What made you think I wouldn't
read my text? Fellers, it's not worth your
weight in mud to get up and preach a message and not read your text,
is it? It's such a joy. And I am going
to read my text. Before I say anything, I'm going
to read my text. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, It's good to see you. Good to
be back with you. May the Lord bless His Word.
1 Corinthians 15. Let's read the first eight verses. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. that he was
seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he
was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all
he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. Paul is ready to end this epistle,
and he's going to end it like he began it, saying something
about the gospel. Paul was a man who loved the
gospel. Every time he began to speak of anything, he always
made his way quickly to the gospel. His heart, his lips, his pen
was full of the gospel. He began this epistle, you remember,
by saying that Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. To them that are perishing, he
said, the gospel is foolishness. But to you that have been called
by it, and you who are saved by it, it's the power of God,
and it's the wisdom of God. That's how he began this epistle,
and here he's ready to close this epistle, and he says, I
remind you again what I preached. I preach to you the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His grace, and He comes here to what I call
the essential aspect of the gospel. This is not all the gospel, but
it's the essential aspect of it. Election is the gospel, is
it not? Calling is the gospel. Perseverance
of the saints, and I learned how to say that, is the gospel. Many things is incorporated in
the term gospel. But this is what I call the essential
aspect of the gospel. That Jesus Christ died for our
sins, He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. That's what Paul said was the
gospel. That's what the Apostle Paul gloried in. And he said,
I declare it again unto you. I want to make it as plain. I
want to preach it to you again just before I close this epistle. The word gospel means good news. It means glad tidings. I bring
you good tidings of great joy. One dear old translator, Brother
Tyndale, said, The gospel is called good news because it takes
the damnable sinner who believes it and fills his heart with joy
and peace and makes it sing and skip and leap for joy. That's
what the gospel does. Back in the prayer room, Brother
Rich gave us an excellent definition of the gospel, what it does to
those who believe it. And this is what it is. This
is why the gospel makes the heart skip and why it makes the heart
sing and leap for joy. The Lord Jesus said, my father
sent me to preach good tidings to the meek. He sent me to bind
up the broken hearted. Now, what would it mean for you,
dear soul, who have a broken heart, to have the Lord Jesus,
the great physician, to bind it up? Wouldn't that make your
heart skip? Wouldn't that make it leap for
joy? To proclaim liberty to those who are in prison, the captives,
the opening of the prison to those that are bound, to appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, that they might be called the trees of
righteousness, the planting The planning of the Lord. It brings
joy. It brings gladness and happiness
to the heart. I tell you, this is a sorry world.
It's a sorry world. Sin has ruined it. It's brought
heartache and sorrow and disappointments on every hand. Brother Scott
Richardson used to say, a Christian is a man who either is going
into trouble, He's in the middle of trouble
or He's coming out of trouble. Man that's born to a woman is
a few days and full of trouble. And I found that so in my experience
and I bet you have too. And the Father in Heaven knows
this. God knows what kind of life this is since sin has entered. So what does He do? Well, He
sends His preachers. He calls upon His church to say
this, O Zion that brings good tidings, lift up your voice. Get up into the high mountain.
Oh, Zion! Oh, Jerusalem! You got a good
message. Get up into the mountain and
say to the cities of Jerusalem, Behold your God. Don't be ashamed. Don't be afraid. Lift up your
voice. Let people hear these glad tidings. Behold your God. You say, Bruce,
I don't want to behold God. Look at Him up there on that
mountain with the fire and angels running to and fro and the trumpet
sounding and the mountain is shaking. Not that mountain. Not
that God. Behold your God incarnate. Behold the Lamb of God upon Calvary's
tree, dying to make atonement for our sins. Behold Him that
taketh away the sins of the world. That's good news. It'll make
your heart skip. How beautiful upon the mountains
of them that bring good tidings of good things. That publishes
peace. That Jesus Christ has made peace
by the blood of His cross. that He's made peace with God.
He gives us His peace. Lift up your voice. Publish peace
that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Poor old Zion, just look at you.
You've had a tough day, ain't you? And I'll tell you something
that will cheer you up. This will cheer you up. Say unto
Zion, Thy God reigneth. Don't that cheer you up? He reigns
in creation. He upholds all things that He's
made. He reigns in providence. It's His Son that raises upon
us every morning. He sends the small water. He
sends us the seasons. He clothes you. He feeds you.
Our God incarnate reigns in providence. And He reigns in salvation. Isn't
that good news? Poor Zion needs to hear that,
don't she? She needs to hear that. I declare unto you the
gospel that Jesus Christ died for our sins. What good news?
