Open your Bibles with me to 1
Corinthians, Chapter 15. I pray that the Lord will make
me a blessing here today to His people, and cause His gospel
to run well. You know, the gospel is I know
we all like preachers, and we have preachers we like better
than others, and we want to hear more than others, but the gospel
is not in a preacher. The gospel is by the power of
God. Isaiah, God said, cry. He said, what shall I cry? He said, just be a voice. Lift up your voice. And God speaks. through men, but it's the voice
of God that you have to hear, not the voice of a man. And it's the gospel that's the
power of God. It's not the preacher. And I want the gospel to run
well. I want to see Christ exalted before men's hearts and minds.
And that's what I want to preach on this morning. What is the
gospel you believe? What is your gospel? What's my
gospel? Paul said here in 1 Corinthians
15, 1, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received. You have received it.
You believe it. You stand in this gospel, by
which this gospel you are also saved, if you keep in memory
or hold fast, hold fast, this gospel that I preached unto you,
unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received." I'm not telling you anything
that I dreamed up and made up. My gospel is not after men. That's
what he's saying. And this is what I preach, that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was
buried and that He arose again the third day according to the
Scriptures, according to the Scriptures. Now, I'm sure you've found this out.
And you know that all preachers in churches don't preach the
same gospel. They don't preach the same gospel.
Well, what I'm hearing today and what's going on today, there's
not everybody saying the same thing, not believing the same
thing, don't preach the same thing, not even close to the
same thing. And there seems to be many gospels
around today. And it's obvious, you know, when
you talk to people and you hear preachers preach, that some seek
salvation. This is one gospel they preached
today and people believe. Some seek salvation in their
family times by the relationship to somebody that's so-called
saved. Parents who are in a church, you know, they have infants sprinkled.
Bring the babies in, dedicate them to the Lord and have somebody
to sprinkle them. Get them catechized, get them
confirmed, and they call it salvation. Some seek salvation in their
church membership. You know, they go someplace and
they guess, oh, I've got to find me a church to go, and they go
and be in their one or two services, and they've got to join up. And
most preachers tickle to death to get them. Never find out what
the people are like, and the people never find out what the
preacher's like and what he's preaching. Just they've got to
be on the road. They've got to be in the church. In fact, some
are on the road before they're even born. Jay Wembley, I don't
know how many of you all know him. He was on the roll before
he was ever born. His mom and daddy put him on
the church roll. I've heard him tell it several times. Some seek
salvation in the ordinances, in baptism or the Lord's supper.
They think that there is actually salvation in being baptized.
They think that water, some way or another, washes away their
sin and justifies them before God. But if water ever washed
away sin, surely the tears of our Savior would. And it's not
water that washes away sin, it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. Ain't that right, Charles? And
they call it sacraments. They take the bread and the wine,
they call it sacraments. They say that they're saving
grace imparted through taking the bread, and saving grace imparted
through drinking the wine. But saving grace is not imparted
except one way, and that's through a person, through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that grace is given to His people in Christ before
the world ever began. Grace don't come through anything
in this world except the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost.
I mean, there's no saving grace in anything but the Lord Jesus
Christ. And some seek salvation in their
morality. Boy, we've got a lot of this.
A lot of this. People say, well, that old boy
is a good old boy. He's dead now, I know. If he don't get to heaven, nobody
will. He was good to his wife and good to his, and he loved
his mama. Bless he loved his mama so good. If he don't make
it, nobody's going to make it. Well, I tell you, brethren, morality
is fine. You can't be Christian and not
be moral, but morality and Christianity is miles and worlds apart. You
can be moral and not be Christian, but you can't be Christian and
not be moral. But salvation is not in morality, not in paying
debts. Not in treating your wife right,
patting your dog. It's not in those things. Salvation,
beloved, is not in morality. And some, all these Gospels are
going around today. And that's why, you know, there's
no offense in many of these things that I'm talking about. There's
no offense in works. You give a man something, preach grace
to him all you want to, but give him some little something to
do. Just give him some little something to do. And you take
the sting out of it, the offense out of it, and there's no offense
in works. But when you hold his feet to the fire, that salvation
is altogether, from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end,
a work of the Spirit of God, of the grace of God, entirely
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and never let him have anything,
anything to hold to but that. And, beloved, that's where the
offense comes in. You won't have his morality. You won't have
his decision. You won't have His baptism. You
won't have His Lord's Supper. You won't have His works. You
won't have His sprinkling. You won't have His catechism. You won't have His confirmation.
You won't have none of those things. Salvation is in a person.
And that's offensive to people. And all people say, well, I made
a decision. I joined the church when I was
14. I made a decision for Jesus when
I was 14. Decisions don't save. Christ
sings. Some seek it in doctrine, and
I love doctrine. We ought to know doctrine, ought
to be strong in the doctrine of Christ. And I don't even like
to call it the doctrines of grace. It's the doctrine of grace. It's
just one doctrine. It's the doctrine of grace, the
doctrine of Christ. And some seek it in the doctrine. But
you separate doctrine from the Lord Jesus, and you've got just
a skeleton, no life, no life. You see, there's a way that seems
right unto men, but the end thereof is the ways of death. God said,
My ways are not pure ways. My thoughts are not pure thoughts.
