The Biblical Gospel

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reform Baptist Church. It is indeed a blessing to have you worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ with us. I'm going to invite your brothers and sisters and dear friends to open up your Bibles to the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.

I'm going to invite you this time to the First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 15. We are going to be taking just a little bit of a break in our series that we're doing through the Book of Romans. And today I want us to consider a very important topic in the life of the local church, and that is biblical salvation. I think we're gonna be considering this idea of biblical salvation or genuine salvation in the following weeks. Biblical salvation, I'm assuming there that there is a salvation that is expressed and it is taught here in the Scriptures compared with a false salvation that is only a profession from the lips.

There's no more important matter in life that to be saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want us to consider in the following weeks this idea of biblical salvation, what it is to be saved according to the scriptures. what it is to be saved according to the word of the Lord, not according to religion, not according to tradition, not according to the words of men, but what it is to be a Christian, what it is to be saved according to the scriptures, biblical salvation. So we're going to be considering the following weeks different aspects or different characteristics, if you want, of biblical salvation. That which biblical salvation entails, or the characteristics of biblical salvation.

And today I want us to focus on the first one of those, and that is going to be the biblical gospel. I'm going to submit to you that in order for a person to be biblically saved, there has to be a biblical gospel. The biblical gospel is a requirement for a person to be saved. God has ordained that we will be saved through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, biblical salvation requires the biblical gospel.

And that is the gospel that Paul is going to present in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 from verses 1 to 3. through 11, which is going to be the text that we are going to be studying and considering this afternoon. I'm going to be submitting to you that biblical salvation requires the biblical gospel. That is the gospel according to the scriptures. If we do not have the biblical gospel, then we do not have biblical salvation.

And I'm not speaking about what God can do. God is able to save a person without the gospel. God is able to bring a person to Christ without the word of the gospel. I'm not speaking about what God is able to do, but rather what God has ordained the normal way for salvation to take place so by no means i'm saying that god is unable to do something what i'm saying is that god has ordained that biblical salvation will happen through the proclamation of the biblical gospel and hence what i'm going to say is that if there is no biblical gospel then there is no biblical salvation. Biblical salvation requires the biblical gospel.

We're going to be coming before the Lord and asking that he will help us, guide us and sustain us as we aim to preach the word of the Lord. And as we pray, then we're going to come to this text. We're going to be reading together. the 1st 11 verses of 1st Corinthians chapter 15. It is a very well known passage in which Paul is going to present the biblical gospel that brings biblical salvation.

So let us come before the Lord and let us pray together. Father, we come before you in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, and we give you thanks for your goodness, your patience, your sovereignty and your decree, O Lord. As we come before you, Lord, we acknowledge that we are so feeble and weak and broken. And apart from your grace, apart from your mercy, O Lord, there is nothing in us. We pray, O Lord, that you will bless us with truth.

I pray, O Lord, that you will bless us with your Holy Spirit. I pray, O Lord, that you will protect us from the fleshliness of our ways, the distractions of our minds, I pray, Lord, that as we come to the Scriptures now, and as we're going to read the Scriptures, and as we're going to preach the Scriptures, that you will speak to us through your Holy Spirit. We desire, Lord, to understand biblical salvation, and today we want to understand what the biblical gospel is. So I pray, Lord, that you will bless us, that you will be with us, that you will speak to our hearts through the Word of God. Your word is sufficient, Lord, to speak to the need of the soul of your people.

So when there is a need of encouragement, Lord, I pray that you will encourage us through your word. When there is a need, Lord, of confrontation, I pray, O Lord, that you will confront us by your Holy Spirit and through your word. When there is a need of exhortation, O Lord, I pray that you will do so with your word. that you will be glorified and that your church will be edified, that your people will be made like Jesus Christ. And if there is anyone among us who is not in Christ Jesus, O Lord, I pray that through the presentation of your word and through the presentation of the gospel, Lord, that you will bring people to Christ.

We're not asking, oh Lord, that you will bring people to religion. We're not asking, Lord, that you will bring people to cornerstone. We're not asking, oh Lord, that you will bring people to us. We're asking, Lord, that you will bring people to Christ. So I pray, oh Lord, that you will grant us freedom to speak, freedom to receive your word, clarity, Lord, so that in all things our faith will be strengthened for your glory.

I pray, Lord, that you will do these things in Jesus name. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're gonna be reading, as I said, the 1st 11 verses. We're gonna be speaking about a biblical gospel as a requirement for biblical salvation.

We're gonna be considering this biblical salvation in the following weeks. And today, once again, and I'm sorry that I repeat this, we're considering the biblical gospel as a requirement for biblical salvation. Let us read together 1 Corinthians chapter 15 from verse one through verse 11. This is the word of the Lord. Now I would remind you, brothers, brothers and sisters, that is of the gospel I preached to you, which you received.

in which you stand, and by which, that is the gospel, you are saved, or you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, and that is the gospel, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12th, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one, Untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed." Amen. This is the Word of the Lord, and there is perhaps no more important question than that of the state of the soul of a person.

