And in verse 25 again, now to
him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. Paul says
here that what I'm declaring to you is my gospel. my gospel. And your first thought might
be, as you hear Paul refer to the message of Christ that way,
is why should we care what Paul's gospel is? Throughout the New
Testament, the gospel is called the gospel of Christ, the gospel
of God, the glorious gospel of the blessed God, the gospel of
peace, and things like that. Why should we care what Paul's
gospel is? Well, because it's the gospel. If your gospel is
the gospel, then it's everything. I started to say it's worth hearing.
That's an understatement. That would be a rank understatement.
It's everything. And think of the commitment that
it is to say that. This is my gospel. If you say
that, it better be the gospel. you're talking about. It's life
and death. That's a commitment now. Paul
is saying, this is my gospel. This is my hope. This is my good
news. And that's a great commitment. Paul, under the inspiration of
God, describes the gospel so beautifully here. There's only
one. You can say my gospel, and I
can say my gospel, but there's just one gospel. If my gospel
is not your gospel, then somebody's dead. Somebody's a goner. Because there is but one. And
Paul describes it, as I said, so beautifully here. He begins
a sentence, think about this. He begins a sentence in verse
25, and this is sort of typical of Paul, you may have noticed.
He says, now to him, that's the beginning of the sentence and
he doesn't finish the sentence until verse twenty seven to him
be glory to him be glory that's what he's saying that's simply
what he's saying but he says it in an amazing way doesn't
he by the grace of God to him be glory that's just all he's
saying to him now to him be glory through Jesus Christ forever
that's the statement oh but look at all that he says in between To him be glory through Jesus
Christ. But he elaborates on him a lot. Who him? What him? To him be
glory. What him? Who's worth glorying? Who's worth glorifying? Glorying
in. He elaborates on him, doesn't
he? In elaborating on him, to whom all glory belongs, he describes
the gospel, which he calls my gospel. And first of all, It's
him that is of power. That seems to be preeminent in
a lot of confessions of faith in the scripture. David said,
my God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. What does it mean to be God?
It means you run everything and everybody. You're on the throne,
you rule, you reign. You do as you please, you're
sovereign. You're almighty, you're omniscient,
you're omnipotent. That's what God is, glory and
honor unto him who is of power. You can't really worship anybody
else. Did you know that? You can pretend,
you can call it a worship service, but unless he is of power, You're just, you're really worshiping
yourself. Who are you worshiping if you
say, well, God's done everything he can do, now everything's up
to me? Who are you worshiping? Him that is of power. That word
often, the word power in the New Testament often means authority
or the right to do something. But here, and that's true of
God of course, he is sovereign and over all people and things
and events. Here it means ability. He's able. We just looked at
that, didn't we? Those two blind men. They followed
the Lord into the house there in Matthew 9, 28. And the Lord
asked them, believe ye that I am able to do this. My gospel is
defined by ability. Him who is of power. My gospel
is defined by that. Who has power and who doesn't?
False religion teaches that God wants to. He's, oh, look at all
that he wants to do. Wait a minute. Is he of power
or is he not of power? Can he do as he please? He said,
I do as I please in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay my hand or say unto me, what
doest thou? Religion talks about he's trying
to do this and that and the other if you'll just let him who has
the power in that scenario We're talking about him who is
of power The gospel hinges on that issue According to my gospel God saves
sinners in spite of of themselves in spite of their inability. According to my gospel, it's
God, if you will, you can. I can't, but you can. The apostle Paul wrote this epistle
to the Romans. What was his experience? He's running as fast as he can
down the road to hell. He's killing God's people, God's
elect, God's preachers, everybody who named the name of Christ.
He was putting them in prison and killing some of them. He
was standing there when Stephen was stoned, authorizing that. And God just arrested him on
the road to hell. He just stopped him. He knocked
him off of his horse, put him in the dust, blinded him. and
said, Paul, I've chosen you. And Paul said, Lord, what would
you have me do? What do you want me to do? That's how that happens. And Paul said, I'm a pattern
of all believers. That's how God saves sinners
now. The scripture declares in Romans
9.16 that salvation is not of him that willeth, no matter how
many times they say that. It's not of him that runneth,
or that word means to strive, to do the best you can, you know,
to works. It's not of that, but it's of
God that showeth mercy. How does God show mercy? You
remember what he said about that? I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. There's nobody too far gone that
he can't have mercy. He's of power. He's of power. Notice that this power of God
according to the gospel is exerted upon sinners He has power toward
you You see that to establish you God is able to do but what is
it that he does? It has to do with sinners He
does something for sinners like you what a gracious and wonderful
God He saves sinners by his power. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. The way Paul
says it here is to establish you. What does he mean by that?
