Would you turn with me to the
20th chapter of the book of Acts? Verse 22. And now behold. I go bound in the spirit. Unto Jerusalem. Not knowing the
things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth
in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. My marginal reading says wait
for me. 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. I've entitled this message, The
Gospel. Now I'm not sure how many messages
I've given that title over the last 40 years, quite a few. But
I know this, every message ought to be able to live up to that
title, The Gospel. And if it can't live up to that
title, it's a message that ought not ever to have been preached. the gospel. Now Paul says in verse 22, and
now behold, I go, and I like this language, bound in the spirit
unto Jerusalem. Somebody says, what all does
that mean? Just what it says. I go bound in the spirit. I think of What is said of the
Holy Spirit, Mark chapter one, verse 12, with regard to the
Lord Jesus, and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. Now I know this, I want whatever
I do to be caused by the Holy Spirit. And I want to be bound
by the Spirit of God in whatever I do. And that's what Paul says
concerning himself when he goes to Jerusalem. I go bound in the
spirit, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. I want to be that, don't
you? I want to be his bond slave. And he says, not knowing the
things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses. in every city saying that bonds
and afflictions are waiting on me. Now, think about this. Paul knew wherever he was going,
he was gonna take a beating for preaching the gospel. He was
gonna be whipped. He was going to be bound. He
was going to be imprisoned. And he says here that this is
going to happen with every city I enter. What does he say about this?
Verse 24, but none of these things move me. The fact that I know
that when I enter Jerusalem or any other place I enter, I'm
going to be beat, I'm going to be imprisoned, I'm going to be
tormented in some fashion. None of these things move me. This is not going to change my
course of action. And look what else he says in
verse 24. Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that
I might finish my course with joy. I don't count my life as dear
or precious to me. Now Paul said this under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is not hype. He's not trying
to impress somebody, but he is telling us his experience. I don't count my personal life
as dear or precious to me. He said to the Corinthians, to
me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And Paul is saying by
this, and listen to this real carefully, he's saying my personal
happiness, is inconsequential to me. My personal happiness is not
important to me. Now whenever someone says, I'm
not happy, watch out. Heads are getting ready to roll.
I'm gonna do whatever it takes to create this happiness that
I'm looking for. And let me say this, and I wanna
say this carefully, I wanna say this Well, here's what I, all I got
to know is, or what I want to say is, being happy is overrated. Now, having joy is such a blessing. But being happy, it's based on
circumstances. And you can lose it just like
that. I'm happy! Five minutes, something happens,
I'm not happy anymore. But joy is even when you're not
happy and when your circumstances are difficult. Paul said, I don't
count my life dear to myself that I might finish my course
with joy. Now, we all have a race to run.
You have a race to run. You have a course to run. And
Paul said, I want to finish my course with joy. And the only
way I'll finish it with a joy is if I don't count my life dear
to myself. Now, I want you to think about
how much time you and I spend worrying about our lives. Paul said, there's no joy in
that. The only way I'm going to finish
my course with joy is if I'm not dear, my life is not dear
to myself. I'm in the Lord's hands. I'm
the Lord's servant. And whatever he does with me
is good. It's right. I might not understand
it. Somebody says, why does the Lord let this happen? Why did
the Lord do this? I don't know. But whatever he
does is right. Whatever he does is good. And I don't have to understand
it. I really don't. I don't feel a need to understand
it. He does. And I'm fine with that. I love in Paul's closing chapters,
he said, I have fought a good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. What is
it to fight a good fight? It's to persevere all the way
to the end. to finish your course and keep
the faith. I've kept the faith. I've continued
to look to Christ only. That's a good thought. To continue
all the way to the end looking to Christ only, not being distracted
from that one issue. Christ is all in salvation. Now, you can have true abiding
joy without happiness. Now, your happiness, I want to
be happy. Well, I don't want to be miserable. I understand that. I'd rather
have my circumstances good than bad. But happiness is just, I
say again, it's overrated. It's just not important. And Paul says that. He says,
I don't count my life dear to myself 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. Now that's the ministry I've
received. It's the ministry you've received if you're a believer.
to testify. Now, you can't testify something
that you've never experienced. It's impossible. You can't bear
personal witness. You can't bear testimony. You
can only testify of that which you've been taught, which the
Lord has revealed to you. You know, here's an example.
