I know you all have thought that
Shelby travels with me all the time since I had that heart valve
replacement because she was concerned about my health, and now she
gave it away just to straighten my collar out before I get up
to preach. Thank you, dear. I received a letter yesterday
from a preacher. I want to read a portion of it
to you and a portion of my response to him. because it has a direct
bearing on my message this morning. I've been corresponding with
this man a while. I haven't met him yet. Look forward
to it. Dear Pastor Fortner, I really appreciate being able to come
to you with some questions that have risen in my spiritual life
and ministry. I really have no other pastor
to ask these things. They have somewhat disowned me. When you have time, could you
please help me with the ending of a message, preaching the gospel,
compelling men and women to come to Christ? Do you have an inquiry
room, such as Spurgeon did? Do you ask troubled souls to
maybe seek you out? It goes on. I know for sure we
can't save them or make them. I'm totally against this soul-winning
foolishness. I do believe we are to witness
and warn sinners of the wrath of God and plead with many women
to flee to Christ, our hiding place. Do you wait until the
sinner receives assurance from the Lord that they've been saved,
then make that profession public? Thanks for any help you may be
able to give. This is what I wrote in response.
Every faithful gospel preacher is troubled by these matters
of great importance. The great problem is in us. We have a great desire, inspired
by God, to see sinners converted by his grace. Therefore, we pray
and study with diligence and ardently devote ourselves to
the preaching of the gospel. We have another fleshly, carnal
lust for success, desiring to see things happen. Therefore,
we are tempted to employ the use of carnal pressures to get
people to make a profession of faith. We need to remind ourselves
incessantly, asking God the Holy Spirit to burn it in our hearts,
that it is Christ who builds his church and adds to it daily
such as should be saved. This he does by the preaching
of the gospel. And I went on to say this, seek
God's message, God's power, and God's grace to faithfully preach
the gospel. Preach it with heartfelt passion,
then wait. God will save his elect by the
gospel. Everything added to the church
by any other means is just wood, hay, and stubble. God saves sinners. And when God saves a sinner,
he will know it. Then and only then should faith
in Christ be professed in believers' baptism. And I concluded my correspondence
with him this way. God be with you tomorrow, my
brother. Pray, study, pray, preach Christ crucified, pray, and wait
for God to work. Would to God every faithful man
would heed those words of admonition. It is Christ who builds his church. Not methods, not tricks, not
plans, not programs. The Lord Jesus still adds to
his church daily such as should be saved. And he does it by the
faithful preaching of the gospel of God's free grace in him and
nothing else. Nothing else. I was a little stubborn when
I was a young man. I hope the stubbornness today
is more from conviction than anything else, but I promise
you the stubbornness is even greater today in this regard. As long as God gives me grace
and I have breath in my lungs and am responsible as pastor
of this congregation, we will not stoop to the trickery of
evangelistic deception and the trickery of religious programs
and the trickery of religious entertainment in order to fill
the pews. We're concerned with the souls
of men. And the only thing that benefits
the souls of men is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Perhaps that will help you to
understand the immense importance of my subject this morning. What
is it to preach the gospel? That's the title of my message.
What is it to preach the gospel? Our text will be Romans 1, 1
through 17. May God the Holy Spirit be our
teacher. As you care for your soul and
care for the souls of those you influence, give me your attention. Everything I have to say today,
I repeat, is of immense importance. Understand this first. The salvation
of God's elect is sure. We read earlier, Isaiah chapter
40, The Lord God told his prophet what to preach. Told every prophet
what to preach. All flesh is grass. Behold your
God. Salvation is God's work. Read
the prophecy of Isaiah 40 again. That's exactly what the Lord
God told his prophets to preach. All flesh is grass. Grass. Dried, mowed grass. Withered grass. Grass that will
be blown away and nobody will miss it. Worthless grass. That's what you are. Worthless
grass. I know preachers in this generation
bow and scrape before folks and try to treat them like they're
somebody. Well, you are. You're nobody. and the one talking
to you is in the same boat. Nothing and nobody, that's all.
Just sin, just corruption, grass. Then it says, behold your God.