You and I are not alike at all. My ways and my thoughts are so
far above you as the heavens is above the earth. And He said
in one place in Psalms 50, 21, He said, You thought I was altogether
more than like you. He said, I'm not like you at
all. God is so different from us.
He is so comprehensible that the greatest joy and the most
pure worship that you and I will ever perform is when we contemplate
God and the wisdom of God in the Lord Jesus Christ in saving
sinners like us. And you think about that, and
you meditate on that, and you ponder that, and you get lost
in the thoughts of it, comprehending God. So you just absolutely throw
up your hands, and you adore Him, and you worship Him, and
your heart's filled with joy. That's the purest worship you'll
ever do. But according to that, all these Gospels are going around.
But according to the Word of God, there is but one Gospel. One Gospel. Just one. And look
in Romans with me, chapter one. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. You know, the Apostle Paul told the Galatians, he said,
I marvel, I marvel that you are so soon removed from the grace
of Christ unto another gospel. He said, which is not another.
There is not another gospel. It's a perversion of the gospel
of Christ. And there'll be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But he said, though we, Myself
included, or an angel come and preach to you another gospel
than that we've already preached, you let him be accursed. You
let him be accursed. If myself comes and preaches
another gospel, I marvel that you heard the gospel, you believe
the gospel, you say you did, and you're removed from that
unto another which is really not another. To add anything
to it destroys it. To take anything away from it
destroys it. And that's why Paul said it's
just one gospel. And that's why they said, this is the gospel
I preach to you, this is the gospel you see, this is the gospel
you stand in, this is the gospel that saves you, this is the gospel
I've preached unto you, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Now, look here, in Romans, chapter
1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle, separated unto the – here's the first thing about this one
gospel, it's the gospel of God. If anybody ever comes to you
with a gospel that does not start with God, he's not preaching
the gospel. The gospel always starts with God. In the beginning,
God. God hath from the beginning chosen
you. Everything starts with God. That's the difference in the
grace of God, in the free will of man, the grace of God, in
the works of man. Everything starts with God. Paul
always, in the Scripture, started his gospel with God. The Bible
starts with God. In the beginning, God. This is
the gospel of God. It originated with God. It started
with God. It comes from the heart of God.
It comes from the mind of God. It comes from the will of God.
It comes from the purpose of God. And then what's this? And then, which He had promised
before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It's the ancient
gospel. This is the gospel that's according
to the Scriptures. Not according to some man's ideas, some man's
opinions. This is the gospel according
to the Scriptures. This is the gospel. This is the gospel that
Abel was saved by. This is the gospel that Abraham
was saved by. This is the gospel that Isaiah
preached. The gospel didn't start with
the Apostle Paul. The gospel started in the garden,
in the first promise. That's the ancient gospel. And
then what is this gospel concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord?
It concerns the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, the gospel of God.
It's ancient. Always been. It's eternal. And,
beloved, it's the gospel concerning His Son. It's the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It's the gospel of a person.
It's the gospel of one who came into this world, and watch this,
who was made a seed of David according to the flesh. He was
man, 100% man. He was the one that was promised
to be raised up after the seed of David to sit on the throne
and reign forever and ever and ever. And then, watch this, and
declared to be the Son of God with power. Not only was He the
Son of Man, But He was also the Son of God. He was God and man.
One hundred percent God, one hundred percent man. As much
man as if He was not God, as much God as if He was not man.
And one undivided person. You see, man cannot satisfy God. There's no way, never been a
human being that could ever satisfy God. Not any human being ever
drawn to breadth could satisfy God, could satisfy His justice,
pay off their sin debt. could ever honor and magnify,
it must be perfect in order to be accepted. If you're going
to go to heaven being good, you've got to be as good as God. And
yet, man can die, but only God can satisfy God. But God can't
die. So God and man came together
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as man, He died,
and as God, He satisfied God. He was God and man, don't you
see? That's the gospel that concerns a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I ask you, and I ask you, my question to me, my question
to you is, what's your gospel? What's your gospel? What do you
believe? What do you say I'm saved, who
I'm standing in, I've received? Is my gospel the gospel of God?
Is my gospel this ancient gospel? Is this gospel that I believe
concern a person? Is this gospel the gospel of
my salvation? The gospel that saved me, this
one saving gospel. Paul called it, he said, my gospel.
He said, God's going to judge the secrets of men by my gospel. He said, remember that Jesus
Christ in the seat of David, according to the flesh, was raised
from the dead according to my gospel. He said, God's able to
make you stand according to my gospel. He called it his gospel.
