Well, good morning. As you can see on the screens, we're going to be in First Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to go through the 1st 11 verses. So if you want to go ahead and turn there that way you don't have to do it in just a minute. Over the last few weeks, we've been reading and studying this letter to the Corinthian church called First Corinthians. It's Paul's first letter. You guys might be tired of being in First Corinthians. I promise there's light at the end of the tunnel.
We'll be finished before Christmas, actually, Yeah, before Christmas, maybe, anyway. But we've we've seen so much in this letter about what it means to be the church. Lately, we've been talking about the gifts of the Spirit. Pastor Joe taught us that, that if you're a believer, right, you have a gift. And he also taught us from Chapter 13. Excuse me, that if you use your gift outside of the context of love, you have nothing and you are nothing, right? You're no more than a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal. In other words, you're annoying, Joe said. I didn't say that. Joe said it last week. Pastor Jake talked to talked to us about the importance of using our gifts in the church in an orderly way. We need to come here and worship the Lord in an orderly fashion because that's how he wants to be worshipped. We see that all through Scripture, right? We see it in the Old Testament books. We see it in the law.
We see all through. Like there's chapter after chapter in Exodus that you guys went through before I came here about how the temple should be set up. How should we set up the Tabernacle as we travel through the wilderness? He gave specific instructions on how he wants to be worshipped. God wants to be worshipped in an orderly way. I'd like to ask you a question this morning, though, like like Pastor Jake, he he emphasized building people up. It's important for us to come.
And Paul has been doing this all throughout the letter. He's been asking us and telling us that that everything we should do should be for the purpose of building others up. So I want to ask you this question this morning. What are we building each other up in? Is it self esteem? Am I? Am I here to give you a pat on the back and make you feel good about yourself? Is it just good feelings? Hey, you did a good job or hey, your sports team won?
Is it just encouragement? Am I supposed to come here and just offer a warm smile and easy conversation? Thank you. Is what I'm supposed to do? Is that what I'm supposed to do? Is, is, is that all we're supposed to do to build each other up? All of these things are good things, right? We should encourage one another. We should offer an easy conversation and a warm smile. We should do these things. But all of that can be done in the context of, of where you
work your job. That can be done at the Rotary Club. I was talking to someone last night. I was watching the parade in Kingsville. And we're talking about like, oh, you know, if you just want a social club, join the Rotary Club. They do. They do social things better than the church anyway. All of those things can be done outside of the context of the church. But what different what? What differentiates the church from the from a Country Club?
What what is the big difference? What makes having coffee with a friend, a Christian friend different than having coffee with with a non believer? Well the answer it should be very obvious to us right? The difference is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul has been beating the drum of building others up through the whole letter. And now here when we get to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, he's trying to make something abundantly clear. He's been responding to all sorts of things, right?
We'll do a quick review. He he's he's he's responding to like explicit relationships in the church, meat sacrifice to idols, gifts given by the Spirit, when to Mary, when to divorce. And now he's addressed all of these things. He says, all right, I'm done. I'm done answering your letter to me. Now I've got something to tell you. And he moves on to the main thing. So I want you to read with me here in First Corinthians 15. We're going to read the first 11 verses.
I'll be reading from the Christian standard Bible Paul writes. Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I passed on to you as most
important what I also received. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And then He appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then He appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. And last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, not 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 toward me was not in vain, On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me. Whether then it is I or they, so we proclaim, and so you have believed. Let's pray. Well, good morning, Father, we recognize this morning that we can only call this day good
because of you. And Father, the good news of the message of your son, Jesus Christ. So we recognize that this can only be a good day and a good morning, not because of the weather, not because of of of how beautiful you made it, but because of, of what you did in sending your Son to us. So Lord, we pray that you would help us to understand that today.
Help us this morning to incline our hearts to the testimony of Your Son, not for selfish or prideful gain, but for Your name and Your name alone to be glorified and worshipped. Father, I ask that You open our eyes to behold the wonderful things in Your Word and help us to understand the message, the meaning, and the might of the Gospel. We also ask that You, You, unite our hearts to fear Your name and satisfy us this morning with Your steadfast love.
