Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Romans, chapter 1. Romans, chapter 1. Now, there's certain features
of the true gospel of God's grace. Certain features. There's features
of false gospels, which is something you have to do to be saved. whether
it be baptism, or they say the second blessing, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, and in order to be saved, those folks that
do that, and just heretical teaching, along with false doctrines, denying
the Trinity, denying the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's God in
the flesh. Those are all features of a false
gospel, and there's features of a true gospel, too, the one
true gospel. Look at this in Romans chapter
1 verses 15 to 17. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Verse
15. Now remember in our study in
the book of Acts, when Philip went into Samaria, he preached
Christ. And Paul himself said to the
Corinthians, I'm determined not to preach anything among you
but Christ and him crucified. So the apostles and the other preachers of those
days and even now, all the way up till now, if you preach the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, there's features of that
gospel. Features. And this is what we're
to do as gospel preachers. We are sent to preach the gospel.
Paul was always ready to preach the gospel in season and out
of season. And that means when he wanted
to and when he didn't want to. In the sense of his body being
maybe sickly or something like that. He's always ready to preach. Preachers are always ready to
preach. We may not always be in the best health, but we're
always ready to preach the gospel. Look what he says in verse 16,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, The gospel of Christ,
the good news of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation. To everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now look at this. Now recently I asked a couple
guys that I know who profess to be Christians, I asked them,
this will blow your mind away, Zane, I said, do you know what
the righteousness of Christ is? And they both said no. Both of them said, I don't know
what that is, what is that? I was shocked. Because here they profess to
be believers, and they have no clue what the righteousness of
Christ is, which is the righteousness of God, right brother? Because
he's God in the flesh. Well, it says here, in this verse
here, in Romans 1, 17, it says, for therein, that's in the preaching
of the gospel, that's in the gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Now, before I was saved and when
I was in religion, I'll be honest with you, I didn't know much
about the righteousness of Christ, never even really thought about
it. I was religious, but I didn't know. And it's not
until the Lord saved me that I found out what this is. It's
necessary for the believer to be clothed in it, isn't it, brother?
Because we can't approach God in our own righteousness. No,
can't approach Him at all, can we, brother? No, not at all.
But with the righteousness of Christ, we can, can't we? Yeah. Oh, boldly, yes, amen. Yeah,
Hebrews 4, 16, let's therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace because of that fact, because we're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Amen. And then it says that just shall
live by faith. That's God-given faith. And that faith has one
object, doesn't it? And that's Christ and Christ alone. So Paul
states here in the text that we look at right here, he says,
I'm ready to preach the gospel. I'm ready to preach the gospel
of God's grace, which is only found in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God's preachers are, they've been sent, we've
been sent to preach the gospel. Therefore, we're ready to preach
the gospel. Now, I'll preach the gospel whether I'm across
the road in McDonald's, or whether I'm in the pulpit here, or whether
I'm out somewhere and somebody strikes up a conversation about
the Lord, I'll preach the gospel to them. My oh my, be ready. Every believer,
we're to be ready to proclaim the hope, the reason for the
hope that lies within us. And that's Christ. That's Christ. So whatever lies in Paul's way,
whether it be persecution, tribulation, trouble with the local city governments,
he's ready to preach Christ. Even whether he's in prison,
or whether he's free, he's ready to preach the gospel. He's under
house arrest in Rome, and we're reading one of the letters that
he wrote to the Philippian churches. My oh my. And we already went
through one too that he wrote in the book of Galatians. Isn't
that amazing? Paul was not ashamed to proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that everything else
he had learned in religion was just dung, he said. It's worthless. See, this is why we say cease
from your labors and flee to Christ. Cease from your labors
of trying to justify yourself with God by something you do,
because there's no way that we can be justified by any works
that we do before God. The only way a sinner, and that's
all of us, the only way a sinner can be justified in the eyes
of God, can stand in the presence of God, is to be in Christ, saved,
washed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, born
again in the Holy Spirit of God, clothed in that perfect spotless
righteousness of Christ. And it's God that does all that.
