Good morning. If you'd like to
turn with me in your Bibles, we're going to be reading from
Revelation chapter five, Revelation chapter five. Verse one. And I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on
the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven, nor in
earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look there on. And one of the elders sayeth
unto me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. What book is this? Some say it's the book of God's
decrees. Some say it's the Lamb's book
of life. Some say it's the Bible itself. It's all three. It's all three. The decrees of God cannot be
fulfilled in time according to God's purpose without the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, unlocking the
seals. The scriptures cannot be understood
lest the Lord Jesus Christ opens it. And the Lamb's Book of Life,
that place where all the names of God's elect have been written
from eternity past, none of them will be saved apart from the
Lord Jesus, his work of redemption. in unlocking the seals to the
book. What he opens, no man can shut. Look at verse six. And I beheld and low
in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
which sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the
book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four
20 elders fell down before the lamb. having every one of them
harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou would slain and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. and has
made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. And behold, I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the
elders. And the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud
voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and
riches and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, in
blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever. And the four beasts said, amen. and the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Let's pray
together. Our gracious, merciful and glorious
heavenly father, how comforting it is to know that the Lamb of the tribe of
Judah hath prevailed, that he has the right and the
power and the glory to fulfill all thy decrees, to open up the
scriptures to our hearts, to open up our hearts, to open the
windows of heaven, to open the Lamb's book of life, Lord, we we know that what he
opens no man can shut and how dependent and hopeful we are.
Lord, that you'd be pleased this morning to open these things
to us and for us that you'd be pleased to enable us to enter
in to a spirit of worship that as it is in heaven, that it might
be so here upon the earth this hour. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. David Edmondson is, I tell you,
we've got, I know at least three preachers here this morning.
that can not only preach, but they can sing. That makes me
jealous. You're not one of them. But David Edmondson is. And he's
going to, I'm so, I'm so encouraged and blessed every time I hear
you sing, David, and pray the Lord well. We'll be pleased to
bless that to our hearts this morning. When David's finished,
Todd, it'll be your time to come up. And Todd needs no introduction
here. Been a dear brother, friend. I can't say enough. I love you,
brother. Look forward to the message that
the Lord's given you. So David, you come please. Amen. When peace like a river attendeth
my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. that Christ hath regarded my
helpless state and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole. is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet and
trials or flow, let this blessed assurance control that Christ
hath regarded my helpless estate and shed his own blood for my
soul. Would you turn with me to the
14th chapter of Revelation? Verse six. And I saw another angel fly in
the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel. to preach unto them that dwell
on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. I've entitled the message for
this morning, What is the Gospel? Just announcing that title scares
me because I dread the thought of misrepresenting the Lord on
any level. And I hope I'm coming with fear and trembling.
I hope that's the attitude we always have when we preach. What
is the gospel? Now, I've been attempting to
preach the gospel for however long I've been preaching, and
I've used that title for my message many times, what is the gospel? And notice I said attempting
to preach. One of the remarkable things
about preaching, if I could say this, is failures built into
it. I've never preached the gospel
as free as it really is, not once. And I've never preached
the gospel as narrow as it really is, not once. I sure hope by the grace of God
I can do that this morning, both in the freeness and the narrowness
of the gospel. What is the gospel? That question ought to be answered
in every message preached. Amen. And if that answer is not
given, whatever that message was, it was not a gospel message. What is the gospel? There are 350,000 entities in
the United States called churches that call themselves churches. These entities, they call themselves
churches and each one has what they would call their brand of
the gospel which I have no doubt that the Apostle Paul would call
another gospel. What is the gospel? I love the meaning of the word
gospel, good news. First of all, it's news. Good
news, but news. Have you heard the news? The gospel is a message that
you hear. I asked someone one time, What
is the gospel? He said, it's a lifestyle. Oh, I suppose you think your life
lives up to that. You've heard silly statements
like I'd rather see a sermon than hear one. News is that which
you hear. News is right now. The fact that the gospel is news
prevents us from hiding in the past and finding assurance from
something that took place in the past or something we intend
to do in the future. Let's forget the past right now.
