Today I would like you to turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I'll be speaking to you today from verse 16. Let's read verse 16 together if you have your Bible there. The apostle says, For though I preach the gospel, the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. The gospel.

I want to ask you this question today. What is it to preach the gospel? Is everybody that calls themselves a preacher, is everybody preaching the gospel? Well, regrettably, no, they aren't. I want to Consider this question today and answer it. What is it to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel involves telling the truth about these four vital things, to tell the truth about God, to tell the truth about man, to tell the truth about Jesus Christ and to tell the truth and to declare the truth of salvation by God's free grace. So let's look at those four things this morning. And let's answer that question. What is it to preach the gospel?

Well, the first thing we see is to tell the truth about God. God is not who we think he is. He's who he is as revealed in Holy Scripture. This generation of churchgoers, for the most part, are ignorant of the true and living God. I can say of my generation, as Paul said of his, For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."

My friend, God, the God that's declared in the Scripture, the God of the Bible, is God who is absolutely holy. That's the first truth we know about God, that He is holy. Revelation 15 forward declares, Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. God is independently, infinitely, and immutably holy. God is light, the word declares, and in him is no darkness at all. God's holiness is manifested in his works. You listen to this psalm. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. God's holiness is manifested in his works. God's holiness is manifested in his law. The law is holy, the commandment holy, just and good. Thirdly, God's holiness is manifested at the cross. When the Lord Jesus Christ cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?

Well, this religious generation, for the most part, they don't understand why God had to forsake His Son. And the answer is that God laid on Him the iniquity of His people, the iniquity of God's sheep. And because God is holy, when God found sin on His blessed Son, He had to baptize him in the wrath of His holy justice to satisfy His law. You see, my friend, in Psalm 22 is recorded when the Lord said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer comes back in verse 3 and 4, Thou art holy. My friend, because God is holy, He hates all sin. God is not indifferent to sin. Because God is holy, acceptance with Him on the ground of human effort, merit, works, and righteousness, human efforts, human righteousness is absolutely impossible. God is holy.

The second truth we know about God is that God is sovereign. The Scriptures plainly declare, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and earth, the seas, and all deep places.

Divine sovereignty, what do we mean when we say God is sovereign? Divine sovereignty simply means that God is God, subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent. God does as he pleases, only as he pleases, where and when he pleases. None can hinder his purpose nor change his will or change his counsel. God said, I've spoken it, I'll bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will do it. He works all things after the counsel of His own will.

God is holy, my friend, and God is absolutely sovereign in all His way. His sovereignty is seen in creation. He created all things by the word of His power. Without Him was nothing created. God made all things.

The sovereignty of God is seen in creation, it's also seen in his providence, those things he brings to pass. He's the first cause and last end of all things in providence. God is sovereign in providence.

And thirdly, my friend, and most especially, God is sovereign in salvation. He'll have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he'll harden. He's God in salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ said, The Father hath given me power over all flesh, and I should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given me. All those who were chosen in that covenant of grace and given to the Lord Jesus Christ, he earned and gives life, salvation, redemption to his people. God is sovereign in salvation.

The third truth we know about God, that he's holy, that he's sovereign. And the third truth we know is that God is unchanging. God does not change. He said, I am the Lord. I change not. There never was a time when he was not God. And there never will come a time when he shall cease to be God from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. God has neither evolved, grown nor improved. All that he is today, he has ever been and ever will be. He is the eternal. I am.

My friend, to preach the gospel is to tell the truth about God. The God we preach is the God we must bow to, the God that we have to look to. This God is the God with whom we have to do.

Now, secondly, to preach the gospel involves telling the truth about God. And secondly, it involves telling the truth about man. Men don't like to hear the truth about God. That is, religious lost men don't like to hear the truth about God, nor do they like to hear the truth about themselves. God is holy, and man is the exact opposite. God is holy, men are unholy and wicked. Romans 3 declares, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They are together unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

God is holy. Man and all men everywhere are the exact opposite. They're unholy. God is almighty. Men are weak, frail, and sinful before God, guilty before God. God is immutable. God doesn't change. He's everlasting. Men are changing, corrupt creatures before God. God is living. He is life. God is the living God. My friend, all men everywhere, apart from God, apart from Christ, are totally depraved and spiritually dead in sin.

