If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. As you're
turning, let me tell you what an honor it is to be invited
to be with you and preach the gospel of God's glorious grace. I thank you for all the work
that's gone into this conference, your hospitality, the fellowship,
and the preaching of the gospel has been such a blessing. I'm
very thankful I was able to be here. I've titled the message
this morning, The Person of the Gospel. You know, the gospel
is not merely a set of doctrines. The gospel is not the five points
of Calvinism, what we call tulip, the total depravity of man, the
unconditional electing love of our God, the limited atonement,
the irresistible call of the spirit and the perseverance of
the saints. Now, I hold very, very strongly to those truths. But you know, you can know those
truths and not know the Lord. The gospel is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. And you
cannot know Him and not be saved. It's an impossibility. Salvation
is a person. And if you know Him, all the
rest of your doctrine will be right. It'll fall right into
place. And the best illustration that I can think of to illustrate
this is marriage. To me, marriage is not a contract. It's not a legal union. It's
not a big old fancy piece of paper that we sign somewhere
sometime. I don't know where it is now,
but that's not marriage to me. To me, marriage is a person.
Right there she sits. And if I really loved Janet,
all the responsibilities that I have as a husband in marriage,
all the doctrines, if you will, of marriage, they'll fall right
into place if I love her. And actually, Christ is all to
such an extent that really and truly He is marriage to me. Really. If I love Christ, if
He set His love upon me, and I have union with Him, I have
eternal life. And if I look to Him, I've got
an awfully good picture of what the husband ought to be. Really,
you can't take that too far. Christ is all. I saw an article
this week on the internet. I saw a link to an article, and
I normally never click on those things, but I thought I've got
to read this. It was an article from a religious magazine, some
sort of Christian magazine. They sent out a survey all over
the United States. And they got back these surveys
with questions on them, and they were very sad to report that
a shocking number of Americans are wrong on so many key doctrinal
truths that are plainly taught in Scripture. They listed several.
The first one was, they asked, could one little sin damn a person? And like 70, I mean it was a
huge percent, I don't remember what it was, a huge percent of
the people said no. And this magazine concluded this, that
the reason for this error is so few preachers preach the person
of Christ. And if more preachers, they concluded,
would preach the person of Christ, more people would know the right
doctrine. And they are absolutely right. So this morning, by God's
grace, I want to preach the person of Christ as clearly and as simply
as I can, so that every one of us will leave here this morning
believing Him, looking to Him and trusting Him. I don't want
us just to know how to be saved. I want us to leave here this
morning knowing and trusting the person of the gospel, the
Savior. Now, I have four points. My first
one is this. The gospel is a person. Look
at Matthew 1, verse 21. This is the angel speaking to
our Lord's foster father, Joseph. And he says, and she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. And here's my
text. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Now, the angel talked about He. He. Well, who is this He? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the person of the gospel. And I love to talk about Him. I love to hear about Him. I love to think about Him. Well,
who is He exactly? He's God in the flesh. Look back
up at verse 20. And while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. Now the Lord Jesus was conceived
of the Holy Ghost, of God the Spirit, in the womb of a virgin. Now what a wonder that that is. So this he was conceived by God
in the womb of a virgin. That makes him the God-man. Like Brother Scott told us, he's
as much God as if he were not man. As much man as if he were
not God. And since he is God in the flesh,
he is the only holy man to ever live. Now this is important. The Lord Jesus was born of a
virgin, conceived of the Holy Ghost. That means that Christ
was not born from Adam's sinful seed. He did not partake in Adam's
rebellion in the garden because he wasn't in Adam when Adam sinned.