He does it all, doesn't he, brother? We're just receivers. We're receivers
of this wonderful mercy, this wonderful grace. He's the author
and the finisher of our salvation. Oh my. And Paul's not ashamed
to preach the gospel. He's not ashamed to proclaim
Christ. Beloved, our boast is in Christ. Let us not be ashamed to proclaim
him. He's the only hope we have. He's
the only, we found out that whatever we were hoping in before we were
saved was nothing but a false refuge, didn't we? My oh my. We found that out by the grace
of God, by the mercy of God. And I'll tell you what, the only
hope for a sinner to be saved is through Christ Jesus our Lord,
by the power of God. By the power of God, by his regenerating
power, you're born again, given faith to believe. And the reason
we're born again is because we were sons, weren't we, brother?
That's amazing in itself. Before the foundation of the
world. You know, folks, I often talk to folks and they say, well,
I don't agree with that. Well, you're not arguing with
me, you're arguing with God. Even religious folks will say,
well, I don't agree with that. Well, it's in the Bible. They
said, well, that's your interpretation. That word elect is your interpretation.
Well, let's go to the Greek, to choose. OK, now you're really
not fighting with me. You're fighting with God. You're
kicking against the pricks. My, oh my. Now, did we know everything,
Zane? Did we know what we know when
we were baby Christians? We didn't know nothing, did we?
We just knew Christ was our Savior. Right? He was our only hope.
He was our only hope. That's all we knew. Oh Lord!
We didn't know all these great doctrines. We've learned some.
We've learned some. And we've embraced them in the
arms of love. They're amazing. They magnify
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. And salvation is only
through the substitute. The substitute. One. the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no other substitute for sinners other than Christ, who is God
incarnate in the flesh, sent by the Father to save his people
from their sins. That's what he's sent for. My. He didn't come here to make us
savable, did he? Well, we'd be in a heap of trouble, wouldn't
we, brothers and? Man, praise God he came to save us from our
sins, and he did it. He accomplished what he came
to do. Oh, praise his holy name. So salvation's only through the
substitute, only through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the power
of God. It's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, which is the Gentile. The Gentile. And I've said this
many times, God's elect are spread all through time. They're in
every generation. And he knows them. We don't have
any idea who they are, but we know this, that the gospel of
Christ reveals the righteousness of God, which the elect are clothed
in. Oh, again, in order for us to
stand before God, we must be clothed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by our own righteous. Our
own righteous lack filthy rags. Mine are awful. I remember my
dad used to work in a trailer shop, working on big old 48-foot
trailers. He'd be getting the grease all
over there, and he'd get a rag, and he'd wipe all that with the
grease, and he'd throw that rag, and that rag was so black with
grease and grime. It might land in a spot of oil. There might even be oil all over
it. And it's just black, darkened. You're thinking, how is that
going to get clean? Well, I'll tell you why. It got
washed. Brother, we're washed, aren't
we? We're washed in the blood of Christ, aren't we? We're made
whiter than snow. We were double-dye sinners. Double-dye,
double-red. Oh, black is midnight. And now
we're whiter than snow. Oh, it's wonderful. Wonderful. My, oh, my. Our righteousness now is Christ.
Christ has given us his righteousness. That's an alien righteousness,
isn't it, brother? That's not ours. It's an alien righteousness. The old timers used to say, the
believer is clothed in an alien righteousness because it's someone
else's. Amen, brother. It's Christ's
righteousness. My. Oh my. It's a bestowed righteousness,
isn't it? And it's a revealed righteousness
because it's revealed in the gospel. We find out we're nothing
but sinners and that we have no hope outside of Christ that
our righteousness, our supposed good works are nothing. They're
going to send us right to hell. But praise be to God. God saves his people. Amen. We're seen in Christ. Saves his
people. close them, remember the father brother? Bring forth
the best robe! Oh, we're clothing the best robe.
The robe of righteousness, Christ's righteousness. My, oh my. Now turn, if you would, over
to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Oh my. Look at this. I'm going to say
this too, while you turn over thyrus, defines the gospel as
glad, good titans. The glad titans of the kingdom
of God. Good titans and glad titans.
That's true, isn't it, brother? Oh my. Oh. My oh my. And the gospel is also, it's
defined in the Greek as the glad titans of salvation through Christ. That's glad titans. I'm saved
by Christ and by his precious blood. And so are you if you're
a believer. That's wonderful news. You know,
I turn on the news, or I don't have the news anymore, but I
go on YouTube and I'll click on the news thing, and it's all
bad news. Or I'll go to the news website.
It's all bad news. You ever see much good news?
Man, they thrive on bad news. They thrive on fear-mongering.
I'll tell you what though, this is good news. Sinners to the
core. Sinners to the core can be saved
only through Christ and Him alone. And by His almighty power. And it's through the proclamation
of the gospel that the righteousness of God is revealed. That's Christ.
