Well, I'm delighted to be here. It's great. It says in the scriptures
how good it is when brethren dwell together in unity. And
that unity is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the gospel of
his grace. and how much we've enjoyed that, how much we've
enjoyed the warmth of fellowship in our Lord Jesus Christ since
we've been here. We were at Rocky Mountain, Virginia last weekend
for Paul Mahan's conference and then we came down and had some
time on the beach and coming over here, it's been great to
get to know Greg and Trish and some of the rest of you, we really
have enjoyed it. Our son, Stephen, and his wife,
Sam, and their children have been here two occasions before.
Some of you, I know, remember them coming here. But this is
our first time. Now we know. We heard what they
said, now we've been here. We know what it's like. Do you
know something? If you keep on treating us as good as this,
we might just want to come back. I want to talk to you this morning
about my gospel. My gospel. My gospel. All people
in the world have a gospel of some... they have some news,
some good news that fits them. It suits their purpose for getting
through life. It gives them some hope for the
future. And for most, the irreligious, it's their health, their wealth,
their happiness. All of these things are what
they want. These are the things that switch them on and work
for them. But this is because they're willfully
ignorant. I say willfully ignorant of who
God is, of sin, of eternity of judgment to come they don't hear
that that scripture that says unto them it is appointed to
man to die once and then the judgment and it's coming you
know we're all we're all as someone once said we're all in our funeral
procession from the oldest of us to the youngest of us even
now and yours might be longer than somebody else's but we're
all in our funeral procession now appointed to man to die once
and then the judgment. And these people, these irreligious,
they're willfully ignorant of God and sin, so their health,
wealth, and happiness philosophy does it for them. And then you
get into the religious world, and there are so many Gospels.
It's not just a Christian term. There are so many Gospels. They
all have their idea of what it is that will make them right
with God, that will work for them for eternity. But you know
this well, there is only one gospel that is effectual. What
do I mean by effectual? Gets the job done. There is only
one that is effectual. If the conviction comes across
a man or a woman about the nature of God, who the God of the universe
truly is, of judgment to come, of what we are by nature as sinners
in this flesh, by nature, this cry goes up. It appears a couple
of times in the book of Job. Job 9 verse 2 says this, how
should a man be just with God? There's judgment coming. What
do I need to know? How should a man be just with
God? I must know this. This is the
most important question. It's not about what kind of job
or kind of prosperity I have. It's this. How should a man be
just with God? I'll tell you how. I must be
sinless because God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
I must have the righteousness of God. Not just my idea of righteousness,
I must have the righteousness of God. I must have holiness.
We heard it on Wednesday. It's one of the things that Greg
brought to us that we cannot live without. You cannot live
eternally without holiness. Follow holiness, without which
no man shall see the Lord. And it comes, how does this holiness
come? How does this righteousness?
How does this justice that we must have to be just with God?
It comes through the gospel, what God has declared in the
gospel. The gospel is not an offer to
everybody to exercise their duty to believe it. The gospel is
a declaration of the promises of God to his elect, those he
chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. The gospel, the
gospel. Is your gospel the gospel? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. Romans 1, 6, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. Why? Because it is the power
of God. That means it's the dynamite.
It's the energy of God that gets the job done. It's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. God promises,
Paul writes to the Ephesians, Ephesians 3 and verse 6, that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body, the
people of God, this people he chose, and partakers of his promise
in Christ. Well, how do you get that, Paul?