And that's what makes him able to save his people from their
sin. By taking their sin away from them and making them righteous. Because he is the only righteous,
holy man who ever lived. God was made flesh. He was made
what He was not so He could come and save His people and make
them what they're not. And look at the name here given
to this person of the gospel. The name given to him at his
birth is Jesus. The name means Savior. It's the
Old Testament name for Joshua. Now the Lord Jesus It's not,
and I'm not making light now, but he is not some spaced out
hippie just going through the world in a fog, in a haze. He's just too much in a haze
to be mean to anybody. That's not the Lord Jesus. And
just believing in any old Jesus will not save your soul. Now
be warned, there are many false Jesuses. The person of the gospel,
Who we must know, who we must believe, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God in the flesh, and we
must believe Him. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I am, you shall die in your sin. If you believe not
that I am the eternal God, you shall die in your sin. And that's
why I said this, salvation is not believing in a false Jesus.
He wants to save everybody if they'll just let him. And then
later on, you learn who Christ really is. That's not salvation. A sinner is only saved when they
come to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not this Jesus
that tried to save as many people as he could. That's not the Savior. Am I free if you believe on that
Jesus you shall die in your sins because he's not I am that Jesus
is not God in the flesh the person of the gospel is the Lord Jesus
Christ and Salvation declared in that gospel. It's not just
a state of being Salvation is a person Jehovah God my Savior
Righteousness that's declared in the gospel is not a thing. Righteousness is a person. Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. He is our righteousness. Peace
with God that the gospel declares, the peace that Peter said, how
did that peace come? through this person of the gospel, the
Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace, who made
peace for us through the blood of his cross. This person of
the gospel is the sum and the substance of the gospel. Salvation
is all in the Lord Jesus Christ. He kept the law, not us. No,
it's his obedience that saves, not us. It's him who put away
the sin of his people. When he had by himself purged
our sins, then he sat down, didn't he? You know why he sat down
in the right hand of God? Bob, the work was done. It finished,
wasn't it? And he did it without any input
from you and me. It's all him. And when he went
to Calvary's tree, he sacrificed himself. that he is to save wretched,
vile cowards. I can identify with Peter. He sacrificed himself that he
might save his people from their sin. Now I want to ask you, how
can we not worship him? How can we not adore him? How
can we not believe him? How can we not run to him for
mercy? Sometime this afternoon, go back
and read the first chapter of Ephesians. And you know what
you'll learn? That all of salvation is the
Lord Jesus Christ. You'll find out we were elected
in Him, we are predestinated in Him, we are accepted in Him,
we're redeemed in Him, we're called in Him. It's all in Him. Now I know that the Gospel is
a great mystery to the human mind. Our natural minds cannot
comprehend the Gospel. It can't be done. The gospel
is the greatest story that's ever been told, and it's so great. The only way you and I can know
it is if God is pleased in His mercy to reveal it to us. He's
got to reveal it to us. Someone might be here this morning,
and you have a true desire to know the gospel. You have a true
desire to know how God saves sinners. I'll tell you what to
do. This is my recommendation to
you. You make it your business to know Christ. You be where
He is preached. You live in this town, you be
here every time these doors are open. You be where He is preached
and you make it your business to know Him. Look at Colossians
chapter 2. And as you're listening, as you're
preparing to come hear the gospel, you beg God that He would reveal
Christ to you. And if He does, You'll know the
gospel. If he'll just reveal Christ to
you, this whole book will open up to you. Look here at Colossians
2 verse 3. Speaking here of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you'd have wisdom and knowledge,
go to Christ. They're hidden in him. Now, they're
not hidden from us. They're hidden in Him, preserved
and protected for us in Him. They're all in Him. Look down
at verse 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete where? In Him. It's all in Him. And here's a
wonder. Do you know sinners are always
comfortable in the presence of the Savior? Now the self-righteous
aren't, but sinners are, aren't they? During our Lord's earthly
ministry, who is it that flocked to Him? Republicans and harlots. This man eats with sinners and
he receives them. Well, sinners were comfortable
in His presence. And He is so gracious. You won't find one sinner that
ever came to Him seeking mercy and left without it. Not one. Now you come to Him. Right where
you sit, you come to Him. You know, our parents always
try to teach us how special we are. Well, I'm going to tell
you what. You're not so special, you'll
be the first to leave His presence without mercy. Now you come to
Him. To Him. Don't come to the doctrine.
