Let's pray for the Lord's blessing. Our time is, we're done. Father, we are so grateful to you for giving us the Bible, giving us this wonderful library of 66 divinely inspired books so that we could understand who you are, your character, understand our own character as sinners and what it means to be reconciled to you through faith alone in Christ alone. So be with us now as we listen to your word. May we receive his truths with faith and love laid up on our hearts and practice it in our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 1 through 4. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4. This is our scripture reading and sermon passage for this morning. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4. This is God's Word. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. May God bless the reading of his infallible word. This time of year, we very often preach on the birth of Jesus, and I did that last Sunday morning. And as I was thinking about what to preach on, I was thinking, should I go back to 1 Samuel? I didn't want to leave Jesus in the manger. So I wanted to preach on everything else he did in one other sermon. The truth is so much more than the birth of Jesus. It's his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection from the grave. His whole life is the climax, not just of biblical history, but of world history. that glorious event taken as a whole, his whole person and work is itself the good news. The liberals a century ago, much like the progressives of our own day, had turned the blessed Christian faith into something that was little better than a fable with a good moral. And here's the good moral, could you ever have guessed? Be nicer to each other and all will be well. That's not the message of the Bible, never has been. The great J. Gresham Machen destroyed liberal theology. Even atheists at the time that read it said that they themselves were moved by the book because any person with a functioning brain knows that Machen destroyed liberalism in his book. But the liberals won. They won, they excommunicated Machen. And to this day, they still rule in the PCUSA, about 10,000 congregations. with the iron fist, the iron and intolerant fist of liberal unbelief. But we know Machen, J. Grestin Machen was the victor in that battle. Why? Because Machen had God and God's word on his side. And he wrote in that book, 2023 was the 100th anniversary of Machen's great book, Christianity and Liberalism. He said this, quote, the primitive church was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also and primarily with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And the event went with the meaning of the event. And the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The historical facts and the meaning of those historical facts. Says Machen, the narration of the facts of history, the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. That's history. He loved me and gave himself for me. That's doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive church." So many in Machen's day, a hundred years ago, And now I myself have heard, even in conservative Christian circles, when I was an undergraduate at Ohio University back in the late 1990s, people would say this all the time. Christianity, this Christianity, it's a way of life. Christianity is a way of life. It's a life. Is that true? Taken by itself? No, it's not. Christianity is not merely a way of life. It is the historical event of the whole of Jesus's conception, his birth, his life, his ministry, miracles, his crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, and now present continual building of his church throughout the world. Christianity is the person and work of Jesus in history, coupled together with the divinely revealed scriptural explanation of what he did and what it means for sinners to be saved by it. But without Jesus's person and work and the Bible's divinely revealed explanation of how sinners are saved, you don't have the Christian life at all without that, because you can't have a Christian without it. Machen said this a hundred years ago, a hundred years ago he said this, listen, quote, it transformed the lives of men, not by appealing to the human will, but by telling a story, not by exhortation, but by the narration of an event. It is no wonder that such a method seemed strange. Could anything be more impractical than to attempt to influence conduct by rehearsing events concerning the death of a religious leader? That is what Paul called the foolishness of the message. It seemed foolish to the ancient world and it seems foolish to the liberal preachers today. And I would say it seems foolish to the progressive ones too. Mason said, but the strange thing is, it works. The effects of it appear even in this world. Where the most eloquent exhortation fails, the simple story of an event succeeds. The lives of men are transformed by a piece of news, end quote. By the news of something that happened in history, people's lives are radically changed. The apostles of Jesus and the early Christians, they did not run around the ancient world, going from town to town, sharing a story of how Jesus changed their lives. Although they certainly could have done that, because coming to know Jesus did change their lives. They proclaimed rather an event, something had happened, not to them, but had happened in history. And they proclaimed a