I can bear personal testimony that man in his best state is
altogether vanity, right here, right here. I can bear witness
to that. I'm speaking of something that I really believe that I've
experienced. And included in this word testify is the idea
of protesting against anything that's contrary to that. Whatever
you're testifying, if you're really testifying, you are protesting
to anything that anybody would say that's contrary to that testimony. And if you can just let it go,
you're not really testifying. And in this word testifying is
where we get the word martyr. By the grace of God, you're willing
to die for this. This is a gospel that you are
willing to die for. Now that's what's involved in
this thing of testifying the gospel of the grace of God. You're
giving testimony to what you've seen, what you've experienced,
what the Lord has taught you. and you're going to object to
and protest anything that's contrary to that. And by God's grace,
you are willing to die for the gospel. Now, if the gospel is
worth living for, it's certainly worth dying for. And you would
count your life a blessing of grace if the Lord allowed you
the privilege of dying as a martyr for his truth. Now, I realize
you and I will chicken out if the Lord doesn't keep us from
it. We'll be scared to death and all those kind of things.
I know that. But if you're a believer, you
believe that your life would be Best if you were put to death
in testifying the gospel of God's grace. Every believer's a martyr
in that sense. Every believer is willing by
the grace of God to die for the gospel. And he says, the ministry
which I've received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of
the grace of God. Now, I wanna camp for a few moments
on this word, the gospel. We're gonna come back at the
end of the message to the gospel of the grace of God. But let's
camp for just a few moments upon this word, the gospel. We read of the gospel of the
kingdom. You know, we read that a lot.
The gospel of the kingdom. Now, it's about the king. It's
about his kingdom. and the subjects of his kingdom.
Now this kingdom that we're speaking of when we speak of the gospel
of the kingdom, I love it the way the Lord said, the kingdom
of God cometh not with observation. Somebody says, there's the kingdom
of God. You can't see it. I love the way the Lord says,
my kingdom is not of this world. It's not a political kingdom.
We're not trying to get this world straightened out. It's
the kingdom of which he is the king. His jurisdiction is everything
there is. He's the king over all things
and his subjects are they according to Revelation 17, 14. He's the
king of kings and the Lord of lords and they that are with
him are called chosen and faithful. We read several times Matthew
26 verse 13 for one, this gospel, this gospel. As opposed to all
other so-called gospel, Paul warns of another gospel. Galatians
1.6, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called
you to the grace of Christ unto another gospel. This gospel,
as opposed to all other so-called gospels, and this is similar,
repeat ye and believe the gospel. How many times do we read in
the scripture of the definite article, the gospel? The gospel that excludes all
other gospels but itself. And then we read in Acts chapter
15, verse 17 of the word of the gospel. And this is very important. The word of the gospel. There
are definite words from the scripture that are used to communicate
the gospel. And if those words are not used,
the gospel is not preached. It's called the doctrine of Christ.
the word of the gospel. And you leave out any of these
words purposely, you've not preached the gospel. It is the word of
the gospel. And then in Romans 1, 1, I love
this, the gospel of God, not the gospel of men. Not the gospel
of denominations, but the gospel of God. The gospel finds its
origin in God himself. Now listen to this very carefully.
The gospel of God is not God's response to something. It's not
God responding to anything. It's the gospel that has its
origin in him. The gospel of God. And then in Romans 1, 9, we read
of the gospel of his son. It's concerning his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power
by the spirit of holiness according to the resurrection of the dead.
