The world is not divided like people like to divide it. It is not divided geographically. It is not divided racially. It's not divided economically. It's divided by the cross that everybody in here is on one side of the cross or the other.
You're listening to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr. Senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hiller, and I'm glad that you're with us. You know, pastor, if we do try and divide the world geographically, racially, so many different ways you can divide that world down into so many minuscule little segments. But very simple. When we're going to divide it by the cross. You're on one side or the other. It's 1 or 2. You want a 7 or 8.
You are a saint or you ain't.
Yeah, that is it right there.
No middle.
Ground. And so I know that as we get into today's message, we're going to spend some time talking about making sure that we are telling those on the other side, on the eight side of the cross, how they can get to the saint side of the cross.
Amen. That's what the Bible is really all about. I mean, it's about the redemption. There's a scarlet thread that runs throughout. Uh, but it's Luke 1910. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, he left the suburbs of heaven, came to the inner city called Earth to redeem lost humanity, of which you and I are a full part of. And we're grateful for it. We thank God, uh, that he did come. So now that
he came down, we can go up. And I trust that someone who's listening will understand what the Bible has to say. Here it is in a nutshell. I love Romans ten nine and ten. It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Then verse ten says this for with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That word Lord is curious.
It's the Old Testament equivalent of Yahweh. Do you believe that Jesus Christ of the New Testament is Yahweh of the Old Testament? Well, whether you believe it or not, he is. And the text that we're going to look at today gives us what is the gospel? People say, what's the good news? He says, for I delivered unto you that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. That's according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures. That's the good news. And all you have to do is believe it. Thank God he put the cookies on the lower table. It doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are, we all can come to Jesus Christ through the cross of Calvary.
Well, that is good news indeed. And we're going to look a little bit more deeply at that today in the book of First Corinthians. If you can join us in chapter 15 as we begin the message. Run. Tell that here's Pastor Ford.
Now, someone once said that if you tell a man something, it goes in one ear and out the other side. But if you tell a woman something, it goes in both her ears and out her mouth. Now I don't know. I don't know if that's true. I, I don't know. I'd give you the preacher's name, as I told you before. Uh, but come on, we know that's not entirely true. Uh, because there are some men who gossip more. There are some amens there. Yeah. So? So don't look around, because
everybody know who they are. Don't look around. Don't look around. Uh, but we all know, uh, That most of the time we like to hear things about people and we like sharing the truth. Or sometimes it's not the truth, but we don't care because we love sharing the latest news. I mean, if you think about it, uh, now they do it and it's on the internet or on Instagram or on Facebook or on Twitter, just like that. So
it's told on you before you even get home. I know it to be true because I said something about my wife when she wasn't here, and then when I got home, she slapped me upside the head. I said, what's that for? She said, what you said in church. How you find out so fast? Lift up her cellphone, show me a text message. Mhm. Yeah. And so the bigger the people the greater we like to spread the news.
And so if it's big news about big people we run tell that now Paul says we ought to be ready to tell the gospel as readily as we tell the gossip. Uh, yeah. That's what he's talking about in first Corinthians chapter 15. It's called the resurrection chapter, and he's going to tell us about the resurrection of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And basically, if you want to boil it down to what he's going to tell us, he's going to tell us that death proved that Jesus was a man, but the resurrection proved that Jesus was God. Uh huh. Yeah, he's the God man. He's God and man at the same time. Yeah. He's undiminished deity and undeniable humanity at the same time. He's 100% God, 100% man at the same time. What that means is this.
He was born as a baby. Uh, but is the eternal God at the same time that he got thirsty? But he's the living water at the same. Y'all ain't going to help me in here. At the same time, he got hungry, but he was the bread of life. At the same time, he grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man, but he knows everything at the same time. He's in one place at one time, but in every place, at every time, at the same time,
he's here and he's there at the same time. He's in my today and he's in my tomorrow at the same time, he's at the right hand of the father, and he's living in my heart at the same time. And he's coming for me, though he never left me at the same time. Yeah, he's the God man. Colossians two nine and ten. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him. And Paul says, run, tell that. Yeah, it run! Tell that he is risen. No, no, no, he is risen!
