Isaac spoke of that rock in Deuteronomy. 32. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment,
a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He. that the rock of other people
is not like our rock. May the Lord cause us to stand
upon a rock. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you'd bless your words to the hearts of your people,
that your words might reveal yet again your dear and precious
Son and the wonders of redeeming love in him. And may we, Heavenly
Father, be caused by your work of gathering us together to be
a people that proclaim the glories of the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ in this world, and cause us to work worthily, Heavenly
Father, of the calling that you have brought upon us and the
extraordinary grace that you have brought to us to reveal
the truth of who your Son is to The gospel's a rock, isn't
it? The gospel's a declaration. And
the gospel is not a gospel that just says, it's a gospel that
we actually keep in remembrance of. I love what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, he declares unto
you the gospel which I preached. It's a gospel he declared and
it's a gospel that's received and it's a gospel wherein you
stand. You can stand in this gospel
because it's a rock. You stand because I had a conversation with a lady
who was writing a Bible study for some people in another church
in town in the library a few days ago. We got to talk about
the Gospel and we got to talk about the character of God. She
was writing a Bible study to encourage young people in their
walk with the Lord. She was talking in the normal
terms that people speak these days about God loving everyone.
the salvation of everyone, and the Lord Jesus Christ's death
being a death for everyone, and so on and so forth. And I asked her how many times
the word love is used in the Book of Acts, and how many in
those 30 gospel proclamations is the word love used there?
And she said, well, it must be a lot. I said, well, have you
read it? She said, I have read it. I said,
but it must And then she turned to me and
she said, don't tell me it's none. And it was, it's none,
not once, not once in the book of Acts is the love of God mentioned. And nor are all the other things
that she was trying to have declared about our God. And she said when we left, and
I pray the Lord might bring her back for more conversation, she
said when we were leaving, she said, if you are right in what
you say, you have undone every single thing on your Christianity
since I was four years old. So her foundation is proven to
be shifting sands. her rock. She has another rock,
not like our rock. And I wanted to ask the question,
how do we know that our gospel is the true gospel? In some sense
the best thing to do is to proclaim the gospel, but we do need to
ask the questions, don't we? And it's a good question to ask,
and it's one of the things that's been, I think, very very good for us as a fellowship
that we have stood outside of the professing religious world,
not because we wish to be separated from them. We long for them,
the doors are wide open, we long for them to come. The only separation
we have is a separation because we're saying this is what God
says about the Lord Jesus Christ. And like the Jews in Acts chapter
28, the Jews departed. And sadly, the Jews are representative
of this religious world and the Jews depart. The Jews depart,
they departed from the Lord Jesus Christ because he exposed them
for what they are and exposed their religious righteousness,
so-called religious righteousness, for the hypocrisy that it was.
And they were offended because the Lord Jesus came and stripped
away their fig leaves and they couldn't stand there. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? It's a wonder that some believed
in Paul's preaching in Rome in Acts chapter 28. Do you know
how many Jews there were in Rome at the time? According to the
historians, there were 40,000 Jews. So when people depart, they don't
just depart from the truth of the gospel, they depart back
to their religion. So how do we know? How do we
know that we're telling the truth about God? How do we know? And the first question is, declaring these things. Who's
the one? The only authority we have is
thus saith the Lord. Thus saith God. I'm not here
to give my opinion about things. And I hope you're not there to
hear people's opinions. We actually want to hear what
God says. It's called the Gospel of God,
the Gospel of Christ. And the true Gospel So we come without any hesitation
and without anything other than the confidence that Paul spoke
of and spoke with, because we're just saying this is what God
says. And we cannot make a distinction
between the written Word of God and the very Word Because all
of what we know about God, all of what we know about the Lord
Jesus Christ, is written for us. The Word made flesh and the
Word are one. And God says, if you speak not
according to this Word, in Isaiah 8 verse 22, if they speak not
according to this Word, he says there is no light in them. He
doesn't say there's a diminished light in them. There is no light
in them, Isaiah 8 verse 22. authority of God's word. And
the true gospel on the basis of the authority of God's word
declares a revelation. God is known by revelation. He chooses to reveal himself
