Grace Gospel Network presents
Recovery of the Gospel. Pastor Kent Clark. I want to
preach the gospel today to you. And I've kind of entitled this
Paul the Ready. Paul the Ready. Are you ready? I hope you are. And we'll talk
about why Paul was ready. Here in Romans chapter 1, Let's
begin with verse 14. For I am a debtor. Every Christian in here is a
debtor. God's been good to you this morning. We really have
nothing to complain about, do we? Not really. Not really. I'm a debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians. Both to the wise and to the unwise. I might just ask you this. Do
you love people? People are valuable. I love people. Paul said, I'm a debtor to red,
yellow, black, and white. They are precious in God's sight.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to
you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed in this gospel from faith to faith, as it is
written, The just shall live by faith. And I had a debt we could not
pay. And there was a righteous demand
upon us. We had a debt we could not pay
and a righteousness we could not produce. In case you don't
put one and one together, that means you and I were in big trouble.
That we were without strength. We were We were helpless. Hopeless. There was nothing we
could do to save ourselves. Is that right? Nothing we could
do to save ourselves. Paul said, I'm ready. And that's
what excited Paul about this gospel. That God has done for
us what we could not do for ourselves. Paul got excited about that and
he said, I'm ready. And I was thinking this week
we perhaps should crown him as Prince Paul the Ready. Paul the
Ready. You remember, as soon as the
Lord Jesus called him out, called out to him out of heaven on the
Damascus Road, he said, Who art thou, Lord? His next question
was this. I'm ready. What wilt thou have
me to do? You get saved, you get ready,
and then you find out what the Lord wants you to do. That's
the way it is. As soon as he was converted,
he then was ready for holy service. When you get saved, you are immediately
called to holy service. Just as soon as the Lord reveals
himself to you, he has revealed himself to you for a purpose.
And I hope you can say, now that you have come here and heard
the gospel, and some will be saved today, and I hope your
attitude is, I'm ready. I'm ready. Straightway, the Bible
says he preached the gospel. All through his life, the Apostle
Paul, he was ready to speak to the crowds in the street or the
elite on Myers Hill. He was ready for the philosophers,
ready for the Pharisees, ready for the Sanhedrin, ready before
Felix and Festus, ready before Agrippa. He was ready to comfort
men on board the ship in the storm, ready to gather sticks,
ready to help make fire, ready. He was ready. An all-around ready
man. That was the Apostle Paul. Are
you just ready? When you're asked, do you grumble
or complain or do you say, I'm ready? Oh, you want me to pick
sticks? Sure, I'll pick up sticks. Because
I'm ready. Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever
you do, do to the glory of God. And once you get saved and know
God saved you, I think that's just naturally your attitude.
Because you're caught up in it. Listen, if you aren't caught
up in being a Christian, you've got a wrong brand. When you see
what God has done for you, when you see His eye is on the sparrow
and He watches over you, you're caught up in the wonder of it
all. That's what's missing from our churches. Many of our churches
are like supplicants. It's go in and get it over with.
Go in and get it done. And the only time there's shouting
is on business meeting night. Instead of amen, it's I'mma get
it. I'mma get it. All through his life, he was
ready. I want you to be ready. I want this church to be ready.
I want us to be caught up in the wonder, anxious. I want us
to be motivated by this one fact. He came down here and saved me. Isn't that something? Whatever
happened to Paul on the Damascus Road, he never got over. I see
some folks that have got over it. You got over it too quick.
Salvation is not something you get over. And when God makes
a seeker out of you, you seek Him all your life. That's why
you're restless in a church where you don't hear the gospel. You've
got to get out. I've got to go somewhere where I can hear the
glory of Jesus Christ, where He's lifted up and honored and
praised, because it was a wonder that He saved me. I live in that
atmosphere of alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign
die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Oh, at the cross. At the cross
where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled
away. Ready. That's what I'm talking
about. Ready. We shouldn't have to talk
about what Christians ought to do. You remember when they had
the old standard shift? First, second, third, fourth,
Christians aren't a standard shift. When they get saved, there's
some things that happen automatically. Well, we ought to have a burden
for souls. If you're a Christian, you ought to have a burden for
souls. Listen, if God saved you, you want your children to be
saved. It's automatic. You want other people to come
to know the Lord. You know, you don't have to ask
me, Pastor, do you have grandchildren? Well, yes, I do. Would you like
to see them? I pull out my phone. If you bring
up the grandkids, I've got pictures. It's just automatic. You know
why? Because there's amazement and
love there. Same thing with Jesus Christ.
