1 Corinthians chapter 15. Beginning again in verse 1, Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which
also you 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 arose 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 to sleep. And after that
he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of
all he was seen of me, as of one born out of due time." I
just want to look this evening at a portion of the verses found
here in verse 3, Christ died. for our sins, Christ died. Christ died. That's amazing in
itself. Christ died. And if you and I
allow that, as the old Puritans used to say, we allow that, we
believe that, we accept that, we consent to the death of Jesus
Christ. If we do that first and foremost,
which we must, Paul mentions the death of Christ before he
mentions why he died. We first and foremost must believe
and be assured of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
we must, as we read the scriptures, be assured and believe what he
accomplished in that death. I want to be assured And I want
to live in the faith of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we'll spend the rest of our lives finding out what He accomplished
by that death. It seems that we must first and
foremost believe that Christ died. That's important. There
are skeptics that have their theories. of what happened upon
the cross. That Christ was drugged, that
he went into a swoon, or that he fainted, and later that he
revived. But one thing you and I remember,
when he was offered the vinegar water to drink, he refused it. He sipped it. When it touched
his lips and he realized what it was, he rejected it. We believe
that the scriptures are true, and we believe that they are
overwhelming with evidence of the death of Christ. And that
is what I want to offer you now for just a few minutes. And I
want to begin with this, the Old Testament predictions of
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to just a few of them.
In Isaiah 53, verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment
and who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land
of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he has done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. And listen to verse 12. I will
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
small with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death. All the Jewish writers In all
the commentaries that I've ever read, they attribute this to
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they say He did indeed predict
His death. And then in Daniel 9, verse 26,
and after three score and two weeks, that shall the Messiah
be cut off, but not for Himself. And listen to Psalms 22 and verse
16, a very familiar verse. Dogs have compassed me, the assembly
of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my
feet. And listen to Zechariah chapter
12 and verse 10. I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace
and supplication, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced."
So the Old Testament Scriptures predicts the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I read just a very, very
few of the predictions. And when you read the ceremonial
law, What are all those animals that are suffering and pouring
out their blood? What are they pictures of but
the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ? The cutting
of the goat's throat and draining his blood. The skinning of the
birds and offering them for sacrifice. What does all these things picture
but the crucifixion, the blood shedding, the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Christ died. Christ died. And not only Old Testament scriptures,
but the Lord Jesus, so many times in His ministry, predicted His
own dying. Listen to some of these places.
Matthew 16, verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto His disciples how he must go up to Jerusalem and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed and be raised again the third day. Listen to Mark
9, verse 31. He taught his disciples and said
unto them, The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men,
and they shall kill him, and after that he is killed, he will
rise again the third day. And listen to this one in Mark
8, verse 31. And he began to teach them that
the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days he would rise again." Matthew 26. You know that after
two days is the Feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man
is betrayed to be crucified. So he not only predicted how
he would die, of crucifixion, but he predicted the very day
that he should die at the Passover. And again, these are very few
places that I've read to you. Thirdly, a proof of Christ's
death. All the predictions in the Old
and New Testament of his resurrection is proof that he died. Who is
it that raises from the dead but that one that has died? If
there was not a death, there was no resurrection from the
dead. And listen to what the Old Testament says concerning
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalms 16, verse
10, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, that is, the place of
the dead, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Both Peter and Paul preach from
this text, and both of them said it was the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. And list Isaiah 26, 19. Thy dead
men shall live, together with thy dead body shall they arise. the elect of God raised in the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Mark 12, verse
40. As Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth, the ground,
in his separate. Matthew 17, 22, And while they
abode in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of man shall
be betrayed unto the hands of man, and they shall kill him,
and the third day he shall rise again. And they were exceeding
sorry." And then the one that I think I love just about as
much as any, in John 2, where the Lord Jesus said, destroy
this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again. And they
said 42 years or 52 years was this temple in building, and
you're going to raise it up in three days? But the scripture
says he spake in regards to the resurrection of his body. So in the Old and New Testaments,
He predicts his resurrection. And I'll say again, who is it
that raises but a dead man? So Christ died. He died. The scripture evidence is overwhelming. And fourthly, consider this.
The nature of the injuries and wounds that the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered would have led to his death. No one could have survived
the injuries and the wounds that he sustained. The very night
in which he was betrayed before his crucifixion, he never slept. He was awake all night. He prayed
in the garden until his sweat became as great drops of blood. They tell us in medical science
that that indicates the body was under extreme pressure. He was beaten until the whites
of his bones appeared in his back. His beard was plucked from
his face. You remember he collapsed under
the weight of the cross when they were carrying him to Calvary. He hanged for six hours on the
cross of crucifixion and finally a soldier ran the spear and pierced
his side and blood and water came out. Then after they took
him down from the cross, they wrapped him in about a hundred
pound weight cloth and spices, and this would have smothered
him? He could not have endured these injuries and these wounds
without dying. And yet three days later, we
see him again and he is alive and well with no effects of these
wounds or injuries about him. But he would have died, Glenn.
He would have died. Humanly speaking, no man could
have sustained what he sustained and not have died. And fifthly,
what the Lord Jesus said upon the cross is proof that he died. He said, Father, unto your hands
I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. The centurion standing by and
said, surely this was a righteous man. What did he mean by that?
Here was a man that had the power to give up his life. No man takes
my life from me. I give it up of myself. I have power to lay it down.
And that's what he did. And the centurion realized this
was a righteous man. This was a just man. Who could
say, into your hands I commend my spirit, and give up the ghost? That's another proof that the
Lord Jesus Christ died. Christ died. And sixthly, consider
this. Those Roman soldiers were accustomed
to crucify people unto death. And they carried out their duty
themselves under the threat of death. Soldiers had been put
to death before for not carrying out their duty. These soldiers
knew how to crucify a man, and they knew how to examine a man
to make sure that he was dead. And here's what John 19.33 says.
When these soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already. They break not his legs, but
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came there out blood and water. And Pilate marveled. Remember
that? That he was so soon dead? And
he called the centurion and said, Is he dead? And the centurion
said, I have examined him. He is dead, so he released the
body to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They would not have
suffered the Lord Jesus Christ to have gotten from that cross
without breaking his legs if he had not indeed been dead already. What does that tell us? Christ
died. Christ died. And seventhly, consider
this. Medical authorities. have examined
the circumstances of the nature of Christ's death, and they've
concluded that He actually did die upon the cross. And I have
this little excerpt here from the Journal of the American Medical
Society. They did a study upon this, the
wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ, what He went through there, and
this is what they say about that. And I quote clearly, The weight
of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead
before the wound to his side was inflicted, and supports the
medical evidence, supports the traditional view that the spear
thrust between his right rib probably perforated not only
the right lung, but also the pericordium and heart, and thereby
ensured his death. Accordingly, interpretation based
on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appears
to be at odds with modern medical science. They even said that
for the blood and water to come forth as it did from him, the
body has to be dead. That's one of the evidences of
the body being dead when blood and water mix, gushes from the
body. So that's what medical science
tells us about that. Eighthly, consider this. The
Jews themselves who crucified the Lord Jesus, they never once
denied his death, but they agreed that he was dead. Even they sent
to Pilate and requested a guard to watch his grave, lest his
disciples should steal away his dead body. So there was no doubt
at the time of his death, even from those who killed him, that
he was indeed dead. Christ died. And mindfully consider
this. The non-Jewish historians and
writers from the first and second century record the death of Christ. I have read a lot of works from
Josephus. He was a man who lived when Christ
lived. He was at Jerusalem when Titus
came in and overthrew that city. And here is just a small excerpt
of what he said. He said Pilate, at the suggestion
of the principal men among us, notice he was there, among us,
had condemned Jesus of Nazareth to the cross. So he knew that
he had died. A Roman historian, Cornelius
Tacitus, in A.D. 55, here's what he wrote, a wise
