For almost 20 years, I had the
blessed privilege of traveling with Brother Henry Mahan and
preaching with him about once a month somewhere. And we usually
traveled together, spent a lot of time on the road together,
visiting with one another. And I tried to have enough sense
to listen and learn. So I took a lot of notes. I ran
across something a week or two ago that back in 1983, he and
I were traveling somewhere discussing the gospel, the gospel of God's
grace, and the identifying characteristics of the gospel. And then one of
us raised the question, how can I know that the gospel I preach
is the gospel of the grace of God? The gospel of our God. And we began to give some answers. And that's the basis of this
message tonight. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I want to talk to you about my
gospel. my gospel, the gospel upon which
I hang my hopes for eternity, the gospel I preach to you and
preach wherever I go without apology and endeavor to preach
with such clarity that I cannot be misunderstood. I call it my
gospel. Because I've experienced it,
because this is the gospel God has trusted to my hands, for
which I'm an ambassador sent of God to minister to your souls. Look here in 2 Timothy chapter
2, verse 7. Consider what I say. Pay attention to me, will you?
Consider what I say. and the Lord give thee understanding
in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel. According to my gospel that I
preached to you, Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute, having
accomplished redemption, having put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, Having obtained eternal redemption for us was raised
from the dead Raised from the dead because he had fully Satisfied
the justice of God and sin being put away had no more claim on
him Wherein I suffer trouble In this gospel I suffer trouble
everywhere Trouble as an evildoer When he was persecuting the church,
trying to rid the world of the name of Jesus Christ, hailing
men and women to prison, consenting to the death of Stephen by stoning,
when he went everywhere persecuting the church, he was applauded
as a good man. But now preaching the gospel
of God's grace, he's accused of being an evildoer, an evildoer. Even into bonds I suffer these
things. God's servants in every generation
who preach the gospel of God's grace are accused by, excuse
me, accused by those who hate the gospel and who hate God as
being evildoers, promoters of licentiousness, disturbers of
the church of God, dividers of men, stirrers of strife, All
those things. That's not occasional. That's
constant. Wherever men are found preaching
the gospel of God's grace, they are accused by men of being evildoers,
not by men in the world, by religious folks, evildoers. But bless God,
the word of God is not bad. The word of God is not bad. No
matter what happens to me or you. No matter what men may do
to you or to me. The Word of God is not bound.
God's Word runs freely exactly as God has ordained everywhere. Now I want every one of you to
frankly and honestly examine what I'm saying to you by the
Word of God. Try the spirits, whether they're of God. open
the Word of God, read it, learn what it says, and examine what
I preach to you by this book. Not just what I preach, what
you hear any man preach, examine it by this book. I want to make
a personal, clear declaration of the gospel, and I want you
to make a personal determination. I want each of you To determine
for yourselves, is my gospel the gospel of God? Is the gospel
I preach to you the gospel of God? Now understand this, there's
only one gospel. There's only one gospel. Folks
talk about the Catholic gospel and the Baptist faith and the
Protestant faith and the Protestant gospel and people talk about
this thing concerning the gospel of that. There's only one gospel. There can't be two, only one. I want to be honest with the
word of God and honest with you. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. I know that my preaching offends
people. There's nothing new about that
either. But as the servant of God, as God's servant, the servant
of the almighty God, I dare not, I cannot, and I will not alter
my message to suit you or anybody else. Not going to happen. If I do, I'm not God's servant.
It's just not going to happen. Not to please men, not to attract
men, not to build the church, not to be more successful. Not
going to happen. Not going to happen. Well, we
ought to start looking at what other churches do. I've been
watching what they do all my life, and I plan not to follow
them. I plan not to follow them. But other folks are up to date.
I plan to stay out of date. That's my intention. I plan to
stay behind as far as those things are concerned. It's deliberate,
it's purposeful. I understand that the truth of
God always offends religious people. Do you know why? Because
God made his son and his word a stumbling stone and a rock
of offense to them that believe not. That's what the book says.
The very same gospel that melts the believer's heart hardens
the hearts of unbelievers. The very same word that causes
the believer to bow and worship the Son of God causes the unbeliever's
wrath, his enmity against God to be enraged. Wherever our Lord
Jesus went preaching the gospel and wherever his apostles went
preaching the gospel, three things always happened. The religious
crowd always got mad. God's saints were always made
glad, and everybody else just scratched their head in utter
confusion. They're just confused. I try to preach in such a way
that you can't ignore me. I can't stand to be ignored.
