Good morning everybody. You've been enjoying the weather? Huh? Yeah. Let's take our Bibles please. And I'm asking you to turn to the book of Acts, chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. And for the moment I'll read
just one verse out of this chapter. We'll have some other readings
to follow. But Paul is meeting with the
elders from the Ephesian congregation. the only place that the apostle
remained for three years, preaching and teaching at that congregation. And when he gets to verse 24, he's reminding these elders of
what they had seen and heard from this apostle in the time
that he has been there, And He is telling them in no uncertain
terms that this is the last time that they'll see each other face
to face, and that after He goes to Jerusalem, He will be taken
in chains to Rome where He would be executed. He'll never see
their face again. Alright, verse 24, Acts chapter
20. But none of these things move
me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself. So that I might finish my course
with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus
to testify The Gospel of the Grace of God. That's my title. The Gospel of the Grace of God. Now let me talk to you just a
little bit this morning. trying to bring out the meaning
and message of that gospel of the grace of God. That's all
the chapters in it. There aren't any others. It's
all grace from beginning to end, without interruption. Here are
four indisputable gospel facts. Well, dummy me left the microphone
off. I guess Ed could have told me
that, couldn't you? Just four things here briefly
to begin with by way of introduction. This gospel that is of the grace
of God has four indisputable facts. Four things that cannot change,
no matter what comes or what goes. Here's the first one. The Gospel is the Gospel of God. First and foremost, it's God's
Gospel. He purposed it, He planned it,
and He implemented it, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Second
fact, this gospel that is all of the grace of God is God's
free grace. Works are not welcome. Not of works. Why? Because our heads would be so
big we couldn't even fit in this room with a 20 foot ceiling or
whatever that is. We'd just be so puffed up with
pride. But it's not of works. It's not
what men do for God. Oh, it's what God's already done
for us. And I'll guarantee you, I'll
give you $100 if you can prove me wrong. You won't find that
said in another place in this county this morning. They're
telling you to do all you can for God. And He'll bless you. And He'll reward you. And He'll
take you to heaven when this thing's over with. That ain't
so. That's buying God's favor. And
that is not the gospel that is all of grace. Third thing. Another indisputable fact. God's
gospel is the gospel of Christ. The main theme always, it never
changes. The same theme that started in
the garden in Genesis to this present hour until the end of
this world. This gospel is the gospel of
Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
And then fourthly, this gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It's not man helping himself.
It's man falling flat on his face before God and begging for
mercy. That's a world of difference. Churches are full of people coming
for altar calls. Gosh, in the early years, I barely kept my sanity. I don't
know how I kept it, but some of the dumb things that we've
been taught and believed in and practiced only to find out that
they're empty. Nothing to it. You can have perfect
attendance until the pins hang down from your shoulders to your
feet. And all that means is that you've
got more religious works that you want God to recognize before
you'll do business with Him. And you ain't never gonna do
business with Him if that's the case. So this fourth fact is that the
Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes,
no exceptions, to every believer, Jew or Gentile, it does not matter. It's all one and the same. The
same Gospel that saved Saul of Tarsus is the one that will save
me or I'll never be saved. It's unchanging. It is unchangeable. Why would you change it? It's God's gospel, and it's the
gospel of God's grace. And that's the only way any of
us can ever know Him, or love Him, or follow Him and obey Him,
is if the gospel that we believe and trust in is the gospel of
God's grace, His grace. might need a little bit more
listening on your part. I'm trying to keep from reading
too many things. I'm going to ask you to turn
a couple of maybe three times in your Bible and I'm not going
to hold a gun on you. You don't have to do that if
you don't want to. If it's I know how getting old
is when it comes to turning pages in your Bible, especially if
it's a new one. And so I'm content if you don't or if you do. I
wouldn't mind seeing you writing down whatever the Scripture is. And then you could do that at
your leisure and read it. Alright, here's my first point
now in the main part of the message. The true gospel owns God in His
rightful place. The true gospel adores and worships
God in God's own rightful place. One of the Pharisees in the Scriptures
says, who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? Well, if you
haven't already found out, you will. Who is the Lord? Pharaoh said
that. Who is this God that tells me
to let these people go? I'll show Him a thing or two.
