blessed by the special music
today, and I'm so grateful for the preparation that those who
present special music to us, for their preparation, their
diligence in practicing, and it's certainly a blessing to
us, and it is very much a part of the worship service. All of
the music is. The music isn't to set the stage
for worship, it is part of the worship. And it's a wonderful
thing to have musicians and a man who leads the music and these
who present special music does. These folks love the same gospel
and they have the same desires we all do, and that is to exalt
our Lord. Well, we find ourselves tonight,
I believe I'm led by the Spirit of God, to go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. Our subject is Why Christ Died
and Arose. Let me begin here in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. In other words, over and above
the things that I've been speaking about, that's what moreover means. What has he been dealing with? What subject has he been dealing
with? Well, the gifts that God gives to his people, the gifts
of the Spirit, the different abilities and that sort of thing. But he says there's a matter
more important. And that's what I declare unto
you. He said it's the gospel. The
gospel which I preached unto you. What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news.
It's not good advice, it's good news. It's good news of a redeemer
and the work that he finished. the redemption that has been
accomplished by his death and his resurrection. It is indeed
glad tidings of great joy. We have a wonderful message to
set forth before people. And I, just like every preacher
of the gospel, we so enjoy preaching the gospel because it is a message
of good news. Good news to those who need to
hear some good news. And I tell you, in this world
today, there's so much bad news. You read newspaper, if you watch
630 National News or whatever, you know there's lots of bad
news to be heard. But here's the good news. There is a Savior for folks like
us. There's a Savior for sinners.
There's a wonderful salvation God has ordained and appointed.
And it's for folks that have been made aware of their neediness. We need forgiveness. We need
righteousness. We need acceptance with God.
And the good news is the Lord Jesus is that savior of sinners. And it's wonderful that God has
sent him into this old vile world to save folks like you and me.
So here's what Paul says. I've got a message that's more
important than this subject of gifts, though there is an importance
to that a particular subject, he says, but there's something
more vital. And it is the gospel. He said,
this is what I preach to you. It's not a new message. It's
an old message. He said, you know the message.
When the apostle was in Corinth and he preached to them, he was
consistently setting before them Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is the Savior they needed
to know. This was the message they needed
to hear. It is the only message that honors
God and does us good. It does me good every time I
hear the gospel, the good news of finished redemption, because
this is indeed the message that I need. I don't need a message
of, well, Christ has done his part and now you do your part. That's not good news. I don't
wanna hear that. I don't wanna even hear that
my faith is necessary to add to his work of redemption. That's
good news because I don't have any faith unless he gives it
to me. The good news is the work of
redemption, the work of reconciliation, the work of the removal of our
sins, it has already been finished. by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like this. Here's the table
is spread. The gospel table is spread. And on that gospel table, all
kind of delicacies. It's just a banquet of grace. It's a banquet of mercy. Well,
who's it for? Anybody who's hungry. Anybody
who desires to be fed. Like the Savior said to his disciples,
come and dine, come and dine. All things are ready. And I tell
you, this gospel, it's a message of finished redemption. If you're interested in that,
I'm preaching, hoping and praying God will get people interested
in this message. And if they get interested, if
you get interested, you'll feast on this message of redemption.