to his people at the time of his love. The gospel doesn't
come through men's perspiration. The gospel comes to people in Galatians chapter two, didn't
he? Chapter one, he says, He says,
I certify, verse 11, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
to me is not after man. He didn't learn it in some religious
school in Jerusalem. In fact, all of his religion
had left him in complete and utter ignorance of who the living
God was, and complete and utter ignorance of who he was. It's
not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was
I taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ. And to prove
that it came by revelation, for ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jewish religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God, and wasted it, and profited in the Jewish
religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers. But when it pleased
God, this murderous idolater, who separated His Son in me. It's a revelation from God and
it's a revelation of God and it's a revelation of God in people. He revealed His Son in me that
I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. He didn't need to go back to
Jerusalem and learn the gospel from the apostles. He was taught
it directly from God. So the true gospel comes with
the authority of God. by revelation. It's a declaration
of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. We read those
verses earlier in Galatians 1.6 that you are removed from him
to another gospel has another Jesus. It's a declaration of the Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's a declaration of the wriggles is under the direct
control of our God. I love what he says in Psalm
2 which was preached in the early church in Acts chapter 2. Yet
have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion. I've set him there. I've anointed him is what it
means. It means I've made a libation as in a covenant set. I've set
my King on my holy hill of Zion. Our God reigns. The true gospel comes with the
authority of God. It declares a revelation from
God. It declares the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified, a kingdom of God, and it's true to all
the Old Testament scriptures. It's our God reigns. All flesh is as grass. This king says, he shall not
fail nor be discouraged. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He's not trying to do anything. And he fulfills that purpose.
You can read about it in Daniel 4.35 and Psalm 115 verse 3 and
Psalm 135 verse 6, Ephesians 1.11. He does all things according
to the counsel of his own will. He does as he pleases in heaven
and on earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? He comes on the authority of
God's word. It's a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified, the King. covenant. The true gospel declares
an eternal covenant of grace, an eternal covenant of love,
an eternal covenant of peace in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It declares an eternal salvation. I love what Hebrews 9 verse 12
says. Of all the works, as Hebrews 4 says,
were finished from the foundation of the world, But he says, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. The gospel is an eternal gospel,
an everlasting gospel, a gospel that was proclaimed in the council And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that mediator. He is the covenant himself, Isaiah
42 and 49 says. He is the covenant. Our God declares
his people saved because of the surety. If you're there in Hebrews,
in Hebrews 7.22 it says, by so much was Jesus made the surety
of a better testament, a better covenant, a better covenant than
the Mosaic covenant, because the covenant is a covenant between
God and His Son. And for him to be assured, just
let me remind you, it's more than a guarantor, when the Lord
Jesus Christ struck hands with His Father, as it were, in that
covenant before the foundation of the world, at that moment,
God looked to His Son for everything that He requires of me. He looks
to His Son for holiness, the holiness without
which you will not see God. He looks to his Son for perfection.
He looks to his Son for obedience, holy obedience in heart and mind
and body to the holy law of God. He magnifies Isaiah 42. He magnifies the law and makes God the Father looks to his Son
for everything. Our faith, if we're honest about
it, our faith is shameful in so many ways if we're honest
with ourselves. At least I'll try and be honest
with you that my faith is pathetic. Almost all the time. I love what
Paul says in Romans 7. The true gospel allows us to
be honest with ourselves. He says that every time he wishes
to do good, he does evil and sin is right there with him all
the time. See, it's not our faith. Our faith
lays hold of his faithfulness. describes a reality, and faith
is a verb. And by God granting us faith,
we lay hold of the faithful one. That's the rock on which we stand. We lay hold of him. So our Gospel
is based on the Word of God and on Revelation. It speaks of a
king, it speaks of an eternal covenant, and because of that
God gets a He does all the saving all by
himself. He does it all. He does it all. The true gospel
magnifies every attribute of God. It magnifies His holiness. It magnifies His justice. It
magnifies His faithfulness. It magnifies His wrath that He
