Thank you so much. Let's open
our Bibles to Romans this morning. The book of Romans, and I'll
invite you to the first chapter. Romans chapter 1. The title of this message is
found in the first verse. We're introduced immediately
to the writer of this book, that is, a man by the name of Paul,
who is a servant or a bond slave of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto, and here's the title of the message,
The Gospel of God. Gospel. asked Alexa this morning to give
me a definition of gospel. And Alexa, who supposedly knows
about everything, she said it is salvation by faith
in Jesus Christ. Well, I'm very thankful that
salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's good news.
That is good news. But that's not the gospel. That isn't the gospel. It is a fact that the word gospel
means good news or glad tidings. If you ask any number of people
to give a definition of gospel, well, you'll get a variety of
answers. And most people, they will define
the word gospel using their experience as the basis for their definition. or they will use the beliefs
of their particular church, or using an opinion handed down
by a trusted family member. So there are really many definitions
that people would give, and if you went out tomorrow And you
began to ask people, would you define the word gospel for me? I'm sure that you would get many
and differing definitions. The word certainly does mean
glad tidings and good news, as I said. but it is good news and
glad tidings of that which God Almighty has already done. The word gospel doesn't present
the idea of something that is available to you if you will
make use of it. The word gospel presents this
meaning, a work that God demanded that has been finished to His
satisfaction. And so when we talk about the
gospel of God, we're speaking about the work of our Lord Jesus
that He accomplished on the cross of Calvary. And the good news
is this. The good news is not that salvation
is available. The good news is not that forgiveness
is yours if you will have it. The good news is not that righteousness
has been established if you're interested in it. The good news
is everything a holy God demanded for the salvation of sinners
has been fully met and satisfied by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a work that has been finished. The gospel is not good advice. I can give you good advice, look
to Christ Jesus for salvation. But the gospel isn't good advice.
The gospel is not good instruction. It's good news. And the good
news is that everything a holy God in the severity of His justice
demanded in order for sinners to be forgiven, made righteous,
to be accepted in His sight, everything He demanded, the man
Christ Jesus came down here He who was God over all joined his
deity with human flesh and in that body God prepared him. He lived and died on a cross
in order to actually secure the salvation of everyone in whose
stead he came. The good news is it is finished
as our Lord announced from the cross of Calvary. The gospel
has many names in the Bible. It's called the gospel of God
as here. In verse 16, it's called the
gospel of Christ It's called the gospel of the kingdom. It's
called the gospel of the grace of God. It's called the gospel
of peace. In the book of Revelation, it's
called the everlasting gospel. And in 1 Timothy, it's called
the glorious gospel of the blessed God. But know this, there is
only one true gospel. There's not the Gospel of the
Baptist Church and the Gospel of the Catholic Church and the
Gospel of the Presbyterian or the Episcopal or whatever kind
of denomination you want to come up with. There's only one Gospel
and it is the Gospel of God, as the Apostle says here. It is the Gospel that our Lord
Jesus Himself declared. in Matthew chapter 4 and verse
23. And Jesus went about all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people. Our Lord Jesus was a gospel preacher. In fact, from the word gospel,
we get the word evangelists. Men who set forth this message. That's why lots of times you'll
hear Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John referred to as the four
evangelists. Because they went forth preaching
the gospel. But our Lord Jesus was also an
evangelist. He went forth preaching the gospel.
And every minister of the true message of grace, of salvation
found in Christ Jesus, who himself finished the work of redemption,
every messenger is an evangelist. And such is the great importance
of the message that we set forth, the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that Isaiah says, even the feet of those who bring forth
this message, are beautiful. This is the message in which
is wrapped up all the glory of God in the salvation of sinners. It is not a message of what you
do for God, what you do with God, or what you do about God. Actually, the message of the
gospel only concerns you as one who is called by the Spirit of
God to believe. But the gospel is the gospel
of God and that He Himself has done everything that is necessary
to lift a vile, corrupt, hell-deserving sinner from the pit of depravity,
to the heights of glory. And he did it all through the
Lord Jesus Christ and his cross death. This is the message our
Lord declared. I'm honored to be a gospel preacher.
And I'm so encouraged that the message I preached to you this
morning is the same message the Lord Jesus preached. What greater
honor could a person have in this world other than being made
an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ, being saved
by the grace of God? What greater privilege can a
worm of the dust have in this world than to tell other worms
the good news? The work is finished by the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior of sinners. It's the good news that the apostles were told to announce.