You'll be thankful for it. And so here is the apostle, he
says, I preach the gospel to you, I declare the gospel to
you. This is the very message I preached unto you, which you
have received and wherein you stand. I enjoy reading quite
a bit the Amplified Bible. It isn't inspired. Men have taken
the words of the Lord and the words of Scripture and they try
to set it forth and amplify the meaning of it. And lots of times
it's very helpful. It isn't a translation. by any
stretch of the imagination, but every once in a while it can
be helpful. Here's the way verse one reads in the Amplified. And
now let me remind you. That is, since it seems to have
escaped you, brethren, of the gospel. I want to remind you,
he says, of the gospel. That is, the glad tidings of
salvation, which I proclaimed unto you, which you welcomed,
and which you received, and on which your faith rests. Notice
the second verse. by which also you're saved. By
this gospel, this one gospel, this one message of finished
redemption, this is a message by which you're saved. Those
who believe this message of a crucified, buried, risen redeemer, Those
who believe the Lord Jesus and His identity and all of His work,
these are the ones who are saved. You're saved by believing this
message. And if you don't believe this
message, you have no right nor reason to say, I'm saved. You've
got to believe on the Lord Jesus. Nobody is going to heaven except
those who believe on the Redeemer. The Scripture says without faith
it is impossible to please God. If you don't believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, ask God to give you faith. Lord, help me to believe
Him. Help me to rest in Him. I understand
the good news of a finished redemption by a great Redeemer. Lord, give
me the ability to embrace Him. Lord, I want to receive Him.
Lord, I want to believe Him. And if you want to receive Him,
then receive Him. And if you want to believe Him,
just believe Him. What is saving faith? It is to
come spiritually to the Savior as a needy sinner. And you come
to Him and find rest for your soul. And you come just as you
are. Years ago, Charlotte Elliott
wrote that great song, Just As I Am. Without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for
me, and that thou bid'st me come to thee. He does bid us come,
doesn't he? He bids us come to him. And that
thou bid'st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I'm coming. I come to thee. I don't understand
all the ins and outs about salvation. I don't grasp all the finer points
about doctrine and theology, but I know this, I'm a poor old
sinner. And God's a holy God who can't
have anything to do with me except through this mediator, this savior
he's sending to the world. And I believe him. I lay hold
of him. I rest my weary, weary soul in
him. That's how you're saved. That's
how you're saved. It isn't walking in an aisle.
It's not studying a bunch of things and then, you know, catechisms
and things like that that a lot of churches require, and then
you're tested for them. That's not salvation. You see,
the salvation of the soul is in Christ Jesus. He's the Savior. We're the sinners. He came into
the world to save sinners. Boy, I wish more people be convinced
of that. I got some texts today that said
in essence, the Lord has convinced me. I'm convinced, that's what
a lot of them said. And I tell you, I'm convinced
salvation's in Christ alone, aren't you? I'm convinced it's
in His blood. Boy, that sacrifice. And this
is what Paul is talking about. This gospel, he says, by which
you're saved. You're saved by believing this
gospel. Now watch it. He then says, if
you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain. What does that mean? You keep on believing the gospel. You just, you keep going. It
doesn't mean you don't ever have doubts. It doesn't mean you don't
stumble. This doesn't mean you're always
faithful like you ought to be. None of us are faithful like
we ought to be. But he says, if you keep this
in memory, you keep it in your mind, here's my salvation. It's all wrapped up in that one
who died on the cross. Don't quit. You get discouraged
with yourself? So do I. So do I. Do you feel oftentimes I don't
believe like I ought to believe? So do I. So do all of God's people. But listen, don't quit. But I'll
tell you this, if you can quit, you will. That's a fact. If you can, you will. But I tell
you, if you're the Lord's, He won't let you quit. You're not going to go back.
You're not going to go back like a dog to its vomit and like a
sow to her wallowing in the mire. We're like Simon Peter after
he saw multitudes of people leave the Savior. And the Savior said,
you fellas going too? Peter said, to whom shall we
go? To whom shall we go? We believe
we're sure. You're the Son of the living
God and we've got confidence in you. You're salvation. You're the
good news in person. We believe we're sure. We're
sure. Thou art the Son of God. Here's what Paul says. And keep
these things in your memory. Now this gospel, don't you get
away from this gospel. Don't you get away from the facts
of it, and don't get away from the, what he calls in another
place, the simplicity of Christ and his gospel. It isn't complicated. It isn't. It's so clearly laid out in the
scriptures that if God's pleased to work a work of grace in your
heart, even a child can grasp these things. Now watch what he says in the
third verse. He says, for or because. I delivered unto you
first of all, first of all, What does it mean by first of all?
