Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
15. I want to read the first 10 verses there, and then we
will spend most of our time on the... Well, this is where we're
planning to spend most of our time, but we're going to have
to use a lot of other scriptures too. 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
verse 1 says, 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 to 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 about 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, then of all the apostles, and last
of all he was seen of me also as one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet or 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. That's the gospel right there. Paul said, I declare unto you
now the gospel. And then he explains it in these
few verses of scripture. The gospel, according to Romans
116, is the power of God unto salvation. It's not only the power of God
to save an unbeliever when a person first believes, because that's
the way we normally think of it, but it is the power of God
to save the believer, because the just live by faith. And Paul
said that because his life and his soul was that Christ lived
in him. He therefore said this, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. So the gospel is not just the
power of God to the unbeliever, but to the believer. Faith comes,
faith is maintained, and faith is increased. and strengthened
in two ways according to Scripture, by the Word of God, by hearing
the Word of God, and by trouble in our lives. Therefore, it is
imperative to our eternal life that you and I hear, understand,
believe, and live in faith upon Christ as He's revealed in Scripture."
That's the Gospel. I've entitled this message, What
is the Gospel? Thankfully, we do not have to
speculate. Sadly, most of what is preached
today is not the gospel, and we'll see that in a moment here.
But in fact, it is false and fatal to your souls, and that
is why we implore you and one another, and our God, each week,
that we would be enabled to understand and believe the Gospel every
day of our lives, especially as we gather together in this
place." The Gospel of Jesus Christ. First thing we see here in 1
Corinthians 15 is the chapters about the resurrection. And the
first thing we notice is that Paul mentions the fact that there
were many who observed the Lord Jesus Christ after He was raised
from the dead. Christ made Himself known to
those messengers that He chose. And He sent them, and He equipped
them, and when they preached by His grace, which He gave to
them by His Spirit, to those people who heard the message
that they might live and believe Him, they preached the gospel. If you look at the book of Acts,
if you read through the book of Acts, what you'll find is
in Acts chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, in every, almost every chapter
of the book of Acts, the Spirit of God enabled the apostles and
the disciples to preach the gospel. In Acts 5.42 it says, they ceased
not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. So Christ made Himself known
to those messengers, and they saw Him. They were eyewitnesses
of Him. In Hebrews chapter 12, it says,
we have a great cloud of witnesses, speaking about the Old Testament
saints, that we observe. And these witnesses testify to
the truth of God from His Word. And so it was, when the Lord
Jesus raised from the dead, there were a great cloud of witnesses.
500 at once, Paul says here. And they all spoke about the
same historical facts. They all drew from the Old Testament
Scripture to validate those historical facts. They proved by the Scriptures
that they taught and preached that what the men then saw, the
men and women then saw, was actually foretold in Scripture of old.
And they all spoke the meaning, the same meaning, of the saving
truth that God established by those facts using Old Testament
Scripture. That's what the Gospel is. It's
what God has said about His Son from Scripture. And you can see
this throughout Scripture. I want to take you to just a
couple. There's a number of them, but just look at a couple of
these. Look at 1 Peter 1, that the Lord Jesus, the Gospel, was
foretold and spoken of in the Old Testament. Look at 1 Peter
1, verse 10. It says, "...of which salvation
the salvation of our souls, the prophets have inquired and searched
diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come to
you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
That's a summary of all of the Old Testament scripture. And
you can look in your own time at all these cases, but in John
5.39 Jesus told the Pharisees, "...you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me." And he also said in the same chapter
of John, in verse 46, that Moses wrote of Christ. And in Luke
chapter 24, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the two on
the road to Emmaus, and he opened to them the scriptures out of
the Psalms and the Prophets, and then the Law of Moses. All
the scriptures, he opened them to himself, concerning himself.
And in Hebrews 1, it says, in these last days God has spoken
to us by his Son. All that was said before was
prophesied of these days when the Lord Jesus Christ would come.