I call it my gospel. You have a gospel, you can say
it's my gospel. Huh? What do you mean when you talk
about my gospel? Well, when Paul meant it, he said he's a preacher
of it. He preached this gospel. It was
committed to his trust. God gave him the gospel, committed
it to his trust. When he talked about my gospel,
he said, this is the message that I own. It's the message
that I own. This is the message, the one
I'm going to be judged by, this is the one I'm going to be saved
by, this is the gospel I'm going to be established by, the preaching
of Jesus Christ. Can you say, that's my gospel,
I'll be judged by this gospel? I can stand before God with a
pure heart today because of this gospel that I've received, believed,
and stand in. Would you face God today with
your gospel? Paul said, I would. That's why
I call it mine. My gospel is the one I preach.
It's the one that gives me a good hope. It's mine because my salvation
comes through this gospel. It's mine because the salvation
of those whom I preach to comes through this gospel. And he said,
my gospel to distinguish him, to show how opposite it is to
the gospel of these false apostles and these false prophets that's
going around today. It's got to sound a clear note. And, oh,
beloved, that's why I say the gospel of works is not offensive
at all. It's not offensive. It's not
offensive. But why is the gospel of grace?
Why is my gospel with Paul preached? Why is this gospel? Why is the
preaching of the cross offensive? Why does it offend people? Why
does it upset people? Why does it bother people? Why
does it split churches? Why does it cause a group like
this to gather out here in a building without a pastor, seeking direction,
seeking the will of God? Why does it make you all drive
so far and break off friendships? and stand out there with your
heart aching and your mind hurting and seeking the will of God.
What is it about this gospel that's so offensive that makes
people split and separate? And it's imperative. I mean,
there's a lot at stake over this business of the gospel, ain't
there? A lot at stake. You know what
it is? Our verse holds. What is it? Well, I'm going to
tell you what's why it's so offensive. It tells all men, not just some,
but it tells all men that spiritual knowledge is by revelation. I
don't care how smart you are. I don't care how many degrees
you've got. I don't care how well you can
comprehend. I don't care. None of that will
enter into this business of the gospel. If you ever know anything,
God's got to reveal it to you. It's a revelation. It's a revelation. The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. He can't even know it that's
spiritually discerned. And I mean, we'll shut up to
that. If I know anything, if you know anything, if my children
know anything, if your children know anything, if any of us learn
anything, our natural inclinations and our carnal reasoning does
not enter into it. It's a revelation of the Spirit
of God. Secondly, it offends man's idea
of his own ability, of his free will, of his great power. But
beloved man's not about as free as a frog in a snake's belly. He can move around in there,
but he can't get out. He's like a man in a jailhouse. He's in
a jail cell. He can walk around and lay down
and read a book and use the bathroom. He can do push-ups. He can do
all kinds of things, but he can't get out of that prison. And that's
the way a man's will is. It's free only in the realm that
it is in his nature. All he can do with his will is,
he will not come to Christ with it. That's all he can do with
it. He doesn't have any ability. Man doesn't have any ability.
If he had any ability, tell me why Jesus Christ died on the
cross. Tell me why the Spirit of God has to come and bring
a man to the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me why the things are a
revelation if man has any ability of his own. Huh? You see, salvation
is of the Lord. It's the Lord Jesus Christ's
ability that saves us, not us. It's God's will that saves us,
not our will. It's not Him that willeth, it's
not Him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth mercy. Huh? And it offends, just so offensive
the gospel is, it offends a man's idea of his worth. And oh, my
soul, you're talking about a degenerate, decadent generation. And we're
all just as involved in it, head over heels in it, that every
advertisement, everything on television, radio, and everywhere
else is geared to make man think he is something and worth something,
and you deserve a break today. Do you know that? You've worked
hard. You've earned that real, real
expensive car. You've earned that. You deserve
that. Oh, he don't deserve to feel
that way. He don't deserve to have do that. My children deserve
better than that. Man is bombarded with this idea
that he is worse so much. But the Gospel addresses all
men as sinners. And it says that salvation is
not in merit, but in mercy. Salvation is of grace, not of
goodness. That's what it is. Oh, it offends
man because it addresses all men as sinners. All men. There
is not, you can't turn your hand for the difference in any human
being that ever draw their breath. Only reason, only reason that
every one of us here this morning, every single one of us has the
seed in us to commit any sin that's ever been committed by
any member of this universe. One of you children may grow
up to be another Hitler, you know that? And if you don't,
it'll be because God has mercy on you and don't let you. That's
the only reason. It won't be because you ain't
got it in you to do it. That's right. I know that just as sure
as I know who I am. And God's on His throne. We ain't
got a thing in the world. We're going to have to come just
exactly the way the Bible says. We're going to have to come before
God, empty-handed, on our knees, saying, Lord, here I am. I've
got no hope if You don't do something for me. That's just where we're
at. We're standing here right now.
God, if You don't do it, There ain't nothing going to be done.
If you don't keep me, I'm not going to be kept. If you don't
save me, I'm not going to be saved. If you don't teach me,
I'm not going to be taught. If you don't do something for
me, I ain't going to have nothing, know nothing, be nothing ever.