I said he is risen! Yeah. And he gave us evidences that Christ has risen from the dead. Let's walk through him. I'm going to drop him. I'm not going to push him. Notice, first of all, the first evidence about Christ's resurrection from the dead is found in verses one and two. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved. If you keep in memory what I have preached unto you,
unless I have preached unto you in vain. Now notice what Paul was saying. He's talking about the transformation of the saints. He's saying the first proof that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is real is the transformation of the saints. He uses the word saved sozo. In other words, when you look at what Paul was trying to focus on, everybody has two births or everybody should have two births. The first birth, your mother tells you about the second
birth you ought to tell your mother about. And that's what Paul was talking about. This second birth. Why? Born once. Died twice. Born twice. Die once. Maybe. And so he's saying, listen. In verse one, he talks about the proclamation that led to your transformation in verse two. He's talking about the product of your transformation. He says, you receive the message and that message saves you. And it was not in vain. It means empty. That is, you heard the message and
you responded to it. And the problem today in many churches is that a whole lot of people have been starched and ironed, but they ain't never been washed. Aha. Yeah. See? Not in vain. What he means is this it wasn't because of the Eightfold path of Buddhism that you got saved. It wasn't because of the five pillars of Islam that you got saved. It wasn't because of the Ten Commandments of the Jews that you got saved. It wasn't because of a 12 step program of AA or Na that
you got saved. But he said it was one step that you believed in the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And because of that, you got saved because the Son of God became the Son of man, that the sons of men may become the sons of God. And somebody ought to be grateful that God has saved. I wish I had some saved folk in the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember before my son became a barber, I went to a barber shop. I like the sign that was at the barber shop. I walked in and it said,
In God We Trust. And then another sign was over here and it said, all others pay cash. Oh, I like that sign. I thought about it, Richie. I said, you know what? That's a good sign. You know what he's saying? No checks, no credit cards, no money orders, no debit cards, no gift cards, no link cards. Only one form of payment. Cash is king. That's what he's saying.
And when I thought about our salvation, as Paul talks about it in verses one and verse two, he says, listen, there's only one form of payment for sin, and that's the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The songwriter said, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount
I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Leviticus 1711 I've given the blood upon the altar as an atonement for sin. Hebrews 922. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. First Peter chapter one, verses 18 and 19. For as much as you know that you've not been redeemed from corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers. But but thank God for the. But. Yeah, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. As of a lamb without
spot and without blemish. Oh, thank you Jesus. Amen. I'm praising him all by myself. Sure. Hey, there's a word here that I gotta point out to you. Just one word. I ain't got time for all of it, you know that. But the word received. Oh, that's a powerful word. Because the word received is not the regular word to get something. You receive salvation? No, the object of salvation. But it's my. Say my. Now, that Greek word means this. It talks
about the object plus. What's the plus? It not only says that you receive something, it says how you received it. So here's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, when you heard this gospel, it made you happy. You received it with joy. Amen. And that's what he tells us. He tells us, listen, that. That whenever we accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah, we will be happy. Yeah. That's it. And so he wants us to know that the transformation
of the Saints has done this. Uh, why? Because the Bible says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That is, I remember, uh, back in the old sanctuary, major Matthew was an elder, and, uh, Dino, uh, was on the drums. And a lady looked up at the service and she laughed. And I wanted to know what was so funny from the pulpit. So I caught her after the service. I said, I saw you look
