Those of us who were lost and bound in sin, while we were sinners, the Scripture says, He loved us.  The Bible says there’s none that seeks after God, but He sought after us.  Hallelujah!  That’s why we celebrate.  We need to meditate on the love of God, remembering Jesus went to the cross, and bore our sins.  The sins of the whole world, the Scripture says, He took upon Himself.  He who knew no sin was made to be sin with our sin (amen?) that we might then be made righteous with His righteousness.  Hallelujah!  What a great gift!  The enemy thought that he had won a great battle.  If he had only known, the Scripture says, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  Because Sunday was just around the corner.  The power of God went into that tomb, and Jesus burst forth alive, Hallelujah!  Amen.

The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 15 that a great phenomenon had taken place.  Not only had Jesus risen by the power of the Spirit of God, by the will of our heavenly Father, but a great part of this resurrection was His revealing Himself to those who were in Jerusalem at that particular hour that would cause this resurrection to stand sure for all history.  The Scripture set forth a mandate, and it was followed by man for centuries, that it was to be at the mouth of two or three witnesses that truth would be established.  No greater confirmation, and we see that still in our criminal justice system today, than eyewitnesses to a crime.  No greater evidence than a man being able to stand and say, “I saw this with my own eyes.”  The credibility that that brings into a court of law today.  First Corinthians 15, the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul says, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel that which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”  Paul bringing out that great truth that we just made reference to, according to the Scriptures, Jesus was the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundations of the world; amen?  It had already been determined in the heart of God that the Son of God would come and die on our behalf.  Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that we would be called the sons of God.  What a privilege it is today; amen?

God had foreordained this having seen the need of a sacrifice.  A savior, Jesus, determined to take that upon Himself.  The sinless Lamb of God crucified, and we won’t go into the horrors of crucifixion, but the worst imaginable death that you could come up with, and He did it for you and me, and He died while we were sinners because He loved us, praise God!  That love’s still available to whosoever will come in this hour.  He said I brought you that message how Christ was crucified, how He was that sacrifice, that appeasement to God’s justice.  When Adam had sinned, then all of Adam’s children were born into sin.  This is what so many people have trouble coming to grips with in this particular hour.  They want to measure themselves by their own morality, by their goodness, but the reality is this, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” Amen?  It doesn’t matter how good you are, how philanthropic you are.  You’re a child of Adam, and sin is in your nature and in your members.  By one man, the Bible says, sin entered into the world and death is the consequence of that.