poured out upon His Son. And it diminishes none of the
attributes of God as revealed in the Scriptures. We love the
fact that God loves His people. the fact that God loves his people
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness he draws
his people to himself. We love the fact that his love
for us is an eternal, infinite love, and it's a saving love. The true gospel magnifies every
single attribute of God. We have no embarrassment about
declaring God's election and God's predestination. We have
no embarrassment We have no embarrassment about
declaring God's wrath, His holiness, His electing grace. See the true
gospel declares God to be holy and declares God to be just and
yet save my soul because of the finished work of His Son. Because the true gospel declares
an eternal union between God the Son and his people, that
we were one with him, we have always ever been one with him. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
was lifted up on Calvary's tree and the wrath of God was poured
out on him, it was poured out on him as he honoured the law
of God and he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. crushed his son. Legally and
justly and with holiness he crushed his son. Because the scriptures
declare in Psalm 40 and Psalm 69 and Psalm 18 and many other
places, that because of our eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
our sins were made to be his on what the scriptures say, I
can't explain it, but that's what God says. Listen to 2 Corinthians
5, 21. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin. We are not declaring for one
moment that the Lord Jesus Christ ever sinned, ever, ever, ever. He was perfectly holy and spotless. He was the Holy One God. who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. The true gospel magnifies the
holiness and the justice of God. The true gospel honors the law
of God. It honors every jot and tittle
of the law of God. God says it must be perfect to
be accepted. He said to Abraham, you walk
before me and be perfect. of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
love the law of God. We love to declare the law of
God. We love to declare the holiness
of the law of God and the extensiveness of the law of God. And we love
to see and we love to declare the fact that when God saw his
Son, he saw that law perfectly obeyed. And when God the Son
obeyed the law of God, did it for me. We honour the
law of God. Do we then make the law void
through faith, says Paul in Romans 3.31? God forbid. God forbid
we're not making the law void through faith. We establish the
law. The only people who establish
the law in all of the holiness of the think that they can go back and
do some law obedience to make themselves right with God, have
no idea of the nature of the holiness of God, they have no
idea of the nature of their own sinfulness. The gospel exposes
the sinfulness of man. The real sin, the only place
you'll ever see the depth of the sinfulness of man is in the
Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's only on the cross when God,
as Pilate said, he gave them over to their wills. Man let
loose with God in his hand would do what he did to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's only the true gospel that
exposes sinners. So those people in Jerusalem
in Acts chapter two, All those religious people there at that
festival, a million of them possibly, not one of them saw themselves
as unrighteous until Peter stood up and preached the gospel to
them. And then what happens? What happens? What do they cry
out? What must we do to be saved? They didn't know they were sinners
until the gospel Again and again and again the
Gospel comes and in the coming of the Gospel there's an exposure
of sinners and it's exposed in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. The Gospel, the true Gospel,
saves, redeems and sanctifies God's children by an act of saves and redeems and glorifies
the sovereign grace of God because of this eternal union with God
in Christ. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. Sovereign, eternal, electing,
saving grace. Which simply means that your
works aren't the deal. And if you know anything of your
works, you would have been so pleased to hear Peter say as
he began his proclamation in Acts chapter 2, Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call. You have nothing to offer. See
it's not what God will do if we do something. The great declaration
of the Gospel throughout all of the Old Testament and the
New is, I will and they shall. The Gospel of Sovereign Grace
is free for the thief on the cross who was nailed there so
he could do nothing that he would be an emblem for all those who
think that they must do something. It's free for Saul of Tarsus
breathing out murdering threats and hating the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only Gospel, the true
Gospel is includes all boasting. At the foot of the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we're all on a very level field. Who makes
you to differ, says God, 1 Corinthians 4. What have you earned? You've received it of grace.
You've got nothing to boast in. It's a gospel It's a gospel because
it's saved by sovereign grace. It's a gospel for the helpless.
It's a gospel for the hopeless. It's a gospel for the worthless.
