Well, good morning. You would
open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of first
Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. We'll read the first 11 verses.
First Timothy chapter one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ
our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. I besought thee to abide still
in Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine, either give heed to fables and
endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying,
which is in faith. So do now the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and have a good conscience and
a faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned
aside under vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons. And if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Thank
God for his word. Let's bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
oh, how we thank you that you are God alone, ruling and reigning
over all of your creation in righteousness and holiness and
goodness. Father, we thank you that in
your sovereign wisdom, you've chosen to be merciful to sinful
men and women such as we are in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we thank you for righteousness that is in the obedience of our
Lord Jesus Christ. It could come no other way. We're
totally incapable of keeping any of your law, but we thank
you for righteousness that comes through his obedience. We thank
you for the forgiveness of sins that comes through the blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It could come no other way than
through his perfect, precious blood. And Father, we're thankful. We're thankful for your mercy
and grace in revealing your son to the hearts of your people
through the preaching of your word. And Father, I pray this
morning that as we have met together to worship, that we met together
to hear a word from thee, that you'd give us that word, that
you'd bless your word as his priest, enable us to see, to
believe, to fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let his
name be preeminent in everything that is said and done here this
morning. Let his name, his person, be preeminent on the heart of
each person as we leave here this morning. Father, we beg
of you that you'd bless your word in such a way that it would
powerfully reach the heart of each one gathered here this morning.
Let us leave here believing, trusting in and resting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to give up all hope
in the flesh and to rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I
thank you for this place and for this people whom you've gathered
together. Father, I pray you'd bless each
one, bless each home with your presence, with your leadership,
cause us to live in this world looking to and looking for our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for the children
that you've given to us. They grow up in such a difficult
generation and right now seems to be so difficult. Father, we
pray you'd bless them, that you'd watch over them, that you'd lead
them and guide them aright. And Father, above all, how we
pray mercy for their souls. And we're thankful to come, begging
mercy from the God of all mercy. Father, we pray for the sick
and the afflicted, that you'd heal their bodies, that you'd
be with them, that you'd touch them. And above all, Father,
that you'd give them a fulfillment of your promise, that you'd not
leave or forsake your people, that while they're in such pain
and difficulty and sorrow, that they find out your grace truly
is sufficient. Father, we pray for our country.
We pray you'd give relief from this virus. We pray that you'd
give our leaders wisdom that they do not have, that you would
turn their heart to lead this country aright for the good of
your people, that our freedoms in this country that we've so
long enjoyed might be enjoyed for more generations to come.
Father again, bless your word. Bless us as we look into your
word and hear your gospel one more time this morning. Bless
it to your glory and to the hearts of your people. Of course, in
the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give
thanks. Amen. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way I was wretched and as vile as could be But my
Savior in love Gave me peace from above When he reached down
his hand for me When Christ Jesus reached down for me When he reached
way down for me I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son when He reached out His hand for me. I was near to despair when He
came to me there. And he showed me that I could
be free Then he lifted my feet, gave me gladness complete When
he reached down his hand for me When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When he reached way down for me I was lost and undone
Without God's precious Son When he reached down his hand How my heart does rejoice when
I hear his sweet voice. In the tempest to him I do flee
There to lean on his arm Safe, secure from all harm When he
reads down his hand for me when Christ Jesus reached down
for me when he reached where he I was lost and undone without
God's precious son when he reached down his hand for me. Too thankful. Let the Lord's arms not shorten.
He can't reach way down. For the likes of you and me,
I'm so thankful. All right, if you would, turn
with me again to the book of 1 Timothy. I titled the message this morning,
The Aim of the Gospel. Brother Henry Mahan, I remember
him saying that he preached with a purpose. That the people who
would hear him might close with Christ. And he said, I expect
you to believe on Christ. I expect you to close with Christ
based upon the gospel that you've heard preached. And that's the
aim of the gospel. That's my prayer for us this
morning. And there is an aim when we preach the gospel. Verse
five, the apostle Paul says, now the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and
of faith unfeigned. Now, notice here that when Paul
refers to the gospel, he calls it a commandment. We looked at
this last week. The commandment is for us to
preach no other doctrine, to preach no other gospel. There's
just one gospel and we're commanded to preach it and we're commanded
to believe it. You know, the gospel is not an
invitation. The gospel is not God begging
men to do something. The gospel is a commandment.