That's Christ. Look at this Romans chapter 10
verses 1 to 4. Brother, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Now that's
Paul's desire. Well, you know, all Israel will
be saved. Spiritual Israel. My oh my, look at this. But he's
talking about the nation here. For I bear the record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Same could be said with Catholics.
They butchered all kinds of Christians in the Inquisitions. They had
a zeal for supposedly for God, but they weren't doing God's
work. No. And think of this, the Jews were
killing the prophets that God sent. And finally, killed the
prophet of all prophets, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But look at this. Brother, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. For I bear the record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, again, God's righteousness
is Christ. He's called the Lord our righteousness,
right? So here he's saying that the
Jews at this time, those who were not saved, were ignorant
of God's righteousness. They were ignorant of the Messiah.
You know, the same can be said of all folks who do not know
Christ. I was ignorant of God before
he saved me. Were you, brother? Yeah? We were
ignorant, weren't we? We did not know him. Now, you
say that and people go, oh, what are you talking about? I know
some stuff. No. Well, when it comes to this,
we're ignorant. We do not know about God's righteousness
if we're not saved. And then when we're first saved,
we might not necessarily know a whole lot about it either,
but we're gonna learn about it. Because the preaching of the
gospel, there's features, again, in the true gospel that bring
forth these wonderful truths. But look at this, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness. That was all of us before we
were saved. We were going about trying to
establish our own righteousness. And marvel not that the world
is the way they are. They're trying to establish their
own righteousness. And they're ignorant of God's
ways. They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. But look
at this, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
They've not submitted themselves to Christ. by the grace of God
we have, but only by the grace of God. If it weren't for the
grace of God, we'd be out there still. I'll tell you, this is wonderful
salvation. And we cannot obtain salvation anywhere. but through
the Lord Jesus Christ and through the gospel of Christ, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. Look at this, look at this wonderful,
wonderful verse four, Romans 10. Oh, just burn this in my
heart, Lord. Look at this. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's the end of the law for us,
brother. Whoo, the end, the E-M-D. The end of the law for righteousness. Now, we don't want to go out
and live crazy, do we? But praise God, our sins are
forgiven, and Christ is the end of the law. He fulfilled the
law for us. And he done this for everyone who trusts in Christ. Everyone is truly born again
of the Holy Spirit of God. And again, this righteousness
is not known by natural man. In our unregenerate state, it
can't be known. It can't be known in our unregenerate
state. It's that simple. My, it must
be revealed to us. Look at this. Listen to this.
But as it is written, I have not seen nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his spirit. That's why we long for heaven.
Because it's being revealed to us. And heaven's heaven because
Christ is there. My, for the Spirit searches all
things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2, verses
9 and 10. Oh, if you do not know Christ,
I pray the Holy Spirit will reveal Him to you. Whoever listens to
this, if you do not know Christ, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit
would reveal Christ to you and save you from your sins. That God, the Holy Spirit would
show you your desperate need of Christ. That's what He's done
for you and I, isn't it, Zane? We're just poor sinners saved
by the grace of God. Bankrupt sinners. But now we're
rich in Christ. My oh my, it's wonderful. My oh my. So by definition, as
I said earlier about the glad tidings of salvation through
Christ being one of the definitions in the Greek. So by very definition,
the gospel is good news for sinners. It's good news for sinners. And
this gospel is to be proclaimed. It's not to be, now this is something
too, it's not to be debated. We don't need to debate. We just
present it. Someone disagrees with it, You
would pray, God the Holy Spirit will teach him. It's like the
fellows I meet across the road and stuff and talk to. They say,
I don't like that. Well, this is the truth right
here. And I always tell them, it's not up for debate. If you
don't agree with what, and what I do, and this is something we
all should do, is you open the word of God and give him the
word of God. Well, I even had one fellow say it doesn't mean
what it says there when it said dead. And so we went to the Greek,
and it meant lifeless, a corpse. And he says, that's not what
it means. I said, well, you're fighting God. You're not fighting
me. And this fellow claimed to believe
the whole Bible. Well, not that part. You know why? Because it didn't agree with
his theology. Because it took man's will. Man's supposed will to choose
Christ. I'll tell you what, Brother Zane,
we can testify this, we've been made willing in the day of God's
power. And we willingly fled to Him,
didn't we? That's the only way. But we were made willing, we
were turned. We were turned, oh my. I'll tell
you why. And remember this, just a pinprick
of works is no longer grace. Remember the balloon analogy
Jean-Claude said a long time ago? Do you remember that one,
Zane? Put a balloon full of helium. He's telling me this analogy.