And I want you to either be delighted or enraged by what I preach.
I plan to preach just that way. All men by nature are religious. And all men by nature make for
themselves a refuge. Our Lord calls it by his prophet
Isaiah, a refuge of lies. A refuge of lies, a covering
of some kind. Everybody here, every one of
you, you've got something that you run to to give you comfort
in trouble. You've got some kind of refuge.
You've made a refuge for yourself. You've made a covenant with death.
You're at league with hell. You've got some kind of a refuge,
your works, your experience, your relationship in your family,
the church you were raised in, some of that nonsense, that stuff
that Paul calls dumb. It's a refuge, but a refuge of
lies. And when trouble comes, God's
going to sweep away your refuge. You're going to find your beds
too short, you can't stretch on it, and your coverings too
narrow, you can't wrap yourself in it. There is, as I've tried
to declare to you repeatedly, just one gospel. Look here in
Galatians chapter 1, verse 6. Alan read back in the office
just a little bit ago, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you? Who hath bewitched you? I can't
tell you how often those words of inspiration come to my mind
as I hear Religious people talk. Who hath bewitched you? Somebody's
cast a spell on you. Somebody's performed hellish
witchcraft on you. Who hath bewitched you? Having
begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh?
You who imagine that somehow you must do something by which
to give yourself acceptance with God and you rest on your decision
or your works or your religious performance, your religious feelings,
and you say, oh yeah, this is, this is what gives me, this is
what gives me peace. Who bewitched you? Look at this.
Paul says in Galatians 1.6, I marvel that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. You've been turned away from
the gospel. These Galatians. Now let me tell
you what the Galatians believed. Somebody came in behind the Apostle
Paul and taught them that now, yes, we're saved by Jesus Christ,
by grace of the Lord, by faith alone, by Christ alone. You're
saved. That's the only way you say saved
by grace alone. But now that doesn't mean that
you don't have anything to do. That that doesn't mean that there's
nothing that depends on you. You're justified by grace. But
but now we still got to be circumcised. We still got to keep the law.
We still got to be good. We still got to do good. And
if you don't, then you're not really saved. You're not really
Christians. You're not. You don't really
know God. They weren't just saying this is a better form of Christianity. They're saying you don't know
God unless you live by the law. Unless you attempt, having been
saved, to make yourself better and more holy and more accepted
with God by what you do. Brother Don, are you saying that
it doesn't matter how we live? You know better than that. Is
there anybody here who even questions that? Anybody? That's utter foolishness. You
know better than that. But I am saying if you think
or imagine that somehow your goodness makes God's grace more
effectual to you, you don't know the grace of God. You follow
from grace altogether. But you don't. They removed you
to another gospel. Now watch this. Which is not
another. It's not even close to the same
thing. It's not even close to the same thing. But there'd be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
They use the words we use. They just reach in and gut them
of their meaning and make it mean something else. They talk
about substitution, but there's no substitution. They talk about
redemption, but there's no redemption. They talk about atonement, but
there's no atonement. They talk about forgiveness,
but there's no forgiveness. They talk about righteousness,
but there's no righteousness. They use the word, but they pervert
the gospel. It's not even close to it. Brother Don and I were chatting
the other day. He was over at the house. My
friend, Brother Bag Perkins, figured out a way to get rid
of Coons down at his place, eating the corn. Fixed him some PVC. and put it up in a tree and he
put dog food in it and rat poison. Dog food, rat poison, dog food,
rat poison. So the coons get some dog food,
they get some rat poison, and they're soon gone. But do you
know why rats eat the rat poison? You got any idea why they eat
the rat poison? It's 99% good food. It's 99%
good food. If it wasn't good food, they
wouldn't eat it. They wouldn't eat it. They're just 1% of deadly
mixture in the poison. Now, I hear folks say all the
time, well, that preacher, he says some good things. That old
man in Rome, dressed up in drag with his walking stick and his
crucifix on the walking stick, says some good things once in
a while. If he says Jesus, that's good. If he says God, that's
good. That doesn't mean he knows God
from a gourd. And the same thing's true of
your Baptist neighbor who preaches and your Pentecostal neighbor
who preaches. They all say something good, but pervert the gospel. Pervert the gospel. Read on.
