Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 36 from your hardback hymnal,
36. A mighty fortress is our God.
Let's all stand together. Number 36. A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing. Our Helper, He upbid the flood,
A mortal hill's rebuilding. For still our ancient home, Upseek
to work us low, His craft and power are great, And armed with
fruitful hate, On earth is not his feet. Did we in our own strength confide
Our striving could be losing? Were not the right man on our
side The man of God's own choosing? Must ask who that may be Christ
Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth, His name. From age to age the
same, and He must win the battle. And though this world with devil's
filth should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God
hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The Prince of Darkness,
We tremble not for him, his rage we can endure. For though his doom is sure,
one little word shall tell. That Word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to Him above I am. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours, Through Him who with us I am. Let woods and kindred go, This mortal life also, a body
they may kill. God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in First Thessalonians
chapter two. First Thessalonians chapter two. And we'll be reading the first
12 verses. And I want you to pay special
attention to the phrase that is found in verse two and verse
eight. And in verse nine, the gospel
of God, the gospel of God. We know that gospel means good
news. Why is the gospel good news to
a sinner? Why is it called the gospel of
God? And what do we learn about the gospel from these three references
that are made? So those are, that's sort of
where I hope to I hope to go this morning. We want to go before
the Lord and ask his blessings on our time together. Robert
and Deanna are both in the hospital. They've both been diagnosed with
COVID. Deanna was actually in ICU up
until last night, but she's been moved and doing much better. So I want us to pray for her. Matter of fact, Billy Argoropoulos,
who preached for us last Sunday, also came down with COVID. So
Hugo went over this morning to preach for them. Thankfully, COVID's not what
it used to be, but I do want us to pray for our brother. Okay, let's pray together. Our
Heavenly Father, We thank you that you would be
so merciful, so gracious to call us, Lord, out of the darkness
of our sin and unbelief, to bring us to faith in Christ, to put
into our hearts a desire to love you and to worship you. Lord,
we come to this place by by your drawing and sustaining grace. And we come with great hope and
expectation. We know, Lord, that you are always
true and faithful to your promises. And we pray, Lord, that you would
enable us this morning to worship you. We pray that you would enable us to put aside all of
those worldly concerns that would distract us from setting our
affections on things above. Lord, we are so prone to set
our affections on the things of this earth. Forgive us for
Christ's sake. Open the windows of heaven. Come
down. Speak to our hearts. Lord, we're
such a needy people. We're in need of your salvation.
We're in need of Christ. Lord, we're in need of you taking
your word and making it effectual to our hearts. Lord, we pray
for our brethren. We ask, Lord, that your hand
of strength and comfort would be on Robert, Indiana. Lord,
on Billy. Pray for our brother, Hugo, as
he preaches to the brethren there in St. Pete. Lord, we ask that
you would meet with your people and bless them in a way that
only you can. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. We find in the New Testament
right at 100 references or times that the word gospel is used.
It's spoken of as the gospel of the kingdom. We know that
that's a spiritual kingdom. Our Lord said, my kingdom is
not of this earth. If it was of this earth, my disciples
would fight. We're not in a fight with the
world. We're in a struggle. It's over
our own sin. And it's a spiritual battle that
we fight, isn't it, every day. And that's the gospel of the
kingdom. It's called the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's he that came and made the
hope of salvation true and available and hopeful. I use that word
available, you know what I mean. He's the one that secured it
for his people. It's referred to as the gospel
of peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this gospel is the hope of
our peace, the hope of our forgiveness, the hope of our the enmity of
our sin having been put away and the Lord Jesus Christ being
himself the Prince of Peace. Paul refers to the gospel as
my gospel. I hope that we would be able
to say this is my gospel. God has made it to be my gospel. It's good news to me. It's not
just the idea of the gospel being good news. The truth of the gospel
God has made my gospel, he's made it to be good news to me. The gospel is referred to as
our gospel. So it doesn't change from one
believer to the other, it's the same gospel. And we rejoice in
this gospel together. It's called the gospel of our
salvation. And without the gospel, there
is no salvation. It's called the everlasting gospel. And we know that that word everlasting
doesn't mean something that started now and lasts forever. It means
something that never had a beginning, never had an end. And so this
gospel goes all the way back to eternity past and reaches
all the way forward to eternity future. Five times out of the hundred
times the word gospel is used, it's called the gospel of God.
