Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
broadcast this morning. I'm glad you could join us. And
if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles as I preach this
message, I'll be preaching from the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul's
first letter, the Apostle Paul's first letter to the church at
Corinth, 1 Corinthians. And I'll be preaching from chapter
15, the first few verses of this chapter. And the title of the
message is the phrase, According to the Scriptures. according
to the scriptures. This is a phrase that Paul mentions
twice here, once in verse three and once in verse four. And what
he's talking about is the gospel and how he preached and how these
Corinthians claimed to believe the gospel, but not just any
gospel. What Paul preached, And what
they claim to believe was the gospel as defined according to
the scriptures. And the scriptures refers to
the Bible. The scriptures that they had
at this time, which would be a lot of the Old Testament. And Paul says this is how we
define the gospel. It's like I said, it's not just
any gospel. You know there are many different
gospels. The apostle Paul mentioned, for
example, in Galatians chapter one, he said, if we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel than that which we've
preached unto you, let him be anathema. You know, people come
along and they claim they preach the gospel. Well, how do you
know they're preaching the gospel that is defined and distinguished
in the scriptures, because there are false gospels. He told the
Corinthians in the second book, the second Corinthians in chapter
11, he said, if they come to you preaching another Jesus,
by another spirit, another gospel, then he said, you don't have
anything to do with them. And that's, if they speak not
according to this word, Isaiah the prophet said, It's because
there's no light in them. So when somebody says we're preaching
the gospel, well, are they really? You've got to test the preachers.
Now, how do you test them? By their sincerity? No. By their
manner? Somebody says, well, he's such
a nice person. I've heard that so many times.
Well, there's a lot of nice people on this earth. But there are
a lot of nice people who don't believe the gospel. and don't
preach the gospel. Now the word gospel means good
news and the gospel is not good news. The true gospel is not
good news to everyone because it crosses their natural way
of thinking. That's why the Bible says the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
The gospel is the light or the truth of Jesus Christ crucified
and risen from the dead, those historical facts, but it means
more than that. And the Apostle John wrote in
John chapter three and verse 19 that this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, that gospel, that's Christ,
the light of Christ, His person, His glorious person and His finished
work to redeem His people from their sins by His death, burial
and resurrection. And He says that light is coming
to the world and men loved darkness and hated the light. Why? Because
their deeds were evil. And what He's talking about there
is that people who are trying to be saved by their deeds, their
works, by being good people, being nice people. Should we
be nice people? Yes. We all should be nice and
kind and loving and generous and moral. But the gospel tells
us, the true gospel tells us, that's not going to save us.
Because salvation is not by works. It's by grace. So the gospel
is the good news of salvation for sinners, those who realize
their state of sin and death and who realize that they have
nothing to recommend them unto God. In other words, if God were
to judge me or if he were to deal with me on the basis of
my works, I'd be damned forever. And my best efforts to try to
be saved by my works are evil in the sight of God. Their deeds
were evil. Remember in John 3, 19 and 20.
Why are they evil? Because they're immoral and insincere?
No. They're evil because they do
not measure up to the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. and applied to
sinners by His grace, His righteousness imputed. And anything less than
that denies the glory of God. Anything less than that calls
God a liar. That's why it's evil. Well, look
at 1 Corinthians 15. Now, Paul had already dealt with
many issues in the church at Corinth. They had a lot of problems,
as we all do. But some had left the gospel.
And Paul writes here in 1 Corinthians 15 one, he says, moreover brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel, the good news, which I preached
unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. This is how by the grace of God,
true believers stand with the gospel. And he says in verse
two, by which also you are saved. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth, Romans 116, if or
since you keep or hold fast in memory what I preached unto you,
unless you have believed in vain. Now, is there a believing in
vain? Is that talking about people who were saved and then they
quit? They don't stand fast, they don't
keep in memory the gospel, and now they're lost? No. First of
all, when he says, if you keep in memory, again, it could be
translated since you keep in memory. In other words, since
you persevere, which proves you're preserved by the grace of God.
But there, it's not a conditional if. This is not something, well,
you'll be saved if you do this. It's an evidential if. Keeping in memory, persevering
in the faith, continuing to believe the gospel is an evidence of
salvation and preservation by the grace of God. And I've said
it on this program before, and you do well to keep this in mind.
If you are truly saved by the grace of God, brought to Christ
through the Holy Spirit's power in the preaching of the true
gospel according to the scriptures, if the Holy Spirit has given
you a new heart, you've been born again, by the Spirit, evidenced
by believing in Christ as he's distinguished and identified
in the Gospel according to the Scriptures again, not just any
Gospel. There are false Jesuses, false
Gospels, false spirits. If you truly believe it, if you've
been born again, you cannot deny it, you cannot ignore it, and
you cannot leave it. You'll never leave it if you're
truly saved. Now, if you leave it, you've never been truly saved.
That's what the Bible teaches. I've pointed this out a number
of times on this program, and I always go to 1 John 2, 19.
