I want you to turn to Job 33. Job chapter 33. I want to read the portion of
scripture that led, I think that was written by Ed Hale. Those
words that she just sang, a ransom was found, Job 33. And then I'll get to my message
in a minute. This is just an introduction,
we'll call it. A devotional before the message,
we'll call this. But I was thinking about this
passage when she was singing that Job 33, look at verse 23
and 24. If there be a messenger with
him. What does that word messenger
mean? It means representative. Maybe
make a note of that. If there be a representative
with him. I tell you, we need a representative
before God, don't we? We've got to have a representative.
Our God's consuming fire. And you can't come to him as
you are. You can't deal one-on-one with
God. We need a representative. We
need one who will make an appearance before God always on our behalf. I need a representative. Christ
is that representative. Okay, read on. If there be a
messenger or representative with him, an interpreter, What does
that word mean? Mediator. A mediator. We need a mediator. We need not
only one to represent us before God, we need somebody to speak
to God for us and to speak to us for God. We've got to have
a mediator. The scripture says in 1 Timothy
2 verse 5, for there's one God and one mediator. Not two mediators,
just one mediator. Mary's not a mediator. A dead
saint is not a mediator. Our Lord Jesus is the only mediator. He's the only one who is the
true interpreter. You see, he interprets or he
teaches us the gospel of God's grace. He instructs us. He's the interpreter. He's the
mediator. One among a thousand to show unto man his uprightness,
Christ's uprightness. Then he is gracious unto him.
That is, if we have a representative, if we have a mediator, between
us and God, between God and us, God's going to be gracious to
us. In fact, He's gracious to us in giving us a representative
and a mediator. Then He's gracious unto him,
and God says, deliver him from going down to the pit. That's
where we're going by nature. That's what we deserve. All of
us are deserving of nothing less than death and hell and judgment. That's what we deserve. That's
what we got coming to us. But the Lord, because we have
a representative and we have a mediator, God says, deliver
him from going down to the pit, from going down to hell. What's
the reason? God says, I found a ransom. You
know what the word ransom means? At the price of a life. What did it cost God to save
us from our sins? It took the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he said a ransom was found.
In his infinite wisdom, he found a ransom. He found a way to save
us consistent with his justice. I appreciate the song. That was
very good. Okay, now, for the message. Go to the book of I Corinthians
chapter nine. I Corinthians chapter nine. We're
getting warmed up now. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And I want to say that I'm very
thankful to be back. But, you know, when you're over
there, when I was over there preaching in a nice Aloha shirt
and in shorts, and barefooted because they take off their shoes
over there when you go in somebody's house. I could get used to that. But I didn't think you'd be used
to it. So we have little different customs
over here, but I thoroughly enjoyed being there
and I always enjoyed preaching the gospel. to those before whom
I stand. And I thank you for sending me
over. Appreciate that. And they appreciate
it also. All right, 1 Corinthians 9, verse
16. Here's my subject, preaching
the gospel. That's my subject, preaching
the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16. For though I preach the gospel,
It's what Paul says. I have nothing to glory of. I have nothing to boast of because
it's the Lord who saved me by his grace. It's the Lord who
called me when I was on the road to Damascus taking papers that
I have, authorizing me to arrest anybody who believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord did something for me.
I didn't do anything for him. He saved me. He washed me. He ransomed me. He redeemed me. He forgave me. He robed me in
righteousness. I don't have anything to glory
of. And whatever gifts Paul had, he knew they were gifts from
God. Anybody who's able to communicate the gospel of the grace of God
to tell people how God saves sinners, We're not going to thank
that man for the abilities of this guy. We're going to say,
Lord, we give you the glory. We give you the honor for teaching
this man to preach the gospel clearly to us, to tell us how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. And Paul says, I don't
have anything to glory of. I don't have anything to boast
of. He was a wretched sinner. on his way to hell, believing
a false religion, believing the more he did for God, the more
God would do for him. It's God who turned him around. It's God who saved him. It's
God who made an arrest by grace. It's God who was after him. He
wasn't after God. The Bible says, no man seeketh
after God. Saul of Tarsus, he wasn't seeking
the Lord. In fact, he was seeking to stamp
out the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I don't have
anything to glory in. I have nothing to boast about. Our brother read to us there
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And if you're a believer looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of your righteousness before
a holy and just God, you don't have anything to boast of either. God taught you the gospel if
you believe the gospel of God's grace. We don't have anything
to glory of. We sure got a lot to be thankful
for though, don't we? He says, for necessity is laid
upon me. The Lord put upon Paul a great
burden. And the burden, the weight upon
his heart was to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness,
his bloody sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. The Lord laid
that upon him as a great burden. As you read through the Old Testament,
you'll often come across these words, the burden of the Lord
was upon Habakkuk, for instance. And several of the prophets of
God spoke about the burden of the Lord. Oh, that God would
lay the burden of his word, the burden of his gospel, the burden
of the salvation of the people to whom we preach upon me and
upon every preacher of the truth. to be concerned about people. You're going out into eternity.