Well, it's the same thing that he said in Jude 1.24. Listen. Now unto him that is
able, to him that is of power, to keep you from falling. That's
what established means. It means to set your feet like
he did Moses on a rock and cover you there. with his hand. This is his grace now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. The end result
of this establishing here is that you stand faultless in the
very presence of God Almighty in Christ alone. God is able
to make that happen because he sent his son to be the propitiation
for the sins of his people to accomplish righteousness for
them and redemption through his precious blood. So
according to Paul's gospel, The gospel of Christ, and by God's
grace, my gospel, salvation is of the Lord. The gospel came
from God to sinners. Luke 2, 9, 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. You know that's
what gospel means? I bring you gospel. The gospel of great joy, which
shall be to all people. What is the gospel? Unto you
is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ
the Lord. He is the gospel. I bring you
gospel. What are you bringing? There
he is right there. That's the gospel now. And that's
God declaring the gospel to sinners. Paul said, listen, in Galatians
1.11, this is key now. Paul said, I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me, my gospel, is not after
man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And you're not gonna know it
any other way either. We're commanded to preach. But as we do, if God doesn't
speak, if he said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
If you just hear my voice this morning, you're not gonna follow
Christ. But you know what my voice is gonna be saying? There
he is. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away sin. And if you hear him speak to
your heart, give you faith, mix that message with faith, as you
hear it, then you'll go to Christ, you'll come to Christ, you'll
be saved. And it's by the revelation of
Jesus Christ, and that simply means not only that Christ is
the one who reveals it, he said, no man knoweth a father save
the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. That's who knows who God is.
Also, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ in this sense. He
is the one revealed in the gospel Look at the next phrase in our
text Him who is of power To establish you according to my
gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ It's my gospel According
to my gospel, God saves sinners by his invincible power. He is
of power to do that. And it consists of this, the
preaching of Jesus Christ. It's what Christ preached, so
it's the preaching of Christ in that sense, but also Christ
preached what? Christ. It's the preaching of
Christ. The good news is a person. That's
what the angels were declaring. Good tidings, good tidings. What
are they? The Savior's born. Christ Jesus
the Lord is born. The good news is a person. Think about this now. The most
precious and priceless thing in this world is also one of
the rarest things in the world. And that's just simply this,
somebody preaching Jesus Christ the Lord, declaring Him. One thing is needful, the scriptures
declare. And if you look that up, if you're
not familiar with that word, look up one thing is needful
in your concordance and see where it takes you. And find out what
that is. I'll save you some time. It's
Christ. It's Christ. You need Him. And the way that the Lord saves
sinners by Christ is through the preaching. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
it's not the preaching of what you need to do for God. It's
the preaching of what God has done for you. And what He's done
for you is sent His Son to die in your stead, to be your righteousness
and your sin offering. The good news is Him. May God give me grace to preach
who He is and what He did, what He accomplished for sinners,
why He did it. He's God in human, who is He?
He's God. He's God in human flesh. Why in human flesh? because God,
strictly speaking, God the Father can't die. God, eternal God can't
die, but the God-man can, and he did. He died for sinners.
It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, a man, in
other words, he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the nature of Abraham. He became a man. Why? It behooved
him to be like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. We have a
high priest. Yes, we do. What does the high
priest do? He comes in the presence of God where you can't go. He
goes in for you and he offers something that God will accept,
that God will take and say, I'm satisfied. That sinner is spotless
in my sight. And there's only one offering
that takes away sin. Not without blood, without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So Christ went
into that holy place, not made with hands, as our high priest,
the high priest of his people, and offered his own precious
blood. Holy, perfect blood, the blood of God. He's God in human flesh, the
sovereign prince of life, and yet able to give his life a ransom
for sinners like you and me. The just God, and yet a savior. Nobody like him. Just and yet
able, and bless God, willing to justify a wretch like you
and me. The most impossible thing in
the world to describe is the simplicity that is in Christ. You give it a shot. I'll give
you 45 minutes and you tell me who Christ is and what he did. Oh my, it's impossible. God's got to open his word to
us, doesn't he? And yet, you know what else?
