If you would open your Bibles
with me to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I spoke for a while with Bruce
Crabtree this week. His wife Jo is going through
another round of chemo right now. And he says it's a tough
round. So we want to remember them in
prayer. All right, 2 Timothy chapter two, we'll begin our
reading in verse eight. Remember that Jesus Christ at
the seat of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even under bonds,
but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things
for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It's a faithful
saying. For if we be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. We'll end our reading. Let's
stand together as Isaac leads us in singing our call to worship. With broken heart and contrite
side, The trembling sinner, Lord, I cry, Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free, O God, be merciful to me. I smite upon my troubled breast,
With deep and conscious guilt oppressed, Christ and His cross
my only plea, O God, be merciful to me. No alms, no deeds that
I have done Can for a single sin atone To Christ alone I gladly
flee O God, be merciful to me and when redeemed from sin and
hell with all the ransom throng I dwell my raptured song shall
ever be God has been merciful to me. 257 Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh It is so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise,
just to know, thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. Oh, how sweet to trust
in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood, just in simple faith to
plunge me neath the healing, cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus,
how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
oh, for grace to trust Him more. Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus,
just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus simply taking
life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. I'm so glad I learned to
trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend, And I know that Thou
art with me, Will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how
I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
O for grace to trust Him more. Open your Bibles with me to Acts
chapter 17. Acts 17. You see that Paul was in Athens.
In verse 16 it says, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his
spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city was wholly given
to idolatry. Nothing but idols. Let's begin
reading down in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill, and he said, you men of Athens, I perceive that
in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Neither is worship
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after
him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of
us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As certain
also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not
to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or
stone graven by art and man's device. and the times of this
ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he raised
him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, Some mocked, and others said, we'll hear thee
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them,
howbeit certain men claimed unto him and believed, among whom
which is a diagnosis of the pogite and a woman named Damaris, and
others with them. Some believed. Let's go to our
Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this day. Thankful for this thy word. We're
thankful for the opportunity to gather together as a people.
Lord, that you've brought us here to this place this morning.
Lord, to hear a word from thee. Lord, bless us with your presence.
Lord, we pray you'd be pleased. You've promised where two or
three are gathered in your name, you'll be in the midst of. Lord,
we pray you'd grant us your presence here this morning. Lord, bless
us in hearing. Lord, give us ears to hear, Lord,
a heart to receive, faith to believe thy word. Lord, bless
our pastor as he stands in this place to declare the truth of
thy word. Lord, take that which you've
laid upon his heart, that which he studied and prepared. Lord,
enable him to speak freely to us here this morning. Truly,
Lord, would you be pleased, Lord, that we'd not just hear the words
of a man, but that you would be pleased to speak through your
servant. Lord, we pray for those who are
in a time of trouble and difficulty, Lord, those who are sick and
hurting, Lord, for Joe and for Bruce, Lord, be with them in
days to come. Lord, strengthen them for that
which lays ahead. Lord, we pray for our brother
Aaron. Lord, we're thankful that you
continue to strengthen him and encourage him. Lord, we pray
that you would continue to be with him in days to come. Lord,
for our sister Barb, we pray that you'd be with her. Those who are unable to be here
physically with us to worship, Lord, that in your time you might
be pleased to return them here to once again worship amongst
our people. Lord, now again, we thank you
for your many blessings. We thank you above all for the
Lord Jesus Christ, Lord our Savior. Lord, bless us to know more of
him. Lord, cause us to rest in him
in all things. Again, we pray you'd set aside
the thoughts and cares of this world, or those things that so
easily catch our mind. Lord, set them aside for a little
bit and just let us see Christ. In his name we pray and give
thee thanks. When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count
but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that
charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. Thank you. See from his head, his hands,
his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature
mine That were a present far too small Love so amazing, so
divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. All right, let's open our Bibles
again to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 2. passage we read to
open the service. I titled the message this morning,
My Gospel. I took my title from what the
apostle writes in verse 8 of 2 Timothy chapter 2. Remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel. Paul calls the gospel my gospel.
