If you want to study a man who did all that
he did with enthusiasm, then you need to devote some time
to studying about Saul of Tarsus. And we know that when he was
converted, he was known then as Paul, the great apostle of
Christ. No matter what he did, he put
his whole heart into it. You know, the scripture says
for us, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do it wholeheartedly
as into the Lord and do it for the glory of God. Never was there
ever a person who did everything wholeheartedly for God faithfully,
faithfully following the will of God in every facet of his
life as our Lord Jesus Christ did. And actually, everything,
even before his conversion, he just put his whole heart and
soul and his mind and his body to doing what he felt like was
the right thing to do. When he was an enemy of the gospel,
He did that wholeheartedly. He was committed to stamping
out the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to do away
with God's church and with those who believe the gospel of God's
free grace and salvation through a crucified, buried, risen, exalted
Savior. He wanted to kill them. And if
He couldn't kill them, at least cast them into prison. I mean,
he was committed into everything that he did. He didn't know how
to go about anything half-heartedly. He put his whole person, his
whole being into everything that he did. When it came to the opposition
of the gospel, the opposition of Jesus Christ, he said this
in Philippians chapter three and verse six. He said, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church. He said, touching the righteousness
which is according to the law of God, blameless, blameless. He set himself to live according
to the Ten Commandments. And though he didn't have an
understanding of what the Ten Commandments were, the reason
the Ten Commandments were given, which they were given to show
us our sin. They weren't given to us as a
pattern to live by. They were given to shut our mouths
and show us our guilt before a holy God. but he was committed
to living the best life that he could live before his conversion,
not realizing that the best he could do was abomination in the
sight of God. He said in Galatians 1 in verse
14, he said, he profited in the Jews' religion above many mine
equals in mine own nation. being more exceedingly zealous
of the traditions of my fathers. And then the sovereign Redeemer
got a hold of his heart, saved him by his grace, and then he
was wholeheartedly committed to Christ. He said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, And I, brethren, speaking to the people of the Church of
Corinth. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God. Now listen to what he says. For
I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. This was His message, and He
was committed to preach that message everywhere He went. And when He came across any group
of people, be it in the synagogue or be it in a Greek gathering,
He was committed to preaching the gospel of the grace of God
to sinners in Christ. He said in Romans chapter one,
he said, I'm debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise, so as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. And
he continued, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it's the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe
it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And in the portion
of Scripture I read to you, he said to these Ephesians, he said,
and now behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. The
Spirit of God had bound him by his grace. He was a debtor to
the mercies of God. On the Damascus road, he had
been unhorsed by the sovereign Christ. He had been made a vessel,
a vessel that was receptive to the gospel of the grace of God. So he says, now behold, I go
bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, except this. He says, the Holy Spirit has
witnessed to me, has told me that in every city bonds and
afflictions abide me. But he said, none of these things
move me. Neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus. Well, what
was that ministry? He says, to testify the gospel
of the grace of God to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ.
What I'm trying to tell you is everything he did, he did it
with great enthusiasm. He did it with all of his ability.
He did it with utmost zeal and determination. And after God saved him by His
grace, he went forth to preach a specific message of a specific person and that
person's specific work. He went forth with a specific
message, the gospel of the grace of God. And the specific person
He went forth to preach was the Lord Jesus, who is the Christ,
the Son of God. And He went forth to preach that
specific person and His very specific work, His substitutionary,
justice-satisfying death upon the cross of Calvary. And He
was fully committed to preach that message. And He refused
to be sidetracked. You see, the gospel of the grace
of God descenders through the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the subject of every page of Holy Scripture. You open your Bible at any point,
from Genesis 1 to Revelation chapter 22. If you want to see Christ in
that passage, ask the Spirit of God to give you eyes to see
Him, because I'll tell you this, He's there. He's there. The gospel is on every page.
It is a particular message of good news for sinners, and we
must fully preach that message. I have one verse that I want
you to look at, and that is in the book of Romans, chapter 15. And you'll forgive me, I don't
have the time to fully expound the context of this. But the verse that I'm going
to read, and specifically the portion of the verse that I'm
going to stress to you, sets forth what I've been trying to
introduce to you as to what Paul was committed to do. Romans chapter
15 and verse 19. 15, 19, through mighty signs and wonders,
that is through mighty miracles, that God gave him by the power
of the Spirit of God. And God gave him unusual gifts.
There's no question of that. Now, I have no apostolic gifts. Because there are no apostles
today. I differed greatly with a preacher
a few years ago who tried to convince me that there was a
man in Africa who was one of the apostles of Christ. God put him in a trance, he said,
and he went to heaven, and the Lord showed him all of heaven.
