What a blessed, blessed morning.
I always am thankful for the privilege of
observing other believers confess Christ in baptism. Gentlemen,
I moved something forward for me. The chair is, I'm even going
to have to sit down and move this. That's much better. Thank you
very much. Thank you. Yes. You just had the privilege. and
we had the privilege of observing you, confess Christ in baptism. And afresh, I lift my hands to
God, and I can't go back. We've risen
with Him to walk with Him in the newness of life. As we have
been redeemed by His blood, who devoted His life to us, may He
give us grace to devote our lives to Him in the totality of our
lives in all things. And I pray He'll give you that
grace. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
1 Corinthians chapter 15. Are you a believer or an unbeliever? Are you saved or are you lost? Do you worship God or are you
one of those multitudes of people whom the apostle describes as
will-worship idolaters? Do you believe the gospel or
do you believe another gospel which is not another? Is the
Lord Jesus Christ your refuge, the refuge of your soul? Or have
you made a covenant with death, taking a refuge of lies for your
refuge? Those are questions I do not
have the ability to answer for you, and I don't desire to answer
for you. But they are questions, if you
will give me your attention for a few minutes, that you will
be forced to answer for yourself. And you will know the answer
from the book of God. If God the Holy Ghost is pleased
to speak by his word to your heart and destroy your refuge
of lies, this day will be for you a day of great grace and
of joy. If you're taking notes, and I
do encourage you to take notes, If you're taking notes, the title
of my message is, What is the Gospel? What is the Gospel? I make it my business as a preacher
never to preach any message that I would not be delighted to have
preached if I knew it were my last message. I don't stand in this place and
deal with trivialities and questions that mean nothing. I don't dare
do it. At home, I preach at least three
times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Tuesday night.
And it doesn't matter whether I'm preaching to a dozen people
on Tuesday night or to the full congregation on Sunday morning,
I don't dare, I don't dare speak to eternity-bound men and women
about things that don't matter. This matters. What is the gospel? I want to answer the question
for you with clarity from the word of God and answer it with
simplicity. That means I want to answer it
in such a way that you can't possibly misunderstand what I
say. I want to answer it with such
simplicity that everyone here, if you just listen, you will
understand exactly what I say. And yet, I want to answer the
question with confidence, and I hope you can. This is a question
about which I fear maybe some of you, certainly the most people
who attend church this day around the world, are in utter confusion. Many people are not able to answer
the question because there are very few preachers who know the
answer. Whether you believe the gospel
or not, I promise you, if you will listen to me in the next
few minutes, you're going to discover what is the gospel. Now, please understand at the
outset, I'm not asking what you think the gospel is. I don't
give a flip what you think the gospel is. I'm not asking you
what is the Baptist, Protestant, or Calvinist gospel. I'm not
asking you what's this denomination of this church's gospel. Really,
that's utterly irrelevant. What you or I think, what the
creeds historically have said, what churches say and say they
believe is really insignificant. It is utterly irrelevant what
Baptists, Protestants, Calvinists, Arminians, or Papists have to
say the gospel is. I mean utterly irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. How does
the Word of God define the gospel? What does God say the gospel
is? Does He anywhere specifically
and clearly define the gospel? Indeed He does. This book is
not a book of ambiguities. It's not a book of confusion.
It is written as the revelation of God. And He clearly defines
the gospel of His grace in many places in this book. We're going
to begin in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But in Romans, the first
chapter, the Apostle Paul tells us that the gospel concerns God's
son as he was spoken of by the prophets, promised by the prophets,
and that one who was of the seed of David, according to the flesh,
who was raised from the dead by the power of God. So the gospel
is all about Christ. In Romans chapter 3, the apostle
tells us that the gospel is the declaration, the revelation of
the righteousness of God. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. Did you hear that? The gospel
is the revelation of the righteousness of God. It shows us how that
God may be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly. In Galatians
chapter 1, the Apostle Paul declares that the gospel is that gospel
that's revealed in his people. in the people of God. It pleased
God to reveal his son in me. And he tells us this gospel is
connected with Christ coming to give himself a ransom for
his people. And he tells us that this gospel
is totally contrary to all forms of works religion. He's telling
us that there is another gospel Another gospel that has been
in the world since the days of Cain. Another gospel the world
has always embraced. Another gospel popular with everybody
everywhere except in the church of God. That's called another
gospel which is not another. It is not even similar. It's not another. It's not even
close. Not even close. I don't know
which way the nearest church building is. Wherever it is,
go down there and hear what's said. And what's preached is
not even similar to Christianity. You didn't hear that, did you?