But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. I take you as witnesses. Some
of you were here 32 years ago when I first preached the gospel
to you. I'm preaching the same thing to you now, Bill Raleigh,
I preached then. And if next Sunday I come and bring another
message, I say, let me be accursed. And when I leave, and God takes
me out of this world, and another man comes and stands in this
place, if he preaches another message, let that man be damned. Let him be damned. Is that the
language there, Chris? No, you don't. Let him be accursed.
As I said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed. Come back to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. Paul. Reverend Paul. No. Dr. Paul. No. Paul. A servant of Jesus Christ. We too. Too much court titles
and honor and favor. People say to me, pick up the
phone and say, Don or Mr. Fortner. Oh, I meant to say Reverend
Fortner. I say ding-dongs all right, just don't call me Reverend. The servant of Jesus Christ.
Oh, God, make me that. The servant of Jesus Christ.
called to be an apostle, a messenger, separated unto the gospel, separated
from my mother's womb, separated by God's providence, conscientiously
separated unto the gospel every day. Brother Joe came in back
there a little bit ago, and I was talking about being in office
all day ever since I got back from the doctor this morning.
He said, wasn't Will here? I said, yeah, but grandsons don't
have anything to do with this. You know, visiting grandson doesn't
keep me from preparing to preach. Love him dearly. Can't do it. Can't do it. And it's a conscious,
deliberate choice made every day, separated unto the gospel,
which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. What is this gospel? Concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. The gospel then is the gospel
of God. It's the gospel promised of God
in the Old Testament scriptures. It's the gospel concerning his
son. It's all about his son. It's
all about his the gospel, not about you and me. The gospel
is not about our church or the other church. The gospel is not
about this denomination or another denomination. The gospel is not
about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the spirit and speaking
in tongues and signs and visions and wonders and all the stuff
folks put to then this charismatic age of nonsense. The gospel is
about his son. It's all about his son. Well,
the gospel teaches us to educate the ignorant and feed the poor
and clothed folks and all that. No, the gospel doesn't. The word
of God does teach that, but that's not the gospel. The gospel is
all about God's son. And if a fellow gets up and preaches
to you and doesn't talk to you about God's son, he's not preaching
the gospel. It's all about God's son. All right, turn to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This gospel concerning God's
Son is the power of God unto salvation. Now look at 1 Corinthians
15, verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand. Not a gospel, but the gospel.
by which also you are saved if you keep in memory, that is,
if you hold fast what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, H-O-W, how that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures. Bill Eldridge, the gospel is
not the fact that Christ died. You can read that in a history
book. The gospel is not the fact that Christ died and rose again.
You can read that anywhere in any religious literature from
almost any group in the world. Papist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian,
Baptist, liberal, conservative, fundamentalist, they all will
tell you that Christ died and rose again. Well, brother Don,
what's the gospel? It's how Christ died. He died as a voluntary, effectual,
vicarious, sin-atoning substitute, and he accomplished redemption
in his death. Anything less is not the gospel.
I repeat, there's only one true gospel, and every false gospel
denies this true gospel. The gospel is a declaration of
salvation for sinners by the accomplishments of Jesus Christ,
the sinner's substitute. The gospel is good news. That's what the word means, good
news. The religious age in which we
live, everybody preaches good advice. Everybody comes and tells
you, this is the gospel God wants you to This is the gospel. God's done everything he can
now. The rest is up to you. This is the gospel. God's put
everything in your hands. Now, what will you do with Jesus?
The gospel of the Word of God is not good advice. It's good
news. It's not God sending us to tell
somebody what they ought to do. It's God sending us to sinners
who can do nothing, declaring what Christ has done. He's redeemed
us by the sacrifice of himself. Every false gospel, every false
gospel, call it by any name, by any brand, by any religious
title, preached by anybody, every false gospel gives you something
to do by which you distinguish yourself from others and make
yourself acceptable with God. And men love to have it so. He
loved some of you here tonight. Do not know God, my savior. If
I could, by any form of subtlety, deceit, craftiness, and lying,
if I could persuade you that we'll take and break glass and
scatter it all over this aisle here, And if you will get down
on your hands and knees and crawl the length of this building right
up here and say, I believe in Jesus, that'll do it. You get
on your knees and start crawling. That's the reason folks make
pilgrimages to Rome. and pilgrimages to this city
of that, to this holy place of that. That's the reason folks
go through all the things they do, flagellating themselves and
tormenting themselves and fasting and putting ashes on their forehead
and calling that suffering for Jesus and all that stupidity.
