It's good to see you here this
morning. I pray that God be with us this morning. If you'll take
your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. The title of the message is the preaching
of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel. The scripture says in verse 12,
when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? Or look so ye so earnestly on
us, as though we by our own power or holiness, we had made this
man to walk. The God of Abraham and of Isaac
and of Jacob The God of our fathers hath glorified His Son, Jesus. The preaching of the gospel.
As you study, if you were to study and look at the book of
Acts, you will see that the sole work, the sole purpose of the
apostles was to preach the gospel. to preach the gospel. Later on, when the church begins
to grow, and thousands upon thousands were added to the church at this
time, they were feeding those impoverished of the church. And
it got so bad that at one time, the Grecian widows were without
food. They were being neglected. And
then they came to the apostles and began to complain to the
apostles. And the apostle Peter said this.
He said, Is it good? It is not good. He said, It is
not good that we should leave off study and prayer to serve
tables. Preachers of the gospel are given
to the church of Jesus Christ to do one thing and to do one
thing only. and that is to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the sole purpose of preachers. If you go over to Ephesians chapter
4, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 8, the Apostle says, Wherefore,
I'm sorry just a second, Yes, verse 8. Wherefore, he saith,
he hath ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, and
gave gifts unto men. Verse 11. Here's the gifts. He
gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers. What for? For the perfecting
of the saints. That is the equipping of the
saints. The maturing of the saints. For
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Until when? Until we all come
in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man. Unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. You see, God gave gifts unto
His church, and what are those gifts? The gift He gave to His
church was pastors and teachers. The apostles are no more. The
prophets are no more. The evangelist. Some are at odds
as to what that means, but evangelism, these evangelists that I believe
he's talking about are like Philip, who had the gifts of the Spirit
that were passed on to them, and they worked those miracles.
Those were the evangelists that were first sent out. What's left?
Pastor-teachers. You notice that word, some, is
in front of every word except teachers, right? That's because
pastor-teachers are to be together. That's the same office. The same
one. See, the gift is that God gives His
preachers. He says in Jeremiah chapter 3
and verse 15, he said, I will give you pastors after mine own
heart. And what are these pastors to
do? They shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And let me ask you this, do you
suppose you could do without them? Do you suppose that you could
do well without a pastor? God says you can't. Why would
we suppose that we could? We couldn't. This is because
God has ordained it this way. God has purposed it this way.
And it's for your benefit. This service. You know what? I'm here for you. I'm here for
your benefit. I'm here to preach the gospel
to you. I'm here to feed you. This is
my mission. This is my purpose in life. I
have nothing else. I have this, that I preach the
gospel to you. And you know what? Truly, this
ministry is not mine. This is God's work. This is God's
ministry. And you know what? I'm not the
only one that's part of it. You're part of it. You know that? He said, go you. This is the
commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go you into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. This is our commission. When I say we are the church
of God, what am I saying? I'm not talking about this building,
am I? This building's not the church. You who are believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the church. You are the body
of Christ. And He is your Head. He is your Ruler. He is your
King. He is your Master and He is your
Savior. We have been chosen by the Father,
redeemed by the Son, and called by the Holy Spirit. That's the church. Now get this,
you believe are in Christ. In Colossians. Colossians chapter
1 and verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father. This is talking about the church,
the saints. which hath made us qualified
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Now,
I've got a question. If God has made you fit, if God
has made you qualified for heaven, then why are you still here? If you're fit for heaven, the
Scripture says you are complete in Him, You are fit. The Apostle Peter said that you
are made partakers of the divine nature. Now, if you have the
divine nature, if you have the imputed righteousness of Christ,
and you're already fit for heaven, why are you here? Why are you
here? We're justified by the death
of Jesus Christ, freed from the guilt of sin. We've been given
the holy nature, created in a new nature, without sin. And why
are you here? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ makes
this very plain why you're here. I'm going to give you the meaning
of life. Everybody says, what's the meaning
of life? Well, for you, believer, for
you, church of God, this is the meaning of life. Go over to John
chapter 10. The Lord Jesus Christ will tell
you what you're here to do. Why you're here. He'll tell you
why you're here. Look at this. In verse 15, he says, As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down
my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this folk. Look at this. "...them also I
must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be
one fold and one shepherd." Do you realize that He was talking
about you? He was specifically talking about
you. You had not yet been brought
into the fold, have you? You were His sheep, He died for
you, but you have not yet experienced, at that time, experienced His
grace. He's talking about you and me.
