Good morning. Today, we return to our series of messages on a Christian's personal witness, considering various aspects of what it means for the individual Christian and for the body of Christ corporately to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. We've considered the fact that witnessing for Christ is a Christian's duty. This is not an option. This is not an extra. It is part of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It's part of what it means to be a church of Christ. As he says, ye are my witnesses. Secondly, we have taught that Christian witness has two complementary elements. Those elements being that of the proclamation of the message and the affirmation of the message. The proclamation of the message is where the Christian articulates the gospel of salvation in a clear and biblical manner so that the unbeliever can hear, understand, and believe. The affirmation of the gospel is where the individual Christian, the corporate body of Christ, lives out the truth of the gospel, demonstrates the fact that Christ is risen from the dead, the fact that their sins are forgiven and they have the gift of the Holy Spirit. They affirm the truth by what they live. That's not very complicated. In any sphere, a man may say something, a person might say something, but their belief in it, the truth of what they say, is proved by their life. Do they live what they say? Do they live as if God is? Do they live as if Christ is risen from the dead and the gift of the Holy Spirit has been given to them? And it is therefore through our lives that we affirm the truth of the Gospel. And both of these are necessary in bringing a clear witness for Christ. Thirdly, we have considered the fact that conversion is a process of sowing, watering, and reaping. Jesus in His teaching in the Gospels makes this very clear, and Paul affirms it as well. And that is. Just like in the physical world, just like in the area of the growth of a plant from a seed to its sprout, to its development, to its final fruit, and there are steps there, there is time there that has to take place, so is the same with the conversion of a soul. It is a process. And as we are called to witness for Jesus Christ, we will be involved in that process in various stages in the lives of the people around us. We might be the sower. For the first time, bringing the gospel to someone. We might be one of the waterers used of the Lord to affirm the gospel, clarify the gospel as we speak, and leading that person along step by step to where the fruit would come in their conversion. And there are times we may be those who have the privilege and the blessing of being a reaper and leading a person to faith in Jesus Christ. This morning we want to continue with the fourth aspect of our study, and that is by looking closer at the articulation of the gospel. Witnessing for Jesus Christ requires the articulation of the gospel. And when we speak of articulation, we mean that of speaking, communicating the message of the gospel to the lost, which is then affirmed as we model the truth of the gospel in our lives. This morning, we want to talk about the articulation of the gospel. In our next message, we want to talk about the affirmation of the gospel. Now, as we've seen, proclamation of the message of salvation, of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is absolutely essential in evangelism, and it's to be part of each Christian's witness for Christ. Each one of us needs to be able to articulate the message of salvation. And on some level, according to our gifts and callings, we are called of Jesus Christ to take part in the proclamation of the message of salvation to the world. Remember, we sow through proclamation and we reap through proclamation. It is essential in the entire outwitness. No one can be saved from sin apart from hearing and believing the message of the gospel. And I would like to read again the verses that we did in our first message from Romans chapter 10. where this truth is made abundantly clear. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That is, saved from sin, from the penalty of sin. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher or a messenger? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Men have to call upon the name of the Lord if they are to be saved. But they can't call upon the name of the Lord unless they first believe in Him. They will not call upon someone they do not believe in. And they cannot believe in someone of whom they have not heard. And they cannot hear of Him unless someone tells them the message and communicates to them the good tidings, the gospel of peace. And Paul's quoting from Isaiah here speaks of the beauty, the glory of being a messenger of good tidings. to those who need to call upon the name of the Lord. And so this is something that is absolutely essential. We are to be faithful witnesses of Christ. We must proclaim. We must deliver the message of the gospel. Now, this might seem like a simple question or perhaps a redundant question, but we have to ask as we begin this message, what is the most important thing in our proclamation? It's the message, is it not? It is the message that we proclaim. As James Stewart says in his book, A Faith to Proclaim, now the evangelism is that the evangelist must be sure of his message. Any haziness or hesitation there is fatal. Certainly, this is the first axiom of our witness, of our proclamation. We must be sure of the message we proclaim. And as he points out here, if we're hazy on what that message is, if we're hesitant as to what that message is, it will prove fatal in our attempt to proclaim the gospel of salvation to those who need to hear it. The Christian, the Church of Jesus Christ, must know the message that it is called to proclaim. It must know the gospel and be able to communicate that message effectively to others. Therefore, this morning we want to begin by considering the message we are to proclaim. The message that we are to articulate to those who are in need of salvation through Jesus Christ and faith in Him. There is only one gospel. According to Paul, it's the gospel that was revealed to him by Christ, it is the gospel that he preached, and that if anyone would preach or teach any other gospel than this, Paul had the words The strong words of condemnation when he said, let them be accursed if they would speak