Go back to 1 Corinthians 15. I wish I didn't have to fool with
these devices. Maybe the Lord will use it. Somebody
will hear it later. I don't know. 1 Corinthians 15, look at verses
1 through 5 with me again. Brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you. He's writing to the church,
to believers at Corinth and to us. Whoever reads this, that's
a believer. Brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel, which is the only one, which I preached unto you,
which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which
also you are saved. If you hold fast, keep in memory,
die in the faith, what I have preached unto you, the only gospel,
unless you have believed in vain, I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scripture, that he was buried, that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures." And then
he goes on to say how he was seen of Cephas and the apostles,
Peter, James, and others, and himself. He says in verse 11,
so he says, we preach. We preach the gospel. Charles
Spurgeon once said this, and the Lord gave him, at times,
real wisdom. He said, whenever people, when
their minds are on a particular subject, you need to deal with
that subject. Speaking to young preachers,
he said, whenever people are thinking about something in particular,
such as right now. Everybody the world over is mindful
of this time of the year called Easter, which is a biblical word.
The word actually means Passover. They said you need to deal with
it, so that's why. That's not why I'm dealing with
it, because a person said that. We're looking at it because it's
God's Word and it's a blessing. I hope we'll get a blessing.
But I'm not going to deal with all the abominations that practice
that go on today. It's just a waste of time. Somebody
once said, all you've got to do to show a crooked stick is
to put a straight one down. You don't have to describe the
crooked one. So I'm not going to deal with bunnies and eggs
and bonnets. I'm not against bunnies and bonnets
and eggs. I love eggs. Or even hiding eggs. But don't associate it in any way. This is what the
world thinks about religion. They think about this day, which
should, men ought to be thinking about Christ crucified. Why? It came. What he did. Think about
bunnies and eggs. Blame it on religion. I said
I wasn't going to deal with it, and I'm not. But many gathered today. There were many people that met
at a so-called sunrise service, weren't there? I've got to tell you this. Being
hard of hearing is sometimes bad. I was at Kroger and everybody
knows pretty much that I'm a preacher and the girl waiting on me said
to me, this was a couple of days ago, sounded to me like, and
most of the time I just say yes, just
smile and go on. I don't want to, huh, what? Yes. What she asked me was, are y'all
going to have a sunrise service Sunday? I said, yes, uh-huh. And I realized, I said, wait, oh,
no, no, we're not. We're not. And I had to correct
myself. So being hard of hearing can
be bad sometimes. I had to tell you that. But many do, don't they? They
meet together, they met together. It would have been better to
just stay in bed. But here's my point. Many meet at a sunrise
service and they are observing, thinking about the resurrection. That is the miracle. That's what
people are all taken up with. The miracle of the resurrection.
They believe that and they get some kind of sentimental feeling go out there
and the sun comes up, oh yes, we're all going to rise and so
forth. It's just about the miracle and yes, He did rise and all
of that. The gospel. Now, I want you to
notice with me. When Paul wrote here, he said,
Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Here's the good news.
He doesn't start with the resurrection. The good news, the gospel, and
there's only one. He said, which you receive, verse
1. The gospel you receive. A man
can receive nothing except it be given him. The gospel, to
receive it, to believe it, is a gift of God. It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God to believe
the truth. The truth as it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, wherein you stand, The
foundation. Here's the foundation. He's going
to preach the gospel. Stay with me. I'm going to try it. To preach the gospel. The foundation. The rock upon which we stand. Upon which all this thing of
salvation depends upon. Here it is. Rock solid truth.
Verse 2. By which also you are saved.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. This is what
the world calls foolishness. The gospel itself they call foolishness. The truth they call foolishness.
And what we're doing right now, what I'm going to preach right
now, they call foolishness. But it's the salvation of God.
It was your salvation. It is your salvation. If you
keep in memory, if you hold fast, if you die in faith, that is,
trust in believing Christ, unless, he says, you've believed in vain. Meaning, unless your faith is
just head faith, not heart faith, unless it's just religion to
you and not life. That's what he's saying. Verse 3 and 4, he said, I delivered
unto you first of all, here's it, when I came to you. He's
writing to the Corinthians. He said, I came to you and I
preached to you and here's what I delivered to you. This is what
I preached unto you, the first thing. Here's the first thing
that the apostle preached. Here it is. Here's the gospel.