The gospel of God. And that's what I want us to
look at this morning. Why is the gospel the gospel? Why is it such good news? Why
is it called the gospel of God? And from the text that we have
here this morning, three of those five times are in these first
verses of First Thessalonians chapter two. Once, twice in the Book of Romans
and once in 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to the gospel as the gospel
of God. And so, out of all these times,
we have the Holy Spirit inspiring Paul to refer to the gospel in
our text as the gospel of God three times. The Apostle Paul
is in Athens. He was only in Thessalonica for
three weeks, according to Acts chapter 17. And after preaching
the gospel in the synagogue in Thessalonica for three weeks,
he had to escape with his life. A riot broke out and he went
down to Athens. And I was thinking about, it's
a testimony of God's grace that in such a brief time of preaching
the gospel to these people in Thessalonica that a church would
be established and these new believers. Paul is now sending
Timothy back. He's in Athens and he's rightly,
as any of us would be, particularly a pastor or a preacher, concerned
for those people that only heard the gospel for three weeks and
now they've been left to try to, you know, to be a
church. And so Paul sends Timothy back
to encourage them. He tells us in chapter 3, At verse two, he said, I sent
Timothy as our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer
in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning
your faith. So he sends Timothy back as his co-laborer in the
gospel to establish them more fully and to comfort them in
the conflicts that come with the gospel. You know, in religion, we would
say, well, there's no way that a gospel church could be established
in such a short period of time. If it's Christ's church, it will
be. And if the Lord's in it, he's gonna call them out, and
that's what he did. And so, Paul is writing back
to them, and he's reminding them of the, of the conflicts that
they experienced in those brief three weeks, and he's encouraging
them to persevere, to remain faithful to the gospel. The means
by which the Lord not only establishes us in the gospel, but enables
us to persevere in the gospel is the preaching of the gospel.
So it's the same message, it doesn't change. We don't preach
one message to unbelievers and another message to believers.
It's the same glorious gospel of God that calls us out of darkness
and establishes us in Christ and keeps us in Christ. Chapter two of 1 Thessalonians
verse one, for yourselves, Brethren, know our entrance in unto you,
that it was not in vain. It was not empty, it was not
without result. But even after that we had suffered before and
were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, Paul went
from Philippi to Thessalonica, down to Berea, and everywhere
he went, preached the gospel. He soon had to leave town. He had a target on his back. Even though we were shamefully
entreated at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto
you the gospel of God with much contention. There was a lot of
conflict that came with the preaching of the gospel, as there always
has been and always will be. For our exhortation was not a
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor of guile. But as we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak,
not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. We are
responsible to God to be faithful stewards of the gospel. For neither at any time used
we flattering words as we know, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought
we glory, neither of you nor yet of others. When we might
have been as burdensome as the apostles of Christ, we could
have very easily come and said that we are apostles and it's
your responsibility to take care of us while we're here. He said,
we didn't put that burden off on you. We wanted you to hear
the gospel of God. We didn't want to be a distraction
in any way. But we were gentle among you,
even as a nurse cherished her children. I love how the apostle
Paul refers to himself as a nurse caring for a baby. And in Isaiah
chapter 66, the Lord himself refers to himself as the mother
of his children, caring for his children. So it almost seems
like Paul didn't want to take that title. So he says, You already
have a mother, but I'm your nurse. And I'm going to cherish you
and care for you. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel
of God only, but also our own souls because you were dear unto
us. The gospel always has that effect. causes those who believe it to
be dear to one another. But you remember, brethren, our
labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would
not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the
gospel of God. Paul, by profession, was a tentmaker,
and he was, in a sense, bi-vocational much of his ministry because
he didn't want, he was an evangelist, he was never a pastor, he went