God sits in the solitariness of his character as God alone. He is God who rules the universe. He is God who created all things,
rules all things, and disposes of all things. He is God who
alone can help you. And God is the savior of his
people. Salvation is God's work. Salvation is God's work. Now
don't worry about it. He's able to do it. Every sinner
chosen of God from eternity shall be saved no matter what. Every
sinner loved and chosen of God was redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ at Calvary, and every blood-bought sinner shall
be saved. There's no possibility that one
sinner for whom Jesus Christ shed his blood at Calvary will
perish at last. Every sinner loved and chosen
of God in eternity Purchased by the blood of God's darling
son at Calvary Shall be born again by God the Holy Spirit
at the appointed time of love No possibility of any sinner
loved and chosen of God Redeemed by the blood of Christ Escaping
or even going a half second beyond the appointed time of love when
he must and shall be born again if you're God's God's gonna get
you If you're God's, God's going to get you. Resist, fight, fuss
as you may. If you're God's, God's going
to get you. I've been corresponding the last
couple of weeks with another fellow in South Africa. I hope
he listens to this. He's been reading a lot of stuff
and wanting to argue, fussing and fussing and fussing and fussing
and fussing. He must be a smart fellow. He's got some kind of
educational thing, some kind of institute down in South Africa.
But he reads things folks post on the webpages and wants to
argue about it. And he betrays his ignorance
of things spiritual. And I told him this. I'm not
just telling you. his utter ignorance of things spiritual in such a
way that it would make you laugh if it weren't so sad. It'd make
you laugh if it weren't so sad. For example, he read the articles
in Bulletin last week about Christ our rest and I was calling upon
people to cease working, quit working. You've got to quit working
if ever you experience God's salvation. You wouldn't believe
what he wrote to me. This is a brilliant, educated
fellow. Educated fellow. You won't believe
what he wrote to me. He said, how could people live
if everybody quits working? And I said, that would be laughable
if I weren't weeping for you. Well, why would he write? I was
talking to Shelby about this last night, late, early this
morning. Why would he read the stuff and
write to you? Because his conscience is bothering
him. Because his conscience is bothering him. He can't live
in peace with his infidelity. He can't live in peace with no
hope. He can't live in peace with his
raging hatred of God. He can't live in peace that way.
God stirred his mind. I hope I hope he opens his heart
and I hope he continues to read and listen this I know if he's
God's God will get him God will get him and if you're God's God
will get you there's no question about that And there's no question
about this as well The means by which God will get you the
means by which God saves his elect the only means The only
means by which God gives chosen redeemed sinners eternal life
in Jesus Christ and faith in his son is the preaching of the
gospel of God's free grace. Gospel preaching is vital to
the souls of men. Gospel preaching is vital to
your soul, vital to the souls of those around you, those you
influence, vital to the salvation of all who are to be saved by
God Almighty. These things are so plainly revealed
in Holy Scripture that there's no excuse for error regarding
them. Listen to the book of God. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Gospel preaching is absolutely
indispensable in the purpose of God for the saving of his
people. Now, the question, the issue
is not at all, well, God could save people without preaching
gospel preaching if he wanted to. Who would dispute that? The only person who would dispute
that is someone who has no idea who God is. God could save folks
without them ever coming out of their mother's womb. Were
that his purpose? God could save folks by any means
he ordained. Were that his purpose? But God
has ordained. God has decreed. God has ordered. God has purposed the preaching
of the gospel for the saving of his people. The plain, unadorned,
clear, unmistakable preaching of the gospel of his free grace
in Jesus Christ. Those who teach otherwise, who
were happy to believe that God saves sinners, apart from the
preaching of the gospel, fly in the face of Holy Scripture. It's therefore no surprise to
see men favoring emotionalism, experiences and dreams and customs
and religious traditions and religious programs above the
Word of God. Well, God saves a fellow by a
dream. God saves a fellow by this, by
that. I've told you many times. My
poor grandmother went to her grave convinced that my drunk
daddy was a saved man. Same man. Of course, when he
was a little boy, in one of his fits of rebellion, she was standing
at the kitchen sink washing dishes. And she told me, she said, I
just was thinking about Paul and had a vision, and the Lord
showed me a crown of thorns, and I knew he was all right. Poor soul. Poor soul. Poor, deluded souls. How sincere, yes, sincere, but
sincerity won't get you anything. Earnest, yes, earnest, but earnestness
won't get you anything. Faith comes by healing and healing
by the Word of God, by the preaching of the gospel of God's free grace.