Fills our hearts with joy. It's healing for the broken hearted.
Release for those who are bound and in captivity. The gospel,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. And
notice what he says about it. In the last portion of verse
1, which you have received. I preached you the gospel, the
gospel of the grace of God in Christ, and you have received
it. Now this is why the gospel is
good news. Because it doesn't come to us
and demand a thousand and one-fifth of us. The gospel comes to us and says, here's food, receive
it. Here's water. Receive it. The gospel doesn't come and demand
you to get your act together and get your life all straightened
out and do a hundred and one more things. No, the gospel comes
to us and says, here's food, hungry soul. Eat and live. Here's water, thirsty one. Stoop
down and drink. And we satisfy our hunger and
we quench our thirst by this gospel. The gospel comes to us and it
says, all things are ready. Come and die. All things are
now ready. Come. That's the gospel. I spent
several years, all through my teenage years, and I tell everybody
this, but it's so. I spent all through my teenage
years up into my early twenties trying to save myself. I was
burdened with that all my young lifetime, trying some way to
commend myself to God. And my whole problem was this.
I did not understand the gospel. I did not understand. The gospel
wasn't commanding me to do things. The gospel has this wonderful
message. It's done. It's finished. We can't hardly lay hold upon
that. We're people who always want to go about doing something.
That's the way lost people are. When you think about needing
to be saved, well, I need to do this or I need to do that.
No, it's done. It's done. It's finished. Some of you dear people, I've
been in some of your houses. And I know you, know how you
are on your jobs. And you're smart. I'm amazed
that you're my friends. I've been in your homes, and
boy, you've got beautiful homes, and some of it, some of them,
you guys did this yourself. Every time I put my hand to anything,
I mess it up, and that's the truth. I've got all kinds of
projects, and my wife will bear witness to this, that I've started
and have never finished. I just can't hardly finish anything.
I love that word, it's finished. especially when somebody else
says it. It's finished. He just makes my heart leap for
joy. It's done. It's accomplished. And that's
what the Lord Jesus said there upon the cross. He looked out
over His crowd, and there sat His mother, and some of His disciples,
and all of those women, and He looked down at them, and He thought
within His heart, have I done everything that God's commanded
to be done? Have I answered every charge?
Have I made the payment that was required for their sins?
And He looked down here in 2009 upon you. He said, what about
Clare? The charges against him. The
debt that he owed. Have I paid it all? Have I finished
it? And He thinks about it. He's
serious. This is upon His heart. This
is a work that must be accomplished or His mother and His brethren
and you and I will be lost. And Jesus Christ will abide alone
for all eternity. Happy, but alone. So He's serious
about this. Though He hangs upon the cross
in His agony and in His shame and His suffering. And just before
He lifts up His voice, He says, Yes, it's finished. It's finished. He doesn't come to us and say,
you're going to have to grind your own meal and make your own
bread. No, I am the bread of life. Eat of me and live forever. He
doesn't ask us to go dig our own wells and put a pump in it
and draw the water. No, just stoop down and live. Drink and live, you thirsty one.
He's not asking you to do anything. Just receive Him. in all His
fullness, all His grace. Ain't that it? The gospel is
good news because it doesn't come to us and demand these things
of us, but it comes to us as light in our darkness. It comes
to us as food in our hunger, clothing in our utter nakedness,
blood, a fountain that's open in our shame and filth. And it
does everything for us that God requires and that we need. And
what do we do? We just receive it all into our
hearts. Just as we sit here this evening
doing nothing, just receiving Christ in His fullness. You can't
add anything to fullness, can you? We beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace. full of grace and truth and of
that fullness. This glass isn't full, is it?
No, it's not full. I could take some water and pour
some more in there. But if it was full, I couldn't put one
more drop in there. Jesus Christ in His fullness
has did everything that God required. All we do is receive. Receive. Ain't that good news? Don't that
just make your heart skip and leap? It's done. It's done. And look at this. Not only that
you've received this gospel, but he said, here wherein you
stand. You have received it and wherein
you stand. You stand. I tell you, brothers
and sisters, I want to stand. I want to stand. I want to stand
before this world and have an answer if they ask me a reason
of my hope. I want to be able to give it.