Before our Lord Jesus ascended back to heaven, he gathered his
11 apostles around him. I can just see them as our Lord
is standing there in their midst, and they're all gathered around
Him, and all their eyes are focused on the Lord Jesus. And He says
to them, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Boy,
how that, how that put some real vigor in their bones, you know. He says, go ye into all the world. Since I have all power, I have
dominion over all things, go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel. And they were ready to go. because the Savior who lived
for them, who laid down His life for them, He took that life again. Remember He said in John chapter
10, no man taketh my life from me. I have the power to lay it
down, and I have the power to take it up again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. And they heard Him say that,
and our Lord has died. They witnessed His death. They saw the brutality of evil
men focused upon their Lord Jesus. They realized the eclipse of
the sun. When God the Father dealt with
the sun regarding the sins of His people. When God put His
hand over the sun and forbid it to shine. As he dealt with his son in wrath
and in judgment, in the fury of his anger against sin, as
our Lord Jesus bore in his own soul that wrath, when he drank the cup of damnation
dry, and then the sun shone again,
Our Lord died. The disciples knew about all
that, and no doubt witnessed it from
a distance. And now he has risen. He's been with them several days,
a few weeks. And as I read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, they witnessed the resurrected Christ. They saw Him. And He's about
to go back to heaven, and so He gathers them around and says,
All power, all authority, all control is given unto Me in heaven
and in earth. Why was it given to Him? I thought
He was God. Didn't he already have that?
As God, he already had all authority. But as the man Christ Jesus,
he merited that right because he was obedient unto God to die
the death of the cross. Wherefore God exalted him. So
he says to his men, all power, all authority, all control over
all things is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And I'll tell you, just to kind
of put a pause on it right there, he has all authority over all
things in heaven and earth, even this very moment. Never doubt the authority and
the rule and the extent of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He rules everywhere. And he told
these men that. And then after reassuring them
that all authority had been given to him, he then said, go ye into
all the world and do what? Preach the gospel. I tell you, one of the several
reasons why I preach the gospel is because the one whose gospel
I preach is the Lord over all creation. He's the Lord over
all provenance. And He's the Lord over salvation. If you're an unbeliever here
this morning, or if you're watching, and you're just kind of foggy
about these things, and you say, well, I can tell you're really
into this, Jim, but I just don't see it your way. Well, I know
you don't. But I know who can overcome your
lack of sight and understanding, the sovereign Christ. And that
which is absolutely necessary is for Him to invade the darkness
of your heart in revealing grace and mercy. And if He does that,
then you will see in Him That which so many of us see and so
many of you see, you'll see in him the very glory of God shining in his face. These disciples were given marching
orders, go preach the gospel. And I'm just fulfilling my mission
in preaching the gospel this morning. That's my life's work. I've been at this a long time. I'm certainly not a novice. Been
at it quite a while. And it's what I live to do. This is my life. And I am honored to be used in
the ministry of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. My daddy was a preacher, and
he was always busy. And people would tell him, they
called him Preacher Bird. Said, Preacher Bird, you need
to slow down. And his patented answer was,
I'd rather wear out than rust out. That was his patented answer. I'd go visiting with him and
people would say that. Maybe go to the hospital with
him or whatever. And that's what they'd say. And I take that for myself. I'd rather
wear out than rust out. But what a way to live your life. I have been blessed to live in
my mind, the most blessed life that God can give a man. To teach
me how He saves sinners, and to reveal to my heart the glory
and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to stand up
before people such as yourselves, such as those who are watching
and tell people about my King, my Savior, the prophet, priest,
and King of the Word of God, to preach the gospel to them
and then say, may God enable you to believe this gospel because
salvation's in Jesus Christ only. This is the good news that every
preacher is commanded to proclaim. 1 Corinthians 9 and 16 says, for,
and these are the words of the Apostle Paul, for though I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid
upon me, yea, woe is me. Woe is me. May judgment be upon
me. May the wrath of God lie upon
me if I preach not the gospel. And I would just be honest with
you on this point as I've been honest with you throughout this
message. There's a great big woe that
rests upon most of the preachers who are filling the pulpits of
America today because they're not preaching the glorious gospel
of the blessed God. They're not setting forth our
Lord Jesus Christ. They're setting forth live a
good life, live by the golden rule. Well, I'd say that's pretty
good advice, isn't it? Live by the golden rule, do unto
others as you'd have them do unto you. But that's not the
gospel. See, you can live by the golden
rule, and most people are being taught that today. Essentially. But you're still going to perish. You see, the salvation of your
soul is dependent upon the will of God, the grace of God, and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And unless God the Spirit draws
you, pulls you in, by his effectual grace, by his powerful grace. If he doesn't do that, if he
just leaves you alone, you will perish in your sins. And what
the saints of God pray is, oh God, oh God, make bare your mighty
arm of grace and draw people in to Christ the Savior. and
reveal to them His glory and the power of His bloody sacrifice. Teach people of Christ and Him
crucified. That's our prayer. I'll tell you something else
about this gospel. It is singular. It's never called a gospel. It's
always called the gospel because there is no other gospel. Now,
in Galatians chapter 1, Paul, he verbally chastises those who
were believing another gospel. They were forsaking the genuine
gospel of God and giving heed to a false gospel. And a false
gospel is anything, and hear me well, it's anything that is
added to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of
Calvary. And when you hear, and I heard
this said about an evangelist, a so-called evangelist the other
day, I heard him say this. He said,
Jesus Christ, God loves you, he said, and Jesus Christ has
died to put away your sins. And now it is, he said, my friends,
up to you. What will you do with Jesus? That is not the gospel. That
is a false gospel because it makes your salvation dependent
upon you. Hear me well. The salvation of
your soul is not dependent upon you. It's dependent upon God. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done and He has to do. And if He brings you this morning
to see your neediness before God, you need Christ, you need
His righteousness, you need His bloody death for the forgiveness
of sins. If God brings you to that point
and gifts you with repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, then and then only will you be saved. And old Bitty would do that. You see, this is the message
that God's servants have been entrusted with. It's the glorious
gospel of God. I'm not telling you what you've
gotta do for God, I'm telling you what God had to do for sinners. And may he bring you to rejoice
in Christ. You see, here's the author of
the Gospel. That's why it's called the Gospel
of God. He's the author of it. He's the one who purposed it.