First in importance, first in preeminence, first in order. Of all the things I preach to
you, you know as a preacher of the gospel, we have a responsibility
to deal with all of the word of God as we come to it in its
context. But here's what we set forth,
first of all, Christ and Him crucified. First of all, this
has got to have the preeminence. This has got to be the subject
matter of the pulpit. We set forth Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And so he says, for I delivered
unto you. First of all, this is a message
that had preeminence. It's a message that gives God
the glory. It's the message that God uses
to save His people. It's the message God uses to
encourage His children. And it's the message God uses,
whether people believe it or not, to hold the unbelievers
without excuse. For I delivered unto you this
message. I delivered this preeminently.
I delivered this as being the most vital message that I could
ever deliver. And the message I delivered to
you is the message I received. You know what he's saying? The
same gospel I believed is the same gospel you believed. The
gospel has never changed. It hasn't changed one iota from
the very beginning. Now indeed, the Old Testament
is a progressive revelation of this gospel, but it's still the
gospel of substitution and satisfaction. We see it right there at the
end of Genesis chapter three. There's our shivering, naked
parents, Adam and Eve, standing before a holy God, standing before
the mediator. because God's not gonna speak
to nor be spoken to by any son nor daughter of Adam apart from
a mediator. And there they stood before Christ,
before the very, very Lamb of God. And he illustrated that
which would happen to himself. He killed animals. They died. He sacrificed them to honor His
own law that said, Adam, in the day ye eat thereof, you'll surely
die. He got death. He got death from
the animals. He shed their blood. The first
blood shed was shed by God Himself. And that illustrated that which
would happen to Him. And those animals having died,
he took their coats of skin and he wrapped them around Adam and
Eve. And I'll tell you, we're robed
in the garments of God's great salvation due to the Lamb of
God dying in our room, stead in place. Paul says, this is the same gospel
I delivered you, it's the one I received. I received it, that's
what he said. I received. As a gift. As a gift. Listen, there has
to be a reception of the Lord Jesus. As many as received him. To them gave he the power, the
privilege, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name. He received it. Have you received
Him? When we're stressing the aspects
of the salvation of the soul, and we're declaring what God
has done, we must therefore direct the attention of those to whom
we're speaking, we must direct them to the Lord Jesus and say,
receive him, believe him. You must believe him. And Paul
says, the message I delivered to you, I received. I received. Well, what message did you receive? He says, how that Christ died
for our sins. Well, how did he die? He died
as the substitute. He died as the sin offering. He died as the sacrifice. He
died as the Savior. He died as the Sovereign. He
died. How did Christ die? He died in
all of these ways. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. He fulfilled the Scriptures.
Last Lord's Day, I tried to speak about the words from the cross
of Calvary, the statements of our Savior. And over and over
again, it says that the Scripture might be fulfilled. You see,
Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfiller of Scripture. How do you know
he's the Messiah? How do you know he's the Redeemer?
How do you know he's the Savior? He fulfilled Scripture. And in
this case, how that Christ died for our sins just like the scripture
said he would. Isaiah chapter 53 comes to mind. Psalm 22 comes to mind. And that he was buried because
he really died and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. This is our Savior, and this
is His work. Now, first of all, Christ died
for our sins. We know, we know that God gave
Him a people, and Christ came into this world to be the Savior
of those people. And He died. He had to die. He died, number one, to save
His people from their sins. God's law demands death. I keep
saying this, the Word of God insists upon this. He died to
save his people. Law demanded death. That's why
Christ died for us. The penalty of the law has to
be carried out. There had to be an execution. Somebody had to pay the penalty
for our transgressions. Christ did. Christ did. He died as the Savior of His
people. He died as that offering for sin because the wrath of
God had to be appeased. God's anger was stirred up. God's
wrath was stirred up. The Bible says God's angry with
the wicked every day. Anybody who's still in a state
of unbelief, that should trouble them. God's angry with the wicked. And his wrath is going to be
poured out upon all who die outside of Christ. But he died to save his people
from their sins. That's why his name is called
Jesus. And I'll tell you this, he died
secondly to be the sovereign king. Romans chapter 14 says,
for this end, Christ both died and arose that he might be the
Lord, both of the dead and the living. Peter said in his great
message in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost, he said,
you killed the Lord of glory, but God has made him both Lord
and Christ. He died to be the sovereign king.
