Let's go back to that passage
of scripture that Ron just read to us. Notice the first word
in the first verse of the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. It is the word moreover. It could be translated as nevertheless,
or, but more than this. Nevertheless, but more than this. Well, what has the apostle been
writing about? Chapter 14 deals with the proper
conduct within the assembly of the saints whenever true believers
gather together for public worship. And in chapter 14, Paul deals
with how to correctly use the gifts that God gives to the saints,
specifically in the church at Corinth and to other churches
as well. And he gives instructions, first
of all, pertaining to the gift of tongues. I said this morning a few things
about the gift of tongues, that is, languages. It would have
probably been more beneficial to us and more understandable
if the translators of the King James Version had translated
the word tongues as languages, because that's exactly what he's
talking about, the gift of languages. They're the gifts, the gift of
the Holy Spirit, as indicated in the book of Acts, the second
chapter. And here's what Paul deals with
in this 14th chapter. He says, when anybody enters
into the assembly, let's say they don't speak Greek. They speak another language and
someone in the congregation, one of the elders, one of the
leaders in the congregation has been gifted to speak in that
foreign language that those visitors speak in. Well, that's all right. But there must be one to interpret
the things that the elder or the deacon in the congregation
is speaking. In other words, there must never
be anyone speaking, this is the apostles instructions to the
church at Corinth, there must never be one speaking that is
speaking in a language that nobody else can understand except maybe
one or two. So there has to be someone who
will translate the message or the words that are being spoken
by a person who has the gift of languages for the benefit
of, let's say, somebody who's visiting from another country.
And then one in the congregation speaks the language of those
visitors. Well, that's wonderful and that's
beneficial to them, but there's also got to be somebody who will
translate what that foreign language is into the Greek language which
the people of Corinth spoke. The gift of languages, the gift
of tongues was not gibberish, as I said this morning. It was
actually a language spoken by people who were gifted by the
Spirit of God, gifted to speak in words that were understandable
to the people who spoke that foreign language. And then he
also deals with the role of women in the congregation. He's been
speaking about prophesying. And then he says for women to
keep silent in the house of God, that is, not that you can't talk
in between services, but you must keep silent as far as speaking
in an authoritative way from the pulpit. Now, I don't think
this is applicable to women teaching women in a Bible class. That's
certainly acceptable in women teaching children in a Bible
class. But it is unacceptable for a
woman to get behind the pulpit and instruct men and women in
the things of God. You can read Genesis, the third
chapter in verse 16, where the Lord says to Eve and to all women,
you're the weaker vessel. And you're not to take any position
of authority over men in the house of God. So he cautions
about this. And then he says this in verse
37 of chapter 14. So keep in mind, he's talked
about the gift of languages, speaking a foreign language,
and he's spoken about the role of women in the house of God. So he says this in verse 37,
specifically about the speaking in languages, if any man think
himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things which I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. In other words,
if you don't want to learn, well, then don't learn. If you don't
want to pay attention to what the Word of God says, then don't
pay attention to the Word of God. He says, wherefore, brethren,
covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues or
with languages, that is, as long as you have an interpreter. He
says, let all things be done decently and in order. So what
he's talking about is our conduct in public worship services. Now, after saying that, after
dealing with practical things that were going on within the
congregation of the church at Corinth, he then begins the next
chapter, and of course the Bible wasn't written in chapters, the
chapters are beneficial to us, but he continues really in the original,
and he says, moreover, or literally, but more than this, In other
words, there's something more important than dealing with conduct
in public worship, the offices and how the services are to be
carried out. There's something far more important,
and it's this, the preaching of the gospel. So we don't major
on these other things, although we deal with them if they should
arise. But he says, moreover, or nevertheless,
or more than this, more than this, this is what we should
be doing. And this is what Paul does. He
says, brethren, here's the most important thing. Not that the
other issues are unimportant. They have their importance in,
the context of the passage. And we deal with these things,
certainly not with the speaking of tongues issue, because that's
not an issue today, but with the role of women. We deal with
that as it arises. I talked to a man not too long
ago, and he said, this man in our neighborhood, and I was walking,
and I know him, several weeks ago, and he's saying, he said,
you know, our church has called a woman to be our pastor. He
said, I don't much go for that. But he said, you know, Whatever
they want to do, he said, it's fine with me. He said, it really
doesn't matter. And I said, well, would you say
the scriptures matter? He said, well, of course the
scriptures matter. And I said, well, read the scriptures.