By the gospel. It comes by the gospel. You need
to look out. There are many Gospels, there
are many good counterfeits. Our Lord Jesus said that we should
beware of false Gospels. He said the deception is great,
able to deceive even the elect if that were possible. But of
course it isn't possible. God will not let it deceive his
people. You know in Britain today, You
may think that you're pretty lonely here in the state of Florida. You know, one fellowship here
that you know about and others dotted around. You've got others
dotted around. We've got hardly any. We are
in a barren wilderness in terms of the truth of the gospel. There
are plenty of Calvinistic churches. There are plenty of reformed
Baptist churches. They're so proud of their doctrine
and their tradition, but there's not the gospel there. There's
no Christ there. He's not in it. Paul talked about
my gospel. In the New Testament, Paul talked
about my gospel four times, twice in Romans, once in 2 Timothy,
once in Galatians. He talked about my gospel, my
gospel. This is the question. Is your
gospel, is your gospel the gospel of God? Romans 1 and verse 1
talks about the gospel of God, separated unto the gospel of
God. This is the truth, the gospel
of God. Is your gospel, You here, anybody outside of here, is your
gospel the gospel of God? I've got here nine tests of whether
my gospel is the gospel. And it may explain to you why
we are so isolated in the United Kingdom, in Great Britain, because
there are so few that pass these tests when we subject them to
these tests. First of all, Does my gospel
agree with the Old Testament Scriptures? This is the first
thing. Does the gospel that I believe agree with the Old Testament
Scriptures? Look with me at Romans chapter
1 and the first two verses. Just turn with me. If you already
have that open, that's good. Paul writes there, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ. Called to be an apostle. He was
called to be an apostle. He didn't make a decision to
be an apostle. He didn't put his hand up and
vote for it. He's called to be an apostle. He's been separated
passively. He had nothing to do with it.
God separated him. He separated him unto the gospel
of God. Now, what's this gospel of God
about, Paul? Verse 2, which he had promised
afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Which scriptures
are you talking about, Paul? The Old Testament scriptures,
of course. The gospel of Jesus Christ is declared there in the
Old Testament. Does your gospel agree with the
Old Testament scriptures? What's it about? Verse 3, it
concerns his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. You say, hold on. Look
through the Old Testament, I don't see the words Jesus Christ. Ah,
he's there in every page. That Old Testament, everything
it says is about him. It's concerning Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. Does my gospel agree with the
Old Testament scriptures? In 1 Corinthians 15 and verse
3, Paul writes to them there, for I delivered unto you first
of all that which also I received. you get this gospel by the grace
of God, he gives it to you, it's his gift by grace. Which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins, watch this, according
to the scriptures. Does your gospel agree with the
Old Testament scriptures? Because Christ came to fulfill
all of the types and pictures in the Old Testament, because
in the Old Testament, Those types and pictures were saying, someone
is coming and he's going to do all of these things. And in him
doing all of these things, the people of God will be saved.
They shall be saved in him. All of those types and pictures.
He said to the Jews in John chapter five, he said, you search the
scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life. And
in that they were right. This is it. This is where eternal
life, the truth of God is here. In the scriptures, you find the
words of eternal life. These are they, he said, they
are they. These words of the Old Testament
are they which speak of me. What's the Old Testament about?
It's about me, it's about Christ. He's either true, he's either
true God, or that's one of the most arrogant statements a man
in flesh and blood ever made. These scriptures speak of me,
he said. In Luke 24, do you remember on the Emmaus road, Following
his resurrection, when those disciples didn't know that he
was risen from the dead, and he walked with them, and he showed
them, beginning at Moses and the prophets, he expounded to
them in all the scriptures, in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. You know what it says in 1 John
chapter 4 and verse 1, this is a good verse to remember. Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
of God. I'll put that into words that
you'll understand and apply to today. Every preacher that preaches
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and you might
say superficially, oh well that means there's an awful lot of
preachers out there because there's loads of people will say Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh. No, let's think of what it really
means. What does that really mean? Every preacher that preaches
that the Messiah of the Old Testament, that the anointed of God, that
the promised one, that God explicitly promised, that he showed in picture
and type and All of those things of the Old Testament, that that
was fulfilled in that man that was born the son of Mary 2,000
years ago. That's what it is. Jesus of Nazareth. This is what Paul said. He preached
to them. Look in Acts chapter 17 sometime. You'll see. What
was he trying to say to them? That this Jesus whom he preached
is the Christ of the Old Testament. He came to fulfill all of that.