It is not even similar to Christianity as it's described in this book.
And I'm here to tell you, if I were you, I would never give
an ear to, I would never again attend, I would never again give
any respect to any form of religion that does not plainly declare
the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ as I'm about
to declare it to you. All right, let's look at 1 Corinthians
15 verse 1. Don't miss a word. Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. It's got a definite
article in front of it. Which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. by which also ye are
saved. The gospel, you've received this
gospel, you stand in this gospel, by this gospel you're saved.
If you keep in memory, if you keep in memory, if you hold fast, if you hold fast what I preached
unto you, unless you believed in vain, If you depart from this
gospel, your faith was just a pretense, empty, meaningless nonsense.
For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. Now here God the Holy Ghost tells
us that there is but one gospel that all truly God-ordained,
God-called, God-sent preachers preach this gospel. All of them
do. All of them do. And that all
true believers have received and stand in this gospel. All
of them do. Folks who do not receive this
gospel, do not stand in this gospel, are not God's children.
And this passage declares to us that the gospel, this gospel
here spoken of, is the means by which God saves His elect.
Now let me make seven statements. I urge you to jot these down
somewhere. Jot them down in the back of
your Bible, on a piece of paper somewhere. I want you to remember
them. I want you to make these seven statements by which the
gospel is clearly defined in scripture. Number one, it should
be clearly understood that the gospel is an exclusive message. The gospel is an exclusive message. Paul did not say to the Corinthians,
I declare to you a gospel. as if there were many, or even
many interpretations of the gospel. Paul said, I declare unto you
the gospel. In fact, if you read through
the New Testament one more time, and carefully mark the use of
this word gospel, you will find that the only time it is used
without either a definite article, a noun, or a personal pronoun,
the only time it's used in a relative way is when it speaks of a false
gospel. He is not saying, I'm talking
to you about a gospel, the gospel that I preach, as opposed to
what Peter preached, as opposed to what Moses preached. He said,
I declare to you the gospel. It is an exclusive message. There
is only one gospel. I know that's tough for this
generation to bear. We like to think that in our
society, I don't know if it's reached over here or not. It
probably has. Y'all may have seen something about the hearings
with regard to seating one of our Supreme Court Justices. And
they talked about this gal who accused him of abusing her. And
they said, well, that's her truth. This is his truth. That's kind
of tough. When you got two different completely
opposite completely contradictory things. You can't say this is
truth and that's truth. This is her truth. This is his
truth. There is but one truth with regard
to all truth. And with regard to the things
of God, this is the gospel. There's only one. Compromising
preachers say, well, there's just one gospel, but it may be
interpreted in different ways. The Armenian interprets it this
way. The Calvinist interprets it that way. The Baptist interpret
it this way. The Methodist interpret it that
way. No, the word of God declares there is one gospel. Christ is the way. Every other
way will take you to hell. Christ is the truth. Anything contrary to Jesus Christ
and the revelation of Christ in this book is a lie. Christ
is the life. Apart from him, there is no life. If indeed there is only one way,
one Savior, one gospel, you will be wise to get in that way, find
that Savior, and learn that gospel. The preaching of the new birth
is absolutely necessary. We declare ye must be born again. But the preaching of the new
birth is not the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of
the love of God we delight to hear. God is love. But the gospel is not the revelation
of God's love. The gospel is the revelation
of God's righteousness. People quote John 3.16 and say
there's the gospel. God so loved the world. No. There's
no gospel there. The gospel's in John 3, 14. As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of God be lifted up. Even so, he must be lifted up
because otherwise God can't save anybody. God's gospel reveals
the righteousness of God. The gospel is not the second
coming of Christ. I rejoice in, I pray for grace
to stand on the tiptoe of faith all the time, expecting Christ
to come before I get the next word out. But preaching the second
coming is not preaching the gospel. Preaching revivalism. Folks love
to talk about the old revivals. It astounds me, men who claim
to believe the gospel get all excited about talking about men
rolling in the aisle and wearing their shirts all kinds of stupid
things and call it revival. Preaching of revivalism is mostly
just sentimentality, nothing else. Revivalism preaching focuses
on man and experience. Gospel preaching focuses on God
and grace. People like to preach holy living.