He said, I received it too. How? That Christ died for our
sins. According to the scripture. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins. There is no gospel. to talk about
the resurrection, to talk about life after, to talk about this,
talk about that, miracles, signs and wonders, unless you preach
Christ and Him crucified. It's the same old message, isn't
it? That's why Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 2. He said, I'm determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is where we start. Paul
now came to Corinth. The city of Corinth was a Greek
city, a well-known city all over the world, known for its luxury,
riches, the architecture, known for its immorality, a decadent
place, a metropolitan city full of people from all over the world,
and anything goes. Immorality, freedom, they called
it. Known for its idolatry. All manner
of religions were there. Known for its arts and science
and philosophy and so forth. Greeks, you know, that's where
we get all the Greek mythology and Greek philosophers. Plato,
Aristotle, all these Greek philosophers. Corinth was at the center of
it. Athens, Greece was at the center of it. Paul came to Corinth
as a little Jew, a little short, insignificant Jewish fellow.
God sent him there to the middle of this world-known metropolitan
city to declare a new religion. This is a new religion. It's
not Judaism. He's not declaring Judaism, but
Christianity. Christianity, it should be called. He's going to declare something
brand new that these people never heard before. Christ and Him
crucified. And he's visiting there. And
what he is going to declare is not mere theology or philosophy,
but he's going to declare a person. A person. First thing he does,
the first thing he does is he does not, first thing he does
not do is declare how Christ lived and how he taught and how
he worked miracles. and how he spoke like no other
man. That would have appealed to the Greeks, wouldn't it? That
would have appealed to the philosophers and all these high-sounding orators
and all these fellows that love this sort of thing. Well, here's
what he said, the first thing out of his mouth. Christ died
for our sins. He didn't talk of Christ wiser
than Solomon, although he didn't talk of Christ more powerful
than Moses, more powerful than Joshua, but Christ who died on
a Roman cross, an ignominious, horrible death, the death of
a common criminal, poured out His blood and died, and they
put Him in a grave, and He died. The Christ. That doesn't make sense, does
it? This is the message. This is
the issue. This is what it's all about.
This is why Christ came. Remember when Christ said, you
think that I should pray, Father, deliver me from this hour? He
says, for this hour I came, for this cause I came. Christ came
to die. What most do not know nor care.
What religion does not know nor believe. Why Christ came. What the theme of the scriptures
are. From Genesis 3, verse 15 all the way through. The theme
of this book is how Christ died for sin. A substitute for sin. A bloody sacrifice. to obtain peace than angry God. Now, it's never been more ridiculous
and foolish than now. Blood, come on. It's not even
in our religion anymore, is it? It's not even in mainstream religion
anymore. This morning, everybody's taken
up with miracles. There's going to be very little
mention of the blood. I can't help but think about
Isaac, that boy, walking up that mountain and saying, Father,
here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb? You can't worship
God without a lamb, without the shedding of blood. There's no
remission of sin. Our children were taught this
morning the Passover. Our young children were taught
The people of God were saved by God because there was blood
on the doorposts and the lintel. And God spared them. That's the
message. That's the message. That's the
gospel. That's where it begins. And that's
where it ends. We're going to meet in glory
someday. And you know who we're going
to see? Who are we going to see in glory? You say Christ. What's
He look like? What's the Scripture say looks
like? A lamb as it had been slain. Unto him that loved us and did
what? Washed us from what? Our sins in his own blood. How that Christ died for our
sins according to Scripture. The world doesn't want to hear
this, but they're not sinners. God's not that holy. Man's not
that bad. Christ didn't need to die. We
can do something to make God happy. Isn't that right? And keep the law. What did he
say? If it come by the law, Christ died in vain. He didn't need
to die. He circumcised. Christ died in
vain. Why did Christ die of sin? This is the issue. Something
has got to be done about sin. Jesus Christ did not die a martyr. People admire that he died a
martyr. What do you think? He didn't die a martyr. He died
a voluntary death. Nobody could take his life from
him. The Jews didn't kill him. The Gentiles didn't kill him.