It's a commandment from the King of Kings that we're to repent,
that we're to turn, turn from trusting our works and turn to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that commandment is to be
obeyed. It's to be obeyed. It's not to be obeyed or to follow,
to be followed in the way that we want to or the way that we
think it should be done. We're to obey it in the way that
God commands. This commandment is not to be
debated. It's not to be questioned. Americans might find that somewhat
difficult. Someone told me a week or two
ago that of all the nations on the earth, the United States
of America is the most rebellious nation on earth. And I believe
it. I believe it. Don't tread on
me. It's stamped in our DNA, isn't it? And we want to debate
it. We want to question our leaders.
Well, that might be fine politically. in this earth, but not the gospel. Now you've got to leave that
thinking at home. You've got to leave it at home.
The gospel is to be obeyed. It's not to be debated. That's
why the apostle said in verse four, neither give heed to fables
and endless genealogies. All they do is minister questions
rather than godly edifying, which is in faith. You know, we're
not to debate the gospel. It's too easy. Don't allow yourself
to be taken off track and start debating the things of the flesh.
To start, you know, debating and looking at these genealogies
and histories and those things. Don't get pulled off on those
things. Christ is the issue. We're to believe Him. We're commanded
to believe Him. And the word end that Paul uses,
now the end of the commandment, that word means the aim or the
purpose. There is an aim. There's a purpose
to the gospel that we're commanded to be preached. It also means
a termination point. There's an end. point to this,
to which we are to arrive. We're to arrive at this termination
point. When we preach the gospel, now
we're aiming at something. There's a purpose in this. We
don't just gather together to hear ourselves talk. There's
a purpose to what we're preaching. The gospel has a termination
point, a point where it all comes to a head. And that's the destination
to which we're to point, to aim. Now, I want to give you four
things that we're aiming at when we preach the gospel. And if
you believe the gospel, your faith will terminate, will end. Your faith will come to these
four conclusions. Number one is this. The first
aim of the gospel is love. Paul uses the word charity. He
means love. The goal of preaching the gospel
is so that we will love. First of all, so that we'll love
God. Now, I want to preach the gospel. I want to tell you who God is
so that you will know God. That's what I want more than
anything else. And we need to hear that kind of preaching.
It tells us who God is because by nature we don't know who he
is. You know, we can't know God unless somebody preaches the
gospel and tells us who God is. We can't know how it is God saves
sinners unless somebody preaches the gospel and says, thus saith
the Lord. Here's how God says he saves
sinners. And more than anything, I want you to know God. That's what I want for you. Look
at the book of 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. If God introduces
himself to you through the preaching of the gospel, you're going to
know him. And I promise you, if he does that, you'll love
him. If you know God, if he introduces himself to you so that you know,
you'll love him. 1 John 4 verse 6. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Now, he who knows God, he hears
the gospel. He hears it and believes it,
and that produces love. Verse seven. Beloved, let us
love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. If you know God, you'll love
him. He that loveth not knoweth not God, For God is love. So that's the aim of the gospel,
so that we know and love God. Secondly, this is another aim
of the gospel, so that we know and love the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Savior. It's my great, great, great desire
that the Lord will enable me to preach Christ to you in His
glory, that He enabled me to preach so clearly and so powerfully
by the power of His Spirit that you can't help but love Him. You can't help but love Him.
