Would you turn back to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. I have entitled the message for
this evening, What is the gospel? What is the gospel? I have two reasons for asking
that question. First, I want to know the answer. I want to know what God would
call the gospel. Don't you? What is the gospel
I want to know? I want to know if this message
really is gospel or good news to me. I want to know if this
gospel that God would call the gospel is a message of good news,
a gospel message to me. Is the gospel my gospel? in verses three and four of our
text. Now remember, Paul opens this
message with, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. And I think it's very interesting
that the thought is not over until verse 25. If you will notice,
each one of these first 25 verses begins with a conjunction. And
that means when Paul says, moreover, I declare unto you the gospel,
he's not finished with this declaration until the 25th verse, which I
believe is one of the most comprehensive definitions of the gospel that
you'll find in the Bible. And remember, he said, moreover,
I declare unto you the gospel. Now, look in verse three and
four of this chapter. He says, for I delivered unto
you, first of all, this is what's of primary importance, that which
I also received. God taught me this directly.
You can remember when he was brought up into the third heavens,
he tells us about in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. God taught him the gospel directly
and he's giving it to us as it was given to him. 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. Now, I don't know how many times
I've heard preachers say, I believe the gospel of 1 Corinthians 15,
three and four. Christ died for our sins. He
was buried. He was raised again. I've heard
preachers say that many times. Now, question. If I say the gospel
is that Christ died for our sins and that he was buried and that
he rose again from the third day, have I preached the gospel? The answer is no. For me to look at you and say,
here's the gospel, Christ died for our sins. He was buried,
and he was raised again the third day. Have I preached the gospel? No, not according to the passage
of scripture I just read. This is very important. Did you
notice how he said, here's the gospel? It's how that, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. Not simply that Christ died for
our sins, but how that. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Now, when Paul wrote this letter,
most people think 1 Corinthians was the very first epistle he
ever wrote. And we did not have the full
canon of the New Testament at that time. So when Paul was making
this statement, he was saying it's how the Christ died for
our sins according to the Old Testament scriptures. And this
is so important because most people look at the Old Testament
as well, that was back then, what we need is the New Testament.
You cannot preach the gospel without preaching the Old Testament
scriptures. The Old Testament scriptures
give us a perfect portrait as to what the gospel is. It's how that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. You can't understand the gospel
without the Old Testament scriptures. Now the issue is, always has
been, and always will be, what is the gospel? That issue trumps
every other issue. This is the most important thing
we can ever consider. What is the gospel? You know, Abel found this out
very early as his brother murdered him. And what was the issue?
What is the gospel? That was the issue then, and
that is the issue today. And that is the most important
thing you and I can ever understand. What is the gospel? Now, how does the scripture answer
this question? Not what do you think, or not
what do I think, nor what does this church think, or what does
this denomination think? What does the scripture say?
Now, we really believe that this book, Old Testament and New Testament,
is the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God. I was talking
to a Hindu on the plane last week, and he said, and I said
this about the Bible, And he said, well, don't you believe
men wrote it? Yeah, I said, yes, I do. I believe men wrote the
Bible as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as they were inspired
by God, the Holy Spirit. And he said, how can you believe
that a Bible is without error? I said, well, if I believe that
God is all powerful, I believe he's able to preserve a word
without error, even through the words of men. This is God's book. This is God's inspired revelation. So what do the scripture, how
does the scripture define the gospel? I want to know, don't
you? I don't want to know what you think or what so-and-so thinks.