Let's forget the future. May God enable us to hear the
news. The right now news. Good news. Good news. That's not good news to everybody,
but it's good news to everybody it's good news to. I hope that
is every one of us this morning. The good news. Have you heard the news? Now here is where we must begin
when we attempt to define the gospel. What is the gospel? Paul said in Romans chapter one,
verses one and two, that he was separated unto the gospel of
God which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures."
Now the first thing the gospel is, it's the message of this
book, the holy scriptures. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, It's because there is no light
in them. Now, when we attempt to discern
what the gospel is, remember, it's not some little formula.
God takes the entire Bible to define the gospel from Genesis
1-1 to Revelation 22-21, so The gospel must first be the
message of God's Word. Do I find my gospel in the Bible? That's simple, isn't it? Do I
find my gospel in the Holy Scriptures? When Paul Define the gospel in
first Corinthians 15. That's one of the many, the whole
Bible is a definition of the gospel. But when he defined the
gospel in first Corinthians chapter 15, he said, moreover, brethren,
I declare in you the gospel, how that Christ died for our
sins, according to the scriptures. Not simply the Christ died for
our sins, but how? that he died for our sins according
to the scriptures. And he's talking about the Old
Testament scriptures. You know, when the apostles were preaching,
they didn't have the New Testament at that time. All they had was
the Old Testament scriptures. Is my gospel the message of the
scriptures? Oh, I pray that the Lord will
enable us to be like the noble Bereans this morning, searching
the scriptures daily, whether these things be so. The authority
in the preaching is the Bible, nothing else. You know it says
the Lord spake as one having authority and not as the scribes. I love that slam on the scribes
when they say that, but He spake with this authority, I say unto
you, the scriptures, the scriptures. Now in our text, you noticed
that the gospel is called the everlasting gospel. The eternal gospel. gospel that did not begin in
time. You see, a gospel that begins
in time is not the gospel of God. It's called the everlasting
gospel, the gospel that had no beginning, the gospel that has
no end, a gospel that had its beginning in time is not the
gospel of God. It is the everlasting eternal
gospel. I love the way the book of Mark
begins in Mark chapter 1 verse 1. The beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ the Son of God. What an announcement! The beginning. When? In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God as a distinct person And the
word was God, the same was eternally was in the beginning with God. Our gospel is an eternal gospel. You know, when you're reading
that passage of scripture in revelation chapter five, what
a glorious scene. That's the final scene. And what
did they see the lamb? as it had been slain. You know what was seen before
time began? That's after time is no more. Revelation 10 says time shall
be no more. That glorious scene in Revelation
5 is when time shall be no more. Before there was time, Christ
According to Revelation chapter 13, verse eight, was the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. This is an eternal
gospel. Listen to me. God created the
universe so his son could come and die on a cross. That's God's
eternal purpose, which he purposed in himself. Second Timothy 1.9,
says He saved us, He called us with a holy calling not according
to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You know on judgment day when
every believer is brought in they're going to hear the Lord
Jesus say to them, come, don't go away, come ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. The gospel is the eternal gospel
and if it's not that it's not the gospel. The gospel is called several
times in the scripture the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ,
it's called the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom
of God, the gospel of the kingdom Christ. The point is, it's not
the gospel of men. The gospel is not the gospel
of man. Paul put it this way in Galatians
chapter 1 verse 11, I certify you brethren that the gospel
which was preached to me was not after man. It was not derived from any human
source. The gospel is It's the gospel
of God. It's the gospel of Christ. It's
not the gospel of men. The gospel is utterly divine. Utterly divine, not derived from
any human source. If it is, it's not the gospel. What is the gospel? Remember,
we're trying to answer this from the scriptures, not our brand
of the gospel. God's gospel, the eternal gospel. What is the gospel? We read this
phrase in Ephesians chapter six, verse 19. We read of the mystery
of the gospel. The mystery of the gospel. Now mystery is not truth concealed,
but truth revealed. Truth that we would never have
known had not God made it known. Oh, the mystery of the gospel. Don't you love the mystery of
the gospel? Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest. the flesh. Now, the mystery of
the gospel, it's not something we understand. For instance,
the gospel reveals that God is one God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. You have no gospel without that.