Pilate, Herod, nobody killed him. God. What? Yeah. The Holy God. People admire His self-sacrifice. He laid down His life for us.
Why? I'll never forget a preacher
years ago. I was just a young believer and
he said this. He said, everybody believes Jesus
died. But they don't know why. It's
like me saying, honey, to my wife, honey, I love you, and
shoot myself. What good did that do? Love you so much, I'll lay down
my life. Why? A substitute for sin. God said the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. God, who is angry, with the wicked
every day. And we're all sinners, okay?
And we deserve the wages of sin. It's what?
Death. And I can't preach it as it really
is. Terror. Didn't Paul say, he said,
I behold both the goodness and severity of God. Holy God. God sent his Son. Now, this is
the love of God that's amazing. The mercy of God, the grace of
God. Behold what manner of love that the Father hath bestowed
upon some, none deserve it, but some, yea, many, as the stars
of the sky and the sands of the sea. For His great love wherewith
He loved some of these unlovely creatures sent His Son here in
His love, not that we love God, but God loved us and sent His
Son. And I'm not saying this to everybody.
I'm saying this to His people. God sent His Son to make His
Son a substitute for sin, a sin offering, a Lamb of God. John,
quote, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sin of
the world. Sin bearer. Scapegoat. You know,
everybody's looking for a scapegoat to blame their problems and their
sin on. Blame it on this. Blame it on
this. Blame it on this person, that person. This is for those
who blame themselves. God sent, God makes them blame
themselves. God shows them it's your sin. He's the scapegoat. God laid
on Him the iniquity. of all his people. And God made
him to be an atonement for sin. From Genesis, as I said, 315
all the way through, God speaks of an absolute need of a substitute. Holy God. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. But thanks be unto God,
He said, when I see the blood, Anybody, whoever believes, whoever
believes, trust Christ. He is a sinner. Take all the blame. You look
to Christ and He will bear it all. Pour it out of His soul, an offering
of sin. God made Him to be sin for you. There is no sin that you might
be made righteous to God. He said, look to Him. When I
see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see you in Christ
by faith, I'll pass over you. I will. Christ came to die a
substitute just for the unjust to bring us to God. Because a
holy God can't do anything, can't have anything to do with sinners.
Can't. You have to have a Savior, a
substitute. Now, it says according to Scripture,
doesn't it? He died according to Scripture all the way through. I have so many Scriptures written
down here. So many Scriptures. But he said,
for the transgression of my people was he stricken. By his stripes
we are healed. My, my. According to the Scriptures.
That's the theme. This is the theme. Christ and
Him crucified. Christ the sin atonement. purged our sins with His own
blood, His precious blood. Christ the Great High Priest,
Christ the Sacrificed, Christ our altar, Christ is all, from
Genesis to Revelation, crying according to the Scripture. That's
what this book, rather who this book is all about, Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, I came to you and
I preached Christ and Him crucified. Now, there were many intelligent
people in Corinth think they thought they were educated. And Paul was an intelligent man,
wasn't he? Paul was an educated man, the
only apostle, I believe, that was. And, you know, he almost had
to unlearn everything he learned, like Moses. Moses learned everything
about Egypt for 40 years and then had to go out in the desert
and unlearn it. Unlearned. But educated, intelligent man. He came to Corinth. So here he
came to this city. And you know what they said about
him? He's a vain babbler. No, he wasn't a vain babbler.
He's a brilliant man. Never been a theologian like
him. Never has been. Ever. Nobody could stand up to
him. But he said, I abased myself.
