The Gospel that Paul preached — 1 Corinthians 15

0:05 So I made myself a little sign here. Happy Mother's Day. See, I'm I'm Carrie. I'm I'm backing Mason up there. So this is the little story from the the Morris home this morning.

0:25 So so breakfast is over, and Don's sitting at the table pondering life. And and and Kathy walks over and says, honey, don't forget to say happy Mother's Day when you when you're up there. So so I said, oh, thank you, dear. Thank you for reminding me. And so Don's sitting there Don's Don's sitting there at the table, and and suddenly there's a little thing in the back of his mind that says, oops.

0:57 So I turned around, and I walked over, and I stood right beside her. And after she finished what she was doing, she had looked up and with a question in her mark in her eye and so I said, I put out my arms and I said, Happy Mother's Day, honey. Guess what? She smiled me and she gave me a big kiss. So, I came away blessed.

1:26 And a wiser man. Let's pray. Father god, thank you for your love to us. We thank you for mothers. We thank you lord that you've granted in this life those that would be mentors to their children and would would be the the nurturers that mothers are, and we we thank you for mothers.

1:55 And we pray that you'd also bless this message and and that it may be for your honor and glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay.

2:09 So, today, I want to start off my message. I'll give you a title after a bit but today, I want to start off my message by going to first Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15 verses one through four. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you which also you received and in which you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preach to you unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received 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 and that he was seen and then he proceeds to give a list of a number of times that the Lord Jesus was seen after the resurrection.

3:16 So the apostle Paul is near the end of his first epistle to the Corinthians and so I wrote a little bit, a little note above chapter 15. I said, he's about to make a declaration, Paul's about to make a declaration. So what is he declaring? Well, this is what he was declaring. He says, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you which you also received and which you stand by which you are saved.

3:52 He was declaring the gospel to them. The gospel by which they are saved. So maybe I would title this message the gospel that Paul preached that Don believed by which we are saved. And so perhaps each one of us could personally look at this and say, this is for me. This is this is what I believe and and if you don't believe it, well, let's...

4:23 That's that's something we can take care of this morning too. So for certain God says today is the day of salvation. Okay, so then he continues and he introduces at least sideways, introduces the idea of faith. He says, by which you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. And I thought about that, believed in vain, so what does it mean to believe in vain, vain meaning emptiness, believe in emptiness.

5:44 15 inches to heaven, how can you be 15 inches from heaven? And so as you opened up the track and you read it, you found out that the author was referring to the fact that it's perhaps 15 inches from your head to your heart. And if you only have the truth of the bible in your head, if you only say, yeah, believe Jesus died on the cross, maybe even rose again. But you don't really haven't really trusted in him for your salvation, then you have it in your head, but you don't have it in your heart. Guess what?

6:24 You're still fifteen minutes from heaven. 15 inches from heaven. Okay. So so I thought I thought well maybe that illustrates what empty faith is. Faith that that not quite what god was talking about.

6:42 He's talking about trusting. I recall when I was a little child and trusted in Jesus that that I've been naughty that day and and my mother had to punish me and then she was talking to me about the lord afterwards and and and finally I said to her, mother, I I do want Jesus to take away my sins. And so noticed that I I had been a naughty boy and and I had to be punished, and God was using that to kinda convict a little child's heart that that he'd done wrong, and and that that was sin. And so I said, mother, I do want the Lord Jesus to take away my sins. And and she said to me, well, Donnie, if if if if you do want that, then you probably should tell that to the Lord.

7:40 So I did. I got down on my knees beside my mother, and and I asked the Lord Jesus to please come in my heart and take away my sins. And and I believe that that it was a child's faith, a trusting faith that said, I'm I'm asking him, he'll do it for me. And and he did. He did.

7:58 And I I praise the lord for that. So so faith is certainly part of this salvation, this being saved, this gospel that Paul preached. In another place, Paul said, believe on the lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Just as simple as that, that simple trust in him to do it for you. And then it goes on to say, I...

8:24 Paul Paul talking, I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that... And this is the gospel that Paul preached, 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. So so the first thing that we have here is Christ died for our sins and and notice that there is at least some stress there on our sins because if if you're gonna be saved, you have to be saved from something. I mean, has to be a reason, there has to be... And what are we saved from?

9:10 We're saved from our sins and from their consequences. That's what we're saved from. Christ died for our sins. Christ be... Became the offering or the sacrifice for our sins.

9:26 Now some people have said, what's this all about, this sacrifice offering thing? And I think it is interesting that if you start reading through scripture, it isn't very long before you end up with the idea of offering. Some have felt like that it's even embedded in the third chapter of Genesis where the animals had to die in order for Adam and Eve to be clothed. But if not there, certainly is in the fourth chapter of Genesis in the story of Cain and Abel. So these two young men had I suppose been taught that they needed to make an offering to God and so they did.