I say the same thing and you who believe do too. We say this
is my gospel. But now the gospel is the gospel
of God, and it's God's gospel. The gospel of God is concerning
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 1 says that. And God's
gospel, the gospel, the gospel concerning God's son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, is the gospel. There's only one gospel. The
apostle tells us that in Galatians chapter 1. There's only one gospel. There's only one good news and
every other message is bad news. Any message that depends on the
creature whatsoever is bad news. God's gospel is good news. It's God's gospel. So how can
creatures like you and me call it my gospel? My gospel. I wouldn't
probably dare to say that except the apostles said it under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Well, it's my gospel in this
way. It's the gospel that God used to save me. It's my gospel
because it's the only gospel that fits the need of a sinner
like me. I find this gospel fits my every
need. It's my gospel because this is
the only gospel that speaks to my heart and it comforts my soul. It's the only gospel that feeds
my soul. It's the only gospel that enables me to grow in grace.
It's the only gospel that points me to Christ the Savior. This
gospel is the only hope that I have, and it's the only hope
that I want. I'm not looking for anything
else. So in that way, it's my gospel. It's your gospel. But
now, what is the, there's only one gospel. What is the gospel?
This is my gospel. What is my gospel? Well, it's
probably good to identify it because there are a whole lot
of false gospels out there, false messages. What are the distinguishing
characteristics of God's gospel? of my gospel, the gospel. What
is the distinguishing characteristics? Well, there's so many ways to
answer that question from scripture, take us from now to the end of
our lives, but the gospel is the gospel of God's glory. It's
the gospel that gives God all of the glory and none of it to
the creature, because God is the one that did all the saving.
The gospel, my gospel, is the gospel of God's electing It has
to be the gospel of God's electing love, because the whole gospel,
the whole good news to sinners begins with this, God's electing
love to sinners. The gospel, God's gospel is the
gospel that always puts sinners in the dust. It makes us completely
dependent on Christ. The gospel is the gospel that
declares the Lord Jesus Christ got the job done. That means
that he saved everybody he came to save. Everybody for whom he
died is justified and will be glorified together with him.
And I could go on and on and on and on. You know these points
of the gospel. But I want to confine myself
to the verses of our text this morning and preach the gospel,
give you six distinguishing marks of my gospel just from our text
this morning. And I hope this will be helpful
to you. I hope it'll be helpful if somebody asks you, what's
so different? What's so special? about your
gospel? What's so special about the message
that they preach there? I shudder to think how many religious
buildings that you drive past to come here on Sunday morning
and Wednesday night. Well, what makes the gospel that's preached
here special? Different from the message preached
every other place? Let me give you six marks of
my gospel. Number one is this. My gospel
is the gospel of representation. In the previous chapter, the
apostle tells young Timothy, hold fast the sound of form words. Now here's some sound words for
it, verse eight again. Remember that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel. Now Jesus Christ came to this earth as the seed of
David, the son of David, and that would be significant to
the Jews. The Jews knew this, that the
Messiah would be the son of David. They didn't know what that meant.
They just knew that's a quotation from the Old Testament scriptures,
that the Messiah is going to be the son of David. And that's
who Jesus Christ is. He's the son of David. He came
as the seed of David. But he came as the seed of David. He is the son of God. He is God. And since he's God, that makes
the Lord Jesus Christ holy. He has the holy nature of God
because he is God. He's God so he has the power
of God, the omnipotence of God. That makes him able to do everything
he came to do. There's nothing he came to do
that was ever in doubt. He had the power of God to do it. He
is God. But Jesus of Nazareth is also a real man. He was born
of the Virgin Mary. He was the son of Mary. He descended
from King David. Mary was in the house and lineage
of David. That's how the Lord Jesus descended
from David. His mother was in the house and
lineage of David, but the Lord Jesus had no human father. He
wasn't the son of David in this sense that he was conceived by
the seed of a man who descended from David. The Lord was conceived
in the womb of the virgin by the Holy ghost. Now that makes
him a holy man. He was not conceived from the
seed of a sinful man. It was of the Holy Ghost. And
since he was not conceived of the seed of a man, he did not
partake in Adam's sin. He's the seed of woman, not the
seed of man. Now, why did all that happen? Does that sound
like some deep religious thing that nobody can really understand?
