From back to 1 Corinthians chapter
15, I'm basically going to use mostly
just the first verse. Paul said, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. And that's what I want to do
tonight. One more time, God has given
us. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, if tomorrow we can
be here. But we've got this hour, this
time together right now. And I have the opportunity. I said one time in front of Paul
Mahan, I said, I've got to preach next Sunday. This has been a
while ago. He said, you mean you get to
preach? I said, you're right. I get to preach. So I get to
preach one more time tonight. Opportunity to brag on Christ
one more time tonight. That is such an overwhelming
privilege. You know, in reading this portion
of Scripture, and you get down to Paul here, he says, I'm the
least, I am the least of the apostles. I'm not even fit to
be called an apostle because I persecuted the church over
and I actually persecuted the church and wasted it. And he's so overwhelmed, he just
says, the only answer that I can give to you for this change in
me is the grace of God. It's the grace of God. By the
grace of God, I am what I am. It's by His grace that I can
stand here and preach, and it's by His grace that you even want
to come here and listen. It's by His grace. That desire,
that desire is of God. It's a work of God in you. If
it's a real desire, it's a work of God in you. Let us never get
over the power of the gospel to save the chief
of sinners. If you ever look at someone,
you think, they don't. If we ever really, if we really,
really, really see ourselves, I honestly believe we really
see ourselves. And we see, I tell you this, we see more of that
as we grow older in Christ. You think you see it when you
first believe the gospel, you do see it. But as you grow older,
you see, I am what I am by the grace of God. And don't ever
get over the fact that the gospel can save anyone. Anyone. If God is pleased to
do it now. If God is pleased to say he can
save a Hitler, he can do it if he will. He can save the worst
of men. And I tell you this, it's by
His grace that we are not a Hitler. And everyone here who believes
the gospel, you know that. You know that you would be whatever, whatever, whatever,
everything, whatever we've seen out here in this world, you know
that you're capable of that. You know that. If one human being
can do it, another one can. Paul used to be called Saul,
and he was one of the greatest enemies the gospel had ever known. One of the greatest enemies.
He said he persecuted the church. He wanted to stamp it out. He
tried to stamp the gospel out, and he tried to stamp out those
who embraced the gospel. He hated, this man hated Jesus
Christ with a passion. I mean a passion. The gospel
that gave God all the glory, that takes salvation out of the
hands and will of sinners and placed it into the hands of our
Lord, Paul hated that. He hated that at one time. At
one time, he so despised that, if you just breathed the name
of Christ in his presence, he wanted to take your head off
and felt justified in doing it. Believed he was justified in
doing it. He believed he was doing God a service. Isn't that
amazing? But God. But God, who's rich in mercy,
crossed the apostle Paul's path. He crossed him on his road to
hell. Say, he's on a road to Damascus.
He was on a road to hell. That's where he was at. And God
saved him and made him a trophy of his grace. I don't know, and
I was trying to think about this today. I don't know of anyone
or any of the other apostles who gave up. And Paul, he would
say, I didn't give anything up. I count everything as lost. Don't
even compare that. But I'm telling you, he gave
everything up. for Christ's sake and for the
sake of God's elect. He was imprisoned, stoned. I
mean, he just forsook everything for Christ. He became a flaming,
I mean, a burning witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what happens. And Paul was the pinnacle of
that in salvation. But that's what happens when
God saves a sinner. That sinner becomes a witness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes a burning witness
of Christ, the property of Christ, a new creation in Christ. He becomes the believer's life.
For me to live is Christ. I like the rendering of that.
Christ is my living. Christ is my living. Now, first
of all, I want to declare the gospel to you tonight. I want to be, for the next few
minutes, I want to be a burning witness of Christ. I want to
do that. So the gospel that I declare
unto you this evening is concerning a real living person, not a system
of doctrine. The gospel is not without its
doctrine, we know that. Christ is not without his doctrine.
But the gospel is concerning a real living person. It's about
the one by whom all things were created and for whom all things
were created. It's about him. The gospel is
about him. It's concerning the Son of God.
Look over in Romans chapter one. This is how you know And this
is how you know that someone's preaching the gospel. Who's it
about? Who is it about? Paul says here in verse 1 of
Romans 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle separated unto the gospel of God 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. It concerns the Son
of God, and then it concerns the Son of Man. That's not confusing. That's not confusing. Listen,
I'm not talking about two different people either. At one time, we will stand and
we will preach His deity, that He's God manifested in the flesh.