It's a gospel for the workless. It's a gospel, the true gospel
meets us where we are. It doesn't require that we meet You're a sinner who's been made
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a gospel that declares
to Lazarus, doesn't it? Come forth. Come forth. It's a gospel that
declares to that baby cast out in Ezekiel 16 that Norm spoke
of last week. It's a gospel where God comes
by and he says, live. The glory of the gospel, the
true gospel, is it's a gospel that saves. And it keeps God's
people saved because they're saved not because of their activities
and they're saved because of eternal activity of God. They're
saved because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's
tree. They're saved because of the
operations of God the Holy Spirit amongst them. It's a gospel that
allows us to delight in the promise of God, where he says in Philippians
1.6, he's being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you, good work is to believe the gospel,
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, will perform it, will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. The glory of the gospel is the
gospel that works in the hearts of God's people to walk. As Colossians
2.6 says, As you began, you so continue. You began as a sinner,
meeting a saviour. You continue as a sinner in need
of a saviour. I love what Acts 9.31 says, They
continued in the fear of the Lord and the The churches had rest throughout
Judea and Galilee and Samaria, Acts 9.31, and were edified,
were comforted, walking in the fear of the Lord. See the true
gospel brings a reverence for the holiness and the character
of God. All false gospels have done what
Satan did to Eve in the garden to do something to deny It's the Gospel that brings,
as Acts 21 says, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. The believers walk in this world
as Paul did. He lives the life I now live
in the flesh. I live by the faithfulness of
the Son of God. not mine, it's what Christ did,
not mine. It's God accepting Christ's sacrifice,
God accepting Christ's obedience, God accepting Christ's faithfulness.
And faith is given that we may lay hold of that. Cole had some
years ago printed on the front of our Bibles a verse from 1
Corinthians 1.30. It speaks of no flesh glorying
in his presence, in verse 20 to 30, but of him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom. He's all your wisdom. I'm looking
at some very wise people. There are a remarkable number
of incredibly intelligent, knowledgeable people out in this world. I'm
looking at very wise people. We have the very wisdom of God.
And righteousness is made unto us righteous and I'm right before God. I'm right
before His holiness. I'm right before His holy law.
That's what salvation is. And He's our sanctification. That means to be holy. He is
our sanctification. Perfect before Him in holiness. And He's our redemption. He's
all of it. All of it. Every last little
tiny bit. The true gospel brings peace
and assurance because it declares Christ is all. All that God requires
of me, he sees in his Son. Which is why the true gospel
brings worship. That word worship has its roots
in the worthship of him. We worship his worthship. We'll
argue we'll only ever truly worship an absolute sovereign who has
your life in his hands. You'll only worship someone who
has no needs and who rules all. It's an unchanging gospel. It's a gospel that saved Adam
and Eve. It's a gospel that saved Noah. It's a gospel that saved sinners
down through the ages. the children of God together. In Acts chapter 247 it says the
Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved, such
as must be saved. In Acts 5.14 it says the believers
were added, added unto the Lord and no wonder when they gathered
they gathered to worship The true gospel that saves never
leaves its power to keep us in him. It's the gospel, as Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 15, it's the gospel by which you are saved
and it's the gospel in which you stand. I keep needing to
hear this same gospel again and again because all the time all
I ever see inside of myself is that I'm a sinner. And the gospel
causes God's people to look outside to look away, to look to the
serpent on the pole, to look unto me, says God, and be ye
saved all ye ends of the earth. Fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus
Christ and in doing so those are drawn one to another. See it says, I love what Paul
says in Ephesians 2.13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were
sometimes a far off, all of us were a far off from each other,
weren't we? All of God's people were a far off from each other,
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. It never loses its power. It never loses its drawing power. Our gospel, as Paul says, is
my gospel. Is this gospel my gospel to you? It's my gospel. He calls it our
gospel. It's the gospel. 98 times I think
the word gospel is used in the New Testament. 86 of them, I
think, are prefixed by that little word, the. There is only one
Gospel. It's the Gospel of God. It's
the Gospel in which God speaks with authority. It's the Gospel
in which God reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel that
reveals an eternal covenant. A Gospel in which God gets all
the glory and all of his attributes are magnified. His law is honoured. It enables our God to have all
of his attributes of holiness and justice satisfied. There are five glorious S's that
describe the gospel. It's the gospel of a sovereign
God. It's the gospel of a substitute. It's the gospel of a sacrifice
accepted. It's a gospel that reveals the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, saved by his blood, saved to
be one with God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do pray that you might cause us yet again to see the wonders
of your redeeming love, that we might find ourselves yet again
looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ is precious and you might make
it precious to us, our father, that we might treasure your son
and his sacrifice, that we might be led to worship him, that we
might be led, heavenly father, to have a simple faith that looks
away from ourselves and looks only unto him. for he's done
as promised and he's doing as promised now until he returns. Keep us, our father, in his love.
Keep us looking to that bloodshed. Keep us feasting upon him for the rest of our souls and the
glory of your holy name.