we read, those
things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets
that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. So all the
scriptures speak of Christ, all the Old Testament scriptures
speak of Christ, and now we have the New Testament scriptures,
which Paul didn't have at the time he wrote this epistle. He
was writing them by the Spirit of God, but now we have both,
and the New Testament's giving us light on everything in the
Old Testament, and it's all Christ, Christ. So I wanna look at Christ's
death, I wanna look at his burial, and I wanna look at his resurrection,
all according to the scriptures. Now Christ's death according
to the scriptures. He says there, the gospel is
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now that's the gospel. How that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now Christ
means anointed. It means the sent one. That's
who he is. God the Father chose him and
sent him to save and to be the salvation of his people. Let's
look at that over in Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. And I encourage you
to read this whole chapter. I can't read it all, but it's
just so full. It's all speaking of Christ.
And look what the Lord says in the beginning. He's speaking
of Christ. God the Father is speaking of
Christ Jesus the Lord. And look what he says about him.
Behold my servant, verse 1, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom
my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Look at verse 4. He shall not
fail. Lord Jesus is not trying to do
anything. He's not begging you to give
him permission to do anything. He shall not fail. He's God. Till he has set judgment in the
earth and the Gentiles shall wait for his gospel. Look at
verse 6. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, still speaking of Christ, and I'll hold thine
hand and I'll keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people. Christ is the covenant. I'll
give you for a light of the Gentiles. He's the light. He says to open
the blind eyes. That's who's going to give it.
If you're going to see this gospel and know Christ, He's the one
who gave you the eyes. He opens the blind eyes. He brings
out the prisoners from the prison. You know the prisoners in the
prison right now, they can will all they want to be out of that
prison and they can't get out of it. You can talk about your
free will all you want to and how you will to get out of that
prison. You ain't getting out of it. He has to come open the
prison. And to them that sit in darkness,
he brings out of the prison house, I'm the Lord. That's my name. My glory will I not give to another? Neither my praise to graven images. Look down at verse 21. The Lord
is pleased for his righteousness sake. He's pleased with Christ's
righteousness. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. But what about this people he's
going to save? This is a people robbed and spoiled. They're all of them snared in
holes. They're hidden prison houses. They're for a prey and
there's none to deliver them. They're for a spoil and there's
nobody to say, restore. They can't restore themselves
and there's nobody else to restore them. Who among you will give
ear to this? Who's going to hearken and hear
for the time to come? You see this? He's saying, this
is my elect, this is my son, this is Christ. He's the one
who's going to do all this for my people. He's going to do it
for my people. That's what it means when it
says He's the Christ, He's the chosen one, the anointed one,
the sent one. Now back in Genesis, in Genesis
3.15, the scripture declared Christ would come and conquer
the devil for His people. He'd be the one to come and conquer
the devil for his people. Way back there at the fall, the
Lord declared this. He said, I will put enmity between
thee, speaking of the serpent and all his children, I put enmity
between thee and the woman, between thy seed, your children, and
her seed, her son. And her seed shall bruise your
head, and you'll bruise his heel. Only one woman didn't know a
man That's Christ. That's the seed. That's the seed. He's declaring here that the
seed of woman is God with us. He's the one coming forth. He's
not like another man. He wasn't of Adam. He's God the
Son who come through a virgin. That was the purpose. He said
in Isaiah 7.14, the Lord himself shall give you a son. This is
it. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. There's the
woman, the virgin. The seed is she bear a son and
brought forth a son named Immanuel. The Lord said the firstborn son
who is the first to open the matrix, he's the firstborn. Everything belongs to him. There's
only one son that opened the womb by birth. And that's Christ. And He's the firstborn and everything
belongs to Him. He's the one spoken of. Look
at Isaiah 9 verse 6. God put the whole government
of His house and His kingdom on Christ's shoulder. Isaiah
9, 6, his name should be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase
of his government and peace there should be no end. Upon the throne
of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.
The zeal of the Lord our host will perform this. He's the governor, he's the son
of God made flesh like his brethren, so that as a man, he could shed
his blood, he could sympathize with his people, and as God,
everything he accomplished is eternal. Now, for whom did he
do this? For whom did he do this? Our
text says Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Well, who's he writing to? Back in 1 Corinthians 1, he says
he's writing to the Church of God. He is writing to them that
are sanctified in Christ Jesus, chosen of the Father in Christ,
set apart in Christ by divine election, sanctified by Christ's
work, by His blood, by Christ, regenerated by the Spirit and
made to believe on Christ, separated from the world in Christ. That
is who He is writing to. And He says of these Christ died
for our sins. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Christ's death was vicarious.
