Oh, what a blessing it is for
me. Oh, my, what a blessing. Romans chapter 1. Mike, thank
you for that song. My three favorite songs, and
I sing them all the time, is Jesus, Savior, Pilate, and me. I can hear my Savior say, thy
strength indeed is small, child of weakness find in me, and all
in all. And what a wonderful Savior is
Jesus my Lord, what a wonderful Savior to me. Those are the three
songs that I sing to myself all the time. And I'll tell you this at the
outset. If I ever find anybody, I've never met anybody that the
Lord's been better to than me. I've never met anybody yet that
God's been better to than me. If he has, I ain't met him yet,
let's put it that way. I haven't met him. Romans 5,
I mean, what did I say, Romans 1. Let's read just two verses
of scripture. Verse 16 and 17. 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. For therein,
in this gospel, in this blessed gospel of God, is the righteousness
of God revealed, has to be revealed. It's a revelation. From faith
to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. In my title this evening, my
message is five clear points of the gospel. Five clear points
of the gospel. The apostle says here he's not
ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed of it. He's
not ashamed whether he's in Rome preaching or whether he's in
Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world. Wherever he went,
he wasn't ashamed of the gospel. Now there was lots of things
that men knew about that Christ. And the thing that they knew
about him was that he was crucified as a criminal outside Jerusalem. So when Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel, he's dealing with people who had little thought
of Jesus Christ other than that he was a man And he was crucified,
and he was crucified between two thieves because he was treated
as a criminal. So Paul goes around and said,
I'm not ashamed of my relationship with that man who died on that
cross. I'm not ashamed of that man who
was crucified there. You may think that he suffered. You may think that he was justly
deserving what he had coming to him. But I'm telling you,
I'm not ashamed of him. I'm not ashamed of him being
crucified. I'm not ashamed of that cross. upon which he hung. I'm not ashamed that there on
that cross our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not ashamed that on that
cross that man that was hanging there was there as a sacrifice. He was there as a sacrifice and
he was the sacrifice that God himself provided. And he said,
I'm not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's blessed son. But
for many, the gospel they preach and believe I would be ashamed
of it. I'd be ashamed of a gospel that you have to cooperate with
God. That God's not able to do. That
God doesn't have the power, the will, or the ability to save
somebody without their consent. But the question I ask tonight
is, do we really know the gospel? The gospel. God help me, I'm
going to give you five clear points of the gospel. I believe
in the power of the Holy Ghost that they're essential. And they
must be revealed to a man for him to understand and believe
that he believes the gospel and knows the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the first thing I want to say about the gospel is this.
The first clear point is this. That the gospel is definitive.
The gospel can be defined. And it's defined right here in
verse 16. He said, I'm not ashamed, and
this is what it's called, the gospel of Christ. It can be defined. It's the gospel of Christ. It's
not just about Christ. It's the gospel of Christ. You
see, the gospel is not something that's vague. It's not something
you have to be ambiguous about. It's not something we have to
be guessing. It isn't a bunch of people getting together and
testifying. making testimonies of how bad they are, and what
rotten sinners they are, and how mean they've been, and now
they've got their lives straightened out, they've accepted Jesus,
and everything's alright. It's not that. It's not people
having a subjective experience when we talk about the Gospel
of Christ. It's not something that happens. It's defined. And
here it's called the Gospel of Christ, the Good News of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now look over here in Romans
chapter 1 and verse 1. It's called the Gospel of Christ.
And Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated under the gospel of God. And God had promised this
gospel by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. If you can't
find the gospel in Genesis, you can't find it anywhere. If you
can't find the gospel, you know, I heard a fellow say one time,
the gospel's clear in Galatians anywhere. I said, it's as clear
in the Genesis as it is anywhere. If you can't find it there, you're
just blind as a bat. But anyway, he said it's promised
in the Holy Scriptures. And then this is what it's about,
concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. He said that was what
God had to, all the way through the scriptures, He's talking
about His Son. He's pointing to His Son. And
you go through the Old Testament and you can find Christ over
in... Do you know why the genealogies
are in the Old Testament? I'll tell you why. And then they
opened up in Luke and Matthew with the genealogies. To prove
the lineage of Jesus Christ being the Son of David. And that established
my house forever. He sat before the Lord and said,
Lord, who am I? God said, I've got a son coming
through you, and he's going to be the rightful heir to the throne.