Do you understand that God is one God in three distinct persons? Of course you don't. Do you believe
it with all your heart? The mystery. Oh, the gospel is
mystery. Tis mystery all the immortal
dies who can comprehend his strange design. In vain the firstborn
seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. Oh, the mystery
of the gospel. We read in Acts chapter 15, verse
seven, of the word of the gospel. Once again, this is a scriptural
phrase, the word of the gospel. The gospel has words, words that are definable. And
if these words are not preached, the gospel is not preached. Timothy, preach the Word. Words like election. God chose who'd be saved before
time began. Words like justification. God made the elect to be justified
without sin. perfect before God. Words like
being born again, being birthed by the Spirit of
God from above. Words like sin, faith, repentance, holiness. The words That I speak to you,
the Lord said. The words of spirit and of life. The words, the word of the gospel,
the gospel has a content, a specific content, and the words of God
are used in the preaching of the gospel. We read in numerous times in
the New Testament this phrase, the truth of the gospel. Do you remember when Peter was
eating with the Gentiles, fellowshipping with them, having a good time,
and all of a sudden some people from Jerusalem came, the Jewish
church, and Peter got nervous and he didn't say anything. But
he knew those guys would disapprove of the people he was eating with.
And so without saying a word, he got up and moved tables and
sat down with the Jews. And Paul publicly rebuked him
in front of everybody. That's pretty intense, isn't
it? Can you imagine how that humiliated
Peter? And Paul wasn't doing this in
a harsh manner, but he did this that the truth of the gospel
might remain. The truth of the gospel. You see, the gospel tells the
true character, the truth. regarding the character of God. That's what the gospel declares.
And if I hear anything that's contrary to any of his attributes,
it's not the gospel. Let me give you an example. In most of the 350,000 churches,
or whatever you would call them, I'd never, I'll automatically
call it a church, but if the gospel's on the preachers, it's
not a church, whatever else it is. In most of the things they call
churches, they preach that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody
and it's up to you to accept him and what you do is what makes
it work. That's a denial of the character
of God. That's all it is. It's denying his justice. It's
saying he can punish sin in his son and then turn around and
punish it in you. Why, that's a denial of the justice
of God. That's a denial of the immutability
of God. That's contrary to the character
of God. The gospel, if anything I preach,
is inconsistent with the character of the God revealed in this book.
It's not the gospel. The gospel is the truth. concerning
the character of man, the true character of man. And anything
I hear that's contrary to what the Bible says about the true
character of man is not the gospel. Here's another example. It's
kind of the same thing as the first one. Most people believe
in what they call free will. God loves you, Christ died for
you, it's up to an act of your will to choose to let him save
you. That's a denial of the character
of man. The scripture says man is dead in sins, unable to do
anything to save himself, dead, totally dependent upon God to
do something for him. When Paul rebuked Peter that
the truth of the gospel might remain, what was the issue? Peter was saying, remember Peter's
an apostle. Peter was saying by his action,
you're a little bit more pleasing to God if you're at the Jewish
table than you are if you're at the Gentile table. What that is, without saying
a word, is a denial that Christ is all in salvation. He's all I have. I don't have anything else. He's all I have. I have no other
hope. He is all, A-double-L, all in
salvation. Was Paul being too hard when
he rebuked Peter? Well, I know this. Anything that clouds that issue
needs to be exposed. Jesus Christ is all in salvation. That's the truth. And then in
Acts chapter seven, verse 24, we read of the gospel of the
grace of God. What is the gospel? It's the
gospel of the grace of God. Let me save us some time. The election of grace. If I don't believe that God before
time as an act of his own free and sovereign will chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world. I can talk about
grace all I want but I don't believe grace. The election of grace, if you
believe the election of grace you believe the rest is of grace,
don't you? In every aspect salvation is by grace and if we don't believe
that the gospel of the grace, the good news of the grace of
God that everything God requires of me, he looks to Christ for.
