1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to look at this text this
morning and this afternoon also. This morning I just want to talk
about the gospel. Just the gospel. Let's read here
the first few verses in this 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. 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, lest
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 scripture. and that he was buried, and that
he arose again the third day according to the scripture, and
that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, and 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
as of one born. out of new time, the gospel. I declare unto you the gospel. The word gospel, they tell us,
means good news. The Greek word for it is a good
and joyful message. That's the definition of the
word gospel. But we see this all through the
scriptures. You'll remember this verse very
well in Romans 10. How beautiful are the feet of
him which preach the gospel of peace. One of the things that
makes the gospel good news is because it's a gospel of peace.
How many people today want peace? I want peace. You want peace. But I want peace with God. We
want peace with God. This gospel proclaims peace. How beautiful are the feet of
them that proclaim the gospel of peace. Peace for a tormented
conscience. Peace for a guilty soul. Oh, he said, how beautiful are
the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace, and listen,
and bring good tidings of good things. The gospel, the very
definition of it, is good tidings of good things. It's called the
gospel of God. So when we say it's the tidings
of good things, it's the tidings of the good things of God. It is not of man. Paul said,
I never received it of men, neither was I taught it but by revelation. The gospel is from heaven. That
is why it is good news. It is the things, the good things
of God. And Romans 1.16 calls it the
gospel of Christ. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. So it is the glad tidings concerning
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ." The angel from heaven
gave the best definition of the gospel I think we have. You remember
when the shepherds were watching their flocks by night there upon
the hills of Judea, and the angel was dispatched from heaven. Who
his name was, what his appearance was, we do not know. But they
were exceedingly afraid at his presence, and here is what he
said to them. He said, Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good tidings. That is what the gospel is. And
where is it from? Where did this angel come from?
He came from heaven, from whose presence? From the presence of
God Himself. And therefore, he says, this
is good tidings. I bring you the gospel, and then
he describes the effects of this gospel that it has upon all of
those who hear it and believe it. For he says, I bring you
good tidings of good things which shall be to all people. And listen
to this, I bring you good tidings of great These are good tidings, and I
tell you what happens when it gets into a poor sinner's heart.
It's a source of great joy to him. Good tidings of great joy. It's always the effects of hearing
and believing the gospel. That those who hear it and those
who believe it experience joy. They experience it to the degree
that they hear it and understand it and believe. Great joy. That's what the angel said. I
bring you good tidings of great joy. And then he tells them the
source of this great joy. He gets at the very heart of
what the gospel is. He tells them in the very next
verse, For unto you is born in the city of David a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. So this good tidings is concerning
the Savior that came into this world. And those glad tidings
are the source of great joy to those who hear them and those
who believe them. We go on in that very chapter,
and it was said, the shepherd says, let us go unto Bethlehem
and see for ourselves these things that have been told us, these
things that we have heard. And the scripture says, they
went, they saw, and they returned glorifying and praising God for
those things which they had heard and seen. When a man hears these glad tidings,
and he believes these glad tidings in his heart, that's a source
of great joy. Great joy. I was just reading
here while we were singing in Luke's Gospel in the first chapter. And you remember when the Lord
Jesus had been conceived in the womb of Mary? And Mary went in
to the hill country to meet Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with
John the Baptist. And as soon as Mary saluted Elizabeth,
the babe leaped in her womb for joy. Here the Son of God was,
just a few days old, in his mother's womb. had only been conceived,
and yet when this unborn baby heard the salutation that the
Lord's mother made to Elizabeth, his mother, he leaps for joy. Why does he do that? Joy is always
the effect of what we hear, what we believe, and what we know. John heard, though he was a fetus
in his mother's womb. He heard. He knew the Savior
was present. And it was good tidings of great
joy. So he leaps. He leaps. The definition of the gospel
is glad tidings of good things. The good things of God. The good
things concerning Jesus Christ, the Savior. Again in Luke chapter
24, the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead. He was there at
the tomb. And the ladies had gone there
just to anoint His body. But to their exceeding great
joy, He spoke to those women and said, I go before you into
Galilee. And you go tell my brethren this,
and the Scripture says they returned from Jerusalem worshiping and
with great joy. Why were they so joyful? It was
concerning this good news that the Son of God whom they loved
had now raised from the dead. also at His birth, at His resurrection. They rejoiced. They rejoiced. And you remember when the Lord
Jesus gathered His disciples together on the Mount of Olives,
and He lifted up His hands and He blessed them. And as He blessed
them, the Scripture says He was received up into heaven out of
their sight. And the Scripture says they returned
to Jerusalem having worshipped Him with great joy. At His birth, at His resurrection,
at His ascension, He Himself is the good news. He is the glad
tidings. And when you have heard these
glad tidings, When you've laid hold of these glad tidings in
your heart, they are a source of great joy. I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Why? Because unto you is born, unto
you is born a Savior. Now, here's the question that
I want to answer this morning. Why is the gospel called good
news? Why did God himself call it the
gospel? It's the gospel of God. Why is
it called glad tidings of good things? And here's the simple
answer. Because it is the work, it is
the doing of someone else. It is the accomplishment of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And here's why that's so. His work was and is a saving
work. That's why it's good news. His
work is a redeeming work. It's a reconciling work. Not
for Himself. The Lord Jesus never did anything
for Himself. He was a public figure. All that
he did, he did for others. These things he did, he did for
those who were lost. Oh, when a man is lost, when
he has the knowledge of being lost, oh, that sound, when it
sounds in his soul, could it be that I'm lost? Yes, I'm lost. Only God can show a man that.
