Last week, we had some visitors,
a young man and a young lady, true believers that come up from
Florida. And the young man was asking me a question about some
verses in 1 Corinthians 15. So open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians
15. And I got to talking, studying on the verses that he asked about.
Actually, they're a little bit further down than what I'm going
to preach on today. But what I decided to do in doing
this and reading the whole thing is just do an exposition through
1 Corinthians 15. And if you're familiar with it,
1 Corinthians 15 is pretty much talking about the resurrection
of the dead. Because Christ arose from the
dead, all who are in him, all whom God chose before the foundation
of the world, whose names are written in the Lamb's book of
life, and all for whom Christ died and was buried and arose
again, they'll be resurrected too. And one of the points that
he makes here, if Christ wasn't risen from the dead, and of course
the point is in this that he did arise from the dead, and
not just on, I mean, you know, people talk about it on Easter,
well, we talk about it every Sunday. That's because we're
gonna talk about how this is the gospel that I preach and
believe. But if Christ hadn't, if he wasn't risen from the dead,
we of all people are most miserable. And I understand that and I believe
you do too if you know the Lord. Because we preached that he did
arise from the dead. And so because he arose, we know
that there is a death to die, this physical death. This body
is dead because of sin. But there's life because of Christ's
righteousness. And his resurrection signifies
his accomplishment of righteousness that demands the salvation of
God's people, all for whom he died and was buried in a rose
again. Not just an attempt, but a guarantee. And because of that,
there's a judgment to face. and an eternity to spend, and
so we need to be aware of that. But what I want to begin with
in the first 11 verses here is the gospel I preach and believe. It says in verse one of 1 Corinthians
15, moreover brethren, now that's Paul's talking to professing
believers now. He says, I declare unto you the
gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received
and wherein you stand. So you see those three words
there, the gospel that you've received and we know that the
reception of the gospel means to believe it by the power of
God. We know that no person born of
Adam, all of us by nature, none of us would receive it unless
God intervened. gave us life from the dead. You
can read about that in John chapter 1 verses 11 through 13 where
he talks about Christ came into his own and his own received
him not but as many as received him to them gave he power and
the word power there is not ability it's the right to them gave he
the right to be called children of God which were born not of
blood that is not a physical heritage, nor of the will of
the flesh, which I believe is talking about the works of the
flesh, if you're born again by the Spirit and saved by the grace
of God, you didn't get it because your mom and dad or your grandparents
were saved, not of blood, nor of the works of the flesh, you
didn't get it because you worked for it, and then it says nor
of the will of the flesh, that is it wasn't because you made
the right decision. You know, one of the most common
heresies today is the heresy of decisional regeneration. Now
what that means is, and this is the way most preachers preach
it now and how they present it, that if you will make the right
decision and give your heart to Jesus, then you can be saved
and born again. And that's not the way the Bible
presents it. You won't give your heart to Jesus. What you need
is Him to give you a new heart. That's what the scripture says.
And if he gives you a new heart, now the heart is the mind, the
affections, the will, the conscience, the inner person. And what he
does when he gives you that new heart, he makes you willing to
receive Christ, to believe in Christ, to submit to Christ.
God's way of salvation by his grace in Christ his blood alone
For the forgiveness of all my sins his righteousness alone.
That's the righteousness of God That's the entire merit of his
obedience unto death as my surety my substitute my Redeemer my
keeper my intercessor all of that well He says, to them gave
he the right to be called the children of God, who were born
not of blood, not of works, not of their own will, but of God. Born of God. And that's what
we pray for as we preach the gospel. And so he says, this
is the gospel that I preached to you, which you've received.
and wherein you stand. So he preached it, you received
it, and you stand. In other words, you're firmly
ensconced in this truth and you cannot be moved away from it.
Now that's by the grace of God. Because if you can be moved away
from it, you never received it, savingly. There's a lot of people
who have a profession of it and they're moved away from it, they
never knew it, the scripture says. So let me, this is the
gospel, so let me begin by asking this question. Number one, what
really, when you come down to the bare minimum, or the bare
maximum, let's say it that way, of what we are here for, what
really separates true believers from the world? When it's all
over but the shout. Now we know, the Bible teaches
us, that true believers, children of God, true children of God,
who believe this gospel, that they are separate from the world,
okay? That's called sanctification,
separated. That's what sanctify means. That's
what holy means, the word holy. You know, most people, when they
hear the word holy, they think about somebody who's morally
good. their eyes. But that's not really what it
means. It means that you're separated, you're distinguished, separated
out apart from others, the world. God is holy. Now you know what
that means? That means there's nobody like
God. He's the one and there's nobody
like God. He is so holy. Now is God morally
good? Well God is the standard of moral
goodness. He is perfect and pure. But sanctify the Lord God in
your heart. Set him apart. In other words,
don't compare anyone or anything to God. Don't do it. Because there's nothing like
God. That's why in the old covenant
they were forbidden to make graven images. Things like that. and sanctify the Lord God in
your heart. Nobody like God. All right, so
what separates true believers? Well, a lot of people have a
lot of different ideas. There's no doubt that we are
to be separate, be ye separate, the scripture says, be ye holy.