piece of news of what justifies believers by faith in this Messiah that died and rose again. Where do we get our news? Everyone has a place where they get their news, right? You turn on your podcast or the TV or the streaming service to get the news. What is the news? The news is always something that happened yesterday or that morning. It's always events that took place. The gospel is news. Something happened. It's not an exhortation, do better, try harder. Be nicer. It's about something that happened in real history. And by that news, the lives of people are changed. What Jesus did, how he fulfilled the broken covenant of works, how he died on the cross to satisfy its penalty, and how he justifies us and declares us righteous by faith alone, completely apart from our works on the basis of that event in history. That's what Christianity is. That's why Christianity is not Islam. Christianity is not Islam, it's not Buddhism, it's not Hinduism, Mormonism, or any other ism. You see, all of man's religions can be what they are without their founders. Islam can be Islam without Muhammad, doesn't need him. Mormonism can be Mormonism without Joseph Smith. Because those religions are not based upon a substitutionary work, the divinity, the atoning death, or the resurrection of those founders. They're all still dead. The gospel, the good news of what Jesus alone did to save sinners without them, and the news of what he did, that's what Christianity is. You know, when Paul wrote Corinthians, he wrote two letters. He wrote a lot to that church. It was a real mess. The doctrinal error in Corinth being addressed in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, it was just as serious as the error that was prevailing in the Galatian churches. In those Galatian churches, they had added the sinner's works and their subjective transformation to faith in Christ as the means by which we get into heaven. And Paul says that's not the gospel, never has been the gospel, and if you believe that, you're lost, you're not a Christian. In Corinth, there was a group saying that the dead will never come back to life, the dead will never rise again. And Paul sees if there is no resurrection of the dead at the last day of history, then that means Jesus didn't rise either. And if he didn't rise from the dead, there is no hope, there is no gospel. This is the beating heart of the truth that Paul is defending here, dear congregation. The triumph of our merciful God over sin, death, hell, and the grave was his plan from the foundation of the world. Man's religions, as I said, they can show you the graves of their founders and they're all dead. And all those religions can be what they are without their founders. Because man's religions are really nothing like the truth revealed by God. They have almost nothing in common with it. Our salvation, my salvation, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, your salvation was accomplished about two millennia ago, outside the city of Jerusalem, where that man who was also God was crucified, and died, and was taken off the cross, wrapped up in grave clothes, laid in a tomb, and on the third day, conquered death and rose from the grave. And that's why we can have assurance, because we weren't there to mess it up. Point number two, I've given you an outline there in your bulletin. Point number two, man's moralistic false religions are not anchored to historical events. Please remember that. If you ever take a course in comparative religions, I went to a very liberal undergraduate institution, Ohio University State School. I got the history of religions, Christianity's just another step in the evolution, and I went to Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism and everything else. Anyone that would say that knows nothing about any of those religions, nothing. The Islamic holy book, the Quran, in Surah chapter 4, verse 111, declares that each person must take care of his or her own sins. Wow, what a shock. Muslims earn salvation from sin by following the five pillars of Islam. You pray in a certain direction five times a day, you make a pilgrimage to Mecca, you say the Shahada. Other works, Surah 10, verse 109 of the Quran says, whoever goes astray, he himself shall bear the responsibility of his wandering, end quote. The co-founder of the Mormon religion, Brigham Young, Brigham Young of Brigham Young University. Said this, quote, some of our old traditions teach us that a man guilty of atrocious and murderous acts may savingly repent and then hear the expression, bless God, he's gone to heaven to be crowned in glory through the all redeeming merits of Christ the Lord. This is all nonsense. Such a character will never see heaven, end quote. Such are the ways and teachings of all of man's religions. They're all the same. Rejecting the Savior, all that's left is, well, be good, be nicer. Over against all these religions of law, these false religions which pin people's hopes on something done in them, something done by them, over against them all stands what the Bible calls the gospel, which is a bit of news about something that happened a long time ago. Central to the gospel is Jesus's resurrection from the dead. Our passage this morning is just those first four verses, but I want you to jump down a little bit. Look at verses 12 through 19 there real quick. Look how Paul banks the whole thing on what happened in history. Verse 12. Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith is also vain. Moreover, we even are found to be false witnesses of God because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all men the most to be pitied. I remember asking in 2007, I was a youth director at a church in Pearl, Mississippi. Youth ministry is like ministerial purgatory. And there were 12 kids, 12 high school kids that would come to this Bible study on Wednesdays. And I asked them, raise your hand if you would still go to church if Jesus was still dead. He didn't rise from the grave. 10 out of 12 raised their hand, said they still would. And the other two said, looked at him, it was a brother and sister, looked at him and said, what would be the point? That would mean the whole thing's false. It's like somebody has been reading the Bible at home and a bunch of people have it. What's the point if he didn't rise from the dead? We have no hope, there's no gospel, there's nothing. The truth of the Christian faith. And of the biblical gospel, it depends entirely on a historical event. If Jesus stayed dead and is dead to this day, the Bible is false. The apostles of Christ were purposeful liars because they said they saw him alive after he died. Everyone who ever died with their faith in Christ, hoping to go to heaven, actually died in their sins and went to hell. And all of us might as well have slept in this morning. Just stay home and watch football. The truth is really nothing like his man-made counterparts. The redeemed, the justified, forgiven, adopted child of God trusts entirely and only in something that happened entirely outside of them, something done entirely by someone else, and something that someone else, not them, did in real space-time history 2,000 years ago, outside the city of Jerusalem, one afternoon, and then what happened three days later? Jesus, who he is and what he accomplished. That's the gospel. Without it, you don't have Christianity. And that's why when Machen wrote Christianity and Liberalism, he says in the book, I wish they'd all just go away. I wish all the liberals would just leave. You guys don't believe Christianity anymore. You don't believe any of this stuff anymore. Why do you pretend to? Now look at verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 15 there. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand." Okay, stop there. Paul loved to repeat the gospel and to explain what Jesus had done to save people from sin, his own zeal to protect and defend and preach the gospel. It was motivated by a sense of his own gratitude to God for having saved him. He had once been an almost hopelessly lost Pharisee. I mean, this is a man that was fully convinced that by his religious practices, by his good works and his zeal for God, he had almost certainly earned a place for himself in heaven. But when the sovereign God opened his eyes to see just how deep and treacherous his own sinful heart was and how guilty he was of violating God's law, he believed the gospel. Paul, who once thought so highly of himself, he came to see, my salvation has been achieved by the obedience, by the works, by the righteousness of Jesus in my place and in my stead. that my whole forgiveness has been achieved by Jesus's cross work, where he was nailed to that wood and bled and died and bore the wrath of God against me. That's where my salvation is. And he went throughout the whole world proclaiming it. This happened in history. You need to believe it to be saved. Standing in the gospel. Paul says that there right at the end of verse one, in which you stand. That means our convictions are settled, they are fixed, they are immovable. That in which the Christian trusts is the finished work of Christ outside of them, his death in their place, his burial in their place, his resurrection from the dead in their place and in their stead. His achievement of perfect righteous obedience to the 10 commandments in their place. You realize that it's a great error that's cropped up in modern history is that the covenant of works is a gracious covenant. No, it's not. Not at all. There's no grace in it at all. Zero. None. It's entirely legal. It is a legal covenant that required obedience. And had Adam kept that covenant, he would have earned by pure personal righteousness his right to eat from the tree of life and live forever. And because he failed, someone else has got to enter into that broken covenant and keep it for us. That's what Jesus does. Jesus earned eternal life by his righteousness. Jesus didn't need grace to do that. His coming is God showing us grace by doing it all in our behalf. Look at verse three, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And back up, I'm sorry, I've missed verse two. Look at verse two again. By which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain. Numbers 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. So think about this, folks. The thing of first importance in the gospel is that Christ died for our sins. The penalty-bearing, substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross for the sins of his people is what God promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When he said, enmity I will put between you and the woman, he was talking to Satan there. You, Satan, and the woman, and between your seed, all unbelievers in the world, and your seed, Jesus Christ. He will bruise your head, he