to places and preached the gospel for the first time, and I've
done that, and it's best not to take any support from a group. And this doesn't, you know, labor
is worthy of his hire, and you don't muzzle an ox as he's tramping
out The wheat, this is no indication that gospel preachers aren't
to be supported by their churches. That's the right thing. It's
a biblical thing. But when you go somewhere for
the first time, you don't want that to be a distraction. And
so Paul continued to work day and night while he preached the
gospel, lest, you know, to support himself in that endeavor. Verse 10. And you are witnesses
in God also how wholly and justly and unblameable we behaved ourselves
among you that believe as you know how we exhorted and comforted
and charged every one of you as a father doth his children
that you would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto
his kingdom and glory. Why is the gospel such good news
to you? And I asked myself that question,
why is it such good news to me? And the first reason I want to
give is because it is profoundly simple. It is profoundly simple. You say, well, that's an oxymoron,
yeah? And it communicates the truth of the gospel. The gospel
is so profound that all of eternity will not be sufficient to plumb
the depths of it, and it is so simple that a child can understand
it. And I love that about the gospel. It's gloriously, profoundly
simple. In order to believe the gospel,
a man doesn't have to have an advanced education. He doesn't
have to have theological training. He doesn't have to have a superior
intellect. I've had people accuse me, and
I know of other men. A man recently accused Todd Nyberg. He said, well, his preaching
is for children's Sunday school classes. And I've had people say that
about me. Well, you know, his preaching is very simple. That's what we teach our children.
And I say, amen. Amen, the gospel's for children.
Except ye become as a little child. This is what makes the
gospel so glorious, isn't it? Except ye become as a little
child, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the little
children to come unto me, for such are the kingdom of God.
Oh, I love the fact that the Lord humbles us from our pride
and our self-righteousness, our arrogance, and simplifies the
gospel. down to Jeff was telling me that
Annie, how old is Annie, five? Annie had an opportunity this
past week to stand up in her kindergarten class and speak
extemporaneously to the class. And the teacher told Jeff and
Megan what Annie said. She preached the gospel to her
son, to her fifth, her, I mean, she did everything. I can't remember
everything she said, but that's spot on. And the teacher said,
she just kept repeating the same thing. Aren't you glad? Aren't you thankful
that the gospel is simple enough for a five-year-old to be able
to recite it? I'm not saying that Annie has
any understanding, but you see the point. This is the glory of the gospel. It
is profoundly simple. The gospel says, I am nothing,
Christ is everything. I'm a great sinner and Christ
is a great savior. Salvation is all of grace and
it's all of God. Those who complicate the gospel
with darkened counsel by words without knowledge do it to their
own destruction and to the destruction of their hearers, their listeners. I'm thankful. Paul thought things
were much more complicated than they were. And that's when he
said, that's why he said, those things which I thought were gain
unto me. I mean, he had excelled among
his peers in the religious organizations of his day, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Obviously a member of the Sanhedrin. And he said, my peers were jealous
of me. I had excelled so far. And then
he learned the gospel. Just like that, he learned the
gospel. And he said, those things which I thought were gain to
me, I now consider loss. And to count them as dung, that
I might win Christ. Christ is the gospel. The glorious person. an accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his people.
I think it was Scott Richardson that said, Mark, one time, he
said, I haven't heard any bad news since I heard the good news. And that's so true. That's why
the gospel is such good news. It's profoundly simple and it's
glorious. And it's God's gospel. Only God
could justify sinners and at the same time remain perfectly
just and true to his own holiness. Only God could do that. Only
God could be just and justify believers. Only he could do that. This is God's gospel. Only God could suffer for sin.
Only he could do it. Only he could provide a perfect
sacrifice so that he could be the just for the unjust to bring
us to God. That's why Paul calls it God's
gospel. It's not man's gospel. It's not something the man came
up with. When man is left to himself, he schemes a plan of
salvation that sacrifices God's holiness. He lowers the bar of
divine justice and brings God down to a level that he can climb
up to. That's what man comes up with
when he's left with his own devices and you and I would do that.
