Gilliland, David: Three First Things In 1Corintians 15

Now, we'd like to read tonight from the First Epistle to the Corinthians in chapter fifteen. First Corinthians and chapter fifteen and verse number three. 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, and that he was seen of Cephas and then of the twelve. Uh, verse But But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming, then cometh the end. Now, verse forty five. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. How be it that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that which is spiritual, spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And that's all that I, I want to read just at the start of the meeting. I don't think I'm exaggerating at all when I say that out of the twelve hundred or so chapters that we have in our English Bible, that this fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians stands as one of the greatest chapters of Holy Scripture. One of the reasons that has given this chapter its greatness is the fact that it gives us a complete look at human history. Some of its verses take us right back to creation, to the very beginning of things. And then you might have noticed that we read here in a verse, then cometh the end. So that we're working with creation, and then we're working with the end of time, the great consummation. And not only does this chapter take us to the beginning and to the finish, but it also makes a great deal of the most important event in between. Creation at the beginning, the consummation at the end, and Calvary and the death of Christ right in the center. So it is, the truths of this chapter are exceedingly important. The world in which we live is, generally speaking, a world where men are lost. They hardly know where they're going. They feel that society is drifting along aimlessly, and we are not getting anywhere. Many people feel that life is pointless. But you see, it's a chapter like First Corinthians fifteen that lets us know that God has a plan for human beings, and God has a plan for human history, and it's very important that we acquaint ourselves with some of the great doctrines of this chapter. Now, it has been upon my mind, just here at the start of the meeting, to draw your attention to three first things. You all know that we're in the first Lord's Day of this year, and I thought it would be appropriate if we thought about three— they're not the only first things mentioned in the chapter, but three very important first things in First Corinthians fifteen. I want to think about the first man. The first man in the human race. And then I want to think about the first message in human hearing, because the Apostle Paul said that when he went to Corinth, he said, I delivered unto you first of all. And then I want to think about the first sheep in the human harvest. It tells us in a beautiful verse that I look at later on, it says, Christ is risen from the dead, and he has become the first fruits of them that sleep. Now, to go back to that first matter that I mentioned, we have read here in verse number forty seven, the first man is of the earth, and we have read in verse number forty five, it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. As I've already said, just the first human being. Never the likes had been created before. There would be millions of the same type after him, but the first man. According to this passage, the first man didn't come about as an accident. He didn't come about by chance. He didn't come about by evolution. It says clearly in this verse, the first man was made. And it also says in this text, it is. You know, many things have been written about man, and many theories have been propagated about the origin of man. And there are many scientists in the world, even in the present day, and they're circulating all kinds of high-flown ideas. But I think it's very important, and it's not out of place, that on the first Lord's day of another year, and this is a message that, if the Lord be not come, will be preached for the next fifty-one Lord's Days right throughout this year, and maybe more than that. It's good to come back, dear friend, and remind our hearts that we base our message upon the Bible. And it is written. The first man was made. You know, the making of man was nothing short of a masterpiece. All of us here, you have a heart, beats about a hundred thousand times every day, and you never give it a second thought. You have an eye. And on the retina of that eye, well over a million light receiving cells, just a little retina. You have an ear with twenty four thousand receptor strings for sound. Every child that's born has over half a million nerve endings in its hands, little hands. And the first man was made a masterpiece from the hand of God. We have quite a number of younger folks with us again tonight, and I know what I'm saying is very, very basic, and you'll be going to some of your schools and places of education, and they'll be placed into your text, into your hand, textbooks that will tell you different. But can I say that we will always believe what this book says? And this book says, it is written, the first man was made a living soul. Just to see Adam, I've often said I would love to have got talking to Adam. I would still love to get speaking to him, even for five minutes. Not a pain or an ache in his body. Didn't need any glasses, didn't need any hearing, hearing aids, didn't need any medical attention, just perfect. The first man was me. Isn't it an awful pity that he didn't stay the way he was made? Isn't it an awful pity that he didn't stay and fulfill the purpose for which God made him, and he didn't do what God... Isn't it an awful tragedy that he ever gave the ear which God gave to him, that Adam took that ear and he gave it to the devil? And here we are, right here now tonight, on the first Lord's Day in two thousand and two, perhaps something like six thousand years later, and we are still reaping the harvest of what Adam did. And that first man, the tragedy is that because of his