Turn with me back to 1 Corinthians
9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and let's read verse 16. 1 Corinthians 9 16 for though I preach the gospel
I have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon me yea
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel Now for any man who has been
called to preach the gospel, this is an important verse of
scripture to him. This is important. Every time
I come to this, every time I read past this, I single in on this
verse. Every single time I ask myself
some questions, every time. Usually the first one is this.
What is the gospel? Every time. I still do it every
time. What is the gospel? Here's what I want to know. Am I preaching the gospel? Am I? Not was I or will I. Am I? Am I preaching the gospel. Because the gospel is very specific. It's very specific. It is not
a general idea of religion. It's not a general idea of morality. It's not a general idea of right
and wrong. Everybody kind of has that. But
that's not the gospel. And the gospel also is not something
to play around with. It's just not something to play
around with. If a man is going to stand up and preach, he had
better preach the gospel. He better. Let me show you something
over in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 verse 6. Paul writes, I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. Another gospel, he said in verse
7, which is not another. There's not another one. But
there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven, he said, even if an angel from heaven. This would have
been good for Eve to hear. Even if an angel from heaven,
though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you, then 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, then that
ye have received. And what he means by that is,
what is in this book? If any man preaches anything
other than what God has written in his word, he says, let him
be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
So there's only one true gospel, just one, one true gospel. And if a man does not stand up
and preach the gospel of Christ, the gospel that God has declared
in His word, if he does not preach that one and only true gospel, God will put him in hell for
it. That's what he's saying. Let him be accursed. God will
put him in hell for it. So this is an important verse
of scripture to me. It's extremely important. I want to be honest with everybody.
I want everybody to know that a great majority of the people
who are in hell are preachers. I want everybody to know that. A great majority of the souls
that are in hell are preachers who did not stand up and would
not stand up and tell men and women the truth of what God has
said. So every time I come to this,
and I will tell you too, there are so many scriptures that tell
us that. Matthew 7, we go there all the time. He said, broad
is the way that leads to destruction. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way that leads unto life. Few there be that find it." He
said, many are going to come to me in that day and say, Lord,
Lord, we preached in your name. He's going to say, depart from
me, I never knew you. You that work iniquity, that's
sin. Matthew 15, the Pharisees, the disciples came and said,
the Pharisees are not happy with what you're saying, the preachers.
The preachers don't like, they're offended. He said, they're blind
leaders of the blind. He said, if the blind lead the
blind, they're all going to fall into the ditch. Leave them alone.
So I don't say this with an angry and critical spirit. I say this
self-examiningly. Self-examiningly. Am I preaching
the gospel? Now here's another question I
ask myself. If it's so serious, I mean if it's so serious, why
am I doing this? Why do I preach the gospel? Why? Why me? Why am I doing this? The true answer is God called
me to do it. God called me to do it. He put
me in the ministry of preaching his gospel, but from a personal
point of view, me just speaking from my heart. Why do I have a heart to do nothing
else for the rest of my life? But preach God's gospel. Why did I quit doing what I was
doing before? And start doing this right here.
My own personal answer is in Romans 10. Go with me back over
to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 1 says, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. That's my heart's desire. That's
why I preach the gospel. is that they might be saved.
God, the reason God lays it on the heart of a man to stand up
and tell him what God has said, even though they know the flesh
does not care for this, it's because I want them to be saved. I want them to be spared, eternally
saved. Verse 1, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Kingsport and Israel Or wherever God would
send this gospel is that they might be saved for I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God. I acknowledge that. I
acknowledge that. I mean, buddy, they are loading
Facebook up with it. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. The reason that I preach the
truth of God's Word is because men and women have no idea who
God really is. That's why I preach the gospel.
They have no idea who God is. God. Who they also call Mother
Nature. Well, who is God? Who is God? They have a zeal. They have an
interest. There's an interest there. They
have an interest in God. They have a sincerity. I'm telling
you, they are sincere. They have an opinion about it.