And it's right that we should live godly, seek to honor God
in all things. But all the preaching about holy
living When all said and done that I've ever heard in my life,
all that I've ever heard in my life, all that I've ever read
in my life, all of it winds up nothing but works focusing on
you. That's not preaching the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel produces godliness. The preaching of the
gospel directs men to God. The preaching of the gospel turns
our hearts to God. But preaching the gospel is not
talking about what you do, it's talking about what God does.
It's talking about what God has done in his son, Christ Jesus. The gospel of Christ, then, is
an exclusive message. Understand what I'm saying. Those
who do not believe the gospel believe a false gospel. Now Ken,
that's talking about you and me, your family and my family,
your neighbors and my neighbors. Those who do not believe the
gospel believe a false gospel and they will be dead forever
if they cling to a false gospel. For they worship a false god
and a false savior by a false spirit. Those who do not preach
the gospel preach another gospel, a perversion gospel. If there's
a church right across the street and that fellow doesn't preach
the gospel, he's preaching another gospel. Does that make good sense
to you? Any objection to that? Either
he's preaching the truth or he's preaching a lie. There is nothing
in between. Those who do not walk in this
way, walk in the wrong way. They may be sweet and nice, sincere,
morally upright, good people, but they don't know God from
a gourd. Sometime ago, last year, maybe
the year before, I was preaching down near my hometown in North
Wilkesboro, North Carolina. And a preacher came. He, matter
of fact, made some effort to get there. Pastor of a Presbyterian
church up in Hickory, North Carolina. Found out his there. Had no idea
how he'd do about me or anything else, but he came down. And he
came for every night of the meeting that we were there. And second
or third night, he said, where were we then before we learned
the gospel? I shook my head and I said, what? He said, well,
where were we before we learned the gospel? I said, in darkness.
Where were we before we learned the gospel? Lost. Where was I
before I learned the gospel? In darkness. No light. Folks,
I was saved 30 years ago and then I learned the gospel. I
came to know the gospel. No, no, no, no. You got that
backwards. You learn the gospel by which you're saved. And until
you learn the gospel, you don't know God. The scriptures are
clear. We preach the gospel, a exclusive
message. Here's the second statement.
The gospel is an exclusive message about a past historic event. The gospel is an exclusive message
about a past historic event. We had two Presidents Bush. I
voted for both of them. They were the best of the choices
we had at the time. Both of them made this statement,
quoting from a papist. Always preach the gospel when
you have to use words. That sounds so good. Doesn't
that sound wonderful? Live it out. The word gospel
means good news. You don't live news, you tell
it. You don't live news, you tell
it. You can't preach the gospel by living good. You preach the
gospel by telling it. It is an exclusive message about
a past historic event. It is not a message about evidences
and experiences. It is a message about a past
historic event. The gospel preached by the apostles
always refers to something in the past, a finished work, an
accomplished deed, a completed task. The pastness of the gospel
is an essential aspect of it, the preaching of the gospel.
is the declaration of something done in the past. Right here,
Paul said we preach how that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. Now I know, I'm not a Greek scholar,
but I've read the text in the Greek and I know the word how
was added by our translators. It was added by our translators
because that word is essential to understanding the statement.
The preaching of the gospel is not merely declaring the fact
that Christ died. You can read a history book and
learn that Christ died. You can read the writings of
the historians of the day and they'll tell you that Christ
died. That's not preaching the gospel. The preaching of the
gospel is to declare H-O-W, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. Let me give you four words. Four
words you ought to always bear in mind every time you think
about the death of Christ. Every time you talk about the
death of Christ, these four words ought to be prominent. Number
one, sovereignty. Jesus Christ died according to
the sovereign will and purpose of God by his own sovereign act,
laying down his life for his sheep. He died by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God because it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He didn't die because the Jews
wouldn't let him be a king on their little peanut throne. He
didn't die because they wouldn't let him exercise Plan A, so God
went to Plan B. He came here and died because
that was the purpose for which God made this world. Second word,
substitution. Substitution. He died in the
room instead of God's elect. He died for his people. He died
for his sheep. He died in the stead of his chosen. He died for his beloved. And
those for whom he died shall never die. He died in my place. That's what substitution means.