Has a person been saved by the grace of the God that we worship through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Has a person been saved according to the terms of the word of the Lord and not according to the terms of religion or tradition? Has a person experienced the power of the Holy Spirit that comes and opens the eye of the sinner that convicts the sinner and points the sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only means for eternal life, for forgiveness, and for salvation. There is nothing more important in this world than that question of what is our eternal condition. Money and reputation and education and the things that we have in this world, they are going to pass away.

Our bodies, they are going to get weak and we're going to get old and we are going to die. The beauty of what it is to be young and the strength of what it is to be young, it will pass. There's absolutely nothing that you can do to stop or prevent the process of your temporality. The only thing that genuinely matters is what is the state of your soul? Have you been genuinely saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

And this question is perhaps the most important question, not only for the life of the person, but according to the scriptures. Because when we come to the Scriptures, we realize that there's going to be many people who say with their mouths that they know the Lord. There's going to be many people who do things externally that seem to be the things that Christians do. There seems to be people that are committed, and even that they experience certain spiritual aspects of what it is to be a Christian, and the Lord will say to them, I never knew you, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." On that day many, the Lord says, on that day many will come to him and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?

Didn't we do mighty works in your name? Didn't we do all of these things, cast out demons? I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. There are people who believed, genuinely believed that they knew the Lord.

They believed in such a way that they were led to do certain things for the Lord. Certain things that at the eyes or in the eyes of people, they would have considered them to be good Christians, and genuine Christians, and committed Christians. But before the eyes of God, who sees all things, the secrets of your heart and mine, before the eyes of Jesus, who has the power and has been a witness of your thoughts and my thoughts, and your secret time and my secret time. Before the eyes of that Savior, there's going to be a group of people that will receive that. Depart from me, you workers of inequity.

Salvation is the most important matter in life. That's no matter how old you are, how much money you will have, how many properties you will accumulate, if you're going to have reputation or not, if you're gonna have many kids or not at all, or if your kids are going to love you or they will not love you, or if your kids are going to be good or bad. It does not matter. Ultimately, what matters is if we are in Christ or not. And the Bible tells us, brethren, that there is going to be people, false teachers and false prophets that are going to bring messages to the ears of people just to please their passions as they know that they are not bringing the genuine biblical Christ at the expense of their souls just to build their own empires and to build their own reputations and to have their own things where people think that they are in Christ when they are not.

And when they see the last of their days, they're going to have the great surprise the people of Matthew chapter 7 had. There is no more important aspect or thing or matter in life. And that is to be with Jesus Christ, biblical salvation. And let me submit to you that in order for a biblical salvation to take place, there has to be a biblical gospel. The gospel, what is biblically presented, when it's biblically brought by the power of the Spirit, is the means that God has ordained for a person to be biblically saved.

The gospel is the power of God into salvation for everyone who believes. Roman chapter one verse 16. The apostle is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God into salvation for everyone who believes. And the apostle tells us here in first printed chapter 15 that is this message of the biblical gospel, the one that brings salvation. Read with me.

Verse one and two. And then you realize of the importance of it. There's one now. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received." That is the gospel that Paul brought to the Corinthians.

In this gospel that they received, it says in verse one, they stand. They are standing on the gospel that they received, the biblical gospel that they received from the apostle Paul. And it says in verse two, and by which, referring to the gospel, you are saved, or you are being saved. It is by the gospel that the person has been saved. It is the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God, not the gospel of man.

Because the apostle is going to tell us in 2nd Corinthians chapter 15 that there's other people that bring other gospels, other Christ, other spirits. The gospel of Christ is the one that saves, is the one that transforms lives. The outcome of the genuine gospel of Jesus Christ, when it is applied by the Spirit to the soul of a person, is not religion. It is the new birth. It is salvation.

It is forgiveness. It is freedom. And that is the importance of the biblical gospel. So the question that we need to ask ourselves as a church and as Christians is, is the gospel of Christ the center of the things that we do? It is Jesus and His message, the heart of the gospel, the heart of our mission as a church.

It does not matter that we are 5 or 10 or 50 or 100, 200. Have we focused our mind and our hearts on the gospel of Jesus Christ and we're single-eyed to the scriptures and the message of Christ? Or are we distracted with the things that seem to be Christian? That seem to be like the things of having I cast out demons, or done all these mighty works, all of these Christian things, and losing our focus from the message of Jesus Christ. Biblical salvation requires a biblical gospel.