He's going to be the king of kings. Your throne will be established
forever, and I'll be the one to establish it. And He goes
on to say concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, made of
the seed of David according to the flesh. And then look what
it says, and this gospel declares Him declared to be the Son of
God with what? With power. What kind of power? Power that raised Him from the
dead. POWER THAT BROUGHT HIM OUT OF THE GRAVE POWER THAT KEPT
HIM ON THE EARTH FOR 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS POWER THAT TOOK
HIM ALL THE WAY BACK TO GLORY AND SET HIM DOWN AT THE RIGHT
HAND OF GOD WITH ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY VESTED IN HIM THROUGHOUT
ETERNITY AND OH BELOVED THE GOSPEL'S GOD MESSAGE CONCERNING HIS SON
HIS BLESSED PERSON OH WHAT A GLORIOUS PERSON OUR SAVIOR IS AND LET
ME ASK YOU IF I ASK YOU RIGHT NOW to describe the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you've been a believer very
long, your mind does not go to a picture that you've seen somewhere.
What does it go to? It goes to a personality. It
goes to a person. A person. You know, if somebody
asks me to describe a person, I don't describe them by their
physical feature, I describe them by their personality. By
the nature that they have. The attributes that they possess.
their generosity, their love, their grace, their power, their
pity, their compassion, the mercy, all the things that makes up
a person in I, Lord Jesus Christ, all that God is and all that
God will ever be dwelt bodily, personally in the Lord Jesus
Christ on this earth. He would let men touch him. He
would let men embrace him. He would let men lay there, a
man like me, lay his head on his bosom and let him rest there. He would let a man sit at His
feet and women sit at His feet. He would sit down with people
and eat across the table from them. He was a man and yet at
the same time those people that He sat and ate with, they worshipped
Him and bowed at His feet and adored Him and blessed Him and
praised Him because of the person. And then His wondrous work. Oh
my! Not only did He do a work, but
He's working right now. Everything He done there, He
does in us now. Oh my, and any gospel, any gospel
that does not set forth the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His fullness. And I tell you, beloved, I've
been trying for, I've been the pastor for 36 years where I'm
at, and I've been trying for years and years to tell Christ
like he is, and I ain't even got close. I fail, I can't talk
about, I can't make it, I cannot say what's worthy to be said
about him. I can't describe him how he's
worthy to be described. But just cause I can't, I'm not
gonna quit. I'm gonna keep telling it, Bob,
I'm gonna keep saying it over and over. and all of His fullness. I'll tell you what, the gospel
that doesn't set forth our Lord Jesus Christ declares Him, sets
Him forth in His blessed person, sets Him forth in His work from
the day He come on this earth. Well, even before eternity, He
was the Lamb slain for the foundation of the world. And His work in
creating this world, He spake and it was done and He commended
and He stood fast. And by His work of upholding
this world, by the word of His power, His work at the right
hand of God, His work on the cross. On and on and on we go
with His work. But I tell you what, if we don't
set forth Christ, there is no gospel. And we'll never have
any power to save. So the gospel is definitive.
Nothing vague about it. It's the gospel of Christ. Let
me tell you something else about the gospel. Look with me in verse
16. The second clear point is this. The gospel is objective. The gospel is objective. For
it says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for what? It
says, for it, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation. What is it? The gospel is. The
gospel is objective. The gospel itself is the power
of God unto salvation. The gospel is an objective message.
It's something that happened outside ourselves. My salvation
was complete in Christ before He ever came to this earth, but
it was actually accomplished when Christ died on the cross.
