Those who were here last Lord's
Day morning will remember that I was almost apologetic in introducing
the subject of the messages for last Lord's Day, which were based,
those messages, upon the theme that I was asked to preach on
out on the West Coast for that week of conference. And yet I
was mildly and very discreetly rebuked by several
of you, directly or indirectly, when you reminded me that perhaps
truths that were old hat to some of us who've been together on
the ground level of the years that I've been privileged to
minister here, are not old hat to some who've come amongst us
over the past one, two, or three years. And I don't know when
I've had so many individual people come to me and express verbally
specific help through the ministry of last Lord's Day and then veiled
encouragements to finish up the two points that were left uncovered. Well, I have read those veiled
encouragements and in the light of your very discretious, that's
the right word, exhortations, I've decided to finish out the
messages of last Lord's Day morning and evening, and enlarge upon
those two points which I did preach on at some length on the
West Coast but was not able to touch on here, and then this
evening, God willing, begin our study on the New Testament Church
offices We will deal with the nature of those offices tonight,
and then next Lord's Day morning. And the timing of this, I believe,
is going to be better when the larger group is here. We will
seek to expound the passages in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1,
which deal with the biblical requirements for these particular
offices, which we hope to describe tonight, and then set the requirements
for them next Lord's Day. So I will attempt now in the
next five minutes to gather together about two hours of last week's
study that we might complete the area of consideration. As
a biblical basis for our study last week I read to you from
Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 to 9 in which the Apostle said,
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Paul's love for the purity of
the gospel causes him to break out into these strong negative
words of pronouncing the curse of God, the anathema of God upon
anyone who would pervert or change or tamper with the apostolic
gospel. And nothing is more basic for
our own salvation, for the health of the church, and for the church's
ministry to the world than an understanding, a spirit-wrought
grasp upon the nature and content of the biblical gospel. What
is that gospel which Paul and the apostles preached, which,
if perverted, renders a man open to this terrible, terrible curse
of God upon his head? It's that thing that ought to
concern all of us, for in a very real sense, the greatest need
in the Church of Jesus Christ today is for a rediscovery of
the biblical gospel, and after that discovery, an appropriation
of it to the heart, and then a proclamation of that gospel
by every legitimate biblical means to the ends of the earth.
Now we established last week that if we're to answer this
question around which our messages last Sunday centered and again
this morning, namely, is the contemporary gospel, the gospel
preached in evangelical circles, is it indeed the biblical and
apostolic gospel? If we're to answer that question,
there is only one way to do it, and that is to take the direction
of Isaiah 820 to the law and to the testimony. If they speak
not according to this word, it is because there is no light
in them. And I hope you'll never forget
the yellow line on the wall. Even my son got that. On the
way home, I usually quiz him to see how much he's learned
from his daddy. And I said, what did you learn this morning, son?
And he said, well, I learned about the yellow line on the
wall. And the yellow line on the wall, if we're going to decide
if a man's seven feet six, we take a ruler and we measure it
up, draw the line and stand him up alongside of it in opinion
and sentiment and all the rest do not affect one quarter of
an inch. the man's actual height as compared
with 76 inches on the wall. And so we must, if we are to
answer this basic question, is the contemporary gospel the biblical
gospel, come to scripture and scripture alone. We must not
tune our ears to the voices of the multitudes, we must not go
to the street and take a man-on-the-street pull, we must shut ourselves
up with the Word of God, seeing its absolute inflexible standard,
put the contemporary gospel next to that standard, and then make
our conclusion as to whether or not it is indeed the biblical
gospel. Last week we broke down that
main question into three lesser questions and then I want to
move into the two other questions I hope this morning. Is the contemporary
gospel the biblical gospel if it fails to build on a sound
doctrine of God? We saw in Acts 14 and in Acts
17 that the Apostle Paul began his evangelism to pagans, not
with Christ and the resurrection, but with the doctrine of God
as creator and sovereign and sustainer of his universe. Is
the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel if it doesn't start there?