That's the reason they do it. Because men love to have something
to do. Give me something to do. I'd
do anything to get out of going to hell. I'd do anything to get
to go to heaven. The fact is you've got to do
nothing. You've got to do nothing. Dominere the no hope for your
soul but Christ. That's it. That's it. What are you going to do to make
yourself better? What are you going to do to give
yourself acceptance with God? What are you going to do to satisfy
God's justice? What are you going to do to make
yourself righteous and holy before God? You're a dead sinner. A dead sinner. Not to even talk
about the corruption of the heart. Not to even talk about the depravity
of humanity. You're dead spiritually. Dead! Now what does a dead man do? What does a dead man do? You
can't do anything. I told my grandson earlier today,
I pray that God have mercy on you. I beg God to give you faith
in Christ. But you can't. Unless God gives
you life. Unless God gives you life. And if God gives you life, you
can't help it. If God gives you life, you can't
help it. It's what you call an irresistible grace. Irresistible
grace. It's grace you can't resist.
Grace that you can't turn aside. God reveals Christ in you, you
believe Him. And until God reveals Christ
in you, you won't believe Him. The gospel is a declaration of
grace. Pure, free, unmerited, unconditional,
unqualified grace. It's grace. Every false gospel
would have you to do something, and every false gospel is damning. It's damning. All right. Do I know that this gospel, the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ, this gospel that declares
salvation is of the Lord, this gospel that speaks of salvation
only by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in and by him, this
gospel of pure free grace, how do I know this is the gospel? The gospel of God, our savior,
the only true gospel. This is what brother Mahan and
I put together. I'll just share it with you in
10 brief, clear statements. Here's the first. This gospel,
this gospel of the grace of God is the only gospel that gives
all the glory to God. gives all the glory to God. And
everybody who believes this gospel gives all the glory to God. I
was in school out in Springfield, Missouri, my first year of Bible
college, and word quickly got around what I believed, and folks
out there didn't. And so every time somebody got a chance, they'd
gang up and try to poke fun and belittle, and try to speak plainly
the truth. I remember one day in class,
this gal said, I know salvation by grace. I love it when women
want to be preachers and teachers of theology. Husbands ought to
take them home and spank them. But, oh, you shouldn't have said
that, Brother Dodd. I said it just for the goats
out there. They need a can of chew-on once in a while. Salvation by grace, he said,
but I believe that was my choice. That was my choice. gives all the praise, honor,
and glory to God, and everybody who believes it gives all the
praise to God. We sing with David, nodding to
us, O Lord, nodding to us to thy name, give glory. Number two, this gospel of God's
grace is the only gospel that's true to all the scriptures. You can't find anything in this
book. You can't find anything in this book to contradict that
which is preached from this pulpit all the time. Not one word. Not one word to contradict God's
sovereignty. Not one word to contradict Christ's
effectual atonement. Not one word to contradict the
irresistible grace and power of God the Holy Spirit. Not one
word. In fact, our Lord said, Moses, and the Psalms, and the
prophets, and the law, and all the scriptures speak of me. Luke 24. All the scriptures.
This is the book. This is the book. The speaks
of Christ, our Redeemer, and effectual redemption in Him.