I expect you. I say the same thing to Brother
Henry. I expect you to love the Lord Jesus Christ. How can you
not? Look at the Gospel of John. The
Gospel of John chapter 5. How can you not love Him? If
God the Holy Spirit is pleased to reveal Christ to you, I promise
you, you'll love Him. John chapter 5, verse 22. The father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the son, that, here's the purpose
for that, that all men should honor the son, even as they honor
the father. He that honoreth not the son
honoreth not the father which sent him. And it does no harm
to the scripture to read it this way, that all men, should love
the son, even as they love the father. Now, if you know the
father, you're going to know the son. If you love the father,
you're going to love his son. And when you hear him preach,
you'll believe him. Verse 24 says that. For verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. It shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. If you hear
the gospel, You're going to believe on Christ and you're going to
love him. And that's the aim of preaching the gospel. It's
so that people, so that sinners will love Christ when they hear
who he is. And I ask you again, how can
you not? How can you not love? How can you not love the one
who loves sinners enough to suffer and die for them as their substitute
to put their sin away? How can you not love him? John
said, herein is love. If you want to know what love
is, here it is. Not that we love God. but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the propitiation, the covering for our sin. How
can you not love the one that would suffer and die to put away
the sin of sinners? How can you not love the one
that freely gives a righteousness that you cannot earn? How can
you not love the one who freely forgives your sin by the blood
of his sacrifice? He had to die to forgive your
sin. How can you not love him? How can you not love the one
who by his grace gives you? It's a free gift. He gives you
eternal life. See our goal in preaching the
gospel is so that you'll hear who Christ is so that you'll
love him. Then thirdly, the aim of gospel
preaching is so that we love the brethren. Now we are to love
one another. We just read that 1 John 4 verse
8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. Somebody doesn't love the brethren just because they don't
know God. John said in 1 John 4 verse 11, Beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought also to one another, love one another. How
could we not? I know sometimes a brother or sister that maybe
they don't act all that lovable, but we're to love them anyway.
When I don't act all that lovable, I'm glad you still love me. We're
to love them anyway. Because love, love for the brethren,
is the preeminent mark of a believer. Our Savior said, by this all
men know that you're my disciples, if you have love one to another. And that's our aim in preaching
the gospel, that we might love one another. Then, fourthly,
the other aim of preaching the gospel is that we might love
all men. Now, when we say love all men,
We don't mean that, well, we love all men and we just say
whatever they do is okay. No, that's not what we mean.
Loving all men means that as individuals and as a congregation,
we are committed to preaching the gospel to all men. It's the
most loving thing that we can do, to preach the gospel to all
men. That's love for our Lord. It's
love for our Lord who commanded us go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. If you're going to preach the
gospel right, you're going to preach it in love to the Savior who
commanded us to go preach and be in love for everyone, all
men who might hear the gospel. When we preach the gospel, we
do it in love for people, in love and care for their souls.
And if you believe the gospel, you believe Christ, you will
arrive at love. Now, where there's no love in
a person, where there's no love, there's one of two problems.
Either the gospel's not being preached, or secondly, the gospel's
not being heard with a heart of faith. One or the other. Because
the aim, the end of the gospel being preached is love. And the
only way, the one and only way that this love can be given is
through the preaching of the gospel. Preaching the law. Law never produces love. Never, ever, ever. It can't produce
love. Preaching man's obedience will
never produce love. You know what it'll produce?
It'll produce a self-righteousness. It'll deepen our love for self,
but it'll never produce love for God. It'll never produce
love for Christ, love for the brethren, or love for other men.
Look at verse six in our text, 1 Timothy chapter one. This is
what the apostle says here, he says, from which some, having
swerved, they swerved away from the gospel, they swerved away
from the commandment, they turned aside unto vain jangling. I used to carry a whole mess
of keys. I don't know if this will work, but I just got two
now. If I did that for about 35 minutes,
you'd be driven absolutely mad, wouldn't you? Vain jangling. Vain jangling. That's what the
preaching of the law is. It's an annoying sound. Preaching
men's morality, men doing this and not doing something, it's
vain jangling. It's unprofitable and it's annoying. It's annoying if you know Christ.
People who preach the law, you know what they're trying to do?
And here's why they do it. They think salvation is outward. They're trying to constrain people. They're trying to constrain them,
get them to act better. When they do that, use the law, trying
to get people to act better and think that's salvation, they
don't know what they're talking about. Verse seven, desiring
to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm. They don't know what they're
talking about. Preaching of the law will never produce love,
but the preaching of the gospel will produce love for God, love
for Christ, love for the brethren, and love for all men. That's
the first aim of the gospel is love, charity. Then the second
aim of the gospel is a pure heart. In verse five says, Paul says,
the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. Now the first aim is love, but
here's the problem. We can't produce that kind of
love. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Our nature cannot love God. The only one we love is ourselves.
That's the only one we love. So we're going to love God. We're
going to love his son. We're going to love the brother.
We're going to love all men. We're going to have to be born
again. We're going to have to be given a pure heart in the
new birth because Paul says this love comes out of a pure heart. We don't have a pure heart, do
we? Then if we're going to love like this, we must be given a
pure heart. And the heart that God gives
in the new birth is pure. It's sinless. It can never sin. It can only love God. It can
only love Christ. It can only love the brethren.
It can only love and care for all men. And God gives that heart,
that new nature, through the preaching of the gospel. Now,
the only way that we can be born again is to be born again from
new seed. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Now, the seed that God uses to
give a new nature to his elect is the preaching of his word.
1 Peter 1, verse 22. Seeing you purified your souls
and obeying the truth through the spirit under unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another. with a pure
heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God. That's the seed which
liveth and abideth forever. And whatever's born of that seed
is going to be just like the seed, just like we were born
from Adam's sinful seed. That's why we came for the sinners.
We've got his nature. We can't do anything but sin
because it's a sinful seed. This seed is perfect and holy.
Whatever's born from that seed is going to be perfect and holy
and righteous. That's the new man, the new nature.
So you see here, our love for God is tied to the new birth,
isn't it? There's got to be a new nature
born from the seed, the word of God. Well, how is that seed
sown in the heart? Well, it's not from anything
done in the flesh. It's sure not done by preaching
the law. The new birth can only come through
the preaching of the gospel. Verse 24, 1 Peter 1. Peter says, for all flesh is
its grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away. But the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. And whatever is born of that
word is gonna endure forever too. It's gonna have eternal
life. And I want the Lord to enable me to preach the gospel
to you. so that you will be born again. That's what I want for you and
for me both. I want us to be born again. Our aim is not a
certain doctrinal position, even though our doctrine is true.
Our doctrine is true. But if you come to a doctrinal
belief, that doctrinal belief, coming to a doctrinal position,
is really not much different than coming to the law. It's
going to make you mean. It's going to make you hard.
Our aim is not that you come to a doctrinal position, even
though it's true. Our aim is that people will be born again,
that the Holy Spirit will bless his word by the power of his
spirit and cause people to be born again. And the evidence
that you've been born again is that you love. That's the evidence.
Look at first John chapter three. See, all these things are tied
together. The evidence that you've been born again is you love. 1 John 3, verse 14. We know we've passed
from death unto life. We know we've been born again
because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. If you believe the gospel, if
you believe Christ, I'll tell you where you're going to arrive.
You're going to arrive at a pure heart because God's going to
give it. Now, the only way that we can have a pure heart is through
the preaching of the gospel. Preaching the law. Do and don't
do. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That will never get the job done. All the preaching of
the law can be is vain jangling. But now, what about the law?
The law still exists, doesn't it? The law of God is still in
full effect. Well, what about the law? What
about the only benefit to the law? Here is the purpose that
God gave the law, is to show us our guilt, show us our helplessness,
so that we'd be shut up to Christ. God didn't give us the law so
we could say, look how good I've done keeping it. No, God gave
us the law to say, look how poor a job I've done keeping it. I
haven't kept any of it. If I'm going to be holy, if I'm going
to be righteous, I've got to trust Christ that God gave us
the law to show us we've got no hope but Christ. Look at verse
eight in our text, first Timothy one. But we know that the law is good.
If a man used it lawfully. Now, if we use the law to see
our guilt and our sin and our need of Christ, then we've used
it lawfully. If we use the law so that it
shows us our sin and our iniquity and our need, then we've used
the law right as God intended for it to be used. But all the
law can do is show you a mirror so that you see your image, whether
you're clean or unclean, whether you're holy or unholy, whether
you're righteous or unrighteous, whether you've got a pure heart
or a sinful heart, but it can't give you righteousness. It can't
give you holiness. It can't give you the ability
to obey, and it can't give you a pure heart. The best thing
that the law can try to do is try to restrain people. Verse
nine, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous
man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly
and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers
and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that's contrary to sound doctrine. Then the law was not made for
righteous men. The law wasn't made for believers.
