Good morning, everyone. Good to see you this morning on this Father's Day. If you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15, there is a great deal of confusion in the world and in the church about what it means to be a Christian. Most people who consider themselves Christians are not Christians in a biblical sense. Many people who speak publicly in the name of Christianity are not Christians. What is Christianity? What's it mean to be a Christian? Are Christians people who take conservative stance on cultural issues like gay marriage and abortion and pornography and alcohol? Is Christianity a set of political convictions? Are Christians people who follow the example and moral teachings of a man named Jesus? Are Christians simply nice people who do good to others, show love to others? They are Christians, people who build hospitals in poor nations and feed the poor and stand up for the rights of widows and orphans. So many things are termed Christian today. We have Christian colleges, Christian diets, Christian health plans, Christian psychology, Christian news magazines, Christian faith healers, Christian romance novels, Christian vampire novels, on and on it goes. What's at the center? What is Christianity all about? In our text today, Paul answers that question with resounding clarity. If you'll stand with me, we're going to read this passage, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 8. 1 Corinthians 15, 1. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12th. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. You may be seated today. We'll look at four clarifying statements on the message of Christianity. First one is this. The gospel message is the most important aspect of Christianity. This message we're going to look at today, the gospel, it's the most important aspect of Christianity. Paul says that himself here in verse three, right? For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also receive. Now, there are other things that are important. The Lord has given us 66 books of Holy Scripture, and every word is important for us to know, for us to understand, for us to put into practice into our lives. But there is nothing more important than the gospel. There's no part of Scripture that comes before this in importance. These are the first things that Paul would proclaim as he would go to a new city. With the gospel, these are the things that you need to know if you want to be a Christian. These are the first things. If we lose focus on the first things, it can lead to troubles. If we as a church lose focus on the first things of the gospel, it's going to lead to selfishness. It's going to lead to division within our church, as it did in the church in Corinth. If we lose focus on the first things, it's going to lead to other doctrinal errors. We'll believe other things that are not true, as the people in Corinth did. But as serious as those things are, and they are serious divisions in the church, false doctrine, there's an even more serious result of not understanding the first things. Personally, that would be this, not understanding the first things, not understanding the gospel will lead many who are lost into thinking that they are Christians. We don't understand the first things we might be lost, but think that we're Christians. Notice in the text, Paul is concerned for some in the Corinthian church as to whether they're saved at all, whether the faith that they have is doing them any good. You see that in verses one and two, he says, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which you also received and which also you stand, but which also you're saved. If you hold fast to the word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. Paul says to them, he believes that they're saved because he can think back to the time when he came and brought the gospel message and they received it. They embraced it and they're still holding fast to it and they're standing in it. But in almost every church, there are some who are attending who have a kind of belief, but it's a belief that's in vain. That's doing them no good. for eternity. You say, well, wait a minute, isn't isn't belief the only thing that we need to be saved? And it is. That's right. But there are many who believe in God and sincerely believe in God. And they go to church and they consider themselves Christians and they do their best by that they can do to live a Christian lifestyle. But they're not saved. They're not forgiven. They're not on their way to heaven. You say, well, how can that be? How can they have belief in God but not be saved? Well, they're misunderstanding the gospel. They believe something. They received a message, but they've never, never really embraced and understood for themselves. What is the center? What's the first things of Christianity? Could that be you this morning? Are you here today? Are you sure that you understand the gospel? Or might you be among these who believe in God, who consider themselves followers of Christ, but whose faith is in vain? What we want to do today is just to be clear on the good news of Jesus Christ so that you can respond to it and be saved. for clarifying statements on the message of Christianity. The first one is the gospel message is the most important aspect of Christianity. Number two, the nature of the gospel message. It is good news from God. This is the nature of the gospel. It is good news from God. We want to think about that first part, letter A, the gospel is good news. That's what the word gospel means. You know, gospel, it means good news. And really, we should be able to test any message that claims to be the gospel by this. Is it really good news? If it's not good news, then it can't be the gospel. Paul writes in verse one that he preached the good news to them. Right. I make known to you brethren the gospel which