Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from several passages of Scripture.
I want you to turn with me in your Bibles if you would and
I believe you'll get a blessing out of this if you'll read the
Scriptures and follow along in the Scriptures. But let me just
say first of all how I came about this message. Now the title of
the message today is called Gospel Principles. And I'm going to
talk to you about five principles of the gospel of God's grace.
These are fundamentals of the faith, and the words that I'll
be using for each one tells us how God saves sinners, why he
does it the way he does, and it's all in light of the fact
that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves. But the reason
I decided to preach on this subject is I have it in my mind to go
through the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Many of you might be familiar
with Isaiah 53. It's a precious, beautiful passage
of Scripture that is a prophecy of Christ, the suffering Savior,
the suffering substitute. And so next week, and probably
in the week after, I'm going to be preaching through Isaiah
53. But as I was studying for that message, I thought, well,
it might be good for us to go back and see some of the fundamental
principles of the gospel of God's grace. because these are related
and communicated and revealed in the book of Isaiah chapter
53 as well as all the scripture. So we're going to talk about
gospel principles and the first passage I want you to go to is
Romans chapter 5 in the New Testament, the book of Romans chapter 5.
I'm going to begin reading with verse 12. There are many ways
that men use to describe the fundamental principles of the
gospel. Now you know the word gospel
means good news. And it is the good news of how
God saves sinners. That's what we are. We're sinners
who are in need of salvation. We cannot save ourselves. We
cannot do anything to earn or deserve salvation. That's why
the good news of salvation is grace. And God's grace is found
in the person and in the finished work, the powerful work, of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So it is called the gospel of
Christ. It is the gospel of His Son,
the gospel of God, which concerns His Son. And then it concerns
what His Son accomplished on Calvary, on the cross of Calvary,
to save us from our sins, to save His people from their sins. And therefore it's called the
gospel of the cross. One old preacher made this statement
about gospel principles. He said there are three R's in
the gospel. And these are really good if
you'll listen to them. Number one is ruined by the fall. And
that's what we're going to look at in Romans chapter 5 and verse
12 and then on into some other verses. Ruined by the fall. And
what he's talking about is when Adam fell, he fell as a representative
of his people. The first gospel principle is
representation. And I'll talk about that in just
a moment. Representation. But the old preacher said we're
ruined by the fall. That's the first star. We fell
in Adam. We didn't just stump our toe.
We didn't trip and get up ourselves. We fell into sin and death and
condemnation. And therefore salvation cannot
be by the works of men. There's no flesh that can be
justified in God's sight. And then the second R, he said,
was redeemed by the blood. Man fell into sin, he became
in bondage to death, sold out to sin and to Satan, and under
the curse of the law. But God sent forth His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law. And the redemption price,
and get this in your head now, this is something people need
to understand, the redemption price of salvation is the precious
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And His blood alone pays
the full redemption price. You see, the redemption price
is not your works or even your faith. The redemption, or even
your repentance, let me say that. But the redemption price is the
blood of Christ. It's His blood and His righteousness
alone. We'll talk about that. And then
the third R is regeneration by the Spirit. Ruined, redeemed,
regenerated. You see, man is dead by nature.
Dead in trespasses and sins. He has no spiritual life. Christ
told Nicodemus, you must be born again. So he must be regenerated. That's one of the gospel principles,
regeneration. So those are the three are, ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the
Spirit. All of Christ's sheep who were
ruined by the fall have been redeemed by the blood and they
will be regenerated by the Spirit. They'll come to faith in Christ.
Now with that in mind, let's look at these gospel principles.
And you might want to write these down, but I urge you to take
these to heart and study them in the Word of God. Now, as I
said, the first gospel principle is the principle of representation. And what that teaches is this.
Because we are ruined by the fall, because we are alienated
from God in our minds by wicked works, because we are sinners,
we cannot come to God on our own of ourselves personally.
We must have a representative. to stand for us and represent
us before God. Now that's the gospel principle.
The good news is that there is a representative. But let me
say this, there's only one representative. The representative that stands
between God and sinners for salvation is not one of your choosing,
he's not one of my choosing, he is one of God's choosing.
He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the representative
of His people. And that was typified back in
the Old Testament by the high priest of Israel. You remember
God when He covenanted with Israel on Sinai through Moses. He set
up the Levitical priesthood, the sons of Aaron. Aaron was
the first high priest. And when they built the tabernacle,
only Aaron, the high priest, could go into the Holy of Holies
once a year as the representative of the nation Israel. He had
on a breastplate, and on that breastplate there were 12 stones,
and each stone had a name on it, the name of a tribe of Israel.
And that represented that he went in for the 12 tribes of
Israel, the nation Israel. Now he did not go into the Holy
of Holies for the Hittites, or the Amorites, or the Amalekites,
or the Philistines, or the Egyptians. He went in for Israel. He had
those same names on his shoulder piece, six on one side and six
on the other. He was the representative of
Israel. But he was one whom God appointed. You see, they didn't meet in
an election and have the people vote on who would be their representative.
They didn't get the opinions of men. The representative had
to be taken from among men. He had to be qualified by God
and he had to be equipped by God. Well, that High Priest of
Israel was a type, a picture, a foreshadowing of the one true
great representative that God Himself has appointed to be the
representative of His people Spiritual Israel, God's elect
out of every tribe and nation, His Church, Christ calls them
His sheep, and He appointed His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be the representative of His people. You see, Christ
is the only one who is qualified and equipped and willing to be
the representative of his people. Now, over in the book of Romans
chapter 5, Paul the Apostle, as he's inspired by the Holy
Spirit, speaks of this principle of representation. He starts
out with a representative of man named Adam, the first man. He says in verse 12, Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world. Now that's Adam. And
then he says, and death by sin, that is, sin deserves death,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now, literally, that would be
this way. It would say death passed upon all men for that
all sinned. Adam was the representative of
the whole human race in the Garden of Eden. He was appointed by
God to be so, but Adam failed. And when he fell, he fell not
just as a private person, but as a representative. and the
whole human race fell in Adam for all sin. Now, somebody might
say, well, that's not fair. I don't like that. Well, it doesn't
matter if you like it. It is fair. God appointed Adam
to be the representative of the whole human race. So much so
that when Adam fell, I fell. Not personally in myself, because
I wasn't born yet, but I was represented by Adam. That's the
doctrine of representation. But here's the good news. There's
another representative unto life, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And my friend, it says in Romans chapter 5 and verse 18, it says,
therefore as by the offense of one, that's Adam, judgment came
upon all men, the condemnation, that's all whom Adam represented.
But look at this, he says, even so by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men, That's all whom Christ represented
unto justification of life. Well, how can I know if I fell
in Adam? Well, am I a sinner? Have I ever
committed any sin? I was born in sin, born dead
in trespasses and sin. That proves that when Adam fell,
he represented me. Now, how can I know if I'm represented
by Christ? Well, do I believe in him? Am
I resting in Him as my whole salvation? Do I have faith in
Him? Have I repented of my dead works and my idolatry? Do I love
the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him as my Savior, my Lord? Is
He my all in all? Is He my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption? See, that's what justification
unto life means. Adam brought in the ground of
condemnation and death. Christ, by his obedience unto
death, in his blood shedding, he brought in the ground of justification
in life. And that's his righteousness
alone, his obedience unto death. He goes on in verse 19, he says,
for as by one man's disobedience, many, or the many, somebody asked
how many, well however many Adam represented, they were made sinners. They were legally constituted
sinners in Adam. And then they were born sinners
as the result. He goes on, he says, so by the
obedience of one shall be many. Well, how many? However many
Christ represented, they shall be, many be made righteous, legally
constituted righteous in him, and they'll be born again unto
life. Now that's the principle of representation. The Bible
says, but now, in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, but now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.