To love Him means you're ready. You're in love with Him. Paul
was ready no matter what. Ready to go to Rome, ready to
go to Asia, ready to go to Europe, ready for danger, ready for slander,
ready for poverty. You know, it is so exciting to
be a Christian. The air conditioning went out
on the Hummer. So, you know, if I'm going to
sell it, I got to get it fixed, right? Anyway, I took it over
to the Hummer place and they had changed the place where they
worked on it. And they said to me, you're going
to have to go over to the Bentley place where they work on the
Bentleys. I thought, OK. So I went over
there and went inside and everything was Mr. Clark, Mr. Clark this,
Mr. Clark that, and their showroom or where they kept you while
they were fixing the car. You thought you were in a high-class
restaurant. They showed me in there. And
so while I was there, and they had a big widescreen TV on the
wall, beautiful place, and I took in some homework to do, and they
were showing the new Bentleys and, you know, all of that on
the big screen TV. I was doing my homework for rescue
mission there, feeling like, what am I doing here? But anyway,
a gentleman, an African-American gentleman came in, and he began
to talk to me. You know what happens to me when
people begin to talk to me? I'm thinking, oh, I think I've
got me one here. You know, when people begin to
tell you about what they do, the next question, if you don't
say much, is what do you do? I was waiting. I was waiting. And he asked. And so we got in
this long conversation about you don't receive any government
funding. Why is that? Oh, I love when people ask that.
So I got to tell out the gospel to him. and gave him all kinds
of information. He's from Toledo. Pretty well-to-do
guy. Drives a Bentley. And at any
rate, I was going out. As I passed the little secretary
there, she goes, hey, I know you. And I said, you do? And she said, yeah, you were
the guy on television last week down at that market in Pontiac,
right? That Lafayette market? Some of
y'all didn't know, but several months ago, we did a TV show
about how we owned that building. Then they got the building and
remodeled it and put the lofts and things in there. But then
again, I got to tell out the gospel to that little secretary. And it's not like, oh, no, now
what am I going to do? It's like, aha, this is a setup. Don't you love it when God sets
you up? to tell out the gospel. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. Paul was ready. Ready for anything. And it's not all been peace and
quiet around here in 27 years. And it wasn't for the Apostle
Paul either. There was trouble in his life.
Trouble in my way. And Christians have to moan sometimes. But the truth always is we win. My attitude is this. We can do
all things through Christ that strengthen us. I don't know what
Mr. Samuelson will do, whether he'll
do anything or not, but I know clutch cargo is ours. I know
it's ours. You see, the gospel to the Apostle
Paul was a solemn conviction of the truth. Paul knew beyond any shadow of
a doubt this gospel was true. Do you know that? is true. You know, things that I only
think are true. There's some things I think is
true. I mean, there's something in the Corinthian letter about
women wearing coverings. And I think there's something
to that, but I tell you, I'm not going to get up here and
preach every Sunday about women ought to have their head covers
when they come to church. Amen. I'm not going to do that
because I'm not real sure about all of that. But there's something
I am sure about. That this gospel is true. And
it lights me up. It's always burning in my bones. This gospel is true. Somebody said, well, you know,
and you've heard me say this so many times is because people
said this to me so many times. And I think some of them were
genuinely being honest with me. You know, you preach the same
thing all the time. And I used to get a little defensive,
but now I go, I know. I know. And you can tell folks out there,
now if you come to our church, I'll just tell you right now,
he's going to preach the gospel, and if you come back next week,
he's going to make another attack at it, but he'll preach the gospel. Because I'm convinced it's true.
And it is the most glorious, the most wonderful message in
all of the universe. It really is. You know, when
I got saved, I was happy that night when really the Lord reconciled
me and I knew the burden was lifted and gone. I was only eight
years old, but I can tell you my heart leaped within me. But
I'm telling you now, after 61 years, I'm jumping more now than
I've ever jumped. Because I see it fuller. It's
fuller. It's richer. It's greater. It's
so marvelous. It's so beyond me, this gospel. And that's the way the Apostle
Paul felt. You know, a feeble faith will not work when it comes
to the gospel. You've got to believe it all
over. Otherwise, you'll go to this church and that church and
you'll get on the deacon board or the planning board or you'll
be doing something there at church and really there's not much to
it. It's just like belonging to Kiwanis or Rotary. It's something
you do every week. But if this gospel eats you alive,
if you breathe it, if you walk it, if you talk it, if you know
it's true, that you've been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ,
that you will never come into condemnation, that you pass from
death unto life, it will consume you. The Apostle Paul in the
Corinthian letter said, I believe, therefore have I spoken. What
do you believe? What do you believe? If you get
a grip of a thing and know it's true, then you're going to tell
others. In fact, the Apostle said, I could wish myself a curse
from Christ for my kinsmen. Let me tell you this, to the
extent that you believe the gospel to be true, To that extent will
you tell others. Just chew on that a little bit.
If you don't believe it is true, if you're just a religious person,
listen, you can't help but tell somebody about Christ. You mean
your children have never heard you tell the message of the gospel? And you believe that people without
Jesus Christ perish? And you keep your mouth shut?