I want to stand in the face of opposition and give a reason
for my hope. I do want to stand. Well, here's
the place to stand. When trials come and troubles
come and temptations come and disappointments come, I want
to stand. I don't want to fall I don't
want to fall away. I want to stand. But I tell you,
there's one place that I want to stand, and you want to stand,
and we must stand, and we are, and that's before God. To stand
there before the eternal God and not have one sin marked to
our charge. If He marks iniquity, who can
stand? Nobody. But Paul said, here's
a way that God has made, a place that we can stand in, even before
God. Stand uncondemned, unjudged,
free and justified in the presence of God. Oh, and it makes your
heart skip for joy. Where is that place? It's the
gospel. You stand in the gospel. And there's coming a time when
the Lord will leave His throne on high and descend from heaven
and speak to the dead. And they'll all get out of the
graves. And we'll all come up there before Him. The earth and
the heavens will flee away. They won't be able to stand.
The wicked won't be able to stand. But you know who will stand in
that great day? Those who stand in the gospel.
Those who stand here where Paul said, you've received this gospel
and wherein you stand. Who are you that judgeth another
man's servant? To his own master he stands or
falls. Yea, he shall be holding up.
For God is able to make him stand. And he shall stand. Now, as we
face God, and there on the day of judgment, if we stand in the
gospel, will stand. Did I ever tell you the story
about standing where the fire's already been? I have used that
little story so many times, but I just love it because it makes
such a good point. A fella told me this years and
years ago that he was reading one of the stories about where
some of our forefathers was going west in a wagon train and out
on the plains the grass was high and it had dried and there'd
been a fire broke out ahead of them and it was the wind was
blowing the the smoke and the fire right towards you. And some
of the men burned out a huge area in that grass. And they circled the wagons.
And they got all the wagons and all the people in that burned
out area. And they were sitting there watching the flames come
towards them, the black smoke. And one little boy began to tug
on his daddy Richie's leg and said, Daddy, are we going to
be burned up? And he said, No, son. We're going to be burned
up. In just a few minutes, he tugged on it again and said,
Daddy, are you sure we're not going to be burned up? I'm beginning
to feel some heat and I see the smoke. Daddy, are you sure we're
not going to be burned up? And he said, Son, we're not going
to be burned up. In just a minute, he tugged again
and said, Daddy, how do you know? And he said, Son, we're standing
where the fire has already been. If you're standing where the
fire has already been, the fire can't touch you again. If we're
standing in Jesus Christ, nothing can touch us. The wrath of God
has already been there, consumed Him, and consuming Him consumed
our sin. And you can stand there in the
Gospel. Don't that make your heart skip for joy? Oh my. And look at this, what else the
Apostle says about this? Not only have you You've heard
this and you've received it wherein you stand, but he said, by which
also you are saved. You're saved by the gospel. Now, I was reading Adam Clark.
If you don't have Adam Clark, Dr. Clark, if you study your
commentaries and you don't have Dr. Clark, don't get him because
you don't need him. Because he says, when he says,
by which you are saved, he says, the gospel puts us in a savable
state. And everywhere he goes through
the gospel, when he finds that, he says, here's what the gospel
does, it puts a man in a savable state. Can you imagine that jailer
asking the Apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved? And can
you imagine Paul answering him, well, I can't tell you what you
can do to be saved. I can tell you what you can do
to put yourself in a savable state. Wouldn't that be awful? Some people think, I reckon,
that the gospel puts us in a savable state, and then after a lifetime
of obedience, we're saved. That's not good news. That's
hogwash, ain't it? Hogwash. I heard a man say that
the other day, and I thought, what is hogwash? Some of you folks could tell
me, but you know what I think hogwash is? I was raised on a
farm down south, and my dad used to raise his own hogs and kill
his own hogs. Every fall, we'd kill three or four hogs. Five
or six hundred pound hogs, because they rendered the lard. And I'd
watch my dad and one or two more men, they'd boil a huge kettle
of water. And they'd get it just the right
temperature, and they'd have the hog kill land on his side,
and they'd pour that water over that old hog hair in his hide
and take a big butcher knife and scrape it off. And then they'd
pour some more water on it, and all that old filth and hair,
oh, it was a mess and just smelled awful. That's what I call hog
wash. And if a man comes here and says
the gospel just merely puts you in a savable state, that's hogwash. It stinks. It smells awful. The gospel comes to us right
where it finds us. As it finds us and saves us. It saves us. Brothers and sisters,
that's good news for a lost man. That's good news for a man and
a woman who knows what they are. that they're hell deserving.