10:14 So one of them offers a little lamb that had to die to be offered and the other went and got, I suppose the best fruits he could find because he wanted to impress God, right? So they both stand before God and it says that God honored Abel's offering, the little lamb, but he didn't honor Cain's offering. And Cain was very angry, but God says to him, if you, let me see if I can remember this. If you offer correctly, I say offer, if you, I think it says if you do correctly, but I believe some translations say if you offer correctly, won't be satisfied. But if you don't, in other words the idea is, hey if you got it wrong, you still get it right, you know, you can still go to the Lord and and accept his offering.

11:15 So the the little the little lamb must die or or the the offering must die in the place of the one that's offering it so that so that it takes whatever punishment was determined against that one because of sin, it takes that punishment and the offer goes free. And throughout the Old Testament, you would find that there are occurrences like when they had the great, I think it was a Passover with Solomon. Now I don't remember the accounts exactly but I think it was 80,000 bowls and 120,000 sheep. Forgive me if I don't have the numbers perfectly but we're talking about couple 100,000 in one day offerings made. And it's amazing that throughout those four thousand years before Christ that there were literally millions and millions of sacrifices that made and God was illustrating and every one of them that this is his principle.

12:30 And so the Lord Jesus becomes the offering and sacrifice eventually and then we're told later in the book of Hebrews, we're told that that those offerings could never take away sin. In other words, they were simply pointers for God. That there was coming an offering that would be the the offering for sins. We have to praise the Lord for that. The next verse I want to look at is Hebrews, well wait a second, I'm sorry, I'm jumping the gun.

14:01 That he was buried and that he rose again the third day. He was buried perhaps perhaps the brought up and con... As possibly the evidence of his death. He he was actually buried and he was there three days and and then he rose again from the dead. The rose...

14:21 The the the the the resurrection is God's amen to the work of Christ, God's stamp of approval to the work of Christ. Now let's turn to Hebrews two, Hebrews 12 verse two. And this has perhaps a little bit more of the experience of the cross for the Lord Jesus Christ. And and I wanna dwell on it for just a minute. Hebrews twelve two and three, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

15:12 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. So the first thing that hits me in this is is the the statement. He he endured the cross despising the shame. He endured the cross despising the shame. And so we see the lord Jesus nailed up onto this wooden cross and and and the the...

15:52 It even embarrasses us to talk about that he was hung up practically naked on the cross. And he hung there for those three long hours on the cross. I guess it was six hours, I guess it was six hours, so he hung up there for six hours on the cross and during that time, the people stood around and they gawked at him and they said taunting things to the Lord Jesus, as he was there on the cross And it says this about him, it says he despised the shame. Now it wasn't that that he said, it's nothing, that shame is nothing. That isn't the idea.

16:40 The idea is is that he wouldn't in any way let shame shame keep him from doing the will of the father and coming down and suffering for our sins. He despised the shame. No, that won't stop me. So we just praise the Lord that that's what he endured. And then then it says in the next verse it says, he who endured such hostility from sinners against himself.

17:10 Now I know if you go to the old King James, you'll find it says that he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself and and incidentally, checked I checked that against Mr. Darby's translation too and found that he said the same thing, it's a contradiction and it seems to me to go a little bit further than just saying it's the hostility, it's expressing a thought that how could this be that that he would... It's a contradiction to what he is as son of God for him to be healing, for him to be hanging up on a cross like that and and and under such shame. How could this be? It's a contradiction of sinners against themselves.

17:54 You find it a little bit and we'll just go to it for a moment. In Matthew 27, I, in Matthew 27, when they were when they were taunting the lord Jesus when he was up on the cross, it were, I'm in the fortieth verse. They said, they said, if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. What do you pick up from that? The idea that says, are the son of God, if you are the son of God, just come down from that cross, why don't you?

18:30 And and and so they taunted him. Did he come down? Well, no, he didn't. And actually the next verse kinda or the second verse after that kind of says why he didn't. He says, he saved others himself he cannot save.

18:46 If he came down from the cross, we couldn't have salvation. It couldn't be ours, but he did. He stayed there on the cross and took the suffering so that we could be saved. He saved others Himself, he cannot save. And then then in the forty third verse, it it it goes on with the what with the taunting.

19:08 It says, he trusted in god. Let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I'm the son of god And we can just sense the sort of the snarl in their voice and the disdain. If this is the son of God, what's he doing on the cross? And of course, their implication was couldn't be the son of God.

20:17 He's telling about himself, he says, as John sat at breakfast in Austria one morning with two young Jewish engineers, man and wife, they asked him, what he was doing in Austria? You'll never believe what I'm doing, he answered. Try us, they responded humorously. Well, I'm giving a lecture in the museum in Innsbruck to try to convince the Christian friends to take the Tanakh seriously, the Tanakh is the Hebrew name for the Jewish Old Testament. We don't believe you, exclaimed the man.