Let me give you some examples. Adam's covering. You know, right
back in the beginning of Genesis. Where's the gospel? Right in
the beginning of Genesis. Adam's covering. Adam and Eve,
when they sinned, when they fell. Greg pointed something out to
me yesterday on the fig tree. We call them gardens, you call
them your yards. But on the fig tree, the fig
leaf is like the hand, like the fingers of the hand. And they
sewed fig leaves together. They sewed the works of their
hands together to try and cover their sin. When God came, let's
cover ourselves up. They sowed those fig leaves.
I'll tell you what, seeing one of those fig leaves, I wouldn't
make a particularly good covering as far as I was concerned. I'd
want something a bit more opaque than that. There's too much space
between those leaves. No, God said that won't do. He
killed an animal. The first animal sacrifice. There
must be blood. There must be a blood sacrifice.
Christ must come and pay the penalty. for the sins of his
people. What about Abel's lamb? I'm going to go through these
quickly for the sake of time. What about Abel's lamb? Cain's
offering was the work of his own hands. That was not accepted.
But Abel's lamb, what's he saying? Messiah is coming. Christ is
coming. Christ must come, a real man,
with real human blood. The price of sin is blood, the
soul that sins it shall die. And the life is in the blood,
and blood must be shed. When I see the blood, said God,
the blood must be shed, the blood of the lamb of God, there must
be a lamb. Noah's Ark, Noah and that little
family, just eight of them in all, with all those animals.
They bore the brunt, the full force of the judgment of God
on sin. But you know what? They were
in that ark when they bore it. They rode the crest of every
wave, the trough of every wave, the wind, the rain, the light,
they rode it all, but they were in the ark. They were in Christ. This speaks of Christ. It's pointing
to him. Does your gospel agree with the
Old Testament scriptures? God's choice of Abraham. Abraham
didn't make a decision for God. Abraham didn't decide. Abraham
was there an idolater amongst all of his fathers in Ur of the
Chaldees. He was an idolater. He didn't
decide. God chose him. God spoke to him. God revealed the gospel to him.
God said to him, in thy seed, not seeds as of many, in thy
seed, which is Christ, shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. Oh, isn't it only for Jews? No, all, it's right
there, right back in Genesis, all the nations of the earth.
Aren't you pleased about that? I certainly am. All the nations
of the earth shall be blessed. His son, Isaac, that son of his
love, such a picture of the son of God and his father. And go
and sacrifice your son. Go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice
your son. And Isaac is going with his father
willingly, obeying his father, doing his father's will, going
with him. And he says, Father, I see the wood. and the fire. And I see the things that are
necessary, but I don't see a lamb. Where is the lamb of the offering?
My son, God will provide himself a lamb for an offering. Jehovah
Jireh. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah the provider
provided Jehovah Jesus, our Savior, to come and save his people from
their sins. God's love of Jacob. You know,
what does your gospel say? Does it agree with this? God
says. God says this. People hate this. He says, Jacob, the sinner, the
swindler, the cheat, Jacob have I loved. He saw, oh he was a
fine young man. He was a hunter. He was strong.
He was the apple of his father's eye. Esau have I hated. God said that. Does your gospel
agree with the Old Testament scriptures? The exodus from bondage
in Egypt, you know, when they all went down to Egypt and I
could pick up so many pictures, but I won't for the sake of time.
And they come out and it's the Passover. And every firstborn
in that land is going to die. The firstborn of all the animals,
the firstborn of all the Egyptians, the firstborn of all the Israelites
are going to die that night. The angel of death is coming
through the land. What's going to save the Israelites when I
see the blood? The lamb is slain. The blood
is painted on the door. It's not when he sees what the
Israelites feel about the blood. It's not when he sees how the
Israelites respond to it. It's when he sees the blood.
