Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 16. I titled the message this morning,
The Believer's Gospel. In our text, Paul calls the gospel,
my gospel. Now we know there's only one
gospel. There's not a gospel of Peter and Paul and Apollos.
There's not a gospel of Luther or Spurgeon or Mahan. They're
just one gospel. And in the first verse of this
letter we began studying some months ago, Paul called the gospel
the gospel of God. Here he calls it my gospel. Well,
there's just one gospel that tells us who God is, that tells
us how God saves sinners. And God can only be worshipped
through the preaching of one gospel. So why does Paul call
the gospel my gospel? Well, it's because the gospel,
it is the gospel that God used to say Paul. It was the gospel
that God gave Paul to believe. And it was the gospel that he
gave Paul to preach. So now there's just one gospel. So every believer can say what
the apostle Paul says here. This is my gospel. This is Dan's
gospel. As much as it's Paul's, it's
your gospel. Well, how can I tell if my gospel is God's gospel? We've all got a gospel now. We've
all got a way of salvation. How can I tell if my gospel is
God's gospel? Our text gives us a few characteristics
of the believer's gospel. This is the gospel every believer
believes. Number one, the believer's gospel
is the gospel of grace. Verse 24, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now Paul repeats himself
just a few verses up at the end of verse 20. He says, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now the apostle
is not wasting words here. God's grace is so glorious. You
just got to repeat it. God's grace, His saving grace
is so important. It must be stressed by constantly
repeating it. We need a constant supply of
grace, don't we? See, when the gospel is preached,
Grace must be constantly repeated. The only way sinners are going
to be saved is by grace. By grace. Because they're dead. They can't do anything to earn
it, to deserve it. Nobody can be saved by works.
Paul wrote a whole letter to the church at Rome for that point.
Salvation is not by works. It's by grace. Righteousness
does not come by our obedience. Through our works, it comes through
faith in Christ. Sinners are saved by grace. I
just love to talk about grace, don't you? God's electing grace. His provenient grace. Grace that
goes before grace. Grace that was happening to you
before you ever knew anything about it. God bringing you to come
hear the gospel. Provenient grace. God keeping
you alive. God blessing you. God keeping
you until He revealed His Son to you and in you. Provenient
grace. His saving grace. His life-giving grace. His calling
grace that calls you to Christ. His keeping grace that keeps
you looking to Christ and trusting Christ, keeps you established
on Christ. His sufficient grace, sufficient for every day, sufficient
for every trouble. One day we'll experience His
glorifying grace, won't we? This book is full of grace for
sinners. was saved from drowning in the
flood by grace, because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Abraham was saved by grace. Abraham didn't deserve that.
You know, we think of Abraham as the father of the faithful.
Now, wait a minute. Where was Abraham God founding? He had
bound down worshiping a stone idol. Abraham was saved by grace. Lot was saved by grace, and Lot
was kept by grace. The only explanation for righteous
lot in the New Testament, righteous lot, is just soul. The only explanation
for that is God's grace. The Apostle Paul said he's a
pattern of God's grace, saving grace when God saved the chief
of sinners. By grace are you saved, through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. God forgives the sin of his people.
We don't deserve that, but he gives it freely. Eternal life
is a free gift of God's grace. Something we can't deserve or
earn. Righteousness. Righteousness is a gift of God's
grace. It doesn't come to us by our
obedience, by something that we can earn. It's God's gift. Peace with God. Oh, what rest
for the soul in peace with God. That's a gift of God's grace,
something we could never earn. All we could earn from God is
his wrath, but God gives that to his people freely. That's
what we do not deserve. And it comes through, through
the Lord Jesus Christ, by Christ. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. But this is also true. God's
grace to his people is giving his elect exactly what they deserve. Exactly. because God gives them
what Christ earned for them. That's grace. Forgiveness. A gift of God's grace is forgiveness.
How does it come? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through the sacrifice of Christ. The Father punished His Son in
justice so He can forgive the sin of His people in justice.
Righteousness is through the Lord Jesus Christ. God's elect
are made righteous because Christ took their sin away from them.
