that all of you, certainly most
all of you, have read through this great chapter. It speaks
to us of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. That's how it
begins. And then at the end of the chapter,
it tells us that since the Lord Jesus arose, our bodies will
also experience a wonderful resurrection someday. Those who die in Jesus
or as the scripture says those who sleep in Jesus the Lord will
come back and wake up these bodies and our bodies will be resurrected
and This mortal shall then put on immortality this corruptible
shall put on incorruption and that we will forever be with
the Lord Jesus in heaven. So it's a wonderful chapter teaching
the doctrine of resurrection. Now it begins with a declaration
of the message that this man, the Apostle Paul, who wrote the
first and the second letters to the church at Corinth, it
begins with his statement the things that he set forth
to the people when he was with them in the city of Corinth. He says in chapter 15, let me
just re-read a couple of verses here that Ron read to us. He
says, moreover, or I've got something else I want to talk to you about.
Now here's what he's been speaking about in the previous chapter,
the gifts that God gives to various individuals within the Church
of God. The Lord gives those gifts sovereignly. He gives them as He will to various
individuals. But then He says, moreover, or
there's something more important than the gifts. And that which
is more important than the gifts is the message that He said He
preached to these these people. He says, moreover brethren. Brethren. That's an endearing
word. I made no mistake about it. There
are a lot of problems in the church at Corinth. In fact, it
was made up of a group of people who were many of them saved by
the grace of God, but they were still sinful people. It's really
amazing that people who are sinners by nature practice in birth.
Though converted by the grace of God, brought to us a knowledge,
a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus, it's really amazing that
we can stay together notwithstanding the differences that we just
have on many issues that are of a daily importance to us. We don't differ on the issue
of the gospel. We don't differ on the issue
of the grace of God or the blood of Christ Jesus. or the reality
of the resurrection of the blessed Savior, but there are things
that from day to day we disagree with. Well, in the church at
Corinth, they had their disagreements, but they also had some disagreements
of a religious nature, even of a spiritual nature. And throughout this first letter,
He frequently rebukes them and he brings those issues up to
the surface and he deals with them. And yet he still addresses
them as brethren. He says, moreover brethren. He
wasn't mad at them. He wasn't scolding them. He had no malicious words toward
these people. He says, moreover, brethren,
listen, we may have differences of opinion on a number of things
of a secular nature. We may even have some differences
of opinion on minor spiritual or biblical issues. And I stress
minor. We may differ on things that
have to do with eschatology, that is, when the Lord Jesus
is coming back, that's okay. It's okay to differ with people
on things like that. We may differ on the government
of a local church, and that's okay. That's okay. But if you
believe the gospel of Christ Jesus, Have you been saved by
the grace of God? Christ Jesus is your all. God
has made Him to be to you your wisdom, your righteousness, your
sanctification, and your redemption. And all of your hope is in Him.
You look to the bloody death of the Lord Jesus for all of
your salvation, your sins, which are many, you look to the Savior
who washed them away by His bloody sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. That one who died for you ever
lives for you. If you look to the Lord Jesus
Christ as your only hope of heaven, as all of your acceptance with
God, then I'll be happy to address you as one of the brethren. We're
brethren. Moreover brethren. Isn't that
sweet? It's like saying, moreover, family. We're family. God's our Father. The Lord Jesus is our elder brother. We're saved by the same grace
of God. The same blood of the Lord Jesus
that washed my sins away washed your sins away. In the Spirit
of grace, He took the very same seed, the incorruptible seed
of the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. He has made
us alive through this seed. We're born of the same Father. We're of the same family. And
I know sometimes even earthly families have squabbles among
themselves and differences of opinion among themselves, but
family is family. And I hope because I'm part of
the family, you'll put up with me, notwithstanding my errors
and notwithstanding my mistakes and my sinfulness, because the
same blood that washed you washed me. The same grace that saved
me saved you. The same covenant of grace in
which my name was written down in the Lamb's book of life, that's
the same covenant of grace in which your name was written down.