Everybody I'm talking to right now, all of you here and those
of you who are watching, you're going out into eternity, either
going to heaven or hell. That's what makes this so serious. We're not here playing games
on Easter Sunday. We're not out here hunting Easter
eggs. We're not doing things like that.
We're in here talking to eternity bound men and women and young
people about the things of God. Oh, that God would get your heart
and get your ears to heed what he has to say in this book. He says, necessities laid upon
me. I'll tell you exactly why I went
to Honolulu. Necessity was laid upon me. I'll
tell you why I preached to you this morning. Necessity is laid
upon me. I have a burden. I have a burden. God has put upon me this desire
to preach Christ and him crucified, the one who came from glory,
the one who was born in a manger, born of a virgin, who grew up
in full obedience to the law of God and then took upon himself
all the sins of his people and God crucified him. God put him
to death on the cross because he was the sin bearer. He bore
the sins of all of his people and he bore them away into a
land uninhabited. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. You read that. He was buried. And when he came out of that
tomb, our sins remained in the tomb. He had killed our sins
forever. That's good news to sinners.
He did away with our sin debt. We don't owe the justice of God
one thin dime. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. No condemnation. Listen, to those
of you who believe Christ Jesus the Lord, no judgment for you,
no condemnation for you, no damnation for you, because all of that
fell upon our Savior. And we go free. This is the good news of the
gospel. This is the burden that God puts
upon the hearts of his preachers. He says, necessity's laid upon
me. I don't pick and choose my subject. I always preach the gospel of
Christ Jesus. And any man who's worth his salt,
any man who's called of God, any man who occupies the pulpit,
who has been taught the truths of God's word by the Holy Spirit. Necessities laid upon him to
tell the truth about God, tell the truth about men, tell the
truth about Christ Jesus. And then Paul says, yea, woe
is unto me. I'm doomed, that word woe means
I'm doomed. I'm doomed if I don't preach
the gospel. I'm doomed. And you're doomed
if you don't believe the gospel. Isn't that right? That's right
too. A great big woe hangs over the
heads of every preacher who doesn't set forth the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of His glory. A great big woe. He's doomed. He's going to have to answer
to God. And a great big woe hangs over the heads of those
who believe not this gospel. People who are trying to work
themselves into God's good graces, trying to do something to please
God, trying to work, keep Ten Commandments,
do good, be charitable, whatever. thinking that'll get you in good
standing with God. It won't. Because if you do anything
thinking that'll get you in good standing with God, that actually
stinks to God. Because you're putting your own
self-righteousness up alongside of the glorious righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very powerful verse
of scripture. preaching the gospel. What does
the gospel, what does the word gospel mean? Well, it means good
news. Good news. The scripture says,
as cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. The gospel is good news. It's
good tidings of great joy. You remember there in Luke chapter
two, when the angel spoke to the shepherds who were out watching
their flocks by night. And the angel of the Lord, speaking
to those shepherds said, fear not, for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy. That's what the gospel is. It's
good tidings of great joy. The gospel is good news. It's
not good advice. It's not good counsel. It's good
news of what God has already done for his people through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is a
clear declaration of something that has already happened. The gospel is not an invitation. The gospel is a declaration. I'm just telling you what God
has already done for his people in the person and through the
work of his darling son. That's the gospel. Good tidings of great joy. What
kind of joy? Not carnal joy, but spiritual
joy. Not imagined joy, but real joy. Not temporary joy, but everlasting
joy. The gospel is good tidings of
great joy. Not little joy, but great joy. Even joy unspeakable and full
of glory. God has sent his son. His name
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he did everything that God
demanded that we should have done. He was the faithful, obedient
servant. We ought to be obedient. I wouldn't
belittle that. We ought to obey God. But the fact of the matter is,
we're all sinners. That's me and you and everybody
else. You better come face to face with that. Oh God, give
me honesty to see myself in the mirror of the word of God. To
see myself as God describes me. I'm alienated from God. I'm cut
off from God. I'm dead in trespasses and sins. I have no hope. Except in this
mediator representative. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's good news of great joy.
Great joy. The gospel, preaching the gospel. What does it mean to preach the
gospel? Well, let me give you four things,
okay? I'll give them to you briefly,
but you need to listen. If you listen real good, I won't
take too much of your time here. Sometimes I've told people, if
you're not in too big a hurry to go to hell, would you just
stop and listen for a little bit? It's to tell the truth about
God. That's what the gospel is, is to tell the truth about God.