And that's what it is. He looks. If you're in Christ,
If you're in Christ, he looks at the blood that Christ shed,
and he said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. There's nothing
more that needs to be done. Salvation is accomplished. We could go
on. The Sinai law was given. You know, there's all the temple
pictures, the temple, what are they all saying? The law was
given at Sinai, that law which was a fearful, terrifying thing. The people said to Moses, please
don't come to us, we cannot look upon you, we're so frightened.
It was smoke and lightning and fire and an animal went there,
it must be shot through with an arrow. It was a terrifying
place. That law drove them to the temple sacrifices. All those
temple sacrifices are there to show how a man is just with God
on the basis of substitutionary atonement, all pointing to Christ.
Does your gospel agree with that? This is all saying, this is how
God saves the people he loved with an everlasting love. It's
what Jeremiah tells us, he loved us with an everlasting love.
In the Psalms, you go forward into the Psalms, the Old Testament
Scriptures, and there you see the words of David in all of
his anguish. And believers can identify with
those words of David in their experience, but you know, above
all they're the words of Christ. When our Lord Jesus Christ said,
cried out, Psalm 69 verse 5, My sins are not hid from me. My sins? Whose sins? His sins. Blasphemy. What did he say? Christ
had sins. He did then. For God made him
who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. God made him sin. He committed
no sin. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, but without sin. He never committed any sin. He
said to the Jews, which of you convinces me of sin? Who can
bring any charge that would stick against me? Pilate said, I find
no fault in him. They subjected him to that scrutiny.
I find no fault in him. No. He bore the sins of his people
in the place of his people. And whose sins did he bear? The
sins of his people. That's whose sins. Does your
gospel agree with that gospel? He was forsaken of his father
to pay the penalty of sins. For his father of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity could not look upon the one who has
made sin. He must bear the wrath of God alone in the place of
his people. He is the one. Again, we see
it talks about who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord. He
that has clean hands and a pure heart. What are yours like? Yeah,
they look pretty clean. No, they're defiled. They're
sinful. My hands and my heart will never be clean in this flesh. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is Christ
who says, he who has clean hands and a pure heart. He is the one
that has those clean hands, only him. He is the sinless one. And
you know what? All of his people in him are judged by God as having
those clean hands and that pure heart because his people are
united with him. The law of marriage in Britain
many, many years ago, don't worry, the liberal politicians have
put pay to this, but many, many years ago, And, you know, the
feminist liberation movement might get upset by this, but
the law used to be the husband was completely legally, financially
responsible for the acts and the deeds and the doings of his
wife, completely. and they've got rid of all of
that. Christ took that same. He is the bridegroom and he took
responsibility entirely for his bride. All of the prophets, all
of the prophets in the Old Testament, they all, what are they talking
about? They're pointing to him. They're talking about the redemption,
the purchase of his people, the people of his love, the ones
that he loved. When he talks about in Isaiah
53, His people, the transgressions
of his people, the many, not all, not all without exception.
It talks about looking for sin, for iniquity in Judah and Israel,
in Jeremiah 50. And what does he say? He will
find none. He will find, that's what Balaam,
that false prophet even said, look for iniquity in Judah and
none shall be found. Zechariah, the same, a Waco sword
against the shepherd, the one that is my fellow. All pointing
to what Christ would do. The Old Testament proclaims God's
gospel, the gospel. It proclaims sovereign grace.
It proclaims particular redemption. You know what Greg was saying
earlier about if your gospel is one that says, well, I don't
believe that. I believe that God provided the
opportunity for everybody to be saved. That is not the gospel. That is not the truth of this
word. If you believe that, you're believing a lie. You are believing
a damnable lie. We believe what God has revealed.