man who was called Jesus, Pilate condemned him to be condemned
and to die, and his disciples reported that he had appeared
unto them three days after his crucifixion, and he was alive. And the first century historian
Thaddeus said this, he lived in 52 A.D., and this is his quote. He was discussing the darkness
which fell upon the land during the crucifixion of Christ, and
he spake of it as man eclipsed. Now, do we need these men's testimony? No, we don't need their testimony,
but isn't it good to read non-Christian men? who left their witness that
Christ did indeed die upon the cross. There was no doubt in
anybody's mind that was there that this man that was called
Jesus of Nazareth did indeed die. God has not commanded us
to believe in the death of His Son without giving us plain and
abundant evidence that he did indeed die. And that must be
important, brothers and sisters, because listen to Acts chapter
1. This is where Luke was writing to Theophilus, and he said, I
have written the former treatise, O of what Jesus began both to
do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up after
he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto his apostles
whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after
his passion, with many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God." God has given us abundant of proofs in His Word, in the
Old and New Testament, from medical science, from historians, and
Paul gave us these 500 brethren who have seen the Lord Jesus
Christ, the wounds in His hand and the hole in His side. Christ
indeed has died. Now, this world is going to have
to face this fact. If that is true, If that's true,
then the next question is this. Why did he die? Why did he die? It's indictment against our humanity
that he died here in our world and was crucified by our fellow
man. But here is the question that
has to be asked. Why did he die? We need to first
be settled upon the fact of His death. And then when we're settled
upon the faith of that, we need to ask ourselves this question,
Why? Why did He die? Believe it, that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, God died almost 2,000 years ago in the history
of this world, bags this question. It bags this question. Why? Why? And he that predicted his
own death tells us also in his infallible word for whom he died
and why he died, and the mortal condition those were in for whom
he died for. Did he not tell us for whom he
died? Did he not die for his sheep?
Did he not tell us that in John 10, verse 11, I am the good shepherd,
and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep? He died, there is no question.
Who did he die for? Those that the Father gave to
him. He died for a number of people
no man can remember. And for them particularly, he
died for them. And listen to this. What was
the nature of those people for whom he died? Listen to Romans
chapter 5 and verse 6. When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Am I one of those for
whom Christ died? I am convinced that He died.
I live in the faith of it. Am I one of them for whom He
died? Can I put myself here? He died
for the ungodly. That's the nature. He did not
die for their goodness, for their badness. He did not die because
they were righteous. He died for them as sinners. He died for our sins. If you and I believe that Christ
died, then we must also believe why He died. I declare unto you
the gospel, and listen to this. This goes back to what I was
saying this morning. I declare unto you the gospel
by which you are saved. Do I believe in the death of
Christ? I cannot believe in the death of Christ without believing
that by that death I am saved. You go around and take survey
of your neighbors and in this community, I bet you 99.9% of
the people would tell you, I believe that Christ died. But how few
could believe this, I am saved by that death. I am saved by that death. There
is a difference between just a historical faith and a saving
faith. And we believe in that historical
faith. Our faith is in a fact that took
place in history 2,000 years ago. But here is what we must
believe about that death of Christ, that not only did it happen,
but that death saved my soul. by which you are saved. That puts personal faith in that
death, doesn't it? It puts personal faith in that
death. So it's not enough just to believe the historical count
of that death. We must believe the historical
count. But I tell you then, it gets down to personal trust in
that death. Personal faith in that death.
Does that gospel save me by which you are saved? And if a man doesn't believe
that he's saved by that gospel, he really doesn't believe that
Christ died. Brother Larry gave me an illustration
last week. He gave it to a fellow he was
talking to about trust. Trusting. This is what Paul said
here. You receive the gospel. You believe
the gospel. And here's what it is. It's trusting
Jesus Christ who died. That's what it is, isn't it?
And Larry gave me these. Tell me about it. He was talking
to this fellow about trust. And he gave him this illustration.