I leave you to answer the question in the light of the very gospel
that Paul preached at Lystra in Acts 14 and the gospel that
he preached at Athens as recorded in Acts 17. Second question we
asked and sought to answer last week was this Is the contemporary
gospel the biblical gospel if it fails to make a proper use
of the law of God? And turning to Romans 7, Galatians
3, and Romans 1-3, we saw that the biblical gospel preached
by the Apostle Paul had as an integral part of its presentation
a preachment of the holy law of God, that men might see themselves
as rebels against their sovereign creator, that they might see
the vileness of sin in the light of that relationship of the creature
to the creator. And so I leave the answer to
you, is the contemporary gospel, the true biblical gospel, if
it doesn't make that proper use of the law of God? And then we
concluded last week with the question, is the contemporary
gospel, the biblical gospel, if it fails to sound a clarion
call to repentance? And we showed from Luke 24 that
the only gospel authorized by Christ is a gospel of repentance,
the only gospel preached by the apostles sounded a clear note
of repentance, whether it's Peter preaching in the early chapters
of Acts or Paul preaching in the latter chapters, repentance
was a clear note. And as I was taking a shower
this morning and turning over the review in my mind, a thought
struck me that I'd never seen so clearly before. It says in
the Westminster Confession of Faith under the section on repentance,
having defined repentance, it says, the duty whereof is to
be preached as well as that of faith in Christ. Now, when you
preach something, you don't just mention it. To preach Christ
is not to stand in this pulpit and say, Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ, Christ. I haven't preached Christ by simply mentioning
his name. To preach Christ is to take all of the biblical data
about Christ, to tell you who He is, to tell you why He came,
to tell you what He did. That is to preach Christ, isn't
it? Well, the old writers of the Confession said, it is the
duty of gospel preachers to preach repentance. Well, what is it
to preach repentance? Simply mention the word repent
once in a while? Of course not. any more than
you preach Christ by saying the word Christ. It's to take all
of the biblical data about repentance, the necessity of it, the nature
of it, the fruits of it, the source of it, the essence of
it, and to apply that to the consciences of men. That and
that alone is preaching repentance. And Jesus said repentance unto
remission of sins not was to be mentioned among all the nations,
but he says in Luke 24, it's to be preached among all the
nations. So I leave the question with you, is the contemporary
gospel the biblical gospel if it fails to sound this clarion
call to repentance? Now the fourth question, is the
contemporary gospel the biblical gospel if it fails to make clear
that saving faith is the response of the whole land to the whole
Christ? Now the prevalent concept, the
concept that is worked into the warp and whoop of most of the
churches, out of which many of us have come, in most of the
Bible schools, which those of us who have attended Bible schools
have attended, that is found breathing in the very atmosphere
of evangelism over the radio, in our gospel tracts, in our
gospel leaflets, is something like this. having presented the
facts of the death and the resurrection of Christ which are an essential
part of the gospel that's essential first Corinthians 15 the gospel
we preach unto you Paul says comprised of these facts Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures he was buried
and rose again the third day according to the scriptures now
to that extent the contemporary gospel is the biblical gospel
when it zeroes in upon the facts of the death burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ but the contemporary gospel having
presented those facts then says now accept the fact of his atonement
it may mention his resurrection but generally doesn't but if
you will now believe that Christ did indeed die on the cross either
for your sins or those who may be a little more theologically
accurate would say for sinners or for such as you you will be
saved So that when the duty of faith is laid upon the consciences
of men, people get the impression that the faith of the Bible,
the belief of the Bible, the trust of the Bible is basically
assent of the mind to this central fact of the atoning work of Jesus
Christ and the sufficiency of that atonement for them in their
need. And whether you would ever sit
down and write it in so many words, whether I were to go out
and ask men to write it and whether they could do this or not, the
average person brought up in the climate of the contemporary
gospel has, as his understanding of faith, that very thing that
I've mentioned, has sent of the mind to the central fact of the
atonement as being sufficient for his need. And if he has that,
he has faith in Jesus Christ. Now, my question is, is that