It tells us that a woman's sheep should keep silent in the house
of God. But there's something more important
than even dealing with that. and it is the declaration of
the gospel. And that's the title of the message,
declaring the gospel of Christ. He says, moreover, brethren,
here's something more important. The most important thing that
goes on in the house of God is this, the declaration of the
gospel. That is the public preaching
of the gospel, the report of good news, of the death and the
burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover,
this is the most important business that goes on in this building,
is the public preaching of the gospel. You know, in the book
of Romans, Paul talks about the gospel quite a lot. In the book
of Acts, he says he is called to testify the gospel of the
grace of God, not the gospel of works because that wouldn't
be good news. Because the word gospel means
glad tidings, good news of that which God has already accomplished. It isn't the good news of what
God's going to do, it's the good news of what God has done. It
is the accurate report of that which God has already brought
to pass, and that is the gospel of the grace of God to sinners
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it's the gospel of the
grace of God. In Romans 1, he says it's the
gospel of God. It's the gospel of the grace
of God, not of works. Works wouldn't be good news.
For a preacher to stand up and say you've got to do this, that,
and something else for salvation, that wouldn't be good news because
all of our actions are contaminated by sin. It wouldn't be good news
to tell me what I've got to do to pacify, to please God. If you would tell me the good
news, tell me what Christ has already done to satisfy God's
demands. Tell me of his death and his
burial and his resurrection. And that's exactly what Paul
does in this portion of scripture. He says in Romans 1 16, it's
the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel of His person.
It's the gospel of His work. It's the gospel of His accomplishment. That's what the good news is.
It would not be good news for me to stand up here and preach
to you law, obedience, works. That's not good news. It's good
news when I tell you and the Word of God tells us of something
somebody else has done, and that is the Son of God who loved us
and who gave himself for us. And this gospel is said to be,
in Romans chapter 10, the gospel of peace. In the council of peace
between the three members of the Trinity, it was ordained
that Christ would come and by His blood redemption, He would
make our peace with God. All of us have probably heard
somebody say, they've said to us perhaps, well, I've made my
peace with God. That's an impossibility. You
have no ability to deal with God. The only one who can deal
with God has to be God himself. And in order to deal with God
on our behalf, he's got to be one of us. Therefore, the God-man
did business with God when he dealt with God on the cross of
Calvary. In Ephesians chapter one, it's
called the gospel of your salvation. There is no salvation to be found
in any other message except in the Lord Jesus Christ and his
cross death, his satisfactory death upon the cross of Calvary. He writes then by divine inspiration
that this gospel that he declares is of vital importance. There's
no message you can ever hear that's any more important and
vital to your eternal well-being than the gospel, the gospel of
the grace of God, the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ,
the gospel of peace, and the gospel of your salvation. For
within this great gospel, there is your salvation. Salvation
is a fact of that which has already happened at the cross of Calvary. By the cross death of our Lord
Jesus Christ, He saved His people from their sins. So here He writes,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that this gospel He declares
means at least three things. Number one, it is an exclusive
message. By that I mean, it is the message
that the servants of God declare to all who gather together for
worship. It's the message we declare to
eternity bound men, women, boys, and girls. It's the only message
that you need to hear that honors God and saves sinners. Who the preacher is that preaches
the gospel is unimportant. John the Baptist, when he spoke
to those who came to hear him and to investigate his identity,
he said, I'm just a voice, that's all I am. He didn't say I'm the
one who was prophesied in the Old Testament to come, I'm the subject of prophetic
words. He didn't say that. He said,
I'm just a voice. I said, who are you? He said,
I'm a voice. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness and nobody
needs to know me. I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness and we live in a wilderness. We live in a barren land where
the gospel is rarely preached and rarely heard. A false gospel
is readily received, but the true gospel of the grace, the
grace of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of redemption, the
gospel of salvation, the gospel of peace, that's a rare message
that very few proclaim and fewer yet believe. Notice that he says
here in the first verse, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel. The word the is a definite article. He doesn't say a gospel. He says