Only the Spirit of God can make a man know that. And here's the
good news. Jesus Christ has then accomplished
a saving work for the lost. Isn't that good news? He has
accomplished and obtained a redeeming work. Oh, could it be this morning
that somebody is here and you are under the curse of the law. Somebody is here and you are
living in the fear of death. You are not prepared to die.
You are not willing to die. Oh, could it be that you're here
this morning and you could hear this gospel that Jesus Christ
was made a curse for people just like you, to redeem you from
the curse of the law. Perhaps you're here and you feel
the wrath of God. You've got the apprehensions
of God's wrath. And you feel that God is your
enemy. And oh, what an awful thing it
is. Nobody can be your enemy like God is if He is your enemy. He is either a man's worst enemy
or He is a man's best friend. But listen to this, Jesus Christ
in the days of His flesh has redeemed a great host of sinners
from the wrath to come. Is that not good news? Oh, what
good news that is! Lost, perishing sinners unto
the wrath of God to redeem them. No sooner had the Lord Jesus
been announced that He was coming by the womb of the Virgin, and
that same angel appeared unto Joseph, and here is what he said, For that which is conceived in
Mary's womb is of the Holy Ghost, and you shall call His name Jesus,"
listen to this, "'for He shall save.'" For He shall save. If you and I have any apprehension
this morning of what it is to be lost before God, what a glad
tidings this is. For he shall save. And that's the good news. It's
all in past tense, you see. It's accomplished 2,000 years
ago in the history of this world. It's not that God is asking us
to do something. The good news is it's been done. It's been accomplished. He shall
save. His people from their sins. Unto you is born a Savior. That's the good news, is it not? He wasn't born to bring us another
law. He wasn't born just to put us
under rules and traditions. He wasn't born to make us miserable. We're already miserable. He came
to save the miserable. Are we miserable? Well, here's
good news. Here's good news. And it's from
heaven, and it's sure. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Oh, and I love how Isaiah said
it. Here's the way the Father was speaking to Isaiah. And he
says, they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors. That's it, isn't it? They shall
cry because of the oppressors. We have oppressors, he said.
What is it that oppresses us? Is sin not our chief oppressor? Is apprehensions of death, dying,
loss, our oppressor? Is eternity not our oppressor?
Is the devil not our oppressor? Is the fact that we cannot please
God in ourselves our oppressor? We utter failures, aren't we?
We are utterly lost. They shall cry unto me, the cause
of the oppressors, and listen, and He shall send them a Savior,
a mighty one, a strong one, and He shall deliver them. Oh, is that not good news? Is
that not glad tidings? And in all the work that was
required to be done to save a poor, miserable, perishing sinner,
he accomplished it all in the days of his flesh. He bore sin in his own body on
the tree. He suffered for sins, the just
for the unjust. And Paul tells us here in our
text that He died for our sins. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, if Jesus Christ took our sins to Himself, and those
sins became His own, and He suffered for those sins,
and He died for those sins, All those sins that he had upon him
have been punished and have been put away. They are no more. Oh, nobody shouted at them. Nobody
leaped for joy. And you know why? Oh, you're
like me. You're not hearing this. You're
not believing this. This message is from heaven,
and it's too good to be true. We just don't believe it for
joy. Why doesn't it affect us anymore? Did Paul not say here
he died for our sins? Does that not mean, brothers
and sisters, there's not a one of them left to accuse us before
God? Oh, yes, we struggle with them.