And here is a very sweet description of the gospel. And this is found
several times in the New Testament, my gospel. My gospel. The gospel that is
my gospel. The gospel that has saved me. The gospel that's good news to
me. You know when the Lord said,
it is finished, that's good news to me. That's real good news
to me. When I read that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief, that's
good news to me. This is my gospel. And then we read in 2 Corinthians
2, 12 of Christ's gospel. I like that. He's the owner of
it. It's his. He's the subject of it. He's
the object of it. He's the predicate of it. It's
his gospel. It's all about him and it's all
for his glory. And then we read in 2 Corinthians
4, 3, and this is found several times throughout the scriptures,
our gospel. Our gospel. There's such power
in that word, our. You know, every believer believes
the exact same thing. They all do. Our gospel, the
gospel that saved us. This our is the same our as our
Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. This is
the gospel of every single believer without exception, our gospel. You know, there's a true fellowship
in the gospel. Don't you have fellowship with
someone who looks to Christ only? You love that person. You can
identify with that person, our gospel. And then we read in 2
Corinthians 4.4 of the glorious gospel or the gospel of the glory
of Christ. Now the aim of the gospel, is
to glorify Christ. Somebody says, well, isn't the
aim of the gospel to save men? Secondarily. Men are saved to
the praise of the glory of His grace. It is the gospel of His
glory. And then we read in Galatians
chapter two, verses five and verse 14, the truth of the gospel. The truth of the gospel. And there are two events that
took place. One time Paul refused to circumcise Titus. There are
some people that wanted him circumcised. He said no for this reason, that
the truth of the gospel might remain. And then eight or nine
verses down, Peter gets up He had been eating with some Gentiles,
fellowshipping in the gospel, and some Jews came, and he started
feeling nervous. And he thought, they won't approve
of this. And he didn't say anything. All
he did was get up and move tables. And he sat down with the Jews
and left the Gentiles without making comment, and Paul publicly
rebuked him. Can you imagine how embarrassing
that was to Peter? He publicly rebuked him for this reason,
that the truth of the gospel might remain. Now what is the
truth of the gospel? That Christ is all in salvation. And if I circumcised Titus and
gave in to these guys, I'm denying that Christ is all. If I say
nothing about Peter moving from the table of the Gentiles to
the Jews, and by that action he's saying you're a little bit
better off, you're a little bit more pleasing being in this Jewish
table than over with these Gentiles. He rebuked him that the truth
of the gospel, Christ is all. If you're better off with the
Gentiles, Christ is not all. Now that truth of the gospel
might remain. And then in Ephesians 1.13, we
read of the gospel of your salvation. It works like this. You find
out he saved you. That's what it is to hear the
gospel. You find out that he saved you. You know, this language,
I got saved, or so and so got saved. That's so offensive. That's
not the way it works. You find out that he saved you. And that is the testimony of
every believer. You know that's so. If you're
saved, it's because he saved you. And then in Ephesians 6,
17, we read of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. Now, peace is a feeling. And
it's a good feeling, isn't it? Don't you hate being in turmoil?
Don't you love the feeling of peace? But the peace that he
gives is the peace of what he has done. Having been justified by faith,
we have peace with God. He's at peace with us. We're
at peace with him. We're satisfied with Christ.
having made peace through the blood of His cross. He is our
peace. Truly, this is a gospel of peace,
isn't it? You know, the only peace that
I have is knowing that everything God requires of me, He looks
to His Son, Jesus Christ, for. If you leave any of that out,
I don't have any peace, but the only peace I have is that Christ
is everything in my salvation, that all that God requires of
me, he looks to his blessed son for, but peace isn't. And then
in Philippians 1, 12, we read of the furtherance of the gospel.
I like that, don't you? The progress of the gospel. The
Lord's going to add to the church daily such as should be saved,
but there's a progress in the gospel, the furtherance of the
gospel. And then we read in Philippians 117 where Paul said he was set
for the defense of the gospel. Now, when that is... You know the best way to defend
the gospel? Preach it. That's the best way to defend the gospel.
I like what Joe Terrell said. He said, you know what to do
with a lion? You don't need to defend the
lion. Just let it have its cage. And yeah, that's the defense
of the gospel. But when someone says something
contrary to the gospel, We defend the gospel because we love the
Lord Jesus Christ and we can't bear that anyone would say something
dishonoring to him. It's just like, one example I
thought of, when people say Jesus Christ died for everybody, without
exception, I get upset. And let me tell you why. Because
that's taking away the only hope I have. If you tell me that Christ
can die for somebody and they wind up in hell, I know where
I'm going. I don't have any hope in that message and that dishonors
him as the successful savior. No, we're set for the defense
of the gospel. And then we read in Colossians
1.23 of the hope of the gospel. Now, I have a hope. A hope is
a confident expectation. And it's not something I see. Hope that's seen is not hope
for what a man sees. Why does he get hope for it?