Have anything. Now, let's get to this gospel.
My gospel. Your gospel. What is yours? First
of all, let me tell you this. My gospel. I'm going to call
it mine this morning. My gospel exalts the sovereign God. Exalts
the sovereign God. It preaches a God who is God.
When we talk about God, we're talking about not a God that
you can tie His hands, not a God who has no hands but your hands,
no feet but your feet, a God that can't save you unless you
let Him, a God that wants to do something for you but can't
because He's such a gentleman that He would not invade your
will, do anything against your will. But all of my gospel exalts
a sovereign God. God who is God, who exercises
His right as God, does as He will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay
His hand and say unto Him, What doest thou? I mean a God who
is sovereign in creation. I know that we like to take the
earth and split it up and give deeds to this and deeds to that
and this and that and say, Oh, this is mine, that's yours, and
this and that, and put up no trespassing signs and put up
mailboxes so big, you know, that everybody knows it's my property.
And it's a $500 fine if we catch you on it, and all that rigmarole.
But the Scripture says the earth is the Lord's in the fullness
there. It's His. It blows to Him. He spake and
it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
He measures the waters in the hollows of His hands. He hung
the earth. He said to Job, where was you
when I laid the foundation? Oh, He's sovereign in creation.
He didn't have no help. He done it just exactly the way
He wanted to. Out of nothing, He made something. than is sovereign
in providence. God govers this world. He didn't
put laws and principles in motion and then go off on a vacation
and go off on a long journey. God sits on a throne. The heavens
is His throne. And He govers this world. He
raises up kings and sets down kings. He raises up nations and
sets down nations. He, beloved, works in the hearts
and will of men. Men design what they want to
do, and yet, beloved, they are carrying out the will and purpose
of God in this world. He said to her, as if you had
her numbered, what a sparrow falls without him. This is the
thing, brethren, that he is also sovereign in salvation. He says
whom he will. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I'll be merciful. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. God's sovereign in salvation.
Jacob hath a loved, and he shall have a hated. And folks argue
and argue about this, and I don't understand that. Well, what is
it about it you don't understand? What is it you don't understand
about Romans 9, 13 where it says, Jacob hath a love, Nesau hath
a hatred? Well, I just can't understand that God would hate
anybody. Well, I tell you what, I don't have a bit of problem
with God hating Nesau or anybody else. I tell you what astounds
me, that God would love Jacob and that God would love me. That's
the astounding thing about it, ain't it? That God would love
you, and He'd love me, and love somebody like Jacob. That's right,
brethren. I tell you, David, they said,
David, where is your God? David said, God's in the heavens.
He just does what He pleases. In the heavens, in the earth,
in the sea, and in all deep places. You see, beloved, God does everything
that pleases Him. Everybody, they think God exists
to make you happy. That God exists to make life
easy for you. I have a health and a wealth
gospel, but I tell you, God does what pleases Him, what satisfies
Him. He works everything at the counsel
of His own will. And He said it pleased God to
make you His people, not because you were more than other people,
more wicked than somebody else or more righteous. You know why
He is people? He said it just pleased Him to
make you His people. It pleased God that in the Lord Jesus Christ,
all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell by Him. It pleased
God. It satisfied God. God found a
satisfaction that would honor Him. It pleased God to bruise
the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, and make His soul an offering
for sin. Paul said, when it pleased God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that delay. You see, beloved, the
whole work of salvation is of God, from Alpha to Omega, from
beginning to end. So my gospel, what's your gospel?
Does your gospel exalt a sovereign God? Does your gospel say God
does what He pleases? And I've got no kicks about it?
He can save who He wants to, pass by who He wants to? Oh,
men ever get confronted with a God. Moses. Moses said, Lord,
show me Your glory. He dared to walk up to God, and
he stood there trembling and said, show me Your glory. And
he said, I can't, Moses. You can't sit and live. He said,
I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll take you over here. See
that rock? I'm going to put you in that rock. There's a hole
in the side of that rock. I'll put you in that rock, and I'll put
my hand over that rock. And then I'll cause the back
part of me to go by you. I'll just cause the back part.
And Moses, beloved, hid in that rock. The only place he could
see the glory of God was with God's hand over him in a clasp.
and beloved, the only place you and I can see the glory of God
and bear it and stand it and endear it and rejoice in it and
find any hope in it is in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, because of that sight that was riven on Calvary, that
blood that come out of it. My gospel, my gospel not only
exalts the sovereign God, but my gospel recognizes and acknowledges
and sees without a shadow of a doubt that man Was it just
wounded? And man's not just in bad shape,
but man is dead in trespasses and sins. I mean, he's totally
ruined, absolutely, from the top of his head to the sole of
his foot. He has no soundness. He's full
of wounds and bruises and crucifying sores that God made man upright,
but he sought out many inventions. And let me ask you a question.
Let me ask you a question. When does a man become a sinner?
When does people become sinners? I was about six years old. It
was Winchester, Kentucky, and there was a big snow wall. I
was walking down the street. I don't remember what the street
was. There were some pretty apples right there in the window of
this little old storehouse. A guy had them polished up real good
and sat right in the window with the basket tilted up and those
apples right up in them. Well, I just opened that door
right there and got me one of them apples. Six years old. Took
out running up through there, running in that snow. The guy
took out accidents. I was running down through these
old buildings, it was all tore down and got my foot caught between
some rocks and he caught me. Now let me ask you something.
Is that when I became a sinner? Is that when I became a thief?
When I was six years old? When I stole that apple? Or did I steal that apple because
I was a thief? And because I was already a sinner.
Huh? When did we become sinners? Huh? I'll tell you what the Scripture
says. We go astray from the wounds, speaking lies. David said, I
was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Oh, my soul, by one man, one
man, sin entered into this world, and death is passed upon all
men, Because all have sinned. I mean, beloved, you don't have
to teach a child to lie. You don't have to teach a child
to steal. You don't have to teach it to
stand up and be a rebel. They start that the minute they're
born. We try to teach them just the opposite, and they go the
other direction. Now, why is that? And I mean, you know, that's
Japanese babies, that's American babies, that's black babies,
that's Indian babies. That's the English babies? That's
any kind of baby that's going to be born anywhere? That's strange,
ain't it? How did we get like that? Because
God made one man and made him upright. And every one of us
stood in that one man as we descended from him. And God made him responsible
for the whole human race. You stand? You stand long enough? You obey me and you do what I
tell you, and I'll give you a righteousness and I'll establish you in life.
He didn't hardly last 24 hours, I don't think. And bam, down
he went because he'd done one thing. He didn't commit adultery.
He didn't smoke. He didn't chew. He didn't watch
any pornography. He didn't watch television. He
wasn't running into women. Another thing, he didn't get
drunk. It's just him and his wife, fresh from the hand of
God. What was it he'd done that destroyed
the whole human race? God put a garden in there. The
tree of knowledge of good and evil said, the day you eat there,
you're going to die. You're going to die. I'm going to separate
you. Me and you are going to be separated. You're going to go one way, and
I'm going another. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to destroy
you. Because I'll be God, and you'll do what I tell you, or
I'll destroy you. I'll destroy you. I'm going to punish you.
Well, old Adam said, La dee da. We'll just see who's going to
be God around here. We'll see who's going to run
this outfit." He walked up to that tree and got him a piece
of fruit off of it and took him a bite, and the minute he'd done
that, his eyes was open. He'd seen things he'd never seen before.
He'd seen the good that he had and lost. That's what he'd seen. The first thing he'd seen, the
good he had, he lost it. And when he'd done that, when
he rebelled against God, every single one of us fell in him.
And every one of us was born dead in trespass. Dead, dead,
not morally dead, not mentally dead, not emotionally dead, not
physically dead, but spiritually dead with no inclination to God.
Let me show you what I'm talking about in John chapter 5. I'll
hurry. I'll hurry up here. I've got
to hurry. John chapter 5. The Scripture says that man at
his best state, It's altogether vanity. Altogether vanity. And there's many, many kinds
of life. There's animal life, vegetable life, mineral life.
But I'll tell you something. One thing that a man does not
have, he doesn't have spiritual life. And the only way you're
going to get that is for God to give it to you. That's why
regeneration is so essential. You don't believe in order to
be regenerated. You're regenerated. You're quickened. He gives you the new birth. He
regenerates you. He brings you into a new world
and a new kingdom. He puts the nature of God in
you. And that's essential because man is dead. So God has to give
him life. He has to quickly raise him from
the dead. And here in John 5, this is what
our Lord said about it. John 5 and 40, you will not,
you will not come to Me. You'll go to church. You'll go
to the front, you'll go to the altar, you'll go to the baptismal
pool, but you will not come to me, that you might have life. And I receive not honor from
men, but I know you, I know you, that
you don't have the love of God in you. You're not interested
in God. My own children, as much as I'd
like to see them saved, I have to face this fact. I've got cows
that go out there and pick grass. They don't think of God. They're
not interested in God. God never crosses in Cal's mind,
in Taz's mind. And my children, just like a
beast in the field, and yours are too, that's how
dead they are toward God, toward spiritual things. And if God
don't cross their path and create in them an interest and quicken
their mind off of the things of this world, and elevate them
and regenerate them and bring them from the death of sin, they're
going to perish just like them beasts are going to. They're
going to live and they're going to die and never know God until
they face Him in eternity. That's how dead man is. He just
don't, God don't think. He don't think about God. He's
not in relationship with God. And if he thinks about God, he
thinks about the God that he wants to believe in, not the
God of the Bible. But here, and he said, I know
you that you have not the love of God in you. I've come in my
Father's name. I've come in the name of God Almighty, and you
receive me not. If another comes in his own name,
builds him a big name, gets him a Bible and puts his name on
it, and says he's got this great ministry, that's the fellow you'll
receive. But how can you believe? How can you believe which brag
and blow and puff up and honor one another? And don't seek that
honor that comes from God only. Don't bow down and say, Lord,
do something for me. Huh? You see, my gospel exalts a sovereign
God, recognizes the complete and total ruin of man. And my
gospel is based on a covenant of grace. Ah, boy. A covenant of grace. The word
covenant appears in God's Word over 250 times. So we ought to
know something about what this word covenant means, don't we?