Then he said, I am anointing you to be my apostle on earth. Now you hear me. There is one
apostle today, one only, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is that one that God sent into this world. He is the one
through whom God speaks in this world. He is the one of whom
God's preachers preach in this world. He is the apostle and
high priest of our profession. Read Hebrews chapter number three. And there's no one today who
has any apostolic gifts. Preachers say they have power,
or they say God has given them power to heal the sick. And some
say to even raise the dead. And they say things like, if
you're sick, it's because you don't have enough faith. That is absolutely wrong. People have been getting sick
throughout the 6,000 years that this earth has existed. And moreover,
the people of God, many of the people of God have lived and
died under agony of disease and pain and sickness. You see, our God sends these
afflictions to glorify Himself in His sustaining grace that
He gives us. The fact of the matter is you're
going to get sick. And I do not deny that the Scripture
says the prayer of faith shall save the sick. We must pray in
faith and ask God to heal our relatives, our friends who are
sick with bodily ailments. But when all is said and done,
something's gonna take us out of this world. That's just a
fact. That's just a fact. Nobody has
the power to heal today. There are no apostles. No one
today can speak in what is in the scriptures referred to tongues,
which would be better translated languages. You see those apostolic
gifts, they were given to those men and to others within the
early church. to set forth the gospel of the
grace of God to sinners, and that ability to speak in a foreign
language, to preach the gospel in a language that they had never
studied, was the gift of what we would call tongues, and it
would have been better translated, as I say, as languages. I don't
have that gift. I can't go into a foreign country
And I mean, I took Spanish in high school, but please don't
ask me to say much in Spanish. I just don't have that gift.
It would be wonderful if God was so pleased to grant that
gift. But those gifts died out with
the apostles. Understand that they died out
with the apostles. Those gifts were given to those
early preachers to validate their ministry and show that the message
that they had and that they delivered was given by God so that they
could preach the gospel without having to go into school, to
a language school and learning a foreign language that they'd
never been introduced to before. In the book of Acts, the second
chapter, Those early preachers, they preached the gospel in foreign
languages and the people were amazed. They said, we can hear
the gospel in our own language. It wasn't some kind of heavenly
gibberish. that nobody could understand.
It wasn't a special heavenly language that God gave them.
It was the language of the grace of God to sinners through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were able
to preach the gospel in a foreign language that they had never
heard before, never seen before, never spoken before. And they
understood what they were saying. It says there are no prophets
today. Prophecy is ended. Read in 1
Corinthians chapter 13. There are no apostles, there
are no prophets as such. The word prophet can mean forth
speaking and also speaking of things beforehand. In that sense,
we could use the word prophet rather loosely and say we're
foretelling the gospel of the grace of God, because that's
what all the Old Testament prophets did. They foretold Christ is
coming, Messiah is coming, Emmanuel, God with us. That was their message. They foretold that they also
foretold things that had not yet happened that they were going
to happen. And so their emphasis was that
the Messiah was coming. He hadn't come yet. How'd they
know that? God the Spirit gave them the
message that they had to preach. Understand this. Now listen to
me. All that you need to know about
the things of God are in this book right here. This is the full and final revelation
of God. Hebrews 1 says, God in olden
times, he spoke in various ways to various people through various
instruments. But in these last days, he has
spoken unto us through his sons. That's what the Bible says. And when the apostle Paul, when
he went out preaching, He could preach in tongues. He could preach
in foreign languages. He had the ability to heal. And
that's what he's talking about right here. Through mighty signs
or miracles and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God. He
didn't have that power in and of himself. He had that power
through the gift of the Holy Ghost. He says, so that from
Jerusalem and throughout all different areas, he says this,
and this is the statement I wanna camp on for just a little bit
here. Having fully preached the gospel
of Christ. The word fully is an interesting
word. It means something that is absolutely
filled. Now you may say that this is
a glass of water and it's full of water. My wife told me, don't forget
to drink water when you're preaching. Well, I would say, yeah, I could
say, well, this is a full glass of water, but it really isn't,
is it? And before I took that sip, it wasn't full then. In
order for that glass to be full, nothing else could be added to
it. Is that correct? Well, here's
what Paul says. I have fully preached the gospel
of Christ. Nothing else could be added to
it. This is a summary statement of his entire ministry. He fully preached the gospel
of Christ. Now four quick things, because
I'm interested in fully preaching the gospel of Christ and leaving
nothing out. You see, a man may say many good
things and many true things, and lots of preachers do, but
they don't fully preach the gospel. It's not filled all the way up
to the brim, not filled up to the top. I want to, by the enablement
of God the Spirit, to fully preach the gospel. Now when can it be said that
a man has fully preached the gospel? And I don't know of a
more important message that I could deliver than this one. Here are
four things. And it's only when a man honestly
sets forth these four great truths that he has fully, fully preached
the gospel. When can it be said that a man
has fully preached the gospel? Number one, when he's put God
in his rightful place, on the throne. Sovereign, that is, he reigns
and he does whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to, dealing
with whomsoever he wants to. Most people in religion don't