And we pray all of these things together in the name of Jesus. Amen. So as I mentioned before, Paul is moving from gifts and order in worship to make something very clear and utmost importance. The good news. So he starts this chapter with this phrase. He says, Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you. The translation you're reading might say remind, it might say make known to you.
But I think the CSV gets it closer to Paul's intent here. It's more than making the gospel known, and it's more than reminding you. What we see here over the course of chapter 15 is that Paul wants to make it abundantly clear. What we see here is one of the most robust, like one of the most robust explanations of the doctrine of the resurrection that you'll find in the entire Bible. He's going to clarify in these verses what it means, what to believe the message of the gospel.
Danny Aiken, who's been so helpful with his commentary for us and helping us organize our outlines and organize how we how we present First Corinthians to you. He says this. He says the church is unique in many ways compared to any other institution or entity in the world, not the least of which is because the mission of the church is actually determined by the message of the church.
I want you guys to get that. Our mission as a church is determined by the message of the church, and that is the gospel. If we get nothing else right, we have to get that right. Everything we do here at LEMC has to be centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has to be what we talked about the most. It has to be what we talked about the loudest in all of our meetings. If you're in a leadership meeting, if you're meeting with a ministry team, the gospel has to be front and center.
Otherwise, you're not doing what the Bible says we're supposed to be doing. It's the most important message of the Bible and the message of the church, and we must make every effort to proclaim it to the world. There are a lot of issues in Scripture that we can focus on, and we should. We should give time and attention to. And while they're important and should be discussed, they aren't what we need to be defined by.
I'll give you a few examples. This is like you go to a doctor or you go to the hospital and you go into the emergency room and you're in there and you you have your wrist chopped off. You're going to get seen faster than someone who has a cut on their finger. It's called triage. The nurses are going to say that guy needs, certainly needs service more than that guy. So we're going to take that guy. First. Let me give you some examples of
what we call theological triage. Couple of examples, not many. There are some Christians who make it their number one priority and they're most concerned with the three to five verses you read on Friday. If you're reading in the church reading plan in Revelation chapter 20, where John describes that there's going to be 1000 year reign. And some people are so concerned with that that they lose the
message of the gospel here. They would, they would more, they would, they would prefer to, to talk about those four or five verses in Revelation chapter 20 than they would to talk about the whole gospel and the rest of the New Testament. And it is important for us. I'm not, don't get me wrong, don't hear what I'm not saying. It is important for us to understand and interpret the Book of Revelation and those
specific verses. But if when I look at you and you're walking up to me and I'm walking up to you and the first thing that comes to my mind is your stance on that particular issue, then it may be possible that in my interactions with you, one or both of us has prioritized that over the gospel. Another example would be like the mode of baptism. We believe in this church that those who profess faith in Christ should be baptized. Those only those who have professed faith in Christ should
be baptized. And that means that the person confess, confessing faith needs to be old enough to understand the good news explained and to be able to confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's called believers baptism. We believe that here in this church, but I have friends who I know that are Christians, I know they're saved, that believe something different about baptism. They believe that it's biblical to baptize infants into the church. And on this point, we absolutely
disagree. However, neither of us would believe that baptism is what saves us. Only repentance and faith according to the gospel can do that. But making the mode of baptism, if that, if that's the key issue among us, then something other than the gospel has been is put in place of the main thing. So we have to think about what matters most.
And we can happily discuss and debate issues like this, but we should never elevate them above these matters of less importance to above the main thing, which is the gospel. When we do that, we risk distracting the church from the mission given to us by Christ. In Matthew 28 he says this, He says Jesus came near to them and said all authority has been
given to me on heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. And remember I'm with you always to the end of the age. We don't want to get distracted because the mission of the church, right? The mission of the church is determined by the message of the
church. Paul's telling us here that we must prioritize the message of the gospel in our churches. He says this. He says, now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand, and by which you're being saved if you hold to the message I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So he brought them the gospel, the good news. They received it and they made it.