Why did it happen that way? That the Lord Jesus Christ is
both. He's the son of God and he's the son of David. Why did
it happen that way? Well, that's a mystery. that
the smartest men of our Lord's day could not understand. Remember,
they were trying to trip him up with questions and trick questions
and things. And Lord asked him, he said,
I'll answer your question if you answer mine first. How can the
Christ be the son of David and the son of God? How can he be
both David's son and David's Lord? The Pharisees couldn't
answer. They could not answer that question.
And from that day forward, they quit trying to have a battle
of wits with the Lord. I mean, they just couldn't do
it. They couldn't answer that question. But the question still
seems, how can that be so? And why is it so? That the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the Son of God. He's David's
Lord, yet David's Son. Well, He came as the Son of God
and the Son of Man to be the God-Man Savior. He's God, so
He can be righteous. He's the righteousness of His
people. He is righteous and he has a righteousness to give his
people. He can make them righteous. He's God, so he's holy. He can
be the holy sacrifice that will put away the sin of his people.
He has holiness. He is holiness. So he has the
holiness to satisfy God, but he's also a man. He's a man to
be the representative of his people. Adam's race was plunged
into sin and death by the disobedience, by the sin, of one man, Adam,
a representative man. Well, Christ's race, God's elect,
they're made righteous by the obedience of one representative
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. And nobody can ever
understand the gospel until they understand this truth of representation. Representation means that almighty
God sees the whole human race in one of two representative
men, Adam or Christ. And we did exactly what our representative
did. We're not standing on our own.
We're not standing on our own merits. We're standing in our
representative. We're made sinners in Adam. That's how we were made sinners.
Don't we come into this world, come forth from the womb speaking
lies? Because we were made sinners
in Adam. That's the nature that we received. We were made guilty
in Adam. We received his nature. Well, God's elect are made righteous
in Christ by his obedience. Now, God can't be our representative. You don't have the same nature
as us. So God became a man so he could be our representative,
so he could obey the law for us, so he could sacrifice himself
for us. God can't die. God can't be sacrificed,
but a man can. So God became a man so he could
be sacrificed for the sin of his people. And if you look over
in verse 11, that's what Paul's telling us here. He said it's
a faithful saying. For if we be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he'll also deny us. Now this is what
the apostle is saying here. If we died in Christ, if Christ
was our representative, when he died, we died in him, then
we have eternal life. Justice is not hunting us anymore
because justice was satisfied when we died in Christ. in the
death of Christ, our representative. If we've suffered for sin in
the person of our representative, then God's never gonna punish
us for our sin again, because justice has already been satisfied
by the suffering of one, that perfect representative man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all those people for whom
Christ died, they absolutely must be saved. They must be glorified,
and they must reign with Christ because justice is satisfied.
They've been made righteous. They've been justified. Christ
the Savior is never going to deny them. He's always going
to claim them as His own because they're in Him. He's their representative.
And any message that gives you something to do in order to be
saved, any message that gives you something to do to keep that
salvation, any message that gives you something to do in order
to make Christ's death effectual for you, that's not the gospel. By God's grace, that's not my
gospel. That's not the gospel that I'll preach to you. God
help me never preach that message to you. My gospel proclaims that
God's elect are saved, completely, eternally justified by the doing
and the dying of Christ our representative. All right, here's the second
thing. My gospel is the gospel that
tells us why Christ died. Verse eight again, Paul says,
remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised
from the dead. Now, if Christ was raised from
the dead, that means he had to die first, doesn't it? You can't
be raised from the dead until you die. Well, why did Christ
die? This perfect man, he's perfect.
