number 15 and we'll look at a
few verses here in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 this morning and I
hope that if you have a Bible you'll follow with us especially
those of you who are joining by way of the internet and we're
certainly grateful for you folks that each Lord's Day watch and
this past week I've had several messages from you, several people,
just very encouraging words and words of expression of thanksgiving
that Our congregation has this ministry. And so I appreciate
you getting in touch with me. And it's always good to hear
from people who are blessed by the ministry of 13th Street Baptist
Church. And we're thankful that you can
join us this morning. Though not physically, you're
with us spiritually. and we rejoice to worship our
God together. Well, before I go into the message,
let me again, with you, seek God's face that he would bless
today. Lord, it is such an honor to
stand before these needy people as
one who is needy myself, but as one who has found the answer
and all that I need for my sinful condition in the Lord Jesus.
And as one center to other centers, I shall
speak to them, Lord, on your behalf as one of your ambassadors. And I shall speak to them, Lord,
about your only begotten Son, that one who is the only Savior
of sinners, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for these that
you have gathered before me, those who are watching this morning. We ask, Lord, that the Spirit
of grace would make the Word effectual to all of us, And we know that He is able to
save. And Lord, we ask that You will
do just that and use the message that is delivered to be a blessing,
Lord, to Your people. May this be the message that
is honoring to You May it be the message that you'll be pleased
to use for the conversion of those who need the blessed Savior. We are not gathered to be entertained. Rather, we're gathered, Lord,
to worship. We're gathered to listen to the
scriptures. to listen to the gospel of your
grace, that is the gospel of the Son of God, that message
of redemption, that message of reconciliation, that message
of righteousness that has been brought in. by the Savior's substitutionary
death upon the cross of Calvary. Now, Father, I ask you to bless
your dear people, those who find themselves in the midst of severe
trials. Lord, we know that where you
lead us, You will be with us. And you will never desert us. You will never forsake us. And even as David said in the
Psalms, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
we need not fear any evil. And here's the reason, thou art
with us. We're thankful for our great
shepherd, that one who laid down his life for his sheep. Lord,
feed your sheep this hour, and may the word of God find a welcome
within us. O God, magnify Yourself and speak
to us, Your people, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, I want to read the first
four verses to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. and endeavored to
speak to you on the subject, I declare unto you the gospel. That's the subject. Moreover,
brethren, he says, and he addresses these Corinthians as brethren,
as family members. You know, all of us who believe
the gospel, we're family, aren't we? We're brethren. One God, one Father has adopted
us into his family. We live by the word of God, one
seed, this incorruptible word of God that lives and abides
forever. We've been washed in one bloody
sacrifice, the Lord Jesus. The Spirit of God is given to
each of us spiritual life. We have a relationship with each
other that is very, very dear and very, very precious. We are Brethren, we are the family
of God. He says, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel which I preached unto
you Years before this, when he was at the city of Corinth, and
he stayed there for many months, 18 months preaching the gospel. And God established a work there. God established a local church
there under the ministry of this man, the Apostle Paul. He says,
and this gospel which I preach to you, you received. You receive,
you believe this gospel. You believe this message. The
scripture says, as many as received the Lord Jesus, to them gave
he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. We receive him. We receive him
as our prophet to teach us. We bow to no other authority
save the authority of the Lord Jesus. I received a very good
email from a brother this week who lives in another state. And he was asking me about Seventh-day
Adventists. And he works with a man who is
a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And he said, could you
tell me what they believe? And so I wrote him back and I
told him the various things that they believe. And he said, I
don't see how anybody can receive those things. Well, here's the
fact of the matter. The natural man will receive
error all the time. unless God reveals the truth. This is why people don't believe
the gospel. It's why they don't receive the
gospel, and they listen to other voices. And I went on to tell
them, Seventh-day Adventists, they listen to another voice.
They listen to a woman who claims she was a prophet. and that her
writings were inspired. Listen, we bow to the writings
only of our God. This is the Word of God and our
Lord Jesus, He's the incarnate Word of God. And we receive Him
and we receive His message only. No other writing is inspired. God didn't give any other books.