Larry said he was sitting there at the restaurant. He said, do
you see that chair there? Something like this. He says,
yes, you believe that chair will hold your weight. You believe it will hold your
weight. You'll never know. And you don't really trust it
until you have sat down in it. And here's the difference, isn't
it? Saying, that seat will hold my weight. And then going and
sitting down in it. That's the difference, isn't
it? A man may say, I believe it will hold my weight, but if
you are not sinning in it, you don't trust it. And that's the
way it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. We may say we believe
the historical account that Christ died, but is my full weight of my acceptance
with God, is my full trust in him who died almost 2,000 years
ago. Has his death put away my sin? Has his death brought life to
me? Has his death reconciled me to
God? That's it. That's it. I tell
you, it's so simple, though it's so profound, it's so simple a
child could understand it. And it's as simple as sitting
down in that chair. How can I be saved? How can I
be saved by this gospel? And what is that gospel? Christ
died for our sins. That's it. That's it. whatever you find written in
the scriptures concerning what Christ accomplished in His death,
make no hesitation to believe it. Be assured in your soul and live
upon the faith that Christ died And then when you go and read
Romans chapter 5, and it tells you that you were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, believe it! Believe it! We must believe that He died,
and we must believe what He accomplished in His death. When you begin
to fear death yourself, then go to the Scriptures and read
that He by His death abolished death, and it is no more. Believe
it. Rest there in that. Put all your
trust in what Christ did at His death. These people that say, I believe
Christ died, and yet they don't believe what He accomplished.
when you begin to doubt, when you want the assurance that your
soul has been redeemed and that your body can lay down in the
grave in hope of someday being raised from the dead. Remember
what Christ accomplished in His death. He destroyed him who had
the power of death and brought life and a real hope, a sure
hope of the resurrection of the dead. We bury people all the time,
don't we? And we bury a few Christians. We bury a few Christians. And
someday they're going to lay us, every one of us, they're
going to lay down in the grave. And they'll lay us down with
hope. with a hope of a resurrection. Why? Because Christ rose from
the dead. And here's what he said about
it. But now is Christ risen from the dead and became, what? The first fruits of them that
slept. You know what first fruits are,
don't you? If you go out in the garden then and you've got a
mess of beans, that's the first ones that you pick. You pick
them, that's the first fruits. But you know, there's a whole
bunch of beans that's coming. Christ was the first one that
raised from the dead to die no more, but He's just the first
fruits. Afterwards, afterwards, they
that are Christ, that is coming. And how can we be assured of
that? Because we're assured that Christ died. And everything that
He earned, everything that He obtained, is ours who believe
upon Him for it. I'm finished. Thirty minutes
and twenty-two seconds. I'm finished. Blessed Father, blessed Lord,
we thank You. All we thank You, You've left
us a Word. We don't have to live by our feelings, our trust, or
our own understanding. We can live upon this infallible
Word, the Word of Truth. You're here with us in Your Word. And when it speaks, it's You
speaking. It can no more lie to us than You can lie to us.
And Lord, we place the full weight of our eternal salvation As we
face eternity, this very night, we place the full weight of our
salvation upon you. You have died for our sins. You
have rose again for our justification. You have assured us, because
of it, that we'll be saved at last. We'll be raised from the
dead and make our home in heaven. We won't be cast away with the
wicked into a place of torment. with us weeping well and in gnashing
of teeth, but we'll forever be with the Lord. You've earned
this on the behalf of all of those who sat down upon you and
cast the weight of their soul's salvation upon you. And, O Lord,
by your grace, we here tonight do. Oh, and if there are some
here that's never did it before, I pray they'll do it at this
very instant. or they'll obtain grace to give
up on themselves and to cast their souls upon Him that died
and rose again. We thank you for this cup, this
wine that shows us your body, your blood that was poured out
of your body. We thank you for this broken
bread to represent your body to us. And as we partake of this
wine and partake of this bread, Oh, Lord, we do it in remembrance
of You. Your death. Your death upon Calvary's
tree. What You accomplished in the
days of Your flesh. Oh, and we thank You for this
ordinance. In Christ's name we pray and ask these things. Amen. If you are here and you know
the Lord, you are welcome to partake of this And if you don't,
well, please pass it by. Brother Bob, would you come and
pass out the bread and wine for us?