gospel that preaches that concept of faith, is that the biblical
gospel? When it makes one department
of man reacting to one aspect of the work of Christ, the very
essence of saving faith, is that the biblical gospel? Well, how
are we going to answer? We've got to go to the line on
the wall, to the law and to the testament. The first thing I
want us to see from scripture this morning is that with but
one or two exceptions, and here the word is directed to Christians,
and as far as I know with no exceptions, when we find the
gospel being preached to sinners, the atoning work of Jesus Christ
is never made the object of faith. Never. You say, Pastor, what
have you done? You've become a liberal out there
on the West Coast? Have you become a modernist? You want to give
us a crossless gospel? No. I just don't want to give
you a personless cross. For the object of saving faith
again and again in the preaching of the apostles was not the fact
of the atonement, but was the person of the Lord Jesus. When Peter is preaching in Acts
10 in the household of Cornelius, he says, By him, therefore, all
that believe are justified from all things from which they could
not be justified by the law of Moses. When our Lord himself
invites people to salvation, how does he do it? In terms of
an invitation to his person, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I am the way,
the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out. John says, as many as received
Him, not the fact of His atonement, but as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name. And then the classic verse, and
I want you to turn to it, is in Acts chapter 16, where we
find the Apostle Paul preaching Christ, preaching faith. and by implication
preaching repentance. This Philippian jailer, whose
circumstances I trust we are familiar with, having beaten
the servants of God and cast them into the prison, no doubt
embellishing their descent with curses, Now trembling at this terrible
demonstration of the power of God, about to kill himself, Paul
cries out in verse 28 of Acts 16, Do thyself no harm for we're
all here. He called for a light and sprang
in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. The
captor falling before his captives brought them out and says, Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? They said, It is your duty to
believe. They preach faith. Here it is. Believe. Now we're going to deal
with what that means later on. But now what did he make the
object of that jailer man's faith? Here it is. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Then he
just didn't preach believe. He took him into his home and
told him what it meant. and they spake unto him the word of the
Lord and to all that were in his house. John 3.16 says God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso
believeth in the fact of his atonement shall have everlasting
life. No. Whoso believeth on or into him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And so the Apostle Paul
here makes the object of saving faith nothing less and nothing
more than the Lord Jesus Christ in all the glory of his person
and in all the perfection of his work. Try to picture with
this jailer what it meant to come with this sense knowing
that this is God. And his question is, I must be
saved. What must I do to enter into
the salvation of this great God whose power I've seen and no
doubt whose message I've heard at least some of it is Paul and
Silas were singing songs and praises to God at midnight. And
they said to him, in essence, Mr. Jailer man, if you're ever
going to get saved, the first thing you've got to do is to
remember you're going to reckon with somebody. And that somebody
is a Lord upon a throne. Mr. Jailer man, if you're ever
going to get saved, you've got to have some dealings with a
person who is a Lord. That's the first thing you've
got to understand. So immediately, though his understanding may
have been very limited until he went into the house and Paul
and his companions spoke unto them the word of the Lord and
opened up the message of the gospel more fully, he went away
from that jail knowing this much, if I ever get saved, I've got
to get saved by dealing with a person and that person is first
of all a Lord. And to this man the word kurios
could mean but one thing. The word Lord means sovereign,
a despot upon a throne, a king in a place of regal majesty and
power and authority. It meant one thing, for they
were accustomed to calling Caesar Lord, that one who held absolute
sway in the Roman government, whose word was law down to the
smallest province. And so he recognizes if he's
ever going to get saved, he's got to reckon with a person,
and that person is a Lord. And then he says, Mr. Jailer
man, if you're ever going to get saved, you've got to deal
with a person who is Jesus. Now, how much he knew about Jesus,
I don't know at this point. I'm quite confident before verse
32 was completed, he knew a lot about Jesus. The wonderful story