Well, but Brother Don, what if there's a chosen sinner and he's
to be saved and there's no preacher around him? That would be a problem,
Lindsay, if it were up to you. That'd be a problem if there's
a fellow in the heart of New Guinea right now, and he's chosen
of God, and he's been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and now
the time of love has come. He's to be called by God's grace.
How's he going to hear the gospel? Why don't you read Acts chapter
8 and talk to Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch about that? That's not
a problem with God. That's not a problem with God.
God will see to it. When the time comes to call out
his elect that the chosen sinner redeemed by the blood of Christ
Meets up with a gospel preacher and the preaching of the gospel
brings life and faith to that chosen sinner All right. Now
with that in mind, let's look in romans chapter one one more
time I want us again to look at these first 17 verses of romans
one If the preaching of the gospel is, as the New Testament universally
declares it is, vital to the salvation of lost souls, then
no questions can possibly be more important and more pressing
than the three questions I want to answer in this message. First,
who preaches the gospel? Second, what is the gospel we
preach? Third, What is it to preach the
gospel? All right, number one, Romans
chapter one, verse one. Who preaches the gospel? We cannot
do better when searching for an example, a pattern of what
a gospel preacher is, than to look to the apostle Paul, the
apostle to the Gentiles, ordained by God to replace Judas from
eternity. The apostle Paul writes concerning
himself and all who preach the gospel this way. Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, write the word messenger
beside that, separated unto the gospel of God. That man who truly
preaches the gospel, that man who always preaches the gospel,
That man who preaches the whole gospel and that exclusively is
a servant of Jesus Christ, a servant of Jesus Christ. And he will
prove himself a servant of Jesus Christ in the church of Christ
before he's the servant of Jesus Christ pastoring one of God's
churches. When I was in Bible college,
Shelby and I rented an apartment on what was it, Granville Avenue
in Winston-Salem. The president of the school owned
it. And the students were all going to be preachers, supposedly. The fellow and his wife who lived
right across the hall from us, just right across the hall from
us, is now, I presume, still a missionary. He was going to
school to be a missionary. Do you know how often he went
to church? Have any idea how often he went
to church? Only when he knew he'd get caught if he didn't
go. And that would cause him some penalty marks. Just never
went. Just never went. Wasn't interested. Wasn't interested. He wasn't
the servant of Jesus Christ. For the servant of Christ is
the servant of his church. He gives his life to the cause
of Christ, devoted to the cause of Christ, not in order to be
a preacher, but because he is the servant of Jesus Christ.
God's servants are men who devote themselves to Christ, his cause,
and his church. He's the servant of Jesus Christ.
He's the servant of Christ before he's made a preacher. And if he's not the servant of
Christ before he's made a preacher, he's not the servant of Christ
afterwards. He's not. Called to be an apostle, a messenger. Gospel preachers are called and
gifted of God to be his messengers. Men sent by God to you with a
message. Men sent by God to you with a
message. I beg of you, as I have for 34
years, I beg of you, pray for your pastor as I attempt to preach
to you Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night, week after
week. As I go elsewhere to preach,
most every night of the week usually, Pray for me. Not only that God will give me
grace to properly, earnestly, diligently prepare with prayer
and study the message he would have me to bring, but that God
would send me at the hour appointed with his message to you. Larry
Brown, I can't possibly Preach to your heart right now unless
God sent me to preach to your heart. This hour. Right now. Right now. How shall they preach
except they be sent? Not sent once, though certainly
that's the case, but sent every time they open their mouths as
God's ambassadors to the souls of men. None can preach except
they be sent. A gospel preacher is a man with
a message from God, a message burning in his soul that he must
deliver. A man with a message that makes
him have a messianic call, a messianic purpose, a messianic mandate. If you ever run across a man
with a mandate from God, or one who even thinks he has a mandate
from God, you won't have to guess about it. You'll know it. You
can't handle it. You can't deal with it. It can't
be done. It can't be done. Ask those folks
who killed those folks out in Texas a few years ago, what was
his name, David Koresh? He was a heretic, but he thought
he had a messianic word from God, so he couldn't be dealt
