The Gospel, as defined in 1 Corinthians 15, centers on the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures, which is the essential good news for salvation. Without the resurrection, Christ's death would be meaningless, and without sin, the grave could not hold Him. Our lives are present and personal, and they are either spiritually dead in sin or alive in Christ, with no in-between. Tracing our spiritual roots back to Adam reveals that sin entered the world through his disobedience, resulting in spiritual death for all humanity, a state from which only Christ can redeem us.
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I think we'd have to go to First Corinthians and preach in the Gospel. I'd like you to know what we're really going to be talking about, in case you don't know, to see what the Gospel is. First Corinthians fifteen. I want you to see what the Gospel is by definition from the authority of the Word of God, and not just a man, that as I speak tonight, you know that the emphasis of the Gospel is from God Himself. Paul, in preaching to the Corinthians, said these words, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and in which ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for your sins, for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen as Cephas, and then of the twelve, and then upward of five hundred at one. You see, there's a lot of evidence established as to the Gospel. But basically the Gospel was how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. Now you see, it would be silly to stand up here tonight and just talk without having some authority.
And so as we talk about the gospel, we have the authority of the Word of God. Got the authority from the highest throne in the universe. Can't get any greater authority than that. There's no other voice that speaks louder than that. That's the voice of God himself. And so as we look at it, we're speaking the authority of God. And Paul said, the gospel that I preached unto you, wherein you stand, you received, and you believe. And he says, here's the gospel. That Christ died for our sin according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Wasn't just sufficient that he died. He had to be buried, and he had to be raised again. If there's no resurrection, there's no gospel. If there's no resurrection, there's no good news. If there's no resurrection, his death wouldn't have had any meaning at all. Been a good man. Have you ever stopped to think that if Christ had committed one sin, where he'd be today? Where would he be? He'd be in a sealed tomb, wouldn't he? But because he was a perfect sacrifice, the man who knew no sin, who did no sin and in him was no sin.
The grave couldn't hold him. Stone rolled away, got a glimpse inside, empty tomb. Risen Lord. And now because he lives, we shall live also. But when you think of a life like that and a life to live out, we ask ourselves a question sometimes. And I'm going to take that question from James chapter four and verse fourteen. He says, Whereas ye know that not what shall be on the next day, for what is your life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. For ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.
So we're going to ask ourselves the question tonight, what's your life? I'd like to suggest, first of all, that it's now. You belong to the now generation. Your life is present. And because it is, it's in one of two conditions. It is either dead in trespasses and sin or alive in Jesus Christ. There's no halfway. There's no way in between. As our brother brought to us last night, you're either born again. and alive in Him, or you're dead.
Oh, you say, well, now, Ray, I can pinch myself, and I feel that. Ouch, I know I'm alive. Well, you're alive in the flesh. You're alive in this realm that the flesh has been made for. But how about the spiritual life? You see, there is a physical, and there is a spiritual. So sometimes people, when we talk about our life, I'm sure that you were interested in your life, and so some of you went and searched your roots. Brother Jean, been in Ireland, do a little looking about the family emblem and shield and all that stuff and can trace back his roots.
One time I went to trace my roots. I was in Toronto for several days and thought, well, I heard there was somebody named Routley, had a wallpaper store here or something, and I heard there were a lot of Routley's in Toronto. So I looked in the telephone book, sure enough, quite a few of them. So I decided I'd go for a little walk and wound up would be about two miles. So I walked down to this wallpaper shop and I walked in and looked around. The man said, can I help you? I said, yes, is Mr. Routley around? He said, well, he's rather sick. And he isn't too long for this world. He said, can I help you? So I said, well, my name's Routley.
I come from the States and understood I had a lot of relatives around here. This is where my father came from. So I said, I was just looking to see if I could learn something about my roots. And he said, well, I'll tell you, there's two clans of Routley's in this town. And he said, they don't have much to do with each other. And then he said, you know, sometimes it's best just to let a dead dog lie. I thought maybe he was telling me something, so I took him at his word and I walked back to the hotel.
But you know, I think if we were to look at our roots tonight, and we did that for a little while. You know, God says in his word in Romans chapter five and verse twelve, he said, Wherefore by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned. Now if we went to trace our roots tonight, I don't care whether you're German, Russian, or Polish, or Irish, or what you might be, My poor kids are a duke's mixture. But whatever you might be, if you sat down and you begin to go all the way back through the Word of God, you'd come back to a man named Adam, and you came from Adam.