of his incarnation, how God in mercy sent his son who came in
condescension, self-emptying, confined himself to the womb
of the Virgin, lived in humility and poverty and in weakness,
and died in utter disgrace. Jesus, that name which identifies
the humble carpenter of Nazareth as the only savior of sinners,
the name given to him in all of its rich significance at his
very conception when Joseph troubled about the The pregnancy of Mary
and wondering what to do, the angel comes to him as recorded
in Matthew 1 and says, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and
she shall bring forth a son. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
Why? For he shall save his people
from their sins. Jesus, the very name, means Jehovah
is our salvation. Jehovah has come, Emmanuel, God
with us, to be our Savior. Mr. Jailer man, if you're ever
going to get saved, you've got to deal with a person who is
a sovereign on a throne, who is a Savior and became that in
weakness and in humility and in true humanity. And Mr. Jailer man, you've got to deal
with a person who is Christ. The word Christ in the Greek
means the Anointed One. It's the New Testament counterpart
of the Old Testament Messiah, the long-promised Messiah. Mr. Jailer Man, if you're going
to be saved, you're going to deal not with somebody who's
a Johnny-come-lately, but you're going to deal with this person
who comes to you couched in all the rich heritage of the Old
Testament Scriptures. The one in whom all the promises
will be fulfilled. The one in whom all the types
and shadows will find their substance. Mr. Jailer man, we don't preach
any Johnny come lately savior. For the world at this time was
full of people who claimed to be saviors. The one we preached
unto you is the long-promised Messiah, the one who comes couched
in all the rich heritage of the Old Testament scriptures. And
I imagine that that's what Paul did in verse 32, began to open
up to him. The fact that this Jesus, who
died in weakness, was indeed the Christ of God, who is now
a Lord upon the throne. So when he left that jail, though
he didn't understand too much, this much he knew, if I ever
get saved, I'll get saved by a person, and that person is
a Lord, he is a Savior, he is the long-promised Messiah, and
I'll get salvation in nobody else. So the object of saving
faith is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ in all the glory
of his person and the perfection of his work. Therefore we conclude
that faith never regards the work of Christ severed from his
person. And twisted around the other
way, faith never regards the person of Christ without his
work. Would it be wrong for me to say
to someone who came here today, look, I don't know much, but
I know this much. I've been reading the Ten Commandments
and I see I've had it. I'm a miserable, helpless, lost
sinner. God could send me to hell today
and I couldn't peep a complaint. I'd get what I deserve. How can
I find help? Well, suppose I just told him
about the person of Christ, about His holiness, and about His sinlessness,
and about the glory that surrounds His head, but I never told this
man about a cradle, about a cross, about an empty tomb, and about
the throne. Would I be rightly, biblically
preaching Christ to him if I preached the person of Christ divorced
from the work of Christ? Would I be preaching Christ to
him, biblically? Would I? At least shake your head so I
know you're with me. No. I wouldn't be preaching Christ
biblically, would I? I have no biblical warrant to preach the
person of Jesus severed from the saving work of Jesus. A cradle,
a cross, a tomb, and a throne. You always ought to have those
four symbols in your mind. The whole saving work of God
in Christ is bound up in them. Alright, now let's switch the
table. Suppose I say to this man, If you're ever going to
get saved, it'll have to be on the basis of what God did when
he sent his son to the womb of the virgin. When that son lived
the sinless life and died in the room instead of sinners and
opened his bosom to the wrath of his father until he was swallowed
up in that wrath and cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Then I tell him how that he went
into the tomb and he was buried and swallowed up with death until
he swallowed death and burst the bonds of death and came forth
the triumphant, risen, resurrected Savior and went back to the right
hand of the Father. And then I stopped. And I said,
now, if you'll just believe those facts, you've got it. Would I
be preaching the gospel biblically if I make the object of saving
faith the work of Christ, divorced from his person? And yet that's
what's being done in our evangelical circles today. Oh, you say that,
playing with words. Pastor, you're getting kind of
nitpicking, aren't you? No, I'm not. Because you can
look at and admire, even in some sense love, those facts of the
redemptive work of Christ, and still be a stranger to grace
in your heart. For it's not His work divorced
from His person, or His poor person divorced from His work.
