I invite you to turn with me
back to Romans chapter 16. My subject this morning is my
gospel. Paul called it his gospel. I want folks to differentiate
between me and those men who preach God only knows what out
in this world. I want men to know that I don't
stand with the multitude. I don't stand with the majority
of those who call themselves ministers of God. And that the
message I carry is my gospel. My gospel. It was Paul's gospel
by revelation. Listen to what he says here in
Galatians chapter 1. He said that God revealed Christ
in him that he might preach him among the heathens. You can't
preach him until God reveals him in your heart. It's his gospel by revelation
and it was his by divine calling. In Ephesians 3.7, Paul said he
was made a minister by the gift of the grace of God given unto
him by the effectual working of God's power. God called him to the ministry.
And it was by divine appointment. You remember when Paul went down
and man preached to him He said that the God of our fathers hath
chosen thee that thou shouldst know His will, and see the just
one, and be His witness to all men. And it was His by the recommendation
of all those who preached before Him. Now 14 years Paul preached
the Gospel. Then he went up to Jerusalem.
And Peter and James and John, the pillars of that church at
Jerusalem, extended their right hand of fellowship to Paul. They
supported him in his missionary journeys. And they sent him on
his way. Now, follow with me as I read
my text here in Romans chapter 16, beginning with verse 25. All summing up, all that he preached
here in the book of Romans, all that he taught them, And he said,
now unto him that is of power to establish you according to
my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to
the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began, but now is made 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. To
God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. What is the gospel? Paul said it was his, but what
is it? What is the gospel? I'm telling you, everything under
the sun is being called the gospel in our day. Everything. I never
cease to be amazed when I read church signs and go by what they
call the gospel. Well, there are seven terms that
are used by the Holy Ghost to describe the gospel. First of
all, He calls it in Romans 15, verse 16, the gospel of God. The gospel of God, of God in
its origin. I was talking, I think it was
with one of my sisters one day, and she was telling me how that
the gospel message today has evolved. The gospel message has not evolved. It's the same as it's always
been. Because he of whom the gospel
is its origin, its content, all about the gospel. He never changes. He never changes. It's of God
in its origin. It's of God in its design. It's
of God in its content. It's of God in its manifestation
and revelation. It's of God. It's God's gospel. And then secondly, it's the gospel
of His Son. Romans chapter 1 verse 9 tells
us that. The Gospel. He was separated
to the Gospel of God's dear Son. Jesus of Nazareth is declared
by John throughout his Gospel as the Son of God. Over and over
and over he tells us that Jesus of Nazareth, that little baby
born in Bethlehem who grew to adulthood, who preached to the
nation, this man is the Son of God. This is God come into the
flesh. And then thirdly, it's the gospel
of Christ. Christ is a term used by the
old prophets to describe the coming Redeemer. He's the promised
one, the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's
the propitiation for our sins. He's the one mediator between
men and God, the man Christ Jesus. This is the Christ. He's the
seed of woman. the seed of Jesse, made by God
to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
and set forth by the prophets in great detail. And so Paul
tells you here in the text that I read you that he preached this
gospel, this gospel by which you are established. He had no
New Testament. He was writing the New Testament.
And as he stood before those men, he declared unto them the
Christ according to the prophets. All the way up to the book of
Malachi, that was his Bible at that time. And he read from them
these things concerning the Christ, and he told them, this is the
Christ. This is the Christ. And he preached the gospel to
them. So it's the gospel of Christ. You can't preach the gospel without
telling men who the Christ was. That is the gospel. My soul,
you take that out of it, there is no good news. And then fourthly, it is said
to be the gospel, now listen, of our salvation. Isn't that
what the scriptures say? Nobody will ever be saved apart
from the gospel. Paul said the preaching of the
cross to them that perish is foolishness. It is unnecessary. It is not needed. It is an insult
to their intelligence. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. It's the power of God. And then
fifthly, it's called in the scriptures, the everlasting gospel. It's
the same yesterday and today and forever. You read in the
Bible, I never read it when I was in religion, nobody ever read
it to me, but it tells you in the Bible that Christ is the
Lamb slain when? Before the foundation of the
world. The gospel is as old as God. It is as old as God. And Christ was the Lamb slain.