It's something I don't see, but I'm gonna hear this. Jesus Christ is going to say
to me, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And let me
tell you this, the only reason he's going to say that is because
Christ did well. And what he did, I did. And I'm gonna hear that. You
know, Paul, you were reading 2 Corinthians 5, 10, we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to they have
done, whether good or bad. Well, I've done good. Jesus Christ
did good. I did good. And I'm gonna receive
that in my body. That's the hope of the gospel.
And then in 2 Thessalonians 1.8, we read of the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there's a sermon right
there. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. Jesus Christ is
Lord. You know what that means? I can
say a lot of things. That means you're in his hand and he can do with you
whatever he's pleased to do. He's your Lord. He's not everybody's
Lord. Yeah, he is. He's Lord of dead
and living. He's the Lord of creation. He's the Lord of providence.
He's the Lord of salvation. He's the Lord. He's Jesus, the
Savior. He's God's Christ. God's prophet,
God's priest, God's king. And then in 1 Timothy 1 11, we
read of the glorious gospel of the blessed God or the gospel
of the glory. of the blessed God. Salvation
is to the praise of the glory of His grace. It's the gospel
of His glory. And we read in II Timothy 1a,
to the afflictions of the gospel, be not ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. And then in Philemon 1.3, Paul
spoke of the bonds of the gospel and what sweet bonds they are
to be chained to Christ. I'm the prisoner of Christ. And
then in Revelation 14.6, it's called the everlasting or the
eternal gospel. The gospel is not a thing of
time. He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He is God's purpose, the everlasting, the eternal gospel. And then
I want to briefly just for the last few minutes, speak of this,
the gospel of the grace of God. What a sweet name for the gospel,
the gospel of the grace of God. Now, the grace of God is saving
grace. Anytime somebody talks about
God offering you something, quit listening. God doesn't offer
things. God doesn't offer His grace.
God saves by His grace. His grace is saving grace. His
grace is in Christ Jesus. It's all mediated through Him.
His grace is eternal grace. His grace is sovereign grace.
His grace is free grace. His grace is righteous grace. Now that is the gospel of his
grace. First of all, his grace is saving
grace. By grace, you are saved. It never goes wrong. It never
tries to save. God's grace is saving grace. God's grace is eternal grace.
That means if God gives you grace, you were given that grace in
Christ Jesus before the world began. And that's the only kind
of grace there is, is eternal grace. If it's not eternal, it's
not grace. God's grace is eternal grace. And His grace is in Christ, that's
why it's eternal, it's in Christ. It was purposed in Christ, it
was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. It is eternal grace in Christ Jesus, and His grace is
sovereign grace. And let me try to give something
that I think will help us understand what is meant by this term sovereign
grace. And all these things, in a sense,
are redundant. It's God's grace, and these are
descriptions of it, but it's grace anyway. But here's what
I think helps me to understand this thing of using this term
sovereign grace. If I sin against you, and I offend
you, and I do you wrong, and I say, please forgive me, but
I don't stop there. It's your duty to forgive me.
It's your responsibility to forgive me. If you're a Christian, you
will forgive me. I've not come asking forgiveness
at that point. I've come demanding my due. That's just another way of saying
salvation's by works. If I say, you need to forgive
me. Now I'm confessing, I'm sorry. Now you forgive me. Do you come
into God's presence like that? Now I've asked for forgiveness,
now it's your duty to forgive me. That's salvation by works. That's all that is. And to not preach grace in that
light, sovereign grace is to not preach grace at all. God's grace is free grace. I wish I could say that as it
ought to be said. God's grace is free grace. That
means there's nothing you do to get it. Not a thing you can
do to merit it. Not a thing you can do to demerit
it. It is absolutely free. And the only thing that would
disqualify you from God's grace is having something to pay. That's
it. It's absolutely free. And his grace is righteous grace. that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. You see, this is righteous grace.
It honors and glorifies the very righteousness of God. This is
not just sweeping sin under the carpet and making, you know,
just, well, he'll just forgive that. No, that'd be a denial
of the character of God. This is righteous grace. This
grace works like this. The very law and righteousness
of God demands the salvation of everybody he saves. That's,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who is he that condemned it?
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again. Now the very
righteousness of God demands the salvation of every believer. The gospel of the grace of God. Now is there any higher honor
to a sinner than to be saved by the grace of God? No higher
honor. And what would come next is this,
to be allowed to testify the gospel of the grace of God. The gospel.