And He did. But it wasn't pleasant to Him. He died trying to recapture the
children of Israel. God killed the firstborn in His
house like He did in every other house in Egypt. that gave that Pharaoh temporary
letting the children of Israel go and quickly changed his mind. Who is the Lord that I should
obey Him? This God who is the Lord is sovereign
in creation. This book says without any other possibility that everything
that was created, everything that was made, was made by whom? Jesus Christ our Lord. I think it's in Colossians 1
or 2, I can't remember, but you can find it easily. This true gospel that honors
God in His rightful place He is holy, he's just, and he's
righteous. If you don't believe it, ask
Isaiah the prophet, particularly in Isaiah chapter 6. Now I need
you to turn with me if you would. I've fudged on you if my markers
don't move on me. The book of Daniel. Daniel. Chapter 4. We've covered these verses untold
numbers of times. And we'll take just two verses
out of this encounter between Jehovah and King Nebuchadnezzar. After having put him out to pasture
to live as an animal for several years, he comes back now to his
throne The people under him gladly received
him, which was a miracle. It's a wonder one of them didn't
say, well, I'm taking this throne. But no, they didn't. Why didn't they? God wouldn't
let them. That's not to say this old boy
is saved by any means, but he knows a whole lot more than he
did to start with. Verse 35, these are the words of Nebuchadnezzar. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. I mean everything on this globe
is nothing. And He does according to His
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What do
you? What doest you? What are you
doing? You have to check with me first
before you can do anything for me. Really? Well that ain't what this old
bird said and he was pretty smart. What doest thou? Now verse 37, here's Nebuchadnezzar's
advice. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, let's all say that word together,
Nebuchadnezzar, If you say it fast, it just sort of falls into
place. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and
extol and honor the King of heaven, not the king of Assyria, the
King of heaven, all whose works this God, All
of His works are truth, and His ways judgment. And one more statement, and those
that walk in pride, He is able to abase. Now how did He know
this? Because that's what God did to
Him, all three of these things. And he's learned something by
it. And yet, right now, this morning,
at this very moment, preachers are lying about who God is, and
who the sinner is, and what we're going to do to help him so he'll
bless us. And all such tommyrot is that.
We live in a sad time, religiously speaking. Well, for that matter,
politically speaking as well, but we're not into politics this
morning. This gospel is the gospel of
God. When? When is that true? When is it true? It was true
of Nebuchadnezzar, but that wasn't his thinking to start with. God
changed his mind, opened his eyes, taught him some things. The gospel that I preach is the
gospel of God. The gospel that you men preach
is the gospel of God. When? when God is given all the
glory. We take none to ourselves. That little song we sung a little
bit ago that had 25 stanzas or whatever, I'm telling you, and
as written by Joseph Hart, he compiled a hymnal in the 1800s,
I can't remember the years that he lived and died, but a good
bit ago, and this old boy knew some things. He knew that God gets all the
glory. One of the things that disturbs
me the most is to have visitors whom we've never seen and don't
know and we just think they're so wonderful and so nice we start
ascribing to them things that don't belong to them without
knowing a thing. It's strange. The number of persons
that have come through that door, some just stay one time, some
don't even stay a whole time, they get up and leave. Others
stay a few days, a few weeks, a few months, and a few years,
and then they're gone. They fool themselves to thinking
that they loved what they heard, but they did not. They did not Give God all the
glory. It's all His. Alright, the second
thing. This true gospel puts the sinner
in his rightful place. And where is that? Brother Richardson
used to say that if God was dealing with our souls, we'd make dust
our headquarters. And that's how we know who it
is that God is causing to be put in His rightful place. I
know one thing, Nebuchadnezzar found it. And if you can make
that confession that he made in verse 35 and 37, oh my, you might be on
the right road for sure. It is amazing, simply amazing. Our Bibles tell us that salvation
is not of works, not of works lest any man should
boast. If it's not of works, what is
it of? Grace. The gospel of God's grace. And
it's not part grace and part our deservings. It's all grace,
or it ain't real grace. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. We're all fallen. We fell in
Adam in the garden. We have been declared to be sinners. since Adam sinned. And since
he's the federal head of the human race, his rebellion against
God is credited to our account. And we're faced with the same
charges because we have the same nature as he. And without the
grace of God, there ain't but one thing a sinner can do, and
that's sin. How about turning to another
passage, please? This is really hard to find.
Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. There are just dozens and dozens
of places that we could use a reading to back up this statement that
the true gospel puts the sinner in his rightful place. And we'll
pick on Matthew for a little bit, not this one over here,
but the one in the Bible. In the New Testament, whom our
Lord made one of his apostles, he was also a Roman tax collector,
And let me just read you a few of the verses that surround this. Let's see. Let's start with verse 9. If I'm pretty certain of this,
our Lord is in Capernaum. which is his headquarters. He was there more frequently
than any other town or village in the whole of Palestine. So in verse 9 of Matthew
chapter 9, And as Jesus passed forth from there, that is from
Capernaum, he saw man. He knew the man's name, having
never met him. Named Matthew, sitting in the
receipt of custom, collecting taxes. Boy, just take his cut
and a little bit more if he could and just keep getting richer
and richer. And our Lord said to Matthew,
Now you've got to understand, this man has endured the scorn
and disrespect of his nation because of his occupation. They hate him and they despise
him. And our Lord comes to this man's place of business and he
calls him Matthew. He said to him, follow me. Well, I have to think about it. That ain't how it's done. He speaks and it's done. When He told Matthew to follow
Him, He could have told him to climb
the highest mountain and jump off the highest peak, and he
would have went straight and done it. God owns him now. Matthew got up from the receipt
of custom and followed Him. and was subsequently saved. And
I can prove that. Let's look just a tiny bit further. It came to pass as Jesus sat
at meat in the house. Now Mark and Luke tell us that
this is Matthew's house. But Matthew ain't going to tell
it to you. You've got to find it out some other way. That shows the grace of God and
the humility that God gives to us in saving us. Behold, in this
house of Matthew's, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
oh, they just went ballistic. They said, this guy's eating
with sinners. And He's too dumb to know it.