I preached to you in the original language that verb preached. It's just the verb form of the noun gospel. So if you take this literally what he says to them is I good news the good news to you. This is what Paul says, a good news, the good news to you. And that doesn't make very good English. So we use the word preached in there. So we know what we're saying, but the emphasis here is this is good news that I'm proclaiming to you. And the gospel is good news. It's wonderful news. If we grasped how good the gospel is, we wouldn't talk about much else. We would go to, to our neighbors. We'd go to the people at work. We'd say, Hey, have you heard the good news from the Bible? And if they said, well, I know about the Bible, but I don't know about good news. We go, hey, I have good news for you. Let me tell you, there's wonderful news from God. I know for myself, a lot of times when I'm with unbelievers, I get nervous and I think, well, boy, if I tell them the good news, I've got to talk to them about their sin and that's going to make them uncomfortable. It seems like I'm the bearer of bad news, but I'm not. The end of this is good news. This is wonderful news. In fact, if you're not conscious at this moment that the gospel is the most wonderful news that you've ever heard, you're probably not a Christian. You might be a very nice person. You might be wonderful to get along with and loved by all the people around you and doing lots of good things. But if you don't see the gospel as good news, then you're missing it, because that's the heart of what it is. A Christian is a person who knows this is good news from God and is rejoicing in it. What do we learn about the nature of the gospel? It's good news, and it does not come from men, but from God. That also is in verse 3. Paul said, I deliver to you, as in first importance, what I also received. He's talking about the gospel, this message. He received it. And as a runner in a race, he took the baton that he received and passed it on to the people in Corinth. And those people, it says, received the gospel. By the way, this is what the Church of Christ is supposed to do. One generation receives the message From God, the message of the gospel and passes it on unchanged, unaltered, unsweetened onto the next generation. But where does this message start that we're supposed to pass on from one generation to the next that we receive and we pass on unchanged to the next? Where did this start? Where did Paul receive the message of the gospel? The answer is that God revealed it directly to him. God spoke it to him. It started for Paul on the road to Damascus, right? Paul was an unbeliever. He was opposed to the church of God. He thought it went against what the Old Testament said. And so he was going around and he was persecuting Christians on the road to Damascus to send some more to jail. And on the road, Jesus Christ appears to him and calls him to start proclaiming this message. Then after that, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul spent three years in Damascus and Arabia. And while he was there, the Lord was revealing more truth to him. Now, this truth that God was revealing to him, it's not just that God was giving him fuzzy impressions about wonderful feelings from God. God was revealing to Paul Truth, statements that can be repeated, statements that can be passed on from one generation to the next. And the heart of that is the gospel, the good news that we're going to look at today. Hold your finger here in 1 Corinthians, go over to Galatians. If you go to the back of your Bibles, just a couple of books towards the back, past 2 Corinthians, you get to Galatians 1. Paul's going to be talking about the message that he's proclaimed, the gospel that he preaches everywhere he goes. How serious it is that we get this right. Galatians 1, verse 8. He says, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed. Can't get much more serious than that. If anyone gives you a message that's different than this, let that person be condemned eternally. Look at verse 11 and 12 of Galatians 1. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Our tendency as humans, particularly in the modern age, is to think that something newer is always going to be better, right? Because every generation of computers they come out with is faster than the old one. And so we think, well, if it's newer, if it's new, it's probably improved. But with the truth of the word of God, there can be no improvements. It starts with God himself. You never want, you never want Bible teachers who are going to be creative with the truth that they present to you. If anyone of us that teaches here at Lamar's Bible Church, if we were to stand up and say, I have something new for you guys today, your red flags ought to go up. You don't have anything new. All I have to give to you is what I've received from God through Paul in his word. This is what we're to proclaim. We're to proclaim this unchanged generation to generation. As I studied for this message, I read a commentary that came out in 2010. I listened to a sermon and stole much from it by Martin Lloyd-Jones in 1967 that he preached at his church in England. I looked at John Calvin's commentary from 1540. I could have gone all the way back to Irenaeus. I could have gone back to Polycarp in the early church. We're all saying exactly the same thing because this is God's truth and we're simply passing it along. This is what Christians believe. This is no word of man. This is the good news. Paul received it directly from God himself. We have it in undiluted truth. So for clarifying statements on the message of Christianity, number one, the gospel message is the most important aspect of Christianity. Number two, the gospel is good news from God. Thirdly, what's the content of this message? What's the content? What do I have to receive