You could go to other passages, but 1 John 2, 19 says they went
out, the spirit of antichrist is here, they went out from us,
but they were not of us. Had they been of us, they would
have remained with us, but they went out from us that it might
be made manifest that they were not of us. So anyone who claims
to believe the truth, if you claim to believe the gospel but
it's a false gospel, that's evidence you've never been saved. you've
never been born again. But if you claim and give mental
agreement and claim and profess to believe the true gospel and
then later on forsake it, deny it, apostatize from it, fall
away from it, you never believed it to begin with. You just had
a mental impression on your mind. Well, Paul says, In verse three,
he says, 1 Corinthians verse three, for I delivered unto you
first of all that which also I received. Now Paul's saying
here that this gospel that I preach to you did not originate with
me. When I was in seminary, and I
was an unbeliever when I was in seminary, we used to talk
about Pauline theology, the theology of Paul, Johannine theology,
the theology of John. Petrine theology, the theology
of Peter. Well, my friend, these men were
apostles of Christ. They looked to Christ. They rested
in Christ. They pled his righteousness,
his blood alone for their whole salvation. They didn't have different
theologies. And Paul said, I received this
from God. In Romans 1, he called it the gospel of God. In Galatians
1, he said, the gospel that I preached to you, I didn't receive it from
man, I received it from God. Now God may use a man to preach
it to me, but it didn't originate with the man. The man's just
the voice, as John the Baptist said, the voice crying in the
wilderness. We are ambassadors for Christ. If we preach the true gospel,
we are ambassadors for Christ. We're preaching the authority
and the power, not of ourselves, but Christ. Too many men who
claim to be preaching the gospel, the ministry's all about them
and not about Christ. John the Baptist said, I must
decrease, Christ must increase. And that's what I want you to
do when you hear this program or watch this program. I want
you to look to Christ. Don't look to me. I'm just a
voice. I'm just a signpost pointing
you to Christ. And so he says, first of all,
that which I also received, and listen, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. And then verse four,
that he was buried and that he arose again the third day according
to the scriptures. Now, the facts, the historical
facts of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ
are essential to the Gospel message. The Gospel message that preaches
who Jesus Christ is. Who is He? He's the Son of God
incarnate. He's God. The second person of
the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal in
every attribute of His nature to the Father and the Spirit,
He's God. And He's God who became manifest,
incarnate, in human flesh. The Word made flesh and dwelt
among us. He's God, his name shall be called
Jesus, Matthew 1.21. For he shall save his people
from their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted God with us, Matthew 1.23. And the historicity,
as they say, the historic fact that there was a man named Jesus
of Nazareth, who was born of a virgin, Conceived in her womb
by the Holy Spirit without the aid of man born of that virgin
Mary and All the that the Bible says laid in that manger taken
to Egypt and come back to live to Galilee and Nazareth and that
area, grew up in wisdom and stature, and then came on the scene, was
baptized by John the Baptist, walked the earth in complete,
strict, perfect obedience to the law. These are all historical
facts. And one of the things that Paul
is really relating here in 1 Corinthians 15 is that Christ died, he actually
died on the cross of Calvary on Golgotha's Hill, the place
of the skull. And he was tortured and he was
tried and falsely accused, tortured, put on that cross, he died. And
after he died, he was buried. His death was no fake. Years
ago, they came across with this idea that it was a hoax, that
he didn't really die. And therefore, when he appeared
later, it wasn't a resurrection from the dead, but it was just
a hoax. It was no hoax. And Paul talks about that there. He says that in verse five, he
was seen of Cephas, that's Peter, then of the 12, seen of above
500 brethren at once. Later on, Christ walked this
earth after his death. So he died, he was actually buried,
he actually died and was buried, and he arose again the third
day. The death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. These are historic facts of the
gospel And you cannot preach the gospel without preaching
these historical facts of this person, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, who came to this earth, who lived, who
died, was buried, and rose again the third day. And you cannot
believe the gospel without believing these historical facts. But here's
what I want you to see. If all you believe is the historical
facts of what I just said about the life and death and the burial
and the resurrection of Christ, you haven't believed the gospel.
The devil, listen to me, the devil and his angels, his fallen
angels, they know that there was an actual person who came
to this earth that his name was Jesus of Nazareth, that he walked
this earth. The devil tempted him on the
Mount of Temptation. And the devil and all of his
fallen angels, they know that Christ lived, that Christ died,
that Christ was buried, and that he arose again. They know that,
but they don't believe the gospel. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. He says, Verse three again, look at it. I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now who is Jesus
Christ? God, manifest in the flesh. He had to be both God and man. Why did he have to be both God
and man? Because before the foundation of the world, God chose a people
to save and gave them to Christ. He put all of the responsibility
of their entire salvation and eternal well-being on the shoulders
of His Son, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son.
That's called the covenant of grace. And Christ willingly,
voluntarily agreed to do everything necessary meet every requirement,
fulfill every law, fulfill every stipulation that it took to ensure
their salvation completely. And what did it take? Well, look
at it. He says, now this is the details
of the gospel. He said how that Christ died,
not just that he died, yes, he died, but he didn't die as a
martyr. He was a martyr. But that's not
really what his death was all about. He didn't die just as
an example. Certainly he was an example.