Something wrong with that. Something wrong with that. In
fact, the backbone of preaching Christ is a conviction of the
truth of Christ. To the extent that you believe
that gospel, to that extent, you'll tell it out. And Paul
said, I'm ready. But I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Are you ashamed of it? I'm not ashamed of it. Man, you
know, people talk about so much. stuff that they're not ashamed
of when it's so silly. I mean, in a way, you look at
sports. What are we about to have? Baseball. All-star game. All-star game. Think about some
of the things in life that these guys get millions and millions
of dollars to hit a little round ball. Just think about that. Think about it kind of in the
light of being without food, or thousands being without food.
I'm not trying to spoil that, but I want you to put in comparison
the gospel to the things of this world. And there is no comparison. There just is no comparison.
Paul the ready. He was dogmatic. Yeah. Some people say that about me.
You know, he's just a freak when it comes to that religious stuff.
He's just a fanatic. Yeah. Yes. I love those accusations. I receive
them. I say, thank you. Have you had a real conversion
encounter with Jesus Christ? Has something happened to you
you will never get over? Well, whatever happened to Paul,
he never got over it on the Damascus Road. You think about the change. Here he is on his way with papers
to Damascus to kill Christians. And zap! Have you ever got zapped? You say, well, now I think that's
a little uncouth. The Holy Spirit will zap you.
And when he zaps you, we call that quickened. That means to
give life. You see, because before you get
life, you're dead. That makes sense, doesn't it?
I hear preachers all over the world talking about the free
will of man. Let me tell you, man's will is
enslaved to his nature. He's dead. And man doesn't make
the first move toward Christ. Christ must make the first move
toward man. In fact, Christ has to go to
the cemetery to find you. You're dead as a doornail. That's
Kentucky talk. Dead as a doornail. And Christ
has to come to your grave and say, live. Now the will has been
changed. Because you have life. But before
the will is changed, the will is dead. And active toward drinking,
smoking, cussing, all of the things of this world. Hating
God, hating Christ. It's true. You see? Somebody
asked me the other day, and they were asking me in regard to the
prismatic thing and healing, do you believe in miracles? I
said, I is one. If you ever get saved, it'll
be a miracle because it's something you didn't do. You did not save
yourself. So, Paul's on his way to Damascus,
he gets zapped, Saul of Tarsus, the Lord Jesus gives him life,
and now it's Lord. What a change, right? Lord, not
Jesus, boy. Nobody was standing there with
a decision card saying, Paul, do you want to or not? If I were
you, you know, I'm so glad I didn't get saved in a church building.
I don't know, because there's something religious about church
buildings. It's all right if you did. Don't... I'm fanatic,
so don't get... And I didn't go to the altar,
and I didn't sign a card. I was an eight-year-old boy down
on my knees in the basement of the parsonage of Grace Baptist
Church when Jesus rolled the burden away. Remember, I was
just a little boy. I had a grandmother named Ma
Nanny. I ran up three flights of stairs,
hugged her around the neck and said, He just did it! And she said, well, bless your
heart. I was saved. I was there when
it happened. I was there when the burden was
rolled away. Like I said, that was a long
time ago, 60 years ago, 60 years ago. And I'm more excited today
about it than I was then. I am. It was a revelation of
gospel truth. Do you know all truth is revealed
truth? Listen, you and I don't have enough sense to play the
radio separate and apart from the Holy Spirit of God. He has
to take the blinders off. Some of you are sitting here
and all your life you thought, most of your life you thought
crack was the answer. Heroin was the answer. Some of
you are here and you think church was the answer. You're so churchy,
you're rotten to the core. You're religious. You're dead
to God. There is no difference between
you and the crack addict. He just drinks the 99 bottles
of beer on the wall. And you sing in the choir. But
all have sinned and missed the mark. Revelation. When God opened your eyes. My
dad, when he was talking to me there in the basement, and I
was on my knees, he'd say, son, I'm going to pray for you. And
I want you to ask the Lord to save you." So I said, yes, sir. So Dad would pray and then he'd
look up at me and go, did you trust Christ? I said, no, but
I'm trying. He said, quit trying. I said, I'm going to pray for you
again. He prayed for me again. He said, did you trust Christ?
I said, no. He said, OK, I'm going to pray
for you this last time. Dear God in heaven, if you can
get more glory out of sending Kent to hell." I screamed out, no! And it was at that point that
something happened to me. It was at that point, I can't
explain it, but I knew I'd pass from death to life. See, you don't try and get saved.
Because God is the one that does the saving. That, for the most
part, is not in our church. It's God in cooperation with
you and your will and your decision and what you do. Let me tell
you, Jesus paid it all. And by the way, this is a Baptist
verse. Heard this all my life in the
Baptist church. Don't know how much we believe it, but by grace
are you saved through faith. And that faith! is not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Anybody believe that here? I
believe that with both hands. With both hands. You can hear the rest of this
message and many more on sermonaudio.com. You can also like us on Facebook. Thank you for listening. These
are the men of grace. Do you ever feel alone? So alone there is no feeling
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