He did no sin. He thought no sin. He wasn't
acquainted with sin in any way. Why did he die? How did he die? That's a fair question. See,
the gospel is not simply the declaration that Christ died
on the cross. That's just an historical fact. Probably every
November or December, you're like us, you buy a new calendar
to hang on your refrigerator, hang somewhere, you know, where
you see it all the time. You put down all your doctor's appointments
and places you're gonna go, things you're gonna do, you know, whatever.
Your calendar tells you Christ died. It's separated, the whole
calendar, before Christ and Anno Domini in the year of our Lord.
The calendar's separated from the death of Christ on the cross.
It's historical fact. It's somebody just saying Christ
died on the cross, not the gospel. I bet you nearly every false
prophet in the tri-state area this morning is going to say
Christ died on the cross, but they're not telling the truth.
They're not preaching the gospel. The question is why did Christ
die and what did he accomplish in his death? That's what we
looked at in our lesson this morning in Matthew, didn't it? What did
Christ accomplish in his death? That's what Moses and Elijah
were there on the Mount of Transfiguration talking with the Lord about what
he accomplished. Why did Christ die? He died for sin. He died
for the sin of his people that was charged to him. That sin
became his sin and the father killed him in justice. He died
for sin. Paul told us that first Corinthians
15 verse three, Christ died for our sins. According to the scripture,
he died for the sins of his people. Christ didn't die for his own
sin because he never committed any sin. Christ died for the
sin of his people that was charged to him. The father took that
sin away from his people and put it on his precious son. And
Christ died to satisfy God's justice for that sin. He died
according to the scriptures. He died to fulfill all those
Old Testament types and pictures of the sacrifices. The law has
a sacrifice for everything. I mean, just everything you do
in your life, there's a sacrifice for it. And then there's sacrifices
in morning, evening, or morning, noon, and evening. There's sacrifices
for all the different Ceremonies and times of the year and things,
there's sacrifices for everything. Christ died to fulfill the picture
of all those sacrifices. All those sacrifices never put
away sin. All those sacrifices never pleased God. They never
pleased his justice. They never pleased his holiness.
An animal's blood, an animal's sacrifice can't put away your
sin or my sin. It's got a different nature. It goes back to representation,
doesn't it? An animal's blood can't put away
our sin. It's got a different nature. An animal can't be made
sin for you. But Christ was. He made sin for
his people. And in his death, he fulfilled
all those pictures of the sacrifices. No more sacrifices are needed.
Because Christ died in his death, he completely satisfied justice
for his people. And bless your heart if Christ
died for your sin. Because your sin was charged
to him. He became guilty of your sin,
and He suffered and died for that sin, then you can never
suffer and die for Him, ever. That would be unjust, wouldn't
it? Wouldn't it be unjust to punish two people for the same
sin? Well, God's just. He'll never punish you, ever,
if Christ died for your sin. And since Christ died for the
sin of His people, My gospel is the only gospel that gives
anybody, any sinner, any real hope for the forgiveness of sin.
I mean, if God saved you by His grace, but then you've got to
do something to keep it, you really don't have a whole lot of hope of forgiveness,
do you? No. My gospel is the only gospel
that gives dead sinners a genuine expectation of eternal life.
The only one. This gospel is the only gospel
that is a hope of righteousness. that gives righteousness to real
sinful men and women. It gives us a genuine hope. There's
no hope for us if we have to do something to help put our
sin away, is there? But we have a real hope. I tell you this
all the time, that word hope in scripture means expectation.
You can expect to have eternal life if Christ died for you. He satisfied justice for your
sin in his death. All right, here's the third thing. My gospel is the gospel of the
successful Savior. Paul says he was raised from
the dead. Now, we know why Christ died, how Christ died. Now, why
was Christ raised from the dead? Well, Christ was raised from
the dead because the sin that was charged to him had been put
away by his sacrifice. Death couldn't hold him anymore.