What is faith? Faith is the embrace of the person
of Christ in the light of the saving work of Christ. It's not believing in the fact
of the atonement that saves, but believing in the atoner who
accomplished the fact of the atonement. It's Christ upon a
throne by way of a cradle, a cross, and an open tomb who saves. So that the object of saving
faith must always be the person of Christ, never divorced from
his work, the work of Christ, never divorced from his person.
Now if that's true, what is the essence of gospel preaching?
Well, the essence of gospel preaching is not telling stories to get
people to feel sad so they'll make a decision. The essence
of gospel preaching, whether it's a father and a mother to
the son or daughter, whether it's you to a neighbor, is to
declare the facts about Christ, His glorious and unique person,
the marvelous facts about His work. That's declaring the gospel. Then, what is the essence of
faith? Christ is the object. Then the essence of faith is
the response of the whole person to that whole Christ. Faith is
so beautifully described in the book by Professor Murray, Redemption
Accomplished and Applied, in the following terms, and I've
scoured years for a good definition of faith and never found one
that I felt was adequate until I came across this. Will you
listen as I commend it to you as an accurate statement of the
truth of Scripture? Saving faith is self-commitment
to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection
of His work as he is so freely and fully offered to us in the
gospel. That's saving faith. It's the
commitment of oneself to Christ. The very Greek word for believe
never, never brings with it essentially this idea of simply assent. It involves assent, but it doesn't
stop with assent. It has the concept of trust,
reliance upon, commitment to. It's the very word used in John
2 when it says certain Jews believed on Christ, but he would not commit
himself to them because he knew what was in man. It's the same
word used earlier for believe that's translated later, commit.
He would not commit himself. He would not entrust himself.
He would not put himself at their disposal. It could be translated
rightly, though they believed in him, he would not believe
in them. because he knew what was in them.
You see, they had some kind of a surface faith, but our Lord
would not exercise true faith with regard to them. That is,
he would not commit himself to them. So that the whole man is
involved in the response of faith, which is the reflex action of
God's regenerating, quickening work in the heart of a dead sinner. The Old Confession states it
beautifully, a little differently, but the same concept when it
presents the Lord Jesus as the Redeemer of God's elect in his
threefold offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king. And
salvation comes when he has embraced the whole Christ in all the glory
of his offices. Suppose someone were to come
here this morning and say, Pastor Martin, I've been listening to
you preach, and in the midst of all the confusion of the 20th
century, the thing that has struck me is that when you open up the
Bible, and when I sit in my Sunday school class, and my Sunday school
class teachers here open the Bible, and they begin to give
a declaration of what God has said, a tremendous sense of security
envelops me in the midst of all my confusion to know that you
can know certain things. And you know, I would just love
to know Christ as my own personal prophet. I'd love to know him
as the one who gave me answers to life's basic questions of
ethics and morality and purpose of life and identity. Tell me,
how can I enter into the wonder and to the satisfaction and stabilizing
effect of Christ's prophetic ministry in my life? Well, I'd
tell them, well, look, you need to embrace the Lord Jesus in
all His offices. You can't know Him as a prophet
until, first of all, you're ready to see and face honestly your
need of Him as a priest and a king. And so I open up the scriptures
to this person. I show them how that the reason
they're confused about the issues of life is because their minds
are darkened by sin and because they're sinners they need a Savior.
Then I open up to them how Christ came to be the Savior of sinners.
And in his office as a priest, he offered a perfect sacrifice
to God. Now he's gone back to the right
hand of the Father, there to intercede for sinners, that all
who rest in his atoning work may be kept by his continual
work of intercession. Then I try to show him how Christ
is a King. Emptied Himself, took the low
place, became obedient unto death, and now the Father has exalted
Him, giving Him a name above every name. He's King of kings
and Lord of lords. I say, now, if you want to know
Christ as your prophet, you must embrace him as your priest and
as your king. Suppose they say to me, but Mr.
Martin, this is kind of irrelevant. You see, the only need of which
I am really conscious is this. I am confused. You know, one
of these guys with a button with a big I-A-K on it? Someone asked
him and said, well, what does that button stand for? He says,
well, I am confused. He says, you don't spell confused
with a K. He says, you don't know how confused
I am. Well, here's the guy. Big button. He said, now look,
the only need I'm conscious of is I'm hopelessly confused and
I need directive. I'm not particularly conscious
of sin and I'm not particularly interested in having someone
to govern me, but I would like to know Christ as my prophet.