at the pulpit and laugh. What was so funny? She said, well, I looked at our pastor. He's an ex-drug pusher. I looked at our elder. He's an ex crackhead. I looked at our drummer. He's an ex gangbanger. And I thought, God sure must be desperate these days. And I said to her, sis, God is not desperate. God is merciful. See, the operative word is ex. That's the operative word. Now, now, anybody who saw Malcolm X knows that, Malcolm said when they asked him in the interview, why do you use
an X Mr. X? And he said, because as a slave my name was taken away. I don't know what it is. So the X in math is the unknown factor. So I use x. Well, I use x too, but it's not because of the unknown, it's because of the unknown. Because I am an ex-drug pusher. I am an ex adulterer. I am an ex child abandoner I am an ex. I'm an ex ex ex. And see, that's what the gospel has done. It has transformed me and I ain't
the only X in here. There's some X liars and some ex-chiefs and some X pornography viewers and some X drug head and some x hoes and some x pimps. There's some X in here. I ought to have some noise in here because there's everybody in here is an X something. Come on man if you saved he saved you from something. And so you're x Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Indeed. That is good news, isn't it? That Christ comes and he saves us from what we once were, and he puts a new heart in us. We are a new creation once we come to know him. What a great way to begin this message. It's entitled run, Tell Dat, and we're going to continue this teaching in just a moment. If you want to make sure that you don't miss one of the future broadcasts in the short series, though, come to our website it's Treasure Truth Radio.
Org sign up to begin podcasting the program, or you can download the Moody Radio app. That's a great way to listen on the go when it's convenient for you. Not only can you listen to Treasure Truth, but other moody radio programs and internet radio stations. Again, you'll find the link to the app at Treasure Truth Radio. Org. All right, let's get back to the message again. Here's Pastor Ford.
Notice secondly with me notice the second truth that undergirds the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says the transformation of the saints. Then secondly, he says the truth of the scriptures. Notice what it says in verses three and four, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according second reason. The truth of the scriptures.
In verses three and four. Now here's what Paul does. I love this because Paul is going to tell us that it's proven in two ways, by the content of the scriptures and by the confirmation of the scriptures. Jesus Christ has rose from the dead. So he gives the content. What is the content of the good news? What should we run and tell? It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that God became. A man, came down here, hung, bled and died on an old rugged cross,
was buried in a borrowed tomb. So he went from a borrowed womb to a borrowed tomb. But then, as everybody has said early Sunday morning he got up. And so the three men on the cross in John 1918. And there were three crosses. Everybody know that there's a thief on the left of Jesus, and Jesus is on the middle cross, and there's a thief on the right of Jesus and the thief on the left of Jesus. Uh,
he represented somebody who died in sin. And the thief on the right, he represents somebody who died to their sin. But Jesus in the middle is the one who died for our sin. And so one died in sin, one
died to sin, one died for sin. And so the one on my left, uh, he was on the cross of rebellion and the one that was on my right, he was on the cross of repentance, but the one in the middle, he was on the cross of redemption or remitting our sins for us, taking all of the filth of all that we've ever done in word or deed, word, thought or deed. And he took those sins on himself and so on. The one on my left rejection was
taking place. The one on my right a receiving was taking place, but the one in the middle remission was taking place. I came to tell somebody that the world is not divided like people like to divide it. It is not divided geographically. It is not divided racially. It's
not divided economically. It's not divided nationally. It's divided by the cross that everybody in here is on the one side of the cross or the other, that you're on the left side of the cross where you're going to die in your sin, or you're on the right side of the cross where you're going to die to your sin. Because in the middle, Jesus died for your sin. And the job of this preacher and every preacher holler at me. Preachers wave at me. All the preachers in the house.
Our job is to get you from the left side of the cross, over to the right side of the cross. That's our job. Because there's only two kind of people in the world. You're either a saint, help me Christ Bible or an ain't. That's right. A saint or an ain't. And so he wants us to know. Listen, that this is the content of the gospel here. That man was dying. He only had about an hour and a half left, and he told his family, I don't want y'all in here, but I want my lawyer, and I want my broker.