another message than the gospel. So what is the gospel? What is the message that we are to proclaim? I would say as we go on to this, we are speaking here today to groups. I'm speaking to those who know Christ as Savior. who have heard the message, who have believed the message, have called upon the name of the Lord and are sure that they are saved. They know if they were to die today and they were to stand before God, that they would be admitted into the presence of God as forgiven of their sins because they know the gospel, they believe the gospel, they put their trust in the gospel, and they know that they are saved. However, there's another group that I want to speak to, even as I explain what this message is to Christians who are to proclaim it. Because any time the Gospel is given, whatever the context is, there is the hope that an unbelieving soul will hear it and believe. And so this explanation of the Gospel is also for you. Are you sure of what the Gospel is? Do you know that message? For the unbeliever, even for the Christian who proclaims it, haziness can be fatal. Do you know the message? Have you believed it? Do you know for certain that God has forgiven your sins? Do you know that if He would call you into His presence this very day that you would be received as one of His children and forgiven of your sins? Please hear this message and ask God to give you enlightenment and faith that you might believe it, that you might believe in the Gospel of Christ. So what is the Gospel? Someone may say here that that's a very elementary question, Bill. Every Christian knows what the gospel is. Do they? And in a group of Christians from across a wide spectrum of churches and denominations in America, you would be surprised how different their answers would be if you said, state to me what is the gospel. Some would probably say, in fact, maybe even a majority, the gospel is that God loves you. That is not the gospel. Oh, there's an element of that in the gospel. But it is not the gospel that God loves you. The truth of the matter is that God may be very angry with you, and you are in danger of His wrath. But to a lot of people, that's the news the church is to be proclaiming. That's the good news for the world. God loves them. And as one presentation says, and has a wonderful plan for your life. Someone might say, building on that idea, that the gospel is the good news the church is to proclaim to the world is that God has the solution to your problems. He can give you a better marriage. He can give you a better bottom line in your finances. If you're dealing with some sort of addiction, He can help you to conquer that. God is your friend. God is your helper. Turn to God in your problems and He will help you. That's the good news we have for you today. That is not the gospel. There is truth to that fact, and within its own context and place, those things could be said. Perhaps. But that is not the gospel. In fact, the gospel is not that Christ is your Savior. The gospel is not, if you ask Jesus into your heart, you'll be saved from sin. That is not the message that we are to proclaim. None of these and many other types of statements that are popular are the gospel. The gospel means a message of good news. To proclaim the gospel is to proclaim a message of good news to sinners. And so we're asking again, what is that message? In 1935, a significant book was written by a British scholar by the name of C.H. Dodd. that was entitled The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments. Here happens to be a copy of that book. Although Dodd himself accepted some of the presuppositions of liberalism, and I cannot endorse everything that he says in the book, his book is a profound work. In its context, and to those whom he was writing, it was a direct challenge to the preaching of the liberal churches of that time, to liberal pastors, who focused on Jesus as a moral teacher, an example. They had a message of moralism to the world. Basically, again, God loves you and the brotherhood of man. This was the message that they were bringing to the world. But God raised up an imperfect man, I think imperfect in his theology and other ways, to challenge that perspective of liberalism. What did God do? He did something amazing in that sphere. He went to the Bible. to the New Testament. And he studied these documents by studying the preaching of the apostles as recorded in the book of Acts and as expressed within the epistles. He searched these, and his goal was to sketch out the essential elements of the early church's message that brought to a lost world, beginning in Israel and then going to the Gentiles. Ms. Dodd worked through the epistles, particularly the Book of Acts, to see what was the message? What was the apostolic preaching that so turned the world upside down? What was the core? What was the content? Dodd wrote this book, which was actually based on a series of lectures he had given, and Dodd's conclusion shook the liberal establishment. And he said, all that we're preaching is wrong. We need to confront the world with the same message that was preached by the apostles. For some heard and some did not hear. God used an interesting term to designate the message that was preached by the apostles. The kerygma. The kerygma. This word, kerygma, is based on the Greek word keruso, which means to preach publicly, to publish or proclaim something in a public forum as a herald, to announce some sort of message to the wider public. And this verb is commonly used in the New Testament in connection with the word gospel. And it spoke about how the apostles proclaimed, or using the word keruso as the verb, they published or proclaimed as herald the gospel to the world. And on the basis of that word keruso, he named and designated this message as the kerigma, the noun form, the message, that's what it means, the message that these heralds proclaimed. God also made a distinction between teaching as it is given in the church, that is, to the assembled Believers who have believed the kerygma, to those who are now being instructed in the faith and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He made a distinction between that teaching that took place within the sphere of the church and the proclamation of the gospel that took place outside of the church. The proclaiming of the gospel to the world. What is the