with even in the threat of death with guns all around him. Couldn't
be dealt with. How can that be? How can that
be? That man who has a messianic errand will fit no mold. He will bow to no pressure. He
will surrender no ground. He will make no compromise. Why
should I? Why should I? That man has a
mandate from God. That makes him utterly uncontrollable
by anyone except God who sent him. Moses was a man with a mandate
from God. Pharaoh couldn't threaten him,
Egypt couldn't control him, and the children of Israel in their
rebellion couldn't turn him aside. He had a mandate from God. John
the Baptist was a man with a mandate from God. Well, you see what
that got him? That's all right. He had a mandate from God. And
he wasn't about to back up, not even when the ruler threatened
him with life, he wasn't about to back up. Look at verse 1 again. I'll tell you something else
about a man who truly preaches the gospel. He's the servant
of Jesus Christ, divinely called as a messenger of Christ. And
third, God's servants, true gospel preachers, are men separated
unto the gospel of God. Now look at Romans chapter 1. Begin reading in verse 9. had
been separated from his brother's womb, separated by the gift and
call of God, separated under the gospel. And Paul separated
himself to this great work. That man who preaches the gospel
is like Abraham's servant. You remember back in, what is
it, Genesis 23? He sent him after a bride for
his son, Isaac. And Abraham's servant Found Abraham's
kinsmen and he found his his kinsmen and found Rachel or Rebecca
He said he said oh, that's the woman and he went in talked to
her brothers and and they said well Let's have a let's have
a party first. Let's let's have a meal first.
Let's have some refreshment first Let's have some rest first. He
said when I've got this business settled. We'll talk about something
else. I When this business is taken care of, we'll talk about
something else. Until then, until then, nothing else can be considered.
Nothing else. So it was with Paul. He would
not be distracted from his work, either by pleasure or by pressure. Romans 1 verse 9. God is my witness. God is my witness. When I read
that, Frank Hall, that's as near in
this book as you'll ever find any man coming to take an oath.
God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel
of his son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you all always
in my prayers, making requests. Now watch this. If by any means,
if by any means, you remember how he finally got there? Remember I finally got there
as a prisoner headed to death Is it if by any means? Now at
length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to
come to you now watch this for I long to see you I Long to see
you so we can get together and shake hands my daughter meets
your son your son meet my daughter We have a good time. No, no,
no, no that I God's messenger may impart unto you some spiritual
gift to the end that you may be established. That is, that
I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both
of you and me. I long to go preach the gospel
at Rome. I long to come preach the gospel
to you. By whatever means God arranges
it, this is what I want. I want to come and preach Jesus
Christ crucified to you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual
gift, and having done that, now, oh, if God will allow me to carry His gospel to you, so
that you profit by His gospel, we may both be comforted together. It'll be for your comfort to
get it, and my comfort to see you have it. Verse 13 now, I
would not have you ignorant brethren that oftentimes I purpose to
come to you. I Well, he must have sent him
a advanced committee into Rome to find out how many people you
get to come fill the auditorium No, he's a purpose to come to
you But was let hitherto that is
God the Holy Spirit prevented it that I might have some fruit
among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I purpose to
come, but God stopped me from coming at the time I wanted to
come, so that my time with you might be profitable. I want to come and be of help
to you. But God would not permit it now. Now, when God permits it, when
God brings it to pass, then it'll be profitable. Verse 14. I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor. An honest man who has debt. An honest man who has debt. Can't
rest easy. Not an honest man. Mark Henson,
if I owe you $1,000, I can't be comfortable till it's done.
If I have to work three jobs and drink a lot of coffee, that's
what I'll have to do. I can't rest until the debt's
paid. Can't do it. Just can't do it. Not an honest
man. God's servants are honest men in debt. In debt. in debt to eternity
bound sinners, in debt to folks who need what they've got. I'm
a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the
wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Faithful servants of God, gospel
preachers, are men who live to preach. Now Merle, that's some statement.