His sacrifice blotted their sin out. Eternal life is through
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's elect have eternal life
because Christ already died for them. They can never die. Peace
with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ who made peace for
His people by the blood of His cross. And thank God this grace
is sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. Verse 25, Paul
says, now unto him that is of the power to establish you according
to my gospel. This is according to God's sovereign
power. And verse 26 says it is now made
manifest and by the scriptures of the holy prophets according
to the commandment, the commandment of the everlasting God. This
gospel is the power of God unto salvation that declares God's
sovereign grace, giving it to whom he will. Now grace, the
grace that comes from God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, has got
to be sovereign grace. There can't be any other kind
of grace. Because God's sovereign. And
He gives this to whomsoever He will. Whoever He will. Now that's
good news for a sinner. Sinners will only beg for sovereign
mercy. We won't beg for something we
earn. Ever. I remember I worked at the warehouse
and the HR lady would come around every Friday and hand out paychecks.
And she came to the door of my office. I never one time begged
her to give me that envelope. Never. I've earned it. I'm not going to beg for something
I'd earn. But sovereign grace. Grace that God gives freely to
sinners who do not deserve it. Oh, I'll beg for that because
I need it. My soul depends upon it. My life
depends upon it. Sovereign grace for sinners is
such good news. You don't have to earn it. You
can't earn it. God gives it freely. No one will
ever be saved apart from sovereign grace. If it's grace you got
to earn, it's not grace, is it? That's merit. Sovereign grace
is grace for sinners who are ruined in sin, who can't do anything
else but receive God's sovereign grace. It's our only hope. Thank
God he's given us a gospel of grace, grace. And if you're saved
by grace, this gospel is you can call this my gospel, my gospel. Aren't you glad God's given us
a gospel of grace? You all go through a work week.
That's tough business, going through a work week. Aren't you
glad that you've got a place to come on Sundays and Wednesday
nights and not be told more how you've got to work, but to hear
a message of grace? I'm thankful I've got a message
of grace to preach. I'd hate to waste my time trying
to get people to flesh to do something. But what a joy to
be able to tell sinners of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That's
the only way we can be saved. If your gospel is the gospel
of grace, this is your gospel. God's gospel is your gospel.
Alright, number two, the believer's gospel is the preaching, the
declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 25. Now to him
that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ. Now the gospel. is the declaration
of Jesus Christ. The gospel in no way is about
you and me. In no way is it. The gospel is
not how can I get to heaven. The gospel is not how can I be
forgiven. The gospel is not how can God
give me these different gifts. The gospel is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look back at Romans 1. It's all
about Christ. It's concerning him. Romans 1 verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. Now
here's the gospel of God. Is this our gospel? The gospel
which he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the
son of God with power. according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received
grace and apostleship for obedience to faith among all nations for
his name, among whom also are you also called of Jesus Christ. See, this is all concerning Christ. The gospel declares who Christ
is. The gospel declares what Christ
has done, why Christ did it and where Christ is now. Now, we
don't just preach doctrine. We're determined to preach Christ
and Him crucified. Because you can preach correct
doctrine and not preach Christ. Did you know that? You can preach
correct doctrine. You can not say anything wrong
and not preach Christ. Let me give you a couple of examples.
We could preach righteousness. We could preach the doctrine
of imputed righteousness. We could give the right definition
of those things. How Christ's righteousness is
imputed to the account of God's elect without them doing anything
to deserve it, without them contributing to it. And we didn't say anything
wrong, but that wouldn't be the gospel. Because we're declaring
a legal thing. We're talking about righteousness
as a legal thing, not as a living person. But if we preach Christ
our righteousness, We preach Jehovah Sekinu. The doctrine
of imputed righteousness will be preached correctly because
we're preaching Christ who is our righteousness. It's Christ
who obeyed the law for his people. As the representative of his
people, God's elect were in Christ. So they did what Christ did.
Now that's a whole lot more than a legal transaction in it. Now
that's declaring righteousness is a person. Declaring Christ
our righteousness. And it ought to be obvious to
me, I need Him. I need Him to be my righteousness.
We could preach the doctrine of justification and give the
right definitions of justification, being made without sin. But all
that would just be a theory to us that we just could never comprehend. We think, well, that's for somebody
like Dr. Gill or somebody. I don't understand that, so I
must not be smart enough to be saved. If we think that something's
wrong with preaching, something's wrong somewhere. But if we preach Christ the justifier,
if we preach Christ who is both just and justifier, God's people
will rejoice. Because I'll hear that in Him,
I'm made without any sin. What peace, what joy I have if
Christ is my justifier. There's a big difference there.
Then we could preach the doctrine of salvation. And we could give
correct definitions of salvation and being saved. But if we're
just preaching the doctrine of salvation, it will always degenerate. Is that a word? Degenerate into
just going to heaven. I mean, that's all it'll be.