Oh, yes, we fill them in our conscience. But before God, where
are they? They're gone. They're gone. Oh, they're gone. Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Are they gone? He died for our sins. What does
that mean? That means when He died, all
the sins that were upon Him, He put them away in a just and
lawful manner. They're gone. They're gone. What are you afraid of, dear
child of God? What are you afraid of? I tell you, everything you
feel, everything you fear in this life, every dread you have,
can directly or indirectly be traced to your sin. Do you know
that? Everything you dread. If you
could live in this faith of the gospel, this glad tidings from
heaven, that the Savior had indeed put your sins away, there would
be nothing that got you down. You wouldn't go around with your
long faces. Your hearts would be full of
joy because that's the effect of believing this good news. It's glad tidings of great joy. Aaron was to take that scapegoat.
He was to put his hands upon the head of that goat. And he
was to confess over that goat all the iniquity and all the
transgressions and all the sins of the children of Israel. Putting
them upon the head of that scapegoat. And then a fit man was to lead
him out into a wilderness in a land that was not inhabited. And the goat was to stay, and
the man was to retire. Is that not a picture of our
Savior? Is that not the good news? When He said, It's finished,
He took our sins unto a land that's not inhabited. Behind
his back he has cast them into a sea of forgetfulness, never
to be remembered against them again. Oh, brothers and sisters,
if you and I who are sensible of our sin would hear this message
and believe it in our hearts, what a source of joy that would
be! Why did God call it the gospel?
Because it's the good news of what somebody else has accomplished
on the behalf of lost, perishing sinners who are in bondage. Oh, did I say he took away sin
by the sacrifice of himself? He did more than that. The Scripture
teaches us that by His death, He abolished death. He took it
away. Death is no more. O death, where
is your sting? Why do we fear death? It goes
right back to our sins, doesn't it? The sting of death is sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. But when Christ suffered for
sins, He suffered the pain of death." I love what Peter says about
Him. God hath raised Him from the dead, having loosed the pain
of death. The pain of death. Death gaped
its mouth upon our Savior, and He swallowed it up. He abolished
it. Death is no more. Peter says
it's impossible that He should be holden of it. Oh, death is
the king of terrors. And one of the things that makes
it the king of terrors, you and I cannot escape from it. We have
no weapons to fight against it. It's impossible that we could
escape it. Oh, but Peter turns the wheels
and he said, listen, it's impossible that it should hold the Savior.
He's not like us. Why was it impossible that death
could not hold Him? Because He's the Prince of Life.
As the Father hath life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. Oh, he was so holy and so full
of merit that he could put sin away. He either had to put them
away or they would have damned him because he wasn't like us.
He was a great one. Oh, he was God. And therefore,
the sacrifice that he gave, that precious blood, put sin away.
And he was life eternal itself. And therefore, he abolished death.
You can't hold him dead. He'll swallow you up. And that's
what He did. Oh, death, where is your stand? Oh, grave, where is your victory?
Now the Lord Jesus comes from the grave, and He comes out of
that place of the dead. And what did He say? Well, He
brags about it, doesn't He? He boasts about it. I am He that
was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I've got the
keys of death. and of hell. Isn't that good
news? Isn't it good news that the sting
of death is gone because sin is gone and nobody can die and nobody can go to hell except
the Savior? Unlock the door. Oh, what good
news! What good news! Oh, William Tyndale, bless his
heart. He says about the gospel, here's
the proclamation of it, he says, Christ is willing and shall share
his victory with poor, perishing sinners. He shall share his victory
with poor, perishing sinners. And Mr. Tyndale said that is
his righteousness. whereby he honored the law of
God. He's willing to share this righteousness
with poor, naked sinners. His life wherewith he abolished
death, his life eternal, he's willing to share with sinners. And the power of that life whereby
he overcame the grave, In a word, he is willing to share all that
he has done and all that he has accomplished with poor, undeserved
sinners. Oh, brothers and sisters, isn't
that good news? His life eternal to share it
with you? His righteousness? His power? His glory? Is heaven everything? Oh, he didn't do this for himself.