And they've sinned whatever claims they had away of heaven. They've sinned them away. They
have no claims. And they know their next step
should be in eternal ruin. And here comes the gospel. And
what does it do? It saves them from sin. From
the guilt of it and the love of it and the power of it. And
it puts a love in their heart for Him who saved them. Oh, you
tell me something can do that for me. And I tell you what,
my heart will skip for joy. Old Scott said, I haven't heard
any bad news since I got the good news. And here's the good
news. The gospel has saved you. It's
not tried to save you. It's not come hoping that it
will save you. Perhaps it'll save you in the
future. No, it come right where it found you. And Paul was writing
to these same group of people and he said, some of you were
fornicators, you were open and profane people. You were liars,
you were drunks, you were idolaters, effeminate abusers of yourself,
you were... And what happened? You were washed,
you were justified, you were sanctified in the name of Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Oh, the gospel is good news
because it just comes right where we are and saves us right where
it finds us and as it finds us. Verse 3, look at this. Here's
the gospel. I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received. how that Christ died for our
sins. Now, here's the Gospel, and what's
the first thing we see about the Gospel? Well, it's something
that's supernatural. It's something that's absolutely
miraculous. You say, Bruce, what do you mean?
Well, Christ died. Christ died. Now, if you don't
believe in miracles, If you say, well, I just can't believe that
God spake everything into existence, well, you won't believe the gospel.
If you reject Moses taking his stick and holding it out over
the Red Sea and it parted, you say, I just can't believe that.
You won't believe the gospel then. If you reject the three
Hebrew children being thrown into the fiery furnace and it
had no effect upon them, you say that's just impossible, you'll
never believe the gospel. The gospel is miraculous. It's
a miracle. And here it is. Christ died. Ain't that miraculous? You say,
Bruce, why is that miraculous? Well, here's why it's miraculous.
Here is eternal life. In His glorious person, in our
humanity, here is life eternal. Ain't that what John said about
it? Here's what John said. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled. John said we saw
Him with our eyes, and we leaned on His breast, we handled Him.
That is the Word of Life. And the life was manifested,
and we've seen it, and bear witness, and we show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father before the world was, and was
manifested in the flesh to us." Who is Jesus Christ? I mean,
when He's in the womb of that virgin, who is He? He's life
eternal. Life eternal. He went about doing
good, healing all that was oppressed. They talked with Him, handled
Him, and He was life eternal. He never ceased to be what He
was before He came upon the cross, burying sins in His utter weakness. Who is that? That's eternal life. What does He do then? He lifts
up His voice and says, it's finished, and gives up the ghost. Eternal
life, giving up the ghost. Ain't that amazing? You say,
Bruce, can you explain that? No, I can't explain that. And
all the things you can do when you hear it is just receive it
into your heart. That's all you can do. Eternal
life, dying for our sins. You say, but that was the man.
That was eternal life. No matter how you look at Him,
He's life eternal. He's the eternal God. He's the
Son of Mary. And in both, He's life eternal. And Paul said He died. Ain't
that amazing? Don't that make your heart skip?
What a mystery. I tell you, if you take the mystery
out of the gospel, you take the miraculous out of the gospel,
you don't have a gospel. If you can explain all of this,
you don't have a gospel. And look at this. Not only did
He die, but here is a miracle. Here is something miraculous.
He died for our sins. This word has two meanings, and
I didn't even know this until just the other day. I was looking
at this. It's got the meaning that you
and I often attribute to it. In the room of, in the stead
of, He died for our sins. He died as a payment. for our
sins. We have all kinds of Scripture
for that. He suffered for our sins. He gave Himself for our
sins. He made His soul an offering
for sins. He was wounded for our transgressions. This is the blood of the new
covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. When the Lord Jesus died upon
that cross of Calvary, He obtained a free and full and eternal redemption
for all His people. They'll never have to face one
charge. Their sin has been paid for.
It's been purged away. It's gone. It's gone. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away. He died for our sins. But the
second meaning of this word is this, and it has to do with the
degree of satisfaction. He made the payment for our sins,
but this word here also means that He paid a price that far
exceeded what God required. It means to be superior to, exceedingly
above, beyond, over and above, in regard to, or on behalf of. Our death was required. Your
death was required and mine was required. The soul that sins,
it shall die. But instead, Christ died. How
much more infant is His death than yours? Can't be measured,
can it? All of us together, all elect
sinners of all ages, with all their sins, suffering, death
for all eternity, would not have paid the price that this one
man paid by his death upon the cross. And he paid more, exceeded
more, infinitely more than what was required. How do we estimate
his merit? I don't think you can. I don't
think we can. It's more than we can estimate.