And nobody's going to be blessed by that kind of preaching because
salvation is not a thing. Salvation is a person, a person. The best way I can illustrate
that is this. You are married. Marriage is
not a thing, is it? To you, what is marriage? To
me, I'll tell you what marriage is. Marriage to me is a person.
She's sitting right there. Well, that makes all the difference
in the world. I'm trying to read a book on how to go through my life
and be married to her, doesn't it? If I love her, I understand
marriage. God just give the preacher the
backbone to stand up and preach Christ the Savior, preach Christ
who is our salvation. God's elect will be saved and
they'll be blessed because you know what they'll do? They'll
run to Christ because I'm in love with him, because I need
him. God help us to preach Christ. And if we'll preach Christ, the
hearts of God's people will be comforted. They'll be comforted.
You know why? Because they'll see Christ. They'll
see the Savior. See, the matter of salvation,
how it was accomplished and what all that means will all be obvious
to us if we just preach Christ. Would you be saved? Would anybody
here, do you desire to be saved? Well, salvation is knowing and
believing and loving a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is knowing Jesus Christ who God has sent. Whoever seeth the Son
will be saved. Now, it's not whoever sees this
poor little Jesus that men make up that, you know, is begging
you to do something. No, whoever seeth the Lord Jesus
Christ. Whoever sees the Lord Jehovah
Whoever sees God, my Savior, manifest in human flesh, come
in the flesh. Come as the Messiah. We'll be
saved. Whoever seeeth the Son. And if
we preach Christ, we'll preach the gospel in a way that gives
God all the glory. Verse 27, back in our text. To
God, only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. And here we've seen Paul call
the gospel, my gospel. He's called the gospel, the gospel
of God. Scripture also calls the gospel,
the gospel of Christ. Now, why is it say the gospel
of God and the gospel of Christ? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. He's not a special man. He is
God manifest in human flesh. He became flesh. Almighty God
became flesh for this reason. So he could identify with the
people who are flesh. So he could be bone of their
bone and flesh of their flesh and be their representative.
He humbled himself. How he humbled himself to come way down low. How low
did he go? as far as he can go, as I will,
to become one with his bride. How he humbled himself. And he
came to do for her what she could never do for herself. And he
accomplished it. He did it. He saved her from
her sins. He made her beautiful in his
beauty which he put upon her. Now brethren, who gets the glory
in that? Well, I do because I decided
to let him do it for me. He gets all the glory for doing
something so wonderful for somebody as wretched as me. He gets all
the glory for doing something so wonderful. We really can't
fully comprehend it, can we? But by God's grace, we can believe
it. When we preach Christ, we preach
the glory of his person. The Lord Jesus lived a perfect
life on this earth as a man. Now that's glorious. Nobody else
ever did it. He did what nobody else could
ever do. He honored and he magnified God's
law. But here's the real glory of
that life of perfect obedience. What the Lord Jesus did, how
he obeyed the law, lived a perfect life. He didn't do that for himself.
He was already holy, wasn't he? He didn't have to do that to
make himself holy. He came in the flesh and obeyed
the law for His people as their representative so that His perfect
obedience is the obedience of His people. And they're all perfect
and they're complete in Him. In Him. Now that's glorious. And then this perfect man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, willingly died for His people. He died
because the holy son of God was made sin for his people. He was
made guilty for his people. That's the only way he could
die. The holy God couldn't put an innocent man to death. No,
he put him to death. The father put the son to death
because he was made guilty. Now, what glory that the son
of God would take the sin of his people away from them and
make it his. And I'll tell you what makes
it more glorious. You put your name in here. What glory that
the Son of God would take the sin of Frank Tate, make it His,
and die for the likes of Frank Tate. That's glorious. That He'd suffer
and die as a sacrifice to put the sin of His people away. That
He'd suffer everything that they deserve so that they could live. He would die that his people
would have eternal life and never die. Now, again, that's something
so glorious. We can't comprehend that. You
don't have to be able to comprehend everything that happened there,
that great transaction at the cross for it to be glorious.
It was just glorious because he did it. And that's our hope
of salvation. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
who died to satisfy God's justice, didn't stay dead. He rose from
the grave. By His own power, He rose from
the grave. Now, what a miracle! How glorious
is that? And the glory of Christ's resurrection
is not some party trick. You know, you're supposed to
just impress people. Now, He rose from the dead as the proof.
His obedience, His obedience unto death justified His people,
removed all the sin that was laid upon Him, so all of His
people have eternal life. Now that's what Christ did for
His people. That's who He is and what He did for His people.