Sovereign grace, particular redemption, substitution, redemption, propitiation,
turning away the anger of God, salvation, so that the scriptures
cry out, The seed of Israel shall be justified in the Lord. Isaiah
45 verse 25. The seed of who? The seed of
Israel. No, the seed of Israel shall
be justified. How shall a man be just with
God? The seed of Israel shall be justified in the Lord and
shall glory. Is that your gospel? Does it
align with the Old Testament scriptures? If not, it's a false
gospel. The second one, I'm going to
have to hurry. Number two, Does my gospel give God all the glory
in salvation? You know you have a big media
legal case and there's some really smart lawyer that comes on to
defend the accused. And if that lawyer gets the accused
off the charge, And especially if justice has been done, and
it's not a travesty of justice, he gets all the glory, doesn't
he? That lawyer gets all the praise, he's done it, and it's
a tough thing to do. You know, it's only really smart
lawyers that can get the accused off the charge if the case is
a pretty strong case. Well, do you know it's like that
with salvation? Psalm 49, verses 7 and 8. say this, talking about
us men, women trying to redeem themselves or redeem their brothers,
he says none of them, none of them can by any means redeem
his brother. Redeem? Pay the price. Pay the
price to buy it back. Pay the price of the justice
of God to redeem his brother. Nor give to God a ransom for
him. You know, we're in bondage to
sin by nature. We're in slavery to sin. We're
bound there because the law of God, God cannot excuse the guilty. God cannot overlook sin. God
must be just. He must punish sin. There's a
ransom to be paid. There's a price that must be
paid so that the justice of God says, yep, that's all clear.
Just like the debt at the bank, it must say, that's all clear.
We cannot give a ransom to God for the redemption of a soul,
for the redemption of their soul is precious, costly, pricely,
and there's nothing that we can contribute. I've just spent several
days with my brother Paul Mahan. I haven't seen him for 13 years,
and we're sort of five minutes back in one another's company,
and it's so easy. That's what it's like with believers. That's
what it's like with the true gospel. So comfortable. He and
I were fighting the whole time we were together. Do you know
what we were fighting over? Who should pay for the food? Who
should pay? I call it petrol, you know, the
gasoline you put in the car. Who should pay for these things?
Oh no, it's my turn. And he would sneak up behind
me and push his card into the slot before I could get my money
out to pay. We're fighting because I wanted to contribute something
to this. With salvation, it's not like that. Greg's illustration
of the tiling. No, nothing to contribute. It
just doesn't work if you contribute anything. It's void, null and
void if you contribute anything. Isaiah 42 verse 8, God says this,
my glory will I not give to another. He will not share his glory.
And just as an aside, when our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17
Praying that prayer says to his father, father restore to me
the glory that I had with you from the beginning. Who is he
that's speaking? Who is he? I will not share my
glory with another. He's God, isn't he? He's God
in flesh. My glory I will not give to another.
We're saved by grace. Entirely by grace. How? Through faith. Oh, that's something
I don't know. It's not. Scripture makes it clear, through
faith, not of yourselves, lest any man should boast. No, not
even that. Faith is the gift of God. Don't
I contribute my sanctification, you know, once I'm saved? Don't
I have to do? This is, this is what is taught
so widely. You know, justification is Christ's
work. Sanctification is my work. I
need to keep on... No, not at all. Not at all. Nothing. Nothing. The hymn's got it right.
Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked come to thee for dress. Naked. He will clothe his people
with the robe of the righteousness of Christ. What I do The way
I live has no bearing on my acceptance in Christ the Beloved, so that
I get no glory and he gets all the glory. The corollary is also
true. If I'm accepted in the Beloved,
oh, that makes a difference. to my attitude, to the fruit
I bear, to the way I live, the way I interact with others, of
course it makes a difference. Is that my gospel? Does God get
all the glory? Is my gospel, is my gospel one
where I have to do, do, do? The place that we left seven
years ago, the preaching increasingly was do, do, do. Do you know what
the scriptures say? Done, done, done. He's done it
all. Does my gospel give preeminence
to Christ in all things? Colossians chapter 1 and verse
18, Colossians chapter 1. He, Christ, is the head of the
body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead. That in all things, the Holy
Spirit inspired Paul to write this, that in all things, he
might have the preeminence. You know those that go on, about
worshipping the Spirit. The Spirit of God, he says, his
role is to come and take the things of Christ and reveal them
to us. You know, he doesn't speak of himself. He's not always going
on about himself. We know we need the Spirit of
God. We need the Comforter to come.