The Bible talks about that we are to be a peaceful people,
promoting peace and holiness. without which no man will see
the Lord. That's Hebrews 12, 14. That means we're to be at
peace with everybody, but not at the expense of the one thing
that separates us. And that's whatever that is.
Well, some people say, well, it's our common morality or something
like that. You know, I used to be taught
growing up that as a teenager, especially a teenager, because
there's so much temptation out there, Like if you were to go
to a party and everybody's drinking and cutting up and drunk and
acting crazy and all that, don't you do it. You be separate from
that. And you should be. But that's
not what separates true believers from the world because even false
religion can promote that in a person. It can do it. So what I'm asking is what really
separates us? Second. Second. Now, well, first a statement
and then another question. Here's the statement. Our gospel
separates us from the world. You understand? Our gospel. Our
gospel is unique. And it separates us from even
false Christianity. Certainly it separates us from
the false religions of the world, but even false Christianity,
our gospel separates us. Now, let me ask you this question,
what's different about our gospel? What's different about it? We'll
look back at 1 Corinthians 15, moreover brethren, verse one,
I declare unto you the gospel, you know the word gospel means
good news, which I preached unto you, this
is the preaching of the gospel, which also you receive by the
power of God the Holy Spirit, that's what happens, you receive
it, you believe it, you embrace it, you submit to it, and wherein
you stand, by the same power you persevere, continue, firmly
ensconced in it, stand fast, Paul wrote in Galatians 5.1,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and don't be
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. False gospels are
bondage. The true gospel is liberty. Not
liberty to sin, but liberty to serve. Serve God in a proper
way. And then he goes on, he says
in verse two, by which also you are saved. The gospel in the
power of the Holy Spirit is a message which brings sinners to salvation. Now that's why I read Romans
1, 16 and 17. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. So how do you know that people
sitting under the gospel and hearing it, how do you know that
they are saved? Well, it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone which believeth. Believe. Now there's the gift
of faith, which God gives his people, whereby he brings them
to see and to know and to love and to believe and submit to
Christ as the Lord our righteousness, the only way of salvation. You
know, somebody who claims to believe the gospel, who says
there's more than one way to God, they don't believe the true
gospel. That's not unique. That's not
separate. Most people believe that. Just
like the former Pope, you remember what he said? He said, all religions
lead to God. No, there's only one religion
that leads to God. All other religions lead to a
false God. And the one religion that leads
to God is the religion of God's grace, of salvation by his grace,
through the blood and the righteousness of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is none other than God manifest in the flesh. and who by himself
as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people, settled
the matter on the cross to ensure their complete salvation under
glory. And it was a successful death.
It wasn't an attempt, but it was a success. He shall see of
his seed the travail of his soul. So he said, I preached it unto
you, by which you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you. That is, if you don't leave it.
That's what he's talking about there. Keep it in our memory.
That's what God does for his people in preserving us. He keeps
us focused on Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And when we get our minds off
of that, What does God do by the power of the Spirit and the
Word? He brings us back. He keeps us coming back. He won't
let us go. I heard an old preacher say one
time, we're on God's leash. I like that. I think some people
get offended by that. You call us dogs? Well, you remember
the old woman who was getting the crumbs off the floor? She
said, a dead dog like me. If he saves dogs, I'm glad to
be one of them. You know, he saved sinners. He
came to seek and to save that which was lost. Sinners of whom
I'm chief Paul said. So if you keep in memory that
which I preached on you, unless you believed in vain. If you
can forget it and leave it, then it has no effect upon you. There's
no power of God there. And that's up to the Lord. But
now here's what I want to get to. Look at verse three. For
I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received."
Paul's saying, I'm preaching unto you that which I've received
by the power of God and His glory. He says, that which I've received,
how that Christ died. All right, you see that? The death of Christ. And then
verse four says, how that he was buried and that he arose
again the third day. Now is that all that it says?