And my Bible says, by that one man, sin, entered into the world, and death by sin. You know what that means? It means that when Adam sinned, And God put him outside the garden. Adam was separated from God. He still had physical life, but he died spiritually. The Lord had said, The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And when Adam and Eve took part of the fruit of that tree, they had sinned against God by an act of disobedience. And that act made them miss the mark of the holiness of God, and they were put outside the garden, spiritually dead.
And as I said yesterday, there's no latent power to the soul. The soul is dead in trespasses and sin. And without Christ, if you haven't received Him, you're of all men most miserable. and you are blind. You know why you're blind? Ah, God's word says, Satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not. There were two sins that Adam and Eve committed, if I could point to these. The first sin was unbelief that Eve committed.
God said, The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, and a devil, who is the best of liars there is. The liar from the beginning, he said, God knows you won't die. What did Eve do before she took the fruit of the tree? She believed a lie. Now I'm going to suggest to you, in our day and age, A so-called thing called the New Age is nothing but the old lie. It's reincarnation that you die, you come back, you do a little better, you get to a little higher level, you die, you come back, if you don't do so good, you drop down a grade and you keep on doing this.
until finally you're all joined together in a distance somewhere, in a force, and you are God. Humanism teaches us that you're not answerable to anybody up above. Woman stood in Davenport one day and shook her fist at heaven. She said, nobody up there is going to tell us down here what to do. Well, she was wrong. There's someone up there who has every right to tell us what to do because he created us. He made us in his own image. And we went astray.
So we trace our roots tonight. Where did he go? Go back to a man who sinned. Now that verse said, The death had passed upon all for that all had sinned. When did all of us sin? After we were born? Oh, sure, we were born sinners. But adverse is not saying that. Adverse is saying that when I was in Adam, I sinned in Adam. And that's why death is passed to all men, for that all had sinned. In that federal head, and I came forth as a seed.
What's my roots? Crab apples, not too good at the very best. Sinners of the Gentiles, that's who we are. Gone away from the living God. John, I ask you today, what's your roots? You know, we have to answer what is our life. It's present, but it's personal. It's yours, but you know what is the best thing you've got. What you've got in a bank isn't the best you have. It's what you have in your life that's the best.
And that what you will do with that that will make the difference for all eternity. You know, it's while we live that we make decisions of what's going to happen to us for all eternity. That's why in the Thirty-Nine Psalm, David prayed these words, Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, and what it is that I may know how frail I am. Now what if we took a look at that in a moment? Lord, make me to know my end. Oh, the issue of my end Heaven or hell.
You know that tonight you can know that? For you ever walk away from here and go out that door, you can know what the issue of this life is, heaven or hell. You can know whether it's Christ, who is our life, or that you can know you're going in your own path, you're going to take your own way, and you'll perish because you do it. You know, sometimes we ought to say, Lord, make me to know my end in the nearness of it. You know how near your end is? You say, oh, Ray, I can't know that. That's right, you can't. But I'm going to suggest to you something.
You know, I get out on that interstate and I drive a mile or two every year. And I see that car coming at me. Sixty-five miles an hour. And I see how clothed death rides. You could just about stick your arm out, couldn't you? And just a little bit more and touch that car. How long do you think you'd live if those two cars met? Lord, make me to know my end and the nearness of it. You know, I knew a man. He had a little girl that came to camp.
She's twelve years old. She trusted the Lord at camp. And that winter she went home and she got cancer. And I heard it, so I decided to drive up to Milwaukee to see her. And when I went to see her, her little tummy was distented. She's in a lot of pain. She said, oh, Uncle Ray, they tell me I'm going to die. But she said, you know I'm going to see Jesus. But she said, Uncle Ray, there are going to be so many there. How I know him. Now that little girl knew her end was coming. And she knew it wasn't too far away. And I could say to her, ah, honey, you don't have to worry about that.
Remember the story about Stevens when he was stoned? And for they took up, as they took up those stones to stone Stevens, he looked up. What did he see? He saw the heavens open. He saw the Lord standing to receive him. I said, honey, you don't have to worry about it. You're going to be there to welcome you home. But she said there's going to be so many there, Uncle Ray. I said, just look for a man, because that's what he is. He's the man in the glory. But look for a man who's got a glory above all men. And then he's going to bear some marks. He'll have the prints of the nails in his hand.
And you'll know the one who loved you and gave himself for you. You won't have to worry about searching out him. He's going to meet you. See, that little girl knew her end. Ah, she knew the measure of the day, not too far away, and the end was coming. It did come. But that little girl was rejoicing. Twelve years old, knew where she was headed, knew who she was going to meet. She knew her end. She knew the issue of her end. She knew what was going to come out of this life eternally. Do you know the issue of your end?