God's sheep were chosen in Him, blessed in Him, adopted in Him,
redeemed in Him, justified in Him, and preserved in Him. So
it is the everlasting gospel. And then, sixthly, my gospel
is called in the Scripture, the gospel of peace. Peace. Peace with God. Being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our peace, Paul said, who hath made both one, talking to
those Gentiles. Made us both, Jew and Gentile,
the same. Made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances. For to make in Himself one new
man, so making peace. And then he said, He came and
preached peace to you, which were afar off, and to them which
were nigh. And we were made fellow citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God. Now, there are many so-called
gospels out there, but there is only one that can speak peace
to your soul. And Paul said, That is my gospel.
It is the gospel of peace. And then here is the last thing.
My gospel is the gospel of the grace of God. Of the grace of
God. No man has a message worth listening
to that does not preach the fall of man and the grace of God. If he doesn't have that as his
subject matter in his message, turn him off. He's not worth
listening to. He's not worth listening to.
Sin and grace are the two forces at work in this world today.
And one of these two forces is working in you right now. Maybe
both. Maybe both. But the gospel, the
gospel is the gospel of the grace of God. And apart from the grace
of God, there could be no gospel. And any gospel that does not
preach the grace of God is not the one true gospel. It's another
gospel. Now let me give you four things
about the Gospel. My Gospel. My Gospel. Of which my generation is altogether
ignorant. First of all, my Gospel is delivered
unto you by the commandment of God. Boy, that's a word I never heard. Not the whole time I was in religion. I never heard that one time.
The Gospel is delivered to you by the commandment of God. Look
at verse 26 of my text. It's according to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith. This is God's commandment. We're
commanded to believe. Did you know that? His gospel
is commanded to be preached, and those who hear it are commanded
to believe. The gospel is not some general,
universal act of God trying to help folks reform their lives.
It's not the gospel. It's not an open invitation for
men and women to decide their destiny, or reserve them a place
in heaven, or provide with them some kind of an insurance policy
against hell. The gospel is the commandment
of God. Go ye into all the world, he
said, and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. Let me read
you something over in John chapter 3. John chapter 3, the very last
verse of that chapter. It says, he that believeth on
the Son, that is, rests in Him, and trusts in Him, and finds
all he needs in the Son, hath everlasting life. And he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life." He can't perceive
life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. My friend, the Gospel is not
something we hold in reserve. It's not like the four stones
that David, he picked up five smooth stones, he put four of
them in his pocket and one in the sling. The Gospel is not
the four stones in his pocket. The Gospel is the stone in the
sling. It's not something we hold back in reserve. It's not
something just in case. It's not something that we overlook
or hold back. It's the commandment of God for
us to preach it and for those who hear us to believe it. And then secondly, my gospel
is the means ordained of God to call out, regenerate, and
preserve His elect. In Acts chapter 13, verse 38,
listen to this. He said, Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you The forgiveness of sins. How did it come? Preached unto
you. Yes, but this salvation is in
Christ. I know it is. But it's preached
unto you. It's preached unto you. In 1
Corinthians 1.21 it says, For after that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to what? Save them that believe." Isn't
that what that said? In 1 Corinthians 3, 5, it said,
who then is Paul? He ain't anybody. He's Paul.
He was a Pharisee. He was a man who persecuted the
church. Who's Paul? And who's Apollos? He said, we're ministers by whom
you believe, even as the Lord gave to how many? What does that
say there? Every man. Isn't that what that
says? And Paul writes to Titus and
says, "...in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie,
promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested
His Word through preaching, which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of our God and Savior." Preaching is how
God calls out His elect and how He regenerates them. In Christ
Jesus, Paul said, I have begotten you through the Gospel. That's how men are begotten.
Through the Gospel. I Peter 1, verse 23, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. Verse 25, and this is
the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." Now, there
is no preaching of the Gospel apart from the Word of God. I
have already quoted to you and had you turn to more Scriptures
than most men have ever heard in all their life attending church. The Spirit of the Living God
says to every man, how shall you hear without a preacher?
I didn't say that. I didn't make that up. Some writer
I read didn't say that. The Holy Spirit of God said that. And then you go on down a little
bit further and he talks about those who listened to that man,
those who received that gospel, those who were regenerated by
God. And here's the cry of their heart,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace as it is written. Now here's what he's saying.