I brought myself down. I'm not going to argue with the
philosophers. We're not going to argue all
these things and so forth. He said, I'm here to preach the
message of a man on a tree who died as a substitute for his
people. Amazingly, the Holy Spirit of
God. You're not educated in the kingdom
of God. You're born into it. God is the Holy Spirit. takes
this plain, simple message. The sovereign Lord sent down
to this earth as a substitute, sinful people. He makes them
see their sin, see their need of Christ, and miraculously gives them new birth. That's
where wherever he went, this was what he preached. The other
part of this message, the other part of this message,
They go hand in hand. Because if he had not risen,
his death means nothing. Right? If he had not risen from
the grave, then his bones are over there somewhere, and he's
no better than Buddha. He's no better than Confucius.
He's no better than Mohammed. He's no better than anybody.
He's just a man. That's what he goes on through
all these verses to say. If he did not rise from the grave,
he's just a man, he could not save himself. And he sure can't
save us. His death was in vain, and what
we're doing is all in vain. He said, he did. And he said,
I saw him. Paul said, I saw him. He said,
Peter saw him. All the apostles saw him. Five
hundred people at one time saw him. But that's just the tip
of the iceberg. We've seen him. Not with these
eyes. And we have, haven't we? He said,
he that seeth the sun and believeth in him. I'm not coming into condemnation. Well, Paul preached everywhere
he went, Christ crucified, buried, and risen. The resurrected Christ. The resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Everywhere, every time, before
everyone, kings, peasants, lawyers, laborers, it didn't matter who
it was, he preached Christ crucified, the sin offering, the substitute
for sin, and Christ arisen from the grave. Alright? He preached
the fact of it. Seen by many, but not just a
miracle, not just so you can be amazed by the miracle of it.
No, no, no. In fact, our Lord said this to
Martha one time. She said, I believe in the resurrection.
I don't believe Martha really, really, really knew him completely
at that point. And our Lord said, Martha, you
know what he said to her? There's millions all over that
believe in some kind of resurrection, don't they? He said, Martha,
I am the resurrection. He that hath the Son is already
raised, the newness of life. Boy, that's a mystery, isn't
it? already hath this life. And when
you lay your body down, it's not like you're going to soul
sleep. No, that soul that already has life is going to go on and
be with the Lord. The fact of it, he deals with
it. But the reason of it, resurrection,
proof, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave
is proof of who He is. And he goes on to say that. If
he'd been not risen, he's just a man. But he did prove him that
he's more than a man. When he was alive, he said, no
man takes my life from me, I lay it down. And he kept proving
that, didn't he? I love that, how he proved himself.
They'd try to grab him and say, you got him? Yeah, I got him.
You got him? Yeah, I got him. Let's throw him off the cliff.
They couldn't touch him. One last display of who he was.
You know, he came with swords and sticks and stones and a whole
army of them. And he said, whom do you seek?
They said, Jesus. We're after Jesus. We've come to get this
Jesus fellow. We're going to put an end to this Jesus fellow.
He said, I am. Boom! They hit the ground. You
can't. Everybody's still talking about
Jesus. What are you going to do with Jesus? The man Jesus.
And Jesus arose. He is life. You can't take his life from
him. Mary didn't give him life. Man can't take it. He is life. I am that I am. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.
I am the resurrection. I am God. I am Jehovah. I am salvation. I am. Who is this man? The I am. Oh, man, it's so ignorant, isn't
it? Blind, deaf, dumb, all and such
were some of us until God opened our blind eyes, opened our ears. Whom do you say that I am? Who
do you say that the I Am is? Jesus Christ. Only God will ever
see, know. Oh, and you know, where am I? Proof of who He is. It's proof
of who He is. He said this. He kept saying
this over and over again to His disciples. He said, The Son of
Man goeth as it is written. Goeth to Jerusalem. And He said
they're going to take Him. They're going to pluck out His
beard. They're going to smite Him. They're going to spit on
Him. Everything that was written to tell us who He was. Okay? To prove who He was. No mistaking
who this is when He came. This is the One of whom God promised. Who? The Substitute. All right? When He came, He said, He's going
to go to Jerusalem. They're going to do all these
things to Him. They're going to take Him, and they're going
to kill Him. But, He said, He's going to rise again the third
day. You can't take my life from Him.