will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel. In other words, he's gonna inflict a wound on the Savior, on the Messiah, but the Messiah is gonna crush his head and kill and destroy him for good. That's what's of first importance, that Christ died in our behalf for our sins. That he, in that phrase, in Genesis 3.15, he shall bruise you on the head. He will crush you on the head. That's about Jesus. Jesus is gonna do that to the devil and to all his work in the world. Paul wrote in Galatians 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. What does that mean, born under the law? He entered into that broken covenant of works to keep it for us. That's why he came, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So Jesus does all the redeeming and we simply receive it. that He would redeem those who were under the law that we would receive. But where are our works in this? They're nowhere. We're not saved by works in any way, shape or form whatsoever. We can't be, because all of our works are stained with sin. That's why Christ came to do it for us, in our behalf. Jesus came to die. In John 12, 27, Jesus was deeply troubled, it says, anticipating the horrors of the coming full judgment of God on all the sins of his people. But he says, while he's in the midst of that agony, for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Jesus told Pilate during that private conversation in Pilate's house, he said, for this, I have been born. I've been born for this. I came to die. That's my purpose, to die in the place of my people so that they will never know the sting of death, so that they can be forgiven, so they can be justified before the judgment of God and not condemned. I'm about to be judicially condemned so they never will be. And that's why Psalm 22 one, Jesus quotes it while he's hanging in agony on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me? In that moment, he was legally credited with all his people's sins and he's treated by the father as if he had committed them all. That wonderful phrase for our sins there in verse three, that's the only hope we have. You think about death and dying, everyone here is gonna die. I'll probably do a bunch of your funerals. What do you think about when you think about death? I hope that all you're thinking is, Jesus died for my sins. I will not pay for a single one of them. Even the sins I haven't committed yet, they were nailed to the cross and I bear them no more. It means in behalf of our sins. Christ died for our sins means in behalf of, as a substitute. Just like when the people would bring the bull or the goat or the animal, they would lay their hands on it, and there would be a symbolic transfer of guilt from the worshiper to the animal, and then the animal would be slaughtered. That was supposed to teach Israel. You're looking for a substitute, someone to stand in your place, not a cheerleader or a therapist to help you be more righteous. This is why we see the whole salvation that we have in Christ alone. We do not, we do not merely see the initial step as being of grace alone. It's the whole thing from start to finish is achieved and accomplished by grace alone, through faith alone, never our works at all, ever. We see that which alone will attain heaven for us at the final judgment I heard one preacher say in a sermon, I remember writing this down, he said, Jesus died alone on that cross and he doesn't need your chump change to save you. We do good works because we are saved, not in order to become saved, or to stay saved, or to be finally saved. The fruit that grows on the tree only tells you what kind of a tree it already is. Good works do not make a person a Christian. Good works only make it known to other men whether one is a true Christian or not. Works are the fruit of salvation, never the cause. What is the gospel? What is of first importance, says Paul? I deliver to you exactly as Jesus himself taught me. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. The Old Testament sacrificial system was about the coming of Jesus. All of that animal blood that was spilled, it was supposed to teach them, you need a sacrifice that's actually going to accomplish what this was only a symbol of. And that's why we don't have an altar anymore. We don't bring sacrifices anymore. We don't cut up animals anymore. We have a table where we remember. Remember the one sacrifice. The fact that they had to offer those animals over and over again, that showed that they didn't actually accomplish their salvation. But they would have taught them that the thing which would ultimately accomplish their salvation would be the Messiah who would die in their place, apart from them, apart from their works, and apart from any contribution they would ever or could ever make to Messiah's work. Do you understand that? The whole Bible is trying to get across to you, you contribute nothing to this. God does this. Think about Passover in Exodus, that when the angel of the Lord goes out and strikes dead every firstborn child and the firstborn among the livestock too, when he sees the blood on the doorpost, it wasn't, okay, take some of the lamb's blood and now everybody give me your finger, I'm gonna stick your finger, we're gonna mingle a little bit of our blood in here and put it on there, that way we make just a little contribution. No, it wouldn't have worked then. It is all what the lamb of God has accomplished. Not us at all, we