If we're believers, we're to emulate him, we're to follow
him, we're to seek to be conformed to his image. But that's not
why he came and died. Why did he die? He died, look
at it, for our sins. That's why he died. And who's
the our there? Whose sins did he die for? His
sheep, his people, the ones whom God gave to him. They are the
ones who will come to faith in Christ. Do you believe in Christ?
Do you believe in the Christ of the Bible? The one who's described
and identified and distinguished in this book according to the
scriptures? Because if you do, you can know that he died for
your sins. I can't look at everybody out in the TV audiences and in
the audiences I preach to and say, God loves you and Christ
died for you. I can't do that because the Bible doesn't say
that. I can tell those who believe
the gospel, according to the scriptures, God loves you, Christ
died for you. Now, could I be wrong in that?
Yes, but that's no matter. That's not an issue here. The
issue here is how that Christ died. Why did he die? For our
sins. Now that means that he died as
the representative of a people. He represented a people. The
people whom God gave to him. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He died for his sheep. John 10,
11, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. That's
what he said. His church. He purchased His
church. What is the church? Those whom
God chose. Those who are justified before
God based upon Christ's righteousness, imputed, charged, accounted to
Him. Those whose sins are forgiven based on the blood of Christ.
Those whom He redeemed. Those who the Holy Spirit calls
out by the preaching of the gospel in the new birth and gives them
a new heart and brings them to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. That's who the church is. That's
who he died for. He died representing the people.
He died as a surety. That means all of the sins of
all of God's people, all of Christ's church, all of God's elect, were
imputed, charged, accounted, reckoned to Christ. He took their
sin debt upon himself. He became responsible for their
sins. Legally responsible. It was a
sin debt, and He said, I'll pay it. And then He was our substitute. He took the place of His people.
In order to pay that debt, He had to die. That's the penalty.
Jesus Christ came to die on the cross to pay the penalty of the
sins of His people. And he paid it. He died for their
sins. That means he satisfied the justice
of God. He's the substitute. He's the
redeemer of his people. He paid the ransom, the scripture
said. And he secured their salvation.
And it was all according to the scriptures. And to prove that
he really did die, he was buried. And then he arose again the third
day according to the scriptures, his resurrection. Sin demands
death. Righteousness demands life. When sin being imputed to Christ,
the sins of his sheep demanded that he die on that cross. He
had to suffer, bleed, and die to pay the penalty. And because
he paid the penalty in full, because of who he is, God, manifest
in the flesh, he was able to do this. And because he paid
that penalty in full and established everlasting righteousness for
his people, they must be saved, they must be given life, they
must live eternally in the bliss of communion and fellowship with
God. Not one person, for whom Christ
died can perish. And if you perish, that means
he didn't die for you. You say, well, then it doesn't
matter what I do. I don't have to believe or anything
if he didn't die. No, you're not God. That's God's business.
You're to do what God commands. Deuteronomy 29, 29 says the secret
things belong unto God. The revealed things belong to
you. You're responsible for what you hear in the gospel. The gospel
is a command. Look at Romans chapter one, over
in verse 16. I quote this verse all the time.
But it says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Paul
writes, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. You're commanded to believe the
gospel. Now the natural man, which is
all of us by nature in our natural state, born in the flesh, born
spiritually dead in trespasses, trespasses and sins, having fallen
in Adam, were born spiritually dead. The natural man will not
receive the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. These things are spiritually
understood. And that's what the Bible says.
We will not come to God of our own will. We have to be given
a new will. But still, that doesn't deny
the fact that the gospel is the power of God and the salvation.
to everyone that believeth. Do you believe it? Do you wanna
believe it? Well, he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out. Somebody told me one time, said,
well, it doesn't matter if I come to him or not if I'm not elect.
No, he has never, listen, God has never turned away any sinner
who comes to him seeking salvation His way, not your way, not my
way, but His way, the gospel way. And the gospel way is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It says to the Jew first and
also to the Greek or the Gentile, look at verse 17, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just or the justified, sinners saved by grace, the elect
of God. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his sheep shall live by faith, by looking to resting
in him for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all righteousness.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the
righteousness of God? Well, that's what he accomplished
in his death, in his barren resurrection. The righteousness of God is the
entire merit, value, and worth of the obedience unto death of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer
and intercessor of his people. It's his merits. Worthy is the
lamb that was slain. You see, salvation is not about
my worthiness. It's about my unworthiness. Salvation
is about Christ worthiness. It's not about me working a righteousness. It's not about me having a righteousness
within. It's about Christ working out
all the righteousness that God requires of me on that cross
as my surety, substitute, and redeemer. The Bible says for
Christ, Romans 10, four, for Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. That's why he
died. That's why he was buried. That's
why he arose again, according to the scriptures. And we're
to believe unto righteousness by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe the gospel, how that
Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture, how that he
was buried and how that he rose again the third day. according
to the Scriptures. Listen to the Bible. Read the
Bible. That's the key. For therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. Therein is Christ revealed as
the Savior of His people. There's no other way. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And how do I know that he established
righteousness by his death? He arose again the third day.
For as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the gospel is the revelation
of that. If you preach the gospel according
to the scriptures, that's the case. Hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive. Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact
us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.