We would put ourselves on the throne of God and we would bring
God down. God said, I will in no wise,
I will in no wise. not punish sin. He's going to. He has to have
a sacrifice and only God could provide that sacrifice. Only
God could be himself a perfect sacrifice to bear the sins of
his people and to satisfy divine justice. God said, I will know why it's
clear of the guilty. And he didn't. He didn't. He was satisfied when the Lord
Jesus Christ bore our sins in his body upon that tree. That's
why Paul calls it God's gospel. And though the gospel is referred
to as the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the Lord and
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, here it's called God's
gospel because it's all three persons of the triune Godhead
that own this gospel, the gospel of God, it's his possession.
It is the gospel of the father in that he, according to his
own divine will and his own purpose, chose a particular people before
time ever was. He chose for his son a bride.
He elected them. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
one. Why is it called God's gospel? Ephesians chapter one. Look at verse three, blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. When did he do that? According
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
So this is God the Father's gospel in that he placed his elect people
in Christ in eternity past. That's why it's called an everlasting
gospel. And there's never been a time,
never been a time when God didn't see his people outside of his
son. That's why he can say, I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Never been a time God's elect
have been outside of Christ. He's blessed us. with all spiritual
blessings, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Now, believers have a desire
to walk in a way that would honor their Lord, but that's not what
he's talking about here, that we should be holy perfectly holy
and without blame before him, before who? Before the father
in love. The father loves his son and
he loves all those that he's put in his son. Why? So that we would always be before
God, holy and unblameable before him in love. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. Turn back with me to Romans chapter
eight. Romans chapter eight. This is what? Paul is encouraging
those new believers. He hasn't been in Athens long.
He writes back to them and sends Timothy back immediately to check
on them and to help them. And he reminds them about the
gospel of God that they had heard from him. Romans chapter eight,
look at verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? This is the gospel of God, who
according to his own will and purpose, took a particular people
and put them in his son. from eternity past, only God
could do that. Only God could do that. This
is what makes it such good news. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justify it. Who's
gonna lay anything to the charge? The law's been silenced. Sin's
been put away. Death has been conquered. Satan's
been defeated. This is all why it's good news
to us. Who is he that condemneth? Who
can condemn you? The accuser of the brethren is
constantly trying to, And our conscience is constantly bothering
us, and we have to, this is why the gospel of God is the message
of salvation for the believer and the unbeliever, because we
have to hear the same message over and over again, don't we?
Because our sin is a continual problem. Isaiah put it like this,
he said, we have sinned, and in these is continuance, and
we shall be saved. How? By the gospel of God. by
the gospel of God. Oh, preacher, remind me. Remind
me that I'm a sinner. Remind me that the good news
of salvation that was established by the Father in eternity past,
remind me that there is now no condemnation to them that are
in Christ Jesus. This is called the gospel of
God because not only did God the Father purpose it, In eternity
past, but God, the sun. God, the sun fulfilled it. In
time. In the fullness of time. The
Lord Jesus Christ. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law. Sent of God
to redeem them that are cursed by the law. This is the good news of the
gospel. It's finished. Everything that God requires,
everything that God requires of us, he looks to his son for. And faith looks to the same place
that God looks. We're looking not to ourselves
and not to our progress in the faith and not to the evidences
of salvation in our lives. We're looking in faith to the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel of God. Throughout time, God the Holy
Spirit, in due time, Paul said, in due
time, when it pleased God, when it pleased God, the same God
who separated me from my mother's womb, and when he was pleased
in the right time, and Paul's talking about when he was on the road to Damascus
and the Lord stopped him in his tracks and arrested him, knocked
him off his high horse, put him in the dirt and spoke to him.
The Holy Spirit does that. Paul said, my conversion is a
pattern for all those who were chosen of God and redeemed by
the Son. The Holy Spirit makes us willing
in the day of his power, opens the eyes of our understanding.