contribute nothing to it. His name is Jesus because He saves His people from their sins. That's what Joshua, Yeshua means. Yahweh is salvation. He was named what He was because of His mission to save His people from their sins. Not to open the door or make it possible or to put a system in place that they could work, but to accomplish it, to save His people. God is so loving, so abundantly merciful, so patient, so filled with faithfulness that He provided what sinners really need, a savior. Remember Surah chapter 10 verse 109 of the Quran of Islam says, whoever goes astray, he himself bears the whole responsibility of wandering. What a contrast to the word of God. Isaiah 53, six, all we like sheep have wandered, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. On our savior, the Quran says, you bear the load of your wandering. The word of God says, God laid your wandering on Christ. You see the difference? That's all the difference in the world. the gospel, this bit of news, this historical event of the birth, life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus. refers to it as the event. It's that Jesus on the cross bears the whole responsibility of our wandering, of our rebellion, of our sin, of our turning to our own way. Jesus bears that curse, the whole responsibility, not some or most of it, but all of it. It was a heavy, terrible cost he had to pay, but pay it he did. It was a bitter cup that he was made to drink, but he drank it willfully, willingly, gladly. He bore the wrath, took the shame, and let the hammer of his father's justice against us fall on him, Calvary's bitter cross. And please remember this. Please remember, Christ's bearing that whole responsibility is a finished work. It is a finished work. Remember it every day of your lives, dear children of God. He said it's finished. Why are the legalists of our day who claim to be reformed constantly trying to add to what he finished? God neither asks nor will he accept any other payment than that which his son offered on the cross. And knowing that is where our true assurance comes from. That is of first importance. Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. Salvation is completely and entirely a gift. It's a gift. Once again, we just gave a bunch of presents to people and not a single one of my kids got out their wallet and said, how much do I owe you? I wish they had. But you know what, if I let them pay me for it, are they gifts? No. You think anything you do contributes even one tiny ingredient to getting into heaven? You don't understand Christianity. You don't understand the gospel. You don't get it. Reformed theologian who died not too long ago, Robert Raymond, wrote this. Listen to this. This is how theology is supposed to be done, because it's clear. It's clear. He says, the doctrine of justification means, then, that in God's sight, the ungodly man, now in Christ, has perfectly kept the moral law of God. Which also means, in turn, that in Christ, he has perfectly loved God, with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself. It means that saving faith is directed to the doing and dying of Christ alone, and not to their good works or inner experience. It means that the Christian's righteousness before God is in heaven at the right hand of Jesus Christ and not on earth within the believer. It means that the ground of our justification is the vicarious work of Christ for us, not the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in us. It means that the faith righteousness of justification is not infused, but imputed, not experiential, but judicial, not our own, but a righteousness alien to us and outside of us, not earned, but graciously given. through faith in Christ that is itself a gift of grace. It means also in its declarative character that justification possesses an eschatological dimension. All that means is it really is ultimately at the end of all things on the last day. Listen, for it amounts to the divine verdict of the last day being brought forward into the present time and rendered here and now concerning the believing sinner. By God's act of justifying the sinner through faith in Christ, the sinner, as it were, has been brought before the time to the final judgment and has already passed successfully through it, having been acquitted of any and all charges brought against him. And you know what the neolegalists of our time are doing? They're going to every passage in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5, 10, Romans 2, 1 Corinthians 3, and trying to say, yeah, but there's a judgment of works. Yeah, but there's a judgment of works. And my response is, yeah, for rewards, that's nothing to do with justification, nothing to do with getting into heaven at all. You know how I know that? Because when the thief on the cross, when he died, Jesus said, today, you will be with me in paradise. Paul said in Philippians chapter one, second Corinthians chapter five, to be absent from the body for a believer is to be present with the Lord. The judgment of works has no bearing on where you go when you die, none. And it's a misuse of those passages, a misuse of 1 Corinthians 3 and Romans 2 and James 2. You would think listening to neolegalists, those are the only chapters in the whole Bible that talk about this. But the fact is when a believer dies, they are immediately with the Lord. Jesus did not say to that man, today you will be with me in paradise for a while, but there's a judgment of works at the end, it might mess up everything for you. That's what makes it good news. Why is it such good news that Jesus did this in his masterpiece, The Holiness of God? I wish every Christian, I wish every human being on earth would read it and with the Bible and read through it. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul gave this illustration, listen. Quote, a few years ago, Time Magazine reported an incident that took place in the state of Maryland. A truck driver was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. When the police officers arrived on the scene to arrest the man, he became abusive. He used filthy language in a boisterous manner, calling the officers every name he could think of. The police were infuriated by his verbal abuse, and when the man was brought before the magistrate, he was still being abusive. The maximum penalty the magistrate could impose for drunk and disorderly conduct was a $100 fine and 30 days in jail. The magistrate became so angry that he wanted to throw the book at him. And so he did some research and found an antiquated law still on the books of Maryland. It was in disuse, but it had never been officially repealed. The statute prohibited public blasphemy. Since the man had publicly profaned and blasphemed the name of God as part of the verbal abuse he hurled at the police, the magistrate tacked on another $100 fine and an additional 30 days in jail. The Time Magazine news editor reported this incident in a spirit of moral outrage. His complaint was not that penalties for blasphemy involved a violation of, excuse me. His complaint was not that penalties for blasphemy involved a violation of the separation of church and state. His outrage was based on his charge that to put a man in jail for 60 days and to fine him $200 was a gross miscarriage of justice. Such a penalty was too severe for such a light infraction. It was cruel and unusual punishment. Evidently, the news editor was not upset about the penalties imposed for drunk and disorderly conduct. It was the punishment for blasphemy that he couldn't handle. This is in strong contrast to the law code that God gave Israel. The truck driver could rejoice that he wasn't arrested by Moses or Aaron. In the Old Testament, the best lawyer in Israel could not get his client a $100 fine. The question we face is, which is worse? creating a public disturbance by getting drunk or publicly insulting the dignity of the Holy God. The news editor gave his answer. God gave a different one. If the Old Testament laws were in effect today, every television network executive would have long ago been executed, end quote. When the thoughts enter your mind, yeah, I'm sinful. But I'm not like this guy or that guy that does the stuff we read about in the news or documentaries. Yeah, nobody's perfect, but surely I'm not bad enough for hell. Just remember that one man eating a piece of fruit God told him not to is the reason that we're all gonna die. It's the reason that we are gonna face the judgment of God. And you think, it's not that big a deal. Surely some suffering I go through could atone for it, or some sacrifices, or if I give a little bit more, that should offset the balance. Psalm 49, six says, those who trust in their wealth and boast on the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their souls is costly, and no payment is ever enough. That's what the Word of God says. You can't pay this debt. It's a debt that only God, joined to a human nature in Jesus Christ, can pay. This is what makes the gospel such good news, such a glorious announcement, and so wonderful of a gift of God to the world. When Jesus was finally born and put in that animal's feeding trough, that manger, a multitude of angels appeared over the shepherds, we looked at this last time, and they were proclaiming glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men. Jesus had to come and do this. He had to be born of a woman under the law, enter into that broken covenant of works, that legal covenant, because God told Adam, in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And it wasn't God's will for that to have the last word. For us to go to heaven and not hell, not only did this death penalty have to be paid by a perfect sinless victim, our Lord Jesus, but the penalty death also has got to be conquered. Death had to be abolished and killed. That's what the resurrection of Christ does. Paul told Timothy in his final letter, he knew he was going to die pretty soon in 2 Timothy. And he said that Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel, having abolished death. Think of all the terrible things that have been abolished, abolishing chattel slavery, abolishing this, abolishing that. We'd love to see abortion be abolished, but who can abolish death? Only the God-man, Jesus can do that. And finally, verse four, you see verse four? and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Okay, stop there. He died and was buried. This was the testimony to his death. Living people are not buried. Jesus died and was buried. He was really dead, just like we all die. But then he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Jesus came back to life. Jesus is alive today, right now in heaven at the Father's right hand. The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question, question 45, how does Christ's resurrection