God made a covenant with Adam. Adam failed. fell in him, dead
and trespassed sin. God made a covenant with Noah.
After the flood, He said, Noah, He said, I'll never again. Everybody
would be scared to death there'd be another flood. I'll never
again send another flood on the earth, not like that, to destroy
the whole earth. And He said, to give you proof
of it, He said, every time you see a rainbow, I will give you evidence
I'll never destroy this earth again by flood. Never. And as long as the earth standeth,
there'll be seed time and harvest. spring, summer, winter, and fall.
And that's why it's been. You know why? Because God made
a covenant with Noah. Our God's a covenant with God.
Then He made a covenant with Abraham. And the covenant enlarges
as it's revealed through the Scripture. And He made a covenant
with Abraham. Abraham, I'm going to be your
God. You're going to be mine. And I'm going to save you, and
I'm going to give you a seed. I'm going to give you a people.
And through your seed, you're going to be the father of many
nations. You're going to be the father of the faithful. And you'll
have a son. And through your son, All the
nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And who was that
son? Who was that seed? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul called Him the seed of God
in Galatians chapter 3. He made a covenant with David.
David, I'm going to raise up a righteous branch unto you,
a king that will sit on the throne forever and ever. And who is
the king of kings that sits on the throne of David? That's what
Gabriel told Mary in the love of this everlasting covenant.
Look at 2 Samuel 23. I know you've seen this many
times, but look at it again. 2 Samuel 23. Saved by covenant. And this is
the amazing thing about it. You see, our Lord, when He prayed
in John 17, He said, Father, Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him. See, my salvation and anybody
else's salvation depends on whether we was given to Christ in that
covenant of grace. That's why I couldn't have anything to do
with it. I wasn't even there. And all that the Father gives
me, you mark it down. He said, they're going to come
to me. That's why we love the gospel and preach the gospel
and have hope in the gospel. It's because God is going to
use the gospel to bring His people to His blessed Son. And all that
we're given to Him are going to come to Him. And none of us
were there when this covenant of grace was entered into. And
so their works don't enter into it, our meds don't enter into
it, all of us were dead and trespassed, fallen in Adam. And we were given
to Christ, and the only reason, and this is the guarantee of
my salvation and everybody else, whom God chose in Christ before
the foundation of the world, is that God guaranteed did come
to Christ. And Christ guaranteed to the
Father that He'd keep every one of them and save every one of
them, pay all of their debt, He'd be their surety, that He
would be the mediator of a new covenant that was established
upon better promises. I mean, my salvation depends
on the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and God the Holy
Ghost. And if I'm in that covenant as I stand in Christ, my salvation
is sure. Depending on Him, the shepherd's
responsible for the sheep. Don't you see? I watched a fellow
this morning talking about how that you're supposed to progress
in holiness, you're supposed to progress in sanctification. I've been
pastoring the same church for 15 years, and I'm getting worse
all the time. I'm a worse sinner now than I
was last year. I sit there and think, what in
the world am I doing here preaching? I don't know nothing about preaching.
I don't know nothing about the grace of God. I'm so wretched,
what am I doing down here? There's nothing to me, nothing
to you, and, oh, beloved, everything's in Him. And if we don't have
Him, we don't have nothing. My whole salvation depends on
this covenant of grace. that was made with Christ before
the world ever began. He's the surety of it. I mean,
He's the one that makes the guarantee. I'd hate, God didn't, Christ
didn't come pick us up and tear us out of the wilderness and
set us down and pat us on the hind end and say, now do the
best you can. I'll help you out when you get
in trouble. No, He finds His sheep and He puts them on His
shoulder, and He never, ever sets them down again. If He ever
sets me down, I'm a gone Jesse. I'm gone that quick, and you
are too. We don't have no more ability
now than we had when we was lost. All the Lord's got to do to let
us go to hell is just leave us alone. And the only reason that
He don't leave us alone is because of this covenant of grace. That's
the only reason they don't. It's the covenant of grace, the
covenant between the Father and the Son. He ain't going to let
us alone if we're in that covenant. Now, the God of peace that brought
again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord
Jesus Christ, through what? The blood of the everlasting
covenant. Look what David said. Look what
David said. Here in 2 Samuel 23. This was the sweet psalmist of
Israel, laying on his deathbed, laying dying. Last words, that's what it says
in verse 1, the last words of David, the anointed of God, the
sweet psalmist of Israel. He said down in verse 5, although
my house be not so with God, lots in my family, lots of things
happen in my life and in my family. that's heartbreaking and horrible.
And all my children wasn't converted. I had some horrible things happen.
Yet, He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, everlasting,
ordered in all things. Everything about it was predestinated
on purpose. And it's sure. This is all my
salvation. It's it. It's all I want. It's all I desire. Although He don't make it grow
in my house, it's what He's done for me. My gospel. My gospel is based on a covenant
of grace. A covenant of grace. Our Lord
said, I don't even pray for the world. I pray for those that
You gave me. They were Thine, and You gave
them to me. Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given me
be with me where I am." And if I was included in that prayer,
and I believe I am because I believe on His Son, I believe this gospel,
and He said, I will that they be where I am, I believe I'll
be there just because of that prayer and that covenant of grace.
And then, beloved, my gospel declares an incarnate God. God
come down in the flesh. The Holy Virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. What are we going to call Him?
Emmanuel. What does that mean? God's come to be with us. God's
come here. Call His name Jesus because He's
going to save His people from their sins. Our sins were so
bad. Our state was so terrible. God
was so full. God is so righteous that it took
God Himself coming down. to save us. That's how desperate
our condition was, that it took God to save us. It took God to
die for us. It took God to bear our sins
away in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They said
to our Master Philip, they said, show us the Father and that will
satisfy us. We'll be saved. Just let us see God and we'll
be satisfied. Our Lord looked at old Philip
and said, Philip, have I been with you such a long time and
you haven't seen me? Because he that seen me, has seen the
Father. And all we're ever going to know
about God and all we're ever going to see about God is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we get to glory, we're
only going to see one God. It's going to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's going to be one. One God
in three Persons. But the only one we and I are
ever going to see is the one we see right now, by faith, the
Lord Jesus Christ. My gospel declares the effectual
salvation for all of God's elect. And so, I mean, it's a salvation
that's saved. It's not a salvation that makes
an attempt at saving somebody. It just makes salvation possible.
When our Lord Jesus Christ died on that cross and bore our sins
in His own body, God said it like this, God made Him to be
sinned. Made Him to be sinned who knew
no sin. God took our sins, put them on
the head of His Son, imputed them to His Son. Our transgressions
was put on Him. And then when God came down and
found our sins on Him, God took Him and put Him on a tree and
killed Him, punished Him, poured His wrath out on Him, satisfied
His justice in Him. And if my sin was on Him, then
it ain't on me. If He was punished for my sin,
then I'm not going to be punished for my sin. If He endured my
wrath, the wrath of God is not going to fall on me. If He suffered
my hell, I'm not going to go to hell. And then his righteousness
as God was put on my account, the righteousness of a man won't
do. It has to be the righteousness of God. So God made him to be
sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And it's not a pasted-on righteousness. You know, you
get these little old things, like a bumper sticker, and you stick
it on your car. That's not the kind of righteousness we've got,
a little old pasted-on thing you can take off and put on,
take off and put on. This is the very righteousness of God.
This put on us. God views us, sees us, accepts
us as if we were as holy as God's own Son. That's right. I mean, beloved,
I stand here with all confidence today and tell you that if God
Almighty accepted Christ in my room instead, and I believe on
His Son, through faith in His Son, believe on His Son, God
is perfectly just, to look at me and say, I'll justify Him.
He has no sin, He has no guilt, He has no condemnation. Why? Because He came to my Son who
bore His sin. This is the way that I save sinners,
through faith in my Son, through faith in His guest, through faith
in His blood, through faith in His righteousness, through faith
in His Word, through faith in His person. Complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why are you going to add to complete? And then last of all, my gospel
is good news, good news to all who believe. I ain't got over it yet. Have you? I ain't got over it yet. This is the most glorious thing.
As old Scott Rich said, I ain't heard no bad news since I heard
the good. And that's about the way I feel about it. This is
the most glorious thing. It's the most astounding thing.
That though I have sinned, and I am sinned, and I am weak, infallible,
stumble, and yet before God Almighty, I stand here this morning with
no sin, as righteous as God's own Son, completely and perfectly
accepted. I lack nothing in the sight of
God. When I face God Almighty, if
God calls me out of here before this day is over, I'll have no
fear of being condemned. I'll have no fear of God bringing
me to judgment, putting my good works over here, and my bad works
over there, and my sincerity here, and my hypocrisy there,
and the scales being put in the scales, and being tried to be
baptized. There's none of that going to happen. That's already
happened. I was put in the scales in Adam, and I was found wanting.
Our Lord Jesus Christ done it all. He done it all. That's good news. Let me show
you in Hebrews 10. I'll wind her down. Hebrews 10. That's why Abraham, Abraham believed
God, while the Scripture said it was imputed to him for righteousness. He is strong in faith, giving
glory to God. And it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also who should
believe on him. who raised up Jesus from the
dead. And look here at Hebrews 10.10,
by the which will, and this will here is the will of God that
the Lord Jesus Christ come and suffered in our room and stand.
By the which will we are sanctified. This is a one-time sanctification.
Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.