Galatians 3 verse 8 says that the scripture preached the gospel
to Abraham when it said, "...in thee and in thy seed shall all
the families of the earth be blessed." So that's the gospel
according to Galatians 3.8. What God said to Abraham was
the gospel. And then in Hebrews chapter 4,
the apostle says that those people back then, he says, unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them. In Hebrews chapter
4 verse 2. But the word didn't profit them
because it wasn't mixed with faith and then they heard it.
So the gospel was preached to Abraham, to the children of Israel
in the wilderness, before they entered Canaan, throughout all
their sojourn in the wilderness, and when their deliverance from
Egypt. That was the gospel according to scripture that was being preached.
And then in Romans 10.16, the apostle there, he says that they
have not all believed the gospel. Because Isaiah said, Lord, who
has believed our report? Quoting from Isaiah 53. So the
entire chapter of Isaiah 53 is clearly identified in Romans
10.16 as the gospel. And then in verse 17 it says,
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, as it says in Isaiah 53. And
this is just some of those cases. Jesus told Nicodemus that as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son
of Man must be lifted up. In John 3, 14 and 15. That's
the Gospel. And in 1 Corinthians 5, 7 it
says Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. You see, the
New Testament draws from the Old Testament in order to teach
us the Gospel. And that's what Paul is saying.
The message that was preached by those Christ made himself
known to, and equipped, and sent, was the message, one message,
that the Old Testament Scriptures and the New Testament Scriptures
both teach. That's the message of Scripture.
It's the Gospel. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is found throughout Scripture. They preached by the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ, risen and seated on heaven's throne.
In Matthew 28, 18, Jesus says, "...all power, all authority
is given to me in heaven and earth." Therefore, he sent his
disciples to preach the gospel. And it was by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God has one purpose in this world in this day. It's
to convince men and women, elect redeemed sinners of the accomplishments
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. many people for many
years as I was growing up, and I'm not sure what they're doing
now because I've been out of touch with it, but there was
so much attention and focus given on the gifts of the Spirit, on
the baptism in the Spirit, on being filled with the Spirit,
that there was a complete blindness that fell over modern day Christianity,
and maybe, and I think still is there, on this focus, this
intense focus on the activity of the Spirit of God in the experience
of people. And they would go on doing things
they called speaking in tongues, babbling in something that no
one could understand, completely completely false, completely
unsanctioned by Scripture, and claiming that this was God's
will and God's way in their lives, doing things idiotic and stupid
and embarrassing and shameful, mostly because it denied the
Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the thing. When the
Spirit of God enables a person, when the Spirit of God fills
a person, The evidence of that is what they say about the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's not what they experience.
It's the message that they preach. That's how you know if someone
has been sent of God. Because they preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. Him crucified, risen, and reigning. The Gospel. In the book of Acts,
if you just look at it, it says in Acts chapter 1 verse 6, it
says, Every man heard them speak in his own language. In their
own language. That was the gift of tongues.
And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear
we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? And then
he lists 16 different cases. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers
of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia,
Egypt, parts of Libya, Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Cretes and Arabians. Listen, we do hear them speak
in our tongue the wonderful works of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about.
The gospel was preached. That's the evidence. That's the
work of the Spirit of God. And that's how we know if a man
or a woman, or a man, women aren't sent to preach the gospel, but
men are. That's how we know if a man is
sent to preach the gospel. That's how we know if we believe
the gospel. It's because the entire focus
of our attention is on what Christ has done. And then, look at this
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. What I've done is I've reached
ahead and pulled from verses 5 through 9 about what Paul said
about those who saw this, who actually were first-hand witnesses
of it. It couldn't be denied. These
people would lay down their lives for what they told others God
had given them and revealed to them. Why would people do that?
Why would people subject themselves to the cruelest torture and shame
and even death to promote a hoax? These people saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they were filled with the Spirit of God. And like
Peter, they said, if it seems right to you to obey God or man,
you judge. But I'm going to preach what
God has told me, what He's made known to me. And so he did. And
he did it with power, because it was the Spirit of God that
worked in him. But look at verse 1 and 2. Moreover, Paul says,
"...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand." You received
it, and you stand in it. That's what I said earlier. The
gospel is not just good news for the unbeliever. It's good
news for the believer. We stand in it. "...by which
also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to
you, unless you have believed in vain." So here we are introduced
immediately to faith. Now the gospel is not faith,
but the gospel has the effect of bringing to us faith. The
gospel is what we believe. Faith is given to us to see it
and to understand and be persuaded of it. But here we see all who
believe the gospel are saved by what the gospel teaches. They're
not saved by their faith, they're saved by what the gospel reveals
has been done. How salvation was accomplished.