We'll preach it, look over in Hebrews chapter one. We'll turn
over to Hebrews chapter one, and we'll preach his deity. God,
who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the prophets by the fathers, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. Everything that exists, He made
it, who being the brightness of His glory and the expressed
image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His
power. That's who we are preaching.
We're preaching Him as God, God over all, blessed forever. And
then we'll turn and preach Him as the man. We go to Gethsemane and we see
a man who's trembling and shaking, I mean, Literally shaking. He says, I seemingly fear and
quake. He says, if you don't do something
here, I'm going to die. We see a man bent over. We see
a man struggling. We get to listen in to his prayer. Father, if it's possible, let
this cup pass from me. We have God who upholds all things
by the word of His power and the same person bent down under
a load of sin and sweating great drops of blood. We preach Him as God and man,
yet at the same time we are talking, we are preaching the same person,
just one person. This is just one person, Jesus
Christ. We preach the Son is given, for
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, It
says over in Isaiah, unto us the Son is given, and we priests
the child is born. A virgin conceived and brought
forth a son. And I shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. The Son and the child are one. It's one and the same person.
One and the same person. Christ has been and always will
be the subject of the gospel, the subject of our preaching. Whether we preach Him as the
prophet that Moses said should come, or the priest, the high
priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
or the King who reigns over all. Who is this King of glory? We
know His name, Jesus Christ. He is the King of Glory. You
go over to Psalm 2. Go over there. I believe that's
where it is. No, it's Psalm 24. It says in verse 7, Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He's the King of glory. And who
is that? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He's the King of glory. We know
who he is. The primary subject of the gospel.
The primary purpose of the gospel is not getting sinners to accept
Jesus as their Savior, but it's that he might be lifted up. If
I be lifted up, I will draw all men nigh unto me. If I be lifted
up. Don't say two or three words
about him and then start begging everybody to do something. That's
not lifting him up. Lifting him up is lifting him
up in his person, his word. His character, his glory, that's
lifting him up. And God will draw sinners to
him. God will draw sinners to him. And then secondly, the gospel
I declare unto you is a gospel for sinners. I have a gospel for sinners.
I have good news. That's what I tell you. The gospel
is good news, glad tidings. I have good news for sinners.
If you're not a sinner, if you're not a bona fide John Newton,
John Bunyan, call them Jerusalem sinners. I have a gospel for you. I have
good news for you. Christ said, I did not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repent. The whole don't need
a physician. I didn't go to the doctor when
I was feeling well and say, well, you know, I might get sick. I went to him because I was sick. I didn't come to call the righteous
and the whole don't need a physician to sick to. Sinners need a Savior. It's sinners that need a Savior.
Christ, it says in Romans 5, 8, died for sinners. Christ did not die to save everybody,
but I'll tell you what he did die for. I'll tell you who he
did die for. Sinners. Does that fit? If it fits, where? Christ died for sinners. I'll
tell you what, that covers a self-righteous apostle Paul. It covers Zacchaeus. It covers
Mary Magdalene. I can fit right in there with that
group. Can you? I can sit down and have fellowship
with that group. Here's the charge that the Pharisees
brought against him. This man receiveth sinners. And he eats with them. I hope
that's what he's doing tonight. I hope that's going on here tonight.
Receiving sinners and fellowshipping with us. The gospel is suited for sinners. It's not suited for anybody else.
It's suited for the guilty. It's suited for the needy. It's
suited for the down and out. It meets all the sinner's needs. You need wisdom? I'm telling
you the truth, I was born as dumb as a box of rocks when it
comes to knowing anything of God. And you were too. We didn't
know God. We did not know God. Not until
He revealed Himself to us through the preaching of the Gospel did
we come to know Him. You need righteousness? I know
you do because you're just like me. I don't have any and you
don't have any. But he meets our need of righteousness.
He is the Lord our righteousness. Does it get any better than that?
No. No. You need sanctification,
cleansing, be made holy. I tell you what, if you're going
to be in God's presence, you need it. Without holiness, no man shall see the
Lord. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. I need someone to buy me back.
I sold myself under sin. You need cleansing? There's a
fountain open. Oh, there's a fountain open for
cleansing. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. But I'll tell you what. His blood
washes me whiter than snow." You need pardon? Justification? Rest? He says, come unto me all you
that labor. He's not talking about working out here in the
workplace. You ought to be laboring out there. You ought to be earning
your keep, what the man is paying you. He's talking about laboring
under a burden of sin and guilt. laboring under this matter of
guilt, he says, come to me. Don't you think he can, do you
believe he can do it? Do you believe he can give you
rest? Do you believe he can lift that burden? I know he can. He said he can.
