One of my delightful times over
there was I spent a couple of days, three or four days, with
Gabe Stornica at Kingsport. Gabe is the recipient of all
of the sermon notes of Henry Mahan, so I was actually given
some sermon notes of Henry Mahan. best part of a day with Gabe
at the church and I was in his office and he was in another
room and I was just reading all these things. But Gabe brought
me out a little piece of paper and it was only this big and
when Ralph Barnard died, so there was a remarkable event that happened
in 1952 I think it was or 51 when Henry Mahan was a a preacher in a Southern Baptist
church, a big and successful Southern Baptist church, and
Ralph Barnard came along and preached the gospel to Henry
Mahan, and as a result There have been a very, very significant
number of people converted and a very significant number of
churches, both in America and in Mexico and other parts of
the world. So Henry Mahan is just a remark. He died a few
years ago. But anyway, when Ralph Barnhart
died, who preached the Gospel to Henry Mahan and Henry preached
to Todd and all these others, And Gabe is married to his granddaughter,
so he and Gabe have been great friends. But when Ralph Barnard died,
his wife gave Henry Mahan his Bible, and out of the Bible fell
this little piece of paper. It was Ralph Barnard's sermon
notes on the gospel. And it's just a very cute little
piece of paper and scribbled in Ralph's handwriting. And that's what he preached the
gospel from. At some stage, and we obviously
don't know when and where, but nevertheless. So I took a copy
of it and I thought I'd preach Ralph Barnard's gospel to you,
which is the gospel that Henry Mahan preached. It's the gospel
that we preach here. And so, yeah, anyway. So the question he had is, what
is the Gospel? This is the gospel according
to our church. This is the gospel according
to Henry May and everyone has a gospel. We shouldn't be ashamed
to call the gospel my gospel. Paul called it my gospel on several
occasions. In fact, 77 times in the New
Testament, the gospel is called the gospel. There is only one
gospel. It's a particular gospel. It is the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the Gospel of God. It's
the Gospel that comes from God. It's the Gospel that glorifies
God. It's the Gospel by which all of God's children are saved. And so, just to begin, I thought
I'd just read some verses out of 1 Corinthians 15. Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto
you, and this is a Gospel that's received, and it's a gospel in
which you stand, by which you're also saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you've believed in vain, unless
your belief becomes empty. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how the Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. And that word for is to stand
over and to shield and to protect all of the little children of
God from the wrath of God because it fell on the Lord Jesus Christ
and it cannot ever fall on them. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures and he was buried and he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures and he was seen of seekers then
of the twelve and after that he was seen of five hundred brethren
at once of whom the greater part remained unto this present but
some have fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James
and all of the apostles. Last of all, he was seen also
of me as one born out of due time. He wasn't born in the way
the other apostles were born. For I am the least of the apostles,
that I am not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted
the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am, and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in
vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but
the grace of God that was with me. So let's go back to Ralph's
notes, having read what the Apostle Paul said. He began by saying,
what it's not, it's not a plan. It's not your steps to gain favour
with God. It's not your repenting, your
believing, your confessing and your baptism. You can preach
all of those things. says Ralph, and not preach the
gospel. It's not a proposition. The gospel is not a proposition. Now, if you will believe, it's
not a proposition about what you will do. It's not a proposition
about a work that you must do. It's not a reward for services
rendered. It's not, if you will do so and
so, and you can fill in any of the blanks, then God will bless
you. All of these things can be dealt
with and the gospel not preached. So what is the gospel? The gospel
is good news. Turn with me to Luke chapter
2. Let's hear the declaration of heaven about this. In Luke
chapter 2, these shepherds, you might recall, at the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they were keeping watch over their flocks
by night and they sing about it at Christmas time. And lo,
the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them. And they were sore afraid, and
the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy. So the gospel is good tidings
of great joy. It's good news. It's good news
for you. It's good news for sinners. If
you turn over to a page or two in your scriptures, you'll come
to the proclamation of the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed
when he went to Nazareth. The Gospel is a declaration of
good news. It's a declaration of what God does for the helpless. It's a declaration of what God
does for those who cannot help themselves. Listen to the Lord's
proclamation of the Gospel. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. to preach deliverance to the
captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, and to
set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord, The acceptable year of the Lord is the year
of Jubilee, that remarkable trumpet that was to be blown every 50
years, and everyone who had lost everything because of their sin
and their rebellion against God had all of their debts cancelled. If they were a slave, they were
set free. If they'd lost their property,
it was returned to them. Everything was to be restored.
As you can well imagine, it was never ever celebrated once in
all the history of Israel, and you can understand why, couldn't
it? If you had a slave, you wouldn't want that trumpet to blow, would
you? If you'd collected some property, and you owned, as it
were, and ran the property of these poor people, You wouldn't
want that. That was never celebrated and
the reason of course is very simple because it's about the
Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. He came to set the prisoners
free. He came to release those who
were captives He came to the poor, he came
to the blind, he came to the bound, he came to the dead. And so he came and he doesn't
ask their permission to set them free. He comes as a sovereign
God and sets them free. He doesn't say to these people,
if you take the first step, If you take the first step, there's
no good news for you in a gospel that declares what you have to
do. The good news is the declaration of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done. In Ezekiel 34 verse 16 it speaks of this great shepherd.
He says, I will seek that which was lost. and bring again that
which was driven away, and bind up that which was broken, and
with strengthen that which was sick. But I will destroy the
fat and the strong, I will feed them with judgment." If you read
the rest of Ezekiel 34, you'll be amazed at the I wills and
the you shalls of the glorious gospel. So the question is, has
the gospel to you? Have you been set free? Have
your feet been released from the miry clay? Have you legs
to walk? Have you ears to hear? Have your
eyes to see the good news of the glory of God in his finished
work in the Lord Jesus Christ? So the gospel is good news, and
if you don't hear the gospel as good news, you haven't heard
the gospel. It's good news for sinners. It's good news. It's
glad tidings of great joy. Secondly, the gospel is good
news of a person. The gospel is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel is a person. It is
Christ's gospel. It's not a plan. It's not a proposition.