He took my place upon the cursed tree. He suffered the wrath I
deserved upon the cursed tree. If he died in my place, I don't
have to die. If he suffered my just wrath,
I don't have to suffer it. It's called substitution. The
third word, satisfaction. We use the word in scripture,
propitiation. I love it, propitiation. We just
had one child, our daughter Faith, and we didn't give her cow's
milk so she wasn't so bullheaded. Her mother nursed her. And sometimes
we would try to give her a pacifier. Ever try to give those babies
pacifiers? Give them a pacifier? Some babies love it. You know
what you do with that pacifier? You pacify the baby. You pacify. So you put a little honey on
that thing or some syrup or anything, just get the thing to shut up.
Just pacify her. Faith wouldn't take one. She'd
spit them out until she got too old for me to give her one. And
so she never had one. That's basically what we're talking
about. God's anger has been pacified. Completely propitiated. So that the anger of God is silenced
by the blood of God's darling son. Justice has been satisfied. Justice can demand no more than
what Christ gave at Calvary. Here's the fourth word, success. Don't leave that one out. Whatever
the son of God intended to accomplish in his death at Calvary, he accomplished. absolutely accomplished, nothing
to be added to it. He shall not fail. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. This is what I'm saying. The
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage. We preach how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scripture. And that he was buried
according to the scripture. The son of God really did die
as a man at Calvary. He didn't just pass out, faint,
or go into a trance. He died. And they buried him
in the heart of the earth according to the scriptures. Buried him
just exactly as the scriptures declared. He made his grave with
the wicked in his death. But blessed be God he didn't
stay dead. in preaching the gospel, we declare
that Christ rose again the third day according to the scriptures. This is what the prophet said.
Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they
rise. Thy dead men shall live together. With my dead body shall they
rise. I love to find things in scripture
that I can't explain. I love to find things I can't
explain. I just, I stand back and say, wow, that's something,
that's something. The scripture tells us in Matthew
27 that when the Lord Jesus had finished the work of redemption,
the earthquake, The graves were opened. The veil of the temple
was ramped from top to bottom. And after the resurrection, those
words are specifically used, after the resurrection, many
of the saints arose from the dead and walked the streets of
the holy city. Try explaining that. In fact, the graves were open. The graves were open and apparently
remained open for three days. So you could go over there and
look in it if you took a notion to it. And then when the Lord
Jesus arose from the dead, many of God's saints who had been
sleeping in the graves got up and walked around in Jerusalem.
Well, you preacher, you can't understand it that way. Okay,
give me another way. Explain it. Give me an explanation.
What is that? It is a declaration. Together
with my dead body shall they live. There is such virtue, such
power in the crucified Christ by his accomplishments in his
death, that by his death, men are made to live as a result
of that. In preaching the gospel, we declare
that our Lord Jesus Christ rose again the third day and that
this risen Christ has accomplished something that's so much a fact
of history that it can't be, upon any grounds, reasonably
denied. It cannot be denied. And yet
it's such a phenomenal thing that it can't be understood and
it can't be explained apart from the gospel. The risen Christ
was seen on many different occasions. by many different people. At
one time, now there are 12 of them recorded in scripture, but
at one time, at one time, Paul, he was seen by 500 people. At
one time, he was seen by 500 people. That's a fact that just can't
be explained away. It can't be denied, but it can't
be understood except by divine revelation. This is such an important
thing. Here in 1 Corinthians 15, down
in verse 14, Paul says, if Christ be not risen, then our preaching
is vain, And your faith is also vain. Read on. Verse 15, Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God, that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. Now that's the importance Paul
places on the resurrection. If Christ is not raised, and
Ian, you preach that he's raised, you're a false witness of God.