Your life is personal. It's yours. How will you do with it? When you say it's mine, I'm going to keep it. And you hold it ever so tight. I remember someone who said one time, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And listen, if there's ever truth to that statement, to commit this life to Christ is to gain something you will never lose. Because listen to this. He that has the Son has life.
Our brother reminded us last night we needed to receive him. He's a gift. He's so many people struggle with this. How do I get saved? I remember one time being down in Florida preaching to some Jamaicans in an orange grove. And I thought I'd show him a simple way of God's way of salvation. So I took a dollar bill. I put it in my hand. Said, here it is, fellas, for gifts. I said, now, a dollar doesn't buy too much here, as many years ago as I did it. I bought a lot more than it does today. But I said, in Jamaica, that might get you a pair of shoes for one of your kids.
Now, when God wanted to express His love for me, He said in His word, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, we're reminded in John one twelve that believing and receiving are equated. They go together. So as I reach out by faith, I'm receiving the gift. So I say, fellas, here's the gift. It's free, no strings attached, only it's to whosoever will. Nobody came. I thought I'm a pretty lousy preacher. So I tried again.
I said, look, fellas, it's free. Really, it's a gift. Still nobody came. And I thought to myself, is the gospel so simple that they can't receive the truth of it? So I went over it again. Now I said, fellas, God freely gives. And I am trying to freely give. This is a gift. and as to whosoever will may come. Finally one fellow left the ranks and he walked up, he looked at the dollar bill and he finally reached down so hesitatingly and took it.
So I said to him, whose is it now? He looked at me and then he looked down at that. He still was pondering that one and he says, It's mine. I said, that's right. How did you get it? He said, I took it. I said, that's right, too. What did you believe before you ever came up here? He stood there for a minute, and he said, I guess I had to believe you'd give it to me. He said, even though I had my doubts. But he came, and you know what? Some people think we got to have a big abundance of faith.
I got news for you. It's not how much faith you got. It's who the faith is in. The person of Jesus Christ. Now that doesn't take a lot of faith. It takes the simplicity of being able to take God at his word. That's all. Your life is personal. It's yours. What have you done with it? But you know, your life is paramount. It's the greatest thing there is. There isn't anything greater to you than your life. We measure it by our health. You know, I learned a lesson.
I can go kaput in a little while. It's like mighty quick. You can be walking along one minute and laying on the ground the next. But the life you have is the very best. You know what that life needs? It needs change. Needs change. You know here, he said, what is your life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Do you ever watch it, T. Kittle? I watch it boil. that vapor comes up out of that tea kettle, gets about this high above it.
It's gone. And that's the way life is. Oh, we think the expanse of years are so many. Look, I look back on the seventy or sixty-nine years behind me. Looks like a very brief time. But when I was younger, a man forty years old, he was an old man. And it's the perspective you take of it. But you know because your life is the best thing you have, it needs change. It's a vapor. Needs change. Needs substance. It's like grass. He says that grass and the flower of grass grows up, wither has gone.
I was mentioning that one time talking about the brevity of life. And a man walked up to me afterwards and he said, Say, Ray, I did a little research on that. He said, Do you know there's a grass that flowers for one day and it's gone? And you know what? That's the way our life can be. But a brief moment. It just dawned on me. There's the lady that told me that. What the man reminded me. of how brief life can be. Just in a moment, it flowers as God. Remember a lady who went to David one day?
She was trying to intercede in behalf of his son. But you know, she said, Where is water spilt on the ground? And as I read that one day, I thought, Boy, I was not saying very much for us, is it? How long does a little mark last from water spilt on the ground? Doesn't last very long, does it? It's there for just a little bit, and then it dries up as gone. You know, sometimes we need to see the brevity of life as it really is, to see how little important we are. You know, some of us think we're so important.
I'm going to make a suggestion to you. I want you to get a bucket of water. And then I want you to stick your arm down in that bucket and whip it up to the greatest frost you can make it go. And then pull out your arm and see how long it takes for that water to quiet down without a ripple. That's the mark you leave. Not very much is it. Our life needs change. That's why we need to be born again. That which is flesh is flesh. We need to be born of the Spirit. Our brother reminded us last night, the fish is okay for the sea, but it doesn't work good in the air.
And your farm tractors are okay out on a farm, but I'd like to see you try to fly one. And you know what? Because we're creatures of the flesh. There needs to be the new birth. the spiritual birth to be born of the spirit we need change you know with that change we need cleansing and that's why we need to be born again as well you know I like the way God cleanses us I read the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin you know what that all means.