What does the Bible say the gospel is? Now let's begin in verse
one, and I'm gonna go through all these verses as quickly as
I can, but I would be dishonest with trying to answer this question
if I didn't include everything he said in this passage of scripture. Now he says in verse one, moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Now there's two things
I want to point out about that statement. First, the definite
article the. The gospel. The definite article tells us
that this is an objective message. It's not subject to what you
and I say with a definite content. And if that content is not preached,
the gospel is not preached. The gospel and how I love this
name, gospel. good news. It's not something you just get
assent to. It's not something you just say, well, I see the
Bible teaches that. No, it comes as good news to your soul. If you believe it is gospel,
it's gospel to you. It is absolutely the best thing
that you've ever heard. Nothing can even compare with
it. The gospel. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. Now I'm bringing a
message that has not been modified. I preached this message to you
at first and the message hadn't changed a bit. I declare unto
you the gospel which I preached unto you. It is the same now
as it was then, no modifications, no amendments, no different packaging
to adapt to the culture, no attempt to make it relevant. Whenever
I hear a preacher talk about it, I'm able to make the Word,
or we make the Word of God relevant. It tells me, bear with me, I have a cold.
It tells me that that man's completely irrelevant. You don't try to
make the eternal word of God relevant to the needs of modern
man. We don't do anything like that. We just simply preach the
eternal gospel, same gospel, looking for God to take care
of the results. Notice what he says, I preach
unto you. I declare the gospel that I preached
unto you, it's never been changed, which also you've received. Now
it's the gospel that you actually received as gospel. And this
is so important. What is the message that you
received as good news to your soul? What is the saving message
to you? You know, the gospel, it's an
objective message, but it comes subjective when it's preached
and heard. To some, it's good news. To some,
they rejoice in it. This is great. But you know what? To everybody that it's not good
news to, it's bad news to. They don't like the message.
They don't agree with the message. They don't rejoice in the message.
So it's not good news to everybody. It's only good news to those
who actually receive the gospel as good news. Which also you've received and
wherein you stand, he says, the gospel that you have your standing
in. Now I have a standing before
God right now. I have a standing of righteousness. I have a standing
of acceptance. I have a standing to where God
looks at me and he's pleased with me. He's pleased with everything
about me. Now, where is that standing?
Is it in my works or my preaching or my? No, it's in the gospel. Whatever the gospel is, that's
my standing. That's how I'm accepted by God.
And it's the gospel for which I've taken my stand. No compromise here. No going
back, no loosening up, no, well, that's my interpretation, that's
your interpretation. No, this is the gospel for which
we've taken our stand. By God's grace, we'll die for
this gospel, and we will not allow it to be changed. That's
what Paul says. You've taken your stand. Look
at verse 2. This gospel is the gospel, verse
2, by which you are saved. It's the saving gospel. It's
the only gospel that saves. Paul said in Romans 1, 16, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now this gospel
is your gospel if you believe. It's for you if you believe.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. But notice what he says
next. He says, by which you're saved
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you've believed
in vain. Now it's the gospel that must be persevered in. I
was listening to a message by Henry Mahan, and it hit me like
a ton of bricks, the statement he made. He said, when we first
started the 13th Street Baptist Church, when they'd come out
of Pollard, and the issue was the gospel, he said 108 adults came
out, not including the kids. He said 108 adults came out.
And when he was preaching this message, it was 25 years later,
he said, there are now 78 of those people still alive. And
every one of them came out excited over the gospel, believing the
gospel. And he said, now exactly one half of them are still alive
and have no interest in the gospel at all. At one time they did. They were excited. They were
rejoicing in this message. It appeared. But now one half
of those people have no interest in the gospel at all. And when
I hear that, I think, Lord, preserve me. Keep me. I will fall away if I'm not preserved. Every believer knows that. You
know that about yourself if you're a believer. But it's the gospel
that must be persevered in. He that endureth to the end.
It's not those who begin, it's those who finish. He that endureth
to the end, the same shall be saved. He says in verse 30, for
I delivered unto you, first of all, primary importance, this
is the most important thing I had to say, for I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I also received. Now remember,
the gospel is something that Paul received from Christ himself.
Christ brought him into the third heavens, the scripture says,
in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and directly taught him the gospel. He didn't have somebody like
me as his teacher. He had Christ himself teaching
him the gospel. And he said, I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I also received. And I love the
way he does this, like a mailman. A mailman delivers a letter.
