Turn back in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4, where we read
those first seven verses. In our day, the word gospel is very commonly used. Professing Christianity claims
to be preaching it, singing it, and even acting it
out. They say it's the gospel. But Paul uses in this third verse
a term, not only here but also elsewhere. He says, our gospel. And by that, he does not mean
that it is his invention or his opinion. He's not saying that it originated
with us, any particular group. As a matter of fact, in Galatians
1, he says this, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached of me is not after man. It did not come from man. It does not exalt man. He uses this term, our gospel,
to distinguish it from every false gospel. Our gospel in contrast to their
gospel. And he says of this gospel, he
says that in the day, When God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ, He says, it will be according to my gospel. My gospel. And then he warns those at the
church of Corinth. He has a fear for them. They
demonstrate some things that makes him a little bit fearful
concerning them. When he says, "'For if he that
cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or
if you receive another spirit which you have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might bear
well with him." That's my fear, Paul says. That you would be
led to believe another gospel, rather than his gospel, rather
than our gospel. Well, if there is a need to distinguish
our gospel, what distinguishes our gospel? And I put myself
with this apostle and with God himself, and with all true believers
of all time, what distinguishes our gospel from every false gospel?" Well, the word gospel means good
news, And as we find it quite a number of times, Old Testament
and New Testament, it means glad tidings. Whatever the gospel
is, it is glad tidings, number one, from God, and number two,
to somebody in this world. It is glad tidings. And it can't be good news to
a sinner, which we all are, by the way, it cannot be good news
to a sinner if they are told to do something in order to please
this thrice holy God. A sinner can never do anything
to please or accomplish a standing or righteousness before God as
He is, infinitely holy and just. And therefore, our gospel is
about something that has already been done. We ought to always
Remember that. It is good news about something
that has already been done. It's about a finished work. It's about a work of righteousness
accomplished outside of ourselves and before us by the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. You would think As much as we,
by nature, in this fallen nature of ours, like to have something
done for us and given to us, you would think that this gospel
would surely be good news to us. But we are so blind, as this
text says, and so full of self-righteousness and self-deceit, that that which
comes from God, which He declares to be good news and glad tidings,
we by nature resist it. We want no part in it. But He
does this because He knows us even though we don't know ourselves. He's the God of truth even though
our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. He deals with His people in truth. So this message is a gospel,
or glad tidings, and it is also, our gospel is the gospel of God. As a matter of fact, I just say
it like this, our gospel is the gospel of our God. When you hear
the gospel, the true gospel, those who preach the gospel will
be telling you something about God as He is, that is, God in
the trinity or triunity of His sacred persons. The gospel involves
something that God did as God our Father. That is, the gospel
bears this news that God the Father is the initiator of salvation. If you trace back every blessing
that ever has been received by a sinner on this earth, if you
go back to the fountainhead where all those blessings flowed from,
they flowed from this covenant God who in the everlasting covenant
chose a people and determined to be gracious to them, having
mercy on whom he would have mercy, and this message, or this gospel,
is for them. Our gospel not only has to do
with God the Father, but our gospel has to do with God the
Son, sets Him forth as our Redeemer. He is the Savior of His people. He is the one who came into this
world as the sacrifice, the one sacrifice for sins forever. He came to die as the sacrifice
for their sins, and He came to die as their substitute, dying
and standing in their place. And He satisfied God. He did
something for these people that will be to them good news. And our gospel is the gospel
