If God enabled me this morning,
I want to take a very familiar verse of scripture and show you
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. So please turn with me, if you
would, to Matthew chapter one, the text of which I speak very
short verse found in verse 21, Matthew chapter one, Verse 21, And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Now according to this text, the
angel brought a message from the Lord. That's what the gospel
is. It's a message from the Lord. A message from the Lord God of
heaven and earth. And the gospel message is God's
good news. That's what it's a message. It's
a message of good news. What is the gospel message? Right
here. Jesus Christ shall save His people
from their sin. If you're a sinner, that's good
news. And what an outline for gospel preaching. Now, the first
thing that we see in this message from heaven is that the gospel
is concerning Jesus Christ. Paul started his letter to the
church at Rome with that same blessed truth. He said, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had aforepromised by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Gospel is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't miss
that. You missed that, you missed it
all. The Gospel is concerning His Son, God's Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord. It's come a bit cliche, I suppose,
among true believers, but truly the Bible is a hymn, H-I-M, book. It's all about hymn from beginning
to end. This holy book's about Jesus
Christ. The angel said, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus. Even His name, Even His name
declares who He is. Jesus, that means Savior. That means Jehovah is salvation. He is the Anointed One. That's what that name means.
He's the Messiah. He is the Christ. You see, Christ
is not part of His name. Christ is His title. He's Jesus
Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. And this gospel of good
news is concerning Him. This Jesus who is the Christ
has come for a specific purpose. What is the purpose for which
He came? Look at it right here in this
short verse we see. He shall save. He shall save. Not He shall try
to save. Not, He wants to save. And definitely not, He's made
salvation possible. He shall save. He's going to most definitely
save somebody. Jesus Christ is a successful
Savior. The Gospel, God's message from
Heaven, proclaims a saving God. A saving substitute. A successful mediator between
God and man. You know what a mediator is?
It's one who is a go-between. He goes between one party and
another and he mediates. He tries to work out the problem. Jesus Christ is the one mediator
between a holy God and sinful man. He's the one mediator. Only one. And He's a successful
mediator. The God who sent this gospel
message is not a God who simply made salvation possible. No, sir. He's a God who saves. The first words out of this messenger
of light from heaven is Jesus, Savior. He shall save. The gospel message, for the most
part, has been lost in our day. The popular message imagined
today to be the gospel is that God the Father loves everybody,
and God the Son died for everybody, and God the Holy Spirit is trying
and wanting to save everybody. I'm telling you that's not so. It's not so. That's not what
this God-sent messenger says in our text. He says that Jesus
Christ shall save a particular people. Not everybody. But He
shall save, what does it say? His people. He's going to save
His people. Salvation is not universal. Nowhere in this Bible does it
teach that. Men say, well, God so loved the
world. He loved all His people in the world. But He doesn't
love the world because He turns right around. Eric in John 17,
verse 9 says, I pray not for the world. I pray for those whom
Thou hast given Me, My people. That's who I pray for. That's
who He died for. He shall save His people. His people. Now listen to me. You think about this now. Common
sense will tell you this, but it's going to take a revelation
from God to convince you of it. If God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody, then everybody's going to be saved. Right? Is there any for whom Christ
died that will be lost? If God loves everybody and yet
some of those whom He loves will perish, then I have to ask you,
what does God's love have to do with salvation? If God loves everybody and yet
some are still lost, then the love of God means nothing. If
God's love does not secure the salvation of the object of which
He sets His affection upon, then His love is worthless. None whom
God loves shall nor can be lost." That's to declare God to be a
failure. That's to declare that His love
is ineffectual. It's ineffective. Now, think with me. If Jesus
Christ died for everybody and yet some of that number are still
lost, then the death of Christ doesn't mean a thing. but there'll be none in hell
for whom Christ died. I can assure you that. If Christ
died for all men alike and yet some are still lost, then Jesus
Christ, I'm telling you, He's a complete failure and He's not
able to save anybody. But that's not the case. Jesus
shall save His people. Now men are going to object and
say, no, now it doesn't mean that That and all, it means that
God has made salvation possible to all who believe. Now let me
tell you, if that's true, then salvation is obtained and it's
accomplished by man's believing and not by God's free and sovereign
grace in Christ. If man is unable to believe,
then a work of grace by God has already been done. Yet men will
further object and say, no, salvation is by God's grace. I believe
that. But men and women must choose,
they must decide to accept His grace and believe in order to
receive the salvation that He made possible. But God's messenger
tells us in our text that Jesus Christ came to be a Savior. He will save. He didn't make
it possible. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. He shall save His people from
their sin. Is that what your Bible says?