Now, he had to die for sin. When the Father made him sin
for his people, he had to die. He had to. Because sin demands
death. But death could not hold him,
since the sacrifice of Christ put the cause of sin away. The
cause of death is sin. If there was no sin, there'd
be no death, right? Well, Christ put the cause of
death away. He put the sin of his people
away by his precious blood. That means death could not hold
him anymore. And that means death can't hold you who believe either.
Christ put your sin away. If Christ died for you, You cannot
stay dead. You must be given life because
Christ has made you righteous. That's what Paul said in Romans
4, verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses. This is why
he was delivered unto death for our offenses. He was raised again
for our justification. He was raised again as proof
his death justified his people, made them to be without sin.
Now the resurrection of Christ is central to the gospel. When
we talk about preaching Christ and Him crucified, it's not just
that we preach that He died for the sin of His people, although
He did, but He was also raised from the dead. We have no good
news to preach if Christ did not rise from the dead. The resurrection
of Christ declares that the Lord Jesus Christ is the successful,
victorious Savior. And this is what makes the gospel
good news. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. The early church and the apostles were persecuted. Many of them put to death because
they insisted on this truth, the resurrection of Christ. Now,
why would they do that? Why is that so important that
they would give their lives rather than deny Christ rose from the
dead? Because we have no good news without it. We have no hope
without the resurrection of Christ. Here's the importance of Christ's
resurrection. First Corinthians 15, Verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you, there is no resurrection
of the dead, but if there be no resurrection of the dead,
then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. Yay, we're
found false witnesses of God because we've testified of God
that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up. If, if, if
so be the dead rise, not, For if the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain, and you're yet in your sins. That's serious business,
isn't it? Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. Oh, but now
is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of
them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also
the resurrection of the dead. For as an Adam, all die. Even so in Christ, shall all
be made alive. All, everyone for whom Christ
died, all that the father given him, they're going to be made
alive. They're going to be given spiritual life. And the evidence
of it is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And this
assurance of life is for God's people. But there's no assurance
of life unless Christ was raised from the dead. But He has been
raised from the dead. And that's the assurance. That's
the guarantee of life for God's people. And my gospel is the
only gospel that gives sinners real assurance before God. It's the only one that does.
Everything else leaves it in doubt because it leaves something
up to you. My gospel is the only gospel that gives sinners real
assurance of life in Christ. because it depends upon the life
of Christ. He died, and he rose again to never die again. All
right, here's the fourth thing. My gospel is the gospel that
the flesh hates. Verse 9, 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but
the word of God is not bound. Now, we know why Christ died.
We know why he was raised from the dead. That's such good news. Oh, that's such good news. It
gives hope and assurance and expectation of life. So why does
the flesh hate it so much? Why does the flesh hate this
message? Why does the people in the flesh just want to persecute
those who believe it? Well, here's why. Because my
gospel takes away all hope in anything that the flesh does.
Anything. My gospel shuts us up to Christ. I reckon that's kind of an old
time way of saying things. We say that we're shut up to
Christ. You know what that means? It
means we're just hemmed in. Hemmed in. So the only hope we
have, the only place we have to look is Christ. My gospel
takes away all hope in your flesh or anybody else's flesh. So that the only hope you have
is to Christ. To look to Him. To come to Him.
My gospel takes away all hope in our works. and makes us completely
dependent on God's grace. And I'll tell you, the flesh
hates that message. Absolutely hates it. The flesh
is so full of pride. It's so full of pride. It wants
at least a little bit of credit. The flesh will say, yeah, it's
OK to say I'm saved by grace, but now I got to do this. I got
to do it. It wants a little bit of credit. Really, what the flesh
wants is all the credit, all the credit. You know, if Christ
died for everybody, and something I do in the flesh ratifies it,
then really, all the glory goes to me. Why does any glory go
to Christ if he died for somebody who goes to hell anyway? Really,
the flesh wants all the credit. But my gospel constantly puts
down the flesh. My gospel constantly shows us
how sinful and dead the flesh is. And I'm not talking about
the flesh people out there. I'm talking to us right here.