Because the believer has no relationship with the law whatsoever. None
whatsoever. The believer is not motivated
by the threat of the law. The believer is motivated by
love. By love, not the law. So if you
believe Christ, God's law is not talking to you. It's just
not talking to you. And I thought of this illustration.
I was out in Iowa one time with Brother Joe Terrell. And he took
me to a business that one of the ladies there in the church
owns. It was utterly fascinating. It's a secondhand store, but
it's in this old hotel built in the 1800s. It's got the wood
floors and so much of the stuff in that building is original
to this hotel that it was built for. And she's got all those
rooms in this hotel in sections. I was glad Janet went with me,
because I flew out there. I thought, man, we'd have to
rent an extra seat or something. She'd buy so much stuff. This woman
told me, she said, next time you come, she'd bring your wife.
I said, oh, we'd have to bring an extra suitcase for all the
stuff she'd buy. She said, we sell those, too. She's a businesswoman. But she had signs up throughout
her, all the different floors. She had this sign up in her business. She said, it's stealing. The
sign says, it's stealing to switch price tags. And I said, really? You're really going to tell people
this? It's stealing to switch? She said, oh, yeah, it's a big
problem. But I saw that sign. It wasn't talking to me. I mean,
I wasn't trying to buy anything. I sure wasn't trying to steal
something. That sign was not talking to me. The sign was talking
to a thief. Here's the point I'm making.
The law is not talking to you if Christ fulfilled the law for
you. The law says, thou shalt not steal. If Christ did not
steal and he did it for you as your representative, then the
law is not talking to you. Because Christ fulfilled the
law for you. You see that? The law was given
to point us to Christ. In earthly ways, the law is also
given to restrain the sin of men. Where would we be in this
country if we didn't have laws to restrain people, to stop them
from doing things? If the law didn't threaten people,
it's hard telling what people would do, wouldn't it? I mean,
then the law would just be who's ever the biggest and strongest
and got the biggest gun or something, you know? The law restrains people
outwardly. That's the purpose for our legal
system. But that doesn't work in the
heart. That doesn't work spiritually. You know, the law will restrain
you. I mean, if there wasn't, if there wasn't a speed limit
sign, I hate to tell you how fast I'd go. I mean, I just hate
to tell you if there, if there wasn't something there to restrain
me, but that doesn't work spiritually. Matter of fact, you know what
the law, the law accomplishes the opposite spiritually. The
apostle Paul thought he was righteous. He says, touching the law, I
was blamed. until he said, I saw what the law was really saying.
He said, then the commandment revived and I died. He said,
when I saw what the law said, when the law said, you can't
do this, all I want to do is do it. When the law said, don't
do this, it's all I want to do. When the law said, do this, all
I want to do is not do it. All I want to do is disobey when
I saw what the law really said. See, the law can threaten, but
it can't give my opinion. They can't give you the ability
to obey, but the gospel does. The gospel does. Look here in
our text, verse 11. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. That's
how God gives this new, pure heart to his people. It's through
this glorious, blessed gospel that God's committed to our trust. And when we preach it, this is
our aim. This is our goal, that God might give a pure heart.
Here's the third aim of the gospel. Paul says it's a good conscience.
Out of a pure heart and a good conscience. Now I care about
you. And not just when you're here
on Sunday. When you go back out in the world, and I think about
you all week, and I think about the message that God gives me
to preach every Sunday and every Wednesday, and I think about
you. I think about how this will affect you when you go back out
into the world. And I want you to go out into
the world with a good conscience. I want to preach Christ to you
so clearly that you can live with a good conscience, because
what's worse than having a bad conscience, a guilty conscience?
I don't want you to live with that. I want you to live with
a good conscience. Now, that's not to say that,
you know, when God saves a person that we've got a good conscience
because we quit sinning or we sin less than we ever did. No,
that's not the believer's experience at all. Matter of fact, not only
does the believer sin as much now as we did before we were
converted, the believer thinks, I sin more now than ever used
to. You know why that is? Because only the new man can
see the sin of the old man. Only the new man, the living
new man can see the deadness, the unrighteousness of the old
man. So we don't have a good conscience
because now we suddenly act better than we used to or act better
than other people, no. The believer has a good conscience
because we don't have anything to feel guilty about. Our conscience
can't be constantly telling us, you're guilty, you're guilty,
you deserve punishment for this. Your conscience can't tell a
believer that because Christ has made us not guilty. He made
us not guilty. Christ bore the sin of his people
away. He bore their guilt away and
he satisfied God with his precious blood. And you know what God
said about that sacrifice? God said, I've cast the sin of
my people behind my back. Now God's everywhere at once.