It's God the Father's gospel. It's God the Son's gospel. It's
God the Holy Spirit's gospel. As the Holy Spirit reveals the
Lord Jesus Christ to our hearts and breathes life into our dead
souls and does for us like he did for Rebecca. You remember
when Eliezer went to find Isaac a wife And Eleazar said to Abraham
before he left, he said, well, what if she's not willing to
come? And Eleazar and Abraham said, well, then you'll be relieved
from your responsibility if she's not willing. Eleazar told Rebekah
about Isaac. That's all he did. He just told
her what Isaac was like. And then he asked her, her brother
asked her, are you willing to go? She said, I'm willing to
go. I'm willing to go. She was in love with Isaac before
she ever saw him. So the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Spirit comes and makes the Lord Jesus Christ irresistible to
the hearts of God's people. If he didn't do that, we would
resist him. We would say no. We'd be just like everybody else. God makes the gospel to be good
news for the believer, for the elect, those whom Christ has
successfully redeemed to his Father. The Holy Spirit's not,
he's not going around trying to persuade men to believe. He's
not begging men. I saw something just the other
day, it said, it was a picture of one of these long-haired men
that was supposed to be Jesus, and he was saying, I beg for
two minutes of your time. I beg for two minutes of your
time. No. No. That's complete blasphemy, isn't
it? to think that God would have to beg us for two minutes of
our time. No, when God the Holy Spirit,
in the fullness of time and in due time, when the time is right,
oh, he'd just invade our hearts, give us a new nature, cause us
to love Christ. So this is God's gospel. Turn
back with me to our text. It's God's gospel because it
was purposed by the Father. We are elected by the Father. We are redeemed by the Son. we are regenerated by the Holy
Spirit. Is there any possible way? This
is the reason why the gospel is good news. Is there any possible
way that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
all in perfect agreement and perfect cooperation with one
another, could possibly fail in saving any of God's people? Oh, he's not counting on us make
our contribution in order for him to be able to save? The gospel's good news because
it's all of God. It's all of God. If he wants
any one of us to put two cents in a bank account of billions,
those two pennies will be counterfeit. There's no way. All the spiritual blessings of
God are in heavenly places in Christ. That's the gospel, isn't
it? This is what I need to hear. Notice with me in our text, I
want to bring out three quick points from our text about the
effects of this gospel. In verse 2, he reminds them of
how he was shamefully entreated in Philippi, and in spite of
that, God gave him boldness to come to Thessalonica and preach
the gospel of God, and even there, with much contention. The natural
man, to the natural man, the gospel is offensive and contentious. By nature, You and I by nature
are proud and self-righteous. The gospel puts us in our place. It humbles us and it makes us
completely dependent upon God for the hope of our salvation. Our natural nature of being proud
and self-righteous as a result of the fall. We were told, we were told. Eve wasn't told by Satan, we
were told that we could be like God. And we come into this world setting
ourselves up on the throne of God. and we believe that we're masters
of our own destiny, captains of our own ship. We'll not have
that man reign over us. That's what we all are by nature. And if God doesn't invade our,
if he doesn't change our nature, this is why, this is why the
new birth, regeneration, not in a chronological
order, because chronologically they happen at the same time,
but in a logical order, regeneration necessarily precedes faith. You can't believe God. Faith
is not life-giving, faith is proof of life. Regeneration is life-giving.
That's a sovereign work of grace that God does. And the evidence
of regeneration is faith. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation, it's the evidence of it. Here's what we all are by, God
has to stop us, he has to arrest us, he has to do a unilateral,
sovereign work of grace. He doesn't ask us for our opinion,
he doesn't ask us for our agreement. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
he doesn't give you any input? This is why the gospel is such
good news to the sinner. Because if the Lord left me to
myself, I would resist him at every turn. And if I had anything
to contribute to my salvation, all I'd do is mess it up. The
gospel's good news. By nature, we believe that we
have something that God needs. That's what we believe by nature,
that we have something that God needs. We are convinced that
we can choose God whenever we want to, and that he will be
obligated to respond to our command. Just listen to the gospel that
is being promoted by man. It's not good news. It's not
the gospel. It's man putting God in his place. It's God begging men to give
him two minutes of his time, of their time. There's nothing
good about that, is there? I need a gospel that's of God. The gospel of God. It's not the
gospel of God and me. It's the gospel of God. left to ourselves, we will resist
and resent the gospel all the way to our dying breath. Lord,
arrest me. Stop me. We're just like, we're like criminals. You know, we're trying to escape
the law. How do we come? How do we come
to Christ? With your prison clothes on.