benefit us? Answer, first, by his resurrection, he has overcome death so that he could make us share in his righteousness, which he had obtained for us by his death. Second, by his power, we too are raised up to new life. Third, Christ's resurrection is to us a sure pledge of our own glorious resurrection. We will not stay dead. We live in a time and the time between the ages, this age and the age to come. Jesus is the first to rise from the dead, never to die again. When we rise from the dead in the last day in the likeness of Christ, we will never die again either. And our resurrection body will be just like his resurrection body, free of all disease, all infirmity, all deformity, every single last effect of the curse for sin will be gone. abolished entirely from the new creation in which we will spend our eternity. This is why the time is now. Now. As you live, as I live, between the ages, now is the time to repent and believe. Covenant children who have been putting this off or toying with worldliness or feeling too unworthy of God or some other lame excuse, the time is now. Today. Your life is a vapor, says the word of God. You don't know if you're gonna have a tomorrow. You don't know if you've got time to procrastinate coming to Christ. You're a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes away. That says in scripture, his place remembers it no more. If any of you walked through that huge cemetery over there lately and looked up all the names, I wonder who this person was. I wonder who they were. I wonder what they did. You don't care. And no one's gonna care about you either when you're gone. Today's the day. You have such a short time to live. Live in Christ, not out of him. Believe in Jesus and be saved. Believe that bit of news about the real event of history, that real person who lived and ministered and died and rose again. Believe in him. Peter, the apostle Peter, an eyewitness of Jesus's death and resurrection, a man who saw him die. And when the women came and said, we saw two angels and they told us, why do you seek the living among the dead? He didn't believe them. These are idle women's tales. We're not listening to this. But then he spent 40 days with them, alive. And then he went out and preached in Acts chapter two. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. He's alive. I was watching a video of an unbelieving professor at Columbia University who's interviewing Tim Keller about Christianity. It was pretty disappointing. It was painful listening to Keller's answers. But the thing is, the questions that that professor was asking were actually really good questions. I transcribed word for word one of his questions. Listen to this. This guy, obviously not a believer, but this is a good question. Listen, quote, a lot of people are extremely bothered Especially in our kind of multicultural community where we're supposed to respect everybody and nobody's going to hell because they're Jewish or not Christian or aren't following the gospel. Is that really fair? I mean, especially people who don't have access to the gospel. They don't even reject it. They just don't get access to it. But even those who do get access to it, but they don't believe it, is it fair to say they're going to hell? Presumably God is making these judgments. What kind of a God would say, okay, you Jewish people, you got it wrong, all right, you're not coming into heaven. Do you see how that would be kind of a problem for a lot of people? End quote. I'm not even gonna tell you what Keller said. Now, why would he ask those questions? Why do people ask questions like that? It's real simple. He has no idea who God is. And because he doesn't know who God is, he doesn't know who he is either. You see, knowledge of who we are and knowledge of God are intertwined. If you think things like that, it's because you have no idea who God is. No idea who He is. The people who think they're good enough, that's just not fair. That just doesn't jive with my sense of right and wrong. That the only people that go to heaven are Christians. I just don't like that. John Calvin, in his masterpiece of theology, every Christian should read the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In the opening points of the opening of the book, John Calvin wrote this, quote, we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright, wise and holy. This pride is innate in all of us, unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. As long as we do not look beyond the earth, Being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly and fancy ourselves all but demigods. Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God and to ponder His nature and how completely perfect are His righteousness, wisdom, and power, the straight edge to which we must be shapen. Then what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God. As a consequence, we must infer, listen, man is never sufficiently touched and affected by an awareness of his lowliest state until he has first compared himself with God's majesty. That professor for three seconds could see and feel God's majesty. This question would not be asked. He'd be asking us, do you know how I can be saved? from the righteous judgment of God against me for my sins. I am most certainly gonna go to hell when I die. How can I be saved? You're not gonna get, well, how can you say this and this and that? People need to have an encounter with God. And dear ones, that's why we pray. I hope you pray every day, God, bring revival to this nation. Let people see your holiness. Let people see your judgment, that it's real, and let them see that your love is even greater, that your grace is greater. But until that happens, We're not gonna be asking the right questions. Why would a well-educated, well-spoken, articulate author of books, professor, tenured, multiple letters after his last name, why would he ask questions like that? Because his thoughts have never been raised to God to ponder his holy nature and how perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power. That's why we pray for it. Lord, open the eyes of the lost, open the ears of the deaf. It's a finished and perfect work that Jesus accomplished. It's a free gift earned by God the Father at the expense of his son's suffering, which he holds out to the world. He holds it out to the world and says, come, take this. Take this gift that I have earned at such terrible cost. Eat, drink, take, believe, live, be reconciled to me. If you have sins, where else could you go but to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? That professor does not see his sin. He doesn't see his need. And if you're willing to come to Christ, He never was otherwise. Come to Him. Stop waiting. Jesus is the Savior, the almighty destroyer of death, hell, and the grave, the one who forgives and pardons, cleanses, transforms, loves, walks with you, carries you, holds you, comforts you when you weep, As I said, when those women came to the tomb looking for Jesus, they found the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. And there were two men in shining garments that appeared and they asked them that stirring question, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying, the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified in the third day rise again. The disciples didn't believe them. But after they met the resurrected Christ and they were with him 40 days, talking with him, learning from him, they touched him. He said, look, he's me. Touch, touch me, handle me. A ghost, a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones. I mean, they're looking at him and they can't believe it. Is it really him? You guys have anything to eat? Jesus says, bring me something to eat. Do dead people eat? He showed them through many infallible proofs and their doubts were changed to rock solid conviction. Conviction so strong that all of Jesus' disciples, they faced and endured horrific deaths, proclaiming to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And not a single one of them ever broke ranks and denied it, not even under torture. Why? Because they were eyewitnesses, they saw it, they knew it. Peter, one of those early doubters, would by divine inspiration write these glorious words, 2 Peter 1, 16. We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. The message of the Bible, God's only true message to man. Contrary to all the phony holy books, like the Book of Mormon, like the Islamic Quran. You know, the Quran says Jesus wasn't even crucified. Science and health was key to the scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the mind science cults, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, all the messages of all advanced religions, be nice, meditate, do better, try harder, maybe all will go well with you and you die. That's the religion of the natural man and the theology of the natural man. God's message to the world is this, trust in this event. what my beloved son in whom I alone am well pleased. Trust in him because I'm not pleased with you. Trust in him and I'll hide you in him and then you'll be well pleasing to me because you'll be clothed in his divine righteousness. Trust in Jesus's finished work alone for your salvation and entrance into heaven. Trust that Jesus entered into that legal covenant of justice, that covenant of works, and that he earned by his own personal righteousness and merits our legal right to go to heaven. The great Charles Hobbes, the great person of theologians, said, justification, when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to our account, we have a legal title to eternal life. Trust that when Jesus died, it was for you, for your sins, all of them, against God. And only by trusting in His blood as the satisfaction of divine righteousness, divine justice, can you be saved. rest in the love of God, demonstrated in that while we were still sinners, not trying harder, but still sinners, still rebellious, still arrogant, still pompous, still wicked, still running. He died for the ungodly. Trust in that glorious divine love that will not let you go once you believe in him. Receive and rest upon Christ and his righteousness and his satisfaction of divine justice for your salvation. And you will, as the word of God promises, be saved. Let's pray. Father, we bless your name for the saving gospel of your free grace. Thank you that everything that we needed to have done so we could go to heaven, Jesus did. Everything we needed him to be, he is. Fully man, perfectly righteous because he's also fully God. May we trust in him and him alone and what he did, what he accomplished 2,000 years ago. And may we live a life of godliness as a reasonable response of gratitude to the fact that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. In whose name we pray, amen.