the gospel because it's one of a kind. It's one of a kind. In fact, as you investigate and
study the word gospel as used in the scriptures, you will find
that it's called the gospel, a definite message in every place
except in Galatians chapter one where the false gospel is said
to be just that, a false gospel. There are a bunch of false gospels
and we don't need to learn what the false gospels are. What we
need to learn is what the true gospel is. My mother was a teller,
a bank teller, the bank vault teller, I should say, at First
National Bank of Ferrum, Virginia. That's what it was for a long
time. And they sent specialized instructors in to teach her not
how to identify false currency or counterfeit currency, but
to teach her what real currency, genuine currency, what it looks
like. To taught her how to examine
every bill to make sure it's authentic. And I asked her, I
said, Mom, didn't they tell you how to identify counterfeit currency? She said no. Because they instructed
me, she said, diligently and thoroughly in how to identify
the real thing. And if I learn how to identify
the real thing, true currency, then anything that doesn't measure
up to that, it is counterfeit. And that's the way it is with
the Gospel. We don't need to... And I know some preachers who've
done this. They'll preach on Mormonism,
the Gospel of Mormonism, the Gospel of Jehovah's Witnesses,
the Gospel of Roman Catholics, the Gospel of any other kind
of Denomination, we don't need to know what all these folks
out here believe. What we need to learn is the
true gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of God, the gospel
of Christ, the gospel of peace, the gospel of salvation. And
if God the Spirit ingrains that into our minds and into our hearts,
anything that is contrary to that message, we'll recognize
it. And we'll say, that's wrong,
that's wrong. This is the gospel, and Paul
says, I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel. For you see, there is just one
gospel, one gospel. Compromising preachers will say
things like, well, There is only one gospel, but it's interpreted
in different ways by different churches and by different denominations. But the word of God still says
there's just one gospel. One gospel. Christ is the way. All other ways are the ways of
death. That's not too hard to understand.
Christ is the truth. All other messages are false,
a lie. Christ is the life. All other
messages are messages of death. Christ is the door to life. All other messages, the door
to hell. If indeed there is only one way
to God, one Savior, one gospel, you would be wise to ask God
to put you in the way, to teach you the truth, and teach
you the true gospel of grace that you may learn that message
and then be steadfast in that message. Few things to think about. The
preaching of the new birth. Now the new birth is important
because our Lord said, you must be born again. The preaching
of the new birth is important. But let me tell you something,
that's not the gospel. Now be careful, that's not the
gospel. The focus of the gospel is not
your experience of grace. The focus of the gospel is the
foundation of and the basis of the grace of God, the salvation
of sinners. The preaching of the love of
God. Preacher can get up and say,
God is love. And our all time quoting John
3 16, and I love John 3 16, I'm thankful for that. But the love
of God is not the gospel. That's not the gospel. It's the
reason for the gospel. Yes, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish but have everlasting life. But the
gospel, the gospel is not the love of God. It's the reason. The love of God is the reason
for the gospel. The gospel is found in verse
14. of John chapter 3, that as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal
life. Christ lifted up. There's the
gospel. There's the gospel. The preaching of Christ's second
coming is not the preaching of the gospel. though we are to
be daily looking for the promise of His appearance. You see, the
gospel declares what Christ has already done, not what He's going
to do. You got that? The gospel is a
declaration of what Christ has already done, satisfied God,
justified His people, brought in eternal life, satisfied all
the demands of divine justice. It's the declaration of what
Christ has already finished, accomplished, not what He's going
to do. There may be some division among
people regarding what Christ is going to do. Some people believe
he's going to come back and rapture the saints and then a seven years
tribulation and a thousand years kingdom and all of that and other
people disagree with that. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is what Christ has
accomplished by his death upon the cross. The preaching of revivalism
is not the preaching of the gospel. I do pray and ask God to give
us a revival. We sing the song, revive us again,
revive us again. But as you read in Acts the second
chapter, God sent revival, but there was no preaching about
revival. The preaching was about Christ
lifted up to die for sinners having been crucified by evil
wicked men, and that God was satisfied, God made that same
Jesus both Lord and Christ. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. And you know what? Revival broke
out. There was no preaching about
revival. The preaching of godly living.