Well, let me ask you, how did you come to believe? How did
you come? You did what? You heard the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. Jesus spoke that He must bring
His sheep into the fold, and He shall call them, and they
shall hear His voice. This is the promise to the dead.
The hour is coming and now is when the dead... I love that.
I know I'm preaching to some dead people. This message is
for dead people. The hour is coming and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear might live. No, they that hear shall live.
Shall live. Well, how shall they hear His
voice? Only by the preaching of the gospel. Do you get the
meaning here? Do you get the purpose why you're
here, church? Do you get the purpose why we're
in this world? We are in this world, and God
uses His church, the preaching of the gospel, to call in His
elect. I've often made this statement,
and I mean it. I don't want the world in the
church. I don't want the world to come
in here. All that brings is trouble and difficulty and schisms and... Because we ourselves know we're
sinners. We know we're susceptible to
sin. We know that we are influenced
by sin. I do want this. I pray that God
call His elect and bring them in. I pray that God would call
His people and save His people from their sins. I know they're
in the world, and I know this, He'll call them out of the world. He'll call them by the preaching
of the gospel. We live in a generation, and
maybe you're not as aware of it as I am. I mean, there are
people who are just kicking and screaming against the necessity
of preaching the gospel. They just believe they can be
walking in a field someday and all of a sudden have an epiphany
and be saved. That's not so. That's not so. God uses means and the means
God has chosen is by the foolishness, what the world calls foolishness,
the foolishness of preaching. Why? So that all the glory might
be of God and none of us. None of us. In Romans 10, he
said, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That's a good message. I like that. Whosoever will. Come. But how shall they call
on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent For it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings
of good things. You know, I love that. How beautiful
are the feet. If you were to line ten people
up here, and just show their feet, there would be no difference
between them. You wouldn't be able to tell.
That's all we want you to do, is just look at our feet. Which
way we're going. Don't look at us. That's what
Peter says in the text. He says, why are you looking
at us? It's not us! The power's not in us! The power's
in Christ. The power's in the gospel. Preaching
of the gospel is necessary. This is our mandate. Believers,
church, listen. This is not a request. Your master
does not request that you go out and preach the gospel. He
demands it. This is His command. This is His command. No organization
in the world can ever replace the church. They're trying, aren't
they? They're trying. No organization
can replace the church, for the church alone is to do the work
of evangelism. which is by preaching the gospel
either publicly or privately. Preaching the gospel. The church,
the apostle said in 1 Timothy 3.13, is the pillar and ground
of the truth. Why is the world so upside down? Why is the world so... You can
go... There are five different churches
on this street. I promise you there are five different gods
being preached. Why is that? Because they're
not the pillar and ground of the truth. We who believe the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, we are the pillar
and ground of the truth. Stand firm on the truth. Don't
compromise it. Stand firm, believer. The church
is the pillar and ground of the truth in this world. The church
is not meant to be a social club. It's not meant to be a counseling
center. Nor is it meant to be a political force. We have one
purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to declare the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And it is from the church that
God raises up men to preach it. It is from among you. You see,
I didn't come from a special school or anything like that
set me apart. I am one of you. I'm from among
you. I am nothing more than a sinner
saved by the Almighty Sovereign Grace of God. That's all I am. I'm no different than you. Who
maketh thee to differ from another? What hast thou that thou hast
not received? If thou receive it, why do you not? Why do you
glory as though you don't, like you haven't? Friends, I've received
this calling. I've received the calling to
preach the Gospel of God to you. Therefore, preachers are not
to be dismissed, ignored, or despised. Why? Because we are
the servants and ambassadors of God. That's why. Preachers are the servants and
ambassadors of God. I know some people, especially
those of my own family, That's why a prophet is not without