even know what the word sovereign is. Well, the root word is rain. Many years ago, I think it was
our 25th wedding anniversary, we went on vacation to Maui,
and I was looking for somewhere to go and worship. I called several
church, went to the yellow, they actually had yellow pages back
then. You remember when they had yellow pages back in the
old days? So I went and looked in the yellow
pages, looked for somebody, maybe Sovereign Grace Churches or something
like that. Couldn't find any, so I called
several churches. I called, one church said Grace
Baptist Church. That's a good name for a church,
Grace Baptist Church, if they're true to that. I called him up
and asked to speak to the pastor and secretary. He said, well,
he's not here. Maybe I could help you. And I
said, well, I'm looking for some church that preaches the sovereign
grace of God to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
well, what do you mean by sovereign? Well, I really don't need to
go down this road much further. She doesn't even know what the
word sovereign means, but I told her it means God reigns. He reigns
in creation, He reigns in providence, He reigns in grace. He gives
His grace to whomsoever He will. God says, I'm the potter, you're
the clay. I'll mold you into whatever kind
of vessel I want to mold you into. That's what sovereign means. Means God does anything he wants
to, and he answers to nobody. You answer to a lot of people,
so do I. God answers to nobody. He told
Job, I don't have to give an account to you. We have to give
an account to God, but He doesn't owe us any explanation for what
He does or why He does what He does. He doesn't owe us an explanation
of why He shows mercy to this one and leaves another one in
error. Why He shows saving grace to
this one and doesn't show it to another one. God doesn't know
us an explanation as to why He loved Jacob and why He hated
Esau. That's God's business. That's
what sovereign means. He does what He wants to. He's
the Creator. He gives life physically and
spiritually. I've had, of late, God in His
providence has directed me to a few physicians. And I saw another
one Friday. And we were talking, and I said,
I appreciate your expertise and your care. He said, well, I try
to deal as best I can with every patient and give my attention
to them and do all that I can. He said, you know, there's only
so much I can do. And I said, I understand. I said,
you know, I preach the gospel. But I said, I preach to people
who are by nature dead. I said, you don't work on dead
patients, do you? He said, no. I said, well, I
have dead patients. And I said, they need life. And he said, yeah. And I said,
but the kind of life they need, I can't give it. And they can't
give it to themselves. Only God the Holy Spirit can
give it, and that's called the new birth. He said, yeah, that's
right. I hope he knows something about
the gospel of Christ. Tried to tell him. Our Lord,
he's the author of life. created the earth. Vegetable
life, animal life, human life, spiritual life, eternal life. You didn't give yourself physical
life and you sure as shooting can't give yourself spiritual
life. That's a gift only God can give. He's the creator. Now,
I'll tell you, true gospel preaching, fully preaching the gospel, means
that the preacher exalts God as He is. You can be sure of
that. I'm not up here telling you what
God needs from you, or what God wants from you, or God has a
wonderful plan for you, but it'll never come to fulfillment unless
you enable Him. I'd be preaching the wrong God
then. I'm preaching to the God who
does his will among all the armies of heaven. How many angels are
there? I don't know how many angels
there are, but he rules them all. Among all the armies of heaven
and among all the inhabitants of the earth. And whether you
realize it or not, whether you recognize it or not, he's your
God. and he will do with you according
to his good pleasure. When can it be said that a man
fully preaches the gospel? When he puts God in his rightful
place. God's the creator. God guides
everything. That's called divine providence. He's guiding everything to the
end that he has ordained. Preachers say God has a wonderful,
wonderful plan for your life if you'll, oh, stop. Actually, the word PLAN, plan,
that's what we do. We're planning to go out to lunch
today. And I reckon that that'll come
to pass, but it might not. Might have a flat tire on the
way. One of us might get quite sick. So we make our plans. God doesn't
make plans. God has his purpose. He says
in Isaiah, I am the Lord. That which I have purposed will
come to pass. Your plans don't always come
to pass, do they? Of course not. But his purpose
can't be frustrated or thwarted. Preacher's not preaching the
gospel fully unless he puts God in his rightful place. And I'll
tell you something else. A preacher who is fully preaching
the gospel of Christ puts man in his rightful place. And I'll
tell you where that is. On the dung hill. None of us are worth anything. Not spiritually. We wandered away from God. We
fell in Adam's fall. The Bible says every man at his
best state is altogether vanity. You know what vanity is? Poof,
that's it. That's vanity, poof, a puff of
air. That's what you are in your best
state. That doesn't say anything about
your worst state. That's the best that you are
is nothing. You see, we're truly beggars
before God. Got nothing to give him. We're sinners, lost and undone. God is holy, righteous, just,
sovereign in all of his ways. We're just poor sinners. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None do good. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Christ said, no man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. I'll raise
him up the last day. The Lord says through the writing
of Jeremiah, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard
his spots? Then may you also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. We may say of somebody, you know,
she's a good person. He's a good person. And we understand
what we mean by that. They're nice folks, all of you. All you're nice folks, all of
you that I know. As far as I know, more than likely,
though, you're keeping something from me, and I'm glad you do. And I'll tell you something,
and I'm keeping some things from you, and I'm glad you don't know
all that's about me. Brother Tim, James says, he said,
I'm a fraud, but I hope you don't find out about it or something
along that. Well, that's true of all of us.