It means each and every one. Can't leave one sin because it leaves a stain. Remember a young man that I've been working with for some time in the city of Davenport? They moved there from Denver. The girl had been saved, his daughter in Denver, and so someone wrote us a letter and said the family was going to move there. And so he went and looked him up. And the man had been taught very much by Jehovah's Witnesses. And so as we sat down, we had to discuss some of these things and work on them to let them show what God was saying about them, to remove some of those things, and then to turn him to take a look at the promises of God.
And months went by. and he'd always have his ifs, his buts, and his a's. We kept on presenting the Word of God and praying for him. And one day he didn't show up to the chapel on Sunday morning, wondered where he was. All the family was there. His wife said, oh, he's at home. So I went to see him the next day and I was going to start traveling in the spring. The weather was getting a little better and going to hit the road a bit more than I had been. And so I said to him, Roy, Have you been born again yet? And he looked me straight in the eye and he said, Yes, I have. I said, When?
He said, Sunday. I said, Tell me about it. He said, Well, Ray, I was so heavy-hearted. I sent the whole gang off to church. They said, I stayed here by myself because I knew I had to deal with God. And he said, I fell on my face and I wept until that rug was wet. And I still wasn't safe. And then he said, I picked up my head. I looked at that window. He said, he had a big bay window there. He said, I looked at that window. He said, I had washed that window the day before. And then I went down and putted the corner of it and never cleaned it. And he said, this day when I got up off the floor, he said, I looked at that window.
He said, I said to myself, Roy, your life is just like that window. All clean, but still a spot. He said, I realized the only thing that could clean that spot was the Lord Jesus himself. And I put my trust in him. Oh, you know, the blood of Jesus Christ is what cleanses us from our sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is what gives us that place where we can stand in the presence of God. But our life needs control. You see, it needs change, needs cleansing, and it needs control.
Now, once we come to the Lord Jesus, He does that. He changes us through the new birth. He gives us His Spirit. Oh, I want you to know, I'm still... Body, soul, and spirit. I have that body, soul, and spirit I was born with. And I'll have that till the day I die. But I have something else. The day I put my trust in the Lord Jesus, I receive the Lord Jesus. I receive His Spirit. Do you know that the whole Godhead will dwell in you when you receive His Son? Oh, John one twelve says as many as received Him, To them he gave the power, the right to become children of God.
So we receive Christ. When we receive him, he says, No, he not. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells with him. My body becomes a temple for him. And then I read of the Father, who is above all. He's over all. And Paul says in Ephesians four, He is in you. Ah. Ah, do you like that? To receive the Lord Jesus is to receive the fullness of God. When you have him, there's something that gives control. There's a spirit to influence a life that was once dead and is now alive.
in Christ. That comes by receiving Him, by believing His word. Let me suggest to you what your life is not. Your life's not a few chemicals. You know, at one time they used to say, our body's worth about sixty-eight cents. I don't guess in the value that it had then it'd be worth that much today. But it wasn't worth very much. And in its sin, you know what it's worth? Lilch. But in Christ, it is worth everything.
It is the thing that was paid for by the highest price. Anyone ever paid for an item. You know what that is? Peter said you weren't redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. Those little coins. He said, you got that from the vain tradition, but a manner of life of your fathers. But you were redeemed with something, with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb, without spot, and without blemish.
You know, the gold standard is ever changing. I don't know what it is. I don't have enough money to follow the gold standard, so I don't worry about it too much, but I hear sometimes I see it at six hundred and something, and then it's six fifty, and then it's six forty, and it's six twenty, and then it might drop down to five hundred, going all over the scale. You know what? The blood of Jesus Christ, the highest Standard, the highest price ever paid is unchanging. And that was precious blood. No blood, no offering now.
Why? The Lamb paid it all. We sing sometimes, don't we? Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left its crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Your life's not just a bunch of elements stuck together. It's not something material that will satisfy either. So many people have told me, Ray, I felt a void. I felt an emptiness in my life for years. It wasn't until I heard the gospel.
That I knew that was which would fill the void and give me peace. And so then they put their trust in the Lord Jesus. And they earned that peace. Not by their merit, but by the merit of Jesus Christ. You know, when we talk about life, it's some mysterious element that animates matter, that gives life to it. That's something that makes you walk and talk and feel in the physical here. But when we look at the spiritual life, because man has a spiritual need, because God said man cannot live by bread alone.
