THE GOSPEL OF HOPE: THE GOOD NEWS

Dr. W. A. Criswell

1 Corinthians 15:1

5-29-88     10:50 A.m.

 

For these days and weeks and months, I am preaching through the Gospel of John.  But, I have turned aside from the usual course of exposition because of Memorial Day, a day in which we are encouraged by our national and state legislatures to remember our beloved dead.  And in keeping with that thought and that remembrance this weekend, I have prepared a message entitled The Gospel of Hope for Memorial Day.  It is an exposition of a part of the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.  There are many theologians who say that this fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is the highest revelation to be found in all the Word of God.  It concerns the resurrection of the dead.  And he begins—in this letter from Paul to the church of Corinth—he begins:

 

Brethren, I make known unto you, I declare unto you the gospel which I preach,

which also you received, and where you stand. 

Namely, by which you are saved…

For I delivered unto you that which also I received,

how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 

That He was buried, and that He rose again according to the Scriptures.

 

Then follows those marvelous appearances of our Lord to the witnesses who testified that He lives.  Then finally, in the later part of the glorious chapter, beginning at verse 50, “We cannot enter,” beginning at verse 50:

 

the kingdom of God in this present house of corruption and decay.

But I declare unto you, I show you a mystery. 

We may not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;

for the trumpets shall sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible,

and we, we shall all be changed.

 

He begins here with a definition of the gospel: “I make known to you—I declare unto you—the gospel which I preached, which you received, wherein you are saved.”  Namely, and it has three glorious parts: The first one, that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”; The second one, that “He was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures”; and the third one, and final and triumphant one, His glorious return which shall signal our own resurrection from the dead and our transformation, our transfiguration, our translation to be with Him in heaven forever and ever.

He gives an illustration in verse 29 of this gospel of resurrection.  He speaks of these that are baptized.  If they are baptized, “What would it mean if the dead rise not at all?  Why are they then baptized for the dead?”  The ordinance of baptism, Paul says, is a gospel message in symbolic form.  In the sixth chapter of his letter to the Church of Rome, he defines it, “For we are buried with the Lord in the likeness of His death, and we are raised with the Lord in the likeness of His triumphant and glorious resurrection.”

That’s the gospel.  That’s the gospel. 

And baptism is a symbol of that death, burial, and resurrection.  John the Baptist said he received that ordinance from heaven; God sent him to baptize.  And when we came to know what it meant, that’s what it meant; a picture of the burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  John said: “I got it from heaven.”  Paul avows the same thing here: “Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I received—I received,” Paul says, “I am not an entrepreneur, I am not an originator, I am not an inventor.  This gospel message that I preach I received it from God in heaven.” 

I remember several years ago, when the King of England spoke to the people of America.  The next day there was a report in the paper, in the newspapers that intrigued me.  In one of those rare providences of life, as the King of England began to speak to our American people, the cable broke that carried his message to America across the sea.  The engineer was frustrated, devastated.  How could he repair it in a second of time?  And the newspapers said what the engineer did: “He took one end of that cable, and with his other hand, he took the other end of the cable, and the message of the king was delivered to America through his body.”

That is an exact picture of the gospel messenger of Christ: of Paul, of John, of all those who have enunciated, and pronounced, and proclaimed, and declared the saving message of Christ to the world.  He is not an inventor.  He is not an originator.  It is a message that comes from heaven.  And the preacher just declares it.  He repeats it, “Brethren, I make known to you that which I have received, the gospel message wherein ye are saved.”

That word, the “gospel,”—I declare unto you the gospel—when a man, when a man stands in the pulpit and preaches the gospel, what does he preach?  When a man is sent across the seas as a missionary to preach the gospel, what does he preach? The very word that is used to describe the message is the “good news.”  That’s what he preaches: the gospel, the good news.  “Gospel” is an old Anglo-Saxon word for the “good spell,” the good story, the good news, the good tidings.

It is the same thing in the Greek, euangelion—Eu, the Greek word for “well,” “good.”  Angelion, “the messenger” with the good tidings.  In the second chapter of the Book of Luke, the angel from heaven says: “I make known unto you, I declare unto you that euangelion, the “good tidings,” translated in the King James Version “the glad tidings.”  That’s the gospel message.  It is the good news. 