honor, saving his own country and among his own kin. I've had
people say things to me because they're familiar with me. And
they did not take into account who God is, what God has called
me to be. I didn't take this office upon
myself. This office was placed on me
by God. And so we should be very careful
as to how you take heed to God's man. It is our responsibility to oversee
the flock of God. It is not our responsibility
to chastise you. That's God's business. I'm not
here to chasten you. I'm here to just declare to you
what God says. And God the Holy Spirit chastened
you, but yet I am also responsible for you. I'm also responsible
for your souls. The Apostle said to those pastors
in Ephesians, he said, take heed unto yourselves and unto the
flock which God has given you to be overseers of His flock
that He purchased with His own blood. We are to take care of
your souls. How? By feeding you. Feeding you. This is what the
gospel does to God's people. And you know what? God's people
can't do without it. God's people can't do without
it. But preachers are not also not
to be followed blindly nor put upon a pedestal. For we are also
sinners saved by grace, and so as we are called to care for
you, and we tell you, follow us even as we follow Christ. I tell you, you follow me as
long as I follow Christ. As long as I preach to you Jesus
Christ, Him crucified, you follow me. But I'm not to be put up on a
pedestal. Peter did that. If you'll notice in your text,
when they started gathering around, he said, why are you looking
on us? As though we have some power. You know, friends, I don't
have any power. I don't have any power. And I
tell you, my oratory skills, when I was younger, I thought
I had them. I realize I don't. I realize it's so. But the power
doesn't come from me. The power is not in my speech.
The power is in the gospel. Peter says, no, don't look on
us. Yet we who are called to preach, we preach not ourselves. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what we preach. I'm not
here to deceive you in any way. In our day, the church, the so-called
church, they love to put on these things so they can allure people.
It's kind of like fishing. You ever been fishing? What do
you do? You get this little shiny bait and you dangle it in front
of people and you throw it out there and you reel it in. No,
that's not how we fish for the souls of men. We cast the net.
We cast the seed at a venture. We don't dress it up. We don't despise you. We don't
dress it up and disguise it. We tell you the truth. We don't
preach ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ our Lord. And ourselves, your servants,
for Christ's sake. and this is what peter did with
the gospel and that's what we're going to look at this morning
which is look at this briefly as to what we are to do what
are we about this business well i'm here to preach the gospel
to you and well how do you preach you say it's part of your ministry
i'll tell you what you should do everything you can to support
me in preaching the gospel that's what it is whatever it is that's
part of your ministry and witness at whatever time and opportunity
you can. That's what you're here for.
You're here to declare the gospel. Don't get confused. You're not
here to get a job. You're not here to have a career.
You're not here to have a family. You're here for one purpose,
to preach the gospel, to support the ministry of the gospel. That's
it. That's it. And what is this gospel that
we preach? Well, look at this. First of all, Peter, he declares
the gospel to these people. He takes the attention away from
himself and he points it to God. And this is where the gospel
begins. Look at verse 13. He points men, first of all,
that the gospel always begins with God. The God of Abraham
and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our Father. hath glorified
His Son." Our gospel does not begin with men. It begins with
God. It begins with God. Behold, God
hath from the beginning, from old eternity, purposed in sovereign
free love to save a people. This is our message. This is
the declaration of our gospel. God, in the beginning, who? God. God. We begin our gospel with God,
not with man. God, from old eternity, purposed
to save some of Adam's race. This is the good news. God willing
to show His creation the glories of His grace. chose some to be
vessels of mercy. And those vessels of mercy that
He has chosen, He gave to His Holy Son, that He should redeem
them from all their sin. Look in Romans chapter 9. This gospel truth is declared
throughout Scripture, but this is one of the clearest. This
is one of the clearest that salvation is completely of God. Verse 11,
for the children, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It is said
unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Does this offend you that God hath from the beginning chosen
some to life and left others to die? Does that offend you?