To this preacher standing right here. My gospel constantly reminds
me My flesh is dead. My flesh is sinful, it's rotten,
it's corrupt. If I think it's so abhorrent,
what must God think of my flesh? I mean, just, oh, I wish I could
paint the flesh as black and corrupt and filthy as it is.
My gospel constantly shows the inability of my flesh to do anything
good. anything. For years, I got up
in the morning. I got up at 5 o'clock every morning
and went to work. Now, I get up in the morning,
I don't go out to the warehouse anymore, I don't go out to the
office anymore. I go to my study. I pray. I read God's Word all
day long. That's what I do. I read God's
Word. If I start putting any confidence
in that. That that somehow makes me better
than somebody else. I've missed the message of this
book. I've wasted my time reading it. There's no good in this flesh. This flesh can't do anything
good. My gospel constantly reminds
me there's no hope in the flesh. My flesh. Ever. Ever. Before conversion or after. I
don't care how long it's been that you've been believing Christ,
your works still don't have anything to do with it. You're completely
dependent on Christ. My gospel constantly reminds
me our only hope is Christ. So look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Trust Christ.
Trust. Come to Christ. I know you came
to Him before. Peter said to Him, come and come to Him again.
Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. My
gospel is the only gospel that really, truly forbids glory in
the flesh. It really is. Every other message
tells you Do this. Do that. Do this, that, or the
other. It's putting something in the
flesh. It's putting some weight on the flesh. It's putting some
glory in the flesh. They tell you, oh yeah, you're
saved by grace, but now if you do this, this, or this, you'll
be better than everybody else. You'll be better than the world.
That message is a lie. It's a lie. I have absolutely
no qualms about saying it's a lie. It's a lie that if people believe
it will send them to hell. I mean, I get mad about it, but
that's why. Besides it being a lie on God and taking credit
from the Savior, it sends people to hell if they believe it. The
message is a lie. Because you know what it does?
It promotes the flesh. Yes, you're saved by grace, but
you've got to do this. That promotes the flesh. And
all error stems from that. The flesh. The flesh. If you
hear it, you run away from as fast as you possibly can, and
while you're running away from it, run to Christ. Don't just
indiscriminately run somewhere. Run to Christ. Run to Christ. And that's what the believer
is constantly doing in this flesh. I know the flesh of the world
out there hates this gospel. But you know what my main concern
is? My flesh hates it. I'm constantly battling this
flesh. And this gospel, my gospel, constantly
reminds me and you Turn from this flesh. Don't listen to what
this flesh is telling you. Don't listen to the desires of
this flesh to get some glory for yourself. And turn to Christ. Turn. Turn. Turn to Christ. And that's what God's people
will do. They'll do. By the power of my gospel. By
the power of this word. That's why we preach this word
verse by verse every Sunday and every Wednesday. Because the
power to turn. the power to trust Christ, the
power to believe Him, the power to rest in Him. It doesn't come
from His flesh, it comes from the power of this word. That's
why we preach it. And the power of this word will
keep God's people trusting Him, keep them looking to Him. The
power of this word will keep drawing us to Christ. All right,
here's the fifth thing. My gospel declares God's electing
love for His people. Verse 10. Therefore, I endure
all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the
salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Now there's no need for us to
shy away from using this term, the elect. That's what God calls his people.
He calls them the elect. He said, he talks about things
that go on in this world for the elect's sake. The angels
will come at the end of the world and gather up the elect. He calls
them my elect. And this is what he said. I chose
you. You didn't choose me. Isaac,
that's election. He chose me. That's election.
Election is not an ugly term. An ugly term that says I'm keeping
people out. You know, I know you want to
be safe because you can't because you don't have the magic tickets,
you know, saying you're one of God's elect. No, God did not
elect the people to keep a people out. He did not divide the goats
from the sheep to keep people out. God elected a people so
somebody would be saved. Not so somebody couldn't be saved.