All that glory belongs to Christ, doesn't it? Because it all hangs
upon Him. Now if that's the gospel that
you love, if that's the gospel of your salvation, the gospel
that declares the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's gospel
is your gospel. Alright, thirdly, the believer's
gospel is a gospel that must be revealed by God. Verse 25
says, in the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation
of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.
Now the gospel is a mystery. We can't know whodunit. That's
what a mystery, a mystery is a whodunit. You can't know whodunit
until God reveals the answer to you. Now I know the basics. If I can say it that way, the
basics of the gospel, that can be understood by the natural
mind. I mean, people reject it because they understand what
you're saying. I mean, it can be understood. The gospel is
not complicated. It really isn't. It's the simplicity
of Christ. The natural mind can understand
that. You know, the idea of substitution and satisfaction, that's easily
understood. The gospel is easy to understand.
Because it's just got one subject. It's just Christ. But the gospel
can never be understood. It can't be loved or believed
by the very best, bright, brilliant, natural minds. The Greeks who
want wisdom, they stumble over the gospel because it's too simple. They say there's got to be more
to it than that. You know, they want wisdom and they can't comprehend
how God could become a man if they don't believe it. They want
wisdom. They've got to understand everything. They can't understand
how Christ was made sin, so they reject it. Paul told them about
the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and they scoffed at
that. They said, that's not possible. So they stumbled over it. It's
just too simple. There's got to be more than Christ. Well, the only way you can see
that and believe it and love it is if God reveals it to you. The Jews, the religious people,
They stumble over the gospel because it's too singular. It's
too singular. It's all focused on Christ, not
on men. They want their works. The gospel doesn't declare that,
does it? The gospel says those are rubbish. Those have got to
be thrown away. They don't want Christ alone. They want Christ
plus something else and they cannot believe it. They cannot
love it. The only way we can is if God reveals it to us. When
did Paul say he was saved? when it pleased God, their sovereign
grace, when it pleased God to reveal. He revealed the mystery.
He revealed his son to me and in me. That's salvation. Now,
the gospel. God hadn't hidden the gospel
because he's mean. He's trying to hide it from us.
No, we can't see it. It's hidden from us because we're
blind. The problem is always us. We have the scriptures. The problem is we're blind. So
we can't see Christ in Look over to 2 Corinthians 4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We cannot
quit. But we've renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the
word of God deceitfully, We're not trying to twist the Word
of God to get you to do something, but by manifestation of the truth,
committing ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Now, how can we ever break through that blindness? How can we ever
break through the power of the God of this world who blinded
the minds of people. How can we ever break through
that so people can see Christ? It's real simple. Just preach
Christ. Read on verse five. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our heart to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. That's how we see the glory of
God. God must reveal it to us, and He always does it through
the preaching of the Word. And I'll give you a good example.
The eunuch must have been a brilliant man. I mean, he wouldn't have
been put over in all that position of power if he wasn't a brilliant
man. And he'd gone down there to the ceremonies and seen all
the ceremonies, and he bought him a scroll as he left. Going
back home in his chair, he's reading that scroll. He knew
he hadn't found what he'd come looking for. He's looking. He's
looking. He's searching. And he's reading
that scroll. And he unrolls it to the place
of Isaiah 53. Now, he's reading that. Now,
he can understand the words. He knows that's talking about
somebody. But he doesn't know who. He doesn't
know who. It's not a blessing to him. And
Philip shows up. Philip heard him reading. He
said, you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I?
He said, some man should guide me. And you know when he understood
who that was talking about? You know when God saved him?
When Philip began at that same scripture and preached unto him,
Jesus. He said, I see. Here's water. What's to hinder
me to be baptized? I want to confess Him. All that
happened through the preaching of Christ. The Jews to this day
are blinded. because they cannot see Christ
in the Old Testament Scriptures. All they see is law and ceremony.
The same way Reformed people just see doctrine and rules.
But if God is ever pleased to reach down and rent that veil
of unbelief, He just rent it in two from top to bottom, just
like He did in the temple when Christ gave up the ghost. Suddenly,
I see. And that veil was ripped in two.