So all my salvation is all outside myself. My sins were put away 2000 years
ago. I didn't find out about it until
I was I don't know when I found out,
but I'm just glad I found out. That's the only thing that matters. And if you get up and preach,
that's what you're going to tell me, and you are, and you are.
But I believe. I believed then, I believe now.
And the gospel is an objective message, not a subjective message.
It, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel
is. I never will forget, Henry Mahan
said to me one time, and this was when we first met, I tell
you, we just hadn't, and I was sitting and I said, I know Henry
is the gospel, soaked in our tears. Henry leaned across that
desk, pointed his finger at me and he said, it's the gospel,
whether you ever shed a tear or not. And I said, okay. But you see, we want to qualify
it. We want to make it subjective. Like our tears is going to make
the gospel more powerful. Our joy is going to make it more
powerful. No, no, the gospel in and of itself has the power
in it. The gospel is the very power
of God. And it's the power in the Holy Ghost to whom He sends
it. It's the power of God unto salvation. He doesn't say that the Spirit
is the power of God, but the gospel is. The gospel in the
power of the spirit, that's the sword that he uses to save sinners
with. Now I know without a shadow of
a doubt, I know this is so. Nobody is going to be converted
apart from the gospel and apart from the word. Nobody under no
circumstances. And let me look over in first
Peter chapter one with me just a minute. And I know that God's going to,
and you've got too many illustrations in the scriptures. You know,
Abraham, God appeared unto Abraham. He heard what? The Word of the
Lord. The Word of the Lord came unto
Moses. The Word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. It's the Word
of the Lord. And David says, Speak, Lord,
thy servant heareth. Samuel did say, speak Lord, thy
servant here. That Ethiopian eunuch, when he's
on the way going back home, he'd had all the religion anybody
could stand. He went all the way to Jerusalem to go up there
and go through all the sacrifices and all the rituals and all the
washings. And he was as dead and as lifeless when he left
there as he was when he got there. But he was one whom God had his
affection set on, and God sent a preacher to cause his path.
And what did he preach to him, Tom? He preached unto him Jesus
from Isaiah 53. Who is this man talking about?
Himself or some other man? He said, he's not talking about,
who is this man? He said, he started right there.
And he said, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him. He said, oh, really? And he began
to preach Christ unto him. There was a little old thing
of water there, probably about as much as this thing would hold.
And he said, what doeth hinder me? if thou believest with all
thine heart that Jesus is who? The Son of God. Not just Jesus,
your next door neighbor. Not just Jesus who's pecking
on somebody's heart's door. Not just Jesus who's walking
the aisle, begging and pleading with you to open your heart.
No, no. He said this, the Son of God. And he said, I believe
with all my heart. And I tell you, you're going
to hear the gospel. And look what he said here in verse 23,
first Peter 1, 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. Now there's two seeds here. I
want you to notice the corruptible seed. That's all a human nature's
got. That's all we've got. Like begets,
like begets, like a sinner begets a sinner begets a sinner begets
a sinner. Flesh begets flesh. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but there is an incorruptible seed. What is that incorruptible
seed? The Lord Jesus Christ in the
gospel. And he says, but incorruptible
by the word of God. Now what does this word do? It
lives. It says it's alive right there. For the word of God is
quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, quickening. It's alive. And he said, the
word of God which liveth and then not only does it live, but
it lives forever. And then he says, well, but I'm
going to tell you what you all are. You're just grass. Grass. We're going to have 25
degrees at home tomorrow night. Flowers is going to die. Trees
are going to get killed. Grass is going to get bit. That's
us. We appear for a little while,
but look what he says. The grass wither, and the flower
thereof falleth away, but this seed that we're begotten by,
this seed that we're born again by, the word of the Lord, it
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. The words that I speak unto you,
they're spirit and they're life. And I tell you, beloved, and
I say that's why it's by the preaching of the gospel. and
objectively that God saves sinners. And you know what, I'm going
to tell you something else. Whether a preacher preaches in power,
whether he reads, whatever he does, it makes no difference
to that. It's the gospel that's the power of God unto salvation.