And I want us, in the time that we have, that is nine minutes, that's very good. In the time that we have, I want us to consider only two things, brethren. The first one is the characteristics of the biblical gospel. I want us to consider from this passage three or four characteristics of the biblical gospel. And I want to present these characteristics to you so that we are able to identify.

the biblical gospel. You see, when you have the characteristics of something, those characteristics help you identify what that is. So I want to show you three or four characteristics of the biblical gospel. So by knowing those characteristics of what the biblical gospel should be and should have, then we're able to identify those gospels and those messages that even though they may use the words Jesus, even though they might use the words the cross, even though they may use the word Christ they may use the word forgiveness they are not the gospel of Christ once we consider the characteristics of the gospel then I want us to consider the elements of the gospel that which the presentation of the gospel should have according to what we have in first Corinthians chapter 15 the gospel that the Apostle Paul presented Once we have the characteristics that helps us identify the biblical gospel, then we can consider the elements. Those elements are part of the presentation of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel that saves.

Let us start with the first one. What are those characteristics of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? The first one is going to be that biblical gospel, the biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is Christ-centered. It is not centered on men. It is not centered on the church.

It is not centered on doctrine. The biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is focused on the person of Jesus Christ himself. Pay attention there to verse 3 where the apostle is going to present the message of the gospel. He says, For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received." Pay attention.

This is the gospel. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That He, that is Christ, was buried. And that He, that is Christ, was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And that he, verse five, that is Christ, appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he, that is Christ, appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then, seven, he, that is Christ, appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he, that is Christ, appeared also to me." And the apostle continues speaking about his ministry. The center, the focus of the biblical gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The center of the gospel is not the experience of men. It is the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done. The center of the gospel is not the church and what the church does. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The center of the gospel is not doctrine or theology. It is the work and completed finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the center of the message of the gospel. The gospel is only the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes when the center of it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God that is revealed in the gospel.

It is not my righteousness. It is not your righteousness. It is not the righteousness of the church. It is not the Theology of righteousness is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's through the power of Jesus Christ in the gospel that we are kept and sustained and transformed.

If the focus of the gospel is not Jesus Christ, but it's me, the church of theology, then I have a different focus. I'm not saying that Jesus Christ is not going to work in me. I'm not saying that Jesus Christ is not going to work in the church. I'm not saying that theology is not important. What I'm saying is that the focus and the center of the biblical gospel has to be and must be the person and the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if there's anyone or there is a movement or if there is a church that proclaim a message in which the center and the focus is not Christ, but it's men, the one that is seated. If there is a message, a preacher or a church that preaches a message in which the center is a community of people and not Jesus Christ, or if there is a group of people, a church or a person who preaches and the focus of it is theology or doctrine or the future days and what is going to happen and not Jesus Christ, then they may have Christian words. They may have Christian labels, but that is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is centered upon the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the foolishness of the cross.

And because in the fleshliness of our ways, We think that this is just Christianity 101. Then we're just simply tempted to deviate from the gospel and to engage ourselves in activities and in programs and in all of these things that might make the church better, that might make Christians better. But the foolishness of the gospels was the center of the message of Paul, and that is how the genuine church was built up throughout the ages. Come with me to 1 Corinthians 1, and there you will see how the Apostle Paul was committed to the centeredness and to the focus of Jesus Christ in the gospel and in the message that he preached. It says there in 1 Corinthians 1, In verse 17, read this with me.

These are the words of the apostle. It says, verse 17, for Christ, chapter one, verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And not with words of eloquent wisdom, because it's very likely that the apostle was not a very good, you know, or whatever is the word they have for that. You know, it is likely that he was limited in the way that he spoke and that these other false apostles were very good with a lot of charisma in the way that they spoke. It says, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Just think about that. The cross of Christ be emptied of its power. that men and women, for the sake of their own enterprise, remove Christ as the center of the message. And removing Christ from the center of the message that they preach, it is equal to empty it of power. And that at the expense of speaking to the passions and the desires of humans.

and to exalt those who are seated in the chair so much that I don't care about God and I don't care about his son. I care about the one that is seated so much that I'm going to empty it, the message, from the power so that I'm going to speak with wisdom of men rather than with the scriptures. Verse 18. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. And it is indeed.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness or through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews, the men, Saints, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, in other words, those who generally have the power of the Spirit in them, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Christ Jesus is sweet and is appealing to the soul of the person who has been genuinely saved.

The work of Christ is foolishness and is boring to the one that is dead in his sin or her trespasses. Christ is sweet and what he has accomplished and the cross is enough and sufficient for the soul of the one who has had a genuine encounter with the Spirit of Christ. But the one who has not had an encounter with the Spirit of Christ will be satisfied on the things of the flesh. Because Christ Jesus and the cross is not enough. Because the spiritual man discerns the spiritual things, the fleshly man cannot discern or receive the spiritual things.

Christ Jesus is the center of the biblical gospel. If Christ Jesus is not the center of it, then we don't have a biblical gospel that saves. Second, let us return to our text. Biblical gospel is not only center on Jesus Christ, but very importantly, the biblical gospel is rooted and based upon the scriptures. The biblical gospel is rooted and based upon the Scriptures.