Come on now, let's be honest. When a man preaches the gospel
fully, he puts man in his, Rightful place. We're despicable rebels
against God. We're guilty by imputation, that
means Adam's sin has been charged to us, but we're also guilty
by personal transgressions. There's none good, no not one. When it can be said that a man's
fully preaching the gospel, When he puts God in his rightful place,
hear me, God's no beggar. And God doesn't even offer you
anything. He's the sovereign king. The
king doesn't offer, the king commands. And you better be obedient to
the gospel or he'll put you in hell. When can it be said that man
fully preaches the gospel? When he's put man in his rightful
place. Thirdly, a man is fully preaching the
gospel when he puts Jesus Christ and his work of redemption in
its rightful place. Must tell who he is in his Godhead
and in his humanity. Preachers running all over the
world today saying, just believe on Jesus. And I want to jerk them out of
the television and say, which Jesus? That's what I want to
know. You tell me which Jesus to trust. There's a bunch of fellas down
in Mexico, they're called Jesus or Jesus. Trust one of them? You're going to have to be very
specific about who Jesus is. He's the Lord of glory. Come
down to save the guilty. And He died on a cross not as
an example, not as a reformer, not to start a new religion.
He died on the cross that God might be just and justifier of
all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He died to set the record
straight for all of those in whose stead he died. He died
for his people. He died for his elect. He's the
good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. And by his
successful death at the cross of Calvary, he wiped away all
of our sins and gave us a positive righteousness that God approves
of. It's the righteousness of the
Lord himself. I've had people say to me, well,
you know, salvation is not in doctrine. Hang on just a minute. The word doctrine means teaching.
So you're saying that a person doesn't need to know anything
about the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ? You're wrong about
that. Doctrine is a precious word in
the Bible. It says in John chapter six,
and they shall all be taught of God. God teaches us. We're not real smart people about
spiritual things, but I'll tell you this, the Lord teaches us
who God is. He's the powder, I'm the clay. The Bible teaches me about what
I am. I'm just one of billions and
billions of sinners. And the Bible teaches me about
the only remedy for my spiritual disease. The Son of God who came
down here and lived a life of perfection. thereby showing his
qualification to be the smitten lamb of God. And he laid down
his life. He died. He died to satisfy justice. Salvation is first of all for
God, because God's not going to do anything for us unless
His holy law and justice is honored. He can't show mercy at the expense
of His justice. So he's satisfied, offended justice,
because the justice of God says, you got to die. You got to die. And Christ Jesus said, hang on
a minute. Wait. I'm going to die for him. And he pushes us out of the way,
and he says to the justice of God, here I am. Kill me. So how would the death
of Jesus Christ, how would that save sinners? Because of who
he is. He's the God man. There's infinite
value to his death. He shall save His people from
their sins. The angel said to Joseph, call
His name Jesus. He shall save. Doesn't say He
might save or He's going to try to save. He shall save His people
from their sins. How did He do that? Behold the
cross of Calvary as the Son of God hangs and dies to satisfy
God. That's where He saved us. And
when the Spirit of God deals with you in regenerating grace,
that's when you find out about it. And you'll bless his name
forever that he took your place, that he died your death, and
he arose again because he's faithful to do the work that God sent
him. And when can it be said that
a man has fully preached the gospel? When he puts the Holy
Spirit in his rightful place. Tell you what, if you're born
again, you're born again by the power of the Spirit of God. He
makes the things of Jesus Christ real to us. Is this gospel real
to you? Do you have some comprehension
of it? You say, I do, I do. I understand why Christ came
to save and I'm looking to Him as my Savior. That's because
the Spirit of God has quickened you and He has granted you Repentance
toward God, you turn away from your old religion, religion of
dead works, and he's gifted you with faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. holds up God when He declares
God as He is and man as He is and Jesus Christ and His work
as He is and as that work has been successfully done to satisfy
God as evidenced by His resurrection and ascension and exaltation.
And when a man says, listen, I could never have believed if
God hadn't done something for me. then could be said, a man has
fully preached the gospel. And Paul said, I have. And as
best as I can, I've tried to do that this morning. And I hope
God will grant you faith to believe the gospel that I preach. Let's
get a psalm book and we'll sing