That means He died for someone in particular. He didn't just
come and die for nobody in particular. He died for a particular people. There was these sins of a particular
people laid on Him, and that's the people for whom He died.
God made Him a curse for us, Scripture said. It was our sins
that were laid on the innocent Lord Jesus. The purpose of His
death was to declare that God is righteous. To declare that
God will not spare those He saved. We've sinned. We've sinned. We can't do anything but sin.
We've done nothing but offend God and we cannot fix that. We cannot put that sin away.
We cannot justify ourselves before God. You could do all the good
works you want to do. God says they don't equal the
righteousness I demand. Not only that, they're sinful
and you got to die for them. Well, how then are we going to
be brought into God's presence? God said, I'm going to save you
by mercy. I'm going to save you by not giving you what you deserve.
I'm going to graciously give you everything you could never
provide for yourself. How are you going to do that
and be just and kill me because the law says I have to die? I'm
going to send my son and he's going to die in your place. All who Christ saves had to die
under God's justice. And they did in Christ. The life
is in the blood. The life is in the blood. The
wages of sin is death. They have to die. The life is
in the blood. So by His blood Christ died in the place of His
people and the law was satisfied toward His people. Listen to
Leviticus 17.11. This is what was pictured in
the law. These are the scriptures. The
life of the flesh is in the blood. And I've given it to you upon
the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it's the
blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Now go to Hebrews
9 and let's see who did that, who was the fulfillment of that
scripture. Hebrews 9 verse 22. Listen to this. Almost all things,
according to God's law, are purged with blood. The only way they
can be cleansed is by blood. He just told us, because life's
in the blood. Now watch, without shedding of blood, there's no
remission. Sins can't be put away without
blood. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in
the heavens should be purified with the blood of bulls and goats.
That's what he's talking about, the old covenant picture. That's
what was the pattern, it was showing us a type and a shadow
of what Christ would do. But the heavenly things themselves,
there's got to be better sacrifices than the blood of a bull and
a goat. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands. He's not entered into a holiest of holies in an earthly
tabernacle. That's a figure of the true,
that's a figure of God's presence, a type of God's presence. He's
entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of
God for us. Now, nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered the holy place every
year with the blood of others. For then he'd had to suffer since
the foundation of the world. Now watch this right here. Pay
attention. Now one time in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now stop right there.
That's what Christ accomplished. You remember the Mount of Transfiguration?
They spoke of the death he would accomplish. What did he accomplish? By that one offering, He put
away somebody's sin. For everybody He died for, He
put their sin away. Either He shall not fail, or
He failed. God said He wouldn't fail. He
put their sin away. Now watch, watch this. It says,
it's appointed unto men once to die. You're going to have
to die one time, and then you're going to come into one judgment
before God. One time. Everybody, this is
so of everybody, there's just one judgment. There's not two
judgments, there's one judgment. You're only gonna be judged once
for your sin, just one time. Everybody, you're gonna die one
time, then you're coming into judgment one time. Just one judgment. Now this is what happened for
everybody Christ died for, right here. Watch. So Christ was once
offered He was judged one time, bearing the sins of many, and
because He satisfied justice, He died. His blood died. He satisfied justice for that
people. Judgment has been settled for
each one for whom He died. They suffered that one judgment,
and they suffered it at Calvary. So what does that mean? What
does that mean for them that believe on Christ? to them that
are looking for Him. We're not looking for a resurrection.
We're looking for Christ who is the resurrection. Them that
are looking for Him, He shall appear the second time, not bearing
sin anymore. He put that away. He's going
to appear to save you and bring you home. You see, all God's
people that believe Christ, we're going to die. We've got to die
one time. But we're not really going to
die. He said, he that believes on me, he's not going to die.
Well, then aren't we coming in a judgment? No. We're going to
be raised only to hear the Lord say, I already judged these. It was done back there at Calvary.
That's going to be our judgment. He's going to vindicate you before
the whole world and say, their righteousness is of me. They've
obeyed me perfectly. They've never sinned once. All
they've ever done is pleased me. How can that be said of you
and me? Because that's what Christ did
for His people. Their judgment is settled. But if you don't
come to God in Christ, if you come to God with all your wonderful
works and everything you've been trying to do all your life in
religion are out. You're going to stand before
God. And everything that you've ever
done that's good is going to be listed with everything
that you've ever done that's evil. And God's going to say,
every bit of it is evil. Every bit of it is wicked. Every
bit of it falls short of the righteousness my son is. You
would not come to my son. He's the one way of salvation.