This is a beautiful analogy. Jean-Claude said you get a balloon
full of helium and it wants to go up on the string. He says
you put a pinprick in it, what happens? Just a pinprick that
you can hardly see. That's what works does to grace.
A pinprick of works. No more grace. Just a pinprick. Just a pinprick. Oh, let us just
cling to the Savior, who's completed our salvation, and let us hold
to the truth that salvation is by grace alone, through Christ
alone. Oh my. As Spurgeon wrote in that
book, it's all of grace. God's grace. God's grace. So the first feature of the genuine
gospel is this. That the free grace of God is
the cause of the salvation of sinners. The free grace of God. That's the cause of our salvation. God chose to save us, brother.
He willed it. He purposed it. And there were
nothing in you and I. But there were nothing in you
and I that even deserved this grace, dude. And look at the
mercy. Look at the love. And then we
find out his love has been set upon us from eternity. I was
talking to a fellow yesterday, and we were riding in the car,
and I was saying about it's the goodness of God that leads us
to repentance. When we realize that God has chose us in Christ
from before the foundation of the world, that he's He sent
his son to come into this world, God, the second person of the
Trinity, to become flesh, to bleed and die for our sins, and
then raised up again, and seated in heaven, and where he is, we're
gonna be. When we learn that, oh my, it's absolutely wonderful.
And then we learn about the righteousness of Christ, and how we're blameless
in God's eyes because of this perfect, spotless righteousness.
That's amazing. And it's all bestowed upon us
because of the free grace of God. Because of the free grace
of God. There is absolutely nothing in
us that would cause God to save us. Nothing. Nothing. If we are saved, it is a pure
work of God's free grace in Christ. That's it. Nothing added to it. Nothing taken away. Oh my. My oh my. And God does not save
us based upon anything in ourselves. We're sinners to the core. And
God saves us, now listen to this, according to his good pleasure. Satan, we ain't never gonna get
over that, brother. Listen to this, Philippians 2, verses 12
and 13, someone might say, well, where is that? Philippians 2,
12 and 13. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Brother Zane, that's wonderful,
isn't it? That's absolutely wonderful, I'll tell you. Oh my. Now man has no will to come naturally
to Christ. No will. No desire for God. And the problem is, we don't
desire God to reign over us in our natural state. Now, after
we're saved, Vicki and Diane, after we're saved, we praise
his name, don't we? Oh Lord, you're king, you're
my king, you're my king. Reign over me, Lord. Oh my, what
a difference. That's because God is working
in us. His will. And to do of his good pleasure.
Listen to this. But his citizens hated him and
sent a message after him saying, we're not having this man to
reign over us. Remember the king sent messengers? And then finally sent his son.
Killed his son. What a picture. God sent prophets
to Israel. They killed them. My, oh my. Some of them. My, oh my. And that's the heart cry of man.
That's our natural heart cry. That was my natural heart cry.
I know it's all of our natural. We're not have that man reign
over us. And now we say, oh Lord, you reign by the grace and mercy
of God. What a change. He take old rebels
like you and me, Zane, and turn us into praisers. That's amazing! Only God can do that, and that's
true for every believer who listens to this message. God's taken
us, we were rebels, and now we're His. Now we praise His mighty
name for the wonderful things He's done for us. My. And again, man has no desire
to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We have no desire to hunger and
thirst after God in our natural state. But I'll tell you what,
after we're born again, given faith to believe on Christ, we
hunger and thirst for righteousness. Who's the one we're hungering
and thirsting for, Zane? Amen. He's the righteousness spoken
of there. We hunger and thirst after the Lord, our righteousness.
My. Who shed his precious blood,
brother. to redeem us from our sins, to purchase our eternal
souls. And now we have a desire to follow
Christ. We're still sinners. Oh yeah,
we're reminded of that every single day, aren't we? Every
single hour, pretty well every single minute, we're reminded
of that. We're sinners. But praise God, we're saved.