God sees everything at once. There's nothing hid from him.
So what does that mean when he said the sin of my people is
cast behind my back? It means it's not there. It's
not there. God said, I won't remember the sin and iniquity
of my people anymore. And not because he's a forgetful
old grandpa. He doesn't remember what's not
there. What's not there. Now, when I
look at myself, all I see is sin. That's all I see. I don't
see any goodness in me. I don't see any righteousness
in me. But if God doesn't see my sin anymore, then I don't
have any. What God sees is all that counts. That if I believe Christ, I've
got nothing to feel guilty about. When God the Holy Spirit uses
the preaching of the gospel so that we see Christ, we believe
him and we love him, we're going to have a good conscience. Absolutely
we will. If we see Christ sacrificed for
our sin, we'll have a good conscience. Because if we see his sacrifice,
we'll know I've got no sin to feel guilty about. His sacrifice
put it away. Now see, I don't want you to
have a good conscience because your conscience has been seared
because it's been killed by a hot iron. I want you to have a good
conscience because you see Christ and you believe him. That's what
I want for you and for me. Look at first Peter chapter three.
And this good conscience, You know, we say a good conscience
is a quiet conscience, but this good conscience has got something
to say. It's got something to confess, and it will do it. 1
Peter 3, verse 21. The like figure whereunto even
baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth
of the flesh. Being baptized, dunked under the water does not
put away the filth of the flesh, but it's the answer of a good
conscience toward God. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God,
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Now, baptism is a confession. If God's given you this good
conscience, your conscience must confess, Jesus Christ is my Savior. Jesus Christ is all my hope.
I have a good conscience because Christ died and he rose again
to put my sin away. When He died, I died in Him. When He was buried, I was buried
in Him. And when He arose, I arose in Him. And I know His sacrifice
put away my sin because the Father accepted Him back into heaven.
And I'm going to follow Him there right soon because I'm in Him. And if you have a good conscience,
you will want to confess Christ that way. Nobody's going to beg
you to do it. You'll just do it because you have a good conscience.
Now look at Hebrews chapter 9. You know, oftentimes we have
a baptismal service and older believers will say and they'll
think, oh, I wish I could just be baptized all over again. I
wish I could just confess Christ all over again. Well, you can
confess Christ all over again. If you've got a good conscience,
you will. You will. You'll confess Christ. Your good
conscience will confess Christ by living, looking to Him and
depending upon Him. Let me show you that in Hebrews
9 verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? Now a good conscience is just
going to quit. It's going to quit trying to
make God happy with me by my law keeping. A good conscience
is going to quit trying to make God happy with me by my morality. A good conscience can quit trying
to make God happy with me, but what I do or what I don't do.
A good conscience, here's what a good conscience does. It trusts
Christ. It rests in Christ. Now that
doesn't mean we don't do anything ever. No, a good conscience still
works. Absolutely it works. Faith without
works is dead. But here's the difference. It's
the motive, the goal, the aim of the works. A good conscience
serves God's people out of love and out of thanksgiving, not
out of a mercenary spirit trying to get something from God. Now
the law can never give a good conscience. All the law can give
is the opposite. The law just gives you a bad
conscience, a guilty conscience, constantly pointing out your
sin and your failure, constantly pointing out you haven't done
enough. And any preaching that says to people, God will save
you if you just live good enough, if you're nice enough, if you're
kind enough, if you obey enough, if you're religious enough. All
that kind of preaching is, is vain jangling. Because that's
law. All it is is law. And all the
law can do is make us feel guilty. All the law can do is make us
afraid of punishment, afraid of death. The law makes us afraid
of God and want to avoid God. What is the very first thing
Adam did when he sinned in the garden. He made him some fig
leaves, his works, and he still felt naked, and when God came
walking in the cool of the day, Adam hid. The law, the deeds
of the law, your fig leaf apron, all it's gonna do is make you
want to avoid God, but not the gospel. No, in the gospel, our
Lord Jesus Christ has come unto me. Suffer the little children
to come unto me. Are you tired? He says, come
unto me for rest. Are you thirsty? He says, come
unto me and drink. Come. The gospel makes us love
God and want to be drawn to come to Him. And if you believe the
gospel, you will arrive at a good conscience because Christ has
put your sin away. And that's our aim every time
we preach the gospel. All right, fourthly, the fourth
aim of the gospel is faith unfeigned. That's what Paul says here in
our text. The end, the goal, the aim of the commandment is
charity out of pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith
unfeigned. I want to tell you, I've got
absolutely no interest in playing religious games. None whatsoever. I just don't have any time for
that. None whatsoever. Souls are at stake. Your soul
and my soul. Our souls are at stake here.