if I want to be saved, if I want to be a Christian? Here it is, number three, according to God's eternal plan, Christ died for our sins and rose again. According to God's eternal plan, Christ died for our sins and rose again. First thing I want to point out here as we go through this, letter A, is that the gospel is about Christ. The gospel is about Christ. Look in verses 3 and 4, it says this, Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised. He appeared. The gospel message is not a general message about God. It's not a general message about religion. There are others who are religious, who share our moral values, others who believe in God. But the good news of how someone can live forever, this message is specifically about Christ. It's about Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, lived eternity and eternity passed and then took on human flesh to live a perfect life in obedience to the father. He, Jesus Christ, is what you need to know about if you want to be a Christian. The gospel is not about social justice. The gospel is not about feeding the poor. The gospel is not about showing love to the people around us. The gospel is not about strengthening families, helping fathers. The gospel is not about overcoming stress and depression. It's not about how to handle your money. It's not about how you can live a happier, more fulfilled life. It's not about how you should vote. Now the gospel has implications for all of those things. The word of God speaks to all of these things, but none of these things are the gospel. The gospel message is about Christ. It's about Jesus. Let her be on your sheets. The gospel is not about Jesus's teaching or his example. The gospel is not about Jesus's teaching or his example. Notice, Paul does not say, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, what Jesus taught, love your neighbor. Now that's wonderful truth. Jesus did teach it. But that's not what Paul says is of first importance. That's not what he says is the gospel. When many people think of Jesus, the first things that come to mind are the things that he taught, and they're wonderful. We love these things. When people think of the Lord's Prayer that they've memorized, great. People think of the golden rule that we ought to do unto others as we would want them to do to us. People think of the new commandment and the greatest commandment about loving God and then loving others. People think of his words against judging, lest you be judged. All of these things are wonderful truths, but Jesus did not come to teach. Others, when they think of Jesus, think of His holy example, how He associated with sinners, how He was kind to everyone, how He rebuked the self-righteous, how He lived a life of love and gentleness and truth. Some of these people would say, well, I'm not interested in doctrine. I just want to imitate Christ. What did Jesus do? That's what I want to do. I want to imitate Jesus. I want to live like He lived. Listen, Jesus lived a perfect life. But He did not come to show us how to live. If you really study the teaching of Jesus, what you're going to find for yourself is not good news. If you study Jesus' teachings, what you're going to find for yourself isn't good news. Let me give you an example of what I mean. One of the greatest passages of sermons that we have of Jesus is the Sermon on the Mount. All-time, my favorite sermon series I've ever done. Matthew 5-7, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. There's people that that know the Bible and so they say well what I what I'm trying to do is to live according to Jesus's principles as he's taught in the Sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes those truths that are though I'm just the best I can I'm trying to follow after Jesus's teachings But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus doesn't call us to follow after him the best we can He says this you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. I And then he defines that for us. He says, okay, you think it's good enough that you've never committed adultery. Well, if you've looked at a woman with lust for her, you have committed adultery. You think it's good enough that you've never murdered. You say, well, I know I do wrong things, but I'm trying to follow Jesus. And it's not like I'm a murderer. I'm not out killing people. If you think you've never murdered, you need to look at the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says that if you've been angry with your brother, if you call them a fool, you are guilty enough to go to the fiery hell. Jesus's words. Then, in that same sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus took the most meticulous rule followers of his days. He took the Pharisees and the Scribes. Now, when we think Pharisees, we have negative connotations. We think, oh, the hypocritical people that they were. But when the Jews would have thought of the Pharisees, they would have thought, well, these are the people that are professionally righteous. These are the people that teach us, and if you look at them, they follow the rules. If anybody follows the rules, if anybody does what is right, it's the Pharisees. Here's what Jesus said about them and to the people. He says, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The people in the crowd must have thought, well, I, I can't surpass the Pharisees and the scribes in righteousness. I can't even get to that. Well, I guess if my righteousness doesn't surpass them, I won't get to heaven. OK, if the essence of Christianity is Jesus's teaching, if the essence of Christianity is Jesus's example, that's not good news because you and I are never going to approach that. We're not going to live the way that Jesus does. We're not going to live up to the teaching that he's given to us. If the essence of Christianity is just his teachings