That's not the preaching of the gospel. Most preaching on godly
living really leads to works of self-righteousness. Gospel preaching does indeed
inspire us and lead us and desire us to live godly lives in this
world, to, as Paul says, adorn the gospel by our lifestyle. But still, that's not the preaching
of the gospel. The gospel is a particular message
about a particular person and the particular work that he accomplished
upon the cross of Calvary. It's all about what God has done
for sinners in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about what you must
do for God. but about what God through Christ
has already done for himself and for sinners through the death
of Christ. As you read through the New Testament,
notice that the gospel that is declared by the apostles always
is referred to as an action that has been completed. It has been
finished. completed task. Our Lord came to do the work
of redemption and he said it is finished. If he said it is
finished, Remember the angel said to Joseph, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
If he did, in fact, accomplish that, if he did save his people
from their sins, then that is the gospel, the finished work
of Christ. The gospel, therefore, is the
declaration of something done in the past. And then I'll tell
you this, the gospel is a declaration of undeniable facts. In preaching the gospel, we declare
some things that are absolutely undeniable. We preach, as Paul
says, we preach how Christ died for our sins. Don't miss that. In verse three, For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received." How? How that Christ died for us? How did he die? How did he die? He died, first of all, as the
sovereign, as the king. His death had tremendously wonderful
consequences because of who he is. He's the sovereign. The death of no other man could
avail for the salvation of any other man except this man who's
the sovereign of glory. He accomplished salvation because
he's the king. If he was no different than you
and me, then he's not the king and nothing was accomplished. But if he is the king, and he
is, he is, if he's the king of salvation. So often in the four
gospels, his kingdom is called the gospel of the kingdom, right? The gospel of the kingdom. And
where there's a kingdom, there's gotta be a king. And where there's
a king, there's gotta be sovereign authority and a reign. That's
our Lord Jesus Christ. and he died as the substitute.
He died in the stead of his people. Let me be just as straightforward
as I can be. He died for his elect. He's the
shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. He did not lay
down his life for everybody in the whole world who would ever
live. He came to die a specific death for a specific people given
to Him in the specific election of grace by God the Father. And
He came to save those people from their sins. Substitution. He took our place. You wanna know why you're saved?
You want to know why the Spirit of God dealt with you in saving,
the saving revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because you
were chosen unto salvation before the world began. And I know there
are a lot of people, they get steamed. They get hot under the
collar if you preach that. I rejoice in that truth. For
if God had not chosen me, I wouldn't have chosen Him. He chose me
and He sent His Son to die in my stead. That is substitution. You know what a substitute is.
Sometimes I'm not able to preach or I'm sick or whatever. Ron
preaches for me. He's the substitute. He's the
substitute. He stands in my place. And we've
got some other men who stand in my place as my substitute. Christ Jesus stood as my substitute. I don't know why people refuse
to believe that. That's the teaching of the word
of God. Christ died for our sins. You see that in verse three?
For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins, not for everybody's sins. If he died for everybody's sins,
then everybody's gonna be saved because justice has been satisfied
for everybody. He didn't die for everybody.
He didn't satisfy justice for everybody. He satisfied divine
justice for his people. And everybody he died for shall
taste of that delightful salvation that he accomplished by his death.
He died as the substitute. And I'll tell you what, he died
to satisfy God, to satisfy God. Nobody else could satisfy God.
No other death would satisfy God. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Only his death would accomplish
our salvation. And he died a death that was
successful. It is finished. That's what he
said. And if he finished the work of
redemption, as God would have it to be done, then the work
is over. The deed has been done, and God
is satisfied. And we preach that he was buried.