Bread is that which satisfies the physical. But we need the bread that will satisfy the eternal. And the Lord Jesus could say, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. You're satisfied in your life because you're feeding on the bread, the living bread, the bread of God, the bread from heaven, because you've received Christ as a Savior and you know his sufficiency. Your life is... Not something circumstantial.
It just doesn't happen. Your life is not the body and your life is not here to stay. Oh, sometimes people think it is. Remember a little girl at camp who asked me when she went back home if I wouldn't go visit her folks and I had known her mother and known that she was a Christian. And the little girl had been saved at camp, so I went to visit him. And when I knocked on that door, big old guy yelled, Come on in. So I opened the door. I had a Bible under my arm, and he saw it.
He yelled at me. I mean, he didn't say hi. He yelled. He told me to get the blankety blank out of here, and he told me where I could go. And he told me he didn't need me. He didn't need my God. He didn't need a Bible. He didn't need Sunday morning. He said, I go hunting, fishing and everything else Sunday morning. He didn't realize what his life was. See, to him his life was hunting and fishing and golf and the pleasures of this world. The world's going to vanish one day. And so did he. Two months later, he was driving down a road, the own side of his road. Mining his own business, climbing up a hill.
And a young man on the opposite side of that hill decided to pass a car. And when he came across that hill, they were in the same lane. It told me later that that man couldn't have lived fifteen seconds from the impact of that car. In the car, his wife, his daughter, his mother, and his father. He died, his parents died, and he left the wife, pardon me, there was one of the parents died and his wife lived and a little girl died. And I thought, what a contrast.
A little girl who could take the promise of John And believe that when God said, Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, that God would keep his word. That man didn't want that word. He wanted the pleasures of the world. What was his life? Oh, beloved, it was a loss. A redeemer died to purchase that man's sword. And he's in hell today. Because he refused.
The grace. Of a loving God. To give him something far better. Than he could ever gain. Anyway in this world. Have you received him? My Bible says he. He that has the Son has life. You know, that means when you have something, it's yours. And if you have the Son, you have life, he's yours. It's not that you will get it someday. It is yours the moment you believe.
You know, I preach with a dear brother from out west the rancher. Some of you know. We call them so affectionately Uncle Ben. We work together at camp. And I've heard Ben and his preaching so many times at the end of a message say, Will you now believe? Well, that's what the Lord Jesus said one day. Will you now believe? You know, tomorrow may be too late. You walk out that door, it may be too late. Now, it's the accepted times. Now is the day of salvation. I said we were a now generation. Our life is present. You can do something with it now.
Do something for all eternity with it. Just to receive the price paid. Jesus Christ is atoning death. His shed blood. And he'll give you life. Oh, it's sad to say. The Lord Jesus had to say to some one day, Ye will not believe that you might have life. I've met men in my life who refuse to believe and died in their sin. And I want to warn you in a rather sober way because it hits home at an older brother, my oldest brother, who saved my life twice in my life.
once when I was in a baby buggy. My mother was pushing it. My father had left her. I was nine months old. She was wondering what she was going to do with four boys. She was walking toward a railroad track. She did not hear the train coming till he blew the whistle so loud and he was right there. And suddenly the baby buggy was gone. and she stood screaming as the train rushed by. And when the train passed, there was my brother with a buggy in hand.
He had reached when he saw the train, snatched the buggy off the track, or I wouldn't be here today. We were swimming as kids one time. They had built a big raft and we were in Lake Michigan. That's where we used to swim. It gets pretty rough sometimes, and it's fun playing in a way, so if you're old enough to do it. But I was a little guy. They went rough-housing on a raft, and I went over it. I came up under that raft, fighting for a way out. Not knowing how I could get out, just a little guy, until I felt my brother Graham pull me up and lay me on that raft. And I thought sometimes how strange...
A physical life he saved. But as many times as I talked to him and saw this tears streaming down his cheeks, he looked for his peace in another way than Jesus Christ. He would shrug and say, well, God loved the world. Christ died for the whole world. I'm part of the world. But to my knowledge, He never took that one word, whosoever, believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf being tied. Have you trusted Him? Has your life been changed? Has it been cleansed? is it in the control of the Lord himself because he purchased it he died for you he loves you he gave himself for you you can be his son by simply taking him at his word believe the promise he made and he'll save your soul there was one young lad one time spoke to his dying father.
And he said, Father, are you going away? His dad said, Yes, son, I won't be seeing you much anymore. He said, Dad, do you have a nice house and friends there? His dad was quiet for a while. And then he said, What a fool I've been. I've built up great wealth here, but I shall be a pauper there.