If there's one subject that this religious world is absolutely
ignorant about is the subject of our great God. Thoughts of
God are too little. All religious era, see if you
can get this. All religious era involves two
things, bringing God down, making God to be less than he is, and
raising man up, making man to be more than he is. All religious
era stems from those two great misunderstandings, those two
great eras. Who is God? He's not as you imagine
him to be. He's not Santa Claus in the sky. He's not somebody who's waiting
on you like he's your valet and he wants to do this or he wants
to do that if you'd only let him. That's not God. What is the truth about God? Number one, he's eternal. He
inhabits eternities, what the scripture says. From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. We're just little creatures of
a very short time here in this world. God's always been and
He always will be. And He's a whole lot bigger than
you can possibly imagine Him to be. He inhabits eternity. Why, He's the God who says, my
name is, I am. I am. He's always in the present
tense. At any point in the eternity
of God, it's always in the present tense with Him. It's not He was
a million years ago. He could say, I am. Today, he
says, I am. A million years in the future,
he says, I am. That's God. That's God. I'll tell you something else
about God. He's the creator. He spoke all things into existence. He spake and it was done. Genesis
chapter one, he said, light be, lights came on. He's a God of creation. He made
all things by the word of his power. He's a God of providence. He who purposed all things before
the world began is moving all things along according to his
will. As we view the world today and
all that's going on, Anybody who is of a sane mind has to
be somewhat disturbed about the situation, the immorality, the
perverseness, the ungodliness of this world. You're certainly
disturbed about that. And we look at these things and
we say, Lord, how long? How long? But God sets upon his sovereign
throne, governing all things, and let me tell you something.
All things are going exactly according to his will. Say, Jim, can you, would you
explain that to me? I can't explain it. I just declared. See, those of
us who preach the gospel, we speak of truths that we really
can't comprehend ourselves. So I can't get my mind around
a God like that. Well, of course you can't. He's
the infinite God. He's the eternal God. He's the
sovereign God. He's the all-powerful God. We
can't comprehend such a God. But we do believe Him. We believe
Him. He's a God of providence, and
I'll tell you, He's a God of grace. He's the only one who can help
us. This God who is holy, this God
who is just, this God who is righteous, this God who can't bypass Iniquity,
that is, he can't pretend it never happened. He's gotta deal
with sin. See, that's why the Bible always
takes us back to the Lord Jesus Christ, because God's got to
do something for his own law and justice. He's got to punish
sin. And he has punished the sins
of his people in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to preach the gospel?
Number one is to tell the truth about God. I'm not trying to
get you to feel sorry for God. I'm not trying to get you to
pity God. I'm not trying to get you to
do anything for God. What I'm telling you is that
God is so great and so glorious, he's the only one who can help
you and me. And it's his option as to whether
he helps us or leaves us as he finds us. That's his sovereignty. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I'll be merciful. Tell the truth about God. Secondly,
what is it to preach the gospel? Tell the truth about man. Tell
the truth about man. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God is what the scripture says. Psalm 14, the
Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that
were good. He said they've all together
become filthy, stinking. Would it offend you if I told
you that in your natural depravity you stink? in the nostrils of
God. Would that offend you? Let me tell you something. I
stink in the nostrils of God by nature. God talked about the
religion of Israel, had no heart worship. He said, you're just
smoke in my nose. If set by a campfire and the
smoke, Somehow or another has a way of finding you out. It
just, it burns your eyes. It's so offensive. God says,
that's you and your religion. A works-based religion. God says, that's you. Well, if I'm that offensive to
God, how in the world can God receive me? He's got to have
a sweet-smelling sacrifice. That's the sacrifice of Christ.
It's the only way that sinners can be saved is through the doing
and the dying of the Lord Jesus. To preach the gospel is to tell
the truth about God, to tell the truth about ourselves, but
thirdly, it's to tell the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. I listened to some preachers
today, and I've paid my dues. I've been pastoring 45 years.
I pretty much, I think I have the right to say anything I want
to say about preachers. I've paid my dues, and I'll say
this. I'll say what Mary said about
our Lord's body missing from the tomb. She said, they've taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they've laid him. And I
say that to most of the preachers who preach today. I've listened
to some messages on sermon audio, and in my heart, I say, they've
taken away my Lord. I don't know where they've laid
Him. You listen to somebody or watch
somebody on television, you say, well, they said a lot of good
things, but they didn't say the good
thing. That's the problem. But you see, you're hearing this
morning the true gospel of the grace of God to sinners through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this message concerning our
Lord Jesus and his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, you
are fully responsible to believe this message. You have heard
the truth now. You may not have heard the truth
before, but you've heard the truth now. And you're gonna be
accountable for what you hear. Folks, forget about that. And
I know we don't have much time to think about facing God, standing
before the Lord one day, but if you do not believe the gospel
of the grace of God, the sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ,
one day you'll stand before God and you won't be able to say,
I never heard before. I never heard of your son. I
never heard of the necessity of his bloody death upon the
cross of Calvary. You won't be able to deny the
fact that you heard the truth of the grace of God to sinners,
unworthy sinners through the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ because you're hearing the gospel right now. And God's gonna hold you accountable
for what you're hearing. Oh, may God give you grace to
believe, to believe on the Son of God. It's to tell the truth
about Christ. He's God. Who is He? He's God. He's God in human flesh. I'm
going to talk tonight about the hands of our Lord. And when I was working on that
message, Yesterday, and I was thinking about when I was over
in Honolulu. I started working on it then.