content of the apostolic preaching? What did God have to say? I think this is an excellent book and I want to use that as the basis of our discussion here as we look at what the kerygma is. What is the message? that we are to proclaim. God identified six fundamental aspects of the apostolic preaching. Going through the book of Acts, studying the sermons that were given, beginning with Peter on the day of Pentecost, and the other apostles, and then picking up Paul and his ministry, beginning in Acts 13 when we have his first recorded sermon, Antioch of Pisidia, and looking at the elements, and then going to the gospels, and then going back, well, going to the gospels, and then going to the epistles, I should say, and identifying these. And here is what. He identified, and I believe this is the truth. Number one, the first aspect of the message of the church to the world is this. The age of fulfillment has come in the person of Christ. The age of fulfillment has come in the person of Christ. They preach that the final age had dawned and the promises and the prophecies of the Old Testament are being fulfilled and are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, the message of Christ they preached, the message of salvation, was rooted in something. Their kerygma did not come out of nothing. It was rooted in history. It was rooted in the Old Testament revelation. It was rooted in what God had done, who was the Creator of all men. It's what God had done in response to the fall, in His call of Abraham to have the seed of Abraham be the blessing of all nations. And so you see, the preaching of the church in terms of its message is rooted in history and rooted in the era of preparation found within the Old Testament Scriptures. Our message doesn't come out of nowhere. It's not a bolt out of the blue. It did not fall from an angel from heaven to the shock and surprise of the apostles. But it was the fulfillment of all that God had done and said in the Old Testament. Even at the Garden of Eden, when the fall had said, God began His promise that He would send a Redeemer. And the apostles say, these promises are now fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The Messianic age has come. All of the glorious promises are now being fulfilled. And so they proclaim, behold, the day of salvation has arrived. This is absolutely important for the church to understand that its message is rooted in the era of preparation, that Christ and his work is the fulfillment of prophecies that were given centuries and centuries before his coming. And in tying our message into the fact that this is now the age of fulfillment, we actually begin where the Bible begins with creation and the fall. And God's response to the fall in the calling of Abraham, the raising up of the nation of Israel through the Mosaic Covenant, the coming of the prophets, and all of this was preparation. Centuries, millennia of preparation. And the apostles, when they came preaching the message, they said, behold, the time has come. The prophecies are fulfilled. The day of salvation has arrived. The second thing we see about the Kerygma, the preaching, the message of the apostles, was that the fulfillment of God's promises of salvation have taken place through the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, the age of fulfillment is here, the day of salvation has come, and it has come because God has fulfilled His promises to save men through the life, the ministry, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in their preaching, we can discern that they gave at least a brief account of each, bringing with them proofs from Scripture, Old Testament Scripture. And they were insistent when they preached that all that was taking place in Christ, in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection, was taking place according to God's determined counsel and foreknowledge. The aspect of the apostolic preaching in this regard focused on four things. We're under point number two, and there's four things that were about this preaching. They emphasized Jesus' Davidic descent. He was descendant from David. He was the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David. Secondly, Jesus' ministry to Israel proved that He was the Messiah through the many mighty miracles and works that He's done. Study the speeches and acts. They speak about Christ being born of the Son of David. They speak of His ministry where He was attested of God by many mighty works in Israel. And so they speak of His birth and His Davidic descent They speak of his ministry to Israel, where he was shown to be the Son of God through many mighty works and miracles. Number three, the apostolic preaching focused then upon the death of Christ on the cross. They moved from his ministry to his cross, and here they brought emphasis. The historical details of his crucifixion were rehearsed, studied his speeches. He was betrayed by the Jews, crucified under Pontius Pilate, And they were very emphatic to proclaim, Jesus died on the cross. That was central to their message. And as proof of that death, they held forth that He was buried. He was taken down from the cross. He was put in a tomb. Jesus was dead. And also the reason for His death was stated. He died for our sins. He died for our sins. He died for the sins of mankind. He was dying as a substitute for the sins of men. He was taking upon Himself not His own consequence of His own sin, that is death, but He was sinless and He was dying for the sins of others. They focused on Christ's death on the cross. And number four, they focused on Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And they proclaimed this was the divine seal of his sonship. It was in the resurrection that God said, this is my son. And the apostles spoke bravely and emphatically that they were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. They saw him after his resurrection. And so the second part of the message was that the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation has taken place through the life, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Number three, in the apostolic preaching, they declared that by virtue of His resurrection, Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God and enthroned as Lord and Christ. In other words, the apostolic preaching was that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. And