As well, the same God who is my Father is your Father. The same Redeemer who is my Redeemer
is your Redeemer. Holy Spirit who quickened me,
who regenerated me, who gave me the gift of faith to believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is the same Spirit who quickened, regenerated
you, He caused you to be born again. Like it or not, we're
family. Right? We're family. We're kind
of stuck with each other. And one of these days, we're
not going to have any differences at all. when we get to heaven,
everlasting glory. But we're brethren. He says, moreover brethren. In
other words, I've got something more important to talk to you
about. It's over and above in great
importance than gifts. Now, there's a place for gifts
within the local assembly, but here's what he's saying. I've
got something more important to talk to you about now. And he says, moreover brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. The gospel. He identifies it
as one specific message. It is the gospel. A definite
article. It's not a gospel. It's not any
gospel. It's the gospel. It's the gospel. It's the good news. It's the
glad tidings. To those who are gathered this
morning with us, or those who are watching by way of internet,
I want to say to you, I have some very good news for you.
There is a Savior who saves sinners. There is a Savior who fully satisfied
every demand of God's law and justice, and He did it on the
behalf of poor, unworthy, unfit sinners. And if God would enable
you to come to Christ Jesus just as you are, He will receive you. That's good news. That's good
news. The good news of the gospel is
the work of redemption is finished. Our Lord Jesus offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. And we rejoice that the work
has been accomplished. The Savior in his high priestly
prayer is found in John chapter 17. He begins by saying, Father,
I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. What is that work? What was that
work? The work of removing the sins
of all of his people. the work of reconciliation, to
reconcile us to God. Something had to be done about
our sins. And that's why the Son of God
came into this world, to do something about the sins of His people.
And the good news is that that which He came to do, He did it! He did it! That's why He bowed
His head on the cross and He said, It is finished! He cried
with a loud voice, It is finished! It is accomplished! I've done
everything God my Father ordained for me to do, everything I promised
to do in the covenant of grace. I have finished it. The work
is done. The sacrifice is offered. Good news! Come on sinner! The way to God is opened up.
It isn't a closed off way. It's an open way. and you may freely come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. I declare to you the gospel,
the good news, the glad timings. He says, which I preached unto
you. In other words, he's saying what
I'm preaching to you right now by way of this letter, that's
what I preached to you when I was in your midst. In other words,
he's saying, when I was with you, I didn't say something different
then than I'm saying now. I preached the grace of God then.
I preached the full atonement of Christ Jesus then, the successful
redemption of the Savior when I was with you, and even now
in my letter that I write to you, I preached unto you the
gospel, the same gospel. You remember back earlier in
this epistle, he said to these people, he said, when I was with
you, I was with you in fear and much trembling. Can you imagine
that? A man who was not one whit behind
the chief apostle. But he says, when I was with
you, I was with you in fear and much trembling. I can't imagine
the apostle Paul being a trembling man. Oh, he didn't tremble because
of the fear of speaking to an audience. That wasn't it. The
fear that he had was a fear, a godly respect, a reverence
for the Lord he represented. And he realized he had to tell
the truth. And he said, when I was with
you, I determined not to know anything among you. I had a determination. not to know anything among you
except this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified." That's what he
said. And as he writes this letter, and he's now getting toward the
end of the letter, because there are only 16 chapters in the book
of 1 Corinthians, he is saying, I'm writing to you the same things
that I preached to you. He didn't change his message. He wasn't wishy-washy. He didn't
say one thing to one congregation and another thing to another
congregation. He didn't say one thing when
he was in their presence and then say something else when
he wrote to them and being absent from them. No, no, he said, I'm
declaring to you the same message of the grace of God through Christ
Jesus to unworthy sinners. And he says this, which I preached
on you, watch this, which also you have received. Which also
you have received. That's what I want. That's what
I want. I want you to receive the message
that I preach. I long for you to know God through
Christ Jesus. And therefore I speak to you
of the things of God. I speak to you honestly and openly
and plainly. I tell you life is in Christ
Jesus. Salvation is in the Son of God.
I tell you, you're a dying person. You're dying daily. When your
heart began to beat, it began, somebody said it began a cadence
march that will end at the grave. Then you go out to meet God. Wouldn't it be wonderful to go
out to meet God, knowing God through Christ Jesus? It's like the brother who is
very, very ill and somebody came to see him and said, I'm sorry
you're so sick. He said, I understand the doctors
have said you don't have much time left. He said, that's correct.
