THE GOSPEL OF EASTER

 

52 - THE GOSPEL OF EASTER

April 2, 1961

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

 

Galatians 1: 1 – 12 “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) ² And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: ³ Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: ⁵ To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. ⁶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: ⁷ Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. ¹⁰ For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. ¹¹ But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. ¹² For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

As we have been studying the book of Galatians, we have found that first of all, evil teachers have gone into the province of Galatia to the different churches there and they have taught legalism rather than grace, and of course to do this they had to tear down the Apostle Paul and the gospel that he had taught to these folks.

First of all, they said Paul is not an Apostle, and Paul sets out to prove that he is an Apostle. He is one sent from God, and he has been commissioned by God and he has the credentials to prove that he is of God. Then Paul goes on to prove that the Gospel he teaches is the only Gospel—that is the all-sufficient Gospel.

1/  You will notice he pronounces a curse upon any who do not accept this Gospel, or preach any other Gospel. Notice, Paul says, let him be anathema. That is strong language, but it is God-breathed. Notice, it is a double curse, because he repeats it. It is necessary for us to see that it is not an utterance of profanity but rather it is the curse of God upon this individual. So it is a serious thing to preach—it is a serious thing to say, this is the Gospel. We must be careful that we know what we are speaking about.

2/  What is the Gospel? It is given to us in I Corinthians 15: 1-8 It is Christ crucified for our sins, buried, resurrected the third day. ”Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. ³ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: ⁵ And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: ⁶ After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep ⁷ After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. ⁸ And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” 

3/  Galatians 1: 11, 12 “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Notice, it is not a Gospel of man—not after man, but it is a heavenly Gospel—Paul received it from Heaven.

4/  What has this Gospel done? It is a marvelous Gospel. But what does this Gospel do?Let us turn to Revelations 1: 18 “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Christ is speaking now mark you—Christ is the Speaker, and He said, I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. I have the key to death and hell. We are sinners on our way to death, and beyond death is hell, and these are powers. And Christ Jesus died, and when He came forth He said, I have the key, I have the keys of hell—hell has no more danger to the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ who believes in His death and resurrection. He says, I have the key of death. Death has been broken. The powers of hell are broken.

5/  We have mighty enemies all about us which have to be defeated—Sin and death and hell. And I say to you this morning that you have to have a salvation, a Gospel that delivers you from sin and from death and hell, for they are your enemies, and the Bible shows us that Jesus Christ took over every enemy, and when He was through and went back to Heaven, He had broken the power of death, the power of sin, the power of hell, and we are free. That is salvation and nothing else is. Men can formulate a religion but religion doesn’t save. Beware of religion, what we as sinners need is deliverance.

6/  And the deliverance is ours as far as death and hell is concerned, because Christ has the keys and the keys are the symbol of authority and control—it means undisputed authority, and Christ because of His death and resurrection has undisputed authority over death and hell, and in the original language, death goes before hell because that would be the natural order.

7/  I Corinthians 15: 17 “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” I am sorry for the liberal, modernistic preacher who does not believe in the literal resurrection of Christ, because, according to this verse, whatever faith he may have, and he has faith, do not forget that—his faith is vain, it is empty, he is yet in his sins. Here, again is proof that faith is a dangerous thing. Unless you have faith in this Gospel that Paul preached you have anathema pronounced upon you, a curse upon you—the curse of God, because you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Romans 10: 9, 10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” No one can be saved unless he believes the literal resurrection of Christ.

8/  But now what does this Gospel do for us? The Gospel of Christ Jesus crucified and resurrected from the dead? He delivers us from death and from hell, but He does even more than that. In this very book that we are studying—in the Book of Galatians we have a wonderful truth because of this Gospel—Galatians 2: 20 “I am crucified with Christ, never the less I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Yes, this is the heart, the center, and the core of Christianity. Christianity is not what you can do, but what Christ can do living in you. That makes Christianity different from religion, doesn’t it? Religion is man doing something, Christianity is Christ doing everything.

9/  Colossians 1: 27 “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: This verse says the same thing that Galatians does. Christ in you the hope of Glory. Christ Jesus is living. Christ in the believer. This wonderful Gospel says that Christ now lives in us.

10/  The truth of Christ in you is something new for this age in which we live. The Old Testament Saints did not have this. If we turn to the Gospel of John, we will find this glorious truth. John 14: 17 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” David, you know, got to a very great height. The Sweet Psalmist of the Old Testament. But you ought to know, and I ought to know more than David. We ought to be better than David—we ought to stand on higher ground than David did. We ought to see things better than David ever saw them, for David did not have the indwelling Christ. Notice what he says in this verse. Christ made the promise that the time would come when the Holy Spirit would be in them, but at that present time, He was just with them—but now at this present age, we have Christ in us, the Nation Israel shall have Christ in them in some future day.