He has nothing to do with the content of the letter. He merely
delivers it. And that is what Paul said he's
doing. I'm delivering unto you that
which I first of all received and look what he says. Here's
the first thing he says in verse three. It's how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. Now here we have the actual content
of the gospel. It's how that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures and was buried and he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Now remember when
he says how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures and that he was buried and rose again the third day
according to the scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament
scriptures. There is no preaching of the gospel. There's no understanding
of the gospel without the Old Testament scriptures. And like
I said, many preachers never even deal with the Old Testament
scriptures. They say, well, they're obviously
not inspired. You know, you read about all
the mass destructions and killing entire nations and God doing
this and God doing that. Surely God wouldn't be that way.
And they just dismiss the Old Testament scriptures because
they don't really understand what they have to say. Now here's a, Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. Now the first scripture I thought
of was a Genesis 3, 16. The first gospel promise, the
seed of woman shall crush the serpent's head. And the serpent's
head will bruise his heel. The seed of woman, the Lord Jesus
Christ, promised at the very beginning, right after our first
parents fall, shall crush the serpent's head. Now his heel
will be bruised and that's a reference to what happened on Calvary's
tree, but the serpent will be crushed. A victorious savior
proclaimed at the very beginning. And the next thing I thought
about was, I thought of a lot of scriptures that refer to how
Christ died first. All the Old Testament scriptures
are about Christ dying for our sins according to the scriptures,
but the next thing I thought about was Abraham. Abraham, take now thy
son, thy only son. Ishmael's not even regarded as
a son. Take now thy son, thy only son,
and offer him up as a burnt offering on a mountain that I'll show
thee of. Now put yourself in his place. What if the Lord told
you to take your child and cut his throat or her throat, put
him on an altar, and set him on fire? What if he did? Every one of
us have thought, could I do that? I'm afraid I couldn't do it.
But here's the difference between us and Abraham. God had already
promised that the Messiah would come through his son. And he
believed God. And he knew that if he did put
him to death, God would raise him from the dead. He knew that. And as a matter of fact, he said,
when they got there, he said, y'all stay here. while I and the lad go yonder
and worship, and we will return. We will return. He knew they
would return. So as they go up that mountain,
Isaac, I guess he's a teenager at this time, he says, Father, here's the wood, here's the fire,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Remember, Christ is
the Lamb of God, isn't he? Christ is the Lamb of God. And
Abraham looked at his son, and he said, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Now that's how the Christ died
for our sins according to scripture. First, you can't provide one.
You know you can't provide, I can't provide anything that God would
accept. Do you believe that? It's so. You can't provide anything
that God would accept, but God provides the lamb. And God provides
this lamb for himself. You see, the death of Christ
wasn't so much for you, it was for God. Yeah, it's for you to
put away your sins if you're one of His, but it was for God.
For God to do something for me or you, He first had to do something
for Himself. He couldn't have mercy on you until His justice
was first satisfied and something was done about your sin. God
provides for Himself the Lamb. And beloved, God provides Himself
as the Lamb. Now that's how. that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. And the next thing
I thought of was obviously the Passover. That's the lamb. Christ worthy is the lamb that
was slain. That's what's going to be sung
in heaven. Me talking about the lamb. He was the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. What about the Passover lamb?