Everything that I just told you about preaching and preachers
and coming to know the living God, everything I just told you,
he said, for it is written, the just shall live by faith. And faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. And then thirdly, my gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is a new creation.
It's the conquering of the old man and bringing him into subjection. It's life from the dead and light
out of darkness. It's the destruction of his strongholds. Tears down his strongholds. Everybody
has a stronghold. Everybody has a hideout. Boy,
when we was little, we had hideouts, didn't we? Huh? Boy, we'd go
there and we'd get in them hideouts. We could do anything we wanted
to do in the hideout. Read them old books and smoke
cigarettes and grapevines and whatever else we had. Go to the
hideout. That's the stronghold. Everybody
has a stronghold. And they run in there and they
feel like they're safe and they feel like nobody can tell them
anything. They can go in that stronghold
and they feel safe. Let me tell you something. The
power of God uproots the stronghold. That's what it does. It's the
destruction of the stronghold, the casting down of imaginations,
the doing away with every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God. And it brings our every thought,
Paul said, into the obedience of Christ. Now, I want to comment
before I leave that passage right there. I've read that thing a
thousand times and never saw what it really means. This is
not talking about our obedience to Christ, bringing our thoughts
into obedience to Christ. He tears down our strongholds.
He tears down our self-righteousness. He tears down all these things.
And He brings our every thought into His holy obedience, His
righteousness, which is our righteousness. And He destroys everything else,
everything else. Look with me back here in Romans
chapter 1. We're talking about the gospel,
my gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. And that's what Paul tells us
here in Romans 1.16. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. Eternal life is to know God.
It's to know God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And this, by way of the Spirit
of God, is how men are given life everlasting. All that God
purposed to do for His elect before the foundation of the
world, He's now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel, whereunto Paul said, I'm appointed
a preacher. I'm appointed a preacher. What
does it mean, the power of God under salvation? Exactly what
it says. Exactly what it says. I looked
in all the dictionaries, I looked in all the concordances, and
let me tell you what that means. Exactly what it says. Strong's
Concordance tells us that in the original text, the word is
dunamis. Dynamite. That's the word. Dunamis. It means explosive power. It means power that breaks up
and tears down, moves the immovable. It means irresistible power.
miraculous power, mighty power, power to quicken dead sinners,
open blind eyes, power to give understanding to the ignorant,
power to believe to the saving of your soul. Now, if any man
draw back, Paul said, if any man draw back, the Lord says,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But he said, we're not
of them that draw back to perdition. were of them that believed to
the saving of the soul. I'm telling you, once you've
experienced this, you'll understand what I'm saying. That's the power
of God, to maintain faith in your soul. That's the power of
God. I'm not afraid that my gospel
is not sufficient to save men's souls, that it might require
a little something else on my part, that I must add something
to it. No, no. It's the power of God. It's sufficient. It's good enough. It's good enough. Oh, I think
preachers... I think what y'all do is go visit
folks in their homes. Sit down on 101 and present their
arguments and they'll tell you what they think back and then
you tell them what you... And when you come in here to
teach Sunday school, I think we need to have sharing sessions
where everybody gets put in his part. That's what folks say who
don't know anything. This gospel is sufficient. It don't need my help. It don't
need my help. I've done everything God has
commanded me to do when I preach it. And I tell you, when He Himself,
when He accompanies that gospel into the hearts of His elect,
it's just like turning on the light. Just like turning on the
light. They see what they've never saw.
They hear what they have never heard, and that is what Paul
is telling us. It is the power of God unto salvation. God's power is manifested in
His providence that brought you here. It is manifested in the
reason for your coming and in the arranging for you to cross
paths with His ambassador, but the power to convert your soul.
