I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1st John. 1st
John, chapter 1. As I mentioned a few minutes ago,
a few days ago I was made to be vitally aware of the frailty
of this life. With that renewed realization,
my mind was brought again to consider the absolute necessity of preaching and hearing the
gospel. We are dying creatures and the thought of well I'm going
to live may not be so. When I tell you that I realized
afresh we could be taking one of our last breaths right now. And one thing that I made to
realize again is that the only thing that matters, now listen
to me, may the Lord help us this morning
to hear, listen to me, the preaching of the gospel is the means by which God Almighty
is going to call out His people. Parents, bring your children to hear the
gospel. Men, women, all of us, make much
of hearing the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. To preach anything other than
the gospel, now listen, I'm telling you, to preach a message, and
this is anything other than the gospel, is to preach a message
that does not give all the honor, glory, and praise to the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you've heard or if you hear
a message that makes the gospel, the little g, gospel, to be something
that you have to do, here's what God has to say, but though we
or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we've preached unto you, let him be accursed. May I, from the word of God,
give all of us a word of advice. Don't ever sit and listen to
a lie again. Don't ever do it. You say, is
it really that big a deal? It's that big a deal. God has warned his preachers
concerning their ability to preach but their responsibility to preach. After the Lord gave Ezekiel the
commission, you eat this roll. He taught him the gospel. And
here's where he picked up. I stopped in verse 15. Ezekiel said, I went by the brook
Kibar and I sat down with them and for seven days I just sat
there. And the Scripture says in Ezekiel
3, 16-19, And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have
made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear
the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I
say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, And thou givest him
not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked
way, to save his life. The same wicked man shall die
in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness,
nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou
hast delivered thy soul. Let me tell you the fullness
of what I understand concerning that scripture right there. The Lord has taught his preachers the
gospel. And may we, by the grace of God,
take heed to be concerned with preaching the gospel and with
nothing else. A man that God's called to preach
the gospel doesn't have time for foolishness. Paul told Timothy, take heed
unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. I believe God's called me to
preach the gospel. And if I had one more time to preach the gospel, I would
say at this moment, this is where I'd preach it from. 1st John,
chapter 1, verse 5 to 7. This then is the message which
we've heard of Him. And declare unto you that God
is light. and in Him is no darkness at
all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all
sin. This is The gospel. This is the message. You know, when you read something
like that, a person with any sense would
say, I want to hear what's being said right now. This is the message
which we have heard of Him and declare unto you. This is the
gospel that we've been taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and
preach. God, God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit is light. What does that mean? He is the revealer, the exposure,
the illuminator, the truth, the way, the life. In Him is no darkness. Light is a mysterious thing. It's invisible. You cannot see
light. All you can see is what it illuminates. The sun is not light. It's a light holder. Light is
invisible. God is invisible. He's spirit. God is light. The scripture declares for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, the darkness
of unbelief, death, You know, I think about this invisibility
of light. Something I can't see. But I
see what it illuminates. I see you. The only reason I
see you is because light, that which is invisible, is exposing
you to me. But if Almighty God is pleased
to take Himself, God is light. God is the illuminator. And He
commands the light to shine out of darkness and give me life,
give me to see the truth concerning Himself, concerning me. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness and He showed me, me, to reveal that I'm nothing. Yet I'm a sinner against God.
And to reveal the glory of Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to teach me the necessity of preaching the gospel and praying,
Lord bless this, bless this message. I don't want to perish. I don't
want you to perish. I want to be concerned with what
He's commissioned me to do. And that's all. That's all. I
don't have time for anything else. I don't have time for it.
I don't have time. May the Lord keep me from being
distracted from the foolishness of myself. We know that concerning ourselves,
we're spiritually impotent. How do I know that? The light
showed me. I know He's sovereign. And I
know He does as He will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. How do you know that? The light
showed me. The light showed me. I know He's
going to save whom He will. He's going to have mercy and
compassion on whom He will. How do you know that? The light
showed me. I know without the hearing of the gospel, without
the hearing of the gospel, I'm going to perish. How do you know?
The light showed me. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and we walk in darkness, in the darkness of this world's
man-honoring false religion, if we say, I know Him, And you
walk in false religion, what does not honor Him. Here's what
the Scripture says, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk
by faith in the light, we walk in Christ, we walk as He's revealed
Himself to be, who we are. Who are we? We're sinners saved
by the grace of God and we don't have sense enough to get out
of the road. If we walk in the light as He is in the light,
if we do, He said, this is what's going to happen. You're going
to have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Lord, bless this word to
our hearts. Cause us this morning to hear.
Lord, forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen.