The Gospel Age being that period from our Lord's first
advent when He redeemed us by His blood up into the time when
He comes back the second time. This is the Gospel Age. This
is the age in which we are blessed to live. Sometimes I think it would have
been wonderful to have lived when our Lord Jesus walked on
this earth, and certainly to have listened to Him, and that
would have been a great blessing. There's no question about that.
But I will say this, we've got what even those saints in the
first part of the first century didn't have. We have all of God's
Word. We have the Scriptures. Every word that God would have
us to embrace, we have in our hands right now. Think about that. in your possession
the everlasting word of God. Everything that he will ever
have to say to poor sinners, like you and me, is there before
you. Everything we need to know about
God. I know that our knowledge of
the attributes of God are limited. limited by our own inabilities
to understand God, but we've got enough in the scriptures
for a lifetime of study about who God is. God's not left himself
silent. He hasn't left us to venture
about in the darkness to try to figure out who he is, he's
given us his word. And I tell you, we're responsible
to read this book, aren't we? This book will judge us. And
we better take heed to it. It's this book that informs us
of God's great holiness, of God's justice, of God's grace, how
God saves poor folks like you and me without any compromise
to His justice. We find that out in God's Word. And we find out about ourselves.
We find out about our iniquities and our guilt before the Lord. at which we have to say to you
week in and week out. It doesn't come out of old dusty
theology books and the writings of the old fathers. This is the
word of the living God. And God has set us forth in this
book as we are, as we are. And if you would look into the
mirror, the mirror, the looking glass of God's word, you'll see
yourself. You'll see yourself, and it's
a rather disgusting picture that you're going to see as you see
your reflection in the Word of God. It's not going to puff you
up with arrogance and pride. It will humble you. because you'll
see what you are by nature, by nature, as a result of Adam's
transgression imputed to you, and as a result of your own transgressions
for which you're responsible. The Bible sets us forth. It doesn't
cloak it. It doesn't paint over the picture. We're set forth in the Word of
God, warts and all, with all of our blemishes, with all of
our faults, with all of our failures. It's right here in God's Word.
Open the Book of God. It'll show you what you are.
And then the Word of God shows us that there is a great remedy
for our disease. And the remedy is the substitutionary
death of our Lord Jesus. You see, if God had only told
us about Himself, in His greatness, in His glory, in His strength,
in His might, in His righteousness, and then if He had only set before
us our own fallen condition, our inabilities, our depravity,
If that had been the end of us, if that had been the end of the
story, we'd be most miserable. Because there wouldn't be any
hope for us. There wouldn't be any hope for
any sinner. But then the Lord, after exposing
us for what we are, He sets before us a glorious salvation and a
wonderful person, the second person of the Trinity. He is
rightly said to be the Redeemer. the Savior, the one who came
to rescue folks like us. The Bible is a wonderful love
story of redemption. It sets forth the Lord of glory
who came into this world to save folks like us. He who was rich,
he became poor. That we We, through His poverty,
might be rich. Rich in grace. Rich in mercy. Rich in salvation. Rich in righteousness. We have the riches of God's grace
in the Lord Jesus. And all of this is in the Word
of God. And it is to our outright shame
that we don't spend more time in this book visiting with our
God in the Scriptures. And as we look in the Scriptures
this morning, and as we think about this gospel age in which
we're living, we know that we're saved by God's free grace, we're
kept and preserved by His strength and by His might. But we also
know that God's people are a troubled people, and we're attested and
a tried people. We're in a world of sin, we're
in a world of evil. The world is not a friend of
grace, it's not a friend to God, and the world is not your friend.