But what does he do? Gives Christ all the preeminence,
that he might have the preeminence. There's no greater name, that
he might have the name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Christ, as Colossians
3 and verse 11 says, Christ is all. And you know, Christ is
all, all the scriptures, all messages that are preached, all
preaching. must be centered on Christ. Is
that the gospel that you're listening to? Is that the gospel that you
believe? Christ-centered preaching. Every
message. There isn't one. Do you know,
I just would not get out of bed in the morning and go and listen
if I didn't think Christ was going to be preached. Why do
I need to hear moral lessons? Why do I need to be told what
to... I need to hear about Christ. I need to hear about what Christ
has done. Oh, well, how are people going to know what they should
do about this? How much they should give if
you don't tell them what they must do? You point them to Christ,
they'll know what to do. They'll know what to do. Charles
Spurgeon. whom I'm sure you've all heard
of, you know of Charles Spurgeon. He said once that he said, every
village in England has a road that leads to London. I grew
up in a little village in the northwest of England, and there
was an even smaller village about two miles from where I was, tiny
little hamlet of three houses, Hutton roof, you'll remember
it. And there's an old stone by the side of the road, little
country lane, you probably get one car every couple of hours
goes by there. And it says on it, London, 250 miles with an
arrow. There's a road leading to London
from even a little place like that. Spurgeon said this, he
said, this book, the scriptures on every page, there is a road
leading to Christ. You find that road and get on
it. Christ must be all and in all. It's about a person. Paul
didn't say, I know what I have believed, he said, I know whom
I have believed. He said, to you who believe,
he is precious. The gospel is a person, the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he must have the preeminence.
I don't want to hear do, do, do, I want to hear what he has
done. Fourthly, does my gospel reflect
God's character and attributes? Does God remain just in saving
sinners? Isaiah 45 21 he is a just God
look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am
God and there is none other he is a just God and a savior doesn't
he just say oh it's okay about your sin it doesn't matter I'll
forgive you that's all right you know like we might do a child
does he say that no he must remain just that sin must be paid for
he cannot as God just sweep sin under the carpet. He must be
a just God and a saviour. As Paul writes in Romans 3, 26,
that he God might be just and the justifier. He's still a just
God who will in no wise clear the guilty. He cannot overlook
sin. He's the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. Would God be one who would atone,
who would pay the price of the sins of everyone, and then send
millions of them to hell? Because for sure, we see it all
around us. Would he do that? He'd be an
unjust God if he did that. He won't demand the payment twice,
once at the hands of Christ and then at the sinner's hands. If
he's paid the sins of that sinner, that sinner is free. That sinner
is declared justified in Christ. No, that would be unjust. God
remains just. This is it. This is why particular
redemption is not just an academic thing for the more theological
amongst you. It's a foundational truth of the gospel. It's that
price which is paid for the specific sins of his people. It's like
financial debts. I've told our folks back at home
that the idea that somebody, some rich benefactor goes and
makes a general offer to clear all your debts down at the bank
And then it's up to you to go down and say, hey, you know that
general offer that was made? I want to take up on that offer.
Oh, you're right, your debts are cleared. But you didn't take
up on it, so your debts remain. No, I tell you, if I'm that benefactor,
and I decide to clear your debts, and I go and pick out your name
down at the bank, and I say, what does this guy owe so many
dollars? And I say, there it is, it's
written off. And you go down to make your mortgage payment,
and they say to you, there's nothing to pay. Someone else
paid it for you. It's gone. He's paid it. This
is what Christ did for his people. He's just and justified by what
Christ did of his people. Does my gospel say God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life? Is that what it
says? That's what peddled, isn't it?