and he has been made the sovereign king. That's why he told his
disciples, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel, because
all power has been given unto me in heaven and in earth. And
then he died to put all of our sins away. Once in the end of
the world, we read in Hebrews 9, verse 26, Once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sins by the sacrifice
of himself. And in Christ we have no sin. We have no sin. He put away our
sin. He did away with our sins. And then Christ died to bring
us to God. We're far off from God. An immeasurable
distance from God. alienated from God. We had to
be reconciled. We had to be brought to God.
We were His enemies. And God couldn't come to us and
we couldn't come to God. Thank God Christ Jesus came to
bring us to God. To bring, I love that, to bring
us. Here, I'm gonna bring you to
God. That's what he said when he came.
Well, how did he bring us to God? By his death. That's what
satisfied God. Nothing else could satisfy God
but the death of his darling son. We could never have come to God
apart from Christ. Can't come now. You can't come
to God for anything now except through Christ Jesus. Don't try
to pray apart from Christ Jesus. The Father receives you in, through,
and by His Son only. Then He died to deliver us from
this present evil world. He died to deliver us from the
evil kingdom of this world, the evil ways of the world. The world
is evil. The world is vile. Christ came
to save us from that. He came to deliver us from that.
He came to deliver us from the evil religion of this world.
The evil religion of this world, which is man-centered, dependent
upon man's will and man's ways and man's work. That's the evil
religion of the world. and men have erected a monument
to man's free will. Our Lord Jesus came to save us
from that, from the evil world, an evil religion. Any religion
that is against Christ Jesus and salvation by grace alone
in Christ alone is an evil religion. It's an evil religion. Be done
with it. Be done with it. I tell you,
I take sides with the Lord against all the false religions of the
world. And I was in it myself. And I
know what it's like, and I know how it can tug on you and keep
you and hold on to you, but it takes the grace of God to release
you from it, and once He releases you from that false religion
that's so man-centered, self-centered, you'll give thanks for the release,
for the liberty, and then you'll see that was false. It wasn't
any good to it. He came to deliver us from this
present evil world, and He came to redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He came to change us. And I,
you know, maybe before we were moral people, so there won't
be an outward change in that sense. Of course, we'll start
coming to worship and worship services and that sort of thing. Here's what we'll desire to do.
We'll desire to honor Him from the heart and to do His will. To do what He tells us to do.
To hate sin. Don't you hate sin? You hate
it in yourself, you hate it in the world. You see it as being
opposition to God. He came to save us from our sins
and make us zealous to serve Him. How do we do a good work? I'll
tell you, Mary did a good work. It's the only place in the Bible
where any work was said to be a good work. She anointed our
Lord for His burial. She honored Him. And Judas and
the rest of the disciples said, this is a waste of money. All
this perfume and this fragrance that she anointed Him, washed
his feet. He said, leave her alone. She
did a good work. That's the only good work mentioned
in the Bible. You want to do a good work? Honor
Christ Jesus. That's a good work. I know that's
a good work because he said it was. He came to make us zealous of
good works. He came to save us that we would
honor him, that we would praise him. that we would worship Him. And I'll tell you, our Savior
died so He could present us before the Father a perfect people,
a glorious people, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such
thing. It was for these reasons that
He died. But He didn't stay dead. He didn't stay dead. He arose. He told the Jews back in John
chapter two, at the very beginning of his ministry in Judea, he
said to them, destroy this body, three days I'll raise it up.