If you're a believer, if you're one of those who's a follower
of the land, the world is not your friend, the world is your
enemy. The world stands in opposition against you and will do everything
within its ability, within its power to interfere with the sweetness
of the gospel and your enjoyment of the grace of God in Christ
Jesus. The world is in opposition to
you. But though we have much opposition
from the world, and in our Bible class this morning, we learned
that the opposition we have is from the Lord Jesus told his
disciples as he sent them forth, they would encounter religious
opposition and governmental opposition. But though the opposition is
real, though the obstacles are real, though the persecution
and the troubles are real, We know that God's everlasting purpose
of grace cannot be defeated. And I'll tell you, that just
helps my poor soul. I got up early yesterday and
I turned on the television and I was watching some guy who was
preaching, he was down in Louisiana preaching, big crowd of people. And he said this, he said, I've
heard preachers say that God reigns over all." He said, can
you believe that? He said, don't tell me God reigns
in the storms? And he goes through all these
things that happen in the world and he said, God doesn't. He
said, God rules? He said, you know that's not
true. And I just, I sit there and I said, Lord, forgive him,
teach him the gospel, but thank you for revealing yourself to
us, to your people. That we understand that though
things happen in the world that we can't understand and we can't
grasp, we can't perceive the way that they would work into
God's eternal purpose. Nevertheless, we know that God's
dominion is an everlasting dominion. And when you speak to the people
of God, when I declare to you this morning that the Lord reigns
in every situation, this is good news for us. It's good news when
you're in, no matter what you're going through with, you may be
enjoying bright, sunshiny days in your life, but a lot of God's
people, it's like they're under a dark cloud. There are troubles
and difficulties that the people of God encounter. We've always
encountered these things, but here's what our enjoyment is. Here's our great encouragement.
The Lord reigns and He's making all of these things to work out
to fulfill His purpose and for the good of His chosen people,
no matter what happens. In Revelation chapter 13, John
saw much opposition. He saw those two beasts that
were being released by the red dragon. But he gets to chapter
14, he's much encouraged as he sees the Lamb of God with all
of the people of the Lord. And I say to you who are the
beloved of God, don't be discouraged. Be encouraged. Be encouraged. You know, when we sing these
songs of Zion, let's sing them with joy. Let's sing them with
gladness. And we may or may not have a
smile on our faces, but surely we have a smile in the soul.
Surely there's a joy in the heart to know Christ Jesus is our Lord,
He's our Savior. All of our sins have been wiped
away. We're robed in the garments of
His righteousness and He's making all things work together for
our good and He is fulfilling His eternal purpose and nothing
and nobody can ever stand successfully in the way of God. Now that's
much encouraging to the people of the Lord. God reigns. We took Nancy to a heart doctor
Friday. And by the way, she's doing a
little bit better. Just a matter of getting some
meds kind of adjusted. But I'm hopeful that she'll be
able to be with us by next Lord's Day. But we went by a church,
and it had their sign. It's up in Westwood. And here's
what the sign said. Let God be God. Let God be God. Well, I have news for those dear
folks. If you have to let God be God, then He's not God. He's not God. If you have to
grant God permission to reign and to rule over you, then you've got a pitiful God. Because the God of the Bible,
He reigns over all. As I just said, and Nebuchadnezzar
said this in the book of Daniel, His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.
The Lord rules. The Lord said in Isaiah, I will
do all my pleasure. Now, I may not understand and
indeed I don't comprehend the way that all things are happening. I don't understand how things
are working out according to the purpose of God. But if I
believe this book, and I do, and I want to believe it more
fully, but if I believe the Word of God, I've got to believe that
God reigns. A God who doesn't reign is not
worthy of worship. He's not worthy of adoration. If it can be that the creature
dominates and ultimately controls the Creator, then it is the creature
who should be worshipped and not the Creator. If we have an understanding of
the Word of God, we know that God reigns. The heathen said to David, where
is now thy God? That's what the heathen said. We have our gods, we see them. As it says in the book of Isaiah,
we put our gods up on our shoulders, we transport them from one location
to another location, and then we set them down, and Isaiah
says of those people that they're gods, they don't move until the
people pick them up and move them again. And Psalm 115, David says, their
gods have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, they can't
hear. They have mouths, they can't speak. They have hands,
they can't act. And the heathen said, well, we
have our gods. Where is your god? I can't see
your god. Here are our gods. They're all lined up over here.
We dust them off every week. We put a little bowl of rice
out for them. I've told you before, we've been
to Japan several times and to some of the gods over there that
they have even in their houses, they'll have an orange, a banana,
a bowl of rice, put it there. Some of them have very fancy,
very expensive altars to their gods, a little god about this
high. They put all this stuff in front of them. Every day. Don't tell me that they're not
sincere. They are sincere people. And
they're nice people. But that's idolatry. That's heathen. Where is your God, David? We
have our gods. We give them a bowl of rice every
day. He doesn't eat it. We give him a banana every day.
He doesn't eat it. Well, what do you do with it?
Oh, we throw it out. We dare not eat it. That's sanctified
to our God. Where is now your God? He said,
our God's in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever pleases
him. He always has and he always will. That's our God. That's our God. He reigns. He reigns in creation. Everything that's made, He made
it, and He made it the way He wanted to make it. He reigns in providence. Everything
that happens, ultimately, God's the first cause. I know there's
second and third causes. I know the Lord uses Satan. I
know He uses men. But God is ultimately, He's the
first reason, He's the first cause for all things. Well, you say, and this is what
this preacher said. He said, you mean to tell me
God reigns in those mudslides in California? And he laughed. Well, let him laugh at God. The
Lord will wipe that laughter off his face one of these days. God reigns in the mudslides.
God reigns in the earthquakes. God reigns in the storms. God
reigns in the disasters. Amos says, shall there be evil
in a city? And the Lord hath not done it? The greatest act of ungodliness
in the history of the world was when vile men took Jesus
of Nazareth, arrested Him, brought Him up on false charges,
paid false witnesses to lie against Him, and then sent him to the
governor, who though he found no fault in him, he caved in
to the will of the people and he had Jesus of Nazareth nailed
to a cross to die an awful death, an awful death. You say, well
that's horrible. It was horrible, but it was the
will of God. That's the hand of God at work.
You see, that which happened 2,000 years ago in the betrayal,
the arrest, the trial, the substitutionary death of Jesus of Nazareth, of
the Lord of Glory, all of His sufferings, all of His agonies,
all of that was ordained before God ever made the world. In fact,
He made the world so that would happen. Because God had ordained a people
unto salvation before He chose a people unto salvation. He chose
a Savior and ordained the only way whereby He could be just
and justify those that He would choose unto salvation who would
fall into sin. And that way of salvation was
by the death of the Son of God. If ever there was a vile, hideous,
horrible act at the hands of men, by the will of men, by the
ways of men, it was the death of Jesus of Nazareth. And yet
we read in Acts 4 that all of their actions happened because
God ordained it. So we may not understand And
indeed, we don't comprehend how these great tragedies work into
the purpose of God. But they do. They do. Our God is a God who reigns. Who reigns. He does whatever
He wants to do. And as in creation and as in
providence, so also in grace, all things obey His will. This
God, this great God, He says, I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. Now people can fuss about that,
and they do. People can object to that, and
they do. People can argue about that and
they do, but that doesn't change anything. God is sovereign in
the dispensing of His favors. He gives out the favors of His
grace and His mercy and His salvation according to His own sovereign
will. Don't argue with Him about that.
Bow down before such a great God and sue for mercy. That's right. Sue for mercy. All things in grace obey His
will. Therefore the scripture says,
so then it is not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth,
but of God that showeth the mercy. So, in everything that's happening
today, In this era in which we're living, it's all the purpose
of God that is unfolding precisely as He ordained it. There is no deviation from that
ordained path for all things. And that applies to the trials
and the troubles of the Lord's people also. It applies to all
of the opposition against the gospel and against the Lord's
purpose of grace. Yes, false religion abounds. Yes, men and women are being
deceived by the red dragon, but the purpose of God cannot be
frustrated. This gospel that we set forth,
it will always be successful. I am not on a fool's mission. The Word of the Lord wins out. It will accomplish exactly the
purpose for which He sends it forth. And I don't know what
the purpose of God is in sending it forth to you, to all of you
who are in this congregation. to those of you who are watching
on the internet or listening or watching to this message later.
I don't know what the purpose of God is regarding you, but
I do know this, it will be fulfilled. Isn't that right? It will be
fulfilled. It is written in the scriptures,
he cannot fail. You and I fail. Oh, we make plans. Okay, I'm gonna do this, I'm
gonna do that. And our plans and intentions
may or may not come to pass because we don't control all of the side
issues. But he does. He does. The purpose of God can't be frustrated. And therefore, this gospel that
we set forth, it will always be successful. This gospel is
said to be in Revelation chapter 14 and verse 6, and without getting
into the details of the context, this gospel is said to be the
everlasting gospel. The everlasting gospel. I know
this, whatever God's purpose is in having you here this morning,
it will be accomplished. For those that are watching on
the internet, I hope you've got your Bible. You can read here
as we read in verse 6 of the everlasting gospel. Whatever
God's purpose is regarding you, it's going to be fulfilled. Because
of the Lord, His purpose, He cannot be frustrated. It cannot
be defeated, no matter what opposition we may render toward His gospel
or toward His purpose. The everlasting gospel. What
a wonderful name for this message that we proclaim. The everlasting
gospel. Everlasting. What does that mean? It means without beginning, and
without ending. Everlasting, it means that which
always has been and that which always shall be. Everlasting, it means that which
had no origin, no beginning point, and that which shall never cease
to be. Everlasting. What does that mean? Good news?