But faith is given to those by God who are given this salvation. And so all who believe are saved. And so, what we also see here
is that they not only believe this, but they keep it in memory. He says, if you keep in memory
what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So all
who are saved by the gospel, not only believe the gospel,
but they continue believing the gospel. And this is the evidence. So many times, this was the way
that people believed when I was growing up in the church I went
to. Is that you could believe for a short time, you could believe
for a moment, and then no matter what you did the rest of your
life, no matter what you believed the rest of your life, somehow
you're going to be in heaven. But that's not the teaching of
scripture. That's not the teaching of this scripture. If you continue
in the faith, that's called persevering. And where does the faith that
we have come from? And how is it maintained? How
is it strengthened? Not of yourselves. It's not of
yourselves. Ephesians 2.8. It's of God. But the reason it's maintained
is because God doesn't start a work and then stop it. He continues
in it. And so in Philippians 1.6 it
says, He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto
the end. He's going to finish his work.
Hebrews 12.12 says that Jesus Christ is the author and the
finisher of our faith. He doesn't start one thing and
then back up and start another. He does His work. Just one continuous
work. In Numbers 23.19 it says, God
is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent. He doesn't take away his gifts. Romans 11.29
says, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
God doesn't change His mind. He doesn't take back His blessings.
He doesn't reverse His promises. He doesn't lie. He doesn't change.
And so our faith continues because He is faithful. Jesus told Peter,
Satan has desired to have you, to sift you like wheat, but I
have prayed for your faith that you fail not. This is the reason
that we're upheld. This is the reason we continue.
And it's because the Lord Jesus Christ continues. Faith is the
result of the Gospel. It's the effect that comes to
us because of the work that was done by Christ which is declared
to us in the Gospel. Now notice, I want you to see
this first of all here. That the message of the Gospel
is about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did. And that seems
like a simple statement, doesn't it? But it's a very powerful
statement. Notice what it says here in chapter 15, verse 3 and
4. For I delivered unto you, this
is the gospel, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which
I also received. It didn't come out of me. It
didn't come from me. It didn't come out of cunningly
devised fables. It's not a private experience. It's not a private interpretation
of Scripture. It was given to Paul by the Lord
Jesus Christ, the same message to all of his apostles, which
they all preached and taught, as it is in Scripture, consistently
throughout from first to last. But he says this, This is what
I delivered to you. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And then he
was seen. There's the evidence that he
did this by all these people he mentions. So the first thing
we see about the gospel is that the gospel is a message about
a historical, objective fact, and the truth connected to that
fact. It's historical. It's historical. And it's objective because it
is. Can you change history? No one can change history. You
can't go back and change history. Were you there when this history
occurred? No, you weren't there. Well,
what did you do to influence it? Did you give counsel to God
in order to make it happen? Of course not. You weren't even
born yet. What about those who had died who came before? Did
they cause it to happen? No. What about those who lived
at that time? What did they do to contribute
to it? Nothing. They all forsook the Lord Jesus
and fled. Christ by himself alone made
atonement for the sins of his people. This is objective historical
fact. It's truth revealed. You can't
change it. You can't influence it. You don't
experience it. It's established by God, by what
Christ did. And this is the first biggest
mistake that modern and even religion over all times makes.
Is that they interpret the gospel as something that happens to
you. It's not. The gospel is something Christ
did. The gospel is not your history, it's Christ's history. The gospel
is not your obedience, it's His obedience. The Gospel is not
your death, it's His death. The Gospel is about what He did
after He died. He made satisfaction to God.
He rose and reigns. That's the Gospel. It's about
the Lord Jesus Christ and His mighty acts according to the
eternal will of God and what He accomplished by those by those
acts, by that work. It's objective, historical truth. It's to be believed. You can't
exhort it. You can only declare it. You
can't argue it. You just simply proclaim it.