Does this offend you that salvation is completely and absolutely
the choice of God and not the choice of man? Is there unrighteousness with
God because He did this? No. God forbid. God can and will do with all
His creatures as He pleases. Whether you like it or not, God
will do with His creature as He pleases. And I tell you, praise God that
He did choose some. If God did not choose then none
would have been saved. None would have been saved. Praise
God for His grace to choose some of Adam's fallen race, or we
would have all been as Sodom and Gomorrah. If you look at
verse 27, Isaiah said that as he cried concerning Israel. Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the
sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness, because the short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom
and been like Gomorrah. You see, if God had not left
a remnant, if God had not chosen a seed, if God had not chosen
to save a people, there would be no salvation for anyone. But because God has chosen an
elect people, purpose to save them, He put them in His Son. Do you see the glory of all this? God chose. And God gave His chosen
to His Son. Gave them to Him. This is how
Jesus confidently said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all He hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise them up again at the last day. Therefore God put His
elect in His Son, so that their salvation would be sure. You see, if God chose a people
and then left it up to them, would that salvation be sure? You have plans today, don't you?
How sure are you of your plans? What have you actually ever purposed
to do and finished it? Completely and perfectly. I did
a shower. I did a shower this last year,
purposed to put that tile in just right. Purposed it. I had
it all planned out. I had books. I had opened books
on how to do tile. And I purposed with all my heart. Now you look at it. It's crooked.
It's more like mosaic. That's what it looks like. It's
supposed to be straight. What have you purposed that you've
accomplished? God left salvation up to you,
nothing would be sure. God left nothing up to you. He purposed your salvation in
Jesus Christ before the world began, before anything could
mess it up. He purposed it and gave it to
His Son. Mercy. This is the mercy of God. Is mercy deserved? Do you deserve mercy? If you deserve it, it's not mercy,
is it? So then salvation, the salvation
of men's souls, is completely in the hands of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let all who believe on Christ
rejoice, that God has made us accepted in the Beloved from
eternity and has made Him to be the surety of our salvation. The surety, the guarantee, the
covenant of our salvation. In Isaiah chapter 42, And verse 6, it says, I the Lord
have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and
will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people.
Do you see the covenant is not with you? It's for you. But it's
with Christ. God gave Him to be the surety
of the covenant. This is the gospel. So where
does the gospel begin? If you were to witness to anybody,
where do you begin? You begin with God. You begin
with God. Second of all, if we were to
preach the gospel, we must declare the depravity of man. We must. If man is not depraved, he does
not need a Savior. If man is not lost, he doesn't
need to be found. If man is not dead, he doesn't
need life. Man is absolutely depraved. Look
what the apostle said to these people. He began with God and
he said, this is the gospel that came from God, that He had glorified
His Son, whom you delivered up and denied. He said, you bunch of hypocrites. What a way to begin a message,
huh? You sinners! God purposed salvation in His
Son, and what did you do with Him? You killed Him! You crucified Him! You depraved
sinners. Haters of God. The truth must be declared and
preached so that the gospel may be preached. All men by nature
are haters of God. All men by nature are full of
sin, empty of righteousness, and under the sentence of spiritual
death from the womb. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. You were conceived in sin. You were born speaking lies. God has declared that men should
be holy, that men should be obedient to His law, that they must be
absolutely and completely without sin before Him. And yet you and
I were born conceived in sin. How then can we be accepted? God says you must be righteous
not only in deeds but motives. I know a lot of times we pat
ourselves on the back and say, I've been pretty good this week.
No, you haven't. No, you haven't. You might have been good better
than me. But I tell you, we've not been good enough to be accepted. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy place? You? Will
you, in your own works, stand in His holy place? Will you,
in your own sins, stand before God? Only one who will stand before
God is he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Deeds and motives. This is what the law requires.
Deeds and motives. Not just outward obedience, but
inward obedience. Is this our nature to be of clean
hands and a pure heart? No. We have all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We all in our hearts have defied
God. Well, I've not defied God, preacher.