Is that good news? The good news of the gospel of
the grace of God. And we read in second Corinthians
chapter four, verse four and first Timothy one 11 of the glorious
gospel of Christ, literally the gospel of the glory. the glory of God. Now, the gospel is that which gives God the glory
in everything. Now, most preachers would say,
I give God the glory in everything. Well, if you don't tell what
that means, Not necessarily. Salvation. Now we know God gets
the glory in creation. He didn't have anyone there when
he created the universe. He had no aid, no help. We know
God gets the glory in providence because he's the first cause
of everything. Whatever takes place, it's his will being done. You're saying everything? Yep,
everything. The Lord has made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. God is in
absolute control of every event, every action. But a lot of folks
just logically, they'd say, well, yeah, it has to be that way.
I see the logic of that and so on. But let's talk about God's
glory and salvation. Where's my salvation begin with
God? Not with my need of God, but with God. Not with me having this aching
hole that needs to be fill this void that needs to be filled
but with God, the eternal purpose of God. Where does my salvation
begin? With God. In my experience, where
did my salvation begin? With God. He gave me life. I was dead. He gave me life. That's when my salvation began.
When he said live, I lived. You know, when he said to Lazarus,
Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus couldn't say, I don't think I'm
willing to. No. He says, live. You live. I've got a race to run, a course
to finish that won't, I don't know when it's gonna be over,
but I have to persevere through all that. I have to seek the
Lord with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength.
I need to persevere in the faith. I need to pursue everything in
the Bible. I want to pursue being poor in
spirit. I want to pursue mourning over
my sin. I want to pursue meekness. I
want to pursue that hunger and thirst for righteousness. I want
to pursue being merciful and pure in heart and being a peacemaker
and being persecuted for righteousness. Our life as a believer is a pursuit
all the time. The only way I'm going to do
it is if God causes it in every second to every degree. I'm utterly dependent upon him
to cause me to persevere all the way to the end. Throughout
my life here, he gets the glory. I sure as I sure know I don't
get any. I'm just dead sure of that because
I know that in my experience right now while I'm speaking
to you, I'm as sinful as I ever was. It's not like, well, I've arrived,
I've become better. No, I haven't. I pray for the
grace of God to reign in me, to order my steps in his word
and let no iniquity have dominion over me. And that's all of the
Lord. It's not because of my diligence
and my Bible reading and my, I want to read the Bible. I want
to be diligent in all things. But I know this in my perseverance
to God, be the glory, great things he had done. And I tell you this
at the end of my salvation, when I'm brought into glory, I know
who's going to get the glory. I am going to be the biggest
trophy. of grace. And you, every one
of you all believe that. If you're, if you're believers,
you believe I'm going to be the biggest trophy of grace there. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. And then we read in Ephesians
6, 15 of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. Peace. Peace is a great feeling,
isn't it? I mean, you like to bottle it. Keep it there all
the time to where you don't have anything but perfect peace. Peace. Well, let me tell you the only
thing that gives me peace. The only thing that gives me
peace is the gospel of peace. That the sin question has been
answered. It's called justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the only peace I have, that I don't have any sin. I
have no sin to be condemned for, that I stand before God without
guilt, having never sinned. That's peace. Nothing else is, that's peace. Having made peace, the apostle
said in Colossians chapter one, verse 20, having made peace through
the blood of his cross. The blood of his cross made me
to be without sin. Colossians 123, we read of the
hope of the gospel. I love these simple, they're
not simple, they're profound, but they're simple concepts.
The peace of the gospel, we read of the hope of the gospel, the
hope of the gospel. Now, Paul tells us in Romans
chapter 8 that hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for it? So understand this about hope.