Is that what it said? That's just what it said. If
I stand here and tell you Christ rose from the dead and He didn't
rise from the dead, I'm a false prophet. And you believing in
Him, your faith is vain. Verse 17. And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain and you're yet in your sins. Because
I'm preaching to you another Christ. If that's true with regard
to our Savior's resurrection, how much more so with regard
to His death. How much more so with regard
to what he accomplished at Calvary? Here's my third statement. The
gospel is an exclusive message about a singular person. A person
who accomplished perfect, complete, finished work for a specific
people. The gospel is an exclusive message
about one person who accomplished a perfect, complete, Finished
work for a specific people. To preach the gospel is to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To declare that He, by
His perfect, complete, finished obedience to God as a man, brought
in everlasting righteousness, made an end of sin, and obtained
eternal redemption for God's elect. Now let me give you the
reverse of that. I probably have told you this
story, but it needs to be told. Nearly 40 years ago, I was sitting
in my office, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building,
we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we
had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building,
we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished
the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building,
we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building,
we had not finished the building, we had not finished the building, we
had not finished the building, we had not finished the building,
we had If you don't mind, could you tell me the difference in
what you believe and what you preach and what I believe and
what I preach? The difference in what your church
believes and what our church believes? And I said, Doug, if
you've got time, I'll be glad to. So I spent the rest of the
afternoon, three, three and a half, four hours talking to him. Summarize
it this way. I said to him, I said, Doug,
correct me if I'm mistaken. I don't want to misrepresent
you. If I understand you correctly, what you say you believe, You
believe that when Christ died, he made redemption, justification,
righteousness, and salvation possible for everybody, but did
not actually accomplish it for anybody. But man, by his faith,
gives merit and efficacy and power to the blood of Christ
for his own justification, redemption, and salvation. Is that correct?
He said, that's exactly what I believe. I said, Doug, that's
damning heresy. You'll go to hell if you die
believing it. Because you make yourself your own savior. You
make yourself your own redeemer. We do not preach a Jesus who
made anything possible. We preach the Christ of God,
according to scripture, who accomplished redemption, righteousness, and
forgiveness for his people. Let's see if the book says that.
Listen to the scripture. Mary shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his
people from their sins. They were his people before he
came. He has come here to save his
people from their sins. Either he will save his people
from their sins or he is not the Jesus of whom the scriptures
speak in Matthew 121. Isaiah tells us it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, for
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. That's particular redemption.
That's limited atonement. That's effectual redemption accomplished
by Christ. The Lord Jesus was spoken of
by Daniel, and Daniel told us when Messiah comes, this is what
he's going to do. He's going to finish the transgression. He's going to make an end of
sins. He's going to make reconciliation for the people. He's going to
bring in everlasting righteousness. He's going to seal up the vision
of Old Testament scripture, and he's going to anoint the most
holy. He who is the Christ of God, actually by his death at
Calvary, finished our transgressions, made an end of our sins, brought
in everlasting righteousness. He fulfilled all the prophets
of the Old Testament Scripture. He, the Son of God, sealed up
the vision, and He comes by His grace in the time appointed by
His Father from eternity, and He comes to evangelize, pours
out His Spirit upon Him, the Most Holy. There He is, the Most
Holy. Evangelize. You don't know Him
like I do. You don't know Him like God does. Did you get it? He who is our
Savior, the Christ of God, accomplished redemption. The Apostle Paul
speaks of our Lord Jesus in Romans 1 and declares of Him that He
is that one by whom we have received grace, among whom ye are the
called of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the gospel is
not preaching possibilities. but it's preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ and His perfect, complete, accomplished redemption. This
is what He did. With His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for
us. He got it! He finished it! It's His! He bought it, and He
bought it for His own. Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His
one sacrifice for sin, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, you tell me, what does the
Scripture teach? Does the Scripture teach that He tried to atone,
that He made redemption possible, that He made salvation possible,
and now you finish it up? Or do the Scriptures teach that
He accomplished redemption? You know the answer. If you listen
to the scriptures, everybody knows the answer. And the fellow
who denies it is lying against his own conscience and against
the word of God. Number four, the gospel of Christ
is the exclusive message of Holy Scripture. Now I want you to
turn to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1. The Word of God is not preached
except as the Gospel is preached. The Word of God is not preached
except as the Gospel is preached. You didn't hear that yet. Matt,
when you stand here, next time you're appointed here, if you
don't preach the Gospel, you haven't preached the Word, I
don't care if you do nothing but stand up here and read the
Scriptures. The Word of God is not preached, except the gospel
be preached. Let's see if that's what the
book says. 1 Peter 1, verse 23. Being born
again, we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is grass. in all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. Now watch this. And this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. This word. And it's talking about
the written word. This is the word. This is the
word. Genesis to Revelation. This is
the word. Which by the gospel is preached unto you. Any preaching
of the Word that is not the preaching of the Gospel is man giving you
his opinion about the Word. It is not the preaching of the
Word. We preach the Word of God when we preach the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When sinners are taught from
Scripture how God saves sinners. When sinners are taught from
Scripture how sinners are reconciled to God. When sinners are taught
from Scripture how that salvation is that which belongs to God
and that which you have only by faith in Jesus Christ the
Lord. Oh, I wish I could convey this
as I want to. Oh, I wish I could convey this
as I want to. I'm talking to you, eternity-bound
men and women, young and old. Are you listening to me, honey?