In fact, it's in my power to take life and give life. I have
the power. The Father has given me this
power to give life to whom He will. You know who I am? And they just couldn't figure
it out. Why'd you come? Do you want to die? What are
you going to die for? You know. You do now. They do
now. They didn't know. He kept telling
them that. Roberta, they didn't even want
to talk about it. They didn't want to talk about it. They wanted
to avoid the subject. Kill you? No! Don't go there! This is why
I came. To die. But, I'm going to rise
up. I'm going to walk out of that
grave proving everything he said is so. Everything written about
him is so. Everything he did, he accomplished. Don't you love that story of
Moses and Elijah meeting with Christ on that mountain? Do you
remember what they talked about? Moses and Elijah met with Christ
on the mountain and it says that they spoke of the decease which
he should accomplish. What he would accomplish by dying
on Calvary's cross. Putting away sin of sin by the
sacrifice of his hand. The bringing in of an everlasting
righteousness. The complete forgiveness of sins
and pardon for all of God's people forever. Did you hear that? He
put away sin, the sins of His people. You can't remove your
guilt except by looking to Christ crucified. You will not get rid
of it no matter what you do, where you go, who you look to.
You will not get rid of it, but by one way, look into it. There
it is. There's your sin hanging on that
tree. He said, you look unto me and
you'll be saved. You come unto me, I'll give you
rest. You believe me and trust me, I can't put away your sin.
That means the guilt of it. Oh, everything hinges on Him
rising, doesn't it? Let me quit with these three
things. Okay? Here's the gospel. Here's the
reason why Christ died, buried, and was risen. Man is a sinful
creature, guilty. Man is a sinful, guilty creature. Man is in trouble because of
that sin. He's got nothing but sorrow because
of that sin. Man is a sinner. His guilt, his
conscience, everything bothers him all the time. He's got troubles
and sorrows from the day he's born to the day he dies, and
he ends up dying. Man is a sad creature with a
sad existence, and he's got a sad end. Christ said, I'm come. Stay with me now. He said, I'm
come because of that sin. and to deal with that sorrow
so that you don't have to be consumed with it, and to put
away death. Boy, if we could get a hold of
this. Sin. Christ came to be made sin. Sin is the source of our trouble.
We're creatures of sin, and everybody feels a little bit of it. Everybody
feels some of it, and they do all sorts of things to try to
get rid of it. Everybody has some guilt. God
has this conscience, the law of God written on their heart
from the native in the jungle to the educated man at Oxford. And this guilty conscience bothers
them. It's, no, I've done this wrong.
I've done that wrong. What can I do about it? And the
native, you know, does all sorts of horrible things to his body,
and the philosopher, you know, he, well, I'll do this, I'll
do that. Morality, or philanthropy, good words, or people, religion,
or the law, or whatever, do all sorts of things to try to get
rid of their guilt. It's only one thing. One thing. Christ. I've come, he said, to
do something about that sin. He made sin. It can be no, Brother
Scott preached this, he nailed, you remember how Scott used to
nail things down, he'd get a point and he'd just preach it and he'd
just nail it and nail it and nail it and nail it in a sure
place until you got what he was saying. And he said, there's
no peace for a guilty conscience except by blood sacrifice. There's
no peace for a guilty conscience except you see those sins that
you're guilty about were paid for. You don't have to pay for
them. I know what the law says. It
says guilty. But listen to what Christ said. This is the good news, you see.
This is good news. Law says guilty. Christ said,
justified. Law says, you come short. Christ said, I didn't. The law says, die. Christ said,
live. It's good news for a sinner,
because we're going to be a sinner to the day we die. Troubles and
sorrows. Man, you look to Christ, if you
don't hear anything else, you look to Christ and He will give
you peace of conscience. Nowhere else can you find it.
Nowhere else. You confess your sins to God,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses. The only thing
that will. Trouble and sorrow. We have trouble
and sorrow because of sin. Sin entering the world, troubles
and sorrow. Man is born of woman a few days
and full of trouble. You know what? We're born into
this world crying. The day we're born, we start
crying. Isn't that sad? Have you ever thought about that? From the minute we take our first
breath and enter into this Scripture says this present evil world,
pain and sorrow. And we start crying. And we keep
crying all our days. Sorrow. Trouble. Man that's born a woman, a few
days, full of trouble. Christ said, Scripture said,
according to Scripture, called him the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Scripture said he was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh, touched in all points like as
we are. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He said behold
and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me. And that Lamentation 3, it says,
if you keep this in mind, you'll have hope. See, our hope, Christ
came, became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, and says he troubled himself.
