I want to bring the message this
morning out of Romans chapter one, verse 16. Paul writes, 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. There was a time when the apostle
Paul was ashamed of the gospel. He was ashamed of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In fact, he hated the Lord Jesus
Christ. He went about doing all that
he could do to stamp out that name. But God met him one day
on the road to Damascus. And he made himself known to
him, the Lord did. And he struck Paul down. And
from that day forward, Paul was never the same. Paul became a
flaming witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. He became an apostle. He became one of the chief apostles
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul himself said that he
was the chief of sinners, that the Lord came into the world
to save sinners of whom he was the chief. Now we have a gospel
to preach. We have good news for sinners. I don't have good news for anyone
else, but I do have good news for sinners. I have a sinner's
gospel. There is salvation. There is
forgiveness from sin. There is salvation from sin,
from the power of sin, the guilt of sin, and someday the presence
of sin. But we have a gospel to preach,
and that's the title of the message, The Gospel We Preach. We know
this, the gospel we preach is about a Savior who came from
glory into this world. The gospel we preach is about
almighty God who became a man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. God became a man. God became
the savior of sinners. As one of the old prophets wrote,
he said, God has become my salvation. My salvation in Jesus Christ
is the salvation of God. So we have a gospel to preach
and our gospel says that a savior came from glory and that he became
incarnate. And as the God man, he lived
a life of perfection. The Lord Jesus Christ knew no
sin. He never had a sinful thought.
He never spoke a sinful word. He never had a sinful action.
Everything he did, he did to perfection. Everything He did,
He did in righteousness and true holiness. Because He's God, He
can't sin. He's the living God. We have
a gospel that says that He was crucified, that the Lord of glory
came into this world, took upon Him flesh. He became bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh, and went to the cross and was
crucified. He was put to death in the flesh,
as the scripture says. He was put to death in the flesh.
And he was put to death in the flesh, not for anything he did. He was put to death in the flesh
as a substitute. He was the substitute for a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. He took their place. He took
their hell. He took the penalty of their
sins that the law had laid against them. He took it and he satisfied
justice is what he did. And then he was buried. He was
buried in a grave. What does that mean? That means
he really died. He really experienced death.
For everyone for whom he died, he experienced the death they
should have died. And then he was risen and ascended.
He did not stay dead. Now listen, a dead Christ can't
save anyone. It's the risen Lord who saves.
Yes, he died. Yes, he was buried. but he's
not in the grave. He's seated at God's right hand.
He's risen again. How important is this? It's extremely
important because his resurrection says that God has accepted him,
that God has accepted his work and God cannot accept anything
short of perfection. The scripture says it must be
perfect to be accepted. Everything about Jesus Christ
from his person to his work is absolutely perfect, and that
is the righteousness of the saints, His righteousness, His obedience.
And the gospel we preach says that He's coming again. You know,
the Old Testament says someone's coming, the gospel says He has
come, and the epistles say He's coming again. The Lord Jesus
Christ is coming again. Now, when? Only the Father knows,
but He's coming again. The gospel we preach is for a
particular people. It's for sinners. It is for the
ungodly. Christ died for sinners. And
he's going to save every sinner for whom he died. You know, Charles
Spurgeon said, a sinner is a sacred thing for the Holy Spirit has
made him such. It takes the Holy Spirit to make
a man say, I'm guilty without excuses. It takes the Holy Spirit
to quicken a man and give him an understanding of who God is
and what he is by nature and his need of Jesus Christ and
how the Lord Jesus Christ meets that need. So we have a gospel
to preach and it's for sinners. You find me a sinner, a real
sinner, and I can say to that sinner, Christ died for you,
but you can't even find sinners in prison. Everyone in prison
has an excuse for why they did what they did. You know, David
said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight, that you may be justified when you judge me. If you send me to hell, you're
right. If God sends me to hell, he'd be a just God. I understand
that. I know that. And I make no excuse
for anything I've ever said, thought, or done. It's me. It's
sin. It's what I am. That's why Paul
said, oh, wretched man that I am. Paul did not say that and would
not say that before God saved him. It was after God saved him,
he said, oh, wretched man that I am. He knew that, as he said,
that in my flesh dwells no good thing. There's nothing in my
flesh, there's nothing in me naturally that's any good whatsoever. And when I speak of good, When
God, let me say it this way, when God speaks of good, it's
on a completely different level than when we speak of good. When
God speaks of good, God is speaking of perfection. It's like that
young man who came to the Lord and he said, good master, and
the Lord stopped him. And he said, why are you calling
me good? There's none good but God. And
what he's saying to that young man, If I am good, it is because
I am God. If I'm not God, I'm not good. If all you see me as is just
another good man, know this, there's none good, no, not one,
except God. And the reason Jesus Christ is
good is because he's God. So we have a gospel to preach
and it's to a particular people, it's for sinners and it's only
for sinners. No one else need apply. It is for sinners he came. It is for sinners he died. It
is for sinners that he was risen again from the dead. It is for
sinners he intercedes. He makes intercession for the
transgressors. It is a sinners only gospel. If you're not a sinner, I don't
have any good news for you. I only have good news for sinners.
