Last Sunday morning, it was my
intention to finish this chapter, and we didn't make it. And the
reason is because I knew that I had a longer study. I'm always around 30 minutes,
but I know if I'm gonna be 25 minutes or 35 minutes, I know.
And I knew that I had a longer study. But also, I felt so compelled
to say what I believe the Lord gave me to say, my explaining
went too long. I just got a little carried away.
And I didn't get to tell you the last section of the message,
which was about a third of the study. So I'm gonna try to give
that to you now. First Timothy 4, just to remind
you of what's being said here, Paul is stressing to Timothy
the importance of preaching the gospel. Verse 14, he said, do not neglect
it. I pray the Lord might let me
hear that. I pray the Lord might burn that
into my mind and into my heart. Do not neglect it. Verse 15,
he said, give yourself completely to it. And verse 16, he said, take heed
unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing
this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. You
may remember that last week we asked the question, did God elect
a people, yes or no? Yes. God elected a people. And I kind of feel led to get
carried away again. And it really explained that.
But let's just enter into the fact that God elected a people. We asked the question, did Christ
die for every single one of those people? Yes or no? The answer
is yes. Did Christ save every soul that
he died for? Yes or no? Yes. They were chosen. Christ died
for them and he saved them. Is their place eternally secure
in heaven? Yes or no? Here's the answer.
Yes. Eternally secure. Is God almighty
sovereign over everything concerning his people and everything concerning
their salvation? Yes or no? Here's the answer.
Yes. Then why do we preach? That's
the question. Is it finished? Yes or no? The
answer is yes. Then why do we preach? Why do
we stress the preaching of the gospel? Why do we press the urgency
of it? Here's the reason why. It's because
God said this is the means that he would use. If I don't know
Christ yet, I need to hear the gospel. And I need to hear the
gospel. And I need to hear the gospel.
And I need to hear the gospel. Then I need to hear the gospel,
and hear the gospel, and hear the gospel. This is the means
he said he would use. And, you know, by God's grace,
his people pray to be kept. And are they going to be kept?
Yes. How? Through the preaching of
the gospel. So if I know the Lord Jesus Christ
and I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, here's what I need
to do. I need to hear the gospel. I need to hear the gospel and
hear the gospel. It's not just my hearing that
will do anything. God's spirit will have to feed
me with the gospel. Open my eyes, open my heart.
But this is the means that the Lord said he would use to quicken
his people to himself. If it was another means, then
we would look to another means. But this is the means. If God
said that He elected all of His people in Christ before the foundation
of the world, our hope is in His election. If God said that He redeemed
all of His elect people in Christ on the cross of Calvary, our
hope is in His redemption. It's not in our anything. It's
in His redemption. The Father's election, the Son's
redemption. If God said that He quickens
His people by His Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of
Jesus Christ crucified, our hope is in His gospel. That's why
we cannot be satisfied to go sit and listen to another gospel.
Our hope is in His gospel, the word of His gospel. Paul told
Timothy, preach this gospel, this gospel, not another one. The gospel of God Almighty. concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ, and the finished work of the blood of
His cross. Now, here's what I didn't get to last week. Seven exhortations,
seven reasons for preaching the gospel, the gospel, God's gospel,
the only one that there is. All right, seven reasons. Number
one, why do we preach the gospel? Why do we preach the gospel?
Did God elect a people? Did Christ die? Why? Why do we
preach the gospel? Number one, we preach the gospel
because we're commanded to. That's the reason why. We're commanded to. Paul said,
Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the gospel.
He said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. He said, I must,
I have to, I would be disobeying God if I didn't. Turn with me over to Mark chapter
16. Mark chapter 16 verse 14, it
says, afterward he appeared unto the
11 as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and
hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen
him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Think about this, okay? Think
about what our Lord is saying right here. This ought to prove
to us that he has ordained a means of calling his people to himself.
He said, go unto all the world and preach the gospel to every
single creature on this earth. We could say, well, Lord, why? Did the Father elect a people,
yes or no? Did you die for those people
or not? Are they saved or not? Why? Are they saved or not? Is salvation
finished or not? Why? His answer would be number
one, because I said so. Because I said so. Back in the
old days, the good old days of raising children, when the rebuttal
was, why do this? Why? The answer used to be, because
I said so. because your authority said so.
You can't do that now. You've got to reason. You've
got to explain yourself. You've got to this and that.
The answer used to be because your authority said so. I realize that there is no fear
of authority left on this earth. There is no fear of authority
left on this earth. It doesn't exist. But there is
still holy, reverent fear for the authority of God among His
people regarding the word of His commandment to us. There
is. Why do we preach His gospel?
He commanded us to. He said so. That's enough said.
No questions asked. All right, here's the second
reason we preach the gospel. We want to. We desire to. It is our privilege and it is
our pleasure to preach the gospel. Turn with me over to Romans chapter
1. Romans 1, verse 1, it says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. The gospel of God. What is the
gospel of God? Verse 3 says, it is concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
of the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship
for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. The gospel is concerning Jesus
Christ, who he is, what He did, and what we have received because
of it. That's what the gospel is. It's
concerning Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, and what
we have received because of it. Verse 7 says, to all that be
in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Just listen
to the love that Paul has for them. He said in verse 8, first
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your
faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son,
that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,
making request, if by any means now at length I may have a prosperous
journey by the will of God to come unto you, for I long to
see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift To the
end, you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. See
his love for them? Verse 15, he went on to say,
so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to
you. To you that are at Rome also.