They have a passion. They have a drive, but it's not
according to knowledge. And what that means is, they're
all going to go meet this God. They're all going to go meet
this God, stand before this God, expecting Him to be a certain
way. Everybody has an idea of God
in their mind. And they think, this is the God
I'm going to go meet. But once they actually do and
stand before Him, they're going to realize, He's not like I thought
He was. And it's going to be shocking. Every man or woman who has a
zeal of God but not according to knowledge, that's going to
be the shocker of a lifetime. Face to face, they're going to
at that moment know this. At that moment, they're going
to know this. God is holy. That's what they're going to
find out. God is holy. Now let me ask you a question.
What does that mean? We can say that, anybody can
say that. Would anybody disagree with me?
If I went anywhere and said God is holy, would anybody disagree
with that? Yep, God is holy. What does that mean? Turn with
me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 verse 1 says, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now who is speaking right there?
Who is saying that? That is the Son of God. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the one right there who
came to this earth and he took the sin of his people upon himself. He took it off of them and he
laid it upon himself and then he went and stood before the
God that men and women are going to go stand before today. Okay? He went and stood before the
exact same God that men and women will go meet today. The exact
same, he said, I'm the Lord, I change not. The same yesterday,
today, forever. Same God. And he stood before that God
with the sin that he bore. And as he stood there, God the
Father looked at his own son. and said, Forsaken. Forsaken. Away with him. Away with him. And Jesus Christ the Lord cried
in verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art
thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent. But. But. I know why you have forsaken
me. I know why you will not help
me. I know why I cry and you hear
not. It's because, verse 3, thou art
holy. That's why. Thou art holy. That means he
must do what's right. That's what it means. He must
do what's right. And when sin comes before him,
it must be punished. That's what holy means. That's
what holy means. I preach the one and only true
gospel of God because men and women really have no idea who
God is. No idea who God is. I'll give
you another reason why I preach the gospel. Look back at Romans
10 with me. Romans 10 verse 1 says, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. No, it sounds like your heart's
desire is that you go up there and offend everybody. No, it's
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. I preach the truth of God's Word
because men and women have no idea how sinful they really are. That's the reason I preach. That's
the reason I preach. They're going around trying to
establish their own goodness before God. That's what men and
women are doing, running around. We've got to have a bake sale,
we've got to have a yard sale, we've got to have a... Why? So we can do good. We're going
to establish our good that we can bring to God. But they're ignorant of God's
standard that He requires. That's what it is. They're ignorant
of God's standard that He requires. Let me show you something in
Leviticus 13. Leviticus 13, look at verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his
flesh a rising, a scab or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of
his flesh like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought
unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priest, And
the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh,
and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague
in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague
of leprosy. And the priest shall look on
him and pronounce him unclean." If he has one little spot in
his skin, one little spot, One hair that has turned white. He's
unclean. Unclean. Pronounce him to be
a leper. Now, why did God put that in
his word? Why would God put that in his
word? That's how it is with sin. God always uses leprosy to describe
sin. Paul told the Galatians this,
he said, if a man or woman doesn't fulfill every single law and
commandment in this book, he's cursed. That's what he told them.
If he did all of them but one, he's cursed. Why? God said so. God said so. I've heard people
make the statement, There's a little bit of good in everybody. Somebody told me that one time.
Now there's a little bit of good in everybody. Even though that's
not true. Even though that's not true.
Romans 3.12 says there is none that doeth good, no not one. There's none that doeth good.
None? No. No not one. Our Lord said there's
none good but God. Isn't that what He said? But
people make that statement, there's a little bit of good in everybody.
And even though that statement is not true, and what I mean
by that is, even if it were true, there's a little bit of good
in everybody. Even if that was true, what people don't realize
is it only takes one freckle of sin to send a person to hell's
eternity. That's what they don't understand.
One. You know why? Because God is holy. One freckle
of sin. And they're trying to argue their
case before God on a couple of good deeds. Just a couple of
good deeds that they did in their life. Well, now I did do this
now. I mean, you saw it. And I did
that. I did this and I did that. ignoring the mountains of sins
they've committed. Just the mountains of sins they've
committed. Just the pride in that alone
would send a man to hell. Let me show you something in
Acts chapter 10. I won't be much longer, but this
is the most important message in my life. Acts chapter 10 verse 37. That word I say ye know which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about
doing good. He went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with
him. Everything he did in life was
good. That's all he did was good. That's all he did was good. No bad deeds. No bad thoughts
like we have. No hate. No pride. All he did, everywhere he went,
was heal the blind. Heal the deaf. Heal the lame. Cleanse the lepers. Raise the
dead. That's all he did. Everywhere
he went, he healed them all. And as soon as he took the sin
of his people on himself, God killed him. That's all he did was good. He
had mountains of good. And as soon as he laid that sin
on himself, God killed him. Now if God killed his own son,
what will keep him from killing you and me? That's why I preach the gospel.