God said he was going to go through Israel and he was going to kill
all the firstborn as an act of judgment. You remember when Pharaoh
said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? And I'd love to think
of Moses thinking, you're fixing to find out. And he was going
to find out. And so God said, you take a lamb. He said to the children of Israel,
you take a lamb, a spotless lamb. Lamb without blemish, a perfect
lamb, representing the perfection, the perfect righteousness, the
perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you take that
lamb, watch it for two weeks, and after two weeks, cut its
throat, slay it, and you take blood and put it over the lintel
of the door, and if you're in the house with the blood over
the door, I'm gonna come through, and when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now, let me say several things
about that. Remember, it's how that Christ died for our sins,
according to Scripture. Was the blood over everybody's
door? No. It was just over the door of
the Israelites and any Egyptian who wanted to get in. It's not
like the Egyptians were kept out, but most of the Egyptians
didn't put the blood over their door. The blood wasn't over everybody's
door. It was just over the Israelites'
door. Now, what was God looking for? He didn't say, when I see your
faith. He didn't say, when I see your
obedience. He didn't say, when I see your
baptism. He didn't say, when I see your
sincerity. He didn't say, when I see your
good works. He didn't say, when I see your
doctrinal understanding. He said, when I see the blood. What is the one thing God was
looking for? the blood, nothing else. Now let me ask you, was there
anybody outside of one of those houses that God didn't judge? No. They were all judged. They were all destroyed. Was
there anyone in one of those houses that was judged? Maybe one was extra bad. Did
God go ahead and judge him anyway, even though he's in a house with
the blood over the door? No. Everyone in the house was secure. Now, according to the scriptures,
Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. According
to the scriptures, the hour are his people. Matthew 121 says,
I shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people.
He shall save his people from their sins. He never intended
to save all men. He came here for this one purpose,
to save his people. John 17, 9, he said, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you've given me, for they are thine. Now somebody
says, what's the point? What's the point you're making?
Well, this is a very important point. If he attempted to save
all men, if he shed his blood for all men without exception
and some of them are not saved, he failed in his intention. He
intended to and he didn't do it, he failed. Let me tell you
something else really bad about that. If he died for somebody
and they wind up in hell, I know as sure as I'm looking at you,
I'll wind up in hell. If he died for me and I can wind
up in hell anyway, I know I will. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ the Lord actually put away my sin. He died for his people according
to the scriptures. He died for our sins. Now this
is why he died. Why did he die? Our sins. our sins, who His own self bear
our sins in His own body on the tree. And when I think about
my sins, my sins are ever before me. The sins that I know about,
the sins that I don't know about, the sins I feel really bad about,
the sins I've forgotten about, the sins that just make me feel
so evil. And so how could God ever look
my way in favor? My sins, all my sins, He bore
in His own body on the tree. He bear our sins. He bare our
sins. And here's something glorious
to think about. If He bore my sins, I do not have them. They're
not on me. If they're on Him. They're not
on me. That's how that Christ died for
our sins, according to the scriptures. And according to the scriptures,
he made complete satisfaction with his death. He shall see
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Complete satisfaction. Now God was so satisfied With
the death of His Son, it made Him completely satisfied with
everybody He died for, right now and for eternity. That's
the power of His blood. God is completely satisfied. And it doesn't have anything
to do with any of my works. It's wholly because of what He
did for me. God can't ask any more out of
me. I have all through the blood
of his son. Now that's how he died for our
sins according to the scriptures. I think of the, you know, I probably
ought to just stop and not go on with all the rest of this
stuff and keep on going, but there's so many Old Testament scriptures
like this. I think of a high priest coming into the old, coming
into the tabernacle, the outer court and putting his hand on
the heads of the scapegoat. There were two on the Day of
Atonement. This is how the Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures on the Day of Atonement. There
were two goats. One for sin punishment, the other for the removal of
the sin to where it's no more. And that priest would put his
hands on the head of the goat and they'd take that goat by
the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And never to be seen
again. Never to be brought up again.