He said, well, I'm so sorry you're so sick. He said, I'll soon be
well. I'll soon be well. And those
of us who know Christ Jesus will soon be fully well bodily in
the resurrection. And spiritually we'll be with
Him forever. This is what I want for you.
And Paul says, which also you have received. I want you to
receive Christ Jesus. Oh, that God would do a work
within all of us. And that is what is necessary
to be done. A work of grace must be done.
A preparatory work. In the parable of the sower,
the sower had very precious seed that he sowed, but some fell
upon a hard ground that hadn't been prepared. Some fell in rocky,
rocky areas and didn't get much root. Some fell among thorns
and briars which choked out the seed. And you see, that's what's
going to happen to the good seed of the Word of God, unless the
Spirit of God comes along and plows up the heart, makes it
ready to receive the seed. But then the Lord said, but the
sower also, he kept sowing the seed, and then it fell on good
ground. What's good ground? Well, it's
not good naturally. It's made good spiritually by
the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of God precedes the
seed falling into the heart, as it were falling into the garden
of the soul. The soul has been made to realize
its neediness. The soul has been made to realize
the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the sternness of God,
the justice of God. And the soul has been made to
realize something of its sinfulness, its weakness. It's rottenness. And the soul
then is made to believe and realize Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And then that sinner finds that
to be good news. Good news for sinners. And the seed has done its job. See, this is what we need. This is what you need. It's for
the Lord of glory to work within you to will and to do of His
good pleasure. That's what the scripture says.
Because salvation is the work of God. He says, which also you
have received. Have you received this gospel? Have you believed this gospel? Wherein you stand. You stand
and that means you're firmly planted on the gospel. And I know I'm looking into the
faces of some people and you're looking into the face of a preacher
who's firmly, firmly planted in the gospel. I stand on Christ
Jesus. I stand on His righteousness.
Oh, they said to Martin Luther, you need to back off now these
things that you believe. He said, here I stand, I can
do no other. And that's what I say to you.
Here I stand, I can do no other. This is the salvation I need.
This is the righteousness I need. This is the redemption I need.
This is the gospel I need. This is the Savior I need. This
is the mediator I need. This is the bloody sacrifice
I need that put away all of my sins. I have received this gospel
and I take my stand here, don't you? This is where I take my
stand. And then he goes on to speak
about the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
I've already said here's the theme of the chapter, the resurrection. And he deals at length with the
resurrection of these bodies. Death doesn't end it all, my
friend. When the body dies, that mysterious
link between the body and the spirit
or the body and the soul is severed And all of a sudden, and several
of us, we've seen the reality of death. And our loved one,
or our dear friend, brother, sister in Christ Jesus, or even
an unbeliever, one moment they were there, and the next moment,
that body is just an empty shell. That's all it is, just an empty
tabernacle. It is the tabernacle we loved
and the tabernacle we embraced. The tabernacle we were affectionate
toward. The tabernacle we kissed. But
that tabernacle has been vacated. That's what death is. It's the soul vacating the body. And the soul goes back to God
who gave it. Who gave it. And that which death does in
this separation is a wonderful thing for the
children of God because it is called a sleep. Not good for the unbeliever though.
Not good. And when Paul will talk about
the resurrection, or before he deals with the resurrection of
these bodies, when the mortals shall put on immortality and
corruption shall put on incorruption, before he deals with that, he's
first going to deal with the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
But he's not going to deal with the resurrection of Christ Jesus
until he deals with his death. Because you see, that which makes
resurrection necessary. We talk about resurrection today
all across Christendom, and I'll put that in parentheses. It's
a really big word, big umbrella. Everybody's talking about resurrection
today. But that which makes resurrection
necessary is death. Because if there wasn't death,
there wouldn't be a need of resurrection. And so that which this man, the
Apostle Paul, as he's led by the Spirit of Grace, that which
he focuses in on, first of all and primarily, because there's
no use talking about our resurrection, the resurrection of these bodies,
until first of all we talk about the resurrection of He who is
the firstfruits. of them that shall arise, that
is Christ Jesus. And there's no use talking about
His resurrection. He would not need to be resurrected
unless He died. Here's the question then, why
did He die? Why did He die? I know we stress
the importance of the resurrection. But there's no need to talk about
the resurrection until we talk about His death. Notice in verses
3 and 4. He says, For I have delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received. In other
words, what I would have you to believe is what I believe.