He gave this book. Here are 66 books that make up
one book. And we receive this book, this
book, because this is the Word of God. Even as our Lord Jesus
is the incarnate Word who came down from heaven, this is the
Word of God, and as we spoke about a while ago, it's the Word
of God that lives and abides forever. God said heaven and
earth gonna pass away. God's gonna renovate them with
fire, but God's Word, it'll never pass away. And we receive Him
as our prophet to teach us. We receive Him as our great high
priest who offered to God the sacrifice that God demanded to
put away all of the sins of all of His people. And our Lord Jesus
Himself, He is that high priest and He is the sacrifice. He offered
the sacrifice and He is Himself the sacrifice to God. There is
one offering that God has accepted for sin. All through the Old
Testament, you have men offering many, many different offerings
for sin, many sacrifices for sin. And we read in Hebrews chapter
10 and verse one, none of them could ever put sin away. Sin
can't be put away by the blood of bulls and goats. But this
man, the scripture says in Hebrews chapter 10, this man, when he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down. He has by his sacrifice perfected
forever them that are sanctified. God redeemed His people. God
saved His people by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. He is
our priest. And we receive Him as such. And
He is our King. We receive Him as King. We bow
to him as king. He's not going to be king. He's
not going to be the Lord. Preachers every once in a while
say things like this. Once you make Jesus your Lord,
you can't make him Lord. God made him Lord. You need to
read Acts chapter two again. God made this same Jesus, it's
what Peter said, whom you crucified, he's talking to the Jews. God
has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He's already the Lord. You can't
make Him Lord. Who are you to make Him Lord?
You say, well, I'll let Him be the Lord of my life. You can't
let the Lord do anything. But by the grace of God, you'll
bow to His Lordship. And everybody will. In this life,
bowing to Him as Lord, that's called salvation. But if God
the Spirit doesn't bring us to bow before the Lord Jesus, in
this life, we'll bow before Him at the judgment. Because every
knee's gonna bow to Him. Every tongue's gonna confess
that He's the Lord to the glory of God the Father. We receive
Him, we receive His gospel, and we stand in it. Here's our support. Will the saints of God last?
Will we be preserved? Will we be kept? Do we have everlasting
life? The answer is yes, because of
who keeps us. We're kept by the power of God. 1 Peter 1 says that. that One who redeemed us, that
One who bought us, that One who laid down His life for us. He
keeps us safe. He keeps us looking to Him. He
keeps us believing. He keeps the eyes of our faith,
and He gave us faith to begin with. He keeps the eyes of our
faith focused on Him. We look to Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. He authored it, He began it,
and He'll finish it. Faithful is that one who will
finish the work. And so he then says in the second
verse, by which, by this gospel, also you're saved. You're saved. You're delivered. You're rescued. There is one message that God
uses to rescue poor sinners. to deliver us from the judgment
of God, to deliver us from the workings of Satan, to deliver
us from the law of God that accuses us, there is one message by which
you're saved, that's the gospel. And then he says, if ye keep
in memory what I preached unto you. Now that word if, it is
not a word of condition. It is a word of declaration that
we will continue in the gospel because of the one who has revealed
the gospel to us. Because of the one who is the
gospel, we will continue on. Job said in the book of Job,
the righteous, they shall hold on their way. We shall, we will
hold on our way. The scripture says, the Savior
says in John chapter 10, he said, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them, I love them, I'm affectionate toward them. My sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me. What is the voice
of the shepherd? It is this gospel, this message
of good news. We follow him. And he says, they
shall never perish. Oh, how dare anyone say to anybody
that it is possible for the sheep to be lost when the Savior, the
Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, He said, I give
unto them eternal life. If words mean anything, if the
words of the Lord Jesus mean anything, there is our security. There's where we stand. Who holds us up? He does. And our faith looks to him only. You see, faith is always based
on and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know God holds this
earth in space on nothing, but faith is not built on nothing. Faith is built on the word of
God and the rock Christ Jesus. And we stand, we stand therefore,
Will we last? Will we persevere? Will we continue
on by the grace of God and by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer is yes. That's great,
isn't it? It isn't dependent upon you.
I don't think I can hold out. Well, I'm quite certain of it.
You can't. But he will hold you up. He will hold you fast. And he won't let you go. He said,
you're in the palm of my hand. And I'm in the palm of the father's
hand. You'll never perish. By which you're saved. You keep
in memory what I preached unto you. He said, and here's where you
stand. We're fixed on the solid rock, Christ Jesus. Who are you building all your
hopes on? Our Lord there in Matthew chapter
seven, and we're all pretty much familiar with this story, talked
about a wise man. He built his house on a rock. He dug down deep. and he put
up a house. What is that? What's that a picture
of? It's a picture of where we go
for refuge from the wrath of God. And all of us this morning
have some sort of refuge for our souls. If we're made wise unto salvation
by the Spirit of grace, we'll build all of our hope on the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages, right? The Rock of Ages,
we'll build on Him. And let the storms come against
us. Let the winds of trouble blow. and the waves of trial and tribulation,
let them come crashing upon us. Our house isn't gonna fall, built
on the rock, Christ Jesus. When you can destroy, when Satan
can destroy the rock, then he'll destroy us. He can't do it. But here's a foolish man, Matthew
7. He built his house on the sand. This picture is a person who
builds upon the sinking sand of works, baptism, church membership,
just name anything. I tell you, build on anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the rock of ages. Your house
is in for a fall. And you in that house, that means
you're going to fall too. And if you don't want to fall,
I don't want to fall into hell. Anybody want to fall into hell?
