My text this morning is found
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if you would turn there with
me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Twice a year in December and
again in April, religion celebrates Jesus. And I'm reluctant to say
that they celebrate Jesus Christ because that's not who most folks
celebrate. They celebrate who and what they
see Jesus Christ to be. In December, people celebrate
a baby Jesus who's lying in a manger and living in a stable. And men
by nature like a baby Jesus. He's easy for them to deal with
and manipulate. Then in April, religion celebrates
what they call Easter, and some now call it Resurrection Day,
yet seriously and sadly, most who celebrate this day have no
idea of the significance and the necessity of Christ's resurrection. Actually, they have no understanding
of the significance of his birth, his life, his death, or his resurrection. God's people don't celebrate
a day. I've said that before. God's
people celebrate a person. And we celebrate him every day. His birth was miraculous. His
death was a victory. His burial was a substitution
for a His resurrection is our surety of eternal life. The person that I celebrate today
and every day is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God the Son. He is Jesus, which means Savior,
and He's Christ, which means the Anointed One. He's God, the
Savior, and the Anointed One. That's who we celebrate. And
He's the only one that can do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. This past week is no different
than it is every year at this time. Inevitably, someone always
asks, what's your church doing for Easter Sunday? And what they
mean is, what special thing is your church doing? And my answer's
always the same. Not trying to be smart or ugly
in any way. I always say the same special
thing that we always do. And it is special. We preach
the triumphant birth life, death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul is saying
here in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Moreover, brethren,
I declare, I preach unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. says we preach the gospel that
we preach. We don't change our message for
special occasions. We preach the same gospel we
always preach. We tell sinners how God puts
their sin away. That's pretty special. And He does so by the sacrifice
of Himself. Notice closely what Paul says
here in verse 1. He said, I declare, I preach
in a solemn, emphatic manner unto you the gospel which I preached,
previously declared and proclaimed unto you. My message hadn't changed. I'm gonna preach unto you the
same gospel that I always preach. No new message. There's only
one message. Paul says it's the same message
I always preach. The same gospel I always declare. You know, when I go out of town
to preach somewhere, and Gene and Larry and other men stand
in this pulpit, I often have folks call me and say, oh, it
was such a good message. And you know, I'm not surprised
at all. Because it's the same message.
It's the same gospel. And it's good, it's always good. Paul said, I preach to you the
gospel, not a gospel, but the gospel. Not one of many gospels,
there's only one gospel. There's no other good news. The
gospel is an exclusive message. It's a distinct message. It concerns
one person and one thing. That's what makes it exclusive.
It's concerning one person and one thing. Now, the religious
world says there are many gospels. Not so. Not so. After all, there
are churches on every street corner. There's more denominations
than you can shake a stick at. And some say there's one gospel,
but it's interpreted by different men in different ways. Our gospel
doesn't need man's interpretation. We need God's divine intervention.
Big difference. The Gospel is simple. The Gospel
is plain. The Gospel is clear. He that
hath the Son hath life. Now does that need to be interpreted
to you? He that has Christ has life eternal. Neither is there salvation in
any other. Do you need help understanding
that? There's no salvation in anyone but Christ. How about this one? Salvation
is of the Lord. Does that statement insinuate
that man has a hand in salvation? Salvation is of the Lord. Men and women have no trouble
understanding the gospel. They have trouble with believing
it. It's not hard to understand,
but it's impossible to believe unless God divinely intervenes. It's not of Him that willeth,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And we can will ourselves worthy
and run to do good to help God save you, but it won't do you
any good. Salvation is of God and only
He can show mercy. Only He can give grace and knowledge. There's none other name under
heaven whereby sinners must be saved. Is that hard to understand?
Our gospel doesn't need man's interpretation. Sinners need
a divine revelation given by God. We need for God to give
us life. Somebody says, well, I don't
believe that. Well, you're still dead in trespasses and sin. We don't have the ability to
believe until God gives us life. No man can come to me. Why? Because
he's dead. Never seen a dead man get up
and do anything unless he's first given life. I've seen that in
a spiritual way many times. Only one who's alive can believe,
and only one who believes is truly alive. Paul said, the gospel
I preach unto you is the same gospel I've always preached,
that same message that you receive and wherein you stand. That word
means abide and reside and live. That's where we live, isn't it? We don't accept Jesus in order
to be saved. Now, I wanna be very clear on
this. We don't accept Jesus in order
to be saved, but we must receive him if we are to be saved. That
word accept means a consent to receive. Sounds innocent enough. You think
about it. It means a consent to receive.
In other words, you lent your will. You consented to receive
Christ. You let go and you helped God
save you. See, that's what it turns into.
