My message for you today has to do with what we turn the gospel, the good news, telling how men can be saved and be absolutely sure about it. I want to read to you from the Word of God, reading from Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. Chapter fifteen. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. by which also ye 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 rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And I'm sure the Lord will bless to us the reading of these Scriptures. Let us bow to a moment of prayer. Our Father, we turn to thee, as thou hast turned our thoughts to the cross of Telvary. And we do pray that we shall, as it were, approach such a sacred sight, like Moses going to the burning bush, hearing the voice say, Take the shoes from off thy feet, the ground whereon thou standest, his holy ground. We pray as we examine the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou wilt touch all our hearts, because that some poor struggling soul today shall find rest in trusting the Lord Jesus. We ask it in his precious name. Amen. First Corinthians chapter fifteen is the outstanding chapter in the Bible that deals with the great truth of resurrection. Now when Paul was writing this letter to the Christians who lived at Corinth, He had caused to speak to them concerning or write to them concerning this great truth. He labored amongst them for a year and a half. And during the year and a half that he labored in the city of Corinth, he preached the gospel. Now when he was going into that city, he determined upon one thing, and that is that he would know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He had also made up his mind that when he declared his message that he would speak to them in simple language, because in the city of Corinth there was a great number of philosophers. These men like to argue things out. They like to have public debate. And when they debated, they were debated about less and less ideas coming down to a very small thing, to see who could give the greatest oration about the smallest matter. Now Paul determined he wasn't going to do that. He determined that when he was coming into Corinth, he was going to spread to them a simple message. He was going to preach to them in language that they would understand. He would know nothing amongst them save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now therefore he's writing back to them and he's reminding them of the gospel that he preached. And he says, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. Now as he outlines the message of the Gospel, he said, this is the Gospel which I delivered unto you. And then he emphasizes this, that first of all, that which he also received. Now remember, the Gospel that Paul preached not only in Corinth but in other places was not some kind of figment of his fertile imagination. This was not something that he cooped up in his own brain. The message that Paul delivered he received by inspiration of the Spirit of God, and what he received from God, that message he delivered to the people. After all, if the message is not from God, then it's not acceptable. But you see, the great Apostle Paul was a man who was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. He received the message from God, and without changing it, he delivered it in its entirety to the people. Now he said, Here are the basic facts of the Gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried. that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. As you read down through this great chapter then, the first thing you're faced with is the proclamation of the resurrection. For while it is true that the gospel employs the truth that Christ died, and the truth that he was buried, it doesn't finish there. To preach the full-odd gospel, you must continue to the resurrection that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, in the proclamation then of the resurrection associated with the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ, here are some of the facts of the gospel. Number one, there is the historical fact. that Christ died. Then there is the doctrinal fact that Christ died for our sins. Then there is the prophetical fact it was according to the Scriptures. It may surprise some of my listeners today when I say this. It's not every person who accepts the historical fact of the death of Christ. For example, there are certain countries today where they have tried to teach the rising generation that there was no such historical person as Jesus Christ. They've tried to brainwash them even regarding his person. But then there are other people who will admit that there was a historical person by the name of Jesus. They will refer to him as Jesus of Nazareth. They believe that he lived most of his days in the little town of Nazareth, nestling in the hills of Galilee. But they do not admit that that man who was called Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. You see, the name or title Christ means the Messiah. They anointed one. And there are certain people today who will not admit that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. the Son of God. You remember that's what Peter admitted with his great confession, when the Lord Jesus said, whom do men say that I am and whom do ye say that I am? Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But there are some people today who will not admit that Jesus was the Christ. Now remember my friend, the message of the Gospel is right there. It was Christ who died. That is, He was the promised Messiah. He came and was offered to his nation, and his nation rejected him. Offered to the world, and the world has rejected him. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. They said, We have no king but Caesar. And when the three crosses were erected on Calvary's hill, the man on the center cross was Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. That is what Pilate wrote over that cross. Some objected to it and said, You should have said, Who said I am the King of the Jews? Pilate said, What I have written, I have written. And the man on the center cross was Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so Paul says that the gospel that he preached was this. how that Christ died. That is a historical fact. But then there is the doctrinal fact because someone might raise the question, if he was the Messiah, why did he die? That's exactly the taunt that was thrown at him while he was on the cross. If thou art the Christ, come down from the cross and we will believe thee. Others who were dying alongside them said, if thou art the Christ, Save thyself and us. But he was the Christ. Well, why was he dying on the cross? Here is the doctrinal fact. Christ died for our sins. Now may I remind you that if you had stood at the cross that day and if Varabas had been standing beside you, Varabas could have pointed to the man on the centre cross. And Varabas could have said, Look, I was in the condemned cell this morning, and it was me who should have been dying on that cross. But do you realize the people said, let him be crucified and give us Barabbas. Give Barabbas his liberty. And Barabbas could have said, here am I, standing here. I've got my liberty. I've got my freedom. And that man on the center cross is dying instead of me. And you could have stood there and said, that's true. Ah, but my friend, I want you to put yourself right in the very place of Barabbas. For Barabbas was a condemned sinner, and so are you. Every one of us stand condemned before God, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And sins must be punished. And there on that center cross, When the Lord Jesus Christ was lifted up between heaven and earth, remember this, He was dying for our sins. No wonder we sing, lifted up, was He to die. It is finished, was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Christ died for our sins. That is the doctrinal fact. But remember, it's also a prophetical fact. A way back in the Old Testament, in the days of Isaiah the prophet. He was the man who was sent by God to speak to the nation and to call them back again to repentance. And in chapter fifty-three of his wonderful prophecy, here is what he says, speaking concerning the coming Messiah. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. You see, it was prophesied back in the Old Testament that Christ should die. A way back in the book of Genesis, we learn this. that the seed of the woman would be bruised while he would bruise the serpent's head. Here we learn that he, the Son of God, would suffer on the cruel cross. Yes, it's true he died, according to the scriptures. It was a prophetical fact. So in the proclamation of the Gospel, we are faced with these three things, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because not only did he die, but that he was buried. Some folk would try to tell us that he never really died, that he only swooned, and then he was resuscitated. My friend, listen to this. The soldiers who were responsible for his death on the cross, they believed he was dead because the bodies were to be taken down from the cross, from the three crosses. And when they came to the one man, they found that he wasn't dead, so they broke his legs to hasten death. Likewise with the other feed they broke his legs. But when they looked at the man on the center cross, they discovered this, that he was dead already. So they didn't break his legs. You see, the Bible said prophetically not a bone of him would be broken. But then they looked at him, and they took the spear and pierced his side, and forthwith came blood and water. There was absolute evidence that he was dead. Then Pilate believed he was dead because Pilate gave permission for them to take the body down from the cross. He would never have granted that permission unless he was sure that he was dead. Then those who come down from the cross believed that he was dead, or else they would never have wrapped his body in the grave clothes with the spices and laid it in Joseph's tomb. But however, they believed he was dead, and so they buried him, and the stone was rolled to the mouth of the sepulcher. He was dead, all right. And they put the seal on that stone, and the soldiers stood there to keep guard over the sepulcher. But on the third morning, the first day of the week, when they came to the sepulcher, they found the stone was rolled away. The Roman seal was broken. The soldiers were like dead men. And the message from the tomb was, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. Here is the glorious truth of the resurrection proclaimed. And it's part of the glorious gospel message. We preach a living Christ, not a dead Christ. We preach one who can say, I am he that liveth and became dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of death and of hell. We sometimes sing up from the grave, he arose with a mighty triumph or his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain. And he lives forever with his saints to reign. Hallelujah. Christ. Arose. So the Gospel presents a living Christ. One who died, that was a historical fact. One who died for our sins, that was a doctrinal fact. One who died according to the Scriptures, that was a prophetical fact. And one who was buried. And one who rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. What a glorious message. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. Oh, my friend, it's a glorious message. It's the presentation of the living Christ. You see, death could not hold him. He had to arise. When he arose, he burst the very gates of death and hell, rose in triumph, placing his feet upon the ruins of hell. Shattered empire, and then mounted in triumph. to the very heaven of heavens. The gospel is the power of God and to salvation to every one of the believers because it tells of a glorious, resurrected, living Christ. One who could say, I have power to lay down my life, I have power to take it up. again. But as you read down through this particular chapter dealing with the resurrection, you discover there are certain problems about the resurrection. You see, there were some people, these philosophers in Corinth, who had studied and were well tutored in all the Greek philosophies. They did not believe in the physical resurrection. They believed that you passed on all right. They believed in the immortality of the soul, but they did not believe in the physical resurrection of the body. And so therefore they would profess that they believed in some kind of resurrection, but not physical resurrection. Now the apostle had to deal with that problem. And we have people today who want to believe the same thing. They teach and believe that when you die, your body goes to the grave and it crumbles back to the dust, and that's the end of it, that there will be no resurrection. My friend, banish such error from your mind today. There is going to be a resurrection when all that are in the grave shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. So said the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be a physical resurrection. Now Paul had to deal with that particular problem in Corinth. And these philosophies somehow or another had become embedded in some of the minds of the people who professed to be Christians, and they could not understand the resurrection. He says, now further down this chapter, he tells us what it's like. He tells us that that which is sown in weakness shall be raised again in strength. That which is sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption. Now, I like the kind of figure that he uses here when he speaks of it being sown. You know, when you sow something, you expect it to bear grain. That which thou sowest, what is it? It will bear fruit or grain according to the character of what is sown. Now, if you put an old lily bulb into the ground, it just looks a brown, dirty-looking thing. But it has the living ability to spring forth. And when the dew season comes round, you see it putting up its green shoot. And then ultimately the beautiful white flower. Now do you realize that white flower came forth from that dirty old brown bulb? Ah, my friend, when we put the dead body in the grave, we put it in there, in corruption. But remember, the day will come when that corruptible shall put on, in corruption, it shall come forth. Now again, he speaks then and deals with the problem and shows us that there will be a resurrection and what it will be like. And then he goes a little further and he gives to us the proof of the resurrection. Now, may I submit to you certain proofs of the resurrection? First of all, there is the proof of the empty tomb. When they went to the tomb, it was empty. He wasn't there. The angelic messenger said, He is not here. He is risen. Why seek ye the living amongst the dead? The soldiers knew that the tomb was empty, for when the storm was rolled away, and they heard the clap of thunder and there was the earthquake. And they looked in, and the body was gone. The resurrection had taken place. They knew it all right, and they ran in to tell their superiors what had happened. There is the evidence of the empty tomb. And then there was the evidence of the eyewitnesses. There was Peter, he appeared to him. And then he appeared to the twelve in the upper room. And says Paul, he appeared to over five hundred of his followers at the same time. And then he appeared to James. And remember, James had not believed that Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. He appeared to James. Then he appeared to all the apostles. Ah, but says Paul, you don't believe all them. He appeared to me. I was a persecutor. I did not believe in him when he died on the cross. And I did not believe the message that the early apostles were preaching. I persecuted them. And I was persecuting them unto strange cities. When the Lord broke into my life. And last of all, he was seen of me. And you know, Paul could tell the story of his conversion and how the living Christ broke into his life. He said, Why persecutest thou me? It is who art thou Lord. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. I ask you, my friend, in all fairness, when you look at the proof of the resurrection, how does it come home to you? And then again there's the prospect connected with the resurrection, because just as surely as Christ was raised from the dead, so every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ, and his coming. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. But we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death. Where is thy sting, O grave? Where is thy victory? Thanks be to God which giveth us a victory.