You come to Him. find salvation. It's all in him,
this person of the gospel. Right? Number two, the person
of the gospel. Who is it? He is the successful Savior. The angel said he shall save
his people. He shall. And I love this. I love the certainty of salvation
in Christ. There is rest for my soul. There's
peace for my heart. There's confidence in preaching,
in knowing this. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
successful Savior. He cannot fail to save anyone
that He came to save. All throughout the Word of God,
you won't find one hint of doubt about salvation in Christ. I
want to read you just a few scriptures. For time's sake, we won't turn
to them. Let me just read them to you. Isaiah 42 verse 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Now, I'm going to read some other
scriptures, but that ought to put an end to it, shouldn't it?
He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He's a successful Savior. John
5 verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life, and he shall not come into condemnation. But he's passed
from death unto life. Pretty certain, isn't it? John 6, 37. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. There's not a doubt about it.
And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. John 6,
verse 45. It's written in the prophets.
And all the prophets, they all wrote of him. That's what you
read in it. They all wrote of him. Him, it's this person. And they
shall be all taught of God, and every man therefore that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father, does what? Cometh unto me. Every last one of them, there's
no doubt about it. John 10, verse 16. The other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. In John 10, verse 28. I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand." Brethren, salvation in
Christ is secure. It's sure. Can there be any doubt
about it? I'm so thankful that God did
not leave the salvation of sinners up to them. He didn't leave it
up to our decision. He didn't leave it up to us to
take the first step. God put the salvation of sinners
in the hand of one who's mighty to save, and He cannot fail to
save them. Christ cannot fail to save His
people from their sin, because there's power in His blood to
atone for it. He cannot fail to save His people because of
the perfection of His righteousness, making His people righteous.
He cannot fail to save because of the power of His Spirit to
give life, to give faith, and to irresistibly call sinners
to Christ and make them willing to come. When He calls them to
Christ, don't think the irresistible call, God dragging you against
your will. No, sir. In the day of His power, He makes
you willing to come. God saves every one of His people
against their will with their full consent. Think about that
for a while and you'll find out that's true. Now you rest in
Him. Come to Him and rest in Him. What a blessed encouragement
there is from the Holy God. He put in His Word to give sinners
a reason to trust Christ. He shall save His people from
their sin. He shall justify them. He shall
bring them to Christ. He shall glorify them. If God
be for us, who can be against us? No one. Not even my flesh. It can't be
because he shall save his people from their sin. Now we can trust
the salvation of our souls to the successful Savior. He shall
save his people from their sin. All right, thirdly, what has
the person of the gospel done? He has saved his people. Saved
them. Now when God's word talks about
salvation, It is not talking about the same thing the flesh
talks about. Salvation is not being saved from the poverty
of this world. That just crates in my last nerve. If you believe Jesus, now he's
gonna make you rich, and he's gonna bless your business, he's
gonna bless your bank account. Well, I read in Hebrews chapter
11 of some mighty poor, mighty poverty stricken people. who
were blessed or had faith in Christ. Now, you come to Christ,
you'll have riches. You'll have spiritual riches.
