Our message is going to come
from 1 Corinthians chapter 15 if you would like to read along
with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and in this portion of scripture
the Apostle Paul is telling the Corinthians. He is saying, brethren,
I want to preach the gospel to you. That's what he says to them. And I say the same thing right
now to you. I want to preach the gospel to
you. If you look at verse one, Paul
said, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I
preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein
you stand." He said, I want to declare to you again that same
gospel that I preached to you in the beginning. He said the
same message that I preached to you before. I want to preach
it again. He said to the Corinthians, it's
the one that you received by the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God opened up that message to you and gave you faith to
believe it. And he said, you're standing in it. You're standing
on it. You're standing with it, the
true gospel. He said, I want to declare the
gospel one more time. Our Lord commanded us to go unto
all the world and preach the gospel, the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9,
verse 16, Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. He said to the
Galatians, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. He said, which is not another. There's not another one. There's
only one. So Paul said, brethren, I'm not
here to declare a gospel to you. I'm here to declare the gospel
to you, the one and only gospel that there is. The scripture
calls it the gospel of God. In Romans one verse one, the
gospel of God, Romans one 16 calls it the gospel of Christ.
Matthew 4 calls it the gospel of the kingdom. Acts 20 calls
it the gospel of grace. Romans 10 calls it the gospel
of peace. 1 Timothy 1 calls it the glorious
gospel. Romans 14 calls it the everlasting
gospel. The everlasting gospel. And Ephesians
1 says, it is the gospel of your salvation, the good news of your
salvation. And here it is. If you want to
look with me at 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1, the apostle Paul
said, 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 are 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. according to the Scriptures.
Paul said, I want to declare to you again the gospel that
I first preached to you, the only gospel that there is concerning
how Christ died for our sins. and how he was buried and rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, I would
like to begin our declaration here understanding this first.
We need to understand this first. This is so important. Many people
declare, many men will stand up in pulpits and they will declare
that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that
he rose again. But in the process of declaring
that, they leave out the gospel. That's the truth. That is the
truth. Even after preaching that Christ
died, you'll hear men stand up and talk about the fact that
Christ died on the cross and he was buried and he rose again. Even after preaching that, They
still haven't preached the gospel. This happens often. This right here is the first
thing we need to get a hold of if we're going to declare the
gospel. That declaration is not just concerning the fact that
Christ died and that he was buried and that he rose again. Paul
didn't just say, I'm gonna declare to you that Christ died. He didn't
say that. He said, I'm going to declare
to you how Christ died. That's the key. That's the important
key. The gospel declaration is concerning
how Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Verse 3, Paul said, For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that
Christ died. How? How? That's the gospel. That truly is the gospel. That
is the gospel of our salvation. That is the glorious gospel.
How? Why? That's the everlasting gospel
and the gospel of peace and grace, the gospel of God, how Christ
died for the sins of his people, how he died. Now, understanding
that, let's ask this question. How did Christ die? How did Christ
die? If we can answer that question,
we will have declared the gospel. How did Christ die? Verse three,
Paul said, 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. Number one, Christ died according
to the scriptures. He died according to the scriptures.