And he has. He has for different ones. The woman, if the issue of blood
came, I read to you that last time I preached, whatever it
was. I think it was last Wednesday. She got what she was looking
for. He healed her. Blind Bartimaeus got what he
was looking for. He got his sight. Zacchaeus got
what he wasn't looking for. The Lord went to his house and
saved him. This day of salvation comes to
your house. He fed the hungry. He raised the dead. As many as
needed healing, he healed. Jesus Christ, turn back to 1
Corinthians here, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4. Paul said, I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Jesus Christ lived
for sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief. He lived for sinners. He died
for sinners. He rose again from the grave
for sinners. He ascended on high. He took
possession of heaven for sinners. Not a bunch of good people. He
said there's not any. He did not die for one good man
or one good woman. He said to that young man, what
do you call me good for? There's none good but God. Your
standard of good is warped. None good but God. Everything he did, he did for
sinners. There was a song, I don't know
if I've got the lyrics right, but there was a song I heard some
time ago that said, everything I do, I do for you. Am I getting close? I remembered
that tune today when I was going over this. I remembered that
tune, everything I do, I do for you. I wish. But he did. He did. Everything he did. Everything he's doing. It's for sinners. It's for sinners. The crown of thorns was for sinners. The cross, it was for sinners. Being made sin was for sinners. Here's the title of the message,
A Sinner's Gospel. We have a sinner's gospel. And if you're not a sinner, I
don't have a gospel for you. And then thirdly, the gospel
I declare unto you is a finished gospel. Would it be good news
if it were not finished? No. If I had to walk from here
to the back of the door or to the back of this room to the
doors back there and open them in order to finish salvation,
we'd all die and go to hell tonight. Because I would mess it up before
I got there. I'd probably stop and talk to somebody and I'd
forget what I was doing, like coal does. I'd mess it up. Something that
simple, I'd mess it up. It's finished. It's not do but
believe. It's not come to the front. It's
look and live. It's look and live. Redemption
price has been paid. The ransom has been found and
has been paid. In the Old Testament, the high
priest could not sit down. And you know why. His work was
never done. His work was never finished.
But Christ, over in Hebrews it says this, but Christ, after
having offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at
the right hand of God. forever expecting his enemies
to become his footstool. Don't go to Sinai, go to Calvary. That's where sinners are saved. You go to Sinai, that's where
they're crushed, where they're burned. If anything
touched that mountain, it would be killed. If an animal so much
as touched it, it was to be killed. But you can go to Calvary. You can go to Calvary. And right there, be accepted.
Right there, be made whole. Right there, find in Him all
you need. It's a sinner's gospel. And then, the gospel I declare
unto you is the only one God gave. I don't have a buffet of Gospels
up here. Even though they did over in Galatians, that's what
their problem was. There's only one. God is dogmatic. I assure you, he's not this way,
that way, you know, caught in a strait betwixt two. Which way
shall I go? Which way will I go? That's us. That's not God. He gave one Gospel. That's all he gave was one. He
gave one gospel concerning one person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the way, the truth and the life. And no man comes to
the Father except by him. No other way. There's only one gospel. It is the only one that glorifies
God. The gospel that I read to you
right here, Paul said, I delivered unto you first of all that which
also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again
in the third day according to the Scriptures, and he was seen
of Cephas and the Twelve. That's the only gospel that glorifies
God. A substitute. God's Son who came into this
world. The word was made flesh, lived out a life of righteousness,
died a death that we deserved, ascended back on high. He glorified,
listen, he honored the law, he magnified the law, the scripture
says, and made it honorable. He did that. Nobody else did
that. No one else has ever done that. He did that. And he did
that by himself. By himself, it says over in Hebrews
1, by himself he purged us from our sins. He did that. He satisfied
God's law. Our Lord, by his life, by his
death, his resurrection, his ascension, his seat at God's
right hand, his intercessory work, glorifies every attribute
of God. God can be God. It's the only
gospel where God can be a just God and a Savior. It's the only one. There is no
other. There is no other. And it's the
only gospel that's according to the Scriptures. Paul said
he did this according to the Scriptures. And I deliver to
you the Christ died for our sins according to the Old Testament
Scriptures. Our Lord's life, His person,
His life, His work, His death, it all answered the Old Testament. It answered all the types and
the pictures in the Old Testament. And then last of all here, it's
the only gospel, I heard this from Henry years ago and I've
never forgot it. I've got those little nuggets that come up when
I'm studying that I remember. It's the only gospel that saves
a sinner and keeps him saved. Because none of it depends on
me and you. It all depends on Him. It's all on Him.