Sinners are in jeopardy. We've got no time for games. I don't want us to try to impress
one another by acting religious. Because when a person is acting,
they're being a hypocrite. They're just acting like they're
somebody. They're pretending like they're somebody that they're
not. I don't want that. That's the opposite of unfeigned.
I want to preach Christ and only Christ and Him crucified. so
that God gives you and me faith in Christ. Faith unfeigned. I mean the real McCoy. Genuine,
heart-saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God gives genuine
sinners genuine faith in Christ. I don't want to just say that
I'm the chief of sinners. I want to say it in meaning.
I want to constantly be reminded of my sinfulness and my vileness
and my guilt and my inability so that I've got no other option
other than to genuinely trust Christ. I don't want that just
to be words on the lips. I want to genuinely trust Him. And I tell you when we will genuinely
trust Christ is when we genuinely need Him. That's when we will
trust Him. And the only way God gives genuine
faith like that is through the preaching of the gospel. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And anyone
who preaches the law, preaches your actions and your morality
and calls it gospel preaching is vain jangling. Because the
law can't give faith in Christ. The law can't give life. All
the law can do is kill. All the law can do is make you
look at yourself and depend upon yourself, unless we use it lawfully.
in which case we look to Christ. The law cannot give life and
cannot give faith, but the gospel does. See, all the law can do
is tell you you're guilty. The gospel says you're guilty,
now look to Christ. You're guilty, now come to Christ
for forgiveness. You're a sinner, come to Christ
for salvation. The law can only give a false
sense of security by giving you a self-righteousness. Or all
the law can do is give you fear, and terror. And that's all the
law will give you unless you, if you've got, unless you've
got a seared conscience. I mean, the only way somebody can look
at the law and feel good about themselves is if they've got
a seared conscience where God has finally given them up, is
given them over. But if by God's grace, by the
free gift of his grace, you believe the gospel, I'll tell you where
you'll end up. Here's the termination point
of it. Faith unfaithful, faith unfaithful. I wish I could. I don't even know the words to
say. I wish. I think about this. I told you everything's in my
notes. And I think back over it and
I shouldn't use that illustration. I shouldn't have said this. I
don't want you to remember anything that I said. Trust Christ. He's the righteousness of His
people. His blood puts away the sin of
His people. Now look to Him. Come to Him.
Love Him. Trust Him. Don't think of anything that
I said except this. It's Christ alone. It's Christ
alone. May the Lord bless you. Let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, Oh, how we thank
you for your gospel, the commandment that you've given us to believe
and to preach. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake, for his glory's sake, Father,
I beg of you that you bless your word as it's been preached. Cause
it to ring forth to the glory of Christ our Savior. And Father,
cause us here this morning to believe him, to believe the gospel
that we preached, and to believe, to rest in, to love our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, now bless us, I pray,
as we go back home, as we prepare to go back out into the world
to our jobs and responsibilities that we have. Father, bless your
word to our hearts and cause it to take root in our hearts. And let us take it out. in our
hearts, this gospel to the Lord Jesus Christ in our heart. Let
us take that out into the world, this dry, dead, discouraging
world. Let us take Christ, his gospel
in our hearts, that we might be encouraged and fed and strengthened
as we continue to trudge through this world below. Bring us back
again when it's time on Wednesday to be refreshed and refilled
and comforted and encouraged one more time. by the preaching
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his blessed name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.