Now that's what's the power of God. It's not the preacher. It's
not how he delivers it or anything about it. And that's why I said
it pleased God by the foolishness of what? Preaching. Preaching
to save them that believe. Now, the third clear point of
the gospel is this. So, first of all, it's the gospel
of Christ, and it, the gospel, is the power of God. The third
thing is the gospel is effective. Look what it says there again
in verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's
just defining it. For it, the gospel, is the power
of God. And that's the third thing. It
is the power of God. It's effective. effective unto
salvation. What do I mean? The power of
God is effective. It actually saves. The gospel
actually saves. It does its work. There's no
other power like it on the face of the earth. There's no other
power. I mean, it still works in me
yet to this very day. It works in me all the time.
I love to, I love to, I've said this before, I'd rather hear
good preaching as eat when I'm hungry. Because I can eat anytime,
but you can't hear good preaching anytime. And that's why the gospel
preaching. And I know this, that there's
no other power like it. And yet multitudes, multitudes
perish because to them it's foolishness. It's absolutely foolishness.
I heard somebody saying about the Lord Jesus Christ the other
day. A Jew said this. Said, you know, said he lived
a good long life. In his days he lived for 33 years.
So, you know, he got what was coming to him. He lived longer
than most people would have in those days. Just making fun of him, mocking
him, you know, and it's foolishness to them. There's no cooperation
needed. God is not asking anybody for
anything. He's not got no conditions that
you have to meet. You don't have to have faith
in order to get it. You don't have to repent in order
to get it. All these things are gifts of the gospel. All these
things the gospel brings in power to a man's heart. And much as
they say it's foolish, it just, it don't make sense. You mean
to tell me that you believe that the salvations of the Lord from
start to finish and we don't have no part in it? Yeah. You mean, well, what about my
sincerity? I'm sincere, but that ain't my salvation. What about
my prayers? I pray, but that ain't my salvation.
I read the scriptures, but that's not my salvation. I love to attend
the services, but that's not my salvation. My salvation is
in Christ and the power of God in that gospel. And what makes
the gospel so effective, so powerful? Look at verse 17. This is what
makes it so powerful. For therein, in this gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. That's what
makes it powerful, is God's righteousness is revealed in the gospel. And
when it says from faith to faith, what does that mean? That means
from the very first time we believe to every time we believe, faith
answers to the gospel. Faith reacts to the gospel. Right
now you're hearing by faith. You're hearing a man, you're
hearing words, but you're listening with faith. I believe what I'm
hearing. You respond into what you hear.
You respond to what you believe. So from faith, that faith that
God gives you when you first hear, that faith, that gospel
keeps coming to you and doing the same thing it did at the
beginning, just keeps bringing faith with it and faith keeps
responding to it over and over and over. Is that not right? And oh, listen, that's what,
here's, righteousness is revealed. And there ain't but one righteousness,
and that's the righteousness of God in Christ. And here's
the message, beloved. All men are sinners. There's
no ifs, ands, or buts about that. I know a lot of people say they
aren't, but they are. For by one man sin entered into
this world, and death passed upon all, because all have sinned. Born in sin. You know, when you have kids,
you think, boy, there's no way that, you know, they just, but
they're born in sin. And then you have your grandkids,
and nothing like grandkids, and they're born in sin. And then
you have great grandbabies, and they're born in sin. And it don't
take long to find out that they are sinners because of the way
they act. You know, one of the first words
they learn is, no. No. Or you take, no, don't do
that. Start screaming and hollering
and throwing yourself down in the floor, you know. Because
they want their way. They're selfish as flesh. Of
course, none of you got babies like that, got kids like that.
