The Message

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: - 1 Peter 1:18-19

    The redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the heart and soul of the Gospel. If this be not the message, then we have no Gospel. Who he is and what he has done and is doing is the ONLY good news for poor sinners. There are many things that need to be said and many things must be dealt with at the proper place and time, but the preaching of the Gospel is exclusively centered upon ONE person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2).

    What I am saying is this: no matter where we take our text, no matter what we title our message, the context, the heart, the theme, must be concerning Christ and his redemptive work, or we are not preaching the Gospel, and we have not heard the Gospel. Preachers can beat people over the head all they want for what they do or don’t do, but nothing will change a heart except the preaching of the glorious Gospel of God’s redeeming grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1 Cor 1:21). The saved one will get the dos and don’ts straightened out in God’s time. Those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and have been brought to faith in Christ, desire to please him and will grow in grace and knowledge of Him.

    A Gospel message is a Gospel message only when Christ is set forth in his fulness, and the flesh is abased. Nothing will cause one to hate sin and love righteousness more than God revealing the blood-shedding of the Lamb for his sin. The message of the Gospel is concerning a person and what that person did for sinful man—When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

    The message of God to sinners is not about corruptible things—It is the message of the blood of Christ, which taketh away the sin of the world.