If God didn't elect a people, if God didn't choose a people,
nobody would be saved. Nobody would. God didn't elect
His people to keep sinners away from Him to tell some sinners
they can't come to Him. We all went away from God All
on our own. All on our own. That's something
we did. We went away from God a long time ago in Adam, and
we haven't made the first move toward God on our own ever since.
We've gone a long way from Him. God elected a people so a people
would be saved. God elected a people in His eternal,
everlasting, electing love for them so that He'd draw them to
Himself. Draw them. Election. is a loving doctrine. Somebody
that preaches election mean about it. They're not preaching it
right. Election is a loving doctrine. God chose to save sinners and
he loved them. Even though they hated him. He
loved him anyway. How easy is it for you to love
somebody that hates you? God loved the people that by
nature hated him. There are people who They're guilty of hating
God. They're guilty of hating his
son. They're guilty of putting his son to death. They're guilty
of saying, I'll not have this man to reign over me. God loved
them. They deserved his damnation,
but God loved them and gave mercy instead. God sent his son, his
only begotten son, his beloved son, the son in whom he's well
pleased. He sent his son to die for those
people because he loves them. He loves him. God's electing
love is a doctrine that melts the heart of God's people. Could
God really love me? Really, could God choose me?
That's what this word says. Oh my, didn't that melt your
heart? Oh. And since God set his love
on those people, those people he chose to save, there's absolutely
no doubt Those people shall be saved. God's going to see to
it. His love and His power, He's
going to see to it. I know they're far off from God,
but God's going to draw them to Himself. I know they're far
off. God's going to go to them. He'll
find them. God's going to send them a man preaching the gospel. Somehow, they might not exactly
even ever figure out how it happened. They're going to find themselves
listening to a man preach Christ. And at first, they'll probably
hate it. And for long they're going to find themselves thinking, I believe that. For
long they find themselves wanting to hear more about it. For long
they find themselves wanting to hear more of Christ. What
happened? God came and gave them faith.
And He drew them to Christ. Because of His everlasting love
for them. And that's why Paul was willing, he says, to endure
any hardship to go preach the gospel. You read about Paul's
life. Do you question him here? He
said, I'm willing to endure anything for the elect's sake. I'm willing
to endure anything to go preach the gospel to them. If that's
true of anybody, it was true of the Apostle Paul, wasn't it?
You know why he was willing? To go through anything. To suffer
anything. To go to any lengths. To preach
the gospel somewhere. Because this is what he knew.
God's elect are going to hear. Somebody's going to believe.
He's willing to go there to Athens. He's willing to stand up and
debate them fellas and preach Christ to them because somebody's
going to believe. And sure enough, they did. Sure enough, they did. See, believing in God's electing
love doesn't make us fatalistic. Well, you know, whoever's going
to be saved will be saved. No. Believing in God's electing
love makes us desire to serve the Lord by telling others about
Christ. Yes, God's elect shall be saved.
Let's please God by the foolishness of preaching to save him. This
is how God's pleased to save his people. This is how God's
pleased to reveal himself to his people. This is how God is
pleased to comfort the hearts of his people. Preaching. The preaching of Christ. My gospel
is the only gospel that will give a sinner a heartfelt, total,
consecration to Christ. They won't do it out of reward.
Reward and fear won't make anybody have total consecration. I don't
want to make them go through some initial steps, but it won't
give them total consecration. They'll do it out of love and
thanksgiving. That's the only way to have total
consecration to Christ. And how can I be so sure about
this gospel? This is my gospel. I'm so sure
about it. I'm just, I'm sure. But how can
I be so sure? How can I be so sure God will
save his people and none of them will be lost? I mean, there are
a lot of moving parts to this creation, isn't there? How can
I be so sure God's elect are going to find themselves listening
to the gospel and believe it? How can I be so sure of that?
If salvation is left up to us, In any way you know this, we'll
mess it up and lose it. I mean the second. So how can
we be so sure about the success of my gospel, your gospel, the
success of Christ our Savior? Well, the answer is my sixth
point. My gospel declares God who's faithful. Verse 13. If we believe not, yet he abides
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Now Paul
says, if we believe not. And I wondered about that. Why
did he say if we believe not? By nature, we do not believe.