It's also the most easy thing in the world. It's not hard to
say Christ is all. But did you get it? Did you get
it? That Christ is all? That's all
you need to know. That the one thing needful is Him. If God
will teach you this morning that all you need is Him, you'll be in pretty good
shape. Well, wait a minute, Chris, we've
got to live. No, you don't. You can die right now. If you have
Him, you'll be fine. He said, he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Though he be dead, yet shall
he live. Well, we gotta eat, we gotta go to work, we gotta
do that. You don't have to do anything. You don't need anything
but him. The easiest thing in the world
and yet absolutely impossible. There's more truth contained
in that simple statement. Christ is all, that in all of
the complicated doctrines of men ever recorded. And yet you
tell me the magnitude of that with the English language at
45 minutes. God sent God to save sinners. God forsook God. to save sinners. God satisfied God for the sins
of all of His people. God glorified God on Calvary
in the saving of sinners. All of the Word of God concerns
His Son. Read Romans 1-1. All that the
prophets spoke all of the Old Testament, all of the New Testament,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of the Word of God is
written, we know from John 20, 31, I quote this almost every
time I preach, the whole Word of God is written. It concerns
Christ, and it's written for what reason? That you might believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that believing you
might have life through his name. Is it any wonder why Paul said,
we preach Christ? I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. So if you go,
if you find yourself somewhere, in a church and the preacher's
telling you what you need to be and how you need to act and
what you need to do to be saved and what, you know, it's all
up to you. It's all on you. Is that preaching
Christ? That's preaching you. God doesn't need you to do something
for him. You need God to do something
for you and you need it now. You need it now. Believing facts about Christ
is not salvation. You must believe on him. Well,
I believe in the sovereign God. He is the sovereign. It's not
just a doctrine, it's a person. Well, I believe in limited atonement.
That's good, I do too. He is the atonement. I believe there's just one way
to God. He is the way. I believe the truth. He's the
truth. I believe in the eternal security of believers. He is. He is. You know how he preached the
perseverance of the saints? That's a famous doctrine, you
know, that's established and written so many different ways.
And well, it's true. If God saves you, you're saved.
He don't play. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. If he died for you, that's eternal
salvation. Eternal blood, eternal salvation. But you know how he defined that?
It's not quite the way that theologians do. Here's how he defined it.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Why? Because I, because I, because
I. They hear my voice and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. That's the perseverance
of the saints right there. It's a person. I believe in predestination.
I do too. But what's the destination? He is. He is. We're predestinated to be conformed
to the image of God's son. We're gonna be with Him, and
we're gonna be just like Him. That's predestination, Him. According
to my gospel, we can't find refuge in the perseverance of the saints,
the doctrine. My refuge is His hand. We preach Christ and Him crucified. He said to the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures because you think you have life in them.
And this is the word of life. God uses the scripture to give
the gospel to give life to sinners. But he said, they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I am the resurrection and the
life. My gospel is a gospel for sinners. I just want to try to make a
few plain statements about the gospel now, about Christ. My
gospel is a gospel for sinners. Listen to Luke 4.18. The spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, to prisoners, and recovering
of sight to the blind. to set at liberty them that are
bruised. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. Sinners are described, the ones
to whom the gospel comes are helpless and they're hopeless.
They're helpless. The gospel doesn't come and say,
here's what you need to do. It tells you what you can't do,
all that you can't do. The law renders us guilty before
God. Listen, are you just going to
decide not to be poor anymore? And that's not talking about
not having any money. That's talking about being bankrupt
before God. That's talking about owing an
infinite debt to God and having nothing to pay. You're just going
to decide not to be that way anymore? If salvation is finished by you
making an important decision, then why doesn't the Lord present
it that way? He could have said that, the Lord hath anointed
me to preach an opportunity to those who decide. It's not hard
to say. Can you just decide you don't
wanna be in prison anymore? Guard, call the warden for me,
I've decided I don't wanna be here no more. I'm just getting
tired of this place. I've decided to be free. Can you decide to see? These are pictures of sin. We're
poor, we're bankrupt before God. I owe an infinite debt and I
have nothing to pay. The debt must be paid and it's
not gonna be by me. My only hope is that Christ Jesus
paid the debt that I could never pay for me. We're captive unto the justice
of God. Condemned by his law and rightly
so we're guilty if he puts us in hell. He'll be doing the right
thing unless Christ has paid the ransom. I Need to be redeemed
from the curse of the law that word redeemed means the price
for the freedom of a slave Redeemed from the curse of the
law how by him being made a curse for me Blind, not able to find my way
to God. Christ is the way. My gospel is the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God, 1 Timothy 1.11. In my gospel, God gets
all the glory. And how much are you gonna get?