First, the biblical gospel is centered on Jesus Christ, centered on His work, centered on what He has done. Second, the biblical gospel is rooted, is based upon what is written. It says in verse 3 once again, For I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, verse 4, that he, that is Christ, was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. The message of the Gospel is the message of God. God and His Word is the one that frames and makes us understand what the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is.

It is not the wisdom of men, it is not the words of men, but the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that define what the gospel is all about and what the gospel should contain. So that means that we need to come to the words of God in order to understand what is the message of the gospel. And I want you to pay careful attention that the apostle here does not say only the word of God, but he says, the scriptures, because the church of God throughout the ages has received the word of the Lord in many different ways. In the Old Testament and even in the early church, God spoke to his people through prophets. God spoke to his people through visions.

God spoke to his people through dreams. God spoke to his people in many different ways. But when it comes to the authority of the word of God, and when you come and see that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, you will realize that the scriptures have a priority in the order of how God has revealed to us. The scriptures must be the center and the authority of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come with me to 2 Peter 2.

In 2 Peter 1, there is implicitly a very interesting situation through which the apostle is going through. The apostle knows that he's going to die very soon. This is Peter, if you come with me to 2 Peter 1. Peter knows that he is going to die, and Peter knows that his time with the early church is coming to an end. Peter knows that he has already spoken many words to the early church.

Peter knows that they have already learned these many truths. Peter knows that they have already, you know, that they already understand the truths that he has preached to them. But when he's reminding them of this fact, he comes to the realization that he's going to die. And when he comes to that realization that he's going to die, what he says is, I'm going to try to do whatever I can to remind you even after I depart. How can the apostle remind a group of people of the things that he has taught them after he departs?

Through the scriptures. Pay attention to 2 Peter 1, verse 12. It says, therefore, this is the apostle Peter. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are establishing the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.

In other words, I'm not tired to repeat the same things, the apostle says. Verse 14, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon. In other words, I know that I will die. as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things."

How can a feeble man that is going to die and is no longer going to be with them, how can these men make sure? that after His departure, that they will remember all of these words that they have received. He says, verse 16, For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning sun rises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." What does the Apostle say? The Apostle says, I'm going to die.

And I've told you all of these things already and you know the truth. But it's my mission for my care for you to ensure that you're going to remember all of these things that I have already told you. And you know that I heard the voice from the Lord. I know that I spend time with the Lord. So you know that all the things that I've taught you with my mouth, that they are truth.

But we have something more secure than the things that I have taught you with my mouth. We have the prophetic word. That is a light that is going to guide you, that protects you. It is the scriptures. It is the scriptures, the one that is entrusted to the early church to prevent the error of going away from the gospel.

That's why in chapter three, if you come with me very quickly, and I close this point, the apostle is going to connect this idea of reminder with the scriptures. 2 Peter chapter three, it says, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you. Beloved, in both of them, I'm steering up your sincere mind by way of reminder. The only deposit of faith that apostles could give to the early church was the scriptures. The biblical gospel is rooted, is centered in the words of God, in the scriptures.

That means, brethren, that the church and the Christian may be holders of the scriptures, of the word of the Lord. It is in the Word of the Lord, it is in the treasuring up of the reminders that the Spirit of God has given to us through the apostles in what is written that we find the contents of the biblical gospel that brings salvation. It is in the written Word of the Lord Jesus Christ that we find the elements of what is required to apply to the soul of a person. It is in the written Word of God that we find the light that guides our path. It is in the written Word of the Savior where we find genuine Salvation.

So if a person, if a preacher, if a man or a woman or a church depart from the sufficiency of the Scriptures to trust in their own imaginations and in their own ways, they have departed from the primary sword that we have to bring genuine salvation to people. Because it's only in the Scriptures that we have the words of the Lord that bring genuine salvation to those who are lost. Biblical salvation. It is centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and biblical salvation, dear brother and sister, depends upon the scriptures. Let us return, please, to our text, and let me just show you two more things, characteristics of a biblical gospel.

If we return to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, then I'm going to show you the third one there. The third one is this, that biblical salvation, or better, the biblical gospel is that which brings genuine life to the church. Biblical or the biblical gospel is that which brings genuine life to the church. Pay attention to verse 1 and 2. We can just read those two verses there.

You will realize how important it was the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Corinthian church and for everyone. It says in verse 1, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. which, pay attention to the church, you received. What did you receive? You received the gospel in which you stand.

In which, what do you stand? You stand on the gospel and by which you are being saved or you are saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach, that is the gospel, unless you believe in vain. brother and sister. The genuine life of a body that calls themselves to be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ depends upon the presence of the biblical gospel.