How many times do we interdict that in our attitudes, and in our looks, and in our responses?  People sometimes think of going to church as they would serving a sentence.  They go under duress, and they have funereal looks and attitudes as they walk into the house of the Lord.

As a man said to his friend, “I hear you got religion.”

And, he said, “No, I have just been sick.  I have just been sick.”

A little girl was reprimanded for her acting-up in church.  And the little child went out in the yard so hurt and discouraged.  And there was an old hound there.  It was a basset hound that has long, droopy ears and droopy eyes and droopy face.  It was one of those hounds that looks like that.  And the little girl went out there and put her arms around that hound dog and said, “You sure got a good case of religion.”

No, it’s the opposite.  It’s the good news.  It’s the best thing that ever happened to us or imaginable—good news—the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I so well remember following that tragedy of World War II when Corregidor fell and Bataan fell, and the death march of Bataan, and those soldiers that survived were penned up in an enclosure with barbed wire.  And when General MacArthur returned with our American army to the Philippines, they sent a contingent of those American troops to that imprisonment, to the survivors of Corregidor and Bataan where they were incarcerated.  And when those soldiers came in the dead of the night to liberate them, they took snippers to cut those barbed wires.  And the men, our soldiers on the inside, not knowing what happened, were frightened.  And the soldier with his snippers—cutting those wires—he said, “Steady boy, steady.  The Yanks are here.  The Yanks are here!”  Good news, good news.  And when the men came out of that prison, our soldiers lined up on either side and received them in honor as heroes.  I had one here to speak to us.  Good news, glorious news, marvelous news, victorious news, triumphant news!

I think of that tremendous revival in Wales, in the first of this century, led by Evan Roberts.  It was a marvelous outpouring of the Spirit of God.  And out of that marvelous revival came this song: 

 

The Lord was slain on Calvary.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

To set a world of sinners free.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

'Twas there His precious blood was shed.

Twas there He bowed His sacred head.

But now, He’s risen from the dead.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

 

His works reviving all around.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

And many have salvation found.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

And since these souls have caught the flame,

They shout hosannas to His name.

And all around they spread His fame.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

 

Where e'er we meet you always say,

“What’s the news, what’s the news?”

Pray what’s the order of the day?

What’s the news, what’s the news?

Oh, I have got news to tell,

My Savior has done all things well,

And triumphed over death and hell.

That’s the news, that’s the news.

[“What’s the News”; Author Unknown, Ulster Revival]

 

The gospel is the good news.  I have, out of this text I have been preaching several things that Paul avows that characterize the gospel as the good news.  The first one: He begins, in Christ, our sins are washed away—done away, pardoned, forgiven—as the Book says, “Buried in the depths of the sea.”  As the one hundred third Psalm says, “As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.”  He took our place.  He took our sins, “God made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  That’s the good news! Our sins are forgiven, our sins are washed away, our sins are remembered no more.  God hath forgiven us for Christ’s sake. 

The good news; what is the good news of the gospel?  The good news is that Christ has conquered and triumphed over death and the grave, that’s the good news!  Death, now, to the child of God is but an exchange of this old, decaying, atomic body for a new and resurrected and glorious body, fashioned after His in heaven.  In this we mourn, we grow old, senile, aged, helpless; this body is daily decaying.  I could not think of a greater curse then to be remanded to this body forever and ever.  No surcease from sorrow, no healing from hurt, just to suffer, and suffer, and suffer.  But Christ has brought to us victory and triumph over death, hell and the grave.  That’s the good news, that’s the good news.  And death now, is but a taking away of this old body in which I lived, and giving me a new and resurrected body like unto His in heaven.

O God!  The glory that awaits us: not to fall into the ground into the grave, not the end of life to turn to food for worms and the dust of the earth.  The good news: God hath prepared for us mansions in heaven and we shall live there, in a new and resurrected body, made like unto His own glorious frame. 