They made it the priority of their lives. They said they're staking their lives. They're taking their stand on the gospel, the good news of Jesus. That's what they're doing. He references an earlier point from the beginning of the letter and he says the gospel, this good news, is how they're being saved. Remember we talked about that way back months ago. They're being saved. It's a process of sanctification. The gospel is what we're is what is saving us.
It's why we can't stop talking about it, like we can't just make it what we talked about at the beginning and you're converted and OK, you don't have to talk about the gospel anymore. No, brothers and sisters, you are being saved. You are being built up in Christ. If you get tired of hearing the gospel, then I don't know if you're a Christian. The gospel is the good news. What does he say? What does he mean when he says? Unless they have believed in
vain. Well, it made me think of the parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 13, the parable of the soils where the Gospel seed is spread out all over different different types of soil. We can read that together here. It says, It says. Then he told them many things in parables, saying consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds
came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown. But anyone who has ears, listen.
So here in this parable, Jesus is teaching, he's teaching us that there are some who will hear the gospel. And it seems like that there's something real there. It seems like that there's a a true conversion, there's a sprout, but the root is never able to take hold. So what does that mean for us today? It means that I think that that it is a place for us to really take a moment. This, this is a just, it's just
an aside Paul throws in there. He says unless some of you have believed in vain, but but what it take a moment and think, think about yourself and your life as a believer. The goal here, my goal here to to bring this up is not to have you question your salvation, but it's for you to think about how you live your life and ask yourself this question. Have I prioritized the message of the gospel in my life?
When I'm faced with challenges in my own life, do I reflect what Christ has done to reconcile me to himself when I have the opportunity to speak into the lives of others who give who come to me for advice or or who come to me for consolation, Maybe they maybe they want to come to you and they just want to commiserate. They want to like they want to say, Hey, I'm this is this bad things going on in my life? Isn't it so bad? They just want you to say, yeah,
it's bad. Is what you what you the first thing that comes out of your heart and your mind is it? Is it the gospel? Is it sent? Is the advice you're about to give centered on the gospel in their life? We have to remember this, guys, that anything that is almost the gospel isn't the gospel, right? You can't almost believe the gospel. So when it comes to our ministries and our events here at this church, we need to ensure that we are prioritizing
the gospel in everything. If the gospel is not the center of everything we do, then we don't need to do it based on Scripture. We don't need to do it if it's if it's just to come and have a good time, we don't need to do it. That's not that's not what the church is for. The church is for giving the gospel to a sick and dying world. That is what it's for. Invite your sick friends who are sick because they're aren't they're lost.
Invite them to the church so that they can hear the gospel. It I've been in churches where, where you can, you can invite someone to the church and you never know what's going to be preached. You never know if they're going to get the gospel And you honestly, I don't even want to invite somebody to that church because if I'm inviting a lost friend to church, I want them to get the gospel and everything.
I want them to hear that Jesus is the only way that they can be reconciled to the Father. We must prioritize the message of the gospel. So if we're going to prioritize the message of the gospel, we better know what it means, right? So we must recognize the meaning of the gospel. That's our second point today. I've been saying that word a lot. For those of you who count, gospel is probably the number one word in the sermon Alexand. She counts the words.
But so I've been saying it a lot, but what does it really mean? What does it mean? You may know this already, but the the word gospel literally means good news. So as a preacher of the gospel, what that means is I'm a herald of the good news. It has to be the the thing we we shout the most and the loudest. Paul's helpful in how he transitions. He's he isn't going to leave the important issue to chance in this text by assuming that they remember.
Remember he says what I delivered to you that he does. He's not going to assume that they remember what he delivered. So he's going to spell it out for him. He says this in verses three to four. He says, for I passed on to you as most important what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Friends, this gospel, the gospel is summed up beautifully here
using 3 components. All right, three components. The first one is this. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. There's nothing or out of the ordinary about someone dying. I think we all have experienced that in our lives and we will all experience it personally one day. There's an old saying, right? It goes like this. It's like there's only two things guaranteed in life, death and taxes. It's a guarantee. Death is a fact of life.