People had never seen the Ark of the Covenant and saw it. There's
the place where God dwelt. That's the place where the blood
was offered. They'd never seen it before. Now they saw it. If God's ever pleased to rip
that veil in two from top to bottom, you're going to see Christ. He's the sacrifice. He's the
place where God dwelt with men. He's the place where the blood
is applied. He's been there all along. I just didn't see Him
until God ripped the veil in two and revealed Him to me. And
now, brethren, We believe that through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. The exact same
is by revelation. And if the gospel that you believe
is just this easy believism that anybody can understand and decide
to accept, if that's your gospel, that's not God's gospel. But
if your gospel is so grand and so glorious, declaring the eternal
God, and you can only understand it, you only believe it and love
it by revelation, And your gospel is the gospel of God. All right,
fourthly, the believer's gospel is a gospel that's believed by
faith, received in the new birth. Verse 26 in our text. But now
as may manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith, the obedience of faith. No obedience. The gospel is not a suggestion.
The gospel is not a good idea. The gospel is not, you know,
give you some good ideas and some good precepts to live by. The gospel is not something we
can decide to accept or reject. The gospel, Paul calls it a commandment. It's a commandment to believe
on Christ. It's a commandment to come to
Christ. A commandment is to be obeyed. That's the obedience that Paul's
talking about here. What is it to obey the gospel?
Well, it's to believe it. It's to quit trying to make God
happy by all the things that you do, by all your religious
things that you do, and just rest in Christ. Because that's
what God commanded. Saving faith believes Christ
is all it takes to save me. So I rest in Him. I just quit
trying. and just rest in Christ. The commandment of the gospel
is to come to Christ and believe Him. Now you come. Right now,
where you sit without moving a muscle, you come to Christ.
Do you reckon for a moment He'll reject you for obeying His commandment?
No. Come to Him. Now I know the flesh
cannot believe the gospel. And it will not believe the gospel.
It cannot believe because it will not believe. Both are true.
So what do we need? We need God to give us a new
nature that will obey, that will believe. God, the Holy Spirit,
sovereignly moves when and where he will. The wind bloweth where
it lifteth. And he gives life and faith to his people in the
new birth. Now, what is the work of the Spirit? I know what it
is. Our Lord told us what it is.
It's to take the things of mine, he said, and show it to you. And the Holy Spirit comes and
shows us Christ, shows us his person, shows us his righteousness,
his beauty, shows us his sufficient sacrifice. And the new man receives
that and believes it and rejoices in it. Now, if you rejoice in
this gospel, you'd be thankful. The only way you can rejoice
in it, the only way you can believe in it, God caused you to be born
again. If that's true for you, your
gospel is God's gospel. Then fifthly, the believer's
gospel is the message of all of the scriptures. Like I told
you at the beginning of this message, there's only one gospel.
It's just the gospel of Christ. One good way to tell if the gospel
that you hear is the gospel. Now, there are many other gospels.
How can I tell if the gospel that I hear, that I preach, that
I believe is the gospel? Well, does it agree with all
the Old Testament scriptures? Old Testament and New Testament.
Paul says in here verse 26, now this gospel is made manifest
and by the scriptures of the prophets, by all the Old Testament
prophets. Now there are people who call
themselves dispensationalists. And that's just a great big impressive
sounding word that covers up heresies, that's all it is. Dispensationalists
believe this, that God has saved sinners in different ways. time
in different buckets and God saved people in different ways
in each of those different buckets. Before Moses, they say God saved
people by morality. After Moses came and gave the
law, they say God saved people by the law. Now, after Christ
has come, they say God saves people by grace, through faith
in Christ. But nothing could be more wrong.
God cannot change. God doesn't have plans A, B,
and C. God has always saved sinners through faith in Christ. Abraham
saw my day, the Lord said, and was glad. The gospel declares
Christ pictured in all the Old Testament scriptures. That seed
of woman is Christ. The ark that Noah hid in is Christ.
The law, it's all pointed to Christ, the one who come and
fulfill it. The tabernacle pictures Christ. That rock which followed
Israel in the wilderness and gave them water, That rock was
Christ, wasn't it? That rock was Christ. Paul said
that. God's purpose of redemption is eternal. Now that was hidden
for a time in the shadows and types and pictures of the Old
Testament. And people believed it. God gave them faith to believe
it. God liked to live now. If I could choose, I would live
now. We live in the best time of human
history because now after Christ has come, we see the gospel more
clearly than it ever was before because Christ has fulfilled
it all. It's revealed us clearly. The way of salvation is crystal
clear. It's like those priests that
would go through and make sure all the road to the city of refuge
was clear, that all the signposts could easily be seen. That's
our day. Christ has removed all the obstructions.
The signposts are clear. Here's Christ. Go to him. Now
go to him. If your gospel agrees with all
of the scriptures, not just part, but all of them, and all of them
you see pointing to Christ, your gospel is the gospel of God.