Now, can't we forget this priest and king business? What should
I tell them? What would you tell them? Well, most of you are showing
some reflex action in that your heads are going this way, and
they ought to. Can't. Of course not. You can't chop
up Christ. Barter him off as a prophet to help people find
their answers while they're going to reject his office as a king
and a priest. Well, you see, you develop this.
I don't have time to develop it the way I'd like to. But you
could do that with the matter of his work of his blood. Someone
comes and says, well, my only conscious need is that I'm guilty.
And I need deliverance from my guilt. How can I get deliverance?
And you present Christ as a priest. And a prophet and a king, they
say, well, look, I'm not particularly interested in subjecting my mind
to scripture. It seems to me that Christ believed the Old
Testament literally, and I can't buy that business. In the scientific
age, only a fool would believe the Genesis account of creation.
I can't commit intellectual suicide. I want to commit spiritual suicide
and go to hell. I want Christ as my priest. But
I'm not about to commit intellectual suicide and accept the Genesis
account of creation. I mean, let's be reasonable.
What do I tell him? What would you tell him? What
am I going to tell him? What would you tell him? Can
he have Christ as priest if he's not willing to bow to him as
prophet? And accept Christ's view of scripture? No, he can't!
And we better dare tell that to the intellectually snobbish
generation in which we live. You kids in high school, don't
be afraid to say, Christ is my prophet. If he is indeed your
prophet, priest, and king, Don't be embarrassed that you believe
the first few accounts of Genesis, the only one that was there when
it happened, said it's true! Christ was there, and he said
it's true, and put his stamp of approval on it. And your young,
smart biology teacher notwithstanding, God calls him a fool. He won't
bow to the wisdom of Jesus Christ. So what are we going to tell
the poor man? Say, I'm sorry, you're not going to embrace Christ
as prophet, you can't have him as priest. You see, you work
the thing out into all the areas and you see it's absolutely unthinkable
that one can just come in the sense of a conscious need and
grasp that aspect of Christ which he would like. No, no, the Lord
Jesus does not parcel out his offices to men that their women
fancy. But he is presented in the gospel,
as Mr. Murray says so beautifully, in
all the glory of his person, and in all the protection of
his work, and faith is self-commitment to him in the totality of that
relationship. And so when the Bible describes
someone getting saved, it never uses the term someone accepted
Jesus as personal Savior. It uses terms like this. As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Colossians 2.6 Romans 6.18 Ye
who were the slaves of sin have obeyed from the heart the form
of doctrine delivered unto you, and being made free from sin
ye became the servants of God. And so I ask the question with
these brief suggestive thoughts that I hope you'll work out on
your own. Is it the biblical gospel? if it fails to make clear
that saving faith is the response of the whole man to the whole
Christ. Prophet to be taught by him,
priest to be forgiven by him and kept by him, and king to
be governed by him. And now I want to develop very
briefly the fifth question. Is the contemporary gospel, the
biblical gospel, if it fails to make clear that holiness and
obedience are the necessary fruits of faith. Now if I read rightly
the message of the contemporary gospel, if I hear rightly that
message, it goes something like this. Since holiness and obedience
do not qualify us to gain forgiveness, they are not essential to salvation.
Result? Multitudes who make no serious
pursuit of holiness and obedience, who are absolutely unembarrassed
to claim that they're Christians. Here's their reasoning. Let this
stand for the line of conversion. May not be clear to us, but for
the sake of illustration, there it is. The point at which a man
passes from death unto life by the Spirit and that work of God
comes to light in his turning from sin and his embracing Christ. Since, this is the way the contemporary
gospel reasons, since holiness and obedience do not qualify
me to enter into this state of forgiveness, acceptance with
God, therefore, since they are not necessary unto the gaining
of life, they are not necessary in the whole purpose of salvation.