disobedience to God, he became a fallen man. And it's not just that he did something a way back, and it was a pity that he did it. The thing that he did has affected us all, so that we have been born as sinful creatures right down to this very present day. Now you say, is there any answer for that? Well, you see, that's what we have mentioned in the second thing that I indicated in the chapter, because Paul in this chapter not only talks about the first man, but he talks about the first message. He said, there was a day that I went to the city of Corinth. Now, I don't want to talk much about that. In the will of the Lord, I'll be saying more about it later in this week. But you know, the city of Corinth in ancient times, it was a beautiful city. It's what we would call, when Paul arrived in it, it's what we would call a modern city. About two hundred years before he went to it, it had been totally destroyed by the Romans. Then a hundred years later, Julius Caesar gave instructions that it should be rebuilt. And by the time the Apostle Paul came, it was a beautiful, bustling city, with buildings just like this hall, almost brand new. It was a place of great wealth. It was a place where they had plenty of games. It was a place where, if you were a businessman, the very place to go to make money. If you were a sportsman, you couldn't go to a better place. But you know, with all its wealth, and with all its entertainment, it's like the world in which we live. It was a city of dreadful wickedness. You know, the city of Belfast beside us here, it has become like that. Plenty of lights, plenty of business, plenty of nightlife, plenty of this, that, and the other, and yet at the same time, saturated with sin. Now the Apostle Paul says, he says, when I came to that message, when I came to that city, he says, why did I come? He says, I didn't come for business. And he says, I didn't come for sport. And he said, I didn't come for politics. He said, the very first thing that I told you, the first thing. He said, this was, this was at the very top of my list. He says, I delivered unto you first of all. First of all. He says, this was my primary purpose in coming, for he said, I knew that that beautiful, wealthy city, it had a great need, and he said, the only thing that would meet that need was the message that I carried. And first of all, I delivered unto you the message how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. You know, here we are. Point I'm making is this here. First night in another year. First Sunday night. I could be speaking to someone here, and if I were to t- take a look at your data, you have plenty of appointment. If you were to show me your calendar, you have plenty of commitment. Now, let me say to you, dear friend, this is the thing that you need to be putting first of all. Before every other thing to which you give your attention, you make this to be a matter of absolute priority. You see, the Apostle Paul knew that the biggest need of human beings is the need of having sins forgiven. Now he said, because I knew, because I knew that those polished, educated, affluent Corinthian people, he said they needed to have their sins forgiven. He said, as soon as I got to that city, the message that I wanted to tell them first of all is that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Isn't it marvelous? And I don't want to get away from this. Isn't it marvelous, dear friend, that we can stand, the two of us here tonight, and as I say, in the will of God, there were plenty of other men doing it later down the year, and they have done it in the year that's passed, that we can stand here and we can announce to whoever came to a- and to whoever comes, that the everlasting Son of God came into this. In love that cannot be measured, God gave his son. And in this world, on a particular day, in a particular place, that one who came, he actually died for our sin. It's not just that he suffered, and he did suffer. He suffered what we can never tell with human tongue. But dear friend, if I may say tonight, and I don't want to be putting things into small categories, if I can say this, he did more than suffer. He actually died. He died that we might be forgiven. He died to do us good, that we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood. Is it any wonder Paul said, this is the message that I told you. First of all, he said, this was the thing that I wanted to keep out of the front, that we were sinners. Jesus came and died for our sins, and the darkest, deepest, most depraved sinner could have his sins forgiven because of the precious blood that was shed at Calvary. First of all, this is it, dear friend. This is right out in the front, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. Paul says, now I didn't invent that. He said, I didn't invent. He said, that wasn't something that I dreamt up. He says, actually, he says, I delivered unto you what I received. He said, I was just hon- you know what a postman is. You see, a postman, he doesn't change the message. He just comes. The postman's job is to deliver the message to you. He's not allowed to open the envelope. He's not allowed to take out a page. He's not allowed to put a page in. He- his job is just to deliver. In a sense, in a sense, Mr. McShear and myself tonight, we're just like postmen. We didn't create the message. We don't add to it. We don't take from it. We don't need to do that because the message stands itself absolutely supreme, and we pass it on. Can I say, it was on the twenty fourth of June nineteen seventy, that I trusted this Christ as my savior. And I'm not sure I can't predict what he'll say, but there's a good chance that this man is coming after me. He'll tell you about a January day, a long time before nineteen seventy, when he trusted this Christ. And as soon as he trusted Christ, his sins were gone. I trusted Christ, my sins were gone. There are many in this meeting could tell you their day. I wonder, would this be the day for anyone present? First, and you could tell the people and tell God and Christ in heaven for all eternity. It was on the first Sunday evening in two thousand and two in Bellam McGarrick Hall. I took it in a personal way. If he died for our sins, he died for me, and I trusted him as my savior. Make this, dear friend, a real first. Mind you, the message that he preached, of course, was a complete message, because he didn't only preach that he died, but he said he was buried. And he says after he was buried, he was raised. And he says after he was raised, he was seen. I think that's a great matter that we have to preach. Maybe we don't emphasize it enough in gospel meetings, but there it is. I want to mention it tonight, if it not only has Christ died, but blessed be God, God has raised him from the dead so that he's alive. You know, back in... was it, what is it? Some of you historians will know the date if I make a mistake. Was it the eighteenth of June eighteen fifteen? Something like that. It was a big day in British history. It was Wellington and Napoleon were fighting it out on French soil, and the people stood in England waiting to see how the battle went. And they stood upon the roof of Winchester Cathedral, and they saw a ship appearing in the British Channel. Seems strange to us now with email and communication and all these satellites and so on, but they couldn't get news in those days. And they watched the ship appearing, and the ship began to put up the flags and make their sign. And they got two words made by Senator Wellington defeated. And a fog came down. And the word began to spread throughout Britain. And consternation went everywhere, Wellington defeated. And it was a dark day. About two hours later, they looked out a second time, and the fog had lifted. And they discovered that the message had four words instead of two. And the message wasn't Wellington defeated, the message was Wellington defeated the French. And the news went back through the land. The message is now different. Instead of defeat, it's victory. Listen, listen, dear friend. The message tonight that we preach and will be preached and has been preached here, here we are the first day of two thousand and two. If you let me say it, it's not half a message. Christ died. That's part of it. But if that were the only message we preached, we'd have to quit. Because there are two other words in it. He died. Thank God he rose. If it was just Christ died and he were still dead, it's a message of defeat. But dear friend, the one who died has been raised from the dead, and I'm inviting everyone without Christ in this meeting, this very night, first of all, first of all, before you do another thing in this year, you stop to think, if God sent his son to die for me, and he rose from the dead, the thing that I need to do first of all is to make sure that I place my trust in him. I wonder how many more meetings, dear friend. Well, that'll maybe bring me to what I want to mention before I sit down. Because not just the first man in history, and not just the first message in importance. Oh, there are plenty of messages. You get messages every day, text messages and email messages and written messages and oral messages, messages every day. But remember the first of all message. This is it. Give it first. But I also want to think about the first sheaf in a great harvest. You see, it tells us in this passage that when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't just rise for himself. He has become the first fruits of a big harvest that's going to follow. You know, from I first came around Ballymagary, there are quite a number of Christians that I knew in my first visit or met. They're not here tonight. And from Mr. McShane first came to Ballymagary, maybe not just the whole, but mind you, the most of the generation that he got to know in his first visit or two, they're gone. Well, you say, what use was Christianity to them if you just believe it and you die like everybody else, and you take cancer and you take arthritis and you have heart attacks and strokes just like everybody? What good is Christianity? Well, I'll tell you this. You know, there's going to be a great harvest day. It says Christ was first, and they that are Christ's at his coming. I thought, you know, it would be too bad to let the first meeting, the first gospel meeting of another year in Ballymagaric Gospel Hall go over. We've talked about creation. That should be mentioned in practically every meeting. We've talked about Calvary. That should be in every meeting. And I think certainly in most of them, if not in them all, there should be a word about the coming. You know he's coming? And all you dear Christians that have been around graves and buried your loved ones in Christ, the bright morning will soon be dawning, the trumpet will sound, the graves will be emptied, and that one man tonight sits in glory, the blessed Savior. He'll soon be joined by millions. They that are Christ at his coming. I'm just going to sit down. But you know, I take a scan around this little company tonight. And there are some of you. And I know if Christ should come tonight, that will just be the death knell to your hope. I know you've heard about it, and you think it'll never happen. My dear friend, some of these days it will happen, and the field will be cleared, the harvest will all be taken in, and every Christian guarded from this world and taken to glory. If it happens tonight, will you just be left where you are? Lost. And lonely. And hopeless. You know, I'm gonna stop, but it's time some of you were putting this whole business first of all. First of all, this is the night to make the mark. Another year has gone, my dear friend. Here's a fresh opportunity on the first Sunday night of two thousand and two. Thank God you could be saved in this meeting. I hope that you'll put it first, and if you put God first and Christ first and salvation first, I can guarantee you, as I stop and this man gets up to speak, you can be saved before this meeting finishes in about twenty five minutes. May God grant it'll be the first night for some in this gospel meeting.