And now we have a desire to follow Christ. We have a desire to serve
Christ. We love the gospel. We love God's
people. We love Christ. We love the Father. We love the Holy Spirit. And
that's all been wrought in us by God. It's all the work of
God. He takes the stubborn, inflexible
will of his people in our natural state. We, in our natural state,
we have a stubborn, inflexible will. I want my way. And that's
still in us, isn't it? Even after we're saved, that's
still in us. I can be the most selfish man.
You don't believe me? Ask my wife. I can be so selfish. Oh my. I don't want to be that
way. I hate it when I'm like that.
I really do. My oh my. But he takes the stubborn,
inflexible will of his people, who at one point says, I'll not
have you reign over me, and say, praise God, you are the one who
reigns. Our will has been changed, hasn't it, brother? We now have
a nature guiding that, a new nature guiding that will. The stubborn inflexible will
now desires to serve Christ. Because we were dead at one time
and all we wanted to do was serve ourselves. We were dead spiritually. Now we're alive spiritually and
we just want to serve Christ. Isn't that amazing? That's the
work of God in you. That's absolutely amazing. Oh
my. Listen to this in Hosea. It says,
I draw them with cords of a man, with bands of love. With bands
of love. And I was to them as they that
take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. Ah,
we were all bound up with sin, weren't we? Like yokes in our
jaws. And he took that out of our mouth.
And now, now we feast on, we feast on the green pastures of
this word, don't we? That speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And with bands of love he drew
us. Chords of love, beloved, took
off that yoke of bondage, that yoke of sin upon us. Oh, now
we still have sin in us, and we still sin, but one day we're
not gonna sin anymore. Oh my, Jane, we're gonna see
him face to face. My oh my. So the first feature of the gospel
is the free grace of God is the cause of the salvation of sinners. The second one is we have peace
with God as a result of salvation. Man's always looking for peace. Countries in this world try to
make peace with each other, and they break it. Why? Because we're
all a bunch of sinners. Now, who did we sin against? We sinned against God, didn't
we? I was reading Psalm 51 with some brothers last night, and
it says right in there, I've sinned against you, God, and
you alone. Oh my. And so, peace needs to be made,
right? How is peace made? Well, by the
satisfying of the law. Well, we saw Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. And then also, by the shedding
of blood, because without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission of sins. So what does Christ do? He fulfills
the law for us, and he sheds his precious blood to redeem
us. Praise his mighty name. Praise his mighty name. In the
gospel of God's grace, we are shown from scripture that we
have peace with God now. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only way we, the only way a sinner can have peace with
God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this isn't like peace
like man's peace that can be made and broken. No, no, we are
now reconciled to God. through the blood of the cross,
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this,
2 John 1, 3. Grace be unto you, mercy and
peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of the Father in truth and love. I'll read it again. Grace be unto you, or grace be
with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love. Notice
the order. Grace first. Grace first. Always first. Grace is the fountainhead. Out
of it flows mercy. Out of it flows peace. Out of
it flows reconciliation. Out of it flows full salvation. Pardon for all of our sins. from
the fountain of God's grace. And the very foundation and notion
of the word grace is a free, undeserved, unsolicited bestowment
based upon a love that's its own reason, that's of its own
reason. We are saved by God's grace because
of his great love for us from eternity, brother. Hmm. Undeserved. Unsolicited. We never, like you
said, we weren't looking for it, were we? No. Unsolicited. It's bestowed upon us by God.
In and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then mercy. In that verse it said, grace
be with you, mercy and peace. Mercy. God has mercy on sinners
in Christ. And then we're, like Tom Harden
said, we're nothing but mercy beggars. My oh my. And when God shows us that we're
guilty sinners, what do we want? We want mercy. Oh, and God has
mercy upon us because of Christ. Because of Christ. Then peace
in that verse. Grace and mercy always precedes
peace. Without grace, without mercy,
there's no peace. And that's all in Christ. Grace
in Christ, mercy in Christ, then we have peace with Christ, peace
with God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace,
think of that. We have peace with God. Turn
if you would to Romans chapter five. We have peace with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God. The very one
we sinned against. The very one we broke his law.
In Christ we're reconciled. All that's forgiven. That's amazing. It's amazing. And the God who
never forgets, our sins are cast into the sea of forgetfulness.
My oh my. Look at this in Romans chapter
5 verses 1 and 2. Therefore, being justified by faith. That's
what we are right now, beloved. If you're a believer, and you
have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God-given faith, it says
here, this is not justified in the future, this is justified,
brothers and sisters, justified right now. Forever, too, though,
yeah. Therefore, being justified by
faith. Look at this. We have peace. We have peace. Well, who do we have peace with?