Have you lied? Have you broken His law? If you've
broken His law, then I'm telling you, you're taking your fist
and you're shaking it in the face of God, saying, I will not,
I will not have you to rule over me. You know what would happen
if the Lord Jesus Christ were among us and the natural, if
we were all in our natural condition, we would do exactly what these
people did to Him. Don't doubt it. We, by nature, are completely
depraved. And if you're not as bad as you
can be, it's only because God restrains us. Thirdly, we preach that Jesus
is the Prince of Life. You, sinner, who despise the
gospel of God's grace, Do you not know that Jesus is the giver
of your life? All those times you shake your
fist in His face, He is the one that gave you strength to shake
it. Is that not something? He is the Prince of life. He's
the giver of life. Are you supposed to do anything?
I already asked you if you had plans. You know you do. Are you
supposed to do anything? If you breathe in and breathe
out, it's because He gave it to you. He's the Prince of Life. John says, in Him is life. He
gives life to all men that have it. He gives life. And I tell you,
this same Jesus has also appointed today to take it. Did you hear
me? This One who gives you life will
also soon take it from you. He'll take it. Do you vainly
supposed to live so long and do this or that? Really? You are a fool if you're supposed
to live. If you just say, I'm going to
live because, not going to happen to me. I've got all the time
in the world. No, you're a fool. How many people
have supposed to wait to deal with the matters of their soul
later only to find death at their door? How many? Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. See then, it is
Jesus who holds your life in His hands, of which you will
not bow. but see that the death of Jesus
Christ, the Prince of Life, was the only means by which sinners
could be saved. Do you not suppose if there was
some other way, God would have done it? God gave His Son, His most precious
Son. If there was another way, He
would have done it. You see, these men did what they
desired to do to kill Christ, but I tell you, they did exactly
what God purposed to be done. The sin of all the elect must
be paid, and God's justice must be satisfied. Therefore, God
gave His Son to be made sin for us who knew no sin. Do you see
how God saves the elect? They're depraved when they come
into this world, but it's God, by the death of Jesus Christ,
who puts away our sin! This was prophesied by Moses
telling them that there was coming a prophet, a priest that they
should pay attention to. He says in verse 22, For Moses
truly said to the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise
up unto you. Of your brethren likened to me, him shall you
hear. In all things whatsoever he shall
say unto you. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only mediator between God and man. He's the only offering God will
accept. And I tell you, He has accepted
His offering. Now then, what does this prophet,
this Prince of Life tell you to do? The same thing we tell
you to do. Repent and believe the Gospel. Repent. What does it mean to
repent? Repentance is a change of mind.
You need to change your mind as to how sinners are saved.
You think sinners are saved by works. That's natural. May God
the Holy Spirit change your mind to see that sinners are saved
only by grace, not by works. You need to be converted. That's
what Peter said. He said, repent ye therefore,
in verse 19, and be converted. What is converted? It means turning
around. That means turning from this
way and turning to this way. That's what it means to be converted.
To turn around. Change your mind and your thoughts
about yourself and about God and see who you are. See who
God is. And turn to Christ. Believe. Trust in Christ. And it's only those who believe
on the Prince of Life have life. I told you that the church is
already fit for glory. You see, this life is not our
life. Church, listen to me. This life
is not your life. This earthly family is not your
family. Heaven is your home. Believers
are your family. We are here to call in our family,
our true family. And when all of these are called
in, it's then. When our job is done, then our
Lord, the Prince of Life, will take this old life, but we will
be raised up and receive what He has promised us, eternal life. Eternal life. I tell you, this morning I am
preaching to sinners. And I know this, sinners will
hear. Sinners will believe. It is only
an absolute sinner who needs an absolute Savior. Are you an
absolute sinner? Then believe on Christ, the absolute
Savior. And when He shall send Jesus,
verse 20, when He shall send Jesus Christ, which was preached
unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution
of all things. There is a time of restitution
coming. There's a time of judgment, But
for us who believe the church, it is a time of restitution. Should we not set our hearts
and affection on that? Are you not convicted about setting
your affections on these earthly things? Believers should be. And we should set our affection
on Jesus Christ. We should set all our hearts
and minds to the preaching of this gospel. And you who believe, go out and do it. Don't be a half-believer. Don't have half-faith. Half-faith
is those who just hear. and not do. We who truly believe
both hear and do what our Lord commands. I pray that God would
help us in this to preach the gospel. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.