A church is not a group of people that just simply come together and they sit on chairs in a particular building. the church is spiritual in nature and not external in nature primarily the church is the group of those who by grace through faith have been saved and inserted spiritually speaking into the body of the lord jesus christ that is the church of the lord jesus christ for whom he died so even though we come to a place And even though we have external manifestations of community, and even though we have external things appointed as a group of people that are coming in togetherness, in unity, that which must give life to the church, it is the spiritual unity that we ought to have through the biblical gospel. If that which unite us is only that we like each other, we are going to end up with a club. that is called a church, in which we bring people that have similar preferences and speak in a similar way and do similar things, and we're only going to be able to hang out with those who are similar to us because there's no spiritual substance that unites us and keeps us together. The church is not simply a group of people that come to a place that are united, but that which is appealing to their feelings and emotions.

But the church is meant to be on a spiritual body that has been begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit through the biblical gospel. So that a church can say, we have received the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians. We do a stand on the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians. We are saved by the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians. And we are going to receive the outcome of our salvation through the gospel that was preached to the Corinthians and the gospel that has been done, which unites all genuine Christians throughout the ages.

Because it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the power of God unto salvation. It is only the message of the gospel, the one that delivers salvation. It is only the message of the biblical gospel of Christ that accomplishes the eternal goal of eternal life. There's no message that man can have. It may sound very nice.

There's no doctrine or wisdom of man that man can have that has the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The biblical gospel is centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The biblical gospel is centered upon the scriptures, and the biblical gospel gives life, genuine life, to the church. And finally, I want us now to address here the elements What are the elements of the gospel? The apostle is going to give us these elements in verses three, four and five.

There's going to be three aspects that I want us to pay attention to have given you first the characteristics of the biblical gospel. Now, I want us to consider together about the elements that should be present in the preaching and in the proclamation of the gospel. Now, understanding these elements is going to be very important, my dear brother and sister, because there's going to be promises in the scriptures of enemies. the gospel the scriptures in the New Testament are going to promises and are going to tell us that there's going to be enemies of the church and enemies of the gospel so if we do not know the characteristics of the biblical gospel or do we do not know the elements of the biblical gospel those enemies are going to be alert to to come and deceive us and to take us into a path of destruction or error in which we think that we have the message of the Lord Jesus Christ when we don't. Actually, before I show you the elements, let me just simply show you this, because I do have like four or five minutes to show you this.

Come with me please to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, we have one of the promises of one of those threats that the early church is going to face. Second Corinthians chapter 11. I've shown you this, I think, last week, but let me just please show it to you once again. The reason why it is important for us to know the characteristics of the biblical gospel is because we have a promise, a certainty that there's going to be enemies of the church and enemies of the gospel.

The early church, the Corinthian church, was facing some of these enemies in the way of those teachers. Pay attention to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It says, I wish you, that is Paul speaking to the Corinthians, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I bethrow you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from my sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Why is the apostle speaking in that way that seems to be harsh and that seems to be so difficult? It says in verse 4, For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, than the one we proclaim. Or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so acknowledged.

Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. There were people that were coming with charisma and with ways of speaking and people that were concerned, not so much in the truth of the things that they were saying, but people that were concerned more in the way that they were influencing and manipulating people. And they were coming and speaking those words to the church. And there was the temptation and there was the weakness of the early church to be deceived. Just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the garden, so is the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ going to be tempted and face many deceptions of people that are going to come with words that do not necessarily sound opposite to the gospel, but they just simply have messages here and there that keep or take away the focus of what it is, the message of salvation from Christ into any other thing.

Many times these messages are going to be manifested in two extremes, either self-righteousness or in excessive freedom. Come with me to Timothy. Let me just show you examples of what the early church went through when it came to these false teachers. So come to Timothy, 2nd Timothy, if you come to 2nd Timothy. Well, actually 1st Timothy, I think it is.

1st Timothy, chapter 4. 1st Timothy chapter 4, then you can see some of those threats of the early church from people that were preaching a different message. It says in 1st Timothy chapter 4, now the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Brethren, that is, this is really strong words. It says, devoting themselves.

Not only just checking here and there, but devoting themselves. deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. That is one extreme of those who are a threat to the gospel. Those who change the gospel and fall into self-righteousness. They become lovers of the commandment and of man-made traditions instead of lovers of the Lord.

And they come with these burdens upon the shoulders of people of self-righteousness. Christ Jesus is no longer the center of salvation, but the commandment and the letter is what is the center of what they preach. And they want this outward morality without the inward power. They are deep driven to this fleshliness in the way of doing things. This is self-righteousness.

But that is not only one of the threats against the gospel is the opposite. Also, we have in 1st in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, if you come to 2nd Timothy chapter 4, the same church was facing the opposite threats. In one side, those who were self-righteous in the way of their teaching and the threat against the gospel, and on the other side, those who will be just simply saying the words that people wanted to hear in their fleshliness of their ways. It says in 1 Timothy chapter four, you understand what I'm saying, brethren? My English is very broken today, yeah?

1 Timothy chapter four, it says in verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reproof, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience. That's insane, you know, like, nice, soft words, but he says, reproof, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Why? Why should Timothy preach the Word of God and rebuke, exhort, and reprove those who hear the Word, a message that is not appealing to people? Why?