of God the Spirit. That which we cannot do, that
which we are helpless to do, which is to give ourselves spiritual
life, or reveal to us the truth, or open our blinded eyes, or
raise us from death unto life. That's what he pledged himself
to do, and that's what he does. The Spirit of God is the one
who draws these people to Christ. He's the one the Bible says quickens
us, that is, gives us spiritual life, and gives us faith, and
repentance, and reveals Christ not only to us, but in us. And so our gospel honors the
Godhead in salvation. Our gospel is good news of what
each of these divine persons has been pleased in grace to
do. It's the gospel of our God. Listen to Paul in Romans 1. He says, beginning in that epistle,
in the first verse, in his opening statement, He says, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God. This is the gospel of our God. And as the psalmist says about
our God, Our God is in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He
hath pleased. Here are all these gods spoken
of by men and women in this world who try, and who fail, and who
desire, and they can't ever accomplish. But David said, our God is in
the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased, and
that's what He has been pleased to do. He's given us this gospel. It is glad tidings. In chapter 15 of Romans, Paul
says this, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. He always wants to make
sure. that nobody can take this gospel
that he preaches as a mere man-made theological position or a man-made
doctrine and escape the reality of what is said in the gospel
by simply attributing it to some man. People say, well, what you preach
is just Calvinism. No, it's the gospel. They say,
what you preach is just Luther's doctrine. Absolutely not. It is the gospel of God Himself
as He is, and is from Himself, and it is a gospel to His people. To the Thessalonians he says
this, "'For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring
night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of
you.'" That is, there was a want to some degree of supply to Paul
and the other apostles' needs. But rather than be accountable
to them and have them to hold that over their heads, they did
what was necessary in providing for themselves in order, he says,
that they might preach unto you the gospel of God. And then I like what he writes
to Timothy. Always reassuring that this is
the message of God. This is not my opinion. This
is not simply my thoughts. This is what God says. He says,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust. We've been given a trust. We've
been given something precious that he calls a treasure. And
it is a treasure that is to be guarded and washed over because
it's the gospel of God. It comes from God and it is a
gift of God to his people. But not only that, but our gospel
is the gospel of grace. It is good news, and this is
why it is good news to sinners. Here are all these people in
this world seemingly desirous of some good news. We've got
all the bad news of what's going on in the world. We've got all
the bad news of what's taking place in our country. We've got
all the bad news of what people have done. We've got our own
little portion of bad news about ourselves and our failure. You would think that we really
could be interested in good news about a gift. A gift. Our gospel is about the
unmerited favor of God. And so Paul, in the book of Acts,
went in danger of his own life for preaching the gospel. He
said, but none of those things move me, the fear of danger for
going to Jerusalem to preach the gospel. 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." What is that ministry? Now, I hear people
got a ministry of music and a ministry of puppet shows and a ministry
of doing this and that and the other. What is the ministry that
we read about in the New Testament? The ministry that we read about
in the New Testament is to preach the gospel. And he said, none
of these things scare me. None of these things fear me.
There's something I fear more than death itself. What is that? That I don't preach the gospel. He says in another place, woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Do you have any idea what that feels
like? that something has such a grip
on your soul that even though you know that
you do not have to preach. I came to that conclusion a long
time ago. I do not have to preach. I can
sit down. But if I preach, I don't care
who's there, I don't care how many are there. If I preach,
Paul says, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Well, how is our gospel different?
