Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Acts, Chapter 5. Acts, Chapter 5. The apostles had been preaching. They were reprimanded, given a good talking to. And after they had been beaten
for preaching the gospel, that's what verse 40 says of Acts 5. Scripture says, They commanded
that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them
go. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in
every house they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon you
this evening, Lord, we thank you. Oh, for the privilege to
be together and to hear and to preach the glorious gospel of
our precious Savior. We ask you this evening, Lord,
bless the Word. Blessed, I pray, to the calling
out of your sheep for the establishing, the comforting of your people. For Christ's sake, Amen. I've told you this before, but
years ago, I heard Brother Henry make this statement. He said
God's people are not looking just to hear a message. They're
looking to hear God's message. God's message for the hour. And that's right. We want to
hear that which is fresh. Real. Right now. Well, the question would be,
what is God's message? If you want to hear God's message,
what is it? Turn with me to Matthew 17. Matthew 17. Verses 1 to 5. Here is God's message. Here is the message of the hour,
right here. Matthew 17, verse 1, After six
days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart. And was transfigured before
them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was
white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto
him Moses and Elias, talking with him. Then answered Peter
and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If
thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one
for Moses, one for Elias. And while he yet spake, behold,
a bright cloud overshadowed them. and behold a voice out of the
cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. Hear ye Him." That's God's message. God's message is His Son. God's message is the Lord Jesus
Christ. So knowing that God's message
is His beloved Son, this is what we preach. We preach Christ, the Apostle Paul, on the road
to Damascus. And Almighty God, the Lord Jesus
Himself, stopped him. arrested him powerfully and said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And Saul of Tarsus, this
educated religionist, a man that had set, the scripture says,
at the feet of Gamaliel, a doctor, He said, Who are you, Lord? Who
are you? And he said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth,
the one you're persecuting. It's hard to kick against the
pricks. And the Lord sent Saul into Damascus. And he sent a preacher to him.
He called Ananias. Ananias, he said, I want you
to go to the street called Straight. And I want you to inquire in
Simon the Tanner's house, and there's one Saul, and he's praying. And Ann and I said, Lord, we've
heard of him. He's come here with letters. Take and arrest your people.
And the Lord told him, he said, You speak to him. He's a chosen
vessel unto me. He's one of mine. One that I've
everlastingly loved. And the scripture says that Ananias
did. Went to him and addressed him
accordingly. Brother Saul. Paul the apostle was taught. God taught him. He taught him
the gospel. He learned the gospel from the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And he was taught the clarity
of the gospel. What is Paul, Romans 1-1, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. He was taught the necessity of
the gospel. Romans, we've quoted this many
times, Romans 1, 16, 17. This is what the Apostle Paul
said under the inspiration of God's Spirit. Verse 15, he says,
So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to
you that are at Rome also. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes it. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein in the gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall
live by faith. The gospel. The necessity of
the gospel. Turn to Galatians 1 with me. I remember someone years ago,
I shared this with you. I had been pastoring a church
for a while, and the Lord was pleased to teach me the gospel
while I was there pastoring a church, pastoring a church before I even
knew the gospel. And in the process of time, as
the Lord began to reveal Christ to me, and the necessity of preaching
Christ, the gospel. I began to preach that which
I was convinced of. The gospel of the Lord Jesus,
the gospel of God's sovereign grace. And I was asked after
a while, not very long after a while either, we would like
for you Continue preaching the whole counsel of God. This is
the whole counsel of God. We'll get into it in just a second
here. What is this gospel? What is
this to preach Christ? Galatians 1, verses 6-12, Paul
says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Now these
people had been called by God. And this is how careful we need to be when we're
preaching the gospel. Preaching Christ. You can preach
the Word and not preach Christ. You can preach the Word as it's
written and not preach Christ. I'll give you a quick example.
I told you one time, I said, Noah was told to build an ark.
And he did. It took him 120 years. And he
preached for 120 years. And he built this ark. At the
end of 120 years, God told him to get into the ark. And to take two of every kind
of animal, and there were some that were seven of every kind
for the sacrifices. Two of every kind. Get into the
ark. And he did. And it began to rain.