He died as the scriptures said he would die, as they prophesied
that he would die. He died in the way that the scriptures
said he would die. And he died because that's what
the scripture said the wages of sin was. That's what the scripture
said God demanded as the penalty in judgment against sin. And
we're going to see that as we continue to declare this. If
you'd like to follow with me here, you can go to Isaiah 42
with me. Over in Isaiah chapter 42, Christ
died according to the scriptures, meaning as the scriptures said
he would die. This right here is the father
speaking of Christ. I have a heading at the top of
my page and it says the office of Christ. This is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 42 verse one, God the
father says concerning God the son, he said, behold my servant. Behold Christ, the father says,
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect. He's my elect, I choose
Him. Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon Him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench? He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth." He's going to bring judgment
to truth. I love verse 4. It says, "'He
shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in
the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law.' Verse five
says, thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and
stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which
cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it. God gives breath to every man
and woman. and spirit to them that walk
therein. God gives all that. Verse six
says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will
hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. The father said,
I will give Christ for a covenant to the people. A covenant for
the people. What does he mean a covenant
for the people? Well, if you look at Isaiah 43,
verse 14, it says, thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, your
Redeemer. He means I will promise my son
to them, to give his life for them, to redeem them from all
their sin, to make the payment required for all their sin, to
buy them back from their bankruptcy of sin. Christ died as the Scripture
said He would die. All of the Scripture declared
that He would come to be the Redeemer of His people. He also died in the way that
the Scripture said He would die. If you look at Isaiah 53, Isaiah
53 verse 7 says He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet he
opened not his mouth. Pilate kept asking him, will
you not answer me? He opened not his mouth. He is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He died. He died. Verse nine
says, and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich
in his death. And he did. Because he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Christ died according to the
scriptures. All the Old Testament stories and pictures and types,
all of it, declare how Christ would die for the sins of his
people. Our Lord said, and think about
this, Our Lord said, Moses wrote of me. The Lord Jesus Christ
said that. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Old Testament. And every time Moses was talking
about God, every time Moses mentioned I am, all of his encounters with
God in a burning bush and all of the types and stories and
pictures, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Moses was talking about
me. Moses wrote of me. It was all about me. The Ark,
you know, people talk about Noah's Ark. Men stand up in pulpits
and they talk about all these old stories and they bring, you
know, stories of morality and stories of duty and stories of
heroism and that kind of thing. And they miss Christ in the process. They miss Christ. The ark is
Christ. The ark is Christ. Every soul
in the ark lived. Every soul out of the ark died.
Every soul bore the judgment of God. The judgment rained down
on that ark just like it rained down on the rest of the world.
But for every soul in the ark, that ark bore the judgment for
them. It bore the beating of that rain
for them. And in that ark, they rose above
it. Well, that's Christ. That's a picture of Christ. That's
a picture that Christ would die. That's a picture of how Christ
would die and why Christ would die for his people. You've heard
of the story of the rock that was smitten. Moses, who represents
the law, struck the rock. The people were thirsty and dying
and in need. And God said, here's how I'm
going to supply that need. He said, Moses, you strike the
rock. The law of judgment struck Christ. That was Christ, that
Passover lamb, the lamb that was slain, that's Christ. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, when I see the blood
of that lamb, I'll spare you, I'll pass over you. My judgment
will be satisfied." That's Christ. The manna that came down every
day for the people and fed the people and sustained the people,
that's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That brazen serpent on a pole, Moses made a serpent of brass
on a pole. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That's Christ. Those snakes were killing the
people, biting the people, killing the people, and Christ was made
to be the very thing that was killing His people. Sin. That's why that brazen serpent
was put on a pole. That's why Christ was compared
to this venomous serpent. He was made to be sin for His
people. that he might bear the judgment
of God for his people to redeem his people. Christ died according
to the scriptures. Do we see that? All right, turn
with me to Hebrews 9. If you're following along with
me, let's go to Hebrews 9. Verse 27 says, As it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. It doesn't say
all men and women on this earth, but it, thank God, it does say
many. All that the Father gave to him to bear their sins for
them. It's appointed unto man once
to die and go stand before the judgment. And Hebrews 9 says,
Christ did that for his people. Verse 28 says, So Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many. unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. It's appointed unto man once
to die, so Christ was offered to bear the sins of many." How
did Christ die? He died according to the law.
He died according to the scripture, the prophecy of the scripture,
the declaration of the scripture, he died according to the law.
Romans 6 says, the wages of sin is death. That's what the law
demanded. And God the Father laid all the
sin of his people on Christ his son. Therefore, according to
the law, Think about this. God the Father laid the sin of
His people, took them off of His people, and laid them on
His Son. Now, because He is bearing sin,
because He has sin on Him, the Scripture says He bore our sins
inside His body on the tree, in His body. And with Him bearing
that sin, now the law looks at Him and says, you must die. The wages of sin is death. Paul,
you know, people make this statement. You'll hear people say this all
the time. They'll say, if I would have been alive back when Christ
died on the cross, I would have stopped that. Well, then we would
have broken the law. We would have facilitated Christ
breaking the law. That's the fact of the matter.