If I'm God's, God's servant, God's messenger, I live to preach. I am more than a little disturbed,
distressed, saddened, brokenhearted when I see men who could do otherwise. Well, we don't have many folks
come on Sunday nights anymore. We'll quit having Sunday night
service. Well, not but half a dozen folks
come on Wednesday nights. We'll quit having service on
Wednesday night. I wonder, Lindsay, would you do that if the ones
who came were your children and grandchildren on the brink of
hell? Would you? Oh, no. No, no, no. No, no, not if I
thought it'd do them good, no! That answers a lot of questions,
doesn't it? Now, I recognize that no one mistake me. The time
may come when this preacher will not be able to prepare and preach
three times a week. That may come. And that time
comes, we'll have some other way to take care of things. But
just, well, preaching to two or three is not that important.
I fly around the world to preach to two or three folks a lot of
times. A lot of times. Why would you do that? Why? Why? The souls of men. The glory of
God. The need of men's souls. And
the only thing that will meet the need is the preaching of
the gospel. I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. Why? For I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of it because
this is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, by the
preaching of the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, from my faith to your faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. All right, what is
the gospel we preach? We've read it several times in
the last few weeks, but look at it again, Romans chapter one.
Paul describes it here as the gospel of God. It is that gospel
which God Almighty devised and God alone executes. It is nothing
new. It is the gospel which he had
promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It is
the gospel revealed in the book of God so that the whole word
of God is the revelation of the gospel, the revelation of the
righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, the Lord. It is the revelation
of the righteousness of God brought about, established, brought in,
and bestowed upon chosen redeemed sinners by the doing and dying
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Read on. It is the gospel concerning
his sword. So the whole of the gospel is
concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
eternal Godhead, His covenant surety ship, His incarnation,
His obedience as our representative, His substitutionary sacrifice
as our Redeemer, His resurrection from the dead, His exaltation,
His rule of all things. It is the gospel concerning His
Son. So that the preacher's business
is to search the scriptures, study the scriptures, seek God-given
understanding in the scriptures, and open the scriptures up so
that you see Christ in the book of God. Open the scriptures up
and show you Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The gospel is
for His name. It is for the glory, honor, praise,
exaltation, and worship of God's holy name. Now here's a litmus
test. By this, judge everything I preach. By this, judge everything Linda
Campbell teaches in this place. By this, judge everything any
preacher preaches here or anywhere else. By this, judge all doctrine,
all religion, all teaching, all preaching. Every sermon, judge
it by this. If it exalts the Lord Jesus Christ,
It exalts the free grace of God in Christ, causing you to look
away from yourself to Christ alone. It is according to the
gospel of God. If it exalts man, his will, his
works, his religious deeds, causing man to look in himself. It is of the devil, the father
of lies, the flatterer and deceiver of men. And it is by this gospel,
the glorious gospel of the all-glorious Christ, that all who believe
are called the called of Jesus Christ. All right. Look at Romans,
our second Thessalonians chapter two for a minute. Second Thessalonians
chapter two. Here we are. When you read this second chapter
of second Thessalonians, you ought to always read it as if you were sitting in the
pew when the pastor comes with a letter from the Apostle Paul
to these saints at Thessalonica. Haven't heard from him in a long
time. And now Paul writes to him and he writes to them about
antichrist and reprobation and the judgment of God upon a religious
generation who would not have God. And God sends them a strong
lie that they might be deceived by the lie because they would
not receive the love of the truth. And then they get to verse 13.
Those fellas, as they heard this epistle read, can you imagine
how they must have shook? Feared. How saddened their hearts
must have been. And then they got to this word
in verse 13. But. Oh, now we're going to change
gears. But we're bound to give thanks
to God all the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the
Lord. Now watch this. Because you're
not in the mess of the folks are in. You're not confused by
infidelity and false religion. You're not confused by the darkness
of the hour. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Look around you this morning.
No, don't do that. Don't do that. Look at what God's done for you. Here we are. I just caught your
eye, Walt. God, in his providence, you were
raised in the darkness of Roman Catholic idolatry. And here you
sit, hearing the gospel. It does something. You were raised
in the darkness of our many and free will works religion. And
here you said rejoicing in the gospel. Oh God, how magnanimously
gracious you have been to my soul. Because God had from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification and belief
of the truth. There's no other way for anybody
to be saved, except by the regenerating work of God, the Holy Spirit,
giving you faith in Jesus Christ, believing the truth of the gospel. Well, how on earth can that happen?