So Jesus dying wasn't unusual. In fact the the way that he died crucifixion wasn't unusual during that time period. In his book The Wickedness of the Crucifixion, John MacArthur suggested that that during the time of the Roman occupation of Israel as many as 30,000 Jews were crucified. So what made what made Jesus death different? Well it was the fact that he died for our sins. Jesus death had a purpose. In Galatians 1 Paul writes this.
He says Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of God, of our God and Father Jesus death wasn't an ordinary occurrence. And Paul doesn't quote it says according to the scriptures, right? He says he says that twice here. He doesn't give us a specific scripture when he's saying that Jesus is the fulfillment, but perhaps he had Isaiah's words in
mind. When I think of the gospels, I think of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but I also think that of the 5th gospel, Isaiah, because in Isaiah you get a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us. Thinking Isaiah has been given an insight into what God is going to do in the future and he describes in very beautiful words what happens, says it's in Isaiah 53, five But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of
our iniquities. Punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. And perhaps Paul had this other verse in mind. 5312, just just a few verses down. Therefore I will give them. Excuse me. Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels, Yet He bore the sin of many, and interceded for the rebels. Jesus died for a reason.
He died for our sins as a fulfillment of the Scriptures. The second thing we need to see here that Paul spells out for us, it's very clear, Paul wants to make it abundantly clear that Jesus was buried. Denny Akin points out again that while this may seem like a redundant thing to say, of course you bury dead people. That's what you do. It's it may be redundant to say that a dead man was buried. It's much more than that. It's tied to fulfillment of
Scripture again. Again, we'll go to Isaiah 53. In the in verse 9, he says he was assigned a grave to the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death because he had done no violence and he had not spoken deceitfully. Paul's making it abundantly clear, perhaps answering rumors, that Jesus didn't die. There's a theory called the swoon theory that Jesus just passed out on the cross and they pulled him down. He wasn't dead. In that case, why would they put Roman soldiers in front of the
tomb? All of those things to think about when you think about the resurrection. The important thing that Paul wants to say here is that Jesus did die. He died and he died for our sins. He was buried. And the third thing is he was raised on the third day. Friends, the first two things don't matter at all if this didn't happen. It it doesn't matter one bit if the resurrection isn't true. The effectiveness of Jesus death for the forgiveness of sin is proven out by the resurrection.
I'm reminded of the questions that the Pharisees had after Jesus heals the man, remember he heals the man in Luke 5 that's lowered down through the roof. They dig out of the top of the roof and they lower this guy down and the first thing Jesus says to them, it's like, friend, your sins are forgiven. And the question the Pharisees asked him in Luke 521 is that is that then the scribes and the Pharisees, they begin to think to themselves, who is this man who speaks blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but God alone? Paul said that Jesus died concerning our sins. He died for the forgiveness of our sins. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Friends, the resurrection of Christ proves that He is who He says He is. Jesus Christ is God, the One who has the power over sin and death. The grave could not contain Him, sin could not defeat Him, Paul writes he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Look with me in Romans 59 to 10.
He recognizes Paul does that. Forgiveness of sins comes through both the death and the resurrection of Jesus, he says in Romans Romans 5. He says, how much more than since we have now been justified by his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by
his life? You're reconciled by the death of your, of, of, of Jesus. We're saved by his life, the resurrection, the power of salvation comes through the resurrection. He's expressing here the the importance of these components of the gospel. He's tying them to scriptures, but he also speaks to the truth of the evidence by reminding the Christians that like these these Corinthians that there there were eyewitnesses that were
still alive. He says this, he says he appeared to Cephas, also known as Peter, then to the 12. Then he appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them are still alive. Some have fallen asleep. Remember we talked about that and falling asleep to to that in that day. It was some have died, then he appeared to James, then all the apostles. Paul says, hey, hey, hey, you don't have to take my word for it. Don't take my word for it. Go ask one of the 500 people
that are still alive. Go ask them what they saw when Jesus appeared to them. Jesus died. He was buried, he was raised, and then he appeared to all these folks. Go ask them. They'll tell you it's true. One of my professors, Tom Shrinery writes in his commentary, says this. He says the resurrection appears to so many, have a cumulative effect. So many different people at so many different times were not deceived. It appeared to all these different people at all these
different times. He's underscoring Paul is underscoring the fact that it's really unlikely that this many people could have hallucinated the same thing at the same time. So there it is, the three components of the gospel. Jesus died, He was buried and he was raised on the third day.