20:52 There, there, you wouldn't believe me, answered John. John then started to explain more, but the man interrupted. Just a minute. Before you go on any further, I want to explain to you that we do not believe in god. Oh, that is very strange, John remarked.

21:13 No, it's not strange, they said, but we don't want to tell you why. Why not? John responded. Well, we wouldn't want to destroy your faith. They meant it so sincerely that John could not take it lightly.

21:28 As he continued to discuss it with them, the husband began to make signs to his wife and it was clear that they were changing their minds. He said, look, we're going to tell you but please forgive us because we would be very upset if we damaged your faith but we want to tell you. John said, please tell me because if my faith could not take what you're going to tell me, it's not really worth believing. They said, we'll tell you. And they told him the story of Bashevic Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for literature who wrote a book entitled The Slave.

22:08 In that book, he described how in one stage of Russian history, Jewish women and children were buried alive and Bashebek Singer in his book says, I can forgive God for anything, but not that. And these two Jews as they sat on the opposite side of the table said, when we read that, the light went out, there is no God. Sorry, they said, but that's where we stand. John was silent for a very long moment. Entering into the bitterness and despair of this young couple, he thought to himself, what shall I say to these people?

22:52 They have their friends and their families destroyed in the gas chambers of Oskowitz. They are atheists. Finally, he said, okay, there is no God. That's the solution. Life is simply meaningless and absurd, which by the way is one of the arguments that some of the evolutionists used.

23:18 They stared at him with the strangest expression. That's it, said John. You solved the problem. That's the solution. Then he said to them, but you haven't actually removed the suffering, have you?

23:33 What you have removed is the hope because if there is no God, then there is no hope and you are the only left with the suffering still but now there is no possibility of rationalizing it that somewhere, somehow there might be a reason for it. You know, he said, that I still believe there is God. Would you mind if I told you why? They answered, no. He said, well I'm sure you realize that I believe that Yeshua Jesus is the Messiah, the Messiah.

24:11 Yes, they said, we know that you believe that. I don't want to offend you, but would you mind if I shared with you the major reason why I believe that Yeshua is the home messiah? They answered, not at all. You know that he died on the cross, that he was crucified. Yes, they said.

24:35 I know that it's very difficult for you but just imagine for a moment that he was who he claimed to be, that he was god come in human flesh. Then you are going to ask the key question, what is god doing hanging on a cross? Now if that is true it proves that God has not remained distant from human suffering but has become part of it. I would not insult the memory of your family by offering you a trivial simplistic solution to the hurt that burns to your hearts day and night but you know that if that is God on the cross then that at least opens a window into a hope that God has not remained distant from our suffering. He has become part of it and through becoming part of it he has provided a solution for it.

25:41 As John spoke, the tears began to pour down the the the faces of the of the two Jews. Through her tears, the wife said these words, why has no one ever told us told us this about the Messiah before? This points to a very clear key solution. Christ's death on the cross means that God has come near. It creates in our hearts and minds the possibility that there is a real solution.

26:16 Christ himself, the Messiah, the son of God, actually understands suffering because he has been through it. Therefore, he can be trusted to carry us through it in... Into the future. The cross of Christ is God's central comment, his answer to suffering. John told the couple, what God does do is that he plants a cross in the center of history, in the center of space and time and he says to the world, a suffering, bleeding world, this is what I am like.

26:58 The question for every human heart is this, can I trust a god like that? Can I trust a god like that? I think I think we'd say yes, wouldn't we? What is god doing onto the cross? So it's it's it's staggering, isn't it?

28:24 So Peter stands up and he gives a message, He gives us a message concerning what had just happened. He says, I'm I'm chapter two verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by god to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which god did according did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

29:15 And I wanted to stress that little statement. It was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh will also rest in hope for you will not leave my soul in Hades nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

29:46 Speaking of the Messiah, you have made known to me the way of life, you will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of this patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him of the fruit of his body according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on the throne. He, foreseeing this concerning the resurrection of Christ, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses and I think it significant that in the introductory chapters of the book of Acts that the disciples are spoken of specifically of being witnesses concerning the resurrection.

31:00 They had viewed those various sightings of the Lord Jesus so they could be saying, and he was seen, it says in first Corinthians 15, and he was seen. And and there was adequate witness that he had truly been raised again from the dead. Okay, go back to the verse 22. So he... First of all, he says, he speaks of Jesus of Nazareth and he says that he's attested by god by miracles, wonders, signs.