And more than likely, you won't have much of this world, but
that's all right. That's not what we want. You know, I'm looking
forward to leaving this place and I have more of it. Being
saved is not being saved from drugs and alcohol and various
diseases of this body. As devastating as those things
are, that's not salvation. Salvation is not even being safe
and going to hell, so you can go to heaven. Now, that's part
of it, and I'm awful glad of it. Somebody, you know, I heard
a soul winner saying, well, you don't want to go to hell, do
you? I'm a stupid. Of course I don't want to go
to hell. But that's not salvation. Salvation goes a whole lot deeper
than that. And brethren, it's much more
glorious than that. Salvation is salvation from our
sin. Christ has completely and utterly
saved his people from their sin. He saved them from the sin that
they've committed. Take a hold of your seat. By
being made sin for them. Was it Todd said yesterday? I'm
getting ready to talk about something I don't understand. We can't do it, but try for a
moment to think about how glorious this is. That the Holy Son of
God would be willing to be made sin for His people. The people that He loves. We can't get any concept of how
horrible that was for Him. To be made what He hates. To be made sin. to be made sin
knowing he'd be cut off from his father. But think of the
glory of it. He did that because that is the
only way his people could be saved from their sin. By him
taking away from them. By him being made sin for them
and putting it away by his sacrifice. Christ took all of the sin of
his people away from them The angel said it's theirs. It's
their sin. They committed it. They are this
sin. But he made it his. He took it away from them. He
took not just the penalty of it. Brother Todd told us this
yesterday. That's right, he's going to preach
my message. He took the guilt of it. So that he became guilty. That is the only way the Holy
Just Father could have put him to death. It had to be his sin. He had to be guilty of it. And
here the angel calls it their sin, but at the cross, our Savior
called it mine iniquity. It became His, and He put it
away by the sacrifice of Himself. And it's gone. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Christ saved
His people from their sin so much Justice is not even looking
for them. If Christ died for you, you believe
him, don't bother wasting your time looking over your shoulder
to see if God's justice is coming for you. It's not even looking
for you. Justice has been satisfied in
the death of the substitute. But even more than that, Christ
saves his people from the sin that they are. He saved them
from the power of their sin nature. Christ has saved his people from
the controlling power of sin. When he causes them to be born
again, and gives them a new nature, and that nature cannot believe
Christ. The power of sin is this, the
power of our sin nature is this. That sin, that nature, makes
it so we can't believe on Christ, no matter how hard we try. You
know, I grew up under the sound of the gospel. As long as I've
understood language, I've heard the gospel. And I'm here to tell
you, I spent years trying to make myself believe it. I couldn't
do it. Could not do it. I believed him
so, but I couldn't believe, here's my problem, I couldn't believe
Christ. That was the problem, I could not do it. And I don't
know when it happened exactly, but I found myself in love with him. I was in college,
I was a smart aleck, just like most kids are in college, and
buddy, I could argue doctrine with the best, I mean I got in
there and just, oh I could argue that doctrine. I found myself
in love with a person, and I could not believe him. I just could
not. That's how God delivers his people
from the power of their sin nature, by giving them a new nature that
loves him and can't leave him. They can't, they can't not believe
him. That's being saved from the power
of sin. And one day, This salvation is
going to be perfect in our experience. We still live in a body of sin,
don't we? But one day, God's elect are going to be saved
from even the presence of sin in their body when we're raised
incorruptible and made just like ourselves. Now the glory of heaven
It's not going to be streets of gold and pearly gates. I'm
convinced those things are not even real. I'm not talking about
streets of 14 karat gold and great big pearly gates. I'm convinced
of it. The glory of heaven is not going
to be on a permanent vacation floating around on a cloud. That's
not the glory of heaven. The glory of heaven is going
to be the person of the gospel. It's going to be made, being
made just like Him. And to be eternally face to face
with Him. Whatever else is there in glory,
we're not going to care much about it. How are we going to
be able to take our eyes off Him and look at something else?
Eternity is going to be all about this person of the Gospel. God
help us, God make us to be taken up with him now. I'm going to
start right now, aren't you? Alright, here's the fourth thing. Who has this person of the gospel
saved? He saved his people. And the
Apostle Paul said that this is true, this is a faithful saying,
it's worthy of all acceptation. This is worthy for everybody
to believe. That Christ Jesus came into this world to save
sinners, of whom I am chief. Now that's a true statement,
isn't it? But if that's all we say, and
we leave it there, that Christ came to save sinners, we haven't
preached the gospel. The unbelieving world would agree
with that statement. Christ came to save sinners.