My sins are gone. That's how the Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures. I don't have any sin. It's been
put away. by what Christ did. Now that's
good news. That's how the Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. And I'm going to speed up right
now. He was buried and he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. He made, Isaiah 53 tells about
his burial. Jonah tells about how many days
he'll be buried, three days. And Daniel tells about how he'll
be raised up again from the scriptures. Everything was according to the
Old Testament scriptures. Now that's the content of the
gospel. That's the actual content of the gospel. It's how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And then in
verses 5 through 8 we have the gospel revealed. Now understand
this. If God doesn't make himself known
to me, I'll never know him. I'm completely
dependent upon him to reveal himself to me. And that's what
happens here. Look in verse 5. And then he was seen of Cephas,
and five times we read where he was seen, and in every one
of these times when it says he was seen, it's always in the
passive tense. They didn't see him. He made
himself known to them. He revealed himself to them. You can't know Christ unless
he is pleased to make himself known to you. You and I are completely
dependent upon revelation. We can't figure it out. Now,
I can preach as clearly as simply as can possibly be preached.
And if Christ doesn't make himself known to you, it will do you
absolutely no good. You'll leave this place no different. Maybe informed of a little bit
more stuff that you used to didn't know, but you'll leave this place
no different if he doesn't make himself known to where you see
him. And I don't mean the physical
side. Somebody said Jesus appeared to me and said this. I don't
believe any of that. Nobody's ever seen him physically, but
I'm talking about a spiritual manifestation to where you see
who he is. And look what it says. He was
buried, or 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 remained unto this present, but some were fallen
asleep. And 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." Christ seen, Christ revealed where he
makes himself known. You now believe the gospel. You
can hear it with these ears. And it won't do you any good
unless he is pleased to make himself known and show himself
to you. You know what that makes me do?
Lord, show yourself to me. Pass me not. Don't leave me to
myself. Make yourself known to me. Cause me to know your gospel. Now here is the gospel confessed. We've seen the gospel defined.
It's how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
We've seen the gospel revealed. He was seen. He was made known. He was made manifest to these
people. They couldn't see him until he
first made himself known. And here we have the gospel confessed.
He says in verse 9, For I am the least of the apostles that
are not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. But 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. Now I love this confession begins
with humility. I'm the least of the apostles. And as a matter of fact, as he
grows in grace, he's gonna go on to say I'm less than the least
of all the saints. And then, right before he dies,
he says, I'm the chief of sinners. Now, a confession that is not
a confession of humility is not real. But what's his confession? For
I'm the least of the apostles, and I'm not meet to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God, I am what I am. Now that's the confession of
every believer. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Now before we consider what he
meant by that, first, what's he mean by grace? What's the
Bible mean by grace? It's a word. I love the way the
word sounds. I love the word grace. Grace is a charming sound,
melodious to the ears. What's grace mean? Well, there's
a scripture I quote quite often, Genesis 6-5, and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Somebody says, why does he quote
that so much? Because you asked that question. It's something
we need to hear over and over again. Listen to it again. God, this is talking about me
and you. God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually, nonstop. That's what God says about the
thoughts of my heart. And that's what God says about
the thoughts of your heart. But we read a couple of verses
down, but Noah found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. Noah
was in that group, but Noah found favor. Now that's what God's
grace is. It's his sovereign favor to you. It's him deciding to do something
for you that he doesn't do for everybody else. Noah, not everybody,
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Oh, I want to find
grace in the eyes of the Lord, don't you? Oh my, Now, what was
his confession? I am what I am by the grace of
God. I'm a sinner. I don't say that with pride.
I'm a sinner. What's a sinner? Someone who
commutes sin. Well, you're a preacher. You
saying you sin? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm a sinner. And it's only by the grace of
God I know that. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? You know what that means? God's
had mercy on you. God's given you grace. He's taught
you something that you would have never known unless He taught
you. Are you a sinner? Listen to the
words of Paul. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save who? Sinners. I'm a sinner. And that's by the grace of God.