Well, it is the gospel of grace. He says, this ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God." Grace of God. What does that
mean? That means you can't deserve
anything that is announced or proclaimed in the gospel. That
everything about the gospel is a gift. But it is a gift, as
we find again and again in Scripture, it is the gift of God, but it
is the free and sovereign grace of God that gives it. You say, what does that mean,
preacher? It means the only thing that God owes us in ourself is
hell itself. You know, as long as we are in
good strength bodily, as long as we have few problems of life,
we are the strongest and the boldest people that can be imagined. But when it comes down to time
to die, when you get the news about a dread disease in your
body, All that bravado goes out the window. When you have gathered
up all your little self-righteousness and you're going to stand before
God, in that hour it pales away in the not only insignificance,
it becomes just utter rubble and trash. So the only thing that you'll
ever have that will stand the test of time and eternity. The only thing that God will
ever accept on your behalf, the only thing that will bear you
not only into good standing with God, but also throughout all
of eternity in heaven, is that which He gives. the grace of God. Paul says when he warns those
Galatians, he said, I marveled that you are so soon removed
from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. There were people who were coming
into the churches in Galatia trying to do a little mix-up
job. A little mix-up of law and grace. A little mix-up of Christ and
Moses. And there were people who were
at least temporarily deceived by that. A little mixture of
Christ and them. A little mixture of His finished
work and their doing. And that's so common in our day
everywhere. He said, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from the gospel of the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. Well, what does that mean? That
means simply that any other gospel other than that gospel of grace
in Christ and Him crucified is another gospel. It's not Christ
plus anything. The gospel announces all spiritual
blessings given in Christ, including every blessing of grace, and
all are a gift. The gift of righteousness, he
said. The gift of faith. The gift of
repentance. Grace is directly opposite of
works. All these things, he says, are
freely given. What is the gospel for? Paul
says that the gospel is that means by which the Spirit
of God takes and reveals to us the things that are freely given
to us of God. That's the revelation. He said, it's never entered into
the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for His
people, but the Spirit of God, taking the gospel of God, has
revealed to us the things that He has freely given to us. Somebody always says this, Well,
salvation is by grace and it's only conditioned on faith. Salvation is not conditioned
on anything. As a matter of fact, though I've
used the term and I have dear brethren that use the term, I
don't even say salvation now is conditioned on Christ. You
say, why not? Because if something is conditioned
on something, there is an implication there, there is a possibility
of it not happening. Salvation is in Christ. It's always been in Christ. Always
been of the Lord. And it's a gift. Grace is the
opposite of works, and any work, or any decision, or any religious
act, or any act of acceptance, no matter what it is, if it has
the fingerprints of man on it, it's not of grace. You want to be saved by grace?
Let me tell you something that's really strange. There is no man
or no woman who wants to be saved absolutely 100% by grace, except God's elect. And they
only because He's revealed it to them. cause them to see God
as He is, cause them to see what they are in themselves. And when
we find that out, man, the only way we want to be saved, as we
were saying to some of the brethren before service this morning,
the only way we want to be saved, the only way we find out we could
be saved, is by grace. That's why I love our gospel.
Our gospel is the gospel of grace. Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he says of Christ, "...in whom you also trusted, after that
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." The gospel that God has saved
us. You see, our gospel is about
a choice. It's about a decision. But they're both God's. It's
His choice, it's His decision. And He made that decision, He
made that choice in Christ before the world began, and He chose
a people, and He predestinated all things necessary to their
full salvation and total conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. And our gospel is not about us. Our gospel doesn't center on
us. Our gospel doesn't glorify us,
does not have us at the center of it, and the end of it is for
the glory of God. As a matter of fact, three times
in the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul attributes that work to
the Father and the Son and the Spirit, and each time he says
it, to the praise of the glory of His grace. You say, well, if we're saved
all together by grace, what about, what about? There is no what about. There
is no but. The sheep receive salvation from
God's grace. And the goats, they just but. We believe in salvation by grace,
but no, our gospel is the gospel of grace. And our gospel, Paul
calls also the gospel of Christ. In other words, it's good news
about God's covenant promises made manifest and fulfilled in
His life and death and resurrection. Christ had to come into this
world and live as a perfect man to be a sacrifice for men. He had to go to that cross and
die the death of the cross in order to redeem them, pay the
debt of their sin, satisfy God, finish the work of righteousness
that God gave Him on their behalf, and when He was raised from the
dead, That meant God accepted it. God accepted it. That's why the resurrection is
so important. I don't feel like we emphasize
it enough. Paul says, if there is no resurrection,
we have no hope. Our preaching is in vain. We
proclaim a living Redeemer. He's seated at the right hand
of the Majesty on high. He's not in a tomb somewhere. He's not a statue somewhere.
He's not a myth or a memory. He's the living Lord and King. Rebel sinners in their blindness,
they just stay down here on the earth like little wiggling maggots
and they look up toward heaven and shake their fist and say,
I'll do this, it's my will. It's not. No way. It's just not that way. I read about a man who is I guess
what you would call by his wealth in this day and time, a kind
of a kingmaker. He has the power, which is the
money, to influence elections and things like that. He is a
man that is feared by many, a man who is looked to by those who
want to be in power. And I thought about him the other
day. Looks like nobody could stop
him. There's one who can stop him.