I was talking to a man yesterday afternoon.  He is a very able man and a successful businessman in our city.  And he was just interested in the gospel which I was preaching and he said to me, “When the Lord comes in what you call…”

And I said, “… The rapture.”

And he said, “Yes, the rapture, that is it.  When the rapture comes and we are taken up into heaven, is it just our spirits that are taken up into heaven?”

And I said, “No, according to the Word of God, no.  What is taken up into heaven is we—we, you, we—we are taken up into heaven.”

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Brethren, I would not have you without knowledge concerning them who fall asleep in Jesus.”  Isn’t that a glorious characterization?  He doesn’t say dead.  He says sleep, “These are just asleep in Jesus.” 

 

I would not have you without knowledge, concerning them that sleep in Jesus,

that you sorrow not as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,

even so those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. 

For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord,

that we who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord shall not precede them that sleep.

For the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible and, we, we shall all be changed

— as he says in this passage in Corinthians—

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, we shall all be changed.

 

Then shall we rise to meet our Lord in the sky with those who are coming from heaven.  What a marvelous thing: We, we.  I am not we—I am not I without my body—I have a soul on the inside that lives in this body, and the whole procession, all of it, is to resurrected; all of it is to be changed  My spirit is regenerated and my body is raised from the dead.  And I shall live with this body, only it will be perfect, it will be resurrected.  It will be immortal; it will be like the resurrected body of our Lord Jesus. 

You know what?  I was preaching that one time—just in the Bible.  I don’t invent the message, I just declare the Word of God—and a man who belongs to a certain cult, a certain sect, came up to me and said, “That message you preached today, that message you preached today is just as material as it can be: earthly.  You preach that this body shall be raised and this body shall be immortalized.”

I said to him, “You know, God must like it that way.  He must like materiality.  He must like matter, He created it.  God did it.  You look at the universe around and above you, God did it.  God created it.  He must like it, He made it, He created it.  And God created this body, this house of clay in which I live.  God made it and He must like it.  And God is going to recreate and regenerate this body, and we are going to be like Him.”

When the Lord appeared—resurrected—to His disciples, they were afraid and affrighted, supposing that they had seen a spirit.  And the Lord said to them, “Don’t be afraid, a spirit hath not flesh and bones such as you see Me have.”

“Handle me,” He said, “And see that it is I, Myself.”  And He showed them His hands and His feet and His side.It was the same Lord.  He even had the scars of the nails in His hand and had the scar of the spear thrust into His side.  It was the same Lord Jesus, raised from the dead. 

You are going to be like that.  You are going to be like that.  He has taken the sting out of death and the victory out of the grave.  And we are going to live at His side, whole and complete: a regenerated spirit and a resurrected, immortalized body.  That’s the news.  That’s the gospel, that’s the good news.   Call the good news—the gospel; our judgment is passed, it’s over, it’s done.  We don’t face it, the judgment is gone for us.  There is nothing that remains for us except that great day, when the Lord gathers us in Hs presence and gives us the rewards for what we tried to do in His name in the earth.  There is no judgment for us, it is over, it is passed.  The judgment of our sins was taken by Him on the Cross and nothing remains for us but life, and glory, and praise everlasting. 

Paul begins the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans, “There is now no condemnation, there is now no judgment to them that are in Christ Jesus.”  John 5:24 reads:

 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life,

 and shall not come into condemnation

—and shall not come into condemnation, shall not come into judgment—

but has passed all the way from death unto life.

 

I grew up, as some of you know, in Northwest Texas.  And the fear and the horror of that country is a vast prairie fire, blown by the wind.  I have seen men literally sacrifice their lives fighting those consuming flames.  What do you do in the face of a great, vast prairie fire, bearing down upon you, and your house, and your home?  What they do is they burn a great area around the home; they burn the grass and foliage.  They burn it all around the home and then, when the prairie fire rages down, it is already burnt, it is already gone and the fire dies.  That’s the judgment.  It is already over with us.  It is already burned with us.  It is already done.  And, we are delivered.  That’s the good news.  That’s the good news.  There is no judgment of God that faces us, just the glory of being in His presence, world without end, forever and ever and ever. 