God shut the door. And it began to rain. And it
rained for 40 days and 40 nights. And everything outside of the
ark died. Now you cannot find one thing
that's unscriptural about that. Everything about that is scriptural. But it wasn't the gospel. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is concerning Jesus
Christ. That ark was a type of Christ. Noah was a type, a picture of
God's elect in Christ. That rain is a picture of God's
wrath that fell upon Him. All that were in the ark, all
that were in Christ. And Paul said, I was crucified
with Christ. That wrath fell on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul said, I was with Him.
I was in Him. I've always been part of His
body, chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world.
When He went to the cross, Paul said, I went with Him. And I
suffered in a substitute. And Almighty God dealt with me
in my Redeemer. That ark, a picture of Him. Noah,
his wife, his sons, the animals, a picture of God's church, God's
elect. That wrath. That deliverance. God Almighty came out. That water
started to subside. That's the gospel. So you can
preach these Scriptures. The Lord told the Pharisees that.
You search the Scriptures. And in them you think you have
life. And they are they that testify of Me. Our Lord told His disciples,
His apostles, in Mark 16.15, He said unto them, Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now let me tell you what we just
read back in Acts 5.42. He told them to go into all the
world and preach the gospel. Now look back at Acts 5.42 and
listen to what they did. They did just exactly what he
said to do. Acts 5.42, And daily in the temple
and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus
Christ. They were preaching the gospel. The gospel is concerning His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we say we preach the
gospel, or we say we preach Christ and Him crucified, they are one
and the same. There is no difference. The gospel,
the preaching of Christ, is God's message. Now here's what I want
to know. I'm going to ask about four or
five questions here, or make statements, not questions, just
statements. I want to ask myself, am I preaching
the gospel? And I'll ask you. What you're
hearing here, are you hearing the gospel preached? Because
if it's not the gospel, I'm telling you, we're in sad shape. The gospel, the preaching of
Christ, what is it? First of all, it is to declare
the Lord Jesus Christ to be God. He's God. After Saul's conversion, this
is what the Scripture says, when he received meat, he was strengthened,
then with Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus,
and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is
the Son of God. To preach Christ, to preach the
gospel, He must be declared as God. 1 Timothy 3.16, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God Almighty. Isaiah 9.16, for unto us a child
is born, for unto us a son is given, and the government shall
be upon his shoulder, And His name, you know when we say, you
know, we declare to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's not merely just using somebody, you know, Marvin. When we say we preach in Christ's
name, this is what we're saying right here. His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. When we declare His name, we
declare His character, His office, His being, His person. So to preach Christ is to declare
Him as the mighty God. Now let me ask you this. Is it necessary to believe that
He is God Almighty? Is it necessary to believe? Now, I'm going to tell you something.
You'd be surprised. Many don't believe. Or at best, they don't think
it's that necessary. What's the big deal? What is
the big deal? I mean, if he's God's prophet,
I mean, you know, if he points you to the Lord, does he have
to be God? Does he have to be God? Listen
to the words of our Lord. John 8, 24. I said therefore
unto you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe
not that I am, The word he there in John 8.24 is in italics. It was added. If ye believe not
that I am, you shall die in your sins. Who do we preach? We preach God. We preach Christ. God Almighty. Emmanuel. God with us. Listen to 1 Timothy
1.1. 1 Timothy 1. Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior and Lord,
Jesus Christ, which is our hope. So who do we preach? Who do we
declare? Who is the gospel himself? It's
God. God Almighty. God Himself. Secondly, to preach Christ is
to preach Him as God incarnate. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We just declared
that. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Now, when we say that we preach
Christ, God incarnate, We are setting forth Him who humbled
Himself and made Himself of no reputation. We're talking about
God Almighty that made Himself the servant that He was called
to, made Himself to He plows to the will of His Father willingly. You know, the Scripture does
not say, and the Word was made man, though He was. And truly does not change the
meaning at all. He truly was made man. But the
Word that the Scripture uses was He was made flesh. And I
looked it up. It's the same word for this sentence. It came in the form of sinful
flesh. Same word. Paul says, there is
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Flesh sets
forth. That which we are by nature. All of the being of a fallen
man. Flesh. Flesh. Those that walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Flesh. That speaks of His humiliation. The Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. Christ, He who we preach, the
anointed, the Messiah, means the union of both natures. We preach Christ, God, God made
flesh. And you understand what that
word flesh means. In the form of sinful flesh.