There it is in all its simplistic glory that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Brothers and sisters, do you believe it? Do you believe this to be true? Do you recognize the meaning of the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is God and He alone has the power to forgive your
sins? I ask you that do you believe it knowing that the seed goes out over all types of soils and just by the number of people in the room that that we have with us on Sunday after Sunday, it's likely that some of some of you here it hasn't taken root. So I ask you to to really consider, do you believe the gospel, the good news that Jesus died for your sins, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
So let's move on. So far we've seen that we must prioritize the message of the gospel. We must recognize the meaning of the gospel. Now we're going to see that we must emphasize the might of the gospel. There may be nothing more impactful. There's some evangelist in here that go out. There's there's in my mind. There's nothing more impactful than sharing your personal testimony of how God has saved you from your sin when you talk to someone else about the gospel.
Here in the section we see a biblical example of that we see here in eight through 11. Paul says last of all as to one born at the wrong time. He also appeared to me, for I am the least of the apostles, not 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 toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me, whether then it is I or they.
So we proclaim and so you have believed. So in Paul's list of all the people that Jesus appeared to after the resurrection, he mentions himself. He says last of all as someone born at the wrong time. He says this to highlight the reality of what we sang earlier today, that without a true act of God, there would be no way that you would believe. There would be no way that Paul would have ever believed that Jesus was Christ. But God did act. God invaded Paul's life.
God took a murdering zealot and made him a loving apostle. He took a murderer who was killing Christians, and he turned him into the guy who wrote First Corinthians 13. Think about that. It's incredible to think about. The conversion of Paul is one of the most incredible stories you'll ever read. Paul was on a mission to destroy the to destroy the church in its infancy.
We see that in Acts chapter 8 we get a glimpse into the reality says this Paul, also known as Saul, said Saul agreed with putting him to death, meaning Stephen. On that day, a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria, and devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag men and women off
and put them into prison. So Paul's trajectory in life was pointed straight to hell. But he didn't think so, right? He thought he was. What he was doing was honoring God. He felt that he was acting on God's behalf. He was zealous for the Lord. But he had missed what God was doing. He had missed it as if he'd been born at the wrong time. In verse 10, we get the conjunction. In verse 10 in First Corinthians, we get the
conjunction. But anytime you read but you need to start looking at what's happening, He says this. He says, 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, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Paul's trajectory in life was bent on destroying God's church, but God had other plans. Paul calls the intervention into his life the grace of God. Paul didn't deserve what Jesus
did for him. In fact, he deserved the exact opposite. But Acts 9 describes the events of Paul's conversion. It says in Acts 9, it says while Paul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, God intervened. He blind Saul on the road to Damascus, and Jesus himself speaks to him. He announces himself to Paul saying I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting. And he then goes into town where he's visited by a disciple named Ananias who didn't want to go
because he knew who Saul was. He was terrified of making that visit. And this is what Paul told us. Paul is told as his sight is restored after three days of blindness, says it says Ananias went and entered the house.