What’s the good news?  May I take time just to mention one of them?  What’s the good news?  The gospel!  What’s the good news?  The good news is this: that it is open and extended to every soul in this earth, to every one of us.  We are all included, every man, every human being: that’s the good news. 

Did you ever think of the “whosoever” in the Bible?  The “whosoever,” so many of them, the “whosoever.”  In John 3:16, the verse that we all know:

 

For God so loved the world that God gave His Son that whosoever

—there it is again, that “whosoever”—

believeth in Him should not perish but should have everlasting

—eternal, unending—life.

 

Whosoever, whosoever: anyone: take, again, the passage that we just read in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John: “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”  There is a “whosoever.”  Or, take again the last great invitation in the Bible; Revelation 22:17:

 

The Spirit and the bride say come. 

And let him that heareth say come. 

And let him that is athirst come.

—and, there it is again: “and whosoever will”—

and whosoever will, let him take the water of life.

 

Anybody, anybody: the whole family and race of God—anybody.  Let me take that to the Lord.  Lord, You say “anybody.”  You say “whosoever will.”  Lord, let me ask You, when You were crucified, You were humiliated beyond any soul in this earth.  In the Sanhedrin they mocked You.  And when You were dying on the Cross, the high priest and the members of the Sanhedrin walked up and down and mocked You.  Lord Jesus, if that high priest that presided over Your condemnation and who mocked You when You died, if he were to turn and say, “Lord, remember me, remember me?” would You forgive him?  Would You forgive him? 

And Lord, when they were trying You, one of those men smote You with his fist; if he were to turn and say, “Lord, forgive me,”would You forgive him? Would You?  Would You? 

And Lord, that man who made that crown of thorns and pressed it upon Your brow, if he turned and said, “Lord, I am sorry,” would You give him a crown?  Would You, Lord? 

And that man who took diadem and smote You on your head, if he turned and said, “Lord, I am sorry,” would You give him a crown and scepter in heaven? 

And Lord, not to weary You, could I ask once again?  If one of those soldiers, who drove those great nails through your hands and through your feet, if he were to come and say, “Lord, I am sorry,” would You forgive him? 

And that brutal Roman who took his spear and thrust it into Your side, if he were to come and to say, “Lord, I didn’t know.  I didn’t realize.  Forgive me, Lord,” would You forgive him?  Would You? 

Lord, what do You mean by that “whosoever?”  Anybody?  Would You, Lord?  But most of all, Lord, if I were to come and bow in Your presence and say, “Lord Jesus, forgive me,”  Lord would You forgive me?  Would You take me into the household of faith?  Would You write my name in the book of life?  Would You forgive my sins?  Would You open the door of heaven for me?  Would You, Lord? 

 

My sin, O the bliss of that glorious thought.

My sin, not in part, but the whole.

My sin is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.

[“It is Well with My Soul”; Horatio G. Spafford]

 

That’s the good news.  That’s the good news!  God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us.  And we are welcome into the very presence of His glory and someday, to be fellow heirs with Him in the kingdom of God.  Good news.  Good news!  Good news. 

And that is our appeal to you who are a part of this service on television.  No matter who we are, no matter what we have done, we are welcome into the household of faith in the kingdom of God.  Jesus came into this world to die just for you; and His blood washes our sins away, clean and white as though we had never erred or transgressed, a new creature in Christ Jesus.  That’s why He rose from the dead, to declare us righteous; to ascend into heaven and open heaven’s door for us.  He was slain for our sins and raised for our justification; that is to declare us righteous—to see that we make it into that golden city—a fellow heir of the whole repurchased possession. 

And to accept the Lord is the greatest, most marvelous experience that we could ever have in human life, and it is ours for the choosing, ours for the taking.  Do it.  Make it now.  And in the great throng in this sanctuary today, down one of these stairways from the balcony, down one of these aisles in the throngs of this lower floor, “Pastor, this is God’s day for me, I am accepting the Lord as my Savior and here I stand.”  Or, “We’re coming into the fellowship of this dear church,” or, “I’m answering the call of God in my heart and here I come.”   A thousand times, welcome!  Welcome, while we stand and while we sing.