and his example, all that gives to us is condemnation because we fall short. Oh, praise God. The gospel is not about imitating his lifestyle, following his teaching. It's about facts. It's about specific actions that Jesus Christ has taken on our behalf. So if your Christianity is trying to follow the golden rule or try to follow the 10 commandments or doing what Jesus did, listen, you're not a Christian. That's not what Christianity is about. It's not the gospel. And so you say, okay, Mike, if Jesus didn't come to teach and he didn't come to show us how we're supposed to live, why did he come? Why did Jesus come then? Listen to what Jesus said. This is Mark 10, 45. The son of man, that's himself he's speaking of, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus came to die. The gospel letter see the gospel is that Jesus died for your sins and rose again. This is the message of Christianity. Jesus died for your sins and rose again. Look at verse three. For I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received. And here it is. This is what he received and what he delivers that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then the twelve. What does Paul say is of first importance? He points out four things Christ did. Right? He died. He was buried. He rose again and he appeared. Four actions Christ took. The two key actions in this are Christ's death and his resurrection. The kids in Awana, when we get together every week on Wednesdays, we have standard questions they have to recite. And one of the questions is, there's some Awana kids here, you guys should be able to do this. One of the questions is, what's the gospel? What do we do with our hands we stick them out and we say Jesus died for our sins and rose This is the gospel Jesus died for our sins and rose Now there's four things that Paul mentions here. He says death and burial resurrection and appearance Why does he mention the burial? Well, the burial is proof it provides proof of the first thing. How do we know Jesus was dead? Well, they buried him He was in the grave for three days. He was definitively dead. That's why the burial of Christ is mentioned, why it's important. It shows, yeah, Jesus died for our sins. He also mentions Jesus' appearances. Why are Jesus's appearances important? Why does Paul include that here? Well, because it gives confirmation of Jesus's resurrection. How do we know that Jesus was alive? Well, they went to the tomb and it's empty. But then Jesus appeared over a period of 40 days. He saw all kinds of people saw him. He came and talked to them. Peter saw him who had just sinned against him so grievously. His brother, James, who didn't even believe in Jesus before Jesus's death. He appears to James and now all of a sudden James's brother becomes a leader in the church having seen the resurrected Christ He appeared to all the Apostles gathered together right without Thomas and then with Thomas Even larger group of 500 witnesses Paul speaks of here that came together probably in Galilee these 500 people came together and when Jesus was Before he ascended to heaven in between the time of his resurrection and his ascension Jesus went and appeared to these 500 people and they all saw him and then Paul says hey you can go talk to them you can find them because they're still alive and See, Paul wrote Corinthians in the early 50s. Jesus rose from the dead in the early 30s. It's only 20 years ago that Jesus appeared to these 500 people. And so you can find them. The witnesses are out there and they're all saying the same thing because they saw the same person as Jesus and he's alive. And so Paul says, well, some of them have passed away. Some of them are sleeping, but others are still with us. These are the facts that you must believe to be a Christian. One more thing I want to point out about the content of the message. Jesus' death was God's plan all along. Jesus' death was not a surprise, it didn't just come up upon God and thought, oh well, we'll do this. No, Jesus' death was God's plan all along. You can see that in the verses here. I'm in Galatians, I need to go back to 1 Corinthians. Notice the phrase that's repeated there, according to the scriptures. It says in verse 3, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Verse four, and he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Many people put the death of Christ in the same category that they would put the death of Socrates. Socrates back in ancient Greece. He spoke with wisdom. He challenged people's thinking I I enjoyed studying about Socrates and in philosophy he would ask people questions and they didn't know how to answer him and he'd kind of Put him in a position where they they didn't they couldn't defend what they were saying was true But it made people uncomfortable and so at the end of Jesus at soccer at the end of Socrates his life he was accused of corrupting the minds of the youth there in Athens and So they sentenced him to death they killed their greatest teacher and you read the story of Socrates as a student and you think well What a waste what a shame what a tragedy this this great thinker The greatest thinker in all of Athens and they've put him to death because they couldn't handle what he was saying. What a tragedy Now listen if you look at the death of Jesus the same way you look at the death of Socrates as a horrible tragedy as That shows you're not a Christian. Because Jesus' death on the cross was no horrible tragedy. It wasn't just a sad way for a great teacher to end his life as people rejected this great, wonderful teaching. No, this was God's plan all along, from the beginning of time, according to the scriptures. Jesus died and rose again. Turn over with me to Acts chapter 2 in your Bibles. Hold your finger here in 1 Corinthians. Acts comes just before this. If you go past Romans, you'll get to