Watch this. Where unto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news of
salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ the Lord. The good news
of sin put away by the sacrifice of Christ. The good news of righteousness
brought in by the obedience of Christ. The good news of free
grace through a voluntary substitute who sits in glory, able to save
unto the uttermost all who come to God by him. Now, what's this? Here's the third question. What
is it to preach the gospel? I will give you five very brief
answers, but I want you to hear them. Number one, to preach the
gospel is simply to declare it. Simply to declare it. I wrote to Brother Frank earlier
this week. I think it was Frank. I think
it was. If I wasn't, raise your hand,
I'll correct it. I preach and use a word that
you've got to go home and get a dictionary and look it up.
I messed up. Did I write that to you? Oh, but you want people to know
how learned you are. Why? I try to hide that from folks
myself because I don't know how unlearned I am. Why? That's just
pride. That's just pride. My object
is to get you to hear me, understand me. to know what I say, not to
impress you. To preach the gospel is simply
to declare it, not defend it, not explain it, to declare it. Not to make it pretty, not to
make it acceptable, not to make it something folks, oh, they're
like this. No, to preach the gospel is simply
to declare it. I recall when I was first asked
to preach, I had been converted long. And folks in the church
asked me to take some service at some kind of a youth meeting
they had, I think called Youth Rallies or something like that.
I forgot what it was, but I thought, my soul, why me? And Brother Johnny Bell said,
I'm done with a box of rocks. Why me? I don't know anything. I don't
know anything. Well, why would you preach? I could not not tell
folks what God's done for me. How could I bite my tongue and
say, no, I can't tell anybody about that? No, no, no, no, no. To preach the gospel is simply
to declare it. Number two, what is it to preach
the gospel? To preach the gospel is to declare
it as God's message. Mark Ward, if what I'm preaching
to you is my message. If it's something that I've studied
and learned and I've read and write books and I've got things
organized and I've got the things done just right, it's my message.
I don't care how well it is, how well prepared or how well
presented or how true. If it's my message, you can hear
it or not hear it with no consequence. With no consequence. But if it's
God's message, you must hear it, and you must
hear it, or you must be damned. If it's God's message, you must
hear it, and you must hear it, or heed it, or you must be damned. Third, what is it to preach the
gospel? It is to preach God's message
for everyone. For everyone. We live in a day of specialized
everything. If you want to go see a doctor
and you go to your family doctor and say, I got something on my
ear here, he'll send you to an ear doctor. He specializes in
ears. If you want to go see a preacher
and talk to him about this and that other, find out what the
problem is. We have a minister on staff for that need right
there. Churches specialize and they have special services for
the young and special services for the deaf and special services
for the blind and special services for old folks and special services
for Divorcees and specials we were having service special services
for sodomites and unwed mothers for longer We we want to include
everybody. In fact some churches do Everyone's
welcome here Everyone's welcome here. We specialize in everything
the moment you specialize you compromise The moment you specialize you
compromise you see The reason for special services is to try
to make the gospel appealing to the special group. Appealing
to the young people. What do you have that appeals
to young people? Not a frazzling thing. What do you have that
appeals to old people? Not a frazzling thing. What do
y'all have special for young married couples? Nothing. Nothing. What we've got special for everybody
is called the gospel of God's free grace. And that's what you
need. That's what you need. Oh, I want
my children to be entertained. Well, take them somewhere else
and entertain them and take them to hell. But that's not what's
going to happen here. No, no. The gospel we preach
is the same message for the old and the young, converted and
unconverted, the same message by which Believers are corrected
and comforted the same message by which God saves sinners and
edifies his saints the same message by which we're Prepared to walk
with Christ in the world and prepared to walk with Christ
out of the world It's the same message to preach the gospel.
What is that? It is to preach the gospel of
the grace of God as my message my message three times In his
epistles, Paul spoke of the gospel and said, my message, my message,
my message. But then he spoke of it and said,
my doctrine, my doctrine, my doctrine. I'm not standing here
talking to you about abstract religious theological principles. Folks think they're being nice
and say, oh boy, you gave me a lot to think about today. I
didn't give you anything to think about. I gave you something to
obey. I didn't come here to present
an opinion for you to, oh, well, let's see what Brother Don thinks
about that. Now, let's see what Dr. Gil thinks about that. Now,
let's see what Aristotle thinks about that. Go see what your
cows in the barn you are thinking about as far as I'm concerned.