any dealings men will have with Him in terms of discipleship and salvation is centered in the recognition that He's at the right hand of God. He has been made both Lord and Christ. He is Lord of all. And His Lordship over all aspects of life was proclaimed in the apostolic preaching. Which, by the way, this should put to rest all so-called Lordship-Salvation controversies. Where there are some within the church that say, we don't preach Jesus as Lord. Yet, when you go to sinners, just talk about His salvation. He's Savior. He's Savior. He died for your sins. But we'll bring the Lordship stuff in later, after they become Christians and when they're ready to make a second commitment on another level to follow Christ as Lord. And there are those who teach that essentially, what I just said. That wasn't the apostolic preaching. Central to their message is that He is Lord. He has been exalted to the right hand of Almighty God and given authority over all men. and nations. And they proclaimed it. And to believe in Christ was to believe in Him as Lord. Number four, in the apostolic preaching, they emphasize the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of Christ's present power and glory. How do we know? He has been exalted to the right hand of God. We know so because He has sent the Spirit Christ promised that when He went to the Father, He would send the Spirit to us. The proof of that is that He did die and go to the Father as He sent the Spirit. And so there was great emphasis given on the presence of the Holy Spirit and the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit that was offered to men, that you could have the Holy Spirit live within you if you would believe in Jesus Christ. Do you notice the Trinitarian nature of the preaching? There was emphasis on God the Father. The One who sent the Son and the One who made the promises. And of course there was emphasis on Christ, the One who fulfilled it, but there was also the emphasis in the apostolic preaching on the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I fear that we do not preach that enough when we bring the message to the world. We say the ends of the ages have come, the glorious time of fulfillment is here. Christ has brought salvation to men and you can receive His Spirit. Number five, in the apostolic preaching, in the Kerygma, they declared that the messianic age will come to a conclusion, reach its consummation with the return of Christ. Now, Dodd in his book taught that initially the apostles were somewhat unclear about the timing of his return. And they seem to give an indication that they believe that Jesus would return within their lifetimes. Now, I'm not saying I endorse that view. There is some debate over that. But it is very clear as the New Testament moves on that the apostles understood that Christ's return was unknown and they did not know when it would take place. But the message that we proclaim, the message that they proclaim, that we are to proclaim, is that the time of Christ, this age in which we live, is marching on to a conclusion. And the conclusion will be the consummation of history in the return of Jesus Christ, and He will return as Judge of all men. And so they emphasize the fact there's a day of judgment coming. when you will stand before Jesus Christ, the Judge of the living and the dead, and He will exercise that office at the time of His return." And so as the message was proclaimed to the world, the consummation of history and the return of Christ was central to the apostolic message. And then finally, number six, the kerygma always closed with an appeal for repentance, with the offer of forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. and the promise of salvation to all who believe in Christ, and who enter the community of faith through baptism. And so as they proclaim that message, which I just outlined for you, they always close with a call for decision. All true gospel preaching, all proclamation, has to come to this point, where there's an appeal to repentance. based on the fact that you are a sinner. You have sinned against God. You have broken His holy law. He is displeased with you. He is the righteous judge who must now condemn you for your sin. And you need to understand the gravity of your circumstance and you need to repent. Have a change of mind about yourself and about your God. You need to understand that you are not righteous. That you cannot please God in yourself. You need to stop thinking that you can somehow earn favor with God. You need to realize you're undone. You need to change that thinking. And you need to then start thinking this way. Only God can save me. Only God's mercies can be mine through Christ. and that you will then receive His offer of forgiveness, that God will forgive your sins, all of them, forever, if you will confess to Him that you were a sinner, and that you will express your faith in the truths of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this world, who died in your place on the cross, was raised from the dead the third day as the affirmation that God had received Him, as your sacrifice, and that you now want Him to be your Lord and your Savior, and you want to follow Him. And your intention is to follow Him within the community of faith, sealed through Christian baptism. You're going to cry out to God, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But they have to call on Him with truth, with knowledge of the message. The call to decision that was given by the Apostles, the call to repentance and faith, And the call to discipleship were always in the message. Always discipleship, which was sealed through baptism and commitment to the life of the community of believers. And the offer of salvation, what a wonderful offer. The most glorious offer ever proclaimed. The public heralds of Christ going into a lost world, saying your sins can be forgiven. And you can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if you will put your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for your sins and rose again. Stuart, in his book, A Faith to Proclaim, which I quoted from a moment ago, summarized briefly this K. Rigman when he said, what then was the essence of the proclamation by the original heralds of the faith? Quite briefly, it was this. They proclaimed that prophecy was fulfilled, that in Jesus of