With God. Through who? Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also, this is what you were mentioning earlier, brother,
the boldness to go before, but also we have access by faith
into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. What a hope we have, beloved.
What a hope we have in Christ. It's absolutely amazing. My,
oh my. Another feature of the gospel
is that Christ is the heart of salvation. He's the heart of
salvation. He's the only way we can be saved.
See, some religious folks out there say, well, God's done all
he can do, now the rest is up to you. That's not the gospel.
That is not the gospel of God's grace. That is not the gospel
of the Bible. Folks say, well, you can be saved
by trusting Christ and being baptized. That's not the gospel. That's not the gospel. Well,
folks say, well, you're only saved if you have the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. That's not the gospel. The Holy Spirit's already done
a work on us. We're born again in the Holy
Spirit of God. But they put an emphasis that you have to have
this so-called second blessing in order to be saved. That's
not the gospel. That is not, you know, folks
say, well, you start saying that, people are gonna get upset. I'm
here to preach the gospel. I'm not here to please folks. Right? If they have a disagreement
with what I'm saying here from the scripture, they have a disagreement
with God. We preachers are just messengers.
That's all we are. My. And if Christ isn't the heart
of your salvation, if Christ isn't the heart of the gospel
you believe, then you don't believe the right gospel. The old-timers, the Reformation
guys, by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone,
through grace alone. Amen. And by scripture alone. Now folks are thinking, well,
I think this. That's the problem right there.
I think. I wish those words could be struck
out of our language. I think. It don't matter what
I think. It matters what this word says.
And if I think and the word says something else, then I've got
to clean my thinking up. Oh my. And trust me, I came out
of all kinds of stuff in religion. The Lord straightened me out.
Straightened you out too, didn't he, brother? We had to relearn
a whole bunch of stuff, didn't we? Oh my! We found out what
we had been taught was wrong. Oh my. My oh my. So Christ must be preached. We've
seen that in the Acts of the Apostles. It's been amazing.
We've seen they preach Christ, they preach Christ, they preach
Christ. So Christ must be preachers, it's not gospel at all. A Christless sermon is not a
sermon, it's a lecture. It's nothing but a lecture. Tim
James preached a message here years back, you find it online
on our website, it's excellent, it's called Just Words. That's
what that is, just words. If someone gets up and they supposedly
preach a Christless sermon, that's just words, it's just a lecture.
It's worthless, absolutely worthless. It may as well not even be spoken.
My oh my, Christ must be preached. No Christ, no gospel. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Again, no Christ, no gospel. Oh, and be thankful
that from this oasis here, this oasis in the middle of the desert
of this world, and the other churches that are preaching the
gospel all around the world, Oasis, little oasis in the desert
of this world. Praise God, the gospel of grace
goes forth. And that's all by the mercy and grace of God. Oh
my, look at this in 1 Corinthians chapter one. Look at verses 23
to 25. This is Paul's words here, inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God. What does Paul preach? Verse
23, but we preach Christ crucified. Look at that. That wouldn't go
over too well in some modern churches, would it? I remember
somebody said to Henry, or no, Scott Richardson, they said,
they said, all you do is preach Christ. He says, can you put
that on my tombstone? He just preached Christ. Amen, I like
that. Oh my, look at this, look at
this, this is, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews,
the stumbling block. And under the Greeks, foolishness.
See, that's how I remember the first time someone told me the
gospel, I thought it was foolish. I went home and talked to my
mom and dad, because I was only about 12, and, oh, don't worry about
that, it's a bunch of Bible thumpers, don't worry about that. So then,
naturally, where do we learn to hate things? Some things are
learned, aren't they? Oh, yeah. Some things are learned. We see that in the world all
the time. All the time. But it's also natural to us,
too. Look at this. But unto them which
are called... Oh, that's God's people. That's the elect of God.
Both Jews and Greeks. God's people are amongst Jews
and Greeks. Man, Jews and Gentiles. Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because, look at this,
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. God... God takes that which is foolish
to men, and it's the power of God unto salvation. My, how wise
our God is. How great our God is. How wise
he is, beloved. Oh my. My, oh my. Another feature of the gospel
is this, Christ's death and resurrection are the means of salvation. If
Christ hadn't have died, no one would be saved. If Christ hadn't
raised them from the grave, we wouldn't be justified. That's
what the scripture says. So without Christ, too, there's
no good news. That's what the brothers are
saying. There's no good news without Christ. And this goes
right in line with the fact Christ died for the sins of his people.