He shall save His people from their sin. Folks, if a sinner
is going to be saved, they're going to be saved from something. This is very important. If a
man is drowning and you pull him out of the water before he
does, then you saved him from drowning. You saved him from
the water. If you carry an unconscious woman
out of a burning house, then you saved her from the fire. To be saved, you gotta be saved
from something. To be a Savior, you must save
someone from something. Jesus Christ saved His people
from their sin. That's the gospel message. Plain,
simple, and amazing. And it would be an amazing feat,
no doubt, to save a drowning person. And it would be an amazing
accomplishment to pull someone out of a burning building. But
to save a sinner from their sin? It's more than amazing. It's
more than wonderful. It's more than marvelous because
there's only one man who can do it. There is only one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Hall said this
is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation.
Now, what that simply means is this. Listen to what I'm about
to say. That's what Paul's saying. Everyone
should bow to this. Everyone should agree with this.
Everyone should accept this because that's what this book in its
entirety teaches. He said this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. What's He going to save them
from? They're sin. That's why Christ came. That's
why God sent Him. He came into the world to save
sinners. Now, I'm going to make a deliberate
statement here, and I want you to listen to me. No sinner will
ever be saved by somebody telling them that God loves them. No
sinner will ever be saved by someone telling them that Christ
died for them. I have a friend that I used to
be very close to, and time and providence and the purpose of
God have separated us. But several years ago, a mutual
acquaintance of ours found religion. He didn't come to Christ, but
he got religious. You know, there's a big difference.
The Jews were religious. The Pharisees were religious.
And they killed the Lord Jesus Christ. You can be religious
about a lot of things and not be right. But anyway, this friend,
this acquaintance of ours found religion. He told this friend
of mine, he said, you know, God loves you. And Jesus died for you. And he
looked at that religious fellow and he said, well, I'm sure sorry
about that. The other fellow said, well, why are you sorry?
He said, I'm sorry that somebody that I don't believe in loves
me and died for me. It seems such a waste. You see
a sinner who is dead, dead, plumb dead in trespasses and sin doesn't
care if God loves him or not. could care less. Instead of telling
sinners that God loves them and Christ died for them, we need
to warn them of the impending doom to come if they don't repent
of their sin. Now John the Baptist, he was
the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great prophet who,
it says, came to prepare the way of the Lord. And he didn't
come saying, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. Did he? John didn't preach and proclaim
to sinners that Jesus died for their sin and that because of
that, they needed to make a choice and decide to give Him their
heart. No, sir. What was his message? You're
in Matthew chapter 1. Turn over a page to Matthew chapter
3. Look at verse 1. What was John's message? In those
days, verse 1, came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness
of Judea and saying what? Repent! Repent! Repent ye, for the kingdom
of God is at hand. What was the result of this kind
of preaching? It always has the same result,
the same effect. When God makes His message effectual
to a sinner, look down at verse 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem,
and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were
baptized of him in Jordan. What? Confessing their sins. What was John's message? It wasn't
God loves you. It wasn't Christ died for you.