I'm elect. I'm chosen of God. God chose
me before the foundation of the world, just like he did all of
the elect, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. And
I know this, I'm elect only because of the grace of God. God didn't
look and see something in me and thought I'm going to choose
him. No, it was freely by his grace. I'm redeemed. That means Christ paid for all
my sins and I'm redeemed by the grace of God. I'm justified. That means I stand before God
right now without any guilt. You believe that? That Christ
actually put away your sin and you have no guilt and you stand
perfect before God? I'm justified, and I sure enough
know that that is by the grace of God. It has nothing to do
with anything I've done in order to get it. God just justified
me. It's God that justifies. You didn't do it. You didn't
do anything to get it. It was not God's response to
anything you did. By grace. I believe. I'm a believer. I really believe
the gospel. The stuff that I'm saying to
you, I believe. I believe these great mysteries, and it's only
by the grace of God that I believe. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it,
that faith, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. I love. Lord knows. I love him. I love
him. And I know this, the love I have
for Him, the love I have for you is the fruit of God the Holy
Spirit. It's not natural to me. It's
what He gave me in the new birth when He regenerated me and gave
me life. I persevere, and I know the only
reason I persevered up to this point, the only way I'll persevere
all the way to the end is because I'm kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And notice what he said about
this grace. I think it's interesting. Every
time somebody hears about grace, they think, well, that'll kill
effort, that'll kill motivation, that'll kill Everything's by grace. People won't do anything if you
preach like that. Well, look at the effect it had
on Paul. But 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. Didn't have that effect on Paul,
did it? Won't have that effect on you either if you really believe.
And yet, look how careful Paul was to ascribe it all to grace.
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore,
whether it were I or they, so we preach and so you believe."
Now what I'm preaching is whatever true preacher preaches and what
every believer believes. So we preach and so you believe. Now in verse 12, Now, if Christ
be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now, the gospel
is a message that doesn't contradict itself. Now, if Christ be preached
that he rose from the dead, how can you say there's no resurrection
of the dead? Now, the gospel is logical. Now we don't believe it because
it's logical. We believe it because the Bible says it. Isn't that
right? We don't believe anything because it's logical or because
it makes sense. We believe it because it's what
the Bible actually says. And as far as that goes, we believe
mysteries. All the mysteries we believe.
We believe God is one God in three persons. That's not something
we can explain or logically get hold of. It's a mystery. God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We believe that
God never had a beginning. We don't understand that. We
just believe it. I mean, the gospel is a thing
not so much understood as believed. But it doesn't contradict itself. The gospel makes sense. Now look,
Paul says, if you believe, that there's no resurrection. Well,
Christ was raised from the dead. Verse 13, but if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain? It's to no point. If Christ
is not risen, your faith is pointless. Yeah, and we found false witnesses
of God because we've testified of God that he raised up Christ.
whom ye raise not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if
the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain. You're yet in your sins.
They also which are fall asleep in Christ are perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most
miserable." Now, these fellows were saying, there's no resurrection
of the dead. Well, he says, well, that's the case. Here's what
happens. Your faith is meaningless. We're
false witnesses of God. The people that have died in
Christ are now in hell. Your yet and your sins were of
all men most miserable. But if Christ really was raised
from the dead, here's the implication that must be. We're telling the
truth. Our faith is not vain. We're
not in our sins. We're not false witnesses. We're
true witnesses. The gospel is a message that
doesn't contradict itself. It makes sense. Now, I don't
believe it because it makes sense, but it does make sense. Favorite
things I've ever had happen to me is, for whatever reason, is
I was talking to a Southern Baptist preacher, and I was talking about
the effectual atonement of Christ, and he made this accusation to
me. He said, you're just trying to make sense. Well, yeah, it
does make sense. It does make sense. But the gospel
is not a message that contradicts itself. And any message you hear
that contradicts the attributes of God or contradicts truths
of the gospel. It's not so. Here's the facts
of the gospel. Verse 20, But now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
You know, this is a fact. Christ is risen from the dead.