He is raised for our justification. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We have no way to save ourselves,
so God sends his son to save us from our sins, and then he
raises him from the dead for our justification, beloved. And
because Christ honored and lived the perfect life, his life is
counted to us by being clothed in his perfect righteousness,
which he wove while he was upon this earth. Absolutely fulfilling,
fulfilling the very law he gave, brother. My oh my. Fulfilling the law for desperate
sinners who could never fulfill one point of the law. He fulfilled
it all for us. He's the E.N.D. He's the E.N.D. He's the end of the law for righteous
to those who believe. Praise his mighty name. Look
at this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at this. We desperately need Christ to
save us. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received, wherein
you stand, verse 1, by which also you are saved. We're saved. We're saved through Christ and
him alone. The gospel is the good news about
what Christ has done. Oh, yeah. By which also you are
saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
you believed in vain, unless it was just a false profession.
And there have been many of them. Look at this. For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. It was prophesied.
According to the Scriptures there, there's no New Testament at this
time. He's talking about the Old Testament, isn't he, Zane?
And remember what our king said, the law and the prophets, they
testify of me. Oh my. And that he was buried. He died
on that cross. He shed His blood on that cross
to redeem us. He died. He was buried. And look
at this, and He rose again the third day, according to the Scripture,
according to that which was prophesied in the Old Testament. Oh my beloved,
our hope, our hope is a living hope, isn't it? It's Christ. It's Christ. Amen, brother. Christ, the sinner substitute,
dies in the room and place of His people. And God is absolutely
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. And then he's raised
for our justification. And without him dying and being
raised from the dead, we'd have no salvation. We'd have no salvation. Oh, yeah. Amen, brother. Amen. And the gospel is both
the preaching of the death and the resurrection of Christ. The
salvation of Christ's church is founded in Christ, who is
the foundation of our faith. He is the foundation, oh my. And he died in the room and place
of sinners, chosen sinners. with no merit in them for God
to choose them, but all by, again, let's go back to point one, according
to his free grace and will and purpose in Christ. My, what a
salvation this is. So the believer can say, he died
in my room and place. He died in my room and place.
And he was raised for my justification. This is what the believer can
say, the born-again, blood-washed believer. So anyone who doesn't
preach this doesn't preach the gospel. Another feature of the gospel
is deliverance is the hallmark or identifying mark of salvation.
We have been delivered. Now some folks say, well, Christ
delivered me from hell. Well, hell is a product of our
sin, right? Because we're sinners, God must
punish sin and he made hell to punish the devil and the angels
and all who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the real thing he saved us
from, what did he save us from, Brother Zane? He saved us from
our sins. That's the most important thing.
Because if we were left dead in our sins, we'd go straight
to hell, wouldn't we? Oh, that's right. Oh, my. He sees our sins no more. They
are gone. They are washed in the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been delivered, beloved. We've been delivered from our
sins. We've been delivered from God's wrath. We've been delivered
from the law of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in Him
alone. And we say, praise His mighty
name. Praise His mighty name for His mercy and His goodness.
And the very word saved or save implies that we were in danger.
When you're saved from something, it implies we were in danger,
weren't we, brother? My we weren't we were you know
what I heard a commentator say this and I read this and he said
we were drowning in in the sea of sinfulness And Christ rescued
us Rescue our sins like a giant sea all around us Pulling us
under and he reached down and said You're mine I purchased
you. You're one of the ones the Father
gave me. Born again of the Holy Spirit
of God, redeemed in the precious blood of Christ. Oh, how good is our God. We must
be rescued from our sins. We must be delivered from our
sins. We must be saved from our sins or else we'll be lost and
we'll perish. But listen to this. Oh my. Psalm 18 too. The Lord being
Jehovah is my rock. And my fortress. My deliverer. My God. My strength. In whom
I will trust. In whom I will trust. And the
horn of my salvation. And my high tower. My oh my. Again, we were adrift in this
world. We were in a sea of sinfulness.