He went through a great deal of trouble, and we just don't
know the half of it. The half has not been told. The
trouble our Lord put himself through to experience our trouble,
to be compassionate, to be a merciful, faithful high priest at all points.
We just don't know. But He came to be touched with
the fear of our infirmity. You see, we don't have a concept.
We don't have a philosophy. We don't have a doctrine to look
to. We have a person. A person. A man seated in glory. A man seated at the right hand
of glory that when you go through sorrows and troubles, you have
a person to go to and call upon. He said, call on Me. I am a very
present help in what? Trouble. Call on Me. We have instant after instant
after instant after Christ was risen of Him giving comfort and
peace and encouragement to His people going through trouble.
A person, a man like us, well, not like us, but touched, seated,
reigning and ruling, sending everything, doing everything,
working all things. And we get in trouble when we're
full of sorrow. He knows. He knows our praying. Call on Him. He said that. Let not your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, He will
also in me. Cheer up. Be of good cheer, He
said. Be of good cheer. He knows that
we go through sorrow and we can't always be cheerful. He said that.
Be of good cheer. If we're not of some good cheer,
if we don't have some kind of joy, Hope in Christ. We're not looking to the right.
We're not looking to Him. He said, be of good cheer, I
will overcome the world. Let not your heart be troubled.
He bore our sorrow. A real person sits in rain. And
the last thing, death. Death. We come, sin plagues us and hounds
us and fills us. This world and everything in
it causes all the grief and sorrow and troubles that we go through,
burdens and all the consequences of it. And
then we live in fear of this thing called death. We all have
to face it. There's no getting around it.
And some of us face it through people around us dying. It's a terrible thing. It's a
sad thing. It's a sad thing. Death. We fear it. Our Lord said all our lives are
subject to this fear. It's like it's the end of everything.
The end. Come into this world. troubles,
and you're just waiting to die. And then it's over. Isn't it?
Isn't that it? No. Oh no. Christ arose. He arose. And He came back and appeared
to His disciples. They said, I told you. They thought they'd seen a spirit.
No. He said, touch me, handle me. It's the same one you knew
before. And we'll know each other. The same ones. The same persons.
Whoever died, we're going to know them. Believers. They didn't
die though. Christ said they didn't die.
They fell asleep. You see, Christ came to, the Scripture says,
to abolish death. He came to put away sin. One
way. You can't do it. I can't do it.
Nobody can do it. Christ did it. Christ did. He came to bear our sorrows,
bear our sin, and our sorrow. A man of sorrow, acquainted with
grief. He knows. He feels. He's touched. Go to
Him. He can get you out of that. He's
the only one who can. The only one who can get you
out of that all-consuming trouble and sorrow. The only one. The
only one. Christ said, when He said, I
am the way, that means the way. There's no other way to get rid
of it. And He came to abolish death
and bring life and immortality to life. Abolish death. That's what we
fear. We think it's the end. We say,
oh no, no, no, no, no, it's not the end at all. It's just the
beginning. Brother Jack, Yesterday, sometime
yesterday morning, a broken-bodied old man with the family, with
the wife, children, church that loved him, people that loved
him, friends, things he'd done, died in a nursing home with a
broken body. He laid down that life was taken
from him. He awoke. with a dew of youth
on his brow, complete and whole in the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ, with no tears, no sorrow, no pain, no suffering, a heaven
full of people welcoming him into glory, the Lord Jesus Christ
saying, well done thou good and faithful servant. How do we know that? How do we
know that? I didn't say it. Calvin didn't say it. Jesus Christ
said it. And he rose to prove it. Now, he said, what are you afraid
of? I've put away sin. I came to
bear your sorrows. And I've abolished death. Look
unto me and what you say. Let's turn to hymn number 221,
Stand Together.