Just like that. But then, he's also the same
God that raised him up. You wouldn't want to fly in this
man's face. I'm sure he knows he could break
you. But God's just showing us a little
taste of what His power and authority is. He raises up and He brings
down. He saves whom He will, and He
leaves in their sin whom He will. But our gospel is to all of God's elect, to
all those sinners who will be brought to say, as old David. You wouldn't put David as maybe
a prime example of being one of the Lord's people many times
in his life. When he put the whole nation
of Israel in jeopardy by numbering the people. When he sent the husband of Bathsheba
to the front of the battle to make sure he gets killed. When
he lays in adultery in the arms of Bathsheba. You wouldn't put
him down as a prime example of God's salvation, humanly speaking. But that man with his all his
sinfulness, failures just like ours, he laid down on that bed
which would be his deathbed. And he didn't have hope for anybody
else in his family for the most part. He said, although it be
not so with my house, although my house be not so with God,
yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. And this is all my salvation? and all my desire. We're going to meet God. I've been such a miserable failure. I know if it were about disappointing,
I had to have disappointed God because I've disappointed myself. I'm sure I'm not all even close
of what my wife and family would have me to be. I'm sure as your
pastor, I'm a wretched failure. But by God's grace, when it comes
time for me to lay down in death, that's my only hope. Covenant
grace. There's a covenant. The everlasting
covenant. And God has made it with His
people. The unchangeable God has made this covenant in Christ
with His people, made everything dependent on Him, promised them
blessings unimaginable. And the gospel is just a little
foretaste, a little announcement, a little greeting card, if you
will, telling about what He's done for us. Our gospel is the gospel of Christ
crucified. God has done this in Christ.
He saved us. That's what Paul says writing
to Titus, I believe it is, he said, he has saved us and called
us. What's that calling? It's the
gospel taken by the Holy Spirit and by this message effectually
revealing to us what God's done. And our gospel is about God's
fulfillment of all His promises that are made to this people
in Christ. At some places, all God has to
give is called the promise. In other places, it's referred
to as the promises. They're really inseparable. The
whole of them are spoken of as the promise, And the promise
is that God would not impute the sins of His people to them. Read Romans 4, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The promise is that
He will bless, or blessed is that person to whom the Lord
imputes righteousness without works. That was the promise to Abraham. Somebody said, well, Abraham
was a Jew. No. Abraham came along before there
was such a person as a Jew. Paul says in Romans 4, it was
before circumcision that God promised this to Abraham, and
Abraham believed God. It was accounted to him for righteousness. And for this reason, it is of
faith that the promise might be sure to all the seed." The promise is sure to all the
seed. That means that even our believing
or our unbelief, You cannot change the promise. It's sure. Why? Because all the promises of God
are in Christ. Yea and amen. Paul said, our gospel, when we
preached our gospel to you, it wasn't nay nay. It was yea yea. It wasn't about chance or faith
or luck Anything that was dependent on man, it was all yea in Christ. Yes. Yes. The promise of eternal life. John writes in 1 John 5, 11,
he said, this is the record. What's the record? The gospel.
That God hath given unto us. eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Our gospel God uses to reveal
His purpose of grace to His people. who the Spirit of God will bring
to hear it, understand it in some measure, and believe it. I'm not looking for everybody.