By nature, we will not believe. Thankfully, I know this, salvation
is not dependent on our faithfulness. So why did Paul say if? Well,
I looked that word up and you know what it means? It means
whether, whether. Even so, even though, even though
by nature we believe not, yet he, faithful. He cannot deny
himself. Salvation is dependent on God's
faithfulness. God's faithfulness. God can't
deny himself. God can't deny his word. God
can't deny his covenant of grace. He cannot deny his promise to
save his people. God must fulfill all those things
because God's faithful. Because God cannot lie. Well
then, does our deadness stop God's purpose? No, God's faithful
to give life. Does our refusal to believe,
even though we do not believe, is that going to stop God's purpose?
No, God's faithful. He's faithful to give faith to
his people as they believe. Does our rebellion stop God's
purpose? No, God's faithful. He's faithful
to make his people willing, loving, obedient children, and I can
tell you when he'll do it. In the day of his power. In the
day of his power. Does our hatefulness stop God's
purpose? No, God's faithful. God's faithful
to give his people a heart of love. Does our inability to keep
the law and our lack of even desire to keep the law, does
that make it impossible for us to be righteous? No, God's faithful. God's faithful. It goes back
to our point about representation. The Lord Jesus Christ is faithful.
He's faithful to keep the law for his people. He's faithful
to make them righteous. See, we're saved by the faithfulness
of Christ. Yes, it's faith in Christ, but
salvation is accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ, by
his faithfulness to do absolutely everything that was necessary
to save his people from their sin. He obeyed the law for them
and he set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. Even Peter couldn't
stop him from going. He went because he's faithful
to offer the sacrifice that put away sin of his people. He's
faithful to rest in the tomb for three days. rise again from
the dead. He's our faithful mediator, who
right now, at his father's right hand, is making intercession
for us, for our sin. And he's not saying a word to
do it. All he's doing is showing his father the scars of his sacrifice.
And the father smiles. He says, I'm well pleased. I'm
well pleased. I'll accept him for your sake.
My gospel is the only gospel that gives sinners complete rest. Rest in Christ. What have you
got to worry about? I know we're worried about what's
going to happen in this world, what dumb things people are going
to do next. I mean, I just can't believe
the new things people find to display their dumbness and their
depravity. But I'm not going to worry about
that. I'm talking about rest, spiritual rest. Now what have
you got to worry about? Believers. We rest in the person
of Christ. In His person. His precious person. He's our representative. We rest
in His character. He's faithful. He's faithful.
I'm not, but He is. I'd wander off if I'm not faithful. He's faithful to keep me. We
rest in His work. His work is perfect. His obedience
is perfect. Mine? Ain't nothing right. His work is perfect. His blood? Oh, I can rest in that. His blood,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
I can rest in His faithfulness. That's my gospel. That's my gospel. I hope it's yours, too. I hope
so. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for this gospel, the gospel of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior. How we thank you for giving your
people faith to believe the glory of Christ our Savior that it
reveals. Father, I pray that you bless your word as it's been
preached this morning. Bless it to your glory. Bless
it to the hearts of your people. Call your people to your son,
to give us rest, peace, and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause
it to remind us and make us one more time put this flesh down
and trust Christ and Christ alone. For it's in his precious name
we pray and give thanks. Isaac can lead us in song if
you would. Everyone stand and sing
509. The sins of time are seen The
dawn of heaven breaks, the summer morn I've sighed, for the fair
sweet morn awakes. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
but day-spring is at hand. and glory, glory dwelleth in
Emmanuel's land. O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted,
more deep I'll drink above. thereto in ocean fulness His
mercy doth expand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. Oh, I am my Beloved's, and my
Beloved's mine. He brings a poor vile sinner
into his house of wine. I stand upon his merit, I know
no other stand. Not in where glory dwelleth,
In Emmanuel's land. The bright eye's not her garment,
But her dear bridegroom's face, I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but
on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's land.