I accepted Jesus, I let go, I let God. I gave in, I gave my permission,
I consented. And that's the reason you receive
Jesus and accept Him, you say. Not so. The correct definition
for receive means to be freely given. Freely given without your
consent. God gives you life and He says,
this is yours, take it. And you take it, you receive
it, you know why? Because you desperately need
it. Have you ever really, really
needed something and someone gave it to you and you go, no,
thank you. No, you need it, I'll take it,
I need it. We thankfully took it because
we couldn't live without it. That's the difference between
accepting and believing and receiving. We don't accept Jesus, we receive
and we bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Fortner once
said, the preaching of the new birth won't save you. Preaching
of the love of God won't save you. Preaching the second coming
will not save you. Preaching holy living definitely
will not save you. But preaching who Jesus Christ
is and what Jesus Christ did, that's the only thing that'll
save a sinner. And it's the ordained means of
God's salvation. Don't be surprised if the world
calls it foolishness. They have always called it that.
That's what it is to them. Foolishness. I've had people
look at me and say, you really believe that? And it wouldn't
have had to said anything, just the expression on their face,
told it all. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God. It's the life-giving power of
God. God said, I'll destroy the wisdom
of the wise and I'll bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent. That word means well-advised
and cautious. My mom used to always say, well,
you're from Missouri. I said, no, I'm not. And she
goes, yeah, you're from the show me state. You don't believe nothing
until you see it. Well, God's got to show it to
you. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." They're all
into preaching out there. What else is there? And it's
foolishness to the unbeliever, but it's the power of God to
the believer. Christ is the way. Every other
way is a way to destruction. Did you know that? There's one
way to life. Christ is that way. That's what
he said, I am the way. Christ is the truth. All other
ways are a lie. Now this is dogmatic, emphatic, Christ is the truth. No other
truth other than Him. Christ is the life. All other
ways are death. That's what He said. No man comes
to the Father but by Me. No man, no way, but by Me. Do you need that interpreted
for you? So what is the message that we
declare? What is the good news that we preach? Paul says how
that Christ died for our sins. That's what this is about. How did Christ die for our sins?
He died for our sins according to the scriptures. In accordance
with the scriptures. According to the Old Testament
scriptures. That's the only scriptures they
had. Christ died as God said he would. Christ died how God said he would. Now what does Christmas trees
and Santa Claus and exchanging gifts have to do with the gospel?
These things are not according to the scriptures. What does
the Easter eggs and bunny rabbits and chocolate have to do with
God saving sinners? Nothing. These things are not
according to the scriptures. We need to concern ourselves
with the things that are. The Lord Jesus didn't die for
the sake of dying. In verse three, Paul says that
Christ died for our sin. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. From what? From their sin. We gotta be saved from something.
We're saved from our sin. That sin that so easily besets
us. and brings us unto the condemnation. It's all against God, as we saw
in the first hour. And God's angry with the wicked,
those that sin against Him every day. We need to concern ourselves
with that. The Gospel's good news to a sinner,
because Christ died for the sin of chosen sinners according to
the Word of God. And the Word of God, we see that
from the very beginning. In the beginning, the earth was
without form, it was without light, it was without form, it
was void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved. The Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the water. There's no life unless and until
God moves. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. God gave light and earth was
no longer without form, void, and dark. It's the same with
the elect sinner. There's no light until God says
and God does. Life and light's the result of
God's doing. When our first parents sinned,
Adam and Eve were naked, and the Lord clothed them with the
skins of a sacrificed animal. No doubt to me a lamb, just no
doubt to me a lamb, though we're not told, it just had to be a
lamb, because Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. The sacrifice for fallen man
must be by a lamb, which Christ was, to be according to the Scriptures. And that's how Christ died, according
to the Scriptures, in accordance to what God said in this book
before Christ came into the world. That's why Abel brought a lamb
to sacrifice as an offering. That's why he had been taught
that by his father Adam, and his father Adam had been taught
that by his father God. A lamb was slain, the blood of
a lamb was applied to the mercy seat. Christ is the believer's
Passover lamb. When God sees what? The blood. He'll pass over the sinner. He
got to see blood. Blood must be shed. Abraham,
take thy son, thy only son, get thee to the land of Moriah and
offer your son there for a burnt offering. And when they got there,
Isaac said, what you and I would have seen? Behold the fire and the wood.
But where's the lamb for burnt offering? And you know Abraham
preached the gospel right then and there. He sure did. What was Abraham's gospel message?
God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering. That's the
message. According to the Scriptures,
same message I'm preaching today, the burnt offering was not provided
for by man. Man cannot provide a satisfactory
sacrifice. So God provided for Himself,
and God provided Himself as the sacrifice and the offering, and
behold, the Lamb of God. That's what we do in preaching.