Nazareth and his words and deeds, his life, death, and resurrection, the new age had arrived, and that God had exalted him, and he would come again as judge, and that now was the day of salvation." End of quote. This is our message. But I want you to note, and this is important if you're going to proclaim this message properly, If you're going to proclaim it with power, I want you to note something about this. That this apostolic preaching is a proclamation of the acts of God in history. Do you see that? We're not bringing some philosophy to the world. We're proclaiming what God has done in history for the salvation of lost souls. Our message, history. Again, quoting from Stuart. He says the crucial point, and he's talking about the proclamation of the gospel, the crucial point is that it was dealing with events, not abstractions or theories or pantheistic generalities, but concrete, actual events localized in time and space. Not the idea of God, did the apostles preach, but God himself in omnipotent action. Not a doctrine of salvation. But salvation, the living deed. He goes on to say further when he's talking about this proclamation being based on the facts of history. And he wants to characterize these facts in three ways. And I'm just going to quote from the first one characterization. They were first historic facts. As distinct from facts of nature, or facts of intuition, or rational deduction, or mystical experience, It was indeed preeminently the age of the spirit, but had simply nothing in common with the idealism, which, regarding involvement in history as indicating a stage of rudimentary religious development and intellectual triviality of anthropomorphisms and mythology and defective spirituality. No, ending the quote here, it was a declaration of the transcendent God acting in history in Christ. And as we proclaim the message, we must emphasize this, brothers and sisters. God has acted on your behalf. We're not bringing a religious philosophy. We're not discoursing about ideas of God and brotherhood. We're declaring what God has done. And the idea of K. Russo was not that of debate. There is a place for that. But it was not that of It was that of a message to be proclaimed. Now this apostolic preaching that we have outlined here, prime examples of this can be found in the preaching of Peter, the very first sermon of the church on the day of Pentecost, and then Paul's sermon in Antioch of Pisidia. Let's look at Acts 2, and I don't have time to give any kind of extensive analysis of this. But you'll note in Acts 2, when Peter begins his message, where does he begin? Verse 16, as he explains what's happening, Old Testament prophecy. The new age has come. The Spirit that was promised is here. And he's declaring in the beginning this very truth that the age of fulfillment has come in the person of Christ. And he quotes from the Old Testament Scripture. Notice there in verse 22, he talks about Jesus of Nazareth, approved of God by signs and miracles. He speaks of him and his ministry, a man of God approved by the signs and miracles. Then he begins to move on to talk about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. By the way, the points of the Kerygma that we've mentioned, these six points, are not always one, two, three in that order, but they're all there. That's the whole message. Now, the recorded sermon might not have every one of those points, but if you put all the messages together, they are all present. He talks then about him being born of David. He was one who was from David. Verse 30, Christ was the fruit of his loins, David's loins. Old Testament prophecy brought forward. The death of Christ spoken of. Then his scripture. Then the fact that God had raised him up and we are witnesses. Then the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of the Father. And the promise of the Holy Ghost, which is the proof that He was exalted, is now being shown in what you see and hear. And then He declares that God, verse 36, that everyone will know that He has been made Lord and Christ. And then in verse 37, the following is the call to decision. So what should we do? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There it is. And I don't have time to do an analysis of that in this particular study. And another very good one to do, I would encourage you to study these sermons. And another very important one, because it's more lengthy than some of the others, is Paul's sermon in Antioch and Pisidia, beginning in chapter 13 of the Book of Acts, and verse 14 through verse 41. And so the apostolic preaching, the message that was proclaimed, is the message that involve these six things. Number one, the age of fulfillment has come in the person of Jesus Christ. And that is tying us into all the previous Old Testament history, beginning with creation and the fall. Number two, God's promise of salvation is accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Number three, God has exalted to the right hand... Jesus Christ, excuse me, let me start that over. Jesus Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God as Lord and Christ. Number four, the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Number five, Jesus Christ will come again at the end of the age to judge all mankind. And number six, men must repent and believe in Jesus Christ and become his disciples if they are to be saved from sin. This was the call to decision. As I mentioned, this preaching was Trinitarian. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all proclaimed when the Gospel is proclaimed. You cannot just proclaim the Father, you cannot just proclaim the Son, nor just the Holy Spirit, but all are there. But if you notice, particularly, even though it is Trinitarian, this message is Christ-centered. The age of fulfillment has come in Christ. God's promise is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus Christ has been exalted to the Father. The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe in Christ. Christ will come again at the end of the age to judge all mankind, and you must repent and believe in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul said, we preach Christ. The Gospel is about Christ. And we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. That is the message that declares His work. on our behalf. Note also, in this apostolic preaching, there's a sweep of all of history. There's the preparation period, the Old Testament. There's the fulfillment age, the New Testament. And there's the consummation of the age. So this message actually in brief words, but yet the compass of all of history from beginning to end. You can't preach the Gospel without placing it in history. You cannot come to people and tell them they need to be saved from their sins and believe in Christ without placing it within the context of God's work and acts in history. Now, all parts of this apostolic preaching are important, but the center of these six aspects is definitely number two. And I would like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. If you don't understand some of this other aspect of these parts of the message the apostles preached, you must understand this. Paul gives the kernel of this apostolic preaching in chapter 15. Beginning at verse 1, just set the context here. He says, "...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached to you." He's talking about the gospel he preached as he came in an evangelistic setting, when he came to Corinth. Here was his message! Here's what he proclaimed to these lost souls and dying men and women in Corinth. He says, "...This is the gospel I preached to you, which also you've received, and wherein you stand." It's talking to professed Christians. You receive that message, you believe that message, and you've taken your stand, and your hope is in that message. And it's by that message also you were saved, he says in verse 2. But he's concerned that they keep in memory what he preached. And so he says, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain, unless you're abandoning this message now, because false teachers were there and they were corrupting it. But here's what he said, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, I received it, and we tell from Galatians we received it from Christ, but it was also the same message Christ gave to Peter and to John, James, and so forth. This is it, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That is, Christ's death, the word for is explaining to us the reason for his death, that it was on behalf of our predicament. And the predicament that was ours because of our sins, that made us guilty before God. He died to take care of our sins. He died so that our sins could be paid for. He died so that our sins could be forgiven. His death was as a substitute for we who deserved not only the death on the cross, but an eternal death in hell. Death is the wages of sin. Christ took that death for our sins. and did it according to the Scriptures. In other words, he ties it into Old Testament prophecy. And we can look and see that the Scriptures ordained that he would die for our sins, not only in the prophecy of Isaiah 53, for example, but in the whole sacrificial system that can be used in speaking to people as you tie in this message and explain what they did in the Old Testament and explain to them how the Israelites, when they sinned, had to bring an innocent animal who would then be killed and the blood would be put on the altar. And that was the symbolic death of that sinner themselves through a substitute that their sins were forgiven. He did it according to the scriptures and that he was buried. In other words, he actually died. He did not swoon on the cross. This was not something that took place where Jesus was then revived in the cool of the tomb. He was buried. He was a dead man. Paid the full price. It is finished. And then Paul says, we preach that he rose again the third day. This also was according to the scriptures. The Old Testament prophesied it. For example, in Psalm 16, that Peter used on the day of Pentecost. And this one who rose from the dead, we know he rose from the dead. We're not speaking platitudes because we have seen him and the apostolic witness of actually seeing the risen Christ. And then he goes on to speak about that. This is the heart of the gospel. It cannot be detached from the other aspects we've spoken about. But this is where we must bring sinners, as we put it within the context, for them to have died for their sins. If they will believe in Jesus Christ, they can be saved. And that's where we move on then to the point of decision. We call individuals to decide and to respond to that call. This is the heart of the gospel. And so again, for sake of clarity, let me review again. The apostolic message is the message that we need to preach. The age of fulfillment has come in the person of Christ. We need to bring that into our gospel proclamation, tie it into Old Testament preparation, sweeping from creation to the fall, to Abraham, down to the prophets. We need to then proclaim that God's promise of salvation made through the prophets in the preparatory period is now accomplished through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we find that explained very clearly here in First Corinthians 15. Number three, we declare that Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God as the Lord of all and as shown to be that. Fourthly, the Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of Christ's exaltation, and the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe. This must be emphasized. Number five, Christ will come again at the end of the age to judge all mankind, and you, my friend, will be in that judgment. This is now the day of salvation. He offers to you forgiveness of sins, but when He comes at the end of the age, there will be no offer of forgiveness. He will now come as a judge to call you to account. Number six, we then plead with sinners. As Paul said, we beseech you in Christ, on Christ's behalf, to be reconciled to God. We plead with sinners to repent and believe in Christ and become his disciples. And the discipleship involves baptism and union with his people in the local church. And a person has to hear that message. And if they do not hear the message of Christ's atoning sacrifice, his death and resurrection for sin, they cannot be saved. And they're saved by faith. What does it mean? We just want to spend a minute on this as we conclude. What is faith as we talk about it here? We need to understand this so that when we are dealing with individuals and they are responsive to the message, and even to give indication they want to trust in Christ themselves, and we need to clarify for them what