He could have stayed in heaven and had it all. He had it all
before he came to this earth. But he was there alone, you see. If he was going to have company
to share all this with, then he must earn it. He must buy
it for himself. And that's what he did. I love
the verse in 2 Timothy 1.10. The apostle Paul says he hath
abolished death, and he hath brought life and immortality
to light. Words through the gospel. He
has abolished death. But that's not all he's done.
He's brought life. He's brought life. Now we can
live in Him and by Him. That's the good news. He lives. But He said, because I live,
you shall live also. That's the good news. And He's
brought immortality. Here we sit, and here's our problem. We're mortals. Look at us. Look how we're aging. Look how
we're wrinkling. We can't think anymore, can we?
Oh, we're always thinking about going to the doctor and taking
our medicines. I'm so weary with it. Aren't
you? What's our problem? We're mortals. We're bound to
this earth. But you know what Jesus Christ
has brought in to give to poor mortals? Immortality. He earned it Himself. And soon,
these mortals shall put on immortality. And He has brought this to light
through the gospel. And oh, I am just certain the
reason you and I are not shouting for joy while we are washing
our dishes and mopping our floors and working down at the shop
and sitting in our desks is because we forget this good news. Oh,
I declare unto you the gospel. The gospel. The gospel. And no sooner had the Lord Jesus
got this great victory over all His enemies, but He gathers His
apostles together. And He's so anxious, He's so
willing to share this victory with others, He commands His
apostles, go unto all the world and preach this good news to
every creature. Oh, isn't He anxious about it?
Don't he show his willingness before he does anything else?
He said, this is the most important thing I can tell you. I want
you to go preach these glad tidings to poor, perishing sinners. Tell
them of the victory that I've obtained and tell them I am willing
upon their believing in me to share this victory with them.
And you know where he tells them to begin. He says it like this. He says, It behooved me to supper
and raise from the dead, and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in my name among all nations. Listen, beginning at Jerusalem. I tell you what, he is so convinced
of his victory that he has won And he's so willing to share
it. And he's so willing that you and I know that this victory
is effectual. There's no doubt about it. He
tells his apostles, you preach it first to those who murdered
me. Isn't that wonderful? And that's
what they did. They began right there in that
city to preach these glad tidings to those men who murdered the
Son of God. And Peter confronted them with
it. He said, Oh, you by wicked hands, you crucified and slain
the Lord of glory. And now he's exalted at God's
right hand. And they said, Oh, my soul, we're
in trouble. We're in trouble with God. What
are we going to do? And what did Peter say? Oh, it's
too late for you fellas. Oh, you've done some awful bad
things. And now God for sure is going
to damn you for it. You deserve to go to hell this
day. No, that's not what he said, is it? That's not what the Lord
Jesus told him to say. That's not the good news. Repentance
and remission of sins. What shall we do? Repent, every
one of you. I saw a sign just the other day.
Most usually I don't like signs on the churches because they're
so foolish. Give the devil an inch and he'll
become a yardstick. Now, that's just foolishness.
But there was one I liked. It said, God allows U-turns. God allows U-turns. I like that, don't you? Aren't
you thankful for that? How often have you had to turn
to God? And aren't you glad? that He
grants repentance. All of these men were glad. Repentance! Oh, Peter, you don't know me. You don't know me, Peter. You
don't know what I've done. I was the very one that yelled
the loudest, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! What am I to do,
Peter? Oh, repent. Repent. Turn to God. There is remission
of sins through this Savior. Oh, but Peter, when he was suffering
upon the cross, I cleared my throat and I spit up at him,
and my spittle was mixed with his blood running from his brow.
What must I do? Repent. God allows you to turn. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thought, and let him return unto the Lord. And He'll have mercy upon him.
Oh, how can God do it? Why would God do it? For His
Son's sake. That's why. Oh, how often we
have to go to God. Don't we just go to Him? And
oh, we feel ourselves to be so worthy of His wrath and hot displeasure. But we go to Him. And we address
Him as our Father, do we not? Oh, it's me again. My Father,
I confess my sin. Look what I've done. I abhor
myself. And what does He say? I'll be
merciful to your unrighteousness and your sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. Repentance and remission of sins
in His name. Because of Him. Because of what
He's done. I'm finished. I'm finished. I brought my clock and I'm finished.
I'm finished. Let's stay