I want a safe refuge for my soul. I am a soul. I have a body. My body is going to die. I know
that someday. I want my soul to go back to
God and live with Him forever, live with Him till our Lord Jesus
Christ comes back and I'll come back with Him and then this mortal
body shall be raised and mortal This mortal shall put on immortality,
and corruption shall put on incorruption, and then in a glorified body
with a glorified soul joined together, I'll be with them forever
and ever. That's what I want. And that's
what I have, having built, by the grace of God, on the rock,
on Christ Jesus, who is settled and firm. He's the one ordained
by God for salvation. That's the one we build on. Don't
build on anything else. I listened when we were up in
Michigan. I listened to a preacher up there
and he said in the Old Testament, they were saved by keeping God's
law. Wrong. And then he said the very last
one who was saved by keeping God's law was a thief on the
cross. Wrong. Those Old Testament believers,
they're saved the same way we're saved, by grace, through faith
in the Lord Jesus. And then he went on to say, now
ever since then, ever since the Lord Jesus died, here's the way
we're saved. We're baptized and wash away
all of our sins. Wrong again. That's not how you
wash. You can't wash away your sins. How would you start? Because
you see, and I'm gonna bring this out tonight, sin is within. And you can wash, you can scrub,
if you want me to take you into baptistry, you say, well, preacher,
scrub me real good, make me clean. I said, well, let's just go out
of the water, because I can't make you clean. That water's
not for, it's not for washing us. It's a testimony that we
were washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus when he died, when
he was buried, and we come forth in his resurrection in him. That's a way of salvation. This is the good news of the
gospel. But you build on anything else,
Listen, the scripture is so very, very clear. Your house is not
going to last. Oh, it may endure a few of the
storms of life, but there's one storm. If you build on sinking
sand, whatever it may be, there's one storm your house won't endure. That's a storm of God's judgment.
Your house may last all the way to the time you die, and you
say, well, I'm as good for heaven as if I was already there. And
then you die, and then you find out, oh my, my house looked pretty
good on the outside, but it had no foundation. No foundation. Does your house have a foundation?
The house of your salvation, the house of your refuge, will
it stand? Will it last? Will it last when
God Almighty, when you stand before God Almighty, will your
house last? You build on Christ Jesus, it'll
last. It'll last forever. He says,
wherein you stand. You keep these things in memory.
You see, keeping the gospel in memory is the evidence of salvation. It's not the means of salvation.
It's the evidence that God has done something for you. And then
he says this in verse three, for I deliver it unto you first
of all, that which I also received. In
other words, the message I preach to you is the message that God
preached to me. Because he will say in Galatians
chapter one, he said, this gospel, I certify you brethren, this
gospel is not a man, but it's of God. And he said, I'll tell
you, I heard the gospel from the lips of the Lord himself. And he said, I delivered unto
you first of all, that which I also received. He's just a
sinner too. You say, I'm such a vile sinner
preacher. Well, nobody's gonna argue with
you about that. So am I. But the good news is,
this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief,
Paul said. And here's the apostle, and he
says, listen, I delivered to you the same message that I believe. All who are saved, saved the
same way. How that, and this is the gospel that I receive,
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. This is the
gospel. The gospel is the good news. The gospel is not good advice. The gospel is not good teaching. The gospel is glad tidings of
a work that is historic, that has already been done and finished
and wrapped up in total. That's what the gospel is. The
gospel is the good news of a person and his work that he finished
2,000 years ago. It is of a real man who is God. the God man and his labor of
love in going to the cross of Calvary and enduring the wrath
of God, drinking the cup of damnation dry for all of his people, it
is that good news, glad tidings message that everything God demanded
of sinners, Jesus Christ has rendered to him in full. That's good news. That's good
news. The gospel is of a historic person
and a historic event that happened 2000 years ago. And the Lord
Jesus said, it is finished. That's what he said when he died,
just before he died. The father said, it's enough.
God unleashed in the very bosom of His Son all of the errors
of divine justice that we should have received forever and ever.