And then lastly, the believer's gospel is an eternal gospel. Paul says there in verse 26,
It's according to the commandment of the everlasting God. God's
purpose of grace has always been in Christ. He can't change. And
His purpose of grace is what we call the covenant of grace.
Now covenant is God's promise. So the covenant of grace is God's
promise to save sinners by grace in His Son. Throughout Scripture,
how many times do you read God calling Himself the God of Jacob?
You know why He does that? Because that name, the God of
Jacob, shows us that God is a covenant God. Jacob was saved by covenant
grace, wasn't he? The only way somebody like Jacob
could be saved is if God promised to save him before he's ever
born. And the same thing is true of you and me. The only way we
could ever be saved is if God promised to save us by his grace before
time began. And the preaching of the gospel
is God's way of carrying out his eternal purpose of redemption.
It's pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, by the preaching
of Christ, by the preaching of his sovereign grace to save them
that believe. God's gospel saves his elect
and God's gospel affects the believers walk too. This is not
just something that affects us on Sunday and Wednesday. It affects
our walk. It affects our attitudes and
our conduct and the way we look at things. The means that God
uses to affect the walk of His people, to establish them, to
fix them upon Christ, so that they never leave Him, is the
preaching of the gospel. Paul says, verse 25, that God
is able, He's got the power to establish you according to my
gospel, through the preaching of the gospel. And when our hearts
are established upon Christ, the storms of doubt and storms
of unbelief that come from within us and they remove us away from
Christ. If our hearts are established
and fixed upon Christ, how I want you to know Christ. I want you to be established
on Him. That happens. If God does that by His grace,
the strength of your flesh and the great storms and trials of
this life never move you from Christ, but they'll drive you
to Him. Now, the storms are coming. The
storms are going to rage. But if we're fixed on Christ,
we'll be like those giant redwoods. I got a bucket list. One day,
Jay and I are going to drive across the country. We're going
to stop and see them. One of the things I want to see is those redwoods.
They've been there since Fort George Washington was present.
You think of the storms they've seen, the things that they've
seen. That's the believer. Mark the
perfect man, watching, marking. If God's planted him firm, he's
going to be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He will
not be moved. Still going to be there standing,
standing firm on Christ our rock. The gospel, look at 2 Thessalonians
2, the gospel also establishes God's people in every good word
and work. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the and belief for the truth. That's just the exact same description
of the believer's gospel we read over Romans, isn't it? Weren't
we called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ? Therefore, brethren, stand fast,
be established, hold the traditions which you've been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which has loved us and given us an
everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace Comfort your
hearts and establish you in every good word and work. That's how
we're established in every good word and every good work is through
the preaching of this gospel. God's able to do it. Look back
at first Thessalonians chapter three. They see this establishing
is done through the preaching of the gospel. First Thessalonians
three verse one. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone and sent
Timotheus." They couldn't forbear, they couldn't bear it anymore.
They had to know how the church there at Thessalonica was, how
the people were doing. So they sent Timothy, our brother
and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ.
What did they send him to do? To establish you and to comfort
you concerning your faith. They sent him to preach the gospel,
to establish The writer to the Hebrews said, it's a good thing.
Let your heart be established. How is your heart going to be
established? By grace, with grace. And the only way that can be
done is through the preaching of grace. Now, would you have
your heart be established with grace? Would you have your heart
fixed upon Christ? I tell you what you ought to
do. Be under the preaching of Christ. Be under the preaching
of His grace. as much as is possible, our hearts
will be established on Christ. The more and more and more we
hear about Christ. And if your gospel forces you
to rely less and less and less upon your flesh, so you rely
none upon it, and it forces you to rely more and more and more
upon Christ, then your gospel is the gospel of God. I pray
that it is. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for the gospel of God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
Father, I pray you'd cause your gospel to run well this morning,
to run well and bring glory to the name of Christ our Savior.
Father, cause your gospel to run well, to reach the hearts
of your people, to give life, to give faith in Christ, to comfort
the hearts of your people by causing us to see Christ our
Savior. Establish our hearts. Establish
us in every good word, in every good work through the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him be all and in all to
us. Father, let us see. Let us believe. Let us really believe that Christ
is all. He's all that matters. He's all
that's important. Our desires, our will, our flesh,
our agendas matter nothing. But Christ is all in all. Father, give us faith to believe
in love and trust in him. For it's in his precious name,
the glory of his majestic name, we pray and give thanks.