It was repent. Repent of your sin. One day as
he baptized here at the River Jordan, the Lord Jesus Christ
came upon the scene and John the Baptist pointed to Him and
he said, Behold the Lamb of God. which taketh away the sin of
the world." His people in the world. And at the age of 30 or
so, the Lord Jesus Christ left His job as a carpenter and He
became the greatest preacher that ever lived. What was His
message? Look at chapter 4 here in Matthew. Look at verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach. What was
His message? He began to preach and say, repent. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand. In Mark chapter 1, His message
was repent and believe. In Luke chapter 13, His message
was repent or perish. If a sinner doesn't repent and
believe, they will most certainly perish. And our message to the
lost is repent, repent of your sin, believe that Christ died
to put them away. For if you don't, you will forever
perish. It's not that folks don't understand
that, it's folks don't believe it. The problem we have today
is that nobody's a sinner. Proclaiming and preaching the
Gospel is not telling men and women that God has set His affection
upon them. That is the assurance of salvation
to the believer. Paul, writing to believers, said,
Nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. And the child of God goes, Man,
that's my assurance. That's where my comfort, that's
where my hope is. Nothing, nothing can separate
me from God's love in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's assurance.
That's the believer's comfort. That's a blessed truth for those
who have already repented and believed. The Gospel is the proclamation
that Christ came into the world to save sinners. The Gospel message
is good news for sinners. Do you see that? Christ came
into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. Lost in sin. He came to seek and save sinners.
Remember, Matthew 1, He shall save. He shall save. He didn't
come to try to seek and to save. He shall save His people from
their sin. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. That's what Paul said. But unto
us which are saved, it's the power of God. What is the message
of the cross? Well, the message of the cross
is this. It was the sin of His people that nailed Him to the
cross. What put Christ on the cross?
Sin. Not His. but the sin of those
for whom He died. The message of the cross is even
more than that. It's the message that it was
sinners who drove the nails in His hands and feet. Peter said in Acts 2, verse 23,
he said, Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, you have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain. What you meant for evil,
God meant for good. Jesus Christ was delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He was the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. God's message to you and
to me this morning is repent. Repent. Peter said again in Acts
chapter 8, he said, repent and be converted that your sins may
be blotted out. In Acts 8, verse 22, he said,
repent that the thoughts of your heart may be forgiven. Do you
remember what Moses wrote in Genesis 6 concerning the thoughts
of men's hearts? He said, God saw the weakness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Peter said, repent that the thoughts
of your heart may be forgiven. Repent means reversal. Repent
means to change. Change your ways. Change your
thoughts. Change your God. Repent means
to turn. To turn from your way to God's
way. Why? Because all we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. To repent is to turn from our
way to God's way. Jesus Christ is the way. To repent
is to turn from Satan's lies to God's truth. Jesus Christ
is the truth. Jesus Christ is the life. And to repent is to turn from
death unto life. And no man cometh to the Father
but by Him. Now that's what we're shut up
to. No other way to be saved. No other way. It's the only way
sinners can be saved. That is the Gospel. That is God's
message to and for sinners. Look at it again. Matthew 1. And she shall bring forth a Son,
thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. God the Son condescends from
His lofty throne of power, dominion, grace and love and he takes upon
himself human flesh. God did. Why? He's going to save his people
from their sin. I love to say this, the infinite
became an infant. That's mind boggling. He who
is, was and always was and always will be became a little baby
and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger. Why? Because He came to save
His people from their sin. He dwelt on this earth and His
friends were few and His enemies were many. He was despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I'm telling you, He knew something
about affliction. Oh, I think about that. May God
enable me to remember that the next time I'm determined to feel
sorry for myself and have a little pity party. Truly, our sorrow
and our grief in this life are but a light affliction. Light
affliction compared to His. The Lord Jesus, after a little
more than just three years of going about and doing all things
well, the Lord Jesus is at last delivered into the hands of them
that hated Him without a cause. He's beaten beyond recognition
as a man. The scriptures say that his visage
was so marred. It was so marred like none before,
and I dare say afterwards, he didn't even resemble a man when
they got done with him. And they took that cat of nine
tails, which was no less than chips of bone, tied into the
end of a whip, and they thrashed his holy back to shreds. Why? Cause he's come to save his people
from their sin. They mock him. They put a robe
on him. They parade him before the people as a spectacle of
ridicule, shame and contempt. And they not only figuratively
spit, but literally spit in his face. Why does He allow these things?