Verse 3, for the time is coming. when people will not endure sound teaching. By having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. This is what is going to be the threat of the church. That when Jesus Christ is not the center of the message, that when the scriptures is not the standard by which we teach and preach, that when the church is not given life through the message of the spirit of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, those threats of the world, the threats of our flesh, the threats of what it is in this dark age are going to come at the doors of those who are Christians.

And if we are now walking in the spirit, in the truth of the scriptures, Brethren, we are not strong. We are very weak. And in the weaknesses of our ways, we may be tempted either to preach self-righteousness apart from Christ, or we may be tempted to speak the words that appeal to the fleshliness of the passions of those who are sitting in the chairs when they are not in Christ. They may be in the chairs, not in Christ, but dead in their sins and in their trespasses. The church is not a group of people that come together because they like each other.

We should like each other, and I hope that we like each other, and I hope that we love one another. But the center and the substance of the church must be Christ, his word, and his gospel. And when we are united in that, it does not matter, brethren, that there's five of us. It does not matter. When we are united in Christ Jesus, we have been blessed.

the greatest blessing has been bestowed upon us, because the center should be Christ Jesus. Now, let me now return to the text, and let me tell you the elements of what the message of the gospel should contain. I'm gonna try to do that in three minutes, each one of them, so it doesn't go that long. Let us go back to our text, and I want to present to you the elements of what the apostle tells us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that the message of the proclamation of the gospel should have. Let us go into the first one.

It says there in verse three, For I deliver to you as the first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. The first thing that we need to have in the gospel, it is the purpose of the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus Christ, the work of Jesus Christ, the center of the message of the work of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ came to die for our sins. And in that truth, we have two implicit truths.

One, that we are sinners. And second, that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only remedy for the problem of our sinfulness. That means that the message of the Gospel, the purpose of the message of the Gospel, it is to bring the solution to the problem of the sinner. Jesus Christ did not die upon the cross to fix your emotions. Jesus Christ did not die upon the cross to fix your anxieties or my anxieties.

Jesus Christ did not die upon the cross to do other things than to die for my sins. It is true that when by God's grace I receive the Spirit of the Lord, and I'm set free from the burden of my sins and my guilt, that I'm going to receive the Holy Spirit. And in receiving the Holy Spirit, I'm going to receive the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that is joy, and peace, and gentleness, and all of these fruits of the Holy Spirit. But the center of the purpose of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is to redeem sinners. So then that means that if the message of the gospel is going to make sense in the ears of those who receive it, they need to know that they are sinners.

Know that they are just simply broken. Know not simply that they're just having a bad day, or not just that they're the emotions, or look, these anxieties that you suffer, I'm going to fix them by temporarily giving you what you need, or just by having the hype of the emotion so that you will feel okay for two minutes or two hours, and then you will walk away and Monday you will be the same person. The message of the gospel needs to be presented in such a way that the one who receives it knows that we are sinners. And speaking about sin is not nice. If someone comes and says, you're a liar, you're an adulterer.

If someone comes and says those things to you, you don't want to be friends with that person. But brethren, this is a manifestation of God's love to us, that in showing us our darkness, we can understand the message of solution. How are we going to know the good news if we don't understand the bad news? How are we going to understand the remedy for this death in which we're walking if nobody tells us that we're dead? How are we going to understand that Jesus Christ is the solution for the problem of my sins if I believe only that I'm the victim of my circumstances?

And I'm the victim of my family and my parents and the country in which I was born. If I think that I'm just a victim of the circumstances, I am right, you're wrong. Poor me. You should be like me. You should give me what I deserve because I'm good.

You're not. And this Jesus that they preach, he's my friend. Actually, I feel very well every time that I come and hear this music and I'm with him because he's my friend. And He's every time that I'm there, He's with me. It is true, brethren.

But Jesus Christ is not only our friend, He's our Savior and He's our Lord. Because He has a Savior and a Lord is that He's our friend and that we can enjoy the blessing of what it is to be in Christ. Jesus Christ died for our sins. Our emotions are going to be fixed or are going to be improving as we become Christians. Perhaps the Spirit is going to lead you into maturity and is going to guide you into bearing fruits of joy and peace.

This is the fruit of the Spirit. But this fruit is manifested in people in a different way. If your Christianity depends on about your state of happiness, brethren, then that is not Christianity. It must depend upon the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ that even though I am feeling how I'm feeling, I know that He died upon the cross for my sins, and that is the refuge of my soul. And in order for Him to die for my sins upon the cross, He must be the Christ.

He must be God. He must be not only man, but he has to be God. For who is going to pay for my sins? And who is going to pay the debt in such a way that now I know that has been fully paid? This man who died has to be God, man, Jesus Christ.