It's not a reward. It's a person. In Luke chapter
2, after that glorious declaration of the good glad tidings of great
joy from on high, the angels go on to speak of who has come,
isn't it? The angel said, Fear not, behold,
verse 10, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be
to all people. For unto you is born in this
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, let us go now even unto Bethlehem, and see this
thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
to us. And what did they find? And they
came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph. and the babe lying
in a manger." They saw God Almighty lying in a manger, the very Christ
of God. And when they'd seen it, they
made known a broad saying, that which was told them concerning
this child. So the gospel is good news of
a person. Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostle
Paul to preach the gospel, not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. And the travail, the heart anguish of all of God's
servants that are sent is in Galatians 4.19. He says, my little
children, my little children who are tossed about by false
teaching that tells you that you have to do something. There's
something you can do to make God more willing to bless you. My little children of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Jesus Christ is the Gospel. Jesus Christ is the Bible. Moses wrote of me. Moses testified
of me. Jesus Christ is the believer's
entire spiritual supply. You know the verse well, but
let's just read it one more time. He says in verse 30 of 1 Corinthians,
but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us. at some incredibly wise people.
There are multitudes in this world with PhDs and all sorts
of things that would cause you to think that this is a very
wise person. I'm looking at the wisest people in all of Shelhaven
here. We have the wisdom of God. If you have the wisdom of God,
you have all the wisdom you'll ever need. He's made unto us
wisdom. He's made unto us righteousness. We are made of God to be the
very righteousness of God. The very righteousness of God,
that righteousness which God must accept, that righteousness
that comes from God, that righteousness can take us back into heaven's
glories and the rejoicing of those gates being opened that
we read about in Psalm 24. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's all of our sanctification.
He's all of our holiness before God. All of it, bar none. And he is all of our redemption.
He has brought us out and brought us and brought it to himself.
That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. The gospel is glad tidings. The gospel is good news of a
person. The gospel is good news of that
person's work. And here he takes us to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ and he takes us to the seven sayings
of the Lord Jesus from the cross. Here on the cross in Luke 23
verse 34, he speaks as the mediator. He speaks as the intercessor
of his people between us and God. And he says, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. There was a vast multitude
that were completely forgiven that day. And there were some
particular individuals that were completely forgiven that day.
He speaks on the cross, this Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks
at his office as a mediator. And he speaks, secondly, on the
cross, he speaks as a king. In Luke 23, 43, he says to that
thief, who was dying next to him, he
said, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. These are the
words of a king. Was that man in paradise that
day? Absolutely. Why was that man in paradise
that day? He didn't do a single thing. All he'd done was be evil
and wicked all of his life. He was in paradise that day because
of the work and the word and the promise of a great king.
This king imparts eternal life. He opens doors that no man can
shut. He is the sovereign ruler of
all things and he speaks as a king. He speaks for king. Thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. So he speaks as a mediator. Father,
forgive them. He speaks as a king. Today you'll
be with me in paradise. He speaks as a man. who provided
for his household, he says in John 19, 26, he says to Mary,
woman, behold thy son. And to John, he says, behold
thy mother. He speaks as a man providing
for his household at his death. He speaks as a sin bearer. He says in Mark 14, 34, he says,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And the answer is in Psalm 22,
as clear as you could ever wish to hear it, because you are holy. You are holy. He was bearing
the sins of all of God's people in his own body on the tree.
So he speaks as a mediator from the cross, he speaks as a king,
he speaks as a man, he speaks as a sin bearer, and he speaks
in real humanity. He says in John 19, 28, he says,
I thirst. His agonies were real agonies. He died an agonizing death. There was nothing of a show.
This wasn't a mere act. This was a reality of his real
humanity being put to death under the wrath of God. So he died
as a mediator, he died as a king, he died as a man on the cross,
he died as a sin bearer, he died as one who had real humanity,
he died as an effectual sacrifice and substitute and he cried out
from the cross, it is finished. All of the debt is paid in full. There is nothing the child of
God owes God any longer. It's all been paid in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was an effectual sacrifice
and it was a sacrifice of a substitute. He speaks as a mediator, he speaks
as a king, he speaks as a man, he speaks as a sin bearer, he
speaks with real humanity, he speaks as a factual sacrifice
and substitute, and he speaks as the accepted one. Into thy
hands I commend my spirit, and all of the believers are accepted
in his acceptance before the Father. The gospel is good news. It's glad tidings of great joy.
The gospel is good news and a person, a person's work, the finishing
of all of the work the Father gave him to do. And he, once
he finished reading Psalm 24 to his people, we began by reading
Psalm 24. It's good to hear it one more
time, isn't it? "'The earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof, "'the world and they that dwell therein,
"'for he hath founded it upon the seas, "'he's established
it upon the floods. "'Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? "'Who shall stand in his holy
place? "'He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, "'who hath
not lifted up his soul under vanity, "'nor sworn deceitfully. "'He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord "'and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy
face, O Jacob, sealer. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and
mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? God's people
believe and rejoice and find it good news of glad tidings,
good news about a person, good news about a person's work which
is finished, good news about that person reigning and ruling
over all things in heaven's glory right now, good news about a
person who is working every little tiny thing in this universe for
the good of his people and the glory of his holy name. May that
gospel be our gospel. May the Lord make it good news
to us.