Isn't that glorious? And he's become the firstfruits,
the guarantee of the salvation of them that sleep. the guarantee
of our salvation. He's the first fruits. He's the
guarantee that we'll be saved. Because he was raised from the
dead, we will be too. For since by man came death,
original sin, by man came also, that's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now, what this is a reverence to is
union with Christ. In Adam, everybody that Adam
represented, that's me and you. You know, people are interested
in genealogy, and I am interested in genealogy. I'd like to know
what royalty I come from and all that kind of stuff. But if
you shake your family tree long enough, Adam's going to fall
out. In Adam, all die. Spiritual death. What can a dead
man do to save himself? Nothing. In Adam, all die, even
so, in the same manner in Christ. Everybody who's in Christ shall
be made alive. That's the gospel. Everybody
in Christ shall be made alive. When Ross is getting ready to
be baptized, he's saying, all my salvation is that when Christ
lived, I was in him. That's my life before God. When
Christ died, I was in Him. My sins were paid for. That's
my life before God. When Christ was raised from the
dead, I was in Him. That's my life before God. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I have never been separated from
Jesus Christ. You know, that just blows me
away. That's good news. That's gospel. Verse 23, But
every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they
that are Christ's, that is coming. The gospel's about the coming
of Christ. He is coming again. He is coming again. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we'll be like
him. For we shall see him as he is. Then cometh the end, verse 24.
You know, the gospel's about the end. It's about the end. Everything, God's gonna burn
up everything here. Then cometh the end. And when
the end comes, eternity begins. But the gospel is about the end.
Oh, this life is so brief. The end's coming soon. I mean,
it's coming soon. If the Lord doesn't return for a thousand
years, it's still coming soon for me and you. We don't have
much more time. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the father, when he shall have put
down all rule and authority and power. And here's the last statement
regarding the gospel. This is where the conjunction
ends for he must reign. Is that gospel? He must reign. He's absolutely sovereign. He's
in control of everything and everybody and it's absolutely
necessary that he be so. He must reign because of who
he is. He must reign. Is that gospel to you? Now I
want to close How can I know if my gospel is the gospel? Now
this, Henry Mahan and Scott Richardson were driving back from a meeting
and they were asking themselves, do we really preach the gospel?
Do we really believe the gospel? How can I know if my gospel is
the gospel? Now listen to these real carefully.
Does my gospel line up with the Old Testament scriptures? If it doesn't, it's not the gospel. Secondly, does my gospel give
all the glory to God in salvation? Now, if it gives any glory to
man, his free will, his works, it's not the gospel. The gospel
is the gospel that gives all the glory to God. Thirdly, does
my gospel give the preeminence to Jesus Christ in all things? Is he all? Is he all in your
salvation? Fourth, Does my gospel line up
with the character and the attributes of God? Does the gospel I believe
deny any of the eternal attributes of God? For instance, his immutability,
the fact that he cannot change. Does my gospel line up with that?
Any of his attributes, his sovereignty, his justice. Fifthly, does my
gospel honor the law? Yes, it does. The only way you
honor the law is by believing the gospel. You try to honor
the law by keeping it, you prove that you don't even know what
the law means. Does my gospel honor the law? Paul said, do
we make void the law through faith? God forbid we establish
the law. Six, will my gospel meet a sinner
where he's at and save him? Not where you need to be. I need
to do this. How many times have you thought, I need to get my
life straightened up. I need to start doing this and quit
doing that and start that. Will my gospel meet a sinner
where I'm at, dead in sins, with no ability to do anything for
my salvation and save me? And will my gospel finally enable
me to face death and judgment and be accepted for Christ's
sake, only for Christ's sake. Now if that's my gospel, my gospel
is the gospel. What is the gospel? I would encourage
all of us to look at this passage again, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through
25. That's the definition of the
gospel. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, that name that's above every name, and Lord, I
ask that you would take your word and bless it. Lord, the
words of a man are powerless and feeble unless you're pleased
to bless your own word. We ask in Christ's name that
you would reveal yourself to each heart here through your
word. Enable us to bow the knee to
Christ enable us to believe on Him and enable us to find the
gospel as good news to our souls. Bless this message for Christ's
sake, in His name we pray, amen.