Destroy this temple. Destroy this temple, three days
I'll raise it up. And they said, well, this temple? You know how many years this
temple's being built? The scripture says, but he spake
of his body. And I'll tell you, men did attack
his body. They went after his body till
they just snuffed out his life according to the purpose of God.
But men put him to death. They did exactly what they wanted
to do. Though he died, however, he arose
from the grave. And he ever lives, the scripture
says, to make intercession for us. Well, why is his resurrection
so important? I'll give you several reasons
briefly. His resurrection shows that Jesus of Nazareth was in
fact the Son of God. Romans chapter one verse four
says that. It proved that he was who he
claimed to be. He said he was the Son of God.
The Jews were ready to pick up rocks and stone him. They knew
that He was identifying Himself as God. But His resurrection,
that showed He is telling the truth. He really was the Son
of God with power. And His resurrection, it gives
us the assurance that that work He did when He died on the cross,
He finished it to God's satisfaction. How do you know He brought in
everlasting righteousness? How do you know he did put away
our sins? How do you know he satisfied
God? How do you know he's appeased
that wrath of God that no sinner's death could ever appease? How
do we know these things? An empty tomb declares it. An
empty tomb declares God is satisfied with all that his son did. And
I'll tell you his erection. Resurrection gives us assurance
that our sins are forgiven. Down here later in chapter 15
in 1 Corinthians, which is the resurrection chapter, as you
know, and I asked Ron to read a portion of this this morning.
Look here in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 17. It says that Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. That means the reverse of that
is true. He was raised from the dead,
and therefore all of the sins of all of those who said he died,
they've been put away. They've been put away. You're
not in your sins. Isn't that wonderful? You're
not in your sin. How do you know? The one who
died for your sins arose. You see, He took upon Him in
a mysterious way all of the sins of all of His people of all time. He bore them, the Scripture says,
in His own body on the tree. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6, God
has made all of the iniquities of His people to meet upon the
head of Christ Jesus. That means He took them off of
us and he put them on Christ Jesus. If he took them off of
us, do we bear them? Of course not. Because it can't
be guilt can't be in two places at the same time. He took all
of our guilt and put it upon the head of our scapegoat. Then
our Lord Jesus, he suffered. in his body, in his soul, before
God, and he suffered at the hands of God. And then he died, bearing
our sins away. Now, if we don't bear them, because
Christ took them, and he died for them, and by his death, he
bore them away, where are they? They don't even exist anymore. Not in the eyes of the justice
of God. Not in the eyes of the wrath
of God. We have no sin. For us to have any sin would
mean that Christ Jesus didn't pay for them. But He did pay
for them. He paid for our sins that were
put to His account. We don't bury them and He doesn't
bury them. Where are they? They're back
there behind God's back. Where are they? Well, they're
buried in the depths of the deepest sea. Where are they in relation
to me? They're separated from me as
far as the east is from the west. Where are they? They've been
taken out there into the wilderness where no man exists. And they're
gone. That's what the resurrection
says. The resurrection says our sins, which are many, are all
forgiven. And His resurrection is our assurance
that we're saved forever. We're saved forever. Because He lives, we live. and his resurrection is the assurance
that his people will experience a spiritual resurrection. You know the reason we're regenerated?