No. What did I leave out? Probably the most important phrase
of all. Look at it again. Verse three,
for I delivered unto you first of all that which I received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now he died, but there's a particular,
there are particular truths about his death that the scriptures
teach us about how he died, who died, how he died, why he died. In other words, I'll never forget
this. This was years ago. I was preaching
on this passage, I think. And I was telling them what the
gospel is. And a lady who came to visit,
she told me going out the door, she said, I thought the gospel
was just the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and that's
it. Well, those are historical facts. Christ did die. He was buried. In other words,
his death was no hoax. You all remember years ago that
movie that came out called, I can't think of what it's called now,
but some of you may remember this, but they made it like that
his death was fake and that his disciples staged it as a hoax.
But that's not true. did die. He is this Christ who
is God manifest in the flesh. He died on that cross. He gave
up the ghost, the scripture says, and he was buried in the tomb
and that he arose again the third day. Now look at it again according
to the script. It's not just a historical fact
that he died, which he did. It's not just a historical fact
that he was buried and arose again the third day, but that
he did it according to the scriptures. What do the scriptures say about
his death? What do the scriptures say about
his resurrection on the third day? What does that mean? And
that's the key. So a person can say, well, I
believe that he died and he was buried and he rose again, but
what does that mean? Where's the good news in that?
Most people believe, well, that means there's a possibility that
we could all do it. That's not what the scriptures
teach. Now, what does the scripture
teach? It teaches that there's the certainty
of the salvation of all for whom he died and was buried and rose
again. But let's look at it. He arose again the third day
according to the scripture. Here's the third question. What
separates our gospel from all others? What's unique about it?
Let me give you several things I got a lot of scripture, but
I'm not gonna be able to go into all of them, and I know you're
not gonna be able to turn to all of them. But that's what
we're talking about. We're talking about the gospel
I preach and believe according to the scriptures. What does
the word of God? Well, one of the things that
God reveals in the scriptures about our gospel is that it is
an eternal message. an eternal message. And with
that in mind, I'll read to you 2 Timothy chapter one. And if
you don't want to turn there, just write it down. But listen
to what the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse
eight. Now he's writing this to a young
man, a young evangelist named Timothy, whom Paul was instructing. Timothy at this time was at the
church at Ephesus and he was helping them. And here's what
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 and verse eight. He said, be
not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner, which Paul was in prison at this time, for
preaching the gospel, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. And verse nine
he says, who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling,
a separate calling, a unique calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, listen, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. How is that possible? Well, that's
what the gospel teaches us, that before this world was ever created,
God chose a people and gave them to Christ in an everlasting covenant,
the covenant of grace. The gospel is the preaching of
the terms of this covenant, which is this, salvation conditioned
not on you, not on me, but on Christ. And who is Jesus Christ? He's God, the Son, the second
person of the Trinity, manifest in the flesh, God-man. Now all
other false gospels tell you that salvation is conditioned
on you. So what separates our gospel?
It's not conditioned on you. It's not conditioned on your
heritage. It's not conditioned on your
works. It's not even conditioned on your will. Well, what are you saying, preacher?
Does God bring us against our will? No, God changes our will. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. And what is the day of his power?
It's when he brings you under the preaching of the gospel like
you are right now, and he gives you a desire for it, a will to
hear it. I wanna hear more. I wanna feed
upon this. He makes this your life. And
he brings you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and causes
you to turn away from every other way. Every other way is false. That's the uniqueness of this
gospel, this eternal message, salvation given to us in Christ
Jesus. before the world began. And he
goes on in verse 10 of 2 Timothy 1, he said, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel. I'm teaching you, preaching to
you life by Jesus Christ as he's identified and distinguished
in the gospel according to the scriptures. What do the scriptures
say about Jesus Christ? Who is he? As I said, he's God,
manifest in the flesh. That's what he had to be to save
us from our sins. What did he accomplish when he
died? Christ was made the surety of
his people before the world began. That means the sins, the sin
debt of all his people given him by the Father before the
world began was laid upon him, imputed to him, charged to him,
accounted to him. And before the world began, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit covenanted, chose a people
to save and make Christ to be their surety. So it's an eternal
message. And it's never changed. It's
always one gospel. It was the same in Genesis 1,
and it's the same in Revelation 22. It's the same today. Anybody who has ever been saved
was saved under the preaching of this gospel. This good news
of God's free and sovereign grace and mercy, all conditioned on
Christ, who by himself for his people fulfilled all those conditions
in his obedience unto death. Summarized in this phrase, the
righteousness of God. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. In other words, you're not saved
by making yourself righteous. Because the gospel takes in mind
that among men and women born into this world, fallen in Adam,
there's none righteous, no, not one. And the gospel makes it
plain that you cannot be made righteous by your works or by
any decision you make. The only way you can be made
righteous is if God in his sovereign power declares you to be so in
Christ. And if he does that, what does
he do? At some point in time, he'll
bring you under the preaching of this unique message, the gospel
of your salvation, and show you the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. Look at verse four, or verse
five. Now this is important. There
were historical witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. Look
at it. That Christ was seen of Cephas, that's Peter, that's
a Greek name for Peter, then of the 12, all of them together.