Our Lord died according to the law. According to God's holy
law, he had to die. He himself said, ought not Christ
to have suffered these things? Ought he not to have suffered
them? As the one who bore the sin, didn't the law say he had
to die? It most certainly did. And what
that tells us is he was just in justifying his people. How
can God say to one sinner in Christ, you are free to go and
say to another sinner outside of Christ, you are judged to
condemnation. How? Here's the only way. The judgment of the soul in Christ
has to have already been accomplished. No one's sins are swept under
the rug. The judgment comes, but either
Christ bore them for his people or we must bear them alone. He
was just according to the law in justifying his people. So
Christ died according to the types and the pictures of the
scripture. Christ died according to the law of the scripture.
Now over in John chapter six, It says in John 6, verse 38,
our Lord said, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will, which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
that's who Christ died for, every soul the Father gave to Him,
of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
Him that sent me. that everyone which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day." Christ died according to
the will of the Father. He said, this is my Father's
will. Isaiah 53, we were just there
a second ago, it says there in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord
to bruise Christ. From the cross, he cried, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me?
Here's the reason why. It's because God the Father loved
some sinful people in this wicked world, and he chose to redeem
them by giving the life of his own son as the payment for their
sin. How did Christ die? He died according
to the will of the Father. And along with his Father's will,
he died according to his own will. If you look at John 10,
verse 11 says, our Lord here said, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 14,
he said, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. and other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, And I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father." Verse 30, he said, I and my father
are one. We are one. Christ's will was
not separate from his father's will. He was not forced to give
up his life by anyone. He willingly gave it up. He bowed his own head and gave
up his ghost. So he died as the willing Savior. The cross was no surprise to
him. He said, for this cause came
I into the world. This is the whole reason I came
into the world. He willingly bore the shame.
He willingly endured the cross. Hebrews 12 says, for the joy
that was set before him. So the good news of the gospel
is not just in the fact that Christ died. It's in how he died,
how he died. He died according to the scripture.
He died according to the law. He died according to his father's
will. He died according to his own
will. Now, if you look with me at John chapter 11, It says in
John 11 verse 47, Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council and said, What do we for this man
do with many miracles? They're speaking of the Lord
here. They're trying to bring him before this council to condemn
him to death. And verse 48 says, If we let
him thus alone, all men will believe on him. and the Romans
shall come and take away both our place and nation." This is
the Jews saying this. If we just leave it alone, we'll
lose our authority here. Verse 49, "'And one of them named
Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them,
You know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that
also he should gather together in one the children of God that
were scattered abroad." Christ died as the substitute for his
people. He died so they would not have
to. He died to accomplish their death
for them. When He said that it was finished,
it was all finished. It was all finished. Never will
His people have to endure what He has already endured for them
as their substitute. He died according to mercy, not
giving his people what they deserve because he gave it to himself
instead. He died according to grace, taking
no price from his people. It was his free gift to them,
free favor. And the last one we'll look at
for this message is in John 15. John 15 verse 13 says, greater
love hath no man than this. that a man lay down his life
for his friends. He died as the friend of sinners. How did Christ die? How did Christ
die? This is a glorious statement
to me. He died as the friend of sinners. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner
like I'm a sinner? He died bearing the sin of sinners. suffering the judgment for sinners. He was buried bringing the very
sin that he paid for to a place that it could never return again.
And he was raised again proving that those sins were put away
forever. And the judgment of God was satisfied. It was all
satisfied and done. I'll tell you, that is the gospel. That is the gospel. That is the
true gospel. That is my gospel. I pray that's your gospel. And
I say that only because that's God's gospel. That's nobody's
gospel, but God's gospel. And those that God gives faith
to believe his gospel. That is the glorious news of
redemption. How Christ died for our sins. The song says, once more to tell
it, would I embrace. We started this with Paul telling
them, I want to tell you the same gospel one more time. Once
more to tell it, once more to hear it, would I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That is the gospel one more time. And I pray that God will make
that gospel to be a blessing to our hearts. I truly do.