I don't have as my goal the salvation of the world. I'm not in the business of trying
to make sheep out of goats. My message, this gospel will
be a saver of life unto life to some. But at the same time,
it will be a saver of death unto death to others. Paul said to those Thessalonians,
for our gospel. Everybody in Thessalonica didn't
believe Paul. They didn't find in this message
good news and comfort to their souls and rejoicing, but some
did. He said, "...for our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and with much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake." We didn't preach for gain, we
didn't preach for applause, we preached the gospel of our God, and all of you His people, you
believed it. He said in II Thessalonians,
He said, whereunto He called you by our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ." When Peter was talking about
the common unbelief of this world, he said, They look at what's
going on in this world, and most especially what has not gone
on yet in this world, and they say, well, nothing's changed. This world's been going on for
a long time, it's going to go on for a long time. But Peter said it's only because
God is long-suffering. Is He long-suffering? to those who he describes as
the vessels of wrath. Paul essentially said, he's just
putting up with them. Peter says, he's long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all these
usward should come to repentance. That's how long our gospel is
going to be preached. to the last one of God's sheep,
to the last one of these elect souls chosen and given to Christ,
that He purposed to bless and bring to Himself, calls His children
to that last one, hears that gospel, and is enabled to believe
and rejoice. All good news. Glad tidings. Whether or not they be Jew or
Gentile, they should be fellow heirs, Paul says, and of the
same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. Look back at our text verse there
in 2 Corinthians 4. He said, but if our gospel be
hid, it is hid. It is hid in the second cause,
Paul says, because the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of men and women lest this gospel should shine unto them. But not only, I say that's the
second cause, what is the first cause? The first cause is what Christ
Himself prayed. When He said, Father, I thank
Thee that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent." Somebody said, well, you could
see them and believe them if you wanted to. No, you couldn't. These things have to be revealed
by God. It doesn't make you any less,
if you use that word, responsible. It's not about responsibility.
It's about God's purpose. It's about God's purpose in Christ. What did He purpose Christ to
come and do to save this people? And every one of them will be
brought to stand in the ranks with the Apostle Paul and every
true believer and say, this is our gospel. This is our gospel. You've hid these things from
the wise and prudent, but you've revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Is that alright
with you? Is it alright if God saves you and
leaves a multitude to their own sin? If you are on a sinking ship
like the Titanic, is it alright if somebody rescues you, although
they decided not to rescue every person? If you ever see your danger,
it is. Paul said, for we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." How did light come in the first
day? God simply said, let there be
light. Or as it says, light be and light
was. What happens when He saves a
sinner? That is when He brings them to
the knowledge of the truth. He shines the light in their
hearts, their sin darkened hearts, their blinded hearts. Such a
brilliant light of truth and grace that the God of this world
couldn't snuff it out by any and all of His strength and tricks. They see the glory of God, the
glory of His holy character, the glory of His saving mercy,
the glory of His gift of righteousness, the glory of His salvation, in
this person and work of Jesus Christ. Is this your God? Is this your gospel? Is this good news to you? Our gospel. If our gospel be
hid, Paul says, it is hid to them that are lost. You say, well, preacher, you're
trying to say this one's saved, this one's lost. I don't believe
I wrote that. He said, if our gospel be hid,
not believed, not known anything about, it is hid to them that
are lost. Period. And the only reason we know it
is because God has shined a light of truth in our hearts and showed
us this salvation in Christ. Given us this treasure We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and
not of us." If God doesn't open your eyes,
if He doesn't give you a desire for the truth, if He just leaves
you to yourself, That's what most men and women
want. Just leave me alone. God, just leave me alone. Don't
interrupt my life with the gospel. But if he doesn't interrupt you,
if he doesn't intercept you, if he doesn't stop you in your
madness, If He doesn't open your eyes to this great precipice
upon which you stand in yourself, if He doesn't show you His grace
in Christ, you will perish. And the gospel will be hid from
you and all good to you for eternity. And the only thing that will
remain in eternity is the knowledge of the gospel after the fact. What you missed, what you hated,
what you weren't interested in, a savor of death unto death for
all eternity. Our gospel is God's gospel. I don't have any doubt about
it. And I pray that our gospel is
your gospel. Father, we thank you this day.
We give all honor and praise and glory to you. Be pleased
to use this gospel. to reveal your gift of grace
to your people and to glorify your name alone. We thank you and we pray in Christ's
name as our great high priest and mediator. Amen.