So then that I can enjoy peace of knowing that I have been forgiven. Second, it is not only the purpose for which Jesus Christ came, that is to die for our sins. But second and very important, it is that Jesus Christ was victorious. Pay attention to verse four. It says, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

The first thing that we need to know in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ came to die for our sins and that means that we are sinners in need of a savior. Not that we have emotional problems or physical disabilities or that we need properties or that we want something physical to be given to us but that he came to die for our sins first. And second, that is that in coming to die upon the cross, Jesus Christ was victorious. And the victory of Jesus Christ upon the cross in his resurrection, death and resurrection, is equal to transformation.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ means transformation. That just as Jesus Christ died and was resurrected from the dead, he defeated death and he defeated sin. So those who have faith in Christ Jesus also go through the transformative power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter six, just as Christ died and was resurrected, the genuine Christian also dies and is resurrected. And this is what I call the application of the gospel.

The gospel is not only heard and understood, but the genuine gospel is applied to the life of the one who has been born again by the Spirit. And that is that the person is transformed by the power that resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans chapter 6. So I cannot have a gospel that does not have the power to transform. I'm not going to expect and require that the person that is a Christian, it is a perfect person, but I'm not going to accept either that the person continues to live in the bondage and the trespasses of their sins in which they walked. Because if a person says that they have the Spirit of Christ in them, then that Spirit of Christ it is, giving them conformity to Jesus Christ.

The victory of Christ over death and his resurrection is equal to transformation for the person who received it. We could read Romans chapter six, but now the time has passed. Now let me just finalize with this. The third aspect is going to be the commission of Christ to his bride. Pay attention there to verse five.

It says, And that he, that is Christ, appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he, that is Christ, appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one... Untimely born, He appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, and worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they." So we proclaim. So we preach.

And so you believed. Of course, the main point of the Apostle Paul here, it is just to simply say, and he wants just to prove the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's going to speak about from verse 12. The main point of what Paul is trying to do here is to say Jesus Christ was seen. by people. When he was resurrected, there were eyewitnesses who saw him, and that's why we know that he's alive.

But implicitly on what the apostle is saying here, in this appearing of Christ, we know that when Christ Jesus appeared to the disciples, it was not only to show them that he was alive, but it was also to give them the commission of the power of the gospel. When we come to Matthew chapter 28, you remember there in one of those appearances that Paul is citing there in first Corinthians, chapter 11 in Matthew, chapter 28. If you come with me and I finish with this in one of those appearances in the Great Commission in Matthew, chapter 28, we can see that the Lord Jesus Christ now is going to commission the church with the power that he received upon his resurrection. So Matthew, chapter 28, we have these inverse 16. It says, Now the eleven disciples, Matthew chapter 28 verse 16, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, in other words, when Jesus appeared to them, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, This is upon his appearing when he appeared to them. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age."

Christ Jesus, powerfully resurrected, has been now invested with power. Not a power that he did not have before because he's the Son of God, but he has been invested with power as the resurrected Son. He has now authority in heaven and on earth, and it's upon this authority that he appears to the people of God, the Christians, and then he commissions them to take the message that they heard from Him, and to bring this message of salvation to the nations, to baptize those who believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to teach them the things that Jesus Christ commanded them to them. This is the commission of power of Jesus Christ. This is the commission that He has given to us, the Christians.

Brethren, there are so many times that I'm tempted just simply to consider my own life and then just to see the things that I do and the things that I could have done. You know, like if I continue with my education and my studies and the places that I could have been if I just had taken that path of just going with my life and perhaps just following the things for which I was trained and perhaps just taking the path of going to this place and doing to this place. And many times I'm tempted and my feeble and weak emotions I feel like I should have done that. I should have done that. But when I come to the realization by the grace of the Spirit.

that nothing on this earth compares with the privilege of what it is to be a Christian, what it is to have the gospel of Christ, to have brothers and sisters, and then to have the commission of our gospel, then the futility of my ways and my thoughts that are natural to me are covered by the grace of Christ to show me that that which is most important, it is what we have in our hands. and that even though we may live 50, 60, 70, that we may grow weak and that we may go and disappear, that we have the greatest blessing, which is foolishness for those who are perishing, but it is the power of God for those who are saved. It is foolishness what we do, brethren. for the outsider. It is foolishness to speak of these men who lived 2,000 years ago and died upon the cross every Sunday and do the same things.

It is foolishness to proclaim the message that brings salvation to the sinner. It is foolishness for you to commit to a book that many people say that is not true. It is foolishness in the eyes of the world to give your life to a man that you have not seen. It is foolishness in the eyes of the flesh to pursue a savior that people think that they don't need. But if we know Christ.

And if we have heard His voice through the Scriptures, and if we have enjoyed the blessing of His message, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is because the grace of God has come to open our eyes, to open our hearts, so that when we come to this book, we may not have all the answers, not all the strength, not all the understanding, brethren. But we know one thing, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He came and died upon the cross, and that now He is ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father. And in the futility and the weakness of my ways, He's the one that is taking His bride and His church. And as He's doing all of that, He has entrusted us with the message of the gospel. And then when we preach it in the futility and our ways, the brokenness in the way that we preach the message, when we bring the message of Christ, then He has promised that He will build His church.