I know. But, oh, listen, we're dead in
trespasses and sin. Ruined by sin, ruined by sin,
ruined by sin. The effects of sin is manifest
in us continually and constantly. You know, we feel it in our bodies,
we feel it in our minds, we feel it in our hearts, we feel it
in our soul. We feel this power of sin. Ungodly, enmity against
God, guilty before God, deserving of eternal ruin and separation
from God. But God, yet God, in His great
love, wherewith He loved us before the world ever began. He emptied
heaven out and sent His beloved, glorious, blessed, eternal Son
into this world. And He sent Him for one purpose,
one reason, to be a sin offering and a sacrifice and a substitute
for His people. and to establish a righteousness
for them that they couldn't do for themselves. To live a life
they couldn't live, die a death they couldn't die, and all the
other righteousness they could never make. And he came into
this world and every step he took, every word he said, everything
he did, he did not for himself, but for a people God gave to
him in the world before the world ever began. And he came here
and he willingly and gladly, all the sins of all the elect
from old Adam all the way to the last one never be saved,
came marching like great armies and men on the head and the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ that day on that cross. And he bore
all our sins in his own body on that tree. God made his soul
to be an offering for sin. And then, when he cried out and
it's finished on that cross, sins was put away. Death was
conquered, the grave was perfumed, and from now on, beloved, there's
nobody that'll ever have to, for whom Christ died, ever have
to answer for their sins, ever have to face the wrath of God,
never have to face the justice of God, and when we leave this
world, bless his holy name, we'll just pass through the grave,
straight on into glory. and we'll see Him who loved us
and gave Himself for us. And our face will look upon His
face, and oh, we'll be satisfied eternally. I'm satisfied with
Him now, but I'm not satisfied with me, and I'll not be like
David said, I'll not be satisfied until I wake in your likeness. And oh, beloved, to think That
there is a time that's coming because of what Christ did. That
when we face God and we face Him now here, David's set before
the Lord, we're set before the Lord. And God looks at us and
He sees for those whom Christ died and who's trusted Him, He
don't see any sin. He has no wrath, no punishment,
justice is satisfied. And He looks at us and sees nothing
but sinless righteousness and perfection. Now that's right. Ain't that
what the scripture said? He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now forever is a long time. You say, boy, you sure don't
look perfect. You're not looking at me like
God does. That's the way God looks at me. Now, you can go
to sleep with that. And I mean you can face death
with that. You really truly can. Not only for yourself, but other
people that you love. You can face death with that.
I mean you can meet a square eye to eye and say, oh, death,
where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory?
I'm telling you, beloved, and oh, God, And I tell you, He delivered
for judgment all those that He died for. And that's why it's
an effective salvation. It's unto salvation. And our
Lord Jesus Christ brought in an everlasting righteousness.
And He gives this freely to us by His grace. And this justifying
righteousness was revealed in the gospel. Let's look at one
verse of scripture. I want to make a comment on this.
I don't want to hold you too long, and I hope you're not getting
tired. But I'll tell you, look at 2
Corinthians 5.21. Let me just comment on this,
talking about Christ bearing our sin. And I know whatever
this says, it's so. But it says here, there's three
people necessary in substitution. There's God, there's Christ,
and there's us. For He, God, hath made Him sin
for us. Now let me ask you something.
Does anybody here really, really, really, really, really, really,
really knows what sin is? Paul said, I know this, that
sin is exceeding sinfulness. So whatever you can find out
what sin is, what God viewed to be sin, that's what He made
His Son to be. And then He turned around who
knew no sin, that we, that's us, those for whom Christ was
made to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God, we're at I'll be no more righteous when
I get to glory than I am right this moment in time. Can't be
any more righteous. And I'll tell you what, I heard
a fellow today talking about, you know, our sanctification
and, you know, make us more holy and this, that, and the other
in our lives. And he's a good preacher, very good preacher. And he said
that, and I automatically thought, I said, oh my. Holiness is a
state of being. Either you are or you aren't. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified. Did
that mean that Christ was going to make himself more holy? No,
it meant that he's there, he's going to set himself apart. I'm
going to sanctify myself that they might be sanctified through
that work. I'm going to set myself apart
as a sacrifice and a sin offering for these that they might be
made holy by the truth. So if God is holy, Christ is
holy, if God is righteous and Christ is righteousness, then
we are made righteous. Not a, as old Scott said, a pasted
on righteousness. You know, the scriptures just
knows I'm not trusting in the imputed righteousness of Christ.