We're regenerated because our Lord Jesus came back from the
dead. In fact, the same kind of power that raised him from
the dead, read Ephesians chapter one toward the end of the chapter,
the same kind of divine energy that raised him, that's what
raised us. That's what it took. It took
an act of God. And just like our Lord Jesus,
His resurrection according to men would be absolutely impossible. It could not happen. A man cannot
give himself life, but He did. It also says He was raised by
the power of the Father, and He was raised by the power of
the Spirit. And that kind of energy That's what it takes to
raise us from a spiritual death. And I'll tell you this, his resurrection
is a great source of consolation. Therefore, in sickness, facing
death perhaps, I can remain calm because Christ lives, I'll also
live. In sorrow I can remain peaceful
because He lives, I will live also. In trial and affliction
I can remain at ease because Christ lives and I too shall
live forever. In bereavement I can remain confident
because Christ lives, I shall live forever. And I'll tell you
this, His resurrection Just give you a couple more things and
I'll quit. But his resurrection, it attests to the fact, here
is a testament to the fact that there's life after death. There's life after death. And
when we die, the people of God, when we die, the soul doesn't die, ye don't
die, Because you are a soul. Your body dies. But you just
keep on living. It doesn't mean your existence
ceases. It means you'll exist with Him
in glory. And I'll tell you, His resurrection
assures us of a future resurrection. Job there, he said in that passage
where he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and on the earth
he shall stand. He goes on to say, he says, the
worms destroy this body, and they will. He said, yet in my
flesh I shall see God. One day, unless Christ comes
back soon, I don't have many more years I've got, But if he
doesn't come back, I'll die. His body will drop. Soul go back
to the Lord. The body be laid in a casket. Tim James will preach my funeral
if he's still alive. And then they'll take me out
to that burial spot we've been paying on forever. And they'll do something, they'll
put my body in the ground. We picked out a level place so
Nancy wouldn't have to go up or down a hill. She could walk
out on the level to visit my grave and maybe put flowers there. And my body will lie there asleep. Asleep. And they'll pull the
covers over my grave, it's called the sod, and there this body
will sleep. I'll be with Christ, but the
body will lay there. And as the years go by, depending
upon how long the Lord waits to come back, this body will
corrupt. Wouldn't ever want to look at
it again. But he's coming back. And then this body, and the bodies
of so many of our loved ones who died in Christ, so many of
our dear friends, people we've worshiped with, some of your
spouses, and fathers, and mothers, and grandmothers, and grandfathers,
and brothers, and sisters, and sons, and daughters, and I could
go on and on, who died in Jesus, when he comes back, there'll
be a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,
and all of the dead. If I'm dead then, this body is
all of a sudden going to respond to Christ Jesus, to His sovereign
call. We'll wake up! Because the soul
is coming back, all the souls of His people coming back with
Him. And we're going to inhabit these bodies again. The body's
going to come forth and we're not gonna have any more sin,
not gonna have any more imperfections, not gonna be any more age, old
age, no suffering, no arthritis and disease and all that kind
of stuff because S-I-N will be passed, done away with. And I'll tell you, we'll wake
up just like that. This body will wake up and be
changed, fashioned like unto His glorious body. And then we'll
be with Him. And we'll praise Him and thank
Him forever. You saved me, body and soul. You've redeemed me. I'll bless
Your name forever. And I know that's going to happen.
I know that resurrection's going to happen. Because He arose. Even Martha said, when Lazarus
died, Christ said, He's sleeping. She said, well, I know He's going
to live again at the resurrection day. Christ said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. And we're all going to live.
Death is just a temporary separation from our loved ones and from
our friends, but it's not a separation from Christ. It is not a separation
from Christ. There is no separation from Christ. That makes death all right. You
agree? That's what makes death all right.
going to see the master. Death comes to us and he comes
in various ways. He can kind of be frightening.
Unless you understand this, death comes to you and says, the master
says it's time to come home. Well, if the master says it's
time for me to come home, I'm ready to go. Take me now. And we just go to be with the
Lord. Death ought not to be a fearful thing for us. It's just a door.
It's just a door. We've never gone through that
door, but we'll have to. But when we go through that door,
we'll find out what's on the other side is more glorious than
we can ever imagine. And once you get to the other
side of that door, if somebody said, you want to go back? No,
I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. Christ
died, and he arose, and because he lives, we shall live also.