My friend, to preach the gospel is to tell the truth about God. Secondly, to tell the truth about man, that God is who He says He is, that He's holy, that He's righteous, that men are sinful and shut out without God and without hope.

The third thing we know to tell the truth about God is to tell the truth about the Lord. To tell the truth about the gospel, rather, is to tell the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. This involves telling the truth about His person, who is Jesus of Nazareth. Not only about His person, but His work. To tell the truth To preach the gospel is to tell the truth about God, about man, and about the Lord Jesus Christ, His person. Who is this one, this despised Nazarene? My friend, he's very God of very God. Not only is he totally, totally God, but at the same time, he's a real man. He's the God-man mediator. He's fully and totally God. Paul said, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God, totally God. And at the same time I'm saying he's a real, real man identified with our humanity apart from sin. He's a God-man mediator, sin of God to redeem a people. And he had to be both. You see, man could not satisfy and God could not suffer, but the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplished both in our salvation. He satisfied God and He suffered to put away our sin. That's who He is. He's God and yet He's a man.

But what did He do? What did He perform? What was His work? Our Lord Jesus Christ left the realms of glory for a definite purpose. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. His Father sent Him as a surety and mediator of an everlasting covenant to secure and to accomplish the salvation of His covenant people. That's why His name is called Jesus. The angel from heaven declared He shall save His people from their sin. He is what He's called. He's the Savior. He's the only Savior, Son of God, not to make salvation a possibility, but to make salvation an absolute certainty for those for whom he died.

He accomplished salvation for his elect, for his people, by establishing a perfect righteousness before God, by honoring the law, and he satisfied that penalty of that law by the shedding of his blood, giving his life an atonement for the sin of God's people. He said on the cross, He said, it's finished. The work that the father had given me, he said, I've finished the work.

The scriptures know nothing of a defeated, frustrated reformer named Jesus Christ who tried to accomplish salvation, who tried to put away sin and failed. My friend, the scriptures declare, he shall not fail. He shall not be discouraged. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't die to make salvation a possibility for all. No, sir. The Lord Jesus Christ died to make salvation an absolute certainty for those for whom He represented. And He represented God's sheep, and they shall never perish.

That's what it is to preach the gospel, my friend, is to preach Christ and His successful work on the cross. He did not fail to put away the sin of God's people and to bring in an everlasting salvation.

Now, fourthly, what is it to preach the gospel? is to tell the truth about God, is to tell the truth about man, sinful and wicked, and is to tell the truth about Jesus Christ, that he accomplished salvation for his people. And lastly, what is it to preach the gospel is to tell the truth about salvation. Every aspect of salvation from beginning and election To the end and glorification is all of God's sovereign, free grace. Listen to this scripture. It's God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and His own grace, which was given us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Salvation is not what we do for God, but salvation is what He has accomplished for His people in Christ. No part of salvation can be ascribed to man in any way, shape, or form. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is a gift of God. Salvation, my friend, is of the Lord. In its origination, in its execution, in its application, in its sustaining power, in its ultimate perfection, salvation is of the Lord. It's by His sovereign, free, grace and what God begins in grace, my friend, will end in glory.

Now, there are not many folks preaching the gospel because there are not many people and preachers telling the truth about God, about man, about our Lord Jesus Christ, who he is and what he accomplished and about salvation. It's all of God's free grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, you say, Is it really that important that we preach the truth, that we tell the truth? My friend, it's absolutely vital. He said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. You look back at that text again in first Corinthians chapter nine, verse 16, Paul said, I preached the gospel, but I have nothing to brag about. It's all of grace. But notice this, he said, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

If we preach, we had better be sure we are preaching God's truth or we better quit. I cannot think of a greater crime against God and humanity than to preach a false gospel that cannot save a flea, that does not give God all the glory. I want you to consider this question today. What is it to preach the gospel? It's to tell the truth about God, who he is. It's to tell the truth about man and to tell the truth about Jesus Christ. And it's to tell the truth about salvation.

If you would like a copy of today's message, you write to me and I'll send it to you free of charge. You can write to me at 6088 Zebulon Highway. Pikeville, Kentucky, 41501.