But what they would say is this, that Christ died for everybody,
because everybody's a sinner. So, they say, Christ's death
gave everybody a chance to be saved. They say Christ died for
everybody and just made salvation available to sinners. That cannot be further from the
truth. That is a lie. Any honest reading
of God's Word. I mean, I don't care if it makes
sense. I mean, I know that might make sense to the natural man,
but what makes sense to our natural mind does not matter. We need
to find out what God's Word says. And any honest reading of God's
Word makes it as plain as the noonday sun that Almighty God
elected the people to save. And He sent His Son into this
world to save those people. And I'm thankful. That is the
only way a dead sinner can be saved. It's if God chose them
and sent His Son to die for them and sent His Spirit to give them
life. It's the only way. Our sin nature Cannot and will
not it's not it is stiff-necked Stubborn rebellion that I by
nature will not believe Christ But it's also impossible for
my nature to believe Christ cannot and I will not I will not come
to Christ I will not choose to be saved by Christ alone and
God knows that a whole lot better we do so he chose a sinful people
to save and in this person of the gospel, his darling son.
And the Father sent his Son into the world to save those people
that he elected unto salvation, and only those people. Look at
John chapter 10. The Savior called those people
his sheep. John chapter 10, verse 2. He that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice. He calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. He doesn't call every sheep,
he calls his own sheep, and he leads them out. And Christ died
to save those sheep, those elect, verse 14. I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and have known of mine, As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep." He doesn't lay down his life for every son of Adam, did
he? He laid down his life for his sheep, and he will see to
it that those sheep are saved. He's going to give them faith,
and he's going to see to it that they come to Christ and they
follow Christ. Verse 4 says, and when he put
forth his own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice. He made them know him, and they
follow him. Verse 16, other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And the evidence that God elected
a person is this. This is the evidence. that they
have faith in Christ. That's the only way you can know
that God elected you unto salvation, is you have faith in Christ.
Because God gives faith in Christ to everyone He sent His Son to
save. The evidence that God did not
elect a person unto salvation is this. They don't believe Christ. Verse 26. But you believe not,
because you're not of my sheep. It's not you're not my sheep
because you don't believe on me. That's not what he said, is it?
You believe not because I didn't choose you, because I didn't
elect you, because I didn't come to save you. 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, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. Now look in John 17. Our Savior
made this crystal clear in His great high priestly prayer. He
didn't come to try to save everybody. He didn't come to make salvation
possible or available. He came to save His people, the
people that the Father elected and gave to Him. That's who He
came to save. John 17, verse 2. As thou hast
given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life
to who? As many as thou hast given Him. Verse 6, I have manifested
thy name unto who? Unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were. They're yours
because you chose them and they have kept thy word. Verse 9,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world. Brethren,
our problem is not we can't understand the King James Version. Our problem
is we won't believe it. I pray not for the world. Christ
didn't die for everybody in the world, did he? I pray for those
which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse 11, and
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and
I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. In verse 12, while I was with
them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou
gavest to me, I have kept. And none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. This is the Savior. This is the
truth of election. He came to save the people that
God elected to save. And the truth of election glorifies
God as God. Election means God's God. That's
what it means. Now please listen to me. You
who do not believe Christ, please listen to me. I hope I can spare
you from making the mistake that I made. Do not use this glorious
truth of God's electing love as an excuse not to come to Christ. You come to Christ because you're
a sinner who needs a Savior. You don't come to Christ because
you know you're one of the elect. Don't search through God's Word
trying to figure out and find some evidence you're one of God's
elect. Nobody ever came to Christ because they knew they were one
of God's elect. Sinners come to Christ because they need a
Savior. Filthy sinners come to Christ because they need to be
washed. Guilty sinners come to Christ
because they need forgiveness. You come to Christ as a dead
sinner and He'll give you life. And you'll find out right quick.
You came because God chose you first. You'll find out right
quick. This is not something you're
going to learn later on. You'll find it out right now. Oh, oh, I came
because He loved me first. He loved me. I don't understand
it. I'm thankful God's not like me,
because I wouldn't have loved me. But He loved me with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
He was drawing me to Christ all along, and I came because He
brought me. I tell you the best reason I
can think of for a sinner to come to Christ are the words
of our text. He shall save his people from
their sins. God help us to believe. Lord
bless you.