He's God. He could have called 10,000 angels. They were at His disposal. Why
didn't He, Shelley? Because He's come to save His
people from their sin. Pilate declares to find no fault
in Him. Pilate's wife warns to have nothing
to do with the condemnation of this just man. Pilate washes
his hands and he says, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person.
And if you want him dead, then you see to it. And the people
cried, his blood be on us and on our children. We want him
dead, crucified. Well, you know, it's custom that
we release a prisoner at the Passover. Now we've got Barabbas
here. He's a murderer. He's no count.
He's an habitual felon. He's the kind of guy that you
sleep better at night knowing he's locked up. And then we have
this man Jesus. Which one would you like for
me to release? Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. What about Christ? Crucify Him. Why? He's come to save His people
from their sin. The testimony of Scripture speaks
of that which religious men are so proud of, and I'm speaking
of man's free will. Oh, I'm telling you, men will
fight you over their free will. We're told that Pallad delivered
Jesus to their will. Now, if you want to see something
of man's free will, there it is right there. You give man
the opportunity and he'll kill God if he can. That's right. I hear men and women alike say
things like, God would never violate man's free will. You
better hope He does. You better hope He does. Why? Because your will is in bondage
to sin. They take the Lord Jesus Christ
then and they parade Him and they drag Him through the streets
of Jerusalem and they make Him carry His own cross. After all
this, and He's brought to Golgotha's Hill, a mount called Calvary,
and He's nailed to a cruel cross. Why? His name is Jesus. He shall save
His people from their sin. And suffering all the undiluted
anguish of hell itself, He cries, My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? That's a good question for us
to consider. Why did God forsake him? You
know why. He's come to save His people
from their sin. That's why. Why has His loving
Father forsaken Him in this hour of grief, anguish, pain, and
death? He's paying the debt, the sin
debt of His people. The wages of sin is death and
He's paying that debt. Why is a perfect man, a just
man, dying there for the unjust sinner? Well, He's being made
sin for them. Being made sin for them that
they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's why. Christ is doing for His people
what they cannot do for themselves. He's dying, Larry, the just for
the unjust. He's dying the just for the unjust
that He might bring them to God. And as Christ drinks the full
condemnation of that cup which could not pass from His lips,
He cries with the last breath that God gives Him, it is finished. And He gives up the ghost. For
you see friends, He laid down His life. He gave up the ghost
only after this work of redemption was accomplished for His people. He said, it's finished. He's
come to save His people from their sin. Now listen, the debt is paid. It's paid. The debtor discharged. Salvation's mine. Jesus Christ
came to save His people from their sin. It's finished. It's
paid. I'm discharged of the debt. The
cup of God's wrath is drained dry. Nothing left in it. He drank it dry. God's no longer
angry with the chosen sinner. He who is angry with the wicked
every day, no longer angry. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the
Anointed One, came to save His people from their sin. And He shall save His people
from their sin. Now let me tell you the most
amazing thing of all. I'll leave you with this. You
think about this. This is the most amazing thing. You want to hear it? It pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. It pleased God to do this to
him. It pleased the Lord to put him to grief. It pleased the
Lord to make his soul an offering for sin. And God has seen the
travail of his soul and he's satisfied. Oh, what about that
word? God's satisfied. Thou shalt bring
forth a son." He's David's son, yet David's Lord. He's the son
of man, but he's the Son of God. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
Savior, Redeemer, Christ, Messiah. Jehovah is salvation, for He
shall. He shall save His people from
their sin.