and reconcile you to God and speak peace to your heart is
manifested in His gospel. You're not going to find that
out on the lake. I'm talking about my gospel. The gospel I'm
called to preach and the gospel God commands me to preach. And
then, fourthly, the gospel is the revelation of God. The gospel
is the glorious work of the triune God manifested in the person
and work of Jesus Christ, His eternality, His Godhead, His
offices, His covenant headship, His incarnation, His accomplished
work of redemption, His resurrection, His present reign and glory. Now listen to our text. Now to
Him that is of power to establish you, according to my gospel and
the preaching of Jesus Christ." Paul took those things of the
Old Testament scriptures that he talks about here and he preached
the gospel to men. He told them about Abraham. We
had studies when I was in religion. We had studies and we talked
about Abraham, talked about Isaac and Ishmael and all those things,
but nobody knew what they meant. They were just stories of devotion
and spirituality. They meant to inspire us and
they were talking about Abraham's faith and all these things. But
the Scripture said, to Abraham and his seed were the promises
made. He saith not to seeds as of many,
but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. All these things
that God promised to Abraham was in Christ, was through Christ. That's what nobody ever told
me. Isaac and Ishmael, one by the bondwoman, one by the free,
one after the plague, one after the promise of God. These things,
Paul said, are an allegory. They're an allegory. Speaking
of the two covenants, one by the flesh, by the strength and
hope of the flesh, the other by the promise of God and the
grace of God. And then he tells us about the
first tabernacle and the priesthood and sacrifices, and he calls
them a figure for the time then present, pointing to Christ who
would come in His own blood, enter into heaven itself, and
obtain eternal redemption for us. The law having a shadow of
good things to come, but no power to make those comers perfect. What's it take to be saved? Have
to be perfect. Have to be perfect. That's the
only way you can be saved. And there's no way for you to
be perfect except in Christ. The purging of blood, a pattern
of things of the heavens, of Him who appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ is the Lamb of God. He's
the propitiation for our sins. He's the Sabbath. We rest in
Him as God did rest in Him from the very beginning. And natural
Israel is a picture of spiritual Israel. Abraham's sons are called
in the Scriptures all those who believe. Isn't that what it says
over there in Galatians 3.29? If you be Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. The Gospels clearly
set forth in the Old Testament in types and pictures in plain
declaration. Isaiah said he was wounded for
our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. All we like
sheep have went astray and the Lord has put on him all the iniquity
of his people. It was for our iniquities and
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Unto us a child
is born. Unto us a son is given. And on
and on and on I could go through the Old Testament. My point is
Paul preached the gospel to these men using these types and pictures
and shadows and all of these things that we all read as little
stories to inspire us to do good works. And that's not why these
things were given. They were given to picture Christ
in that redemptive work that would be done in hell. It's the
revelation of God that brings everlasting life to the sinner.
And the Holy Spirit of God takes this gospel and makes him to
know the origin of it, the glory of it, the hope of it, and the
power of it. The preaching of the gospel is
the revelation of God. If God ever reveals these things
to your heart, He is not going to reveal something else to you,
and you are going to say, well, I really like what you said,
but I really like what He said. No! If He reveals them to you,
you are going to say, that's it! That's it! What's it? The gospel you have
been preaching to me. I see it. I see the glory of
it. It's not something else, it's what's being declared to
you. Listen to what Paul said, if our gospel, his gospel, that's
what I'm saying about mine. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ should shine unto them. Only God can make it shine. I
can preach it. I can preach it. I can picture
it. I can take illustrations and
illustrate it, but I can't make it shine. Only God can turn that
light on in your soul, and when He does, you're going to say,
that's it. That's it. Why didn't I see that? Why didn't
I see that? Oh, my soul. My gospel. You see what I'm saying? You're
not saying this. You're dishonest with me. I'm
telling you, God has ambassadors in this world, and they have
His gospel. And through that gospel, they're
called, these men are called unto everlasting life. And He
turns the light on in your soul when He accompanies that gospel
into the hearts of His people. Do I expect everybody to believe?
I don't know why you wouldn't. Why wouldn't you believe? Huh? It's the power of God unto salvation.
Of course I expect men to believe. It's the truth. It's the truth. If you believe this book. If
you believe this book. But you want to carry over what
your father's mother said, and what your great-grandpa said,
and what the Methodist Church said, and what somebody else
said, I got nothing for you. But if you want to sit down with
this book, I can show you what I'm telling you is the truth.
It's the truth. It's the truth. And I tell you
this, if God ever shines it in your heart, I won't have to come
and tell you. He'll tell you. He that knoweth
God, John said, heareth us. And that's how you know the difference
between that Spirit of Antichrist and that Spirit of Christ. God
makes it known in your soul. The preaching of the Gospel is
the revelation of God. That's my Gospel. Now, I don't
know about yours, but that's mine. That's mine. And that's
what I preach. May God reveal it to our hearts.