That's what you did last Sunday. Larry, that's what you did. Behold
the Lamb of God. And we present Him out of the
Scriptures, according to the Scriptures. How Christ died according
to this book, according to what God said. I'm not interested
in what the Book of Mormon says. I'm not interested in what Confucius
says. I'm not interested in what Buddha
says. I'm not. I'm just not. I'm interested
in what God says. And God speaks to us through
His Son, through this book. He is the Word of God. In the
beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. Jesus Christ is God Word. So God provided his perfect self
in the person of his perfect son, and that's according to
the scriptures. Christ sovereignly died. No one
took his life, he laid it down. Our Lord Jesus said, therefore
doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me. But
I lay it down on myself. I've got power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. And this commandment have I received
of my Father. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because He laid down His life for us. This morning I declare unto you
the Gospel. It's the same Gospel I always
preach. It's the only Gospel that we can preach. It's the
only good news for sinners. Some of you have received it.
You didn't accept it. You didn't consent to receive
it. God revealed it to you, and you know it's so. And someone
asks you and says, well, how do you know that it's so? And
you go, I just know that it's so. Because guess what God's
Word says? It's according to the Scriptures.
If you need more proof than that, you'll have to get it from God. It's according to the Scriptures
that you stand upon Christ the solid rock. And when the rain
descends and the flood rises and the winds blow and the streams
beat vehemently upon your house, it can't be shaken. It's founded
upon a rock. Christ is that rock that the
child of God builds upon. And the gospel is exclusive. I mean, it's an exclusive message
about a singular person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone accomplished
a perfect, complete, finished work for a specific and exclusive
people. Not going to argue about whether
Christ died for the whole world or not. There's nothing to argue
there. He says right here, according to the scriptures, that's that
he didn't. I pray not for the world, but for them that thou
gavest me. Why are we going to argue about
that? That's been settled. He died for those that believeth
on Him, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but
have everlasting life. That's who He came to save. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. That's election.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied." That's good news. God is satisfied. Not with me, not with you, but
with Christ and us in him. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. That's what this is about. Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christ finished
the transgression. He made an end of sins. He made
reconciliation for iniquity and he brought in everlasting righteousness
and he sealed up the vision and the prophecy and anointed the
most holy. That's justification. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a
curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. Galatians 3.13. It's done. It's finished. We don't preach
possibilities. God didn't make salvation possible.
God made salvation certain. According to what the Scriptures
teach in the Word of God, we preach Christ perfect, complete,
finished work of redemption and righteousness as our substitute
sacrifice and Savior. God requires perfect righteousness
from me. How am I going to get it? Am
I going to go out and do a bunch of good little deeds and hope
that that does it for me? No. Because we don't do good. We're incapable of doing good.
There's none that do us good. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? That's according to the Scriptures. The death of our Lord goes back
before Calvary. It goes back to the eternal counsels
of God before the world was ever framed. For as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world. God ordained beforehand that Christ would save a people,
and every single one of them are gonna be saved. And you can
go, well, I don't believe in election. Then you don't believe
in the Bible. Our Lord's death was no accident,
and it was no incident. It was a divine transaction. who verily was foreordained,
foreappointed, predetermined to be our Savior before the foundation
of the world. My friends, you'd have never
seen a Savior if there had not been an eternal covenant of grace
given by the Father before the fall. Before there was a sinner,
there was a Savior. God would have never provided
a Savior if in the purpose and counsel of God from all eternity,
Christ was not designated to be our representative and substitute. Like the angels that fail, Adam
would have not, would Adam, like the angels that fail, would have
been reserved in everlasting chains of darkness until the
day of judgment if God had not provided a sacrifice. When the angels fell, God cast
them into everlasting chains of darkness. But when Adam fell,
God came immediately and He promised to him a Savior, and that Savior
had already been provided. That Savior had already been
promised. Yea, even before Adam fell. The cross was not an afterthought
in the Garden of Eden. Oh, what am I gonna do now? I
heard a man say one time, you know, God's sovereign, and when
Adam fell in the garden, he had a backup plan. Well, a sovereign
doesn't need a backup plan. The cross of Christ was born
in the mind and the purpose and the counsel of God before he
ever made the garden of Eden. Christ died in the purpose of
God before Adam died in the garden of sin. God made Christ's soul
an offering for what? Sin. He died the just for the
unjust. He came into the world to save
sinners. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. He said, for this cause came
I to this hour. You know, electricity existed
before man ever found it. Gold was in the ground before
man ever mined it. America was here before Columbus
ever discovered it. Even so, Christ died at the appointed,
at the divinely appointed death, at the divinely appointed hour,
but he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
before there was a sinner. There was a Savior that came
to save His own before the world began. Christ died for our sins
according to the Scripture, but that's not all that He did. Verse
four, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. And friends, He did rise from
the dead. Verse five, and that he was seen
of Cephas, Peter, then of the 12, and after that he was seen
of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. And 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 friends, this is the heart of the gospel. If Christ didn't
rise from the dead, That means that God did not accept his sacrifice. That means that God did not accept
us in him. It means that Christ was a failure.