I'm trusting in Christ who is my righteousness. I have something besides something
stuck on me. Something happened besides a legal transaction.
Something took place that God made Christ to be what I am that
I might be made what Christ is. And you can't be, if God's holy
and Christ is holy, what does that make us? You say we don't act like it.
No, but that's what the gospel does. It tells us what we are. That's what I love about it. That's what I love about it. That's what makes it so wonderful.
A lady told me the other day, You've got a clock somewhere.
What time did I start, do you know? A lady told me the other
day, she said, oh, you just don't know how sinful I am. I said,
oh, my, you just don't have any idea just what an awful, awful
sinner I am. I said, well, yeah, I probably
do, you know. But that's what we need the gospel
for. Tell us what Christ has done for us. give us that peace,
that rest, that comfort, that assurance. Oh yes, I'm a sinner. Man, my... You know, I can't turn a hand
for the difference for any of us in this building. But oh, when I look at you, you
know what I see? I see the spirits of just men made perfect. I see saints sanctified, made
holy, made righteous. by the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
what Christ did. Now let me tell you something
else about the gospel. The fourth thing is this. The
gospel is elective. The gospel is elective. Back
over here it says, the gospel, it is the power of God. And that's what I want to talk.
The gospel is of God. That's what I want to say. The
gospel is the fourth thing. The gospel is the power, it's
of God. It's of God, not of men. The
gospel is God's. It's His message. It's the message
that He Himself gave out. It's the message that He Himself
declared. The gospel is His message about
His Son, about His Son's work. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
this, Father, I finished the work that Thou gavest me to do,
and now give me the glory which I had with You before the world
ever was. Those that You gave me, I'm not lost to one of them.
Those that were given to me, Lord, I'm giving them back to
you. You keep them through your name. And I tell you what, our
Lord Jesus Christ came, lived, died, rose again, and ascended
to glory to save his people. He said they shall call his name
Jesus because he's what? He shall save his people from
their sins. Our Lord Jesus said this. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I lay it down. No man takes it from me. I've
got the power to lay it down. I've got the power to take it
up again. And herein doeth my Father love me. You see the gospel,
this gospel that I'm talking about was God's to purpose. Man had nothing to do with it.
It was God's to purpose. It's God's to perform. It's God's
to proclaim. It's God's to apply. And if anything's
ever done for a sinner on the topside of God's earth, God has
to do it. If God don't do it, it will not
get done. The gospel consistently, by its
message, sets forth the salvation of a people, a particular people.
A fella told me one time, you know, I put these articles in
the newspaper for years and he said, you're always talking about
the Lord's people, God's people. And like, there's just so many,
you know, that you all are the only ones. I said, that's what
God calls them. My people, which are called by
my name. You know, these are my people.
And I tell you, beloved, it's God's people. They're called
those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Called, they're called sheep. They're called the elect. They're
called the called. They're called the people of
God, the children of God. Vessels of mercy, vessels of
honor. Jewels. Peculiar. Redeems. You know, God's got
all kinds of names for us. And then you know what else he
said? I call her by name. Zacchaeus, how do you know my
name? Jeremiah, before you was ever
formed in your mother's belly. Oh, really? Saul, Saul. Who's that voice? Oh, listen. And that's why we're
not on a fool's errand. That's what I love about the
gospel. Gabe, we're not on a fool's errand. No. No, no. These are the ones the gospel
declares that Christ died for. He's elect. And look over in
2 Timothy 1, 9 with me just a minute. This is the verse of scripture
that sealed the gospel to my heart. 2nd Timothy 1.9. This is not, if you've heard
me tell this before, some of you have. But this is the verse
that God used to seal my heart to the gospel. 2nd Timothy 1.9. Talking about the power of God.