So widely. Or does it say God is angry with
the wicked every day? Does it say that God is a God
of justice? Does it say that while he's angry
with the wicked every day, that he's merciful. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is
plenteous redemption. Oh, bless his name. I'm hurrying
for the sake of time. Five, does my gospel save me
a sinner in my sinful condition where I am? Do you know what
you're like as a sinner? You're like a drowning man in
a storm. You imagine, we won't say that you're drowning just
off the shores of New Smyrna Beach, the waters of, you might
not think it's warm this time of year, to me that water was
warm, that was good, that was good warm water to get in. And
I suppose you might be worried a little bit about some sharks
that might come and get you, but let's say you've fallen off
the boat, and you're 500 miles west of Britain, in a raging
Atlantic storm, and the seas are 40, 50 foot waves, and the
wind is howling, and it's a dark night, and you fall overboard,
you know what's going to happen to you, don't you? you're going
to die. You're going to die pretty soon. You're going to die of
cold in that water. You're going to die of drowning pretty soon.
There's no way. There's not the slightest thing
that you can do or contribute to get yourself saved. But if
that helicopter comes and puts down that man on the winch and
he comes and plucks you out of the water, you've been entirely
passive in that. You see, some teach, so many
teach, that you can only be saved if you've done a bit of moral
reformation of yourself, if you've got yourself so far down the
road and therefore you put yourself in a savourable condition. The
scriptures say this, Ephesians 2, 1-6, you hath he quickened,
made alive, who were dead Ezekiel 36, isn't it? The Valley of the
Dry Bones. They were dry bones. They were
long dead bones. They were totally dried out.
You know, you sometimes see the meat wagon from the abattoir,
we do, and it's got bones of animals that have only just been
killed. They're wet bones. They've got sinews on them. These,
in Ezekiel, were dry bones. Dead. This is what we are. by
nature, dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. You see, you're
drowning under the judgment of God by nature, even as others,
children of wrath, even as others. But God, don't you love the but
gods in scripture? But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us. This is his grace.
Even when we were dead in sins, you know, for a good man someone
might die, but Christ died for the ungodly. He died for those
who were ungodly. And he's made us alive, quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. He's
raised us up. Like that helicopter, the winchman
comes down and plucks the drowning man out of the sea and winches
him up and puts him not just in the ship, but on the dry land. He's safe on the dry land. Raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. The gospel, does your gospel
save sinners? That's what he came to do, call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And
even the chief of sinners, I'm going to skip the next one, even
the chief of sinners, you know how bad, even this day to the
thief on the cross said Christ, this thief on the cross was there.
It's only Luke that records, it's only Luke that noticed in
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it's only Luke that records this.
But that man who'd never done anything good, he was a criminal
who deserved to be there. He said so himself. He said,
we deserve to be here. But he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. This day, said Jesus, this day,
you shall be with me in paradise. Is that a hope? Will my gospel
ever let me be lost? Will it ever let me be lost?
You know, you've got to keep going. You've got to keep clinging
on. Will it ever let me be lost? This is the Father's will which
hath sent me. that of all he has given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."
John 10, I give unto them, he's talking about the people of his
love. The people he loved with an everlasting love. I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. Once he's got them, he keeps
them. They're his. He called them before time began.
You know, he foreknew them. in love. He predestinated them
to be conformed to the image of his son. Those he predestinated,
he called them. I don't think that's talking
about the call of preaching in time. That's in eternity. He
called them with the name of the bridegroom. He called them
in eternity. neither shall any man pluck them
from my father's hand." John 17, verse 12, none of them, Jesus
praying to his father, he says, of those that he'd gathered,
his disciples, he says, none of them is lost, he's kept them.