And then the gospel we preach, we preach as a certainty. What
I'm telling you, what the Bible gives us is true. It's true and it's truth. The gospel is real. The gospel
is ordained of God. It is certain because it's ordained
of God. It's of God. It is God who came
up with the gospel. The gospel we preach is the only
way to God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes into the Father
but by me. The gospel we preach is the only
gospel that can save. There is no other way of salvation. There is no other savior. Paul
wrote to the Galatians and he was so disappointed in them that
they had turned to another gospel, which he said is not another.
And in another place, he said, they'll come preaching another
gospel and another Jesus. They will use his name, but they
won't preach his person. They won't preach his work according
to the Word of God. But the gospel we preach, the
gospel that is of God, it concerns the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
for sinners, it is certain, it is real, it is sure, and it's
the only gospel that saves. Jesus Christ is the only mediator
between God and men. There's no other gospel, there
is no other way that has such a mediator. There's no other
high priest. You know, if you come before
God There's two things you better have. You better have a high
priest and you better have a sacrifice. You better have blood because
God cannot be approached apart from that. He made that very
clear in the Old Testament. And we have that in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel we preach, we preach
as a common salvation as spoken of in Jude chapter one, verse
three. It is common because it's the
same all over the world. It reaches, over class, race,
color, nationalities. The gospel we preach out of the
scriptures is the same all over the world. We don't have a gospel
for the people in China, and a gospel for the people in Africa,
and a gospel for the people in America. There's only one gospel,
and that gospel concerns the Lord Jesus Christ, his death,
burial, and resurrection, because people all over the world are
the same. They are lost. They are dead
in trespasses and sins. That explains the human race,
dead in trespasses and sins. We do not have a different one
for this group or that group. There's only one gospel for all
whom God will save. And then the gospel we preach
is a gospel that delivers. It delivers from sin. It delivers
from the guilt of sin. It delivers from the power of
sin. As Paul wrote in Romans, sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you're not under the law, you're under grace. But
sin is not gonna control you no more. Sin is not your master.
Right now, everyone who is not in Christ, who does not believe
on Christ, look to Christ, love Christ, they are under the power
of sin. Sin rules their life. It's their
master. Sin is their master. And then
the gospel we preach delivers from the wrath to come. Everyone
who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is delivered from the
wrath to come. Yes, wrath is coming. This whole
world is under condemnation. It is just waiting on execution
day. People could laugh at this, make fun of us, but I'm telling
you, it's gonna happen. God's wrath is gonna fall on
this world. But in Christ, Everyone in Christ is delivered from the
wrath to come because he took their wrath and it's over. And
then the gospel we preach delivers from self. I tell you my worst
enemy is me. It's me. It's that indwelling
sin. It's that sinful nature I was born with. It is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is able to deliver me from sin and the
wrath to come and from the power of Satan. from the power of my
indwelling sin. If a sinner is to be saved, it
will be by the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will be by Christ,
not just a story. It'll be by Christ himself, but
he is the gospel. Jesus Christ is the gospel. It's not just a story about him.
He is the good news. He is the salvation. Jesus Christ
is my salvation. Salvation is not me and Christ
working together, working this thing out. It's Jesus Christ
saving me by His blood, His righteousness, His sacrifice, His intercession,
His mediatorial work for me. He is my salvation. And the gospel
we preach is the power of God to keep me saved. Can God keep
me saved? Absolutely. But I'll tell you
what, the scripture says we are kept by the power of God through
faith. And Jesus Christ is the object of faith. We are kept
by the power of God, looking unto Jesus Christ and continually
throughout our whole life on this earth, continually trusting
Him for our daily needs and for our needs when we stand before
God. When I stand before God, I fully
trust that Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. He's all my
hope. He's all I need. wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. I have in Jesus Christ all I
need. Now, I say to you, get in the
Word of God. Find out who Jesus Christ is.
Seek the Lord and look to Him. Trust Him. Until next week, I
pray the Lord will bless you.