I'm talking to you. Yeah, I'm talking to you. I don't think I could live with
myself if you walked out of here and went to eternity and I hadn't
told you how God saved sinners by Christ Jesus the Lord. Are you listening to me, Sid?
I could not live with myself, my dear older brother, if I preached
to you this one time, and you walked out of here and stepped
into eternity, and I had told you how God saves sinners by
Christ the Lord. I'm not here to entertain you.
I'm not here to get you to be better Baptists or better Protestants
or better Calvinists better stuff. I'm here to prepare you for eternity,
to meet God. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is. That's what the preaching of the gospel is. Somebody
asked me, well, several of you have, how resting is for people
concerned about my health. The fact is, I don't ever rest
well when I'm preaching. And that means I don't often
rest very well because I'm preaching about all the time. but I don't
because I know something about the urgency of this business. You've got to know God. I've
got to know God. And the only way that happens
is by the gospel. That brings me to the fifth statement. The gospel This exclusive message
of redemption and grace in Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. The dynamite of God. That's the
word. If you were to just write it
out in English letters, transliterating the word, the dynamite of God. That's the word. It's the power
of God to salvation. I've told you this before. I
like the Clint Eastwood movies. He likes to fight with dynamite.
You know what you do with dynamite? You light it, you throw it, and
you get out of the way. It does its own work. The gospel
doesn't need me to defend it. It doesn't need me to protect
it. It doesn't need me to hedge it about. My business is to light
it, throw it, and get out of the way. It's the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes. God does not save sinners
by a false gospel. If he did, Paul would not have
said that those Arminian will-worship workmongers be damned who preach
a false gospel. And that's what he said in Galatians
1. He wasn't being mean. He was just stating fact. If
any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which you've
received, let him be damned. Let him be damned. He heaps upon
himself the wrath of God. He doesn't know God. God doesn't
save sinners apart from the preaching of the gospel. That makes this
place right here the most important place in the world. The place
where the gospel is preached. The most important place in the
world. Those who have a form of godliness
but deny the gospel of God's grace, that is everybody Let
me, I hope, I don't want to be misunderstood. Anybody who doesn't
believe and preach limited atonement, irresistible grace, God's free
election, God's absolute sovereignty, anybody who preaches another
gospel is lost. He doesn't know God. He doesn't
know God. Well, my daddy didn't preach that. Well, he's lost
then. I don't preach that. Well, you're lost then. It's
as simple as that. God's servants know the gospel
and preach it, and God's people believe the gospel. This is the
power by which Paul says, I have begotten you through the gospel. Peter says we're born again by
the gospel. This gospel is that which God
of his own will begat us through the word of truth. We're good Calvinist, Brother
Don. We believe in predestination.
We believe in sovereignty. We believe God can save sinners
any way he wants to. He can save them with the use
of means, without the use of means, or in spite of the means
used. Well, that sounds pretty good, but it's just not Bible.
It's just not Bible. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing,
anybody? By the Word of God. It doesn't
come any other way. But there's nobody there who
believes the gospel. That's not a problem. There's
nobody there who preaches the gospel. That's not a problem.