It means that Christ didn't save anyone. It means that his sacrifice
was not perfect. Look down at verse 12. Now if
Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your
faith is also vain? Yes, that's what it means. And we are found false witnesses
of God because we've testified of God that He raised up Christ,
whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ, they're perished too. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now first,
this means, if there's no resurrection of the dead, this means that
God lied. It means that the scriptures are not true. Secondly, if Christ
is not risen, our preaching is in vain. There's just no need
for us to preach. We're just wasting our time and
our breath. If there's no resurrection from
the dead, our preaching and our faith, which comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, is vain. It's useless, it's unsuccessful,
it's ineffectual, it's fruitless, and it's unproductive. Thirdly,
if Christ is not risen, then we've misrepresented God. We've
falsely said there's a resurrection when there's not. That's serious. Fourthly, if Christ be not risen,
then His body is still in the grave. He's an imposter and He's
not God. Do you see the implications this
makes if He didn't rise from the dead? Fifthly, if Christ
be not risen, your faith is vain and you shall die in your sins.
If there's no resurrection, there's no salvation, there's no heaven.
There's no life eternal. And lastly, if Christ be not
risen, then all who have died believing on Christ have perished,
having no hope. And Paul sums the whole thing
up by saying, we are of all men most miserable. What does that
mean? Well, if our confidence and our
hope and our assurance of salvation is in a failure or in a myth,
then we have no reason to be anything other than miserable.
But friends, that's not so. He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures, according to the Word of God, according
to what God said. And God's not a man that he should
lie or a son of man that he should Repent, change his mind. He arose
from the tomb, he's risen as our representative, and this
is why. Verse 20, but now has Christ
risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that
slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all die. be made alive, not all
the world, but all those that believe in Christ that He died
for. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits,
afterward they that are Christ at His coming. Now Christ has
become the firstfruit of those who were dead. He's the firstfruit
of them that slept. And more are gonna arise just
as Christ did. A number no man can number. all
the elect throughout all time? My, my. It's going to be a bunch. Man was created. By man came
death. First man, Adam. Well, his name,
Adam, means man. It means red earth. Man was created
from the red earth. He represented all who were in
him, all who came from him. Adam is our was our federal head. When He sinned, we sinned in
Him. By man came death. When Adam was created, we were
created. When Adam stood, we stood. When Adam fell, we fell. When
Adam sinned, we sinned. When Adam died, we died. The
whole human race was in Adam. But by man also came the resurrection. There's another man, there's
a second Adam. The first Adam's of the earth,
earthly. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. So by man came death, by man
came the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all died, even
so in Christ. All who are in Christ shall be
made alive. All who were in Adam died. All
who were represented by Adam died. I mean to be redundant.
Faith comes by hearing. We need to hear it. We need to
hear it often. All who came from Adam died. They died spiritually
and they died physically, but this is the gospel. There's a
second Adam, a second man, the Lord from heaven. The Lord Jesus
Christ in God the Son came down here in the likeness of sinful
flesh, made of a woman, made under the law to do what? To
redeem them who were under the law. He didn't come from Adam. He
wasn't in Adam. He wasn't represented by Adam
and he wasn't identified with Adam. The first Adam represents
all of us. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. And He came down here to represent
a people who were given to Him by the Father. And that, my friends,
is the Gospel. In Adam, we lost spiritual life
and we died physically. But in Christ, life is restored
and we're going to live forever. So the gospel is not that just
that Christ was born or that Christ just lived a perfect righteous
life, not just that Christ died, not just that Christ was buried,
not just that he rose the third day, but that he did all these
things according to the scriptures, according to what God says. And
this is my hope of acceptance with God. My union with Christ
makes me one with him. If God accepts Christ's perfect
righteousness, and He did, then He is certain to accept mine. Because my righteousness is His,
and His is mine. I'm His and He's mine. How are sinners like you and
I accepted? Well, Eddie read this in the
men's Ephesians 1-4, and I'm going to close with this. Look
at Ephesians with me. We'll begin in verse 4. We've
read these words so many times. I'm sure you read them in your
own private study. But let's look at them real close
again one last time before we leave today. Ephesians 1-4. According. There's that word,
Gene. According as He, God, hath chosen
us in Him, Christ, before the foundation of the world, why?
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's
the only way we're going to be saved. Having predestinated,
predetermined, foreordained us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, to himself according, there it is again, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Friends, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no other way to be accepted. And then he confirms
that in verse seven, in whom, that's who it's talking about,
a person, Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according, there it is again,
to the purpose of him who worketh all things. after the counsel
of His own will. Why? That we should be to the
praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. And it's all in accordance to
the Scriptures. Thank God for the Scriptures.
Thank God for His Son. Thank God for salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're accepted.