So when the angels in Luke 2, verse 11, they gave the first
declaration of the gospel, they said, that unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. They
declared it. The shepherds who heard that,
they didn't influence it. They simply heard the message.
The message is sent to men and women, and boys and girls, telling
us about what Christ did. Period. That's the gospel. And so, let me apply an illustration
here at this point. It's an illustration I've used
several times before, and you probably remember it once I begin
to give it to you. But I've never walked on frozen
water before. I've never walked on a frozen
stream or a frozen lake. I know that Anna and her family
have, and a lot of you probably have, but I never have. But if
I ever do, I'm sure that I will be reluctant to commit the entire
weight of my body to the ice. There's just something in me
that I don't look forward to falling through the ice into
the water. I'll be reluctant to trust the ice to hold me up
and keep me from falling into the freezing water. But if I
ever do walk on the ice, even though I do so with reservations,
once I finally step onto the ice, whether I sink or stand,
it will not be the strength of my confidence or the certainty
of my assurance that holds me up, it will be the thickness
of the ice, the strength of the ice. If I'm kept from falling
into those frigid waters below the ice, it will not be by the
subjective act of my faith in the ice, but simply and only
because the ice is strong enough. Now that's objective truth. The
eyes is able to support my weight. Christ did something. It was
historical. It's accomplished. He sits in
heaven now. It's done. It's unchangeable,
unalterable. It's declared to us. He's able
by that. He actually accomplished salvation.
That's the ice. That's how thick it is. It's
as thick as Christ is strong and faithful to what God gave
him to do. Our faith sees what is done. Our faith becomes the
persuasion in our own heart of what is true in heaven. What's
established. It doesn't influence it. We don't
make it happen. We simply receive it, what's
done, to ourselves. So that we see what God has done
for us already. We don't make God change the
books of heaven. We don't change our account in
believing. Imputation of God's righteousness
to us doesn't occur when we believe. It occurred before we believe
and that's why God gives us faith in order that we might receive
it as so. And that's something that I think
is mostly messed up in all of Christianity, is that they see
the whole act of salvation as a personal experience, rather
than the objective declaration of the accomplished facts of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to see this. In the Gospel
preaching of the Old Testament, this is over and over emphasized
in all of the accounts. What God said to Adam and Eve
in Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman would bruise the
head of the serpent. They couldn't influence that. It's just going
to happen. And then He clothed them with the animal skins. They
didn't kill the animal. God did. And God put it on them.
And God saw the clothing. And they were no more naked. Abel offered his lamb, and God
accepted Abel because of the sacrifice. And then God put Noah
and his family in the ark, and they were lifted up from the
flood of judgment because they were in the ark. And the pitch,
the atoning work of Christ on the ark saved them from the flood
of judgment. And so in the Passover, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's what God thinks
of what Christ did that is all of our salvation. And that's
the gospel. And so it's objective. And it's
not our subjective faith, but it's Christ's objective work. It's our faith. The faith that
is our righteousness is the objective accomplishments of Christ. It's
the truth declared to us. Our believing it is never perfect.
And Christ's righteousness is perfect. And so many theologians
for a long time have written and given a psychological analysis
of saving faith and the characteristics of saving faith. And I've read
them and have become confused by them in my own thinking for
years, wondering, do I have saving faith? Does it have this or that
characteristic? But in doing this, We've left
ourselves confused by thinking that what makes some faith saving
and some faith not saving is a difference in the act of believing. And for all of our introspection,
we fail to free ourselves from a salvation that depends on the
internal subjective response of the sinner rather than the
external objective work and acts of the Savior. Faith is seeing
Christ. The serpent-bitten Israelites
in the wilderness who rejected man and spoke ill against God
and Moses. And God took the curse that was
coming upon them. They were dying and many were
dead already. And He says, look, look on the
pole there. A serpent hangs, cursed. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in so looking they lived.