By the which will we are sanctified, how? Through the offering. of
the body of Jesus Christ once it's all. God prepared him a
body, sent him into this world, and that body was offered just
like a lamb's body on an altar. The only difference in the sacrifice
of the Old Testament is the wrath of God consumed the sacrifices,
but here, this sacrifice consumed the wrath of God. And every priest,
he stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices. over and over and over, which
can never take away sin. But watch this. But this man,
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for how
long? Until you mess up? Until you
get mad at your wife? Until you say something, you
let something slip you ought not to say it? But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, ever sit down. Those fellows could never
sit down. They was offering the same sacrifice over and over.
But he sat down, so he is done, he is through, he is finished.
From henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected. Now watch this. Perfected? That's so foreign to our thinking.
But if you hear the gospel and understand the gospel, And the
Gospel says, you understand, and grasp to some degree by faith
that in Christ I'm perfected. I don't lack anything. I lack
nothing. You say, well, I don't have much
faith. It don't take much faith. It's just got to have the right
object. Well, I don't live very good.
Salvation's not by living good. Salvation's by what Christ did. He said, I don't have any works.
We're not saved by our works. We're saved by His works. I don't
mean for anybody to go out here and say, now, he's preaching
that don't make... I'm not saying that. You understand clearly
what I'm saying. And for one offering, He has protected forever.
Now, is that word sanctified again we were talking about,
Alan? Them that are sanctified, been set apart by that offering.
And even the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. The Spirit Himself bears
witness to what our spirit did with the children of God. Because
He said this before, this is the covenant I'm going to make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'm going to put my
laws in their hearts and in their minds. I'm going to write them.
What does that mean? That means everybody that's got
the Spirit of God in them would be as holy as God in practice
if they could. They'd never see Him. They'd
love God with their whole being. They'd love Christ with their
whole being. They'd love their neighbor as theirself. They'd
be perfect in everything about themselves if they could. And
their sins and iniquities, this is what God said to the covenant
I'm going to make with them, their sins and iniquities, I won't
even remember them anymore. I won't even remember them. Now,
where these sins are put away, where an offering has been made
for these sins, there's no more offering for them. If sin's been
put away, you don't need another offering because you don't have
sin anymore. Right? If sin's been put away by one
offering, you don't have sin anymore, you don't need another
offering. Since our sin's gone by this one offering, we don't
need another offering when we don't have no sin. The only time
you need an offering is if you have sin. But we don't have any
sin, so we don't need another offering. Because the one offering
put our sin away once and for all. Now, having therefore brethren,
confidence, assurance, liberty to enter into the holiest. Only
the high priest can go into the holiest place. He can only go
once a year. Now we can go any time, any time
we want, any time we desire, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, by a new and a living way which He has consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. What's your gospel? Does that
gospel sound good to you? Does that gospel give you a hope? Give you assurance? Quote old Scott Richardson again.
He said, come to Christ and don't move a muscle. You can do that,
you know. You can do that. Come ye sinners
poor and needy, weak, wounded, sick and sore.
Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Become your weary heavy laden,
bruised and mangled by the fall. If you carry it to your bed,
it will never come at all. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires to
fill your needy heart. How can we know our gospel honors
God and is true? Does it give God all the glory?
Does it give Him all the glory? Huh? God help us all to embrace and
believe and rejoice in the gospel of the grace of God concerning
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Study it. Search for it. Ask God to teach it to you, because
our aim of the war is the aim of the war. Our Father, our glorious God in heaven, how
we bless you, praise you, magnify your wondrous name for this privilege
we have, Lord, to meet with the saints of God. to be able to
preach your gospel one more time beside eternity. Oh, so delightful
to preach your gospel. Such a joy, such assurance it
gives us, such hope it gives us, such light it gives us for
our darkness. Oh God, we bless you for it.
We bless you, Lord Jesus, for coming into this world. representing
us, bearing all of our infirmities, weaknesses, sins in your own
body there on that tree, that you could bring us and would
bring us to God. Lord, I pray that you'd be pleased
to bless this congregation of people, that you'd uphold them,
that you'd guide them, that you'd protect them, that you'd preserve
them. Lord, that you'd work your perfect will out in this group.
That you'd bring glory to yourself and to your blessed son through
him. That you'd meet every need. That you'd teach him what needs
to be taught. that you'd give them wisdom where
wisdom's needed, knowledge where knowledge's needed. Give them
love, most of all. Give them that bond of perfectness,
charity. Give us all that. Lord, use us
all to believe on you. Let's come to you and embrace
you and rest in you. Give us all, Lord, that charity. That charity. that so honors you as for one
another. God bless Brother Marvin here
in his preaching, usually here, Lord. God bless him to preach
with power and liberty, clearness and simplicity. Lord, your people here that shed
unconverted, I pray you save them by your grace. Those sinners
here today that just never believe, that don't
understand, that's never bowed, that's never grasped, Maybe don't
have even any interest. I pray, Lord, that you'd create
an interest in them, that you'd work in them, that you'd keep
them coming until you work in them. Repentance and faith can
bring them to your blessed Son, which in His name we pray. Amen.