What I would have you to receive is what I've received. For I
have delivered unto you, first of all, here's my primary message. First of all, that which also
received, he says, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures. What Scriptures? You say, well,
the whole Bible. No. Because the whole Bible wasn't
written at this time. It didn't have the New Testament.
So what Scriptures is he speaking about? The Old Testament Scriptures. Let me tell you something. If we didn't have the New Testament...
Now, the New Testament makes the Old Testament a whole lot
clearer. There's no question about that. But if somehow or
another somebody took away from us the New Testament, we could
still preach the Gospel, couldn't we? Well, we better be able to. Because the Gospel of the New
Testament is the exact same gospel of the Old Testament. But in
the Old Testament it was hidden in figures and pictures and types
and things like that. It was hidden in animal offerings. It was hidden in the Passover
lamb. It was hidden in Abel's lamb
that died. And as you go through the Old
Testament, you see picture after picture, emblem after emblem
of the Lord Jesus, of His death. He set forth as the Lamb, the
Lamb of God. Last weekend we were in Jacksonville,
North Carolina, and I was preaching down there for Brother Shepherd,
who sends his greetings, by the way, to all of you in this congregation. But as we began our journey back
Monday afternoon, there was a marquee, a church sign that said something
like this, it's not the bunny, it's the lamb. Well, I thought,
you know, everybody's talking about the Easter bunny. Hey,
we used to hunt Easter eggs and all that sort of thing. I don't
think it did any damage to us. But it's not about the bunny.
It's about the Lamb of God. And you see, that's all of the
Old Testament. It's about the Lamb of God. The
Lamb of God who's going to come into the world. The Lamb prophesied,
the Lamb pictured, the Lamb predicted. And all of the Scriptures set
forth the Lamb of God that He would die. That He would die. In Isaiah chapter 53, He is led
as a lamb to the slaughter. To the slaughter. And we know
in the book of Revelation, We find that this Lamb of God is
the Lamb who was slaughtered or He was slain before the foundation
of the world. It's all about the Lamb. And
that's what the Old Testament is all about. And in the Old
Testament, it stressed the death of the Lamb. Go to the book of
Leviticus and over and over again you read about the death of a
sacrifice, the death of an offering. What was the purpose of all of
those? I mean, rivers of blood. You
think about it. Rivers of blood flowed from the
brazen altar. The brazen altar was the very
first piece of furniture you would encounter if you were to
walk into the outer quarter of the tabernacle. The brazen altar,
that's the place of death. That was the place of sacrifice.
That was the place of blood. Blood was shed there. And all of those offerings announce
this. The blood of bulls and goats
can't put away sin. But this pictures what's going
to happen when the Lamb of God comes into this world. He's going
to die for sinners. So he says, how did Christ die
for our sins? According to the scriptures.
Every word is important. Don't miss the word, how. H-O-W,
how. How did he die? Oh, we know he
died the death of crucifixion. Cursed is every man that hangeth
on a tree. That's in the Old Testament.
Did you know that? So many times you'll remember
reading through the gospel narratives that our Lord Jesus would do
something and pick up stones to stone Him. Well, let me ask
you something. Would He die? Could it possibly
be that He would die by stoning? And the answer is absolutely
not. There was a marked out way for
him to die. God had ordained the way for
him to die. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. He's got to hang on a tree. That's
what the Old Testament says. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, according to the Old Testament Scriptures. And that he was buried. Did he really die? Did he fall into a coma? They
just couldn't find his pulse? Do you feel a pulse? No, I can't
feel a pulse. Maybe they were mistaken. You know, the Jews who saw to
it that the Lord Jesus was crucified, that is the Jewish leaders, they
were so concerned about violating the Sabbath, And so they sent a delegation
over to Pilate and said, listen, the bodies of these three men,
they got to come down to the crosses now. Because we got to
go to church tomorrow. Isn't that something? Don't ever lose sight of this.