Call him and tell him. Get here as quick as they can. And sure enough, they got there. And when they got there, they felt honored. You want your family and you're letting us in. Why? He said, because I want to die like my Lord Jesus Christ. I want to die between two thieves. Yeah, yeah. The content is the gospel, and it determines where you will spend eternity. Somebody asked me, do you preach the full gospel? I said, yes,
I do. I preach the full gospel. I preach that Jesus was God who became a man who died on an old rugged cross, buried, and then rose again the third day, ascended in the right hand of the father, and is soon coming. King. That's as full as it gets. It doesn't get any fuller than that. That's it. And so it is. And we know it. It is the content of the gospel that saved us. Okay. Alright, alright. See, it was the gospel that took that 40 out of
your hand and put a Bible in it. It was the gospel that turned your cursing tongue into praising lips. It was the gospel that took you from the party house, the jailhouse, the crack house, the frat house, the school house, the penthouse, the bar house, the outhouse, the white house, even your house. And brought you to the church house. Yeah, it was the gospel that took that blunt, that bud from your lips. And now you get high on the
Holy Ghost. It was the gospel that stopped you from sleeping around with every woman that was stupid enough to sleep with you. And now you're celibate. If you're single or if you're married, you are homosexual. You get your
sex at home. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, sister. It was the gospel that kept you from getting your self esteem, from the fact that you have a man, and then you now get your self esteem from the fact that you have the man Jesus Christ, that all your girlfriends think that you are crazy because you left a man you could see to hook up with a man you can't see. And now the man that you can't see is taking better of you than the man you could see. And so you're grateful that he came with the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Touched your life. Touch your heart, young people. I know you're glad that the gospel help you understand that it's not the label on your clothes that give you value and worth, but that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Yeah, it was the gospel. Yeah. That content that wrote our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. It was the gospel that put God in our heart and pep in our step and sense in our head, and a Bible in our hand and a song on
our lips and a smile on our face. Because I know some of y'all ain't cracked a smile yet. You have to buy better makeup. But not just the content of the scriptures. Notice the confirmation of the scriptures. Two times it says according to the scriptures. Now you gotta understand something. The first extant manuscript that we have of the scriptures were written approximately A.D. 45 by Mark John Mark.
The first gospel, of which all the other gospels are, got some of their information and, well, a lot of their information. And so when it says here the Scripture is talking about the Old Testament Scripture. Now Paul says, let me tell you something. This is not new and improved. This is not something that you're hearing for the first time, he says. Back in the Old Testament, everybody began to tell you about the fact that Jesus would die, be buried, and rose again and rise again the third day in
the Old Testament. So you take Isaiah, what we call the fifth gospel in the Old Testament. What did he say? He said that he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of his peace was upon us, and by his stripes we were healed. 700 years before Jesus ever came to Calvary, Isaiah said in the scriptures, he's going to die, be buried. And now his resurrection is confirmation that you can trust the Bible, that you can trust it. As a matter of fact,
you know what amazes me in Psalm 22? It talks about the fact that Jesus would be crucified. Well, wait a minute. This is at least 400 years before Rome ever started using crucifixion as a means of execution. So God said, I done already set this thing up. He is delivered up because of the foreordained counsel of God. And God says he going to die on a cross. And people back then were saying, what is a cross?
Well, unfortunately we do have to pause the teaching right there. Great point from Pastor Ford and we'll continue this message in title run. Tell that next time right here on Treasure Truth. If you want to make sure that you don't miss any of the Treasure Truth broadcasts, you can simply come to our website and you'll find them there. And while you're at the website, I want to ask you to consider clicking on the donate link because we
are a listener supported ministry. We depend on your generosity to pay for all the costs associated with keeping this program on the air. Again, come to treasure Truth Radio org and click on donate. Thanks for doing that. And thanks also to our producers, Amy Rios and Ryan McConaughey. For Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.