They may be nice, but always optional. Now is that the biblical
gospel that looks upon holiness and obedience as unnecessary
additions to the scheme of salvation. I asked the question, and now
to answer, I want to direct your mind to several portions of the
Word of God. First of all, let me assert my
deep conviction of the teaching of Scripture that the Bible lays
before us. Nothing should come between the
needy sinner and his naked embrace of Christ. Anyone who is to believe
with biblical faith can sing from the depths of his heart,
Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul I to the fountain fly, Wash
me, Savior, or I die. In the words of that hymn that
I feel is probably the greatest gospel hymn, Come ye sinners
poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands
to save you. Full of pity, joined with power,
he is able, he is able. Then that verse that says, Let
not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to see your need of him. This he gives you, this he gives
you, tis the Spirit's rising beam. I believe that with all
my heart. And the Bible teaches it clearly.
Nothing comes between the sinner and the naked embrace of Jesus
Christ as he's offered in the Gospel. But, the same scripture
that condemns any works that the sinner would put between
himself and Christ as a pedestal to gain some merit, condemns
them as dead works. The same Bible teaches that if
his professed faith does not issue in works of holiness and
obedience, it is a dead faith. Now we've told three or four
decades of professing Christians, baptism won't save you, church
membership won't save you, fasting won't save you, this won't save
you, that won't save you, simply trust. That's true, but... The
same Bible teaches, if that simple trust is the faith of God's elect,
as it's called in the pastoral epistles, it will be a faith
that works by love. Galatians chapter 5, a faith
that produces the fruits of holiness and obedience. And if it doesn't,
the Bible calls it dead faith. That's the teaching of James
2. If a man says he has faith and no works to follow, can that
kind of faith save him? And the answer is no. So works
are necessary, not as the ground of our acceptance with God, don't
get your works over here, but as the living proof of the reality
of our acceptance with God. See the difference? And I want
to show how that the Apostle Paul, when he preached the gospel,
preached the necessity of works. When you turn to Acts chapter
26, where the Apostle Paul is going to tell us what he preached
throughout his entire missionary career. Now, we know he preached clearly
that no works can justify us before God. We find the record
of that in many of his sermons. But did he reason like modern
evangelicalism reasons that since works are not necessary to be
accepted with God, they're not necessary, period? I think not. For listen, as he vindicates
his ministry before King Agrippa, verse 19 of Acts 26. Whereupon,
O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but
I showed first to them of Damascus, and to Jerusalem, and throughout
all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles. In other words,
wherever I went, here's a man near the end of his ministry,
a prisoner of the Roman government, looking back over the years of
his ministry as an apostle, a missionary, and a teacher. This is what he
calls himself in one of his own letters. And he says, wherever
I went, here were the great strands of truth that I thundered forth
in all of these areas. Here they are. That men should
repent and turn to God. By implication, this would be
the presentation of Christ. The only way people can turn
to God is through Christ in faith. That's what's implied in this.
But then did he stop there? No. And do works. He said, I preach wherever I
went that men should do works. Meet for answering to consistent
with their repentance. And I think verse 21 is significant.
For these causes, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about
to kill me. Why? Because the Jews were convinced
if you believed right, and had the right privileges, and the
right knowledge, all was well. And Paul insisted that belief
and privilege must lead to experience, and if they don't, they're inadequate.
All they do is intensify the degree of our judgment. And no
wonder the Jews sought to kill him. Same reason they put John
the Baptist to death. He insisted. Don't look upon
your privilege. We be the sons of Abraham. Bring
forth fruit, meat for repentance. Same message. Same message. Insisting
that holiness and obedience were the necessary fruits of faith. Does the Bible teach that it's
faith or the fire? Yes. He that believeth not shall
be condemned. or shall be damned. Mark 16.
John 3.36. He that believeth not the wrath
of God abideth upon him. But the Bible teaches with equal
clarity not only the truth of faith or the fire, but fruit
or the fire. But the scripture says in Matthew
chapter 12, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. John 15, if a man abide not in
me, cast forth is a branch and men gather them and they are
cast into the fire. We have preached for two or three
spiritual generations faith or the fire, but then we've preached
fruit or loss of a few rewards, but no fire. Holiness and obedience
have been made optional in terms of the gain or loss of rewards.