If God wants to save a barbarian heathen, tribesman, on the Isle
of Malta, and there's never been anybody there who ever said anything
about God. That's not a problem. Hinton
just called one of his servants to be shipwrecked and bitten
of a viper and prepared the way for that heathen chief to look
at him and say, oh, he's God. And Paul said, no, I'll tell
you who he is. That's no problem with God. There's an Ethiopian eunuch going
to Jerusalem, going to the Bible conference. And he went up hungry
and came back just as hungry and he's sitting in his chariot
reading Isaiah 53. And apparently doing a strange
thing. I sometimes read out loud when
I'm by myself, but if I'm sitting at my desk and there are other
folks around, I never read out loud. This fellow's riding in
his chariot, reading out loud. Read now out of the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah, and the time has come now for this Ethiopian eunuch
to be saved by God's free grace. How is that going to happen?
There's not a preacher anywhere around. Suddenly, there's Philip. He's walking right beside him.
He heard that fellow reading. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. With his stripes we are healed.
The Lord had laid on him the iniquities. And Philip looked
up at him and said, do you understand what you're reading? And that
fellow looked down at him and he said, how can I except some
man show me? Scoot over boy, I'll tell you
what he's talking about. God saves sinners by the preaching
of the gospel. And God arranges for chosen sinners
to hear the gospel at the time of love when he would call them
by his grace. There was a jailer, a crusty
old Roman soldier, up next to retirement years. He's just keeping
the jail. And time's come for that old
man to be saved. That Roman soldier. You can't imagine anybody more
unlikely candidate, can you? Except me, maybe. Hey, that old
Roman soldier, hard, vile, filthy-tongued, drunk, abuser of men. There he is, an object of God's
grace, for whom the time of love had come. And in order for him
to hear the gospel, God sends his servants to prison, and they
go through an earthquake. And God opens the way for Paul
to say that name, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. And he believed, just like that.
Just like that. One more thing. Two more things,
I'll give you this quickly. The gospel of Christ is the exclusive
message which every preacher called and sent of God is sent
to preach. This is our message. Go preach
Christ. Go preach Christ. I was talking
to a young preacher just the other day. He's a man that I
think God's going to use. Contrary to most older men, and
even some of my younger friends who are pastors, they seem to
think fellows ought to have lots of experience and knowledge and
learning before they start preaching. No, I don't much think so. I'll
tell you what it takes to make a good preacher. Somebody who's
experienced grace and they're willing to tell it. I don't pretend to be an intellectual
giant, but I can tell you what God's done for me. I'll tell you what God's done
for me. That's the business of preaching. I'll tell you what
God's done for me. What God's done for me, He does
for sinners. That's what preaching is. Preachers are sent to preach
the gospel. To preach the gospel. To preach
the gospel. One last thing. The gospel of
God's free, sovereign grace in Christ is the only hope of a
sinner. before the Holy Lord God. Paul said, we're saved by the
gospel if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Somebody asked, an old saying,
that is, faith in Christ. And he said, I trust Christ.
And he asked him about other things. He said, I trust Christ.
Asked him about other things. I trust Christ. The fellow said,
is Christ all you've got? He said, Christ is all I've got.
And the man said, is that enough? He said, if He's all you've got,
He is. That's all I've got. That's all
I've got. Would you have Him? Would you
trust the Son of God? Would you believe God or may
God give you faith in Him? This is the issue. Dost thou
believe on the Son of God? That's the issue. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. He who believes that Jesus of
Nazareth actually did do and accomplish. All that the prophets
said the Messiah, the Christ, would do and accomplish, He's
born of God. Those who deny that Jesus is
the Christ, those who deny that Jesus of Nazareth actually did
and accomplished all that the prophets said that Christ would
accomplish. He's Antichrist. He's Antichrist. That's the reason I make no hesitancy
in saying to you, either the man preaching to you
speaks for God as the messenger of Christ to your soul, or I'm
Antichrist. One of the two. One of the two. And the fellow down the road,
if he preaches another message, and I'm Christ's messenger, he's
Antichrist. If he's preaching the message
of God, if he's Christ's messenger, I'm Antichrist. It's high time
you made the choice and made the clear distinction for yourself.
It's high time. Jesus Christ crucified. That's our Savior, our Redeemer,
our message, our hope. Believe on the Son of God and
eternal life is yours. Oh God help you to believe. Amen.