All of the hell that we would have suffered forever and ever,
it all was consumed by our substitute, the Lord Jesus. And the justice
of God lashed out at his soul and whipped him and beat him
and wounded him until justice was exhausted. And justice said,
that's all I got. I don't have any more punishment. And a righteous and holy God
said, it is enough. And the Savior said, well, it's
finished. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. That's the
good news. That's the good news. It's the good news that there
was one who waged war for us and won. Who is he? Back there in Genesis chapter
three and verse 15, he's the seed of the woman. And our Lord announced to that
serpent, and He did so in the ears of Adam and Eve, He said,
the seed of the woman's gonna bruise your head. You'll bruise
His heel, but He's gonna bruise your head. He's gonna deliver
to you a mortal blow. And that happened at the cross. And for 4,000 years the people
who believed God looked for Him to come. Oh, when will the sea
of the woman come? Oh, when will that Messiah come? Oh, when will that Son of God
come? When will that man be here who's
promised to be born in Bethlehem? When will he arrive and make
everything right? A man got us in this mess. Oh, how I long for the day when
the God-man will make everything right. And they waited 4,000
years. And then an angel spoke to some
shepherds and they heard some good news. Behold, there is born in the
city of David, a savior. He's here, the seed of the woman. And they took that declaration. They took that message. There's
being a message from God because they said further in
Luke chapter two, the Lord has appeared to us. The Lord has
spoken to us. You see, God uses messengers
who declare his gospel. Actually up here in verse Number
one, moreover, brethren, I declare on you the gospel. Here's what
the word declare means. It means much more than preach. It means much more than proclaim. It means to give knowledge of. That's what it means. Moreover,
brethren, I give knowledge unto you of the gospel. I give knowledge
unto you of the gospel. I tell you what, look back in
that passage in Luke chapter two. Let me show you something
here. I've made known unto you the gospel. That's what he's
saying. Look back in Luke chapter two.
And you know, in just a matter of a few weeks, people will be
reading this passage of scripture and It's always good for people
to read the word of God, but we need to understand what we
read. Look here in Luke chapter two,
look at verse eight. Now you know the story. There
were in the same country shepherds, not religious people. Isn't it
amazing that the word of the angels, it didn't come to the
chief priests, It didn't come to the elders. It didn't come
to the Pharisees. It didn't come to the scribes.
It didn't come to the Sadducees. It didn't come to the elders.
It didn't come to those who look to the law of Moses for their
salvation. They're out on the fields at
night keeping the sheep, shepherds, just ordinary folks. That's who
God deals with. We're just ordinary people, aren't
we? They were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. Little did they know
they were God's little flock right there. And there was a great shepherd
who's looking after them. They're looking after their sheep,
but there's the great shepherd who's looking after his sheep.
and he sends to them a messenger. Look at verse nine, and by the
way, watching over their flock by night. That's us in our darkened
condition, isn't it? And lo, the angel of the Lord. came upon them, and the glory
of the Lord had shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.
And the angel, and you know in the book of Revelation chapter
1, And then in chapters two and three, each of the seven churches
of Asia Minor had a preacher and that preacher was called
what? An angel, unto the angel of the
church of Ephesus, unto the angel of the church of Sardis, unto
the angel of the church of Thyatira, et cetera. Messenger, God sent
him a messenger. You see, that's what God does.
If He's going to do a work of grace in your heart, He will
send to you a messenger to deliver to you His message, to set before
you knowledge. How shall they hear without a
preacher? It's what it says in Romans chapter
10. He makes us know and know the
truth. And he sends a messenger to do
it. Read on, and the angel said unto them, don't be afraid, fear
not. For behold, be amazed. I expect
that the angel was amazed. For behold, I bring you good
tidings. I bring you the gospel. Good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, to all kinds
of people. Not to every single person. It
wasn't good news to Herod. It wasn't good news to the rulers
in Jerusalem because they sought to kill him. But it's good news
to all kinds of people. Sure is good news to me. Isn't
it good news to you that he came? Look at verse 11. For unto you,
unto you is born, literally has been born, this day in the city
of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." This is the good news. The Savior. What does the Savior
do? He saves. The Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. How did He do
that? By His substitutionary sacrificial
death. He came to save. He didn't come
to try to save, to endeavor to save, to put forth an effort
to save. Thou shalt call His name, what? Jesus. Why? For he shall save. He shall, shall save his people
from their sin. Read on. There shall be a sign
unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And then suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, a multitude
of messengers. And they're all praising God
and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace,
goodwill toward men. God means good for people. This is good news. Now watch
this. Now who delivered the message?