He placed his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road you were travelling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And at once something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight and then he got up. He was baptized. Did you catch that? That was a, that was a transfer of this. This is a physical picture for us. This is a transfer from darkness
to light. Scales fell off his eyes and he was able to see again in an instant. Jesus did that. The gospel is the only message that has the power to take anyone from sin to salvation, from hell to heaven, from death to life, and from darkness to light. If you think you're too far gone for Jesus to save you, think about Paul. Remember what it said. It says while Paul was still breathing threats and murder against God's people, God saved him. If you think you're too far
gone, you're wrong. Paul's response was not to sit by the sideline ashamed of what he had done. On the contrary, he allowed the Spirit of God to work in him. He says that that of those whom Jesus appeared, he had worked the hardest, giving, giving the message of the gospel to as many as he could. He took his calling very seriously. If Paul had merely stopped persecuting the church, if he had just stopped doing what he was doing, that would have been a huge win for the good guys,
right? If he had just stopped persecuting, stop breathing murder. Stop breathing violence. It would have been a huge win. But God doesn't work in small ways. God wants to show the world just how good he is. He demonstrated the might of the gospel in the conversion of Paul. He took someone who wanted to make the good news bad and made him a herald for the only one who can save. Paul's testimony is the best argument for the truth of the gospel. I want to say that last line one more time.
He took someone who wanted to make the good news bad and made him a herald for the only one who can save. I just have to sit sit there and think about that. He has the power to save even those who hate him so much. If you think you've that you that you're not, you're not there yet. If you think you're too far gone for God to save you, you're wrong. So I have a few final thoughts today. As we wrap up, I want to quickly review what we've talked about.
We must prioritize the message of the gospel. Christian brother, sister, examine your lives. Is the gospel the priority of your heart? Ministry leaders, those of you who have leadership in this church, pastors down to people who serve in any, in any area, is the gospel the center of your ministry? I can promise you that, that all of us pastors have committed to making the gospel the center of everything we do here at LAMC.
So I want, I want you to think about this, ask yourselves as you're planning things for the church, you're planning events for the church. How is this making the gospel the central focus? How are we, how are we teaching people who come to our to our event, who come to whatever we're doing? How do we, how do we show them that the gospel is central to what we do and say? Everything we have to do has to be continually evaluated to ensure that the good news is proclaimed.
Because we are so prone to drift outside of that, we have to be so laser focused on making sure that what we do here is centered on God's good news. Next, we must recognize the meaning of the gospel. In order to be convictional in anything, we have to understand it. So we need to understand the gospel front and backwards. Paul says this. He says he's not ashamed of the gospel because it has the power. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
We believe that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. Remember, we are being saved, which means we need the gospel every day. We need it today just as much as the day we were converted. I just I just beg you as you go home today to dwell on the truth that you need the gospel just as much today as you did the day you were converted. You need it. First Corinthians, it's in in verse three to four, it says Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And that, friends, is good news. So we must emphasize the might of the gospel as well. So when telling others the good news, there's nothing more impactful to remember than sharing your own story. Share how God has changed your life. And remember that if God can save Paul, he can save anyone. I just want you to remember this.
It's not necessarily how much sin you've committed in your life that's going to send you to hell. It's not about how much sin that sends you to hell. Your sin you were born with it is what separates you from God, and if you do nothing about that, you will go to hell. Living in the dark in many ways is hell already. I just want you to know that what will keep you in hell is the rejection of the light of the gospel.
If Paul had kept going on persecuting Christians, had he not had an experience with the living God? If God had not invaded his life and he had just refused to believe, he would have remained a blind man who never regained his sight, and he would have quickly died. What will keep you separated from God is rejecting the light of the gospel. If you're here today and you feel God tugging on your heart, urging you to follow him.
If you've been a member of this church or in church since you were eight days old and you've heard the gospel over and over and over again and you've just resisted it over and over and over again, friend, I just don't waste another second. Surrender to God and recognize Him for who He is. Jesus died for your sins in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day.
And this is such good news. Who has the power to forgive sins but God alone, friend, Jesus Christ is God, His death atone for the sins of all those who believe. And I urge you to put your faith in him today. Embrace the free gift of grace in your life. Step out of the darkness and into the light. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the good news. That is the gospel.
Thank you that you that you did not want to leave us in our sin, but that you sent Jesus to live that perfect life and to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He died concerning our sins to fulfill the scriptures to fulfill your plan, your plan A from the beginning. So Lord, I pray that that that someone here today that that needs to put their faith and trust in you.
Lord, I pray that you would that you would you would move in their heart in such a way that they cannot resist. Thank you so much for for our worship. Help us to stay centered on you and everything we do here at LMC. Pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.