And so, that's what God tells us. He lifts Christ up to us
in Scripture, and He says, Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes
away the sin of the world. It's not you. It's not what you
do. It's what He did, and it's all
about Him. And so, if we believe the teaching of Scripture concerning
Christ, then we believe Christ. The difference between saving
faith and faith that does not save is the truth we believe. That's why That's what Scripture
is. It's the truth. God, throughout
Scripture, says, Jesus says in John 17, 17, Thy word is truth. God has written His word in Scripture. He's given it to us so it can't
be altered. He's preserved it through thousands
of years of history, and His word is always spoken before
it happens, and it explains what He's going to do, and then explains
what He did. And He tells us about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so, saving faith is simply
believing what God has said concerning His Son. That's what it says
in Scripture. Listen to these verses. It says
in, I've already quoted this from Romans 10, 17, "...Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by..." What? The Word of God,
what's written, is believing what God has said in His Word.
In John 2.22 it says, "...the disciples remembered that Jesus
had said this to them, and then they believed the Scripture and
the Word which Jesus had said." And when they believed the Word
of Jesus, were they believing Jesus? If you believe what I'm
telling you, do you believe me? They're one and the same, aren't
they? We shouldn't be confused about these things. Sometimes
we want to so try to divide things that are indivisible that we
end up making a mess of things. In John 20, 31 it says, "...these
things were written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing..." Believing those
things written. You might have life through his
name. That's what faith is. Believing the word of God concerning
his son. 1 John 5 verses 9-13 emphasize
this. If we believe the testimony of
men, the testimony of God is greater. We believe the testimony
of God concerning his son. He that hath a son hath life.
To believe God's word is to believe Christ is to have life. Paul
told Timothy, from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures,
the Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Because the Scriptures
reveal Christ. Believing the Scriptures and
believing what God has said about His Son. And we believe Him now.
Can you believe Christ's words without believing Him? Can you
believe Christ without trusting Him? No. All these things are
a singular act, indivisible. I know when several years ago
I met with some people in my home and we got studying on faith
and tried to divide it into these different parts that have been
historically divided into these Latin terms. I'm not even going
to repeat them here. It's not worth dividing them. If we believe the bank is sound,
then you trust the bank with your money, don't you? And how
do you know it's sound? Well, maybe you read some things about
it and you figured it out. You came to a conclusion. You
were persuaded that it was good enough to put your money there,
so you trust the bank. It's all one and the same. If
you believe what someone says, you're going to trust them. Now,
it's true that men are fallible, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
not fallible. So when we believe His Word,
we believe Him implicitly. Everything that He says is true.
And all that He promises will come to pass. We believe that.
We believe He's very God of very God. That He took on our nature,
and in that nature fulfilled the will of God, and satisfied
God. We believe those things. How?
Why? Because of Scripture. So some
say it's not enough to believe the truth about Christ, we must
believe in Christ. It's not enough, they say, to
believe the truth about Christ, we must believe Christ. But that's
just simply a misguided attempt to ensure we truly believe Christ. We all want to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, but let's not shake the faith of God's
people by telling them that believing Scripture is not believing Christ,
or that believing Christ is different than believing Scripture. Some
turn it around the other way. Well, I've had such an experience
with the Lord Jesus. Tell me about it. Well, I can't.
It was so wonderful and so mystical, and I just had this warm feeling
all over myself, and a complete change of attitude and all this
stuff. Baloney! If it doesn't speak according
to the word of God, it is not light. It's darkness. But if
it does, and we believe it, then we believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thy word is truth. Jesus says, I am the way, the
truth. They're one and the same. I have
found nothing in Scripture that makes a distinction between faith
in Christ versus faith about Christ. Or between believing
Christ and believing Christ's words. Or believing Christ and
believing what Scripture teaches about Christ. All those things
are never divided in Scripture. But what is divided is believing
Christ versus another. Believing the true gospel versus
believing a false gospel. You see? It's believing the truth
of scripture versus not believing the truth of scripture. And so
they're one and the same. Whoever believes what scripture
teaches about Christ, believes in Christ. They hear the truth.