Verse six, after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at
once, of whom the greater part remain under this present, but
some are fallen asleep. Some of them are still here,
Paul said, some of them have died and gone to be with the
Lord. Verse seven, after that he was seen of James, then of
all the apostles. And verse eight, at last of all,
he was seen of me, One born out of due time now when did Paul
say on the road to Damascus? when Christ revealed himself
to Paul Saul of Tarsus on his way to arrest Christians As my
old preachers say Paul Saul of Tarsus when he was on his way
to Damascus He wasn't seeking the Lord or going to a prayer
meeting He was going there to arrest Christians and Christ
appeared to him the resurrected Christ appeared to Paul and revealed
himself to Paul and Then verse 9 he says for I am the least
of the apostles and them not that am not meet to be called
an apostle Because I persecuted the Church of God in other words
Paul saying that this salvation that I've experienced and this
calling that I have I didn't earn it and didn't deserve it
and I'm not worthy of it. It's totally by God's free and
sovereign grace. That's what's unique about our
gospel. Salvation is not given to them
who make the difference. It's given by Christ who made
all the difference. So he says, I persecuted the
church of God. Verse 10, but by the grace of
God I am what I am. Are you a sinner saved? You're
saved by grace. Are you a believer? It's by grace. Have you been brought to repentance
of dead works and idolatry? It's by grace. Now grace reigns
how? Through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. If you're saved today, it's because
God revealed himself to you. And it was his prerogative. That's
right. In that passage in Romans 117
where it says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. That from faith is the gospel,
the knowledge, the truth revealed. To faith is that knowledge, the
truth, the gospel received. God revealed it, I received it. The invincible work of the Holy
Spirit, I preached on that last week. So he says, by the grace
of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon
me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all,
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. I'm saved
by grace, I'm kept by grace, I'll be brought to glory by grace.
And it's all based on one thing. the work of Christ, his obedience
unto death. He died, was buried, and arose
again. He brought forth the righteousness
of God. In verse 11, he says, therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach, so you believe. That's the gospel. And this message
of sovereign grace, all conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled those
conditions, The gospel that we preach and believe does not tell
sinners that Christ tried to save people, but only if they
would have let him or allow him to do so. No. The gospel we preach
and believe tells people that he saved his people from their
sins. That's his name, Jesus. He saved
them. he'll have them. God's not willing
that any of them should perish but they should all come to repentance
and God's going to bring them so. It's a successful work. He said, I'm the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep and it's a
successful work. The death and resurrection, the
righteousness of God, it's a propitiation What does that mean? That means
he satisfied law and justice on behalf of his people. Their
sins were imputed to him, charged to him, and he died for those
sins. He drank damnation dry. He took
all the punishment unto death that his people deserved and
earned. So who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. yea rather is risen again, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. It takes into consideration, as I said, the total depravity
of all of us by nature, realizing that if left to ourselves, none
of us would believe in him. None of us would receive from
him. Christ told the Pharisees who did not believe, He said
in John 10, 26, he says, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. Who are his sheep? Those for
whom he died. He said, I know them and they follow me. And
he said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one. verse that I love so much, John
6, 37. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast down. This is our gospel. This is the
gospel that I preach. It's the gospel that I believe.
I grew up under another gospel. I did. It was a gospel that taught
that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, now the rest
is up to you. That's not what the Bible teaches
in the gospel. The Bible teaches that the love
of God will attain its goal in the salvation of all its objects
by his grace through Christ. Now the question you need to
ask, does God love me? Did God choose me? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you shall be saved. There's
no contradiction there. Repent or perish. There's no
contradiction there. Because if you do, who gets the
glory? Who do you owe it to? Yourself?
No, to God. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. And then one other
thing, and I'll just state this, our gospel inspires obedience,
but it's an obedience motivated by love and grace and gratitude,
not by law, not by legalism, not by mercenary promise of earned
reward, but by love. Faith which worketh by love. That's our gospel. That's what
we believe and what we preach. And by the grace of God, that's
what will continue. to believe and preach as long
as the Lord gives us breath and opportunity to preach it. All
right.