And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her. The gates of Hades shall prevail against that which is called the church and is the synagogue of Satan, because Satan is already in there. The gates of Hades or hell are going to prevail against those communities of people in which Christ Jesus is not Lord, but Christ Jesus will build His church. and his church and those who by grace through faith have been united to him through the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, a message that has Jesus Christ as the center, a message that has the scripture as its foundation, a message that is the one that gives life to the church, a message that proclaims that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners, a message that proclaims that through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a power to transform, and a message now that has been commissioned to this broken, feeble bride. for us to take and preach until the end of the age because he has given us the promise that he will be with us until that moment.

Seven years that are going like this, brother. It feels like it was last year that we were doing six year celebration. Time goes like this. We will pass away. We will be gone.

There might be an eighth year. There might not be an eighth year. There might be a ninth and 10th and 15th and 20th and 50th. There might not be. does no matter.

What matters is that we stand fast on our Lord Jesus Christ, that we live for him, that we proclaim his message, and that we submit ourselves to the message of the gospel. Because apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no biblical salvation. And biblical salvation is the most important thing. So what is the Christ? What is the gospel that you have entrusted your soul to?

Is the gospel that has Christ Jesus as the center? Or perhaps it's a gospel that has you as the center? What is the gospel message that you have received in which you're entrusting your soul, in which you stand, and by which you're being saved? Is that the gospel in which Christ is Lord and Savior? Or is that in which you like the community and the church and the endeavors of the church?

Because that's what the Catholic Church does. upholding the church over Christ Jesus. And this is what many Christian denominations do. Brethren, what is the message of the gospel that we're upholding in our hearts? It is Christ Jesus, our Lord.

What is I am the Lord. The church is the Lord. Our community is the Lord. Because the only message that saves is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May the Lord grant us the grace not only to be speakers and Proclaimers of words and hearers of words, but doers of the word by the grace of the Lord, because He's the one who loved us and He gave Himself for us.

And the life that we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who is with us and will be with us until the end of the age. Amen? Amen. Let us pray. O Father, as we come before You, And as we have these words before us, Lord, I pray that you will grant us, O Lord, the grace that we need through your Holy Spirit to see Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

We pray, O Lord, that you will lead us, that you will grant us a genuine desire to abide in Christ and to serve our Lord and our Savior. I pray, Lord, that you will strengthen these brothers and sisters in pointing them to Christ. I pray for each one of these, the families, the marriages that are here present, Lord. I pray that your blessing will be upon them. I pray for the brothers, Lord, that they will be courageous in following you and treasuring up your word and studying your words and your commandments.

I pray, Lord, that you will protect them from themselves, that you will protect us, Lord, from our thoughts, from our eyes, imaginations, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you will make us men that follow Christ Jesus, that the strength of our ways may not be seen in the physical strength that we have in our hands, but the strength of a feeble, weak faith that knows and depends upon Christ. I pray that you will do this for every one of the brothers. I pray for the sisters, Lord, and I pray that your hand will be upon them, protect them, guide them, Lord, give them patience and endurance. I pray that your blessing will be upon each one of them, Lord, guiding them to Christ, giving them freedom and delight in the presence of Christ.

I pray for each one of the marriages and the families here present, Lord, help us to love our wives and our husbands, as you have called us to love our husbands and our wives, Lord, for the glory of your name and by the power of your Holy Spirit. I pray, Lord, that you will help us to love our children, grant us, Lord, patience and endurance as we do not only speak the words of the gospel, but as we also live out the gospel of Christ Jesus. I pray for those who are elderly, for the single, I pray, Lord, that you will keep them, that you will protect them, that you will strengthen them. We are so weak, Lord, and we are many times distracted by the things of this world. I pray, Lord, that you will grant my brothers and sisters in their elderly years, Lord, the strength to continue to rest on Christ alone.

I pray for our children, Lord. We bring them before you and we ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would apply the words that we preach and that we say and that we read We leave them, Lord, in your hands. And we ask, Lord, that you will be the one that brings them to you. We praise you and we give you thanks for their lives. And we leave everyone here present within the sound of my voice.

And we ask, Lord, that you will bless us as a church, that you will help us, Lord, to love you, to love your word. And as we grow in understanding of the great love that you have had for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we will learn to love one another. Help us, Lord, protect us from ourselves. And now as we come to this table, we do this every Sunday, Lord. We have these elements in our hands.

I pray, Lord, that you will grant us the blessing of what it is to not only remember what you have done for us, but also by faith to know and to be in your presence, Lord, knowing that you're the one that is with your bride until the end of the age. That is the biblical gospel, the one that has made us one body with Christ. And that there will be nothing that will separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. Bless us, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.