faith really is. Now some would say there's two ingredients to faith, and it's a very detailed theological debate. And I do not intend to enter into that today, but I would say that the most helpful way to consider what saving faith is, is to look at it in a threefold sense. To have faith, the person has to have information, something to believe in. And so when we talk about saving faith, that is the kind of faith that saves someone from their sin, a person must first hear and understand the gospel, the message of Christ, His death and resurrection. Death for sin and resurrection. They must understand. They must hear the message. This is where we proclaim. They must, though, understand it. And so when we're talking to people about this message, we need to be careful. There are proclamation settings where a preacher gets up and preach like this, but as you share, you don't have to be asking, but do you understand that? Do you understand what I'm saying? You want to get your message across and you want to make sure that the one you're speaking to understands it. We're not saying that the Holy Spirit is inactive in this. In fact, they cannot understand unless the Holy Spirit gives them understanding. Faith is a gift. But we are the instruments. We're the farmers that sow, that plow, that water, and that reap. And we are used of the Spirit of God to explain glorious truths of the message of salvation. But if a person is to be saved, they have to hear the Gospel and understand it. Secondly, there has to be the next step where they come to assent. They consider that that message is true. You can hear information from different people. You can have a herald come to you and proclaim some message that today is the end of the world, the sky is falling. You can hear it, you can understand it. The question is, do you believe it's true? And someone can hear the gospel? And they can consider it just like that message, you guys are crazy, you're chicken little, the sky's not falling, so forth and so on. They hear it, understand it, but they say it's not true. So when we're taking the message out, we need to be very careful to press individuals appropriate to the setting, whether or not they believe this message is true. I've given you this message, I've explained this message to you, do you believe it's true? You can go and rehearse some of the facts that you have just spoken about. Without affirmation of this message, without a person believing the gospel is true, there is no such thing as saving faith. If you've been involved in any Christian witness in this aspect, you probably can talk at times when you spoke with people, explain the gospel of Jesus Christ to them, they heard it, They said they understood it. Then when you asked the question, do you believe it? And they said, no. Fairytale. And number three, the third aspect of a believing saving faith is that an individual must trust the gospel. They must trust the gospel in this way. They must do what it says. They must commit themselves to the course of action that the gospel requires. Again, a person can hear something, they can believe a message to be true, but for whatever reason they choose not to act upon it. This takes place in normal life all the time. Good illustrations, and our doctor here could probably tell you about this. He works with patients and he explains to them their medical condition. They hear it, they understand it. Confronts me and they believe it's true, and then he prescribes a course of action to deal with that, but they won't do it. They will not commit themselves to a course of action to deal. Someone can believe, again, staying in the same area, that you have a very bad headache. You've been explained to some, if you take this particular remedy for your headache, it will take it away, and you've heard it explained, you believe it's true, but you decide not to take it. for whatever reason. Maybe you think it will give you stomach cramps, who knows? But whatever, you don't commit yourself to that action necessary to bring that belief into play. And this is what we're speaking about in the Gospel, and this is often the key point where man has to surrender his will and submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, confess his sin and repent. and put his trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation ultimately is to the one who puts their trust in Christ. This is an act of faith. It is not a work you do. But you've been told a message. Your eternal destiny depends on your belief in this message. And for your response to that belief of confessing your sin in repentance, and asking Jesus Christ to save you, and you're going to trust your eternal destiny to that simple yet profound act of faith. You've heard the message, you understand it, you believe it's true. Will you now put your eternal destiny on the line and ask Christ Jesus the Lord? to forgive your sins and to be your Savior. And if you believe that, you will do it and you will be saved. And God will bring to you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And you will know that Christ has come into your life and that you are one of God's children. And so when we take the message of salvation out to the world, as we proclaim the Gospel, We need to know our message. This morning we have tried to give understanding on what that message is. It might take some work for us to think through this and to understand it. But the message that we declare is this, and I will review it one more time, if I can find my words here. Number one, the age of fulfillment has come in the person of Christ. The promises and prophecies of the Old Testament are now being fulfilled. Number two, the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation have taken place through the life, the ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. In this section here, we focus on his Davidic descent, his ministry to Israel and the miracles he performed. We tell people the glorious Lord who walked on earth, walked on the water, stilled the sea, fed the multitudes with a few fish and loaves, and we just speak about these many miracles. That's our message. Then we talk about how He died on the cross. He died there for our sins, but He was taken as an innocent man, railroaded, nailed to the cross, but He was dying for us. Then He rose from the dead the third day after He was