He said, I'm ready to preach it because it's wonderful news
for sinners and because of my love for you. Paul said, I'm
excited to preach it. I'm ready to, and I am too. When
I feel that the Lord gives me a message for you, I'm excited
to tell you. I get so excited about it. I
want to. Why do I do this? Well, Paul
said, woe is me if I don't. I have to. But why do I do this? I want to. There's nothing I'd
rather do. We're commanded to, we desire
to. Turn with me to Galatians chapter one. Galatians one, verse three, it
says, Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. Verse five says,
to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Why do we preach
this gospel? It's because this gospel is what
glorifies God. This gospel is what glorifies
the Lord our God, to whom be glory forever and ever. We preach for the glory of God. And that's a real encouragement
to me. We preach for the glory of God. No other message, but
this message glorifies God. The message of false religion
doesn't even try to glorify God. The message of lies is preached
for the glory of man. That's how you'll know it's the
message of lies. If it glorifies man, it's preached
for its own success and its own results and its own self gratification. We don't preach this gospel for
results. You know that? Do you think I
would rather have these pews full or empty? You assess it
in your own mind. Assess what I would rather have.
You think I'd rather have these pews full or empty. We don't preach this gospel for
results. We just don't. Last Sunday morning we had a, or I don't know, at some point
we had a pretty difficult message. And we have one coming too. But while I was preaching it,
I thought in my brain, if I keep preaching this, the numbers here
will diminish and diminish. Now, I pray that's not so. I
pray that's just my unbelief. I do. I pray that's my unbelief.
But I was thinking that. All right, now, what do I do
in that moment? Change the message? The success of the message is
not gauged by results. You think about this. Noah. Did
God love Noah? Did God bless Noah? Noah was
a preacher of righteousness. His ministry lasted 120 years.
120 years. What were his results?
How many souls ended up on that ark? Eight. In a whole world of people. You
think Noah wanted all those people to hear the gospel? The righteousness
of Christ, a completely populated world of people. Eight souls. Eight souls. What are you doing
this for, Noah? The glory of God. In the finished
salvation that is in Christ Jesus. The glory of God. Not long after
I got here, we had Brother Tom Harding down to preach for us
on a Sunday night, and we were sitting in my office before the
service. It was just he and I, nobody
else had gotten here. And he knew that we had started a radio
broadcast, and he said, Are you getting any response from the
radio broadcast? And I said, no, sir. Not one. And he said, well, we're not
called to get response. We're called to preach the gospel.
I said, amen. Thanks. I needed to hear that.
I heard Brother Henry Mahan say one time concerning preaching
for results. This is so good. He said, can
we get our eyes off of results and get them on the glory of
God? And we do what we're doing for the glory of God, for his
credit, for his praise, for his honor. God's word is not going
to return void. It is going to accomplish the
purpose for which he sends it. And that's why we preach it.
That's the reason why we preach it. Okay. If I'm not careful,
I'm still not going to finish. So here we go. Number four. Why
do we preach the gospel? Number four, to warn sinners. To warn sinners. Turn to Romans
10. The scripture says that we're
called to be watchmen, warning men and women of the death and
the eternal judgment that's coming for every soul outside of Christ. Romans 10 verse 1, Paul said,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of
God? It's not a what, it's a who. Verse four. For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. If
we love and we are concerned for men and women, we will warn
them that there is only one place of refuge and this zealous work
that they have for God, their own zealous works is not that
refuge. There is only one hiding place
and it is not the works of man. It's not the flesh of man. It's the works of Jesus Christ
alone. It's the blood of Jesus Christ
alone. It's the salvation that is in
Jesus Christ alone. We preach the gospel because
we're commanded to. We preach the gospel because
we have been given a heart to. God has caused us to love this
and want men and women to hear this. We preach the gospel for
the glory of God. We preach the gospel for the
warning of sinners. And turn with me back to Romans
1. Verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We preach
this gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that belief. The preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved, it is the power of God. We preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God ordained the covenant
of grace, that promise covenant of grace. God ordained the election
of grace. God ordained the redemption of
grace. God ordained the preaching of
grace. God ordained the calling of grace. Through that preaching of grace.
Unto the believing of grace. That's why we preach this gospel.
OK, number six. And let me really Stress this. This is what teaches and exhorts
and motivates. You know how we all feel so dead?
I know you do, because I do, too. We all feel so dead. We
feel so disconnected from the Lord. We just feel so bogged
down by sin. It's like it's like the wool
is pulled over us. And you know what I'm talking
about, OK? This is what motivates us. This is what exhorts us. This is what quickens us. This
is what teaches us. This is what matures us. This is what edifies us and feeds
us and comforts us and grows us. This, this is. This is what reminds us that
Christ is the only thing needful in this life. We are all going
to go back out into this world in an hour. And we're going to
think that everything out there is needful in this life. We're
going to try to go get it. And then we're going to come
back into here again, and we're going to realize this is the
only thing needful in life. And then we're going to go back
out into the world and we're going to try to get everything we can
get out there. And then we will come back into
this place and we will realize this is the only thing needful
in this life. And it's a cycle. And that's
why we preach this gospel. That's why we do this. This is
where our assurance comes from. This is what turns us from our
flesh back to Christ again. We go back out there and it's
all about the flesh. And you come back in here and you're
like, oh yeah, it's all about Christ. This is where our rest comes
from, our peace comes from, our hope comes from this. This is
why we do it. All right, number seven, I'll
close with this. We preach this gospel because this is the only
thing that's true. That's why we preach this gospel.
This is the only thing that's true. Christ is the only thing
that's true. If it's not Christ, it's not
true. I don't care who says it. I don't care if I say it. If
it's not Christ, it's not true. Christ is the message that sets
men and women free. If we ever come to know the truth
concerning Christ, the truth will set us free, free, totally
free. That's why we preach the gospel.
That's the reason why. To Him be all the glory forever. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.