You wouldn't trust him alone. Everybody's coming into judgment.
The believer is saying, I believe God that I was judged in Christ
on the cross. And it's settled. My sin's gone. Past, present, and future. As
righteous as Christ is, that's as righteous as I am. As perfect
and accepted as He is at God's right hand, that's as perfect
and accepted as I am. As free as He is to serve God,
that's as free as I am to serve Him. That's the only way we'll
stop serving our flesh and serving men and trying to do what we
do under this yoke of bondage that we have to do it and actually
live and enjoy life and enjoy our liberty and enjoy the things
of God and enjoy it and not start doing that to other people too.
The only way we'll do that is to know my judgment settled. That's the way the flesh is mortified.
Man don't get that, carnal man don't do that. The way he's going
to mortify man is he's going to pull out his pruning knife
and start cutting with the law. That's not how man's flesh is
mortified. God says that puffs a man up in the flesh. It's puffing
the man up doing it and the one it's being done to is puffing
him up in flesh too. And if he puts away some sin
and starts acting like he ought to act, that's just nothing but
a big proud peacock walking around saying, look what I did. What's
going to free you from all that? It's done. It's over. It's dead.
Man, I'm not going to be judged by men anymore. I've been under
bondage too long. I'm sick of it. I'm not being
brought back into it anymore. I'm free in Christ. You are too,
believer. Don't let men judge you anymore.
Don't let them bring you into bondage. You're free in Christ.
Enjoy your liberty. So by His blood He justified
His people. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. With His stripes we're healed. We're healed. It was a purpose
death. All the scriptures foretold of
it. It was a voluntary death. Christ said, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, to do Thy will, O God. And the Hebrew writer says, and
it's by that will that we're sanctified. We're made holy.
Made holy. He's seen the travail of his
soul and he's satisfied. When a man preaches that Christ
only made salvation possible, he's not saying Christ accomplished
it. He's not. Christ accomplished it. He accomplished
it. Well, what about His burial?
Let's look at it. I'll be brief here. Verse 4 says He was buried. He was buried according to the
Scripture. What's the significance of His burial according to the
Scripture? Well, Christ's burial in the tomb was just one more
declaration that Christ fulfilled the whole law of God. It's one
more declaration of that. There was a law called the Law
of the Red Heifer. And it said that if you touch
a dead body, whether you drink some water and you didn't know
there was a little bitty gnat in it, you couldn't see it, you
didn't know it was there, and you drink that water, you're
defiled. God won't receive you. If you walked out in the woods
and you're strolling and you're walking along talking to somebody
and you didn't even know somebody 100 years ago was buried there
and you walked over their grave, you're defiled. In other words,
there wasn't anywhere you could turn and go that you wasn't defiled
because you're coming in contact with death constantly. That's
you and me every day coming into contact with death. It's in our
old man, it's in everything we do in contact with one another.
We're coming into contact with death constantly. So God said,
take this red heifer, never wore a yoke, it's a picture of Christ,
and he put the sin on this red heifer and they burned this red
heifer. Took the ashes of this red heifer. And a clean man, had to be a
clean man, Numbers 19.9 says, a man that is clean shall gather
up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the count
in a clean place. That clean place is where there
has never been a dead body. clean place and it'll be kept
for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation. It's a purification for sin.
They would take these ashes and mingle it with some water and
that's what they'd use and sprinkle it on you and you'd be clean.
You'd be pure. Well now, the fulfillment of
that is Christ. He's the red heifer who was burned
under the judgment of God and pleased God and put away the
sin of his people sanctifying us forever. He's the clean man
who raised himself and is seated at God's right hand and it's
through his gospel that he purges the conscience from dead works
and purifies you, changes your mind towards yourself and see
yourself as worthless and see him as all and keeps you looking
to him. In Christ's actual burial, that
law was fulfilled as well. Because it had to be a man that
was clean, that took those ashes out to this clean place. Well,
in Luke 23, verse 50, Behold, there was a man named Joseph.
He was a counselor, and he was a good man and a just man. That means, ceremonially, before
the law, he was a clean man. That means not only that, but
he'd been washed in the blood of Christ. He was a clean man.