Acts. Acts chapter 2 verse 23 This is very early on after Jesus's resurrection Peter stands up and he's preaching in Jerusalem to the Jews that just killed Christ and He's talking about the fact that they've killed him. What's Peter say to them? Does he say? Oh, what a sad thing He taught this wonderful message and you killed him. I And now the great teacher is gone. Now, that's not what Peter says. Go to Acts chapter 2, verse 23. This man, talking about Jesus, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. Now, it was a godless thing for them to do. They were blamable for their actions. And yet, what does he say? If Jesus was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, this was God's plan from the very beginning that Jesus would come and die for our sins. The entire Old Testament, if you look through it with a focused eye, the Old Testament is looking to Christ. Every part of it, it's looking to Christ who will come, die for our sins and rise again. Go to Isaiah 53. I'm not going to give you the verses there, but just to refer to it, maybe jot it in your notes. The Jews in the Old Testament, what was the thing that they had to do when they went to the temple? Week after week, year after year, they would bring sacrifices, right? They'd bring their lamb, they'd bring their offering and they'd kill it. They'd sprinkle the blood everywhere and they'd offer it up as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord. Over and over again they would do this. Why? What's the point of these sacrifices all throughout the Old Testament? So that they would understand that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. At the end of all of these years of foreshadowing, all these other lambs that have been killed, finally John the Baptist is standing in the water, right? And Jesus is coming down, John the Baptist standing in the water and he says, behold, as he points to Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. This is what the Old Testament is pointing to, Jesus coming to die for us, to take our sins upon himself. It's not a surprise. This is God's plan. He's been building to ever since Genesis 3 Isaiah 53 Christ says that the coming Messiah would be like a lamb led to slaughter The Lord would cause the iniquity of us all to fall upon him The Messiah was going to come he was gonna die in the place of sinners but then Isaiah says this same Messiah is would be allotted a portion with the great, and he would divide the booty with the strong, because he poured himself out in death." Now, Isaiah must have thought, as he's recording these words of God to him, what is this? He's poured himself out in death. How is he going to divide the booty with the strong? He's dead. Well, what's the answer that Isaiah probably didn't even understand fully? Jesus was going to come, he was going to die for our sins, and he was going to rise again, all throughout the Old Testament, pointing towards this. Fourth clarifying statement on the message of Christianity here is this. Each individual must personally receive this message to be saved. Each individual must personally receive this message to be saved. Why did these things have to happen to the son of God? It was the only way that any one of us could ever be saved. The only way. See, we are all lost because of our sins. You see that in these verses here in 1 Corinthians. Turn back there with me, if you will. 1 Corinthians 15. Why did Christ die? He didn't just die to show that God understands our pain and understands the things that we go through as humans. No, Jesus died for our sins. You and I, we were made in the image of God. We were meant to live in fellowship with Him. We're supposed to be living our lives in a beautiful relationship with God, submitting to Him, trusting His Word, obeying Him, but that's not what we do. All of us are lost. Every single one of us does things that are wrong. We've turned our backs on God. Hold your hand in 1 Corinthians again. Go over to Romans. I know I just told you to turn there. You can keep up with me. Romans chapter 1 comes right before 1 Corinthians. Romans chapter 1 verse 28. Pastor Fred just preached on this weeks ago. What we need to do if we're going to be saved, we have to realize that we're lost. We have to realize what God sees when he looks at us. And when God looks at us, he sees He sees sin, he sees ugliness, he sees rebellion. He doesn't see a good guy doing his best. Look at this, Romans 1, verse 28. This is true of us. If we're honest with ourselves as we read through these verses, it's us that's being described. Romans 1, verse 28. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they knew the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those who practice them. Here's where we're at, folks, on our own. We're estranged. We're separated from God. We don't know Him. We don't seek Him. And worse, because of our sin, we're under God's condemnation. We're worthy of death. And you can't go back and withdraw any of it. You can't go back to your past and say, okay, that was wrong, I shouldn't have done that. Erase that, because there's no eraser for it. What you have written, you have written. You cannot erase it. You can't erase your guilt. No matter how many times you read through the Bible, no matter how many prayers of confession you offer to a man or to God, there's just no way of getting rid of the junk that's in our past. Not only can you not erase your past, but you can't clean up your present. Go ahead, make all the resolutions you want to. OK, now from here on, I know I've blown it, but from here on, I'm going to follow Christ. I'm going to do what he says. He's wonderful. I've got to follow him. You're going to break it. You're not going to keep that resolution. You're not going to keep it for a day. And so we're stuck here with a heart that turns away from God and with