And it says, who hath saved us. Everything about our salvation
is always in the past tense. Romans 8.30-34. It's all in the
past tense. Our salvation is in the past
tense. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works. Now
listen to it. But according to his own purpose
and grace. When did we get this? Given us
in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. That just about makes me want
to holler. I got a lot of life for me because of
preaching the gospel because I sure enjoy it. I don't know
if you all just love it. It makes me happy all over. Oh,
I tell you, I love it. And the gospel is the power of
God to apply, and he applies it to whom he will. If he wants
to let you sit in a service for 40 years and pass you by and
save somebody sitting right next to you the first time they come
through the door, that's his business. If he wants to let
you sit and twiddle your thumbs and clean
your fingernails, he'll let you do that. But I do know this,
that when it's his time to cross your path, he gonna cross your
path. And I say it like this and say,
well, you know, God won't force Himself on anybody. If He don't,
you're not going to be saved. That's right. In the day of His
power, we're made willing. And I go so far as to say this,
when Simon Peter drew that sword, he says, all that the Father
giveth me, you know, and he says, you know, the Father which hath
sent me shall draw them. And that's the same word that
God reaches out and gets a hold and He brings them in such a
way that they cannot not come. They cannot not come. And when
you get to where you cannot not come, that's a pretty good indication
that the Lord has saved you. And I'll tell you something else,
once you ever cannot not come, you cannot not keep coming. Can
you? You just cannot not keep coming. How long me and you been coming,
Tom? Long time. Yeah, yeah. And then let me say
last of all, this is my last point, these clear points of
the gospel. The gospel is redemptive. This
is the fifth point, clear point. Back over in our text, the gospel
is redemptive. Because he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ for it is the power, and it's of God,
but it's the power of God unto salvation. The gospel does its
work. And you know why? Because the
Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life, paid the price, shed His
blood, and the scriptures tells us in Hebrews 9-12 that Christ
entered into the holy place with His own blood. with his own blood. Now I'm going
to tell you what my interpretation of that is. It's that when our
Lord Jesus Christ, through the shedding of his blood, I think
in that three hours of darkness on the cross, there was some
kind of transaction took place. And there's an altar and a mercy
seat, everything that was on earth, there's the fullness of
it, and it's all in heaven itself. And our Lord Jesus Christ went
in there with His own blood right into the very presence of holiness
and righteousness. And there's a mercy seat there.
And He put His blood on that mercy seat. And God Himself smelled
that sweet Savior and said, I'm satisfied. And the Son, the last
that He said was, it is finished. And God was satisfied. He says, It's not possible for
a man to be saved by bulls and goats, but He entered once with
His own blood. And you know what He come out
with? Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. And oh beloved,
He suffered the wrath of God against sin, suffered the wrath
of God by His death, shed his blood and God would be just to
deliver from because of him, death, sin, and condemnation
and give us eternal life. Eternal life. You know I'm not
going to get eternal life. He said, we were not redeemed
by such corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ as a lamb slain. from before the foundation
of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who
now believe. And I'm not going to get eternal
life. I've got it now. What you see is my natural life.
A physical body. A tent. And God's going to fold
this up one of these days and the real me is coming out. That
one that Knows Christ, embraces Christ, believes Christ, loves
Christ, needs Christ, worships Christ. Got to have Him. Got to have Him. Oh, what a gospel. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, oh, you're to be praised. You're
to be magnified. You're to be honored above all.
Thank you for this opportunity, this blessed, blessed privilege
to gather with the people of God, to worship together, to
enjoy the gospel together, enjoy the Lord Jesus together, to feast
at the table of our blessed master. God, thank you for this congregation,
this pastor, Brother Tom, all the labor that he's put in, all
the brothers and sisters and all the love and generosity they
manifest here in the gospel, a place to worship, to meet with
God's people. Thank you for them. God, meet
all of our needs. Enable me to continue to preach
to your glory and the good of your hearers. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.