31:39 In other words, god god left a testimony concerning who the Lord Jesus was through his miracles. And and I suppose if you and I had had been at Lazarus' tomb and had seen him rise up, wouldn't wouldn't there something say, woah, who is this person? Who is this person? And and so the disciples finally came down and and and by the time that the years were up, they were ready to say, we believe that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And and now now Peter is using this testimony that Jesus had fully been testified by God to be to be the son of God and and he uses this he reminds them that they've just observed this.

32:40 Him being delivered by the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken with lawless hands and have crucified and put to death. Now he makes it very clear that God's purposes were for the Lord Jesus Christ to die as the great sacrifice for sins. He makes that clear, clear that that was God's predetermined purpose and foreknowledge. And I suppose, in my mind, think, yeah, we're talking about the prophetic scriptures, aren't we? The ones that are so clear in the Old Testament and telling us about what would happen.

33:25 And so so then it says, you've taken with lawless hands your rejection of Christ, you've taken with by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. So even as in John Lennox's story here, he says to them, dispose for just a moment, it's true. So perhaps he would say to them, you saw that, you know it's true. He goes a step further, doesn't he? And this was God's purpose revealed ahead of time that this would happen, and you've taken him and crucified him and put him to death.

34:03 Twenty fourth verse, whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held back. Now, I wanna take a little stress on this statement. It was not possible that he should be held by death. And so I think that when you look in the light of saying that the Lord Jesus had, let me think of the word, had, okay, I'm sorry. I'm going have to look up my verse in Hebrews just to get the word.

34:46 Sorry, just a moment. Okay, Hebrews 12. He... The contradiction of sinners against himself. I'm sorry.

34:56 Expression. We have this statement that it was a contradiction of sinners against himself, but if we take this son of God who was fully attested to be that and we take him and we see mankind taking him and nailing him on a cross, that was a contradiction to it. And so I would say, I like to think of it this way. Okay, so if God, the God of heaven, would sacrifice his own son for our sins. Is it possible that he would leave him in the grave?

35:49 I I would say, nope, sorry. It can't be. It can't be it was not possible that he should be held by it. But of course there's a second reason too and that is that God had said so ahead of time and and and that's very clear. And so he takes about six or seven verses here to to go through David's prophecy and show us what what was meant by that prophecy and and thus to and thus to to make it clear that wasn't possible because God said it's gonna happen differently.

36:22 And so I just have kind of rejoiced in that little expression, it was not possible that he could be held by death. Can't be folks. And so finally the apostles were the great witnesses of this. Now, I'm about running out of time and you'll learn in just a minute why. Okay, in Romans chapter one, I'm gonna read it quickly, Romans chapter one.

37:40 That's our back to our prophetic scriptures, isn't it? And now the fourth verse says, he was declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection is god's declaration concerning the lord Jesus Christ. God's declaration. This is my son and I grant all power to him.

38:09 He's the son of God with power. And and the question would have to come up. Power for what? You know? Well, one thing's for certain is the power to be able to forgive sins.

38:21 That is one thing for certain and and then I I was thinking of others. So, in in Acts seventeen thirty one, it says, again my quarter is going off on me. Okay, 17 Acts seventeen thirty one says, he, God, has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead, power to judge. He'll be the judge in that future day.

39:04 And then quick reference over to Matthew, Matthew chapter 28 and we find this verse. It says, in the eighteenth verse, it says, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been has been given to me in heaven and earth and I know that I went to both old King James and Mr. Darbyssen, both of them say all power is given to me. I'm sure that they're synonymous in a way but I like power because that's what we're talking about in the other verse. All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

39:50 That's our lord, all power. Wow. Isn't that something? Anybody know whose alarm is going off? Okay.

40:08 Now, I did this for a purpose because I wanted to be an illustration, and maybe it's a little dramatic, but but my message is over. And I had planned to have some more, So my message is over, and I I wanted to use even that as a little bit of an illustration that there is going to come a moment when salvation will not be offered any longer. And and and that moment will be when the Lord Jesus comes and catches his own up. And I've made this little sign which you've all seen before, but I'm going to tape it here just to make the point. It would be sudden, won't it?

40:56 People won't be expecting it. I think even you and I will be hard pressed to be in immediate expectation. We'll know it as a doctrine that he could come anytime, but he could come anytime. Perhaps today, perhaps this hour. I even as I was thinking about my talk beforehand, because I thought I'd try...

41:17 I I wish I could make it even more dramatic than this, but but but I I was sort of hoping that I'd be right in the middle of a sentence because I was gonna just stop. Boom. That's it. It's done. No no more chance, nothing more.

42:07 Don't don't stay there. Now is the time to receive the Lord Jesus, your savior. Be quite happy to talk with anyone afterwards if they would like. Father god, we thank you for your love. We thank you for the the wonderful salvation that's offered through the lord Jesus Christ.

42:27 We thank you for his work, his his death, and his resurrection and we thank you father that you did this all for us, that we might be saved and we praise your holy name. Amen.