It's nonsense. No, no, no. I've come here with
a message. I'm not talking to you about
abstract things I've learned from a book. I'm preaching a
message God has inscribed upon my heart. by the finger of God
himself with fire and burned it into my soul as with a red
hot iron by his word. What is it to preach the gospel?
It is to declare the gospel with a genuine desire that all who
hear may believe. I sometimes hear folks, preachers
say, usually it's young ones, Young fellas don't get a lot
better when we get older, but get a little bit better. Maybe
overstate things. I don't care whether you believe
what I'm preaching or not. If I didn't care whether you
believe what I'm preaching or not, I'm not preaching the gospel.
I'm just beating the wind. Oh, no. I've been begging God that he'd
make you believe what I'm saying. I've been begging God. to make
you believe the gospel. I endeavor every time I preach,
everywhere I preach, whether to many or to few, praying that
God will enable me to preach the gospel to you as if I had
just learned it today and you had never heard it before. As
if you were sure never to hear it again and it's certain I would
never preach it again. And as if You were immediately
about to leave this world. I pray for grace to preach with
fire from heaven in my soul because my prayer and heart's desire
to God for you is that you may be saved. And I know that's not going to
take place apart from the preaching of the gospel. O Spirit of God,
come now and burn your word into the hearts of these immortal
souls, giving them life and faith in Christ. The gospel is all
about our Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Christ Jesus describes himself
as the pearl of great price. Will you sell all and buy this
pearl, or will you pass it by? Years ago, I read a story of
a man and his son who were very wealthy, and they collected fine,
fine works of art. They had everything imaginable
in their private possession. They often liked to spend their
time in their art room looking at their collection and talking
about it. When the Vietnam War broke out, the son, being a loyal,
patriotic young man, volunteered for service. Shortly after he
was sent to Vietnam, he was killed in battle while saving another
soldier's life. His father got word about it
and, of course, grieved horribly. Some months later, a young man
knocked at the door. This old man opened the door
and saw a young man standing there with a large package in
his hand. He said, Sir, you don't know
me, but I'm so-and-so, gave him his name. He said, I'm the soldier
for whom your son gave his life. He saved a lot of soldiers that
day, four or five. I was the last one he had rescued.
He was carrying me across his shoulder when a bullet struck
him through the heart. and he fell dead instantly. He said
to the man, he said, your son talked often about you and him
and your relationship and your love of art. And he stretched
out this package and said, I think your son wants you to have this.
And the old man opened it up and this fellow, as he saw the
man open it up, he said, I'm not much of an artist, but I
think your son wants you to have it. What he saw was a picture
of his son. He caught the eyes. of his son,
and his own eyes welled up with tears. And he took that painting
inside and hung it right over the manor. He spent a lot of
time looking at that painting. Every time somebody come visit
him, first thing he'd show them was that painting of his son.
They just overwhelmed with it. In time, he died and left instructions
that his estate was to be sold at auction. And so the day came
for the auction to come. And the auctioneer had folks
gathered in, just packed into places you could imagine, artists
from around the world wanting to find art for their collection.
And sitting right on a platform, the only thing that could be
seen was this painting of the sun. And the auctioneer struck the gavel
and said, we'll start the auction. We'll start with the sun. Anybody
bid $100? A hundred dollars for the sun.
The sun. A hundred dollars for the sun.
Somebody says, where's the real art? We didn't come here to buy
that. A hundred dollars for the sun. Anybody, anybody want to
bid on the sun? Where's the real art? He said,
we'll sell the sun first. Officer, I'm going to start with
this. Finally, in the back was a fellow who had been gardener
for that father and his son for years, and he said, I bid $10. He's a poor man, that's all he
could afford. Auctioneer struck the gavel and said, $10 once,
$10 twice, sold for $10. And then he struck the gavel
again and said, the auction's ended. And folks started to scream
angrily, we didn't come here for this. Where's the art? He
said, when I was contacted to do the bidding at this auction,
I was given a word of stipulation I couldn't reveal till now. This
gentleman instructed me that we would auction off his son
first. And whoever bought this picture
of his son gets everything. Nothing else will be sold. Whoever gets the Son gets everything. That's how it is. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. And that's what it is to preach
the gospel. Amen.