That's the whole reason I preach the gospel. It's the whole reason
I'm standing here. I gladly preach the gospel because
men and women have no idea who Christ really is. And they have
no idea what he really did. No idea. They know he died. Does anybody not know Jesus died? They know he died. They have
no idea what that means. They know he arose. If you believe
that Jesus died and has risen again, everybody knows that.
They have no idea what that means. Go back with me to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 1 says, 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. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If God killed
his own son, what will stop him from killing you and me? Let's
just flip that question around. Let's just flip it around backwards,
okay? What will stop him from killing you and me? God killed
his own son. God killed his own son. I preach
the gospel because men and women have no idea how merciful the
Lord Jesus Christ is. They don't have any idea how
merciful the Lord Jesus Christ is. He willingly, he didn't have
to. He willingly took the sin of
his people upon himself, knowing that he would have to suffer
God's wrath for it. He knew that. Why would he do that? It's because
he's merciful. He is merciful. We could never
keep what God has commanded in this book. Some people came to
him and they said, I kept all those things. He said, you don't
realize, it's not in deed, it's in thought and in the motive
of the heart. He said, if you've ever gotten
angry at somebody, you murdered them. Broken. He is so merciful, we could never
keep what He's demanded in this book. Never. So Christ kept it
for us. He kept every bit of it for us. And because God is holy, and
because we sinned against His law, we had to be punished. That's all there is to it. And
that punishment was death. The wages of sin, is death. So Christ in mercy made our sin
his own. And Christ in mercy made our
punishment his own. And now Christ is the end of
the punishment for breaking the law to every soul on earth? No. To every soul that God gives
faith to believe. Now our text says, go with me
back to 1 Corinthians 9. Our text in 1 Corinthians 9 verse
16 says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to
glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me. If I preach not the gospel, the
gospel is the truth about God. He's holy. The gospel is the
truth about man. He is sinful. The gospel is the
truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is merciful. He is merciful. The gospel is the truth about,
it's not a lie. It's not this lie that people
tell. Our Lord said, you beware of false prophets. They're coming
in sheep's clothing, but inside they're ravening wolves. The
gospel is the truth about salvation. And here's the truth about it.
It's good news. It is such good news. Why is
it good news? You just told me it wasn't for
everybody. You just said it's for who he chooses to give that
faith to. How can I have any assurance
in that? How is that good news to me?
I'll show you. Go to 1 Timothy and I will close.
Go to 1 Timothy. 1st Timothy 1. Now it is true
that Christ did not come to show mercy to every soul on this earth.
It is true. But I'll show you who He did
come to show mercy to. If this describes you, if this
describes you, you're going to find this to be the greatest
news you've ever heard in your life. 1st Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. If that describes you, he came
to save sinners. Paul said, of who I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtained
mercy. Paul said because I'm a sinner
and because I'm the greatest sinner I know, that's why I obtained
mercy. That's the reason. Now here's
the good news of the gospel. God is so holy. Man is so sinful. But there is a mediator between
God and man. Christ Jesus the Lord. And Jesus
Christ came into this world to lay hold of sinners. Sinners. He said, I came to seek and to
save that which was lost. I didn't come to call the righteous
holy rollers. I came to call sinners. That's
wonderful news to me because I'm a sinner. I am a sinner. And if you are an out and out,
ruined, no good, guilty sinner, Then the gospel, the one and
only true gospel is your gospel. It is your gospel. The good news
is if you're a sinner, the good news is your good news. That's who he sinned for. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, if you are a sinner, you come right
on up to me. rest, absolute rest and peace
from all the judgment of God for your sin. That's the truth
if I've ever told it. That's the truth if I've ever
told it. And by the way, it's free. It's all free. All right,
let's stand together.