He knew no sin. But He was made with our sin
to be what we are. And all of the frailties of flesh,
of fallen flesh, When Adam sinned against God, he died spiritually. And the Lord, without sin, was
made everything that a man is, flesh. When we preach Him, we set forth
Him who was made flesh. And now, here He is. God incarnate. He's God Almighty. Totally God. Not half God, half man. Totally
God and totally man. Made flesh. God Himself to give merit to His offering. God Himself to atone, that is,
to reconcile. flesh to obey, to suffer, and
to die. We set forth Him. We preach Christ
Jesus. God Himself come in the flesh. We need a mediator. We need a mediator who can touch
God Almighty, who is God, and can touch man, who is man. We need a true mediator. I need one that can answer to
both sides. There's one God and there's one
mediator between God and man, and it's the man Christ Jesus. Here is our great High Priest. I need one to approach God for
me, who is of my nature. I need a priest that God will
accept, and He accepts Himself. I need one. who in my nature
can appeal to Him, the Father Himself, on the priest's own
merit, on my behalf. I need one who is the altar,
the sacrifice, and the priest himself. He's got to be everything. that God will accept as one mediator. To preach Christ is to preach
Him as God. To preach Christ is to preach
Him as God incarnate in the flesh. I need one who is able on His
merit to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Whoever liveth, whoever liveth,
whoever liveth on his own merit to make intercession for them. Thirdly, to preach Christ is
to preach Him as the one Redeemer and my only righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21, I never cease
to be amazed every time I read this. I never cease to be amazed at the
depth. And if we would try to explain
all that we knew, we still wouldn't. For He hath made him sin. To be as in italics, He hath
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. To preach Christ is to preach
Him as the only Redeemer, God's Lamb, God's substitute. And this is the substitute that
I need. I need the substitute who is
made what I am. And I need for God Almighty to
deal with Him on my behalf. And He is truly made what I am. Many will set forth this statement. Well, it wasn't that he actually
was actually made sin. He died for the penalty of it. That's true. He did die for the
penalty of it. But the Scripture says that He
bear our guilt in His own body. I told you this, it's been a
while, but you look up the word bear in Isaiah. He bore our sins. The word is
gravid, and it means pregnant. He bore our sins. It was not
merely a legal transaction where he just prayed, how much they
owe? Just tell me how much they owe. He bore our sins. He was made sin. And where Almighty God found
sin, the law executed absolute justice. To redeem His people. To buy
them out. To buy for oneself. To free. That's what it means. To redeem.
To buy. To free. To redeem us from the
curse of the law. Which was death. That's the curse
of the law. The soul that sent it is going
to die. To redeem us from the curse of
the law. Holiness Himself. was made what we are. It wasn't that it was just kind
of hanging over Him a little bit. And God just kind of placed
it on Him a little bit and just dealt with that sin and just
left Him. He bore our guilt. In His own body, made sin. And there, Almighty God's justice
extracted all that was due All that was due toward me. Because
of my rebellion. He was the true substitute. There was what His people are
by nature. Sin. And that's what He was made. Hanging there as the precious
substitute was sin. sin. I still tremble. I mean, just quoting the scripture
that I know is so. And I still say that with fear
and trembling because of the reverence. He was truly our surety. He knew no sin But He was made
the guiltiness that we might truly be made the righteousness
of God. It's not a pretend situation. Almighty God does not look at
His people in Christ and say, well, I know they're really guilty. I know they really are. But I'm
just going to call them righteous. We are absolutely made the righteousness
of God in Him. In Him. Just as surely as He
was made sin, we are made the righteousness of God in Him. Him being made what we are. Dying
justly as being made a curse for us, to deliver us from the
curse of the law, and imputing His righteousness, roving us
in Him, in His holiness, we truly are uncondemned. No condemnation to them that
be in Christ Jesus. He is God. He is the incarnate
God. He is God Almighty who is the
Redeemer of His people. That's who He said He died for.