We often say, with strength enough, but none to spare. And that's
so. It took everything he had to put away sin. But when he
put it away, the price he paid was infinitely more than even
what God required. Does that make any sense? There's
enough merit in Jesus Christ to save us than there is sin
in us to damn us. Now you think about that. Whatever
God required of you for your sins and a payment for them,
He's paid infinitely more. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Much more abound. He died for
our sins. And you know this gospel is not
something that's optional. If you're not going to be saved,
we must receive it into our hearts. It must be received into our
hearts. It must be the only thing that we depend upon for our salvation,
our acceptance of God. If a man says he believes it
and that he's received it and then he can let it go, he's not saved. If a man says
that he's received this gospel and then he trades it for something
else, he can't be saved. Or he adds something else to
it, he can't be saved. How are we saved by this gospel?
It comes to us. We receive it and we hold it
in our conscience, in our hearts, in our memories. We never let
it go. We never let it go. Isn't that
what Paul said? If you keep in memory what I've
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. Is the gospel not a miracle?
I'll tell you it's a miracle. A miracle of love. The miracle
of grace. But look what else he says. Not
only that Christ died and he died for our sins, but Paul tells
us something else here that's a vital aspect of the gospel
and that he was buried. He makes a point of saying that.
He mentions that Christ was buried according to the scriptures.
Scriptures predicted that in the Old Testament when Jonah
was three days and three nights in that whale's belly, that was
Jesus Christ in type, in picture. When David said, Thou will not
leave my soul, my body in the grave, that was Christ speaking. The Scripture says that he was
buried, and his burial gives another proof of his death. Why
did they bury him? Because he was dead. It wasn't
an issue when Jesus Christ said it's finished. It wasn't an issue
with any of these people that he had really died. They'd have
never buried him if he wasn't dead. When those soldiers went
to Pilate, when he called the centurion in, Nicodemus and Joseph
had went and bagged the body, and he was amazed that he was
dead already. And he called the centurion and said, are you sure
that Jesus of Nazareth has died? Yes, yes sir, he died. We went
to him to take the club and break his legs, but he is dead already. They pierced his side and all
of his blood ran out on the ground. He's dead. He's dead. It was
an issue with Pilate. He made sure, the soldiers made
sure, Nicodemus and Joseph knew that he was dead. That's why
they buried him, because he was dead. They put him in this new
tomb. They just dug it. There was no
time to make any channels, any caves to slip in and get him
out. It was a new tomb. And every man laid in it. And
they put the Lord Jesus there. Paul said, because he died. And here's the miracle concerning
his burial. And this is why Paul made such
an issue of it here. He was three days in that tomb. And here's the miracle, brothers
and sisters, in that. And Paul wants us to see that.
He never began to decay. It wasn't that he was just buried
and rose again. No, he was buried and the third
day he rose again. But here was the miracle. Thou
will not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. When the Lord
Jesus died, His blood was gone, His breath was gone from His
body, but death had no effect upon that body. It never began to turn color. It never began to decay. Not
one pore. Death had no effect upon Him.
And here's why. As soon as He said it's finished,
sin was put away. There was no more sin. And as
soon as he lifted up his voice and gave up the ghost, death
was abolished. Death was abolished. Death is
no more. He swallowed death up. Therefore,
it had no effect upon him. His body remained holy. And the
reason it had no effect upon him, he was holy. He was holy
when He came into the world. He was holy as He lived. He was
holy when He hung upon that cross. And some people just can't understand
us when we say that Christ took our sins. He felt them. He bore
them. He was made sin. But He never
ceased to be what He was. Holyness to the Lord. And He
was so holy and so full of merit when death gaped its ugly jaws
upon Him. He just swallowed it up. And
now death is abolished. He has abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel. And look
at him three days later. There he lays. And death has
not one effect upon that body. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't the
gospel of... You and I die, and as soon as
we die, they have to do something with these bodies. I had a brother-in-law
that died when I was very young, and the smell stayed in that
house. He was in there three or four or five hours, and the
smell stayed in the house for a long time, because his body
began to decay and swell. Not the Lord Jesus. Death had
no effect upon him. Thou will not suffer thine holy
one, thine holy one, to see corruption. The Lord Jesus was buried. One
man said, not only to fulfill Scripture and abolish death,
but to identify with his people. To identify with his people.
His people are being buried everywhere and have been for ages. He identified with them. And you know something, as we
die and they put us in the grave, we'll identify with Him. Charles
Spurgeon said, and he said, some people may not understand when
I say this, but he said, I hope the Lord don't come until I experience
death. He said, I want to experience
death. I want to die. He said, I'm not afraid of it.