He was a clean man. And it says, he was of Arimathea,
and he had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He
was of Arimathea, city of the Jews, and he was waiting for
the kingdom of God. And this clean man went to Pilate,
and he begged the body of Jesus. He said, let me carry the red
heifer out. and they took it down and they
wrapped it in linen and they laid it in a sepulcher that was
hewn in stone where never a dead man had laid. It was a clean
place. So he, even in his burial, we
see Christ fulfilling the law as the red heifer carried out
by a clean man, buried in a clean place. And now he's risen, the
clean man. The separation. for His people
who keeps you separated unto Him. So when you believe or listen
to this, when you behold your body of sin and you see sin in
your brethren, you look to Christ and you think
about them taking down His body. Taking His body to that tomb
and putting it in a tomb. and putting a stone on it. You
think about that. Because God says to you and me,
reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. He says your body of sin was
destroyed. You were buried. You died and
you were buried. Maybe it would help us. Maybe
we ought to go out here somewhere to the side of the building and
put up some stones out there and all of us who believe the
gospel put our name on it and underneath it write dead. And
anytime we have a problem with one another, just walk out there
to that stone and find your brother's name you got a problem with and
look at there and say, well, he's dead. He already died. and treat one another as those
risen with Christ, perfect in Him. How would you treat Christ?
How would we treat Christ? That's what He's going to make
His children do. He didn't make the Pharisees
do that, did He? And they wouldn't stop until they had slain Him
on a tree. We're going to be justified even
if we've got to kill God to do it. But you know what he's going
to do with his child? He's going to make us fall down
and say, Lord, thank you that I'm dead. Because
that man, he's still very much active in us. But he's going
to keep you knowing he's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead.
You're seated with Christ. Because He has to teach you that
all over and over and over and over. Alright, so behold Him
risen. Verse 4, He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. Why is that important? Verse
14 in 1 Corinthians 15 says if Christ is not risen, our preaching
is vain. Your faith is vain. Verse 17 says you're getting
your sin. Christ's resurrection declares He's the Son of God
with power. That's what He said in Romans 1-4. He was declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. And you think about it,
this is so clear in that passage in John 10. When they said to
him, here's why we're upset with you. You being a man are making
yourself God. Now did not the Lord say in Romans
2, whatever we condemn somebody else with, that's what we're
guilty of. And is that not what they were guilty of? They were
accusing him of being a man and making themselves God. And what
were they guilty of? They were men trying to make
themselves God. That's exactly right. Now, I tell you this, President.
Next time you have ought against somebody, you do some real good
self-examination, and you're going to find out the very act
of condemning them, I'm committing sin. I'm condemning myself. It's always so. It's always so. But He's the Son of God. He said He was to them, and He
is, brethren. That's what His resurrection
tells us. And it tells us just what we saw in Romans 14. It
was for this end he lived and died and rose again to be the
Lord, to be the God who is the master and the judge and the
teacher and the corrector and the leader and the savior and
will not lose one of his people. We can trust him to him. We can
trust one another to him. That's what his resurrection
tells us. He tells us He's the head over the church that fills
all in all. Ephesians 1, He raised Him and
made Him head over all things to the church. His church is
His body. And He's the one who fills all in all His people. And just like He quickens you. And he's the one, him hath God
exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. He's the one that gives
you repentance, changes your mind about who you are, what
a vile rebel and guilty sinner you are, and how he's your salvation. And he's the only one that can
absolve you of your sin. He gives you forgiveness. Nobody
else can. So by His resurrection, we have
a clear proof that we've been justified. He says He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He accomplished
our justification on the cross. He was raised to tell us God
accepted Him. The justification's done. It's
settled. Rest in Him. Rest in Him. So let's look at this now. And
here's the other thing it tells us. It tells us There's coming
a day when He's coming back and He's going to raise us. He's
going to raise us. When you die, you're going with
Him in spirit, but He's coming again and He's going to raise
everybody. All men, He's going to raise
all men, good and evil. But His people, He's going to
raise and give a new glorified body to be with Him forever.
That's what He says in the rest of the text. And it's all just
a quote from Hosea 14, 14. This is all according to the
scriptures. He said there, I'll ransom thee from the power of
the grave. I'll redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy
plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction.
So he says down there in 1 Corinthians 15, when he's come back and done
this work, he says in verse 54, death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thanks be to God who gave us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what his resurrection
tells us. So brethren, that's Christ. He's our life. He's the one in whom we died. He's the one in whom we lived
when he walked this earth. He's the one in whom his people
died, so judgment's settled. And he's the one in whom we live
now, and as he is at God's right hand, that's how we are right
now. That's where we are, and that's
how we are in him right now. In him right now. Now, we'll
observe the table. Brother Scott, can you pass these
out? You won't smell.