That's what it says here. He was buried. He really did
die. He didn't pass out. He didn't
merely lose consciousness. He didn't faint. He didn't fall
into a trance. He died because the wages of
sin is death. It's appointed unto men once
to die. We've got to die or somebody's
got to die in our stead. The only one who could die in
our stead and that death mean everything to God is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He died. His body was anointed
for burial. They buried his body in the tomb
of Joseph of Arimathea, but he didn't stay dead. So it says
here, not only how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures, but that he was buried and that he rose again
the third day according to the Old Testament scriptures. And
the Old Testament David's speaking as though he were Christ. He
says, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, that is, in the
place of the dead. You see, a Savior that was not
raised from the dead can't save anybody, because we've got to
be raised from spiritual death. Christ was raised, and His resurrection
is the declaration that everything he did was to the full satisfaction
of the Father. His resurrection is a declaration
that he represents us on high. We have a Savior, who is our
great high priest, who appears in the presence of God for us,
and he prays for us. And thirdly, and finally, This
gospel must be declared, and I'll give you several reasons
for declaring it. Number one, God commands it.
Really don't need any other reasons. God commands it. He says in Mark
16, 15, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. I have
a God-given mandate that is a word used so often when somebody wins
an election. Well, I've received a mandate
from the people. Well, I haven't received a mandate
from the people, I've received a mandate from God. Go preach
the gospel. I really have no other message
to preach. I'll tell you another reason
we preach is if we needed another reason. We preach because of
apostolic examples. The scripture says they went
everywhere preaching the gospel. A man told me a few weeks ago, he heard a preacher
preaching somewhere, and I've shared this with the men back
in the office, and then he started listening to that man at home,
and the man didn't preach the same thing. Let me tell you something. Whatever a man preaches when
he's away from his home church, that's what he really believes. And if he waters the message
down away or at home, he proves he's not the servant of God.
Now, I don't know what the man preached. I don't know anything
about that. Tell you what, we're not chameleons. We don't change
our message dependent upon the people to whom we're preaching. We preach as answerable to God. And if people love the message,
wonderful. If they don't, we just keep on
preaching. And we preach because it gives
God all the glory. Aren't you thankful that the
true gospel magnifies and glorifies only God? Because it's the work
that only God could do. We couldn't do it. It glorifies
God. And we declare the gospel because
this is a message we need to hear. You don't need to hear
a message about politics. a billboard on your way to South
Point, and it says, the sign says something like, what does
Jesus say about Christianity and politics? Have you seen that?
Something along that line. You don't need to hear about
politics. And I don't ever bring politics up in here. I bring
the gospel up all the time. What you are, as far as your
beliefs, if you're a Republican, if you're a Democrat, if you're
somewhere in between, it doesn't much matter to me. Because my
only message is focused on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No other message can meet our spiritual needs. This is the message people have
got to hear. They've got to hear this or there
won't be any experience of grace. God doesn't use error. He doesn't
use a false gospel to save sinners. God's not so needy that he has
to use the devil's lies to convert sinners. He uses the truth. And the truth is the only thing
that will set people free. And this is the message that
will motivate the people of God to live right, to do right, to
give accordingly, and to be truly grateful and honor God. I know our church is different. People who visit us who are familiar
with other churches, they come in and they see the simplicity
of our worship service. There are no religious pictures
hanging in here. There are no crosses. If the
blinds weren't pulled, if they were open, you'd see we don't
have stained glass windows. We're not into that. When I lived
and preached in Alamont, Michigan, Some of those folks are watching
right now, no doubt. The building that they first
met in years ago, it was sold, but that building
had stained glass windows. And when I was up there, I was
contacted by the Historical Society. I wanted to preserve those stained
glass windows, kind of have them redone. Because it's of great
historical significance. Baloney. That's foolish. Those things are just the trappings,
hear me, the trappings of religion. That's all they are. We're not
into all that stuff, and people who visit here, they notice we
don't have a service for singles, and a service for married people,
and a service for older people, and the children's service, and
all of those things. We're just not into that. We
don't have ball teams and bowling teams and that sort of thing. Well, what do you do at your
church? We preach the gospel of Christ. That's what we do. If you want the entertainment,
I promise you there are lots of so-called churches all around. They're ready to meet your needs. But if your soul is hungry for
God and hungry for the true gospel, well, you come on and join us.
And I'll tell you what God has to say about salvation. We declare
the gospel of God. Well, let's get a psalm, folks.