Isn't this the gospel many of you were brought up on? There
it is. Is that the biblical gospel?
Beloved, that's another gospel that's produced another kind
of Christianity that has inundated the church and the world with
something less than biblical Christianity. And how are we
going to see biblical Christianity restored only when once again
the professing people of God have burnt into their hearts
and into their experience that biblical gospel in its power
which gladly confessing nothing in my hands I bring to embrace
Christ. Thank God by his grace I can
produce some fruits that demonstrate that he's worked effectually.
in my heart and life. In the interest of time, I must
leave the point at that and close with this brief application.
What does this say to all of us as we've considered these
truths now for close to three hours over the past two weeks?
Well, it says something I hope very personal to many of us.
If you've embraced the contemporary gospel, oh dear friend, there
are some very, very, very good chances that you may be embracing
another gospel that cannot lead to your salvation, but only to
your damnation. That's a serious thought, and
I hope you take it seriously, and that you'll give yourself
no rest until you know by the grace of God that you've embraced
a gospel that has set before you the whole Christ, and that
you by His grace have embraced Him with your whole person. And
the fruit of that embrace is that you're honestly and seriously
pursuing holiness and obedience, not perfectly, but purposely.
That you're no stranger to holy mourning, to hungering and thirsting
after righteousness. But I have a word of application
to us who, by the grace of God, can testify that we do believe
we've experienced the power of the biblical gospel and we've
come to love that gospel. I believe, in a very special
way, that the ministry to which God is calling us as a church
is for a concentrated effort to restore this biblical gospel
to our generation. This was confirmed so clearly
when talking with one of the men the other day. I just sort
of opened a corner of my heart that I hadn't even opened in
detail with my own wife. We've talked about this. And
when I did, how encouraged I was to sense and feel that God had
been dealing with him in precisely the same way. What is our task
at this strategic point in this part of the history of the church?
Could it be that God is calling upon us as a church as pastor
and people to intelligently and with holy zeal and self-sacrifice
to give ourselves to seeing the biblical gospel once again restored? in the church of Jesus Christ
that it might once again become a power in the world. In a couple
of weeks time, or less than that, next Sunday night in fact, we're
going to be discussing together the opportunity of an open door
of radio ministry that will give us the opportunity of blanketing
Almost all of South America, much of Southern, Southeastern
United States, with a radio broadcast. You say, well, with all the broadcasts,
you can name them, going out, another radio broadcast, what's
the use, what's the sense of it? You won't talk that way if
these issues have been made clear to you. You're going to see the
need for such a ministry. See how relevant this is? What
should we do for missionary outreach? This has a place. What are we
going to do in the training of our young men and women? What
should be our cry? What should be our purpose? How
should we counsel them? Our own sons and daughters, what
should be our plea to God on their behalf? You see, all of
this is going to be determined by your understanding of the
crucial need of this hour. If that need is in fact a restoration
of the biblical gospel to our generation, then we must, as
a church, and pastor and elders and deacons be intelligently
and wholeheartedly committed to that task and who knows but
what God may take some little crooked worms in Caldwell to
thresh the mountains that we read about Wednesday night in
prayer meeting God says fear not thou worm Jacob that's not
a very flattering title God says you're a little worm But he says,
I'll make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, and
with thee I will thresh the mountains. Who ever heard of beating down
mountains with a worm? Well, that's how God gets his
work done. That's how God gets his work done. And as one eminent
servant of Christ said, what God can do with a worm, if only
he can get the wiggle out of it. And you see, if God can get
the wiggle of the flesh out of these little worms and get us
attuned to his voice so that we see what he's doing and we
hear what he's saying, who knows what God may do to the honor
and glory of his own dear beloved son, that once again the gospel
may become what Paul called the gospel of the glory of Christ. May God grant As we face the
question, is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel, and
we walk to the line on the wall, that the answer will drive us
to our knees for ourselves, for the Church, and for the world.