sin in our past. And at the end of our life, if we die in our sins, there's nothing for us to anticipate but misery and the eternal wrath being poured out of God, the eternal wrath of God being poured out on us day after day because we deserve it. Even then, we continue to sin. This is where we are. We're lost. If you've never seen yourself as lost, If you've never seen yourself as lost, you're not a Christian. This is where we have to start. Okay, but there's good news, right? This is good news. The good news is Christ died for your sins. In the garden before his death, Jesus prayed to his father, John 12, this is, John 12, 27. He says, now my soul has become troubled, and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. This is why Jesus came, so that he could die. God's justice demands that sin must be punished. He declared it in the garden of Eden. He said, if you eat of this fruit, you will die. He declared it through Ezekiel, the soul whose sins must die. He declared it in the New Testament, the wages of sin is death. God cannot revoke his own statements. He cannot deny his righteous character. Before anyone can be forgiven, there must be punishment. For any of us can be forgiven, there has to be punishment, but Christ died for your sins. Turn over with me to second Corinthians book that comes right after first Corinthians, second Corinthians five. Paul again is writing about what's happened for us in Christ. What is God doing by sending Jesus to die for us? Second Corinthians 519. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Verse 21, he made him Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. See. You and I were hopeless and we're helpless and we're sure to bear God's wrath if it isn't for Christ, that's where we are, we're lost. Say, well, what must the person do? What must I do? What must I do? There was a jailer once that spoke those words. Remember that story? Cried out to Paul. He said, what must I do to be saved? What if Paul answered him? He said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. John 3 16 is a verse, you know, right? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. You might say, OK, well, how do I know this is going to be good enough? Because you're right, I've got lots of sins. How do I know that Jesus's death is going to be enough to cover all of that? And I'm probably going to keep sinning. How do I know that Jesus's death will do this for me? Here it is. Jesus's resurrection provides proof of his victory and of his success. Why did Jesus go to the cross? He went there for my sin. He went there for your sin. When Jesus rose from the dead, it provided evidence, it provided proof that God had accepted the sacrifice. Jesus died in our place, and now, having risen from the dead, God has accepted his sacrifice. The wrath of God has been appeased. The the law of God has been satisfied and and for all who believe we can stand there forgiven because Jesus is risen from the dead This is our hope this provides us with our future Okay, one last question Have you received this message? In 1 Corinthians there, Paul said in verse 1 that the Corinthians had received this message. And it was on this message, he says, that they were standing. Do you see that in verse 1? I preached this gospel to you, you received it, in which you also stand. They're holding fast to it. What are you standing on today? What are you standing on? Are you standing on the fact that you're a pretty good person? Are you standing on your efforts to follow Christ's teachings the best you can? Are you standing on your knowledge of science and learning and philosophy? Where will you be standing when you're faced with death? Do you have a foundation? Do you have a rock on which you can stand? There's no good listening to this unless you receive it. See that you're lost. See that you're hopeless and cry out to God to save you. Jesus said in John chapter six, the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. He's not going to stiff arm you come to Jesus in faith. He's not going to turn you away. Are you a Christian today? By asking that, I'm not asking for your views on 1001 questions. I'm asking, are you standing on this foundation? Are you resting on the fact that Jesus died, was buried and rose again for you? Make certain of it. These and these alone are the saving truths of the gospel. Let's pray. Maybe you're here today and the Lord's working in your heart and you've come to a new understanding of this and realizing that it's not the things that you do or your efforts to try to follow Jesus' teaching or His example. Now you see it, that it's Christ that's done it for you. Yet have to receive it Now you don't have to do it here. You don't have to do it in a church You don't have to do it through a person, but you must if you're going to be saved you must Receive Jesus in faith and you can do it here. What's holding you back? If that's not if that's the cry of your heart to call out to God for this salvation that he's given to you In Christ, all you got to do is just cry out to him hear from your heart say Lord. I I'm a sinner I've fallen short of your way Jesus Has died for me and risen again. Will you forgive me because of that? Will you give me eternal life? I'm yours Simple prayer like that and the Lord promises salvation because it's a gift. It's not something we earn Lord, we give you praise for this glorious gospel. It's what gives us hope in life and why we can go out of here without a burden on our shoulders of sin and worry. Why we can go out of here feeling clean and forgiven and why we can smile and enjoy your creation and the good things that you've given to us. Because now in Christ we're righteous. We've been forgiven and cleansed forever. What a glorious gospel. We give you praise. Thank you so much for it. We pray these things in Jesus' blessed name. Amen.