He's the one who executed it at the cross. Who do you think
was in charge at the cross? You say, well, Pilate was. No.
Well, Herod, no. The Jewish Sanhedrin, no, they
weren't in charge. Well, it was the soldiers who
crucified Christ, no, they weren't in charge. God was in charge. You see, our Lord Jesus, he died
according to the eternal purpose of God. What was the reason for his death?
You see, sin deserves Death. It's got to be punished, right?
We'll all agree with that. Romans 6.23, for the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. There's a debt to be paid to
the justice of God. God's justice demands it. That's why Christ came. To pay
the debt we owe. I was in debt to God. I'm not
any longer. My debt was paid 2,000 years
ago. I didn't know anything about
that till the Spirit of God did a work of grace in my heart and
I found out Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. Salvation is of God in its purpose,
in its execution, and in its power. And I'll tell you something else
about this gospel. It was promised, look at verse
two, promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. If you can't see the gospel in
the Old Testament, I pray that God will give you eyes to see.
Because the Old Testament announces Christ is coming. It announces
the necessity of His death. It announces salvation in Him. See, what I'm preaching, it may
be new to you. I don't know. But it's not a
new message. It's an old message. That's why
we sing the song sometimes, tell me the old, old story, right? It's the old, you know how old
it is? It's as old as God. Because it's the everlasting
gospel. And Christ was announced in the
Old Testament. And the subject of the gospel
is this, look at verse three. It's the gospel of God concerning
His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Concerning. It's all about Him. It concerns His deity. It concerns
His humanity. It concerns His work upon the
cross of Calvary. It's concerning Him. It's not
concerning you. It's concerning Him. It concerns
His resurrection. It concerns His exaltation. And there's something else about
this gospel. Look now at verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, For it, the gospel is the very power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believe it. That's the power
of God. It is a miraculous thing and beyond anybody's ability
to describe that there is in this message I'm preaching to
you this morning, the true gospel of God. There is sufficient power
in this message to give you spiritual life if God uses it in your heart. That's how powerful this message
is. You say, Jim, you're just a man. Well, I know that. I'm
not powerful enough to do that. But I can tell the story. And
if the Spirit of God is pleased to put it in your heart, It will
result in you having spiritual life, a life that you will never
ever lose. It's the life of God in the soul. And this is the message that
God uses. And it's a powerful message. And it'll do the job. Everyone wants someone to say,
why don't you try to get people to walk the aisle? What for? You're just changing location. Listen, the Lord would be no
nearer to you down here than He is near to you right where
you're at. And I like what dear brother
Scott Richardson used to say. He said, come to Christ, don't
move a muscle. That's good advice, isn't it?
Come to Christ, don't move a muscle. You say, how do I come to him?
From your heart, you come to him as an empty center receiving
of his fullness. You come to Him as one who is
needy, who has nothing. You come to Him who has everything. He has the riches of His grace,
the riches of forgiveness of sins. And He's been exalted to
give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. So here's
what I compel you to do. to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. But my words won't get that done. But his gospel will, if he sends
it to your heart. And if he sends this gospel to
your heart, you will never, ever be the same, will you? Won't. Several of us in here testify
to that. Why don't I give an altar call
as a lot of churches do? Because I'm perfectly satisfied
and content to leave you in the hands of the Spirit of God. Many years ago, I'll tell you
this quick story. I was working in a church in
Salem, Virginia. We had had a Sovereign Grace
preacher, and the church called another preacher, I was a music
director and I got up and he said, brother, he said, you lead
us in just as I am till somebody walks the aisle. I thought, oh
boy, Lord, get me out of this and I promise I'll never come
back. But I told him after the service,
I said, I can't have any part of this ever again. Well, he said, listen, he said,
I preach and we got to strike while the iron's hot. I'd heard
that before. I bet some of you have, too.
I said, let me tell you something. If God makes the iron hot, it'll
still be hot tomorrow. And I told him, I said, I'm out
of here. Didn't even come back for the
evening service. That's just the way I am. I'm not gonna have
any part of that kind of shenanigans. Salvation's of God, it's not
of you. Oh, may God do a work of grace in your heart. Let's
sing a closing song. If you would, get your psalm
books, 396, and we're gonna sing verses one and three. Actually,
I first learned this hymn here at 13th Street at one of the
Bible conferences. I'll live for him, 396. We'll
sing verses one and three. One and three. Let's stand together. My life, my love, I give to thee. I am a God who died for me. Oh, may I ever thankful be.