buried, had been buried, and He was seen in the apostles. That's the center of this message. and that our declaration that God's promise of salvation has been fulfilled through the life, death, and ministry of Christ. Thirdly, by virtue of His resurrection, Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God and enthroned as Lord and Christ. He's Lord of all, absolute, complete Lord of all. Number four, the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the church is the sign of Christ's present power and glory. And here we're telling individuals of the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives, in our brothers' and sisters' lives, and they can have that wonderful gift as well. Number five, the Messianic age, the age of salvation, will come to a conclusion. It's moving to an event that will bring all things into God's purpose, the return of Christ, at the end of the age. And then number six, we close with an appeal for repentance, the offer of forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of salvation to all who believe in Christ and enter the community of faith through baptism. Presenting that message, we must be clear to explain what faith is. We must be clear to help our own minds to understand, and there is that faith involves hearing a message, believing it's true, and committing ourselves to the action required by that message. Some have called this knowledge, assent, and trust. You've got to know the message. You've got to believe the message is true. You've got to assent to it. And you need to trust it. And when those elements are there, it's a saving faith wrought in the heart of a person by the power of the Holy Spirit. Some of this may seem overwhelming to us. Some of us are new to concepts of sharing our faith. We can be thankful to God that we have many tools at our disposal. All of us need to seek to become articulate in the gospel, but not all of us are articulate in the gospel, and we do not need to wait until we are. There are many things that we can do, and I would like to suggest a few in conclusion about how you can proclaim the gospel. First of all, You yourself can, through the gift of audio recordings, in a message that is a very clear presentation of the gospel, that contains the types of preaching and proclamation that we've talked about today, you can give to your friends, to your loved ones, your work associates, give them an audio recording of a gospel message. We have some of them here at our church we've done, especially as we went through the gospel of Luke. But there's many others available that would be shorter, too, than mine. Use them, give them to them, and ask them to listen to that. You can be spreading the proclamation of the gospel through that simple means, based on the work and knowledge and gifts that God has given to others. You can expand the gospel message and distribute it, but you have the personal touch where you go to someone. and you introduce this audio recording to them in some appropriate way and you urge them to listen. If they don't listen to it, you can't control that, but you can be one who's seeking to spread the message. There's also excellent literature that can be used from simple scripture tracts such as these we have in the Trinitarian Bible Society that simply gives some passages of scripture without comment to More intermediary presentations of a gospel message. Some like these. Extensive, yet not overly burdensome, presentations of the gospel message. They go back to creation and look at the Old Testament. Very, very good. Called Coming to Faith in Christ. We have quite a few of these in our church. Take some. Give it to someone. These are not mad type things, but people that you have been working with. This is something you can just distribute freely. But you give it to someone you've been speaking to or seeking to affirm the gospel for your life, and you want them to hear the message. Ask God to give you the courage to pass that on. More extensive is this booklet by Ultimate Questions by John Blanchard, which we also have quite a few copies of that you can also use to distribute and to give. Some of you might feel more comfortable in expressing your faith and presenting the gospel where you can weigh your words and look what you say. You can write to someone in today's world or send them an email with your testimony and witness. But maybe better than that is to take old-fashioned pencil, pen and paper and write to someone. And just give your testimony and speak of the person of Christ and his gospel message. There are other ways that we can bring the gospel to individuals. There's video aspects available. There's many different ways. But we've mentioned the media approach, where we give them audio. The literature, where we give them gospel literature. The writing approach, where we write to people and seek to bring a gospel witness to them. And of course, there's always face-to-face verbal presentation. of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been called to be witnesses. We've got to get the message right. Our goal this morning has been to try to set that message forward and that the Lord might use it for his glory and for the salvation of the lost. And maybe your salvation today. Let us pray. Lord, to you we come with thankful hearts for this message, all the glorious gospel message the apostles preached. Thank you for it. Thank you for its power, for it has changed our lives, given us the hope of eternal life, given us the comfort and gift of the Holy Spirit who helps us through this life that can at times be so hard. and overwhelming, but you're with us through your spirit. Thank you for those who proclaim the message to us, who pass it down, even from the apostles, in its purity. Lord, may we also do the same. And if it please thee, you would give us wisdom, motivation, opportunity to articulate the gospel through the various means available to us. to the level of which we've accomplished our own understanding of the gospel. Use us, we pray. And I ask, Lord, for the salvation of those here today who are yet have not believed this message. Would you please convict them of sin? Would you please show them the glorious truth of Christ's death and resurrection for sinners? Lord, would you give them repentance and faith to believe the message. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.