They understand it and they are persuaded of the truth they hear
and understand. And therefore they trust what
God has said. And they trust the word of the
one who said it. Because of his word they trust Christ to save
them by his authority and power. Because he sits on heaven's throne
to give salvation to his people for whom he died by the will
of God. This is saving faith. Believing Christ as God testified
of him in scripture. And so I ask again then, what
is the gospel? Look at this verse again with
me. He says in verse 3, "...I have delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received." Here's the truth, the objective
historical facts of one, of what one did. God did this in Christ,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
First thing we see here is Christ. The second thing we see here
is for, and then the third thing is our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ
died. Remember that verse in Romans
8.34? The question is raised. This
is the climax of the gospel that Paul believed. Paul never referred
to his own experience in order to persuade men of the truth
of the gospel. But he said this in Romans 8.34,
"...who is he that condemneth?" And then he answers it, "...it
is Christ that died." Here is the gospel. It is Christ that
died. Why did he die? For our sins,
according to the scriptures. What good news that is to a sinner. It is Christ that died. Now,
I've mentioned this before. But I think that this phrase
from Romans 8.34 really is the answer to every question that
we could ever ask. You might ask the question, what
does God think about sin? How holy is God? How righteous is He? How wise
is He? How powerful is God? What is
God's purpose in this world? What's the main thing that we
can think that God has done? What's the glory of God? How
can we know Him? All those questions come down
to a point on this text of Scripture. For it is Christ that died. It's
Christ that died. If the Lord Jesus Christ died,
And He is the Son of God. There's so many things that can
be said about this. First of all, His life must not
have been taken from Him. He who is God over all. He said,
no man takes my life from me, I lay it down on myself. And
all of humanity and all of hell were intent on trying to overthrow
God. And when they did, they actually
accomplished the will of God. Acts 2.23 says, you by wicked
hands have taken him and crucified him. But it was all according
to the predetermined counsel and will of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ's life was not taken from Him. He gave it up because He's
God. He's the Son of God. He has all
power. He humbled Himself. This was
His doing. Men didn't humble Him. He subjected
himself to the shame and spitting of their foulness. That was the humiliation. In
their eyes, he was humbled. He humbled himself before them.
The Lord Jesus Christ did it willingly, and God predetermined
it. Everything about the gospel has
been predetermined. Everything about everything has
been predetermined by God. But especially this. Especially
what Christ has done. Christ died for our sins. It's
Christ that died. What a wonderful... What is the
hope any sinner has? What is the hope? The only hope.
How do we know the grace of God? It's Christ that died. God was the one we offended by
our sins. God is the one who designed reconciliation
and purpose to make it. He's the one who provided it.
He's the one who offered His Son and accepted His offering.
He's the one who made peace with us. Even though we made ourselves
His enemy, it's Christ that died. God gave His Son, He sent Him
into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the love
of God. How do we know this? Because it's Christ that died.
Who died tells us all that we need to know. But it doesn't
stop there. It's not just that He died, it's
that He rose again and is exalted and sits on Heaven's throne and
intercedes for us. But this is our only hope, isn't
it? What is the only object of our
faith? It's this. Isn't this what he
says? If you believe the things that
I've spoken to you. It is Christ that died. Christ
died for our sins. For our sins. For whose sins?
Our sins. Those who believe. And how did
they come by this faith? Ephesians 2.8 says it's not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God. So, we know that in Romans
8.32 or 8.33 it says God has concluded them all in unbelief.
No man has faith inherently. We're dead in sins. But God gives
faith. But He doesn't give it to all.
Not all men have faith. 2 Thessalonians 3.2. But some
do, and they're called God's elect. Titus 1.1, the faith of
God's elect. So faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit of God.
God gives it to those that He ordained to eternal life. It's
all of God, you see. First He sends His Son and accomplishes
our redemption and makes atonement for our sins, and then He points
us to Him. by this gift of faith, and this faith doesn't do anything.
This faith simply says and agrees with God, this is all my salvation,
my only hope. It's Christ that died. My conscience
becomes convinced that all that I have to bring to God is what
Christ did. It's Christ that died. Lord,
accept me for his sake. And this is the sincere prayer
of our heart, the desire that in eternity God would look upon
him and not look upon me. Accept that he look upon me in
him. It's Christ that died. That's the answer in my conscience. The answer on the cross and the
answer in judgment. This is the only answer God accepts.