We couldn't save ourselves. We're overwhelmed. We're drowning
in the sea of sinfulness. But our mighty Deliverer, our
mighty Savior, our mighty surety saves His people. He rescues
us from the penalty of our sins and pays the price that God demands. for the ransom of our souls by
the shedding of his precious, precious blood. And mark this,
you must be lost before you'll ever be saved. God, the Holy Spirit will show
us we're lost and then save us. My, oh, my. We must be shown we're a sinner
before God, before we ever cry out to him. And all are sinners. I'm here
to proclaim all are sinners. Everyone born topside of this
earth. There was only one man that came into this world, born
in the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, who wasn't
a sinner. And he's the savior of sinners.
My, oh, my. In all our sinners in God's sight,
all are lost and undone, but man's, in our proud self-righteousness
ways, we do not see ourselves as a sinner in our natural state.
But we see a lot of other sinners. And we're quick to point them
out, aren't we? But until God saves us, then
we realize, it's me. I'm the chief of sinners. I need deliverance from my sins. And then the believer is born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, given faith to believe without
even moving a muscle. Right, Brother Zane? Oh my. And flees by faith to Christ. Isaiah 59 20 says this, and the
Redeemer shall come to Zion. And unto them that turn from
transgression and Jacob saith the Lord. He comes and he turns
us from transgression by his almighty power and we flee to
Christ. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. My oh my. So deliverance is the
hallmark of salvation for the believer. And then, another feature of the gospel
is that God is the source of salvation, not man. God's the
source of salvation. If you and I are ever saved,
it's by God's will and God's will alone. My oh my. Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord, the scripture says in Genesis. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Oh, and then listen to this,
in James chapter 118, of his own will, being God's will, begat
he us, born again, with the word of truth, that's the gospel,
that's the scriptures, that we should be kind of first fruits
of his creatures, James 118. So he gets all the glory. He
gets all the glory. He gets all the honor. He gets
all the praise. We don't merit this salvation,
this wondrous salvation in Christ. We can't earn it. With all the
doings in the lifetime, all the money in the world, can't buy
it, can't earn this salvation. These wonderful gifts of faith
and repentance are bestowed upon us by our great and merciful
God. And it's all according to his
good will and pleasure. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. And the last point
that I'd like to bring up, there's many other points, too, about
this gospel. But the last point that we'll look at tonight is
that this gospel, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, has
the glory of God as the purpose of salvation. The glory of God. And God's people give Him all
the glory, don't we? We give Him all the glory. Paul said,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. It's all a grace. God's original choice, even though
people, well, I don't believe that. Well, it's true. It's true. Ephesians 1.4 brings
it out real clear. And actually, even over in 2
Timothy, it says this, chapter 1, verses 8 to 11. Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
But be thou partaker of the affliction of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us. God saved us. We didn't save
ourselves. God saved us. and called us with a holy calling.
Not according to our works, that's clear. Not according to anything
we've done. But according to his own purpose
and grace, which is given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But now is made manifest, because
Christ is sent into the world, by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. And then Paul says,
where unto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher
of the Gentiles. Listen to that. Who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works. So works is out the window. Man's works is out the window
in God's salvation. So what can we say? Anyone who
adds works is a means of salvation. It's out the window. It's a false
gospel. That's right, brother. They want something to do. They
want something to do. They want something they can
brag about. I chose Christ. I did it. I only chose Christ
because he made me willing. God did it all. God did, He saved
us and called us with a holy colon, not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose. His will. Whose will? Whose will
reigns supreme? God's will. Whose purpose? Whose purpose
reigns supreme? God's purpose. And look at this,
according to His own purpose and grace. There's grace again,
right? Without grace, there's no mercy,
there's no peace, there's no love. which was given us in Christ. Now listen to this. Before the
world began. That's, anyone who wants to look
that verse up, please do. Please look that verse up. 2
Timothy chapter one, verse nine. That's what God, the Holy Spirit
had Paul pen, and these words are inspired. Had Paul pen these
words. that this grace was given to
God's people, his sheep, in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Now truly, it's the goodness of God that leads men to repentance.
We find that out? Oh my. Oh my. So it's God's original
choice? God regenerates us, God calls us, God redeems us, God
justifies us, so we're regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, we're
called by effectual calling of the Holy Spirit of God, we're
redeemed in Christ, we're justified in Christ, Christ is our sanctification,
we're adopted by God in Christ, and ultimately, our glorification
is all by the grace of God in Christ. Because when we go home,
we are conformed to the image of the Son. Who gets the glory? God gets all the glory. See,
as you said, Zane, people want to steal the glory. But God's
people, we want to give God all the glory, and all the honor,
and all the praise. Let's go to the Lord.