Glad tidings? Salvation by the Son of God?
It's the good news, it's the glad tidings that everything
God required for the salvation, the redemption, the reconciliation
of those people chosen unto salvation, everything necessary for their
salvation, reconciliation and redemption and righteousness
has already been taken care of. by the Son of God. That's good
news. It's good news that it's all
of grace. It's good news that we're not
involved in it. It's good news that nothing is
required of us as a contribution for this gospel. It's good news. Go back to Romans chapter 1,
that passage that I asked or the wrong to read to us. Let
me just point out four or five things here as time allows about
the everlasting gospel. In Romans chapter 1, the word
gospel is indeed a key word. And several things are said about
this. Number one is the everlasting
gospel of God. It says that in verse one, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, literally a bond slave, he's called an
apostle, he's separated, he's set apart unto the gospel of
God. What do I know about this everlasting
gospel? I know this, it's God's everlasting
gospel. I know that. He's the author
of it and He's the finisher of it. And He's the one who is the subject
of it. What is the gospel about? The
gospel is about God. It's about God, who He is, what
He's done for us in the Lord Jesus. It's God's gospel. He's the revealer of it. He's
the one who makes this known to us. And He's the one who makes
it successful. The everlasting gospel is God's
gospel. You know where it originated?
You know where the everlasting gospel originated? In the everlasting
covenant of grace. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace had brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The
everlasting gospel was formulated in the everlasting covenant of
grace. The Gospel is as old as God,
and what does the Bible say about God? From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. No wonder His Gospel is said
to be everlasting. It's as ancient as God, and it
will last as long as God lasts. Since it's the Gospel of God,
it cannot be a new message, because it's the everlasting Gospel.
Therefore David said in Psalm 139 and 24, lead me in the way
everlasting. The way everlasting. We so often
quote John 14 verse 6 where Jesus said to Thomas and the rest of
the disciples, verily I say unto you, I am the way, the way, the
way to God, the way to salvation, the way to righteousness, the
way to forgiveness, the way to reconciliation. I am the way. Well, this is the way everlasting. It's not a new way, it's an old
way. It's the way everlasting. Since it's God's gospel, then
it cannot be something that was contrived in time. It's everlasting. This message of the everlasting
gospel of the everlasting God concerns the everlasting salvation
of His people. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with what kind of salvation? An everlasting salvation. No wonder the Lord said to Jeremiah,
I have loved thee, Jeremiah 31 3, I have loved thee with...
What kind of love? An everlasting love. This is
all in the everlasting gospel. David declared that the mercy
of the Lord is everlasting. Psalm 100 and verse 5. For the
Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy in this everlasting gospel. And this mercy is an
everlasting mercy. And His truth endures to all
generations. This is not a new message. It's
not a novel message. There's only one gospel and it's
the everlasting gospel. It was conceived in the heart
of God Almighty from old everlasting, from old eternity. There's something else about
this gospel number two. The everlasting gospel concerns
the Son of God. The Son of God. The last statement
of verse 1 talks about the gospel of God. You notice the second
verse is in parentheses. Look at the third verse concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It's the gospel of God's Son.
Look down in verse 9. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. You see, there is
no gospel apart from the Son of God The Lord Jesus, the everlasting
gospel concerns the Son of God. The everlasting gospel is not
about baptism. It's not about church membership.
It's not about reforming yourself. It's not about doing better.
It's about the Lord Jesus and His work of redemption. He is
the subject of the gospel. In fact, He is the gospel. He is the gospel Himself. And if you ever take one step
away from Christ Jesus, you've taken a step away from the Gospel.
Everything is about Him. Who He is in His identity. He's God and He's man. What He
did. He died as substitutionary death.
He died as God's sacrifice for sin. He died as that one sin
offering. By one offering, He had perfected
forever them that were sanctified. It's all about Christ Jesus.