No, He prefers their company to yours, thank you. And so they asked His disciples. I wish they'd have asked Him.
I would certainly like to know the words that made up that reply. So they said to his disciples
in verse 11, why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? Because at least they're what
they are. What if this was a banquet of
Pharisees? Every last one of them would
be false. If you read this Bible any at
all, you know the ungodly, unholy, despicable treatment of our Lord
and of His apostles by the Pharisees. And by the way, the tribe is
bigger now than it's ever been, and it's astronomically large. And almost all churches in this
land are being run by Pharisees, from the preacher right on down. Why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said to them, they that behold need not a physician. If you're
not sick, you don't need the doctor. If you're not a sinner,
you don't need Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? If you're
not a sinner, this gospel ain't for you. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. We can't make ourselves. Oh,
but He can. He can. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. All right, let's take just a...
How long is this last song you got this morning, Craig? Is it... Oh, goodness me. Here's the third thing. I got
just two more points to go. I'll try to be as quick as I
can. The true gospel, no matter where it's preached, In what
language or dialect does not matter. The true gospel puts
the Lord Jesus in His rightful place. And where is that? On a throne in glory. Caring for His people. Saving
His elect. And He orchestrates all of it
and empowers all of it, seated on a throne of glory in heaven
at His Father's right hand. The question is for you and me, what do we think of Jesus Christ? The Christ that I believe in
my mind and in my heart, is that the one we read about in Matthew
chapter 9? Or Acts chapter 24? The gospel
of the glory of God? What think you of Christ? I do
not think. that in this place I would have
any argument when I say, first of all, He's God. He's God. Now the Bible doesn't say there
are three gods. It says there's one God. One. The holy three in one. The triune
God, yes. I think I can quote this one,
I've got just two or three words written down to get me, joggle
my mind. In John 1, to which we will not
turn, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. And when this world was created,
there was nothing made that was not made by this God whose name
here is Word. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Word, the communication of the God of heaven and earth.
And we cannot know the Father without knowing Him in the Son. Same is true about the Holy Spirit.
Alright, the second thing. Our Lord Jesus is said in John
1.14 that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld
His glory full of... what? I lost you. Huh? Full of grace and truth, is that
it? Yeah, okay. He's God, he's man, he's our
federal representative. Now Adam is the one that got
us a sinful nature. And every human being, no matter
how pretentious we are, how persnickety we are, how much aloof we are
from, you know, sin's got all kind of grades from the basement
to the attic, you know. And so people that live in the
upstairs, they think they're pretty good people. And people
that live in the basement, they think they're good people. And
they're both wrong. They're both lost. Lost as lost
can be. But just like Adam was the one
that passed on to us a sinful nature, so the precious Lord
Jesus Christ, who is our federal head and representative spiritually,
is the one who sets us free and gives us a righteousness of our
own. But we did not earn it. We did
not merit it, we did not buy it. It is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Our Lord is also the sacrifice
and the sin offering. Church, for that matter, He's
the altar, He's the sacrifice, He's the priest, And don't miss
this, and He's the God to whom the sacrifice is made. Now that will rattle your mind. He's our great High Priest. He is the one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Finally, I've got one more point
after this, but in this particular section, He is Lord. Not, you must make Him Lord. He is Lord. All we can do is
fall on our face and bow to Him. Finally, number four, the true
gospel proclaims the Holy Spirit in His rightful place, and that
is the place of revealing Christ to sinners. And if you know Him, if Christ
has been revealed to you or to me, it is through this precious
Holy Spirit of God, who is said to be in our Bibles the author
of the new birth. He's the giver of faith and repentance. He convicts of sin. And He is
said to be for us our Teacher, Romans chapter 8. He prays, Holy Spirit prays,
He seals and He empowers. And so this Gospel is God-honored,
man-stripped, Christ-exalted, and the Holy Spirit is indispensable. We can't do without Him. Without
Him we'll perish. Okay, y'all gonna owe me 10 minutes
if I need it now next time.