Who was it that made known what was going to happen? The angel. Watch this, verse 15. And it
came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven,
the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem,
And let's see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord
hath made known. Didn't say which the angel made
known, which the Lord made known. And this word made known, we
don't get into Greek words and that sort of thing, but I'll
tell you this, this make known is identical to the word declared
over there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I declare unto you the gospel. That's what Paul said. Not I
proclaim, I declare unto you the gospel. And here it is put
this way. Made known. That's what Paul
said. I've made known unto you the
gospel. But it isn't enough for a man of God to make known to
you the gospel. The Lord himself's got to make
it known. See, that's what's taught here.
The Lord hath made known unto us. Oh, he used a messenger. He does that. And the messenger
makes it known to your brain, to your mind, to your knowledge,
but only the Lord can make him self known to your heart. Only God can do that. And I'll give you this in closing. Our business here at 13th Street
Baptist Church is just to preach the gospel. As it says, I declare
unto you the gospel. That's our business. We're not
into political issues. Oh, I have my views. Don't much
mount anything, because what I think, what I hope, Doesn't matter. What God has
purposed, that's going to come to pass. I'm not even a citizen
here. I'm a citizen of heaven. Why should I much care what goes
on down here? You know, I think about the apostle
Paul. Boy, he lived in a day when,
under a ruthless Dictator. Oh, he was such a tyrant. Nero. And finally, he'll get
Paul. He'll get him. But you know,
you don't find Paul preaching against him. Just say, pray for
him. That's all he says. You don't
find the apostle, let's go march on Rome. They're just not fair. He's not into that. You know
why he's not into that? Even if you get people's views,
as you would think, all straightened out on these civil issues, they're
still wrong in the heart. That which will only do people
good is to declare unto them the gospel. That's the only hope
people have got. And this is what we're all about.
This is our cause. I'm opposed to abortion. I told somebody I could never
vote, not knowingly, for any person who believes in abortion
as it is as many people believe today. Just kill babies right
and left, hundreds and hundreds of thousands. Far more than COVID-19 has killed
or will kill. And yet, look at the vast majority,
well, maybe not the vast majority, but look at the multitude of
people who think it's okay. That's a woman's right. Oh, it's
a woman's right to be a murderer? But you know what? Though I've
been invited to march, go to Washington and march for the
cause of abortion, anti-abortion rather, I will not join arm in
arm with those who believe a false gospel in order to promote actually
a cause that I'm in favor of doing away with. abortion, but
I'm not going to march against that. Because what if we stopped
them? What if we got people to stop
doing all that? They still don't know God. That's the issue. They still
don't know God. They still don't know Jesus Christ.
They're still going out into eternity to meet a holy God,
and they've got no Savior. I was thinking about it this
morning. I'm so thankful for the presence of the Lord with
me always. And there'll be especially one
time Out in the future, I don't know
when, but it's out there, that I absolutely want Him to be with
me. That's when I die. Because I
don't want to meet God without the Savior. I want to be in Him,
washed, robed, accepted in the Beloved. That's the reason I declare unto
you the gospel. I make the gospel known to you,
who he is, what he did. He's the God-man, what'd he do?
He came down here. He lived, he died for sinners
in order that God might be just and justify the ungodly. That's
our message. That's what we're all about here.
Well, I'll continue this little train of thought tonight. Hope
you go home, think about what you've heard during these last
40, 45 minutes or so. And I hope that, as the scripture
says, the black birds, the evil birds of darkness, don't snatch
the good seed away. I hope you'll mull it over, mull
these things over, this gospel. May the Lord be pleased to teach
us all and bring us to the Savior, that one of whom to know is life
everlasting. Won't you come on to the Savior,
not come to the front, not come to me, come to Him. Come to Him. Lord, we bow before you here
at the end of this service. So thankful that you sent to
us a preacher. You sent to us someone who would
declare the gospel of your free grace, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus, the gospel of redeeming mercy. And he told us of the
Savior and His work by which he reconciled the people unto
God. Lord, thank you for that messenger. Thank you for that angel who
delivered the glad tidings to us. And thank you, Lord, that
you took the glad tidings and you put it down in our hearts.
You burned it within us. And it's with us always. a knowledge of and a love of
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do your work, Lord, in
the hearts of men and women and boys and girls. I pray that the message has been
clear, that it's been delivered in simplicity,
Lord, don't want to confuse anybody. We want to, as best we can, impart
knowledge. But only you can take a knowledge
of this glorious message and put it in our hearts. And so
we're totally dependent upon you. We wait on you to do a work,
a work that only you can do, a work within the heart granting
repentance toward God, that is a turning away from all false
gospels. And you bring us to believe and
turn to this true gospel of the grace of God to the sinful and
the Lord Jesus, the only Savior. Bless these dear people, these
things we ask in the name of our Savior and for His sake.
Amen.