This everlasting gospel is about the everlasting Son of God, who
is Himself called the everlasting Father. In Isaiah chapter 9 and
verse 6, it's about the Son of God. It's about His deity. You notice
here, His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. His Son. The Jews knew when He said God
was His Father, He was claiming equality with God. John 5, we've
studied that on Wednesday night. When He said, My Father worketh
hitherto and I work, they picked up stones to stone Him. In John
chapter 10 and verse 30, he said, I and my father, one that picked
up stones to stone him again. He said, why do you pick up stones
to stone me? They said, because you being
a man makes thyself God. But he is God. He's got to be
God to answer all the demands of God. He's got to be God to
know the mind of God. He's got to be God to know the
will of God. He's got to be God to have the
power of God. He's got to be God. Micah chapter 5 verse 2 talks
about Bethlehem, little among the thousands, says, Out of thee
shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. He's got to be God. He's from
everlasting. This everlasting God concerns
the everlasting Son of God. And it also concerns His incarnation. You see, two things must be found
in our Redeemer if He's to save us effectually, if He's to truly
save us. He's got to be a deity and He's
got to be human. He's got to be God and He's got
to be man. He's got to be altogether God and altogether man. Altogether
God to satisfy God, altogether man because God can't suffer,
bleed and die. Man got us in this mess. It's
going to take the last atom. It's going to take another man
to get us out of this mess. By one man's disobedience, many,
the many that he represented, were made legally considered
to be, constituted to be guilty. By the obedience of another man,
the good man, shall many be declared righteous. God justified us. God has legally legally announced
and pronounced us to be righteous in His sight, in His everlasting
gospel, the gospel of His everlasting Son who is made flesh and dwelt
among us. Thirdly, this everlasting gospel
is the gospel of everlasting grace. In verse 5, Paul says,
by whom we've received grace. In verse 7 he says, grace to
you and peace from God our Father. The everlasting gospel is the
gospel of grace. Thank God there was an old eternity
and election of grace. And Paul says in Romans 11, even
now, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. This
grace according to 2 Timothy chapter 1 was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And this grace is made known
to us by the working of the mighty Spirit in our hearts. It's the gospel of grace. Fourthly,
this everlasting gospel is a very powerful gospel. Drop down to
verse 16. He says, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the
Greeks. With good reason, Isaiah said
in Isaiah 26 and verse 4, in the Lord is everlasting strength. Everlasting strength. There's
strength in this gospel. There's no strength in me, no
strength in the one who delivers the message. But there is strength
in the message that I deliver. Why, it's strength enough to
tear down walls of rebellion. It's strength enough to raise
the dead. There's everlasting strength in this everlasting
gospel. There's everlasting strength
to give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, everlasting
strength to take away from us a heart of stone and give us
a heart of flesh, which is a heart of faith. It keeps us safe. No wonder the
Apostle says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, God has given to us
everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace. See, this salvation is everlasting. It's everlasting. It's a powerful
gospel. It raises us from death to life. It edifies us. It builds us up. It saves sinners. I urge you,
I compel you to come to Christ Jesus this morning. He's a glorious
Savior. I say, come as you are in your
sinfulness and your filth, come to the blessed Savior, but my
words can't cause you to come. My words are not effectual in
other words. What's effectual mean, preacher?
Gets the job done. My words can't get the job done,
but His everlasting gospel can get the job done. Now, if He
means to send it to your heart, He will. And it will draw you
effectively. It will bring you to Christ.
The Gospel gets you and just pulls you to Him. That's right. The Lord draws us. No man can
come to Me except the Father which has sent Me. Draw him!
He draws us with effectual, irresistible grace. There is everlasting power
in this everlasting gospel. Oh God, make bare your everlasting
arm of grace to sinners. That's what we pray. And then lastly, the everlasting
gospel reveals the righteousness of God in verse 17. For therein
in this gospel is the righteousness of God revealed, made known,
manifested from faith to faith. That may mean from one degree
of faith to another degree of faith because faith grows. It
may mean we believe the body of faith, the gospel itself. Faith to believe it continues. But the righteousness of God
is revealed in this gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of our God. You see, if God is to accept
us, we must be righteous. There are just no ifs, ands,
or buts about that. A righteous God is not going
to accept anything less than righteousness. But in the Lord
Jesus, through His death. Now listen, for God has made
Him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. In Him. The everlasting gospel
reveals the righteousness of God. See, this is the everlasting
gospel and because of the everlasting gospel, all of His people shall
be had in everlasting remembrance before Him. And you know what the scripture
says about the Lord's people in this everlasting gospel? We
have what kind of life? Everlasting life. That's a life
that will never end. Because it's the life of God
that He gives without beginning and without end. This is the
everlasting Gospel. It is my highest privilege to
preach to you the everlasting Gospel. Well, may the Lord bless
His everlasting Gospel to His glory.