That's his representation. For since by man came death,
that's Adam, by man came also the resurrection of the dead,
that's Christ, for as in Adam all die, represented in Adam,
even so in Christ all shall be made alive. In other words, all
whom Christ represented shall be made alive spiritually. Not
all without exception, but all whom he represented. Now that's
the first gospel principle, representation. But now here's the second one.
The second one is substitution. Now, here's what I'm saying.
Not only do we need one to represent us, because we're sinners and
we cannot approach God ourselves on our own. My friend, if you
seek to approach God on your own, in your own way, by your
own works, you will be damned. You need a representative, but
you need the right representative. Not just any will do. Buddha
is not a good representative. Mohammed's not the representative,
Christ is. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. But not only do I need a representative, I need one who can not only stand
for me and represent me, I need one to take my place before God. I need a substitute. Now, I told
you I'm going to be preaching from Isaiah 53. But this is a
beautiful passage that describes the substitutionary work of Christ. And in verse 5 of Isaiah 53,
it speaks of substitution. This is why I wanted to bring
this message on gospel principles, because you see these in Isaiah
53. It says in verse 5, but he, that
is Christ, my representative, was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Now, that verse
is a great description of substitution, and what a great thing it is
that the Lord not only represents His people, His sheep, God's
elect before God the Father, but He actually came to this
earth and took our place under the law. He was made under the
law. He was made of a woman. and He
took our sins upon Himself and He died for those sins. His death
on the cross was not for His own sins. It was not for sins
that were infused into Him. It was for the sins of His sheep. He said, the Good Shepherd giveth
His life for the sheep. Now that was typified back in
the Old Testament by the sacrificial lamb or the animals. After Adam
and Eve fell, and they sewed their fig leaf aprons together
trying to hide their nakedness, God appeared and He took an animal,
I believe a lamb, and slew that animal and made coats of skin.
And He was showing in principle there how that salvation from
sin can only come from the substitutionary death of a substitute who would
shed blood as payment for those sins. Somebody had to die. Why? Because without the shedding
of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. Sin demands death. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You remember during the
Passover, God commanded Israel to take a lamb and slay that
lamb, cut its throat and catch its blood in a basin. and take
that blood out and put it over the doorpost. And he said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. My friend, that's the
gospel principle of substitution. I need one who can represent
me before God. There's only one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, for there's one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. He's the only one whom God appointed,
the only one who is able, and the only one who is willing to
represent me. But I also need that same representative
to take my place under the law of God. to take my sins upon
himself, and die the death that I deserve, and die the death
that I earned. He must stand for me." All of
the Old Testament sacrifices taught the principle of substitution.
Romans 5 and verse 6 says, For when we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 18 says, For Christ also hath suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God. Think
about it. Substitution. We have a substitute,
but there's only one. Only one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the third gospel principle. It's the word imputation. Now
how could Christ, who is perfect, who kept the law perfectly, How
can he who is righteous in himself and holy, how could he take my
place and go under the justice of God and suffer justly? And the answer is only by imputation,
to impute sin to him. Now that word imputation means
to charge to the account of. And what the Scripture teaches
is that Christ as my representative and substitute had my sins charged
to his account. That's imputation. My sins were
imputed to him. The Bible teaches a threefold
imputation. Adam's sin imputed to the human
race, all whom he represented, and all of the sins of Christ's
sheep imputed to him, all whom he represented, and his righteousness
imputed to them. Over in the Book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, beginning at verse 17. It says, Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or a new creation.
Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. And
all things, that is the all things that are become new, are of God,
salvations of the Lord. Who hath reconciled us unto himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
That means bringing enemies together and making them friends. God,
who had a matter against his people, and his people who were
alienated from God. And here's how he did it. Here's
how reconciliation between God and his elect sinners is made. To wit, or namely, that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, not charging them with their sins. and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation, now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, and Christ did,
be ye reconciled to God." Now, if God did not impute my sins
to me, where did He put them? You see, He has to deal with
them. The soul that sinneth must surely die. God must be satisfied. Verse 21 tells us, For He, that
is God the Father, hath made him sin, hath made Christ to
be sin for us. He laid those sins on Christ.
He laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53 says. Christ
who knew no sin, he did no sin, he knew no sin, and he did it
in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now what he's teaching there in the gospel principle of imputation
is that there was a legal exchange My sins for Christ's righteousness. My sins were charged to Him.
His righteousness is charged to me. And that's the gospel
principle of imputation. The book of Romans chapter 4
speaks of that in Abraham. Abraham was saved and justified
before God based on a righteousness that he had no part in producing.
It was the righteousness that Christ would come in time, in
Abraham's future, and work out on the cross of Calvary. When
Christ obeyed the law, He satisfied that law. When He died under
the justice of God on the cross, He satisfied that law. He brought
forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God
could be both a just God and a Savior. And here's what I'm
saying. God the Father was just to punish Christ on the cross
for my sins charged to His account. Now, many people don't see that.
Some people say, well, he had to be made a sinner in order
for God to be just. Those people do not understand
and know the gospel principle of imputation. They act as if
imputation is unreal, or some kind of a fake matter, or some
kind of a pretending. But let me tell you something.
It was taught all through the Old Testament that it was real,
that it was right, and it was just. Anytime the priest laid
his hand upon the head of the sacrifice, that was teaching
the gospel principle of imputation of sin to the innocent sacrifice,
and ultimately of righteousness to the sinner. When the scapegoat
was led out into the wilderness, the sins of the people were ceremonially
and symbolically placed upon him, typifying that Christ would
bear our sins on the cross. Now, the fourth gospel principle
is satisfaction. And in that satisfaction, what
we read is that Christ, our representative, our substitute, to whom our sins
were imputed, he satisfied God's law and justice. He got the job
done. He drank damnation dry. Over
in Isaiah 53 and verse 10 it says, or verse 11, he shall see
of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He didn't
try to save his people. He didn't make an attempt to
save everybody. He saved His people from their
sins. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He said it.
He said it. God was satisfied with His Son. He said it's finished on the
cross, and the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. God accepted His sacrifice. That was typified back in the
Old Testament when the sacrifice on the altar was consumed by
the fire of God. God accepted the sacrifice. It
was typified when the high priest went into the holiest of all
and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat, and he came out of
that holy place, God accepted the sacrifice. How do we know
God accepted Christ's sacrifice? He raised him from the dead.
He's seated at the right hand of the Father, and he did it
because of our justification. And so the fifth gospel principle
is regeneration. From the death of Christ, from
the satisfaction that he made, comes life for his people. He said in John chapter 6 and
verse 37, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. They will
come to him. They will be given life by the
Spirit. Christ earned that and secured
it on Calvary. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. All of that he will raise him up against in the last day.
He said, my sheep, hear my voice, my sheep follow me. They won't
follow another. They will be preserved unto the
end. They will be regenerated. That was typified back in the
old covenant by circumcision, the cutting away of the filth
of the flesh. My friend, When you come to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in Him, and repentance of dead
works, when the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts that
you may know Him and serve Him and follow Him, that's regeneration
and conversion. That's the new birth. You must
be born again. So you see, here are these gospel
principles, representation, substitution, imputation, satisfaction, and
regeneration. That's the good news, isn't it?
We have a Savior who secures every bit of those principles
within Himself by what He accomplished on Calvary. That's what Isaiah
53 is going to talk about. That great Savior, that substitute
who stood in my place and got the job done so that I can have
life and inner glory based on His shed blood and His righteousness
imputed alone. Write those down. If you can't
remember or didn't write them down, get this message. The gospel
principle of representation, substitution, imputation, satisfaction,
and regeneration. Because that's good news to a
sinner who knows his frame, who knows his weakness, who knows
his impotence, who knows that he has no hope before a holy
God to be saved, to be accepted, to be preserved, and to be glorified. But that which is presented at
the mercy seat, Christ in him crucified. Hope this message
has helped you to understand the basics of the good news of
the gospel. If you'd like to get a copy of
this message, listen to the announcer and he'll give you the details.
The title of the message is Gospel Principles. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word.