It's Christ that died. Now I want you to see this little
word for our sins here. Perhaps this is the most important
word in all of scripture. This word points to something
that's true about the gospel that we need to underscore and
understand and emphasize. And it's this, substitution. substitution. What is the great
and good news of the gospel? The word for our sins. Christ died for our sins. It
means that we deserved to die for our sins, but instead of
us dying, instead of us bearing the guilt of our sins before
God, God lifted our sins from us and he laid them upon his
Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
the High Priest, accepted those on Himself, even offered Himself
with those sins. So that He, in our place, the
place where we should have experienced the judgment of God, He in our
place, in our room, and in our stead, instead of us, He bore
the wrath our sins deserved. And in bearing that wrath, made
full satisfaction to God for us. Substitution. What sacrifice,
a substitute, and satisfaction. That's the gospel. Christ our
Passover was sacrificed for us. Jesus said, I came to give my
life a ransom for many. This is my blood which is shed
for many. The just, he died the just for
the unjust that he might bring us to God. When we were yet without
strength, Christ died for us. It's all about that word substitution. Someone, the Lord Jesus, the
God of glory, in our nature, stood in our place, and answered
God in full satisfaction to his justice, and fulfilled every
obligation for righteousness for us. And he finished the work. He purged our sins. God was satisfied. His wrath was appeased. His wrath
was removed. Peace has been made. That's the
declaration of the gospel. Be ye reconciled to God, because
God was in Christ, reconciling the world of his elect to himself,
not imputing their sins to them, and hath given us the ministry
of reconciliation. He has made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. There's no better news than all
the world. Not only did He act as a substitute, but it was a
historical act that He did. Like Adam, we became sinners,
guilty and condemned, and die because of the one sin of the
one man, Adam, in the same way. By the one offering of the one
man, the second and last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, all of
his people, all of their sins were removed and purged, were
taken away from before God because he satisfied God and then bestowed
his righteousness upon them. And God justified them in raising
him from the dead. This is good news, that God looks
upon Christ and not upon me. In what I've done, it doesn't
visit me with the punishment I deserve. But instead of punishing
me, he punished my substitute. The one who stood in my place
as my representative head. That's substitution. That's the
gospel. Vicarious atonement. Someone
acting in my place that God determined. And it was finished. He didn't
do partially a part job. He actually completed the work.
It's a finished work. It's a perfect work. He says
in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14, For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. When he shall see the travail
of his soul, he shall be satisfied. He shall see his seed. The Lord Jesus Christ is satisfied
with His work. God is satisfied with it. It
says in Ephesians 5, 2 that He... Look at Ephesians 5, 2. This
is how satisfied God is with this. Ephesians 5 verse 1, he
says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and
walk in love, as Christ also, listen, hath loved us, that's
why he did it, loved us, and has given himself, given himself, It wasn't taken from him. He
gave himself for us. For our benefit. For our salvation. For our blessing. For our eternal
life. How? How did he do that? As an
offering and a sacrifice to God. And here's God's response for
a sweet smelling savor. In Leviticus chapter 1 verse
9 it says that the high priest was to take the animal offered
as a burnt offering and kill it at the altar that was outside
the first holy place. On the brazen altar. And to take
that animal and to cut it up and lay it on the altar and burn
it. All of it. And God says when he did it,
that would be a sweet smelling sacrifice to God. That's what
Christ did. He fulfilled it, according to
the scripture. He was burnt up under the wrath
of God, as it were. Injustice expended all of its
fury upon him, and God is satisfied. as a perfect sacrifice. All of
God's peoples, all of the basis of God's wrath, injustice was
removed. God took it away in Christ. And
then because God was satisfied, being propitiated, that's what
the word means, satisfaction to God, His wrath appeased, then
God forgave us of all of our sins. Full remission was made. Eternal redemption was obtained
by the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the second thing. Not
only was there a substitution in satisfaction and an atonement
made, but there was an eternal achievement by what Christ did. His work was an eternal achievement. It obtained something. Hebrews
9.12, you know what it says. He says, He entered once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Obtained eternal redemption for
us. He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And He Himself sanctified them
when He offered Himself according to the will of God. By His own
blood, Hebrews 10.10 and 13.12. Christ has done it all. There's
nothing left undone. That's the good news. Historical
truth. God declared. Written in scripture. Unalterable. Predetermined. No man can change it. God said,
this is what I'm going to do. And He did it, and everyone has
had to stand back and say, the Lord, He is God. He's the one
who spoke it before, brought it to pass, and now declares
it to us. What are we going to do? Try
to contribute to this? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Isn't that the message of the
scripture? And for us, oh what a Savior,
propitiation has been made. God has reconciled us to himself
in peace and declares it to us. Remission of all of our sins,
eternal redemption, access to God, righteousness established,
All these things, our eternal inheritance has been procured,
we're justified by the blood of Christ, forever perfected. What do you want to add to this?