John 10, 15, I laid down my life for the sheep. To preach Christ
is to preach Him as our righteousness. But we don't have any without
Him. To preach Christ is to preach
Him is our only salvation. John 14, verse 6. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, I am the way. I am the way. I am the way. He doesn't show
us the way to God. It's not that He shows us the
way. It's not that He gives us instruction on how we can find
the way. He is the way. What does that
mean? That means He is our righteousness. That means He is our high priest.
You think we can approach God? You think we can come to God
without Him who is the way, without Him being? He is our sin offering. He is the way. He said, I am
the truth. I'm the subject. I'm the sum
of all truth. There is no truth but Him who
is the truth. You shall know the truth. I say
this, you know Christ. And the truth and Christ will
make you free. It's not coming to a knowledge
of some information. That's not a truthful information.
Though we do find Him in the Scriptures. But these Scriptures
speak of Him. You shall know Christ and Christ
will make you free. I'm the life. He's the source of it. He's the
sustainer of it. He's life. And He said, no one
comes to the Father but by Me. No way. We don't find a way through
religion. We don't find a way through different
means of catechisms and stuff. It's Christ. It's Christ. We
look to Him. Preaching Christ is to set forth
that our salvation is sure in Him. 2 Corinthians 1, 19-20,
for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me, and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and
nay, but in Him was yea. And all the promises of God in
Him are yea and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. We preach Him. who is our salvation. It's not the best that we can
do. It's who He is. 2 Corinthians 4-5. Paul says we
preach not ourselves. We don't preach our opinions.
We don't preach our works. We don't preach our righteousness.
We don't preach our merit. But Christ Jesus the Lord. the Messiah, the Prophet from
God, who is God, the Priest, who is our Mediator to God, and
the King, He who rules and reigns in the army of heaven among the
inhabitants of the earth, the only one that God accepts, His
merit, and us in Him. Who do we preach? We preach Christ. We preach the gospel. Is there
any difference? No. To preach the gospel is to
declare who God is. Who man is. Man was ruined in
the fall. To preach the gospel is to set
forth that God the Father is the electing God. that He chose
us in Christ. To preach the Gospel, to preach
Christ, is to preach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the redeeming
God. To preach Christ is to preach
that the Spirit of God, the regenerating God, the Spirit of Christ, shall
surely call out His people and shall surely seal them and keep
them to the day of salvation. By the power of God they are
kept. Who do we preach? We preach Him who is the Son
of God and the Son of Man. We preach Him who is the Man
of Sorrows and the High and Exalted King of Glory. We preach the
One who was tempted in all points, even as we, The One who did only,
always those things that pleased the Father. He knew every temptation
that we know. And He never deviated. God Himself. To preach Christ
is to preach that salvation is of the Lord. To preach Christ
is to declare that we have nothing in ourselves to offer to Almighty
God, that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ. God Almighty preaching Christ
is the totality of the message here. We don't have any other
information. We don't have another agenda.
We're not trying to straighten up society. We preach Him. The last verse, 1 Corinthians
2. 1 Corinthians 2. The Apostle Paul
says, For I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All that we preach by the grace of God is God's
message. This is my beloved Son. Now, may I ask this question,
and by the grace of God, may I be able to say yes. Do I preach
the gospel? And my question to you is this.
Do you hear the gospel being preached here? If we do not,
if I preach it not, and if you hear it not, woe unto all of
us. God Almighty, in His infinite
mercy and grace has raised up the gospel in this place. I'm
convinced of that. The message that we hear, the
message of Christ, He is our hope. May the Lord bless these
words to our heart, for Christ's sake.