I was thinking about Mary. The Lord Jesus was born and you
moms especially and dads too. You're newborn and you start
counting. Look at them fingers. Look at
them little bitty, you remember? Remember them little bitty fingers?
Let me tell you something, Mary counted the fingers of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He was real flesh and blood. God, yes. Creator, yes. Governor of the universe, yes. Made flesh, yes. Just a small
infant. Think of that, just a little
baby. Why in the world would he leave
heaven's glory to come down here to this earth where he was not
received nor welcomed? They didn't want him. When they
found out that he didn't come to set up a kingdom, for Israel
and run all the Romans out of town. When they found that out,
they didn't have any more use for him. And they hated him because he
said, I'm the son of God. Who is Jesus Christ to you? That's a good question. Who is
Jesus Christ to you? To some people, he's not much
more than a curse word. They take his name in vain every
day and think nothing of it. To others, they kind of feel
sorry for him. Poor Jesus. Died on the cross because people
hated him. What do you think? What think
ye of Christ? That's a really good question.
In fact, that's a Bible question. What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? They said he's David's son. He said, well, how can it be
David's son and David's Lord all at the same time? And that's
something. He's the God man. That's who
he is. Had to be God to satisfy, had
to be man to suffer, bleed and die. The penalty for sin is death. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. Today being Easter, most all
the people in this country and many other countries are acknowledging
his resurrection. And I'm thankful he arose again.
He arose again because he died. Why did he die? That's a good
question. What was the reason for his death?
Why did he die? Did he not have control over
that? Was this something that happened by accident because
God kind of lost things and man run away with the purpose of
God and said, well, we just gonna kill your son. He died on purpose
because God ordained his death. Because through his death, justice
was satisfied. Do you understand that? That's
what his death is all about. Satisfying God, the wages of
sin is death. Somebody's gonna die for your
sins. Somebody's gonna die for my sins. Either Christ has already died
for them and settled the account forever, or I'm gonna die. And one of the others is true.
Death for sin. What is the preaching of the
gospel? It's the truth about God, truth about us, we're sinners,
truth about Christ Jesus. Yes, he died, but he arose again. What does that tell us? What
does his resurrection announce? God is satisfied with his sacrifice. That's what his resurrection
announces. God's pleased with what his son
did. And all for whom he died are
accepted in the beloved. We've always been accepted in
the beloved. And he ever lives to make intercession
for us. One more thing. What is it to
preach the gospels? Tell the truth about God. Tell
the truth about ourselves. Tell the truth about Christ Jesus.
Number four, tell the truth about salvation. Salvation. It's of the Lord. And it's all of grace. Oh, how I pray that God would
work in the hearts of all of us. Folks, we're all in the same
boat. I wish I could get people's attention,
but I'll only speak to you for a few minutes. Here's what I
pray for you. Each one of you, and I'd like
to say this to each one of you individually if I could. I pray
that God would deal with you by his grace, through his spirit,
concerning this gospel that's been preached to you this morning.
I pray that God will impress upon your heart this is the very
truth of God. And if God does a work of grace
in your heart, you'll never get over it. You'll never get over it. And
you'll say, oh God, I'm just a beggar. Throw some mercy crumbs
my way. I deserve death, judgment, and
hell. But if you will, if you will,
You can show me some mercy. There was a fellow in the, recorded
in Matthew and Mark and Luke. He was a leper. Our Lord Jesus
was up on the mount. He preached the sermon on the
mount. And there was a man who had leprosy. He dare not go up
on the mountain to be with all those folks. Hundreds and hundreds
of people listening to Jesus of Nazareth teach. So he camped
out at the foot of the mountain. And when the Savior came down
the mountain, that poor fellow was waiting for him. And he fell
down upon his face before the Son of God. And he said, Lord,
if you will, if you will, you can show me mercy. Why don't you come to the Lord
that way? Well, I'll tell you what, if
He draws you, you will come that way. And if He draws you, He's already
showing you mercy. Isn't that right? He's already
showing you mercy. Lord, I'm the chief of sinners.
You got some breadcrumbs to toss to me. I'd be ever so thankful. But you know what? He gives us
more than the crumbs. He gives us the riches of His
grace. And He gives us all things in
Christ. Let's turn to number 59 in our
psalm books. The great physician