The instigators of the death of our Lord Jesus were religious
men, religious leaders, preachers. reverence, if you will. They
all got together. I was talking about this this
past Wednesday night. They got together as a council,
all of these reverends, all of these doctors, all of these preachers,
all of these teachers of the Scriptures, and they got together
and this is what they were meeting together. How can we murder this
man? Isn't that awful? How can we
murder this man? They plotted his death. And they met together. conspired
to kill him, and they were successful. But
then, then so concerned that they don't violate the Sabbath.
You think about this. They didn't want to violate the
Sabbath, and they killed the Lord of the Sabbath. That's something. He's the Lord of the Sabbath,
Matthew chapter 12. That's what our Sun School lesson
was about this morning. So they said, got to get their
bodies down. Well, OK. Pilate says, well,
I'll send one of these big old strong soldiers out there, and
he'll break their legs so that they can no longer support themselves
and continue to breathe. And then they'll give way, and
then they'll suffocate. They'll die. And they did that
to the two thieves. But they looked up at Jesus,
and he was dead already. Well, let's just make sure he's
dead. And one of the soldiers took a spear, thrust it in his
side, pierced up into his heart. Yeah, he's dead. Because the Old Testament Scripture
said he had to die. Listen, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Now, he didn't sin, but he took
upon himself all the sins of his people. He had to die. He's got to pay the penalty.
You see, here's the theme of all the Bible. You want a summary
of all the Bible? It's this. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He died according to the Scriptures
and He was buried. He was buried because He really
died. He really died. And when they
pierced His heart, there came out blood and water. Blood to justify. Water to sanctify. And they buried him. That's what
you do with people who die. And his body died just like your
body is going to die one day. They buried him. Except the body
of the Lord Jesus could not see corruption. You know why it couldn't
see corruption? It didn't have any sin. He didn't have any sin. That's
why his body didn't corrupt. What about his soul? What happened
to his soul? His soul went back to God, went
to paradise. That's what he said. He told
the believing thief. He told that thief. That thief
said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Oh
Lord, remember me. Remember my worthless name. Remember
me. Look on me with favor. Look on
me with mercy. Look on me with grace. Remember
me in compassion. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. I believe you're the Lord. I
believe you have a spiritual kingdom. I believe you're establishing
this kingdom by your substitutionary death. Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. And the Lord Jesus said, Today,
you'll be with me in paradise. So, forever erase from your mind
any idea that when the Lord Jesus died, He went to a place of suffering,
that He went to hell as in a place of punishment. He did not. All of the punishment He endured
The physical agonies that men put upon him and the spiritual
agonies, the agonies of his soul that God put on him. With his
stripes were healed. God punished his soul. He made
his soul an offering for sin. That's what it took to save us.
And then he died and his soul went back to God. And that believing thief, He
wasn't far behind. When our Lord got the glory,
I can just imagine He turned around and said, come on. And
He welcomed him home. Just like He welcomes every child
of God into His bosom when we leave this life. Our Lord Jesus
died according to the Scripture. How did He die? How did He die? Well, I know He died at the death
of crucifixion, but He died in this way. He died as the Sovereign. Let me give you four or five
things real quick. How did He die? Christ died.
How did He die? He died as the Sovereign. He
died for His people. He died for those entrusted to
Him in the covenant of grace. God gave him a people, a multitude
that no man can number. This was a death by the Sovereign,
the one who controls all things in heaven and earth, the one
who governs in creation, who governs in providence, and governs
in salvation. He died as the Sovereign. Secondly,
he died as the Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Savior. He's not a wannabe Savior. He
is the Savior. And actually, when He died for
us and put our sins away, That's when we were saved. Salvation
is, first of all, we're saved from eternity. We could say that. We're safe from eternity. Because
when God the Father gave us to Christ Jesus in covenant grace
and electing love, we were, right then and there, we're saved.
We're safe in Christ Jesus, our surety, the head of the church.
When our Lord Jesus redeemed us, when He washed all of our
sins away, we were saved. When the Spirit of God, He comes
to us in convincing and convicting grace and mercy, and He makes
us alive, He makes us to know our neediness, and we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, then we can say, I'm saved. But now
is our salvation nearer than when we first believed because
really, our full salvation, the full experience of our salvation
is yet to be known in glory. And I'll tell you, when our bodies
are raised at the last day, at the last trump, when the dead
in Christ Jesus shall rise again and our bodies will be raised
and joined back with our souls, then we can say to the