11/  As I follow this thought through, there is a wonderful verse in the book of Ephesians 3: 19 “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” That we might be filled with all the fullness of God. Christianity is not emptiness. If you find Christianity a bore you haven’t the real thing, for Christianity is fullness. God does take some things out of your life. People say, I can’t live without certain things in my life. You don’t give things up to be saved, but if you want to know the fullness of God, God wants to take some things out of your life that should not be there. The only reason He takes things out is that He might pour something in. He takes things out to make room for Himself and for His fullness.

12/  Solomon in his prayer said that Heaven and earth could not contain God, but you know, right here we can be filled with His fullness. That is how wonderful it is, that is what this glorious Gospel does for us, it can fill us with the fullness of Christ.

13/  But this glorious Gospel not only saves us, but it does other wonderful things for us. The resurrection of Christ means our resurrection. Romans 8:11 “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Notice, the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The body of the Believer the Christian is in the care of the Holy Spirit that is a wonderful thought. Because of the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is taking care of our physical bodies. If the believer dies and his body is buried, that body is still in the care of the Holy Spirit. If you are saved God has given you the Spirit and the Spirit dwells in your body, and these bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and if you die and that body is laid in the ground, that body is still in the care of the Holy Spirit, and that body will be brought back again.

14/  So many folks ask the question—what about the resurrection from the dead? Will it be the bodies that go into the grave? The Holy Spirit has care of that body, and the Holy Spirit will bring that body back, because it is His body, He lives in it, it has been His temple, and He cares for it and He will bring it back. There is an illustration I heard many years ago that I think makes this very real. You can take a paper bag and crumple it in your hand, and you can take that paper bag and breathe into it and it will come back again into its former shape. That is the body. The crumpled body that is in the ground, and all the Holy Spirit has to do at the resurrection is breathe into that crumpled body and it will come back again, the same body raised with more glory than ever.

15/  How wonderful it is to know this Christ Who will make us like unto Himself, Who, has guaranteed our resurrection from the dead by His resurrection, Who now liveth in the believer by His death and resurrection. It is a sad thing when men do not see the all-sufficiency of the work of Christ. I read of Dr. Tom Dooley, who was the world-renowned jungle doctor of Laos. With tears in my heart I read that on December 2, 1960, as he lay dying of cancer, he wrote to a college president and he said, whenever my cancer acts up, I turn inward a bit—less do I think of my hospitals around the world, of the 94 doctors, the fundraising and the like. More do I think of one Divine Doctor and of my own personal fund of grace—is it enough? Here is one who had no hope for the future. Here is one who had religion, and he lived a sacrificial life, giving his life for others. He died because he expended himself so others might have it better upon this earth, but think of the sadness of his death. He was a religionist—one who added works to the grace of God. He did not believe in the all-sufficiency of the death and resurrection of Christ, and thus as Mr. Dooley faced death, he did not write of resting and rejoicing in the accomplished redemption wrought by Christ, but he said of turning inward and wondering if his own personal fund of grace was enough. We know there is no such thing as a personal fund of grace. It is not a matter of our works; it is a matter of the work of Jesus Christ. He has done it all. O, that we might face death unafraid with no fear, because we know that Christ liveth in us, and because of Him we shall live forever more.

16/  Romans 14: 9 “ For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” Notice something else about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ–for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. There was no one among all the sons of man who could master the situation down here on this earth. What is the matter with the human race? Not war, that is just an incident in the history of man. Men hate one another—men want power, they want dominion, and so they want war. But war is just an incident. What is the trouble with mankind? The trouble is the race dies. You don’t plant bulbs for them to die, you don’t plant seeds for them to stay in the ground and never come up. The trouble with the human race is that it is dead, dead in sins, yet they walk upon earth, but they are dead in physical sins. The human race hasn’t produced a man who could pay the price of sin and be conqueror over death—there wasn’t anyone who could do it, but God became a Man so that He could overcome death, that He might be the Lord of the dead and the living. 

AMEN

Ref: 04/02/1961/ 52 - THE GOSPEL OF EASTER / 08/07/2020 

(Harold and Barbara Smith joined the Altoona Bible Church the day Pastor Kulp preached this sermon. We were 19 and 21 as new born believers in Christ.)