Only the son of perdition, according to the scriptures. John 18, verse
nine, of them which thou gavest me, I have lost none. Whereas false gospels all say,
oh, if you do this thing, you'll be lost. Or if you don't do that
thing, you'll be lost. Oh, isn't that, as Greg was saying
earlier, isn't that license for believers to live lives of licentiousness
and sin? Not at all. Not at all. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. Eighthly, will
my gospel give me genuine comfort in death? Will it, you know,
we're appointed to die. We're heading towards death.
Will it give me comfort there? The Psalm says this, Psalm 116
verse 15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints. If you're one of Christ's saints,
his people, then you know this, Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. I'll tell you a little account
of my wife's sister, three, maybe four years ago, 62 years old. She'd made an Arminian profession
decision as a teenager, as had Christine, and then she lived
a life bringing up her kids just as she was, and she was diagnosed
with terminal cancer in September 2009. And eight weeks later,
she was dead. But as soon as she was diagnosed,
she knew what we believed, and she wanted to know. Sometimes
God uses something as drastic as that to make somebody sit
up and think. And do you know what we did?
We had a little cheap MP3 player, and we loaded it up with sermons
of Free Grace. There may even have been one
or two of Greg's, I don't know. There were certainly some of
mine and several others of the preachers on Free Grace Radio.
There was one particularly by Bruce Crabtree, and it was on
John 316, the Arminian's proof text. And he preached a message
on that. And Margaret, she believed the
gospel. She truly did. You know it when
you see it. She truly believed the gospel. Did she have comfort in death?
She believed the true gospel. I tell you, she had comfort in
death. She really did. She was anxious.
about the actual moment and process of passing from this life into
the life beyond. But she said, I'm not afraid. I know whom I have believed.
I've heard this preaching. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. And how shall they believe on
him whom they haven't heard about? And how shall they hear about
them unless someone preach? And so preaching was the means
that God used. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save those who believe. Will my gospel give
me comfort in death? It will if it's a true gospel.
And then the final point I've got there. Does my gospel make
me perfectly like Christ? You know, I must be perfectly
like Christ. Yes, it does. The true gospel
does. It doesn't involve, you know, Christ clothes his people
with that seamless robe of righteousness. The prodigal son's coming home.
Get the best robe and put it on him. The best robe. What do
we do? You know all these that peddle
sanctification works? What are all of my righteousnesses?
Filthy rags. Am I going to take that seamless
robe of the righteousness of Christ and stitch onto it patches
of the filthy rags of my own righteous attempts? My gospel
makes me perfectly righteous in Him. in him, in his seamless
robe. If he didn't, I'd always be wondering
if I'd done enough. I'd be anxious about the judgment
seat of Christ. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. I'd be anxious. Have I done enough?
Have I done things that he cannot excuse me for? Have I done things
that are going to mean that I lose out on reward or that I get punished
and I lose the benefits of heaven? No, no. He is the Lord, my righteousness. And what does Colossians 2 verse
9 say? It says that we are complete in him. I like what Don Faulkner
once said when he was preaching to us over in England. He said,
generally speaking, what the scripture seems to say when you
first read it is what it means. That is what it means. When it
says, I am complete in him, it means there's nothing missing.
You are complete in him. I'm united to him. I'm hiding
in him. And he said of him, this is my
beloved son. in whom I am well pleased. I
am well pleasing to God. Why? Because I mean, what is,
Greg mentioned it earlier, what should we do that we do the work
of God? This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he has sent. This is the gospel that accomplishes
effectual salvation. Test the others and see if they
come up short. And if they do, Do you know what
we need to do? We need to be as uncompromising
with them as Paul was with the false gospel at Galatia. I say
again to you, if any man come and preach any other gospel to
you than that which we have declared, let him be accursed, because
it's a damnable heresy. Amen.