I'm not afraid to go to the grave, put me in the grave. There's
no harm there. Death's been abolished. I'll tell you what you can do,
dear children of God. Go ahead and plan your funeral. Get your songs that you want
the congregation here to sing. Go down to the funeral home.
Have them plan it all out. And then rest yourself and wait.
You don't have to fear death. Paul even refused to call it
death. He called it sleep. Some of these fellows, he said,
I've fallen asleep. You mean they died? No, they
went to sleep. There is no death. Tell what he said. I found this
little article a few weeks ago in your bulletin. And you better
remember this. This is what Horatius Bonar said
about this. He said, I believe what Scripture
says, not what my eyes see. And here's what he said. I do
not believe in sickness, but in his health. I do not believe
in death, but in his eternal life. I do not believe in corruption,
but in his holiness. I do not believe in the grave,
but in Him who conquered the grave and said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in Me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in Me, he shall never die. That's what we believe, ain't
it? Death is gone. I don't believe in death. I don't
believe in sin. Sin's gone. Oh, what a gospel. See this gospel, this wonderful
gospel? And what can you do but just
receive it and try to believe it? No wonder one of the old Puritans
said, we're not looking for something new. We're looking for grace
to believe what we already know. And that's it, ain't it? Oh,
Lord, give me grace just to believe the gospel. That's all I want.
That's all I want. And he rose again. And I'll quit
with this. He rose again. the third day
according to the Scriptures. And you know His resurrection,
among other things, just proved that He accomplished everything
that He undertook to accomplish. He purposed and then He undertook
to accomplish the redemption of His people. And it's very
evident that He did it because God raised Him from the dead.
Our sins were laid on Him. And if He hadn't put those sins
away by His merit, He would have still been in the grave. Decayed. But He put those sins away. He
made reconciliation. He made peace with God. The way
is wide open. Brothers and sisters, the door
into God's very presence, His holiness is wide open. We have
access to the Father. Everything that needed to be
done, He did it. He was successful. He didn't
try and fail. He did it. How do we know? He
raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand.
And that's where He's at now. The work is done. Believe and
live. And He gave these two reasons.
Scriptures. Scriptures. Every type that pictured the
resurrection, the two little birds, they cut one of them's
throat, put his blood down in water, and they tucked the live
bird and washed him in the blood and water of that dead bird.
Remember that one? The cleansing of the leopard?
Took two birds to represent one Savior. That's how wonderful
He is. One bird died, and the other
one, they turned him loose, and he flew away through the sky.
There's the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That whale
coming up from the bottom of the depths and spitting Jonah
out on the coast. There's the resurrection of our
Savior. God raised Him. You destroy this building, He
said. In three days I'll raise it up again. Ain't that what
He predicted? That's what He did according
to the Scriptures. And He says here there was a scene of many
witnesses, above 500 witnesses at one time. And you know Not
a one of those retracted their testimony. Not a one of them. And I tell you, they probably
got put to death because of it. When they went about saying Christ
is raised from the dead, they said, if we hear you say that
one more time, we're going to whip you. We're going to excommunicate
you and we're going to kill you. But they said, do what you want
to with me. My Lord's raised from the dead. I saw it. I ate
with it. I handled it. He's alive forevermore. What a gospel, brothers and sisters.
What a gospel. Oh, our Father, our wise and
holy and good and eternal Father, the God and Father of our blessed
Savior, our faithful and merciful High Priest, we call you our
Father because you are. In your dear Son, you're our
Father. You'll never suffer fellowship
to be broken again. In Him, you are eternal, Father.
We come to you, our Father, through His precious blood. We come to
Him at your word of grace. And we praise you for this wonderful
gospel. We've never heard anything like
it or experienced anything like it in our poor souls. In our
Father, we find nothing else that will cheer us and encourage
us in this awful world but this blessed gospel. We thank you
for not only accomplishing everything, our master, but writing it down
where we can go daily and read it to encourage our hearts. Thank
you for this dear people who are gathered here to worship
you. And I pray that you'll be your own interpreter this evening.
Forgive us of our sins. For Christ's sake alone, forgive
us. Wash us. Give us your grace to love one
another, to be patient, to bear with one another. Bless these
dear people here. Thank you for blessing your work
in this place. Bless the dear pastor and his
wife and his family. Bless all of these families.
For your sake and for your glory we ask. Amen. Thank you, brothers
and sisters.