Hope is not something you can see, you just believe it. I have
a hope that when I stand before God on judgment day, he's gonna
say to me, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Now I almost cringe because I
know Do I see that I've done well
and that I'm a good and faithful servant? No. But Jesus Christ
did well. He's the good and the faithful
servant. I'm in him. If he did well, I
did well. If he's good and faithful, I'm
good and faithful. Can I see that? No. No. Can I see that I stand before
God absolutely sinless? No. I can't see it. I believe it. That's the hope
of the gospel. I have a hope that everything
between now and me standing before God in judgment is working together
for my good. I got a hope, whatever it is.
When peace like a river attends my way, when sorrows like sea
billows roll, we just heard that song. I've got a hope that's
all working together for my good. Can I see it? No. No. I don't know what's going on. You know, even in matters of
everyday life, I don't know what's going on. It just goes over my
head. I just have to ask Lynn what just happened. She tells
me. And then I get it. OK. But I have this hope that
everything, every conflict, everything, period, in my life is working together by God for
my good and his glory. The gospel of hope. Isn't it
a glorious thing to have the hope of the gospel? In Philippians 1, 27, we read
of the faith of the gospel. The faith. of the gospel. The message of the gospel is
this, to him that worketh, listen to the language, to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to
him that worketh not but believeth on that justifieth
the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.
Now let me tell you two things you can't do at once. Work and
believe. Can't do it. You're either working
or you're believing. The faith of the gospel. What is the gospel? It is The
message of faith and not of works. What serves? What must I do to
be saved? I know I can't save myself. What
must I do to be saved? They gave an answer. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What must we do to work the works
of God? This is the work of God. Here
it is. That you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Period. What is the gospel? Got a couple
more. I'm going to be very brief. What
is the gospel? It's called in Ephesians 1.13, the gospel of
your salvation. The good news of your salvation. In the context of that statement,
Ephesians chapter one, we have that glorious declaration of
the apostle of the work of the triune God in salvation. Ephesians
1, 3 through 14, the work of the Father in election, the work
of the Son in redemption, the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration
and sealing into the purchased possession is completed. In that declaration of the work
of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Spirit,
I hear the gospel of my salvation. This is how God saved me. Let me tell you how God saved me.
He elected me before time began. Jesus Christ came in time and
worked out a perfect righteousness for me and died to put away my
sin and was raised again for my justification. God the Holy
Spirit came in time and birthed me into the kingdom. Live, and
I lived, and I heard the gospel of my salvation. You know, when
you hear the gospel of your salvation, you find out God saved you. That's
what takes place. You find out God saved you. The
gospel of your salvation. And Paul spoke in 1 Timothy 1.8. He said, be not ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord. Well, I don't want to be ashamed
of the gospel, do you? I want to be proud of it. I am proud of it. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation.
I'm ashamed of myself, but I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel that saved me. Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Now, the gospel. of God is a gospel that brings with
it affliction. Here's why. The world hates the
gospel. The Lord told us if they hate
you they hated me before they hated you and I am to willingly take up
my cross Somebody says, I'm bearing my
cross like it's sickness or something like, I'm sorry you're sick.
I'm sorry when I get sick. And I don't want to be sick.
But that's not what that's talking about. The sickness or afflictions
or the birth. That's talking about willingly
taking up the afflictions of what the cross produces. I want
to be on the Lord's side, don't you? The afflictions of the gospel. Men haven't ever loved the gospel,
and they never will. want to bear the afflictions
of the gospel. And finally, the hidden gospel. The hidden gospel. Paul said,
if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world has blinded the minds. them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them." This gospel that's so brilliant and
so glorious and so mysterious that you believe. If you don't
believe it, you've been blinded. For this cause, Paul said. What cause? Because they received
not the knowledge of the love of the truth. For this cause,
God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. This gospel, this glorious gospel
is a hidden gospel to those who don't believe. Lord, don't hide it from me.
Reveal yourself to me. What is the gospel? I hope every time we meet together
that is answered. Pastor. If you need a break.