Come as a criminal. Come as a sinner. Come having
been arrested, having been captured. Because that's what the Lord
has to do. Otherwise, The gospel of God
will always be with much contention. It will be much contention from
us, it'll be much contention from the world, unless God makes
it good news. Notice in verse eight, so being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted
unto you, not the gospel only, but also our own souls because
you were dear unto us. To the believer, the gospel is
not contentious. The gospel is a message of love. It is a message of irresistible,
effectual, amazing grace and amazing love. It is the love of Christ that
constraineth us. It is not my love for Christ
that constrains me. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. It is the love of Christ. Oh,
we do love him, but only because he first loved us. Amen. The
constraining grace of the gospel is his love for us. It is the
goodness of God. that leadeth to repentance. We
look at our love for God, and we're shamed, aren't we? We just
have to say with Peter, Lord, you know my heart. You know I
love you as best I can. I love you, Lord. I do. But if the hope of my salvation
is determined by the fickleness of my love, Lord,
I'm in trouble. Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. The gospel to
the believer is a message of love. The day of love has come. I've
passed by you. I saw you in your blood and I
drew you to myself. I loved you. Loved you with an
everlasting love. Oh, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we, that we should be called the
children of God. Paul is encouraging them and
admonishing them and persuading them to persevere and reminding
them of the spirit of grace and love in which the gospel came
to them. And I'm reminded of what the
Lord said to the church at Ephesus when he commended them for having
identified those who were preaching a false gospel and having separated
themselves from them. And then he says to them, however,
I have somewhat against thee. What was that? Thou hast left
thy first love. So what Paul's doing is he's
reminding them of those affectionate love that came to them from God. We read this in Romans chapter
eight a few minutes ago. What can separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Well, we didn't read down
far enough in Romans chapter eight. Can persecution, Travail, angels. Can anything separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? No, no, nothing. Unless someone think in error
that this love is unconditional, it's not unconditional. God does
not love unconditionally. He loves us on the condition
that he placed us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And he loves us for Christ's sake. And so all the love of
God that we enjoy, all the heavenly blessings that we have from God
are because we've been holy and unblameably placed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of God. And
the Lord Jesus in John chapter 17 said, Father, I've loved them
even as thou has loved me. God only loves one way. His love
is a perfect love. His whole love is a holy love.
To think that God loves me the same way he loves his own son,
that's the gospel. That's the gospel. Yes, that's why it's such good
news. And finally, verse nine. For you remember, brethren, our
travail, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because
we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto
you the gospel. The gospel is good news for this
reason. God is not asking me for my opinion. If you believe the gospel, you don't want any input in the
gospel. You don't want to be given an
opportunity to join a Bible study where you can debate the gospel
or where you can defend your theological views against someone
else or where you can present your, no, here's what you want. Here's what you want. Preacher,
preach to me the gospel. Don't give me any wiggle room. Tell me what God says. And don't leave me with any options. Because if you give me any option,
shut me up to the gospel. Shut me up to God. Don't... to the world preaching his foolishness. The Lord makes that clear in
1 Corinthians 1. It's foolishness to them. Why
would they waste their time? You want me to sit down and listen
to a A preacher? Some podunk preacher telling
me about things and not giving me an opportunity? That's why
Bible studies are so popular in religion. Now, I'm not saying
that we don't share what the Lord has taught us to one another
and rejoice together, but the gospel's not up for debate. It's a message to be preached. And that makes it to the sinner,
that makes it good news. Preacher, just tell me what God
says. Don't give me your opinion. Don't, don't, don't. Don't give
me a bunch of stories and other things. Just tell me what God
says. And the child of God says, Lord,
command me. Lord, make me. Whatever you say,
I know it's right, I know it's true, I know it's best. And if you give me an opportunity
to present my opinion, I'm gonna mess up your word. Lord, your
word is simple. Shut me up to the gospel of God.
Isn't that what you want? That's what I want. I want to
be shut up to the gospel of God. Let's take a break.