Paul said in Ephesians 2.8 and 9, boasting is excluded. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves. I wish preachers would quit saying
believe, believe, believe, believe, and start telling us who to believe. Telling somebody who Christ is
and what he did on Calvary. Faith is not of yourself, it's
the gift of God, not of works, why? Lest any man should boast. God's gonna get all the glory
in saving you or you're not gonna be saved. He'll get all the glory
in damning you, if it comes to that. But he gets it all, one
way or the other. He doesn't meet sinners halfway
in my gospel. He saves them all the way. That man that the good Samaritan
went to, he's laying there having been robbed and stabbed. How do you know that? Well, he
healed his wound. He poured in oil and wine. And he's laying there in a ditch
bleeding out. And the law passed him by, and
the religious Pharisee passed him by, and the good Samaritan
saw him and had compassion on him. And what did he do for him? What did the good Samaritan do
for that man? Everything. He lifted him up, he put him
on his horse, he took him to the inn, he paid his way, and
he said, if he owes any more than this, put it on my tab. He saves sinners all the way. He's not waiting for you to take
the first step. He comes right where he was. It says those exact words in
that passage. He came where he was, filthy
and vile and dead and trespasses and sins and rescues us. There are a thousand ways you
could outline this message, my gospel. The whole Bible is the
gospel. And the gospel is Christ Jesus.
Philip began at Isaiah 53. And what did he preach to that
Ethiopian eunuch? One word, Jesus. He began It says in Acts 8.35,
then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him, Jesus. Paul said to the Ephesian elders
in Acts 20.27, he said to those men as he left them, and they
were sad that he was leaving, but he said this, I've not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God. What is that? all the counsel of God. 1 Corinthians
2, when I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God,
the testimony of God, all the counsel of God, I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Him, the Redeemer, Him, Offering
his very soul and offering for the sins of his people. I Just
want you to turn with me to two passages scripture first Corinthians
15 one, please 1st Corinthians 15 1 moreover
brethren I declare unto you the gospel Which I preached unto
you. I've preached it to you. I'm
fixing to preach it again. He said What else are you gonna
talk about? Which also you have received
you've received a gift Not claimed a reward received a gift and
wherein you stand He's able to establish you. Do you stand in
the gospel of God's free, sovereign grace in Christ? You know how
you got there? He is of power to establish you. Wherein you
stand, by which also you're saved by the gospel of Christ, by the
preaching. It pleased God to save sinners that way. If you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, are you saved or are
you not saved this morning? You know, I don't have any way
to know that. People can put on a good show. You trust in
the gospel today? Yeah, if you are 10 years from
now, Christ will still be all of your salvation. And in 10
years, will I know if you're saved or not then? How will I
know? Because 10 years after that, Christ will be all to you. You'll still be worshiping him.
You'll still be sitting at his feet like Mary. Choosing that good part Unless
you've believed in vain there is a faith that doesn't save
if you work it up within yourself That ain't gonna cut it is it
Saving faith is his gift For I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received It came from him to us. It was
his gift to sinners. What was it that he gave to you,
Paul, to preach? How that Christ died for our
sins, according to the scriptures. Not that Jesus died. There's
a whole lot of people believe that a Jesus died on a cross
a couple of thousand years ago. It's how that he died. Not according
to you. Not according to me, but according
to the word of God. How that he died. He died vicariously
in the place of somebody. He calls them those that the
father gave me. He calls them more than anything
else is elect in the book of God. My sheep, my loved ones,
my jewels. How that Christ died for our
sins. He died victoriously. God giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. and that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We just simply
preach. What did the Lord Jesus preach? When he opened on the
road to Emmaus, he opened all the word of God. It says, beginning
at Moses and in all the prophets and in the Psalms, he preached
to them. What did he say? The things concerning himself. Oh, may we never forget that Christ is all. Galatians
1 8 let's let's just look at Galatians 1 8 I want to close
with this Galatians 1 8 But though we are an angel from
heaven Preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. The gospel
of the power of God. He's of power to stand a sinner
in front of himself sinless, to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory. And this gospel is the preaching
of Jesus Christ. Christ is salvation. Christ is
redemption. He's the door. He's the bread.
He's the water of life. As Paul said, he is all and in
all. The one thing needful, Jesus
is. So if anybody preach anything
else, let them go to hell and you go somewhere else. Amen.