What do you want to add? Nothing. I don't want to add
anything. There's nothing that God would reject. Any attempt
to add or alter what Christ has done is an offense, is blasphemy. All we can do is see it and say,
look at what God has done. Look at what God has done. That's
the gospel. It's history. It's done. It's
perfect. We have been made complete in
Christ. In Christ. We have been raised
from the dead. We now sit in Christ in heavenly
places. God looks upon us, and He sees
His Son, and He looks on His Son, and He sees us. He says,
I see no spot in thee. I see no iniquity in Jacob, no
perverseness in Israel. The Lord would look, Jeremiah
50, 20, in that day He would look and He would say, I don't
see anything. It's not there. He's taken it
all away. I'm going to read it to you from
Jeremiah 50. He says this, Jeremiah 50 verse
20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for.
And you know what Israel is. Those whose iniquities aren't
seen anymore. The true Israel of God. The iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve." That's what God says He's going to do.
Guess what? He did it. He did it. He purged our sins.
And when it was done, the Lord Jesus Christ took His place on
the triumphant throne of victory. Sin has been conquered. Death
has been conquered. Satan's kingdom has been conquered.
Oh, one more thing. I want you to see this. Look
in 1 Corinthians 15. What's the effects? What's the
effects of the gospel? The gospel is what Christ did.
What are the effects of it? The effects are the Spirit of
God tells us what Jesus has done. Because Christ sits on His throne,
He sends His messenger, the Spirit of God, into our hearts to make
us see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's
the first effect. But look at this in 1 Corinthians
15. One more thing. Look at verse
10. In verse 9, Paul says this, I'm the least of the apostles.
I'm not meet or not fit to be called an apostle. Because I
persecuted the church of God. How could I be called an apostle?
But, Paul says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. You see the effect of the gospel?
I'm a poor sinner and nothing, nothing at all, Jesus Christ
is my all in all. I'm the least of the apostles,
I'm the least of the saints. Paul said in Ephesians 3.8 and
then in 1 Timothy 1.15, I'm the chief of sinners. You see the effects of the gospel?
When we believe, I am what I am by the grace of God. Let's pray.
Lord, we pray you'd show us your Son, by your Spirit exalt him,
and so glorify yourself in him. Give us this grace of faith.
Help us never, Lord, to leave him. Bind us to yourself in love. Take away our sins. Forgive us
for Christ's sake. Clothe us in His righteousness.
We know Your work is eternal, Lord, but we, in our own experience,
need to know from Your Word again by this God-given faith that
is true and see it again and be persuaded of it day by day.
We live by the Gospel. We were made alive by it, by
Your Spirit, and now we live upon the Lord Jesus Christ in
it. We pray, Lord, that You would teach us what the Gospel is and
help us to discern what it is not. so that we might give all
glory to you and attempt to take and really not take any for ourselves
or give it to any man, not to bank on our intellect, not to
think of our strength, and never to think of our goodness or our
contribution, not to put confidence in our experience or our confidence,
but to see that our salvation is eternally accomplished in
our Savior. and so stand in life and stand
against the wiles of the devil and overcome by the blood of
the Lamb. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.