And to the law, and to the prophets, if they speak not according to
this word, It's because there's no light in there. Here's the
third thing. The gospel of God's free grace,
substitution, satisfaction, righteousness by Christ. This is the only gospel
that magnifies God's holy law and makes it honorable. The only
one. Every other notion of religion,
every other notion of religion brings the law down. Someone
tell Merle Hart that you've got to obey the law. If they tell
you you've got to obey the law, they've got to break the law
low enough that you can obey it. And that's what these legalists
do. They call obeying the law giving
it a stab. They call keeping the Sabbath
not doing some things on Sunday. They call loving God with all
your heart having a little affection for God. They call loving your
neighbor as yourself, not wanting to kill him all the time. They
bring the law down to your standard, and then they say, no, that's
righteousness. No, God doesn't lower his law. He doesn't bend
his law. He demands, be ye holy. And he makes you holy. He said,
be perfect. And he makes you perfect. He
says the soul that sinneth it shall die. And he came and died
in your stead. We're talking about the gospel. It's the only word that magnifies
God's law and makes it honorable. It's the only message that makes
it possible for God to be just and the justifier of him that
believeth. This is the only gospel that
gives real hope to real sinners, dead in trespasses and in sins. I preach to dead men and dead
women all the time with the full expectation, Mark, that some
of them are going to live. With the full expectation. I
go preaching expecting folks to believe the gospel. Well,
you know they can't. I know they can't, but God can
cause them to. I know a dead man can't rise up, but God can
raise him up. I know I can't raise a dead man, but God can
raise a dead man. He did it many times. God gives
life to the dead. That means there's hope for you
and hope for me. If nothing depends on me, and
nothing depends on you, And God has already raised up such things
as we are. And God's already saved such
things as we are. Or maybe you saved me too. Maybe
you saved you too. Oh, but Brother Don, I'm an adulterer. Would you like to see a few God
saved? I'll show you some. In this book and out of this book.
But Brother Don, I've been so vile, corrupt. Would you like
to see somebody just like you, God saved? Look up here. Selfish by grace, by grace. This gospel is the only gospel
that will keep a man saved. Only one. Brother Don, a lot
of folks believe in perseverance. Believe in once saved, always
saved. Yeah, but they can't really. And they don't really. Because
they don't believe God does the saving. They believe salvation
somehow depends on you. So you really can't be sure.
You really can't be sure. But our Savior says, my sheep
hear my voice. And I know them. And they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish. No matter what hell does, and
no matter what you do, they shall never perish. Oh, you can't tell people that.
Let me see if I can. I'm sorry. I'll back up and try
again. No matter what hell does, no matter what you do, grace
can't be destroyed. Not by hell and not by you and
not by me. Haven't you proved that often
enough to yourself? Does that need argument? This is the only gospel. Not
only does it give God all the glory, but it forbids all boasting. Where is boasting then? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory
as if thou hadst not received it? This is the only gospel that
allows a sinner to have real assurance before God. I'm talking
real assurance. Real assurance. Rex Bartley,
if your assurance depends at all on what you feel right now
or how good you are just for this little bit of time we're
sitting in this building right now tonight. If it depends at
all on how much you love the Lord right now, then you don't
have any shots. And if you pretend you do, you
know you're being a hypocrite. You know it. You know it. Because
if it depends on that, If you're honest, you know you're not the
least bit righteous. And your love for God can't really
be called love. Oh, no. Well, what's your assurance? He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. I believe on the Son of God.
I have everlasting life. I just looked at my wife. I tell
her every day, a number of times a day, and she's never gotten
tired of it yet. I love you. Tell her repeatedly. And one of the reasons I tell
her so often is because I don't act like it much, much of the
time. But I do love her. And you do
know it. Yeah. Even though I often behave like
I don't. And I do trust the Son of God. I do trust Him. Not like I ought
to. Not like I want to. But I do trust Him. And he that
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6, I'll
wrap this up. I've got two more statements. Two more statements. This is the only gospel, the
only gospel, the gospel you hear in this place. This message that
distinguishes us from every church in this town. There's message
that we preach around the world. We're fixing to have our Bible
conference. You're going to hear eight men preach. All eight of
them are going to preach this gospel. If they didn't, they
wouldn't be asked to preach. They wouldn't be asked to preach.
I don't care if it's my mother, or my mother's father, or my
father's father, my father, or my son, or my grandson. If they
didn't preach this gospel, they wouldn't be asked to preach here.
Wouldn't happen. What about your missionaries?
Folks ask me, say, do your missionaries believe this? I'm insulted by
that question. I'm insulted by it. You think
I'd send a nickel to the mission field to preach something that's
going to damn men? I'm insulted by such a question. Absolutely,
missionaries believe and preach the gospel of God's grace. If
they didn't, we'd pay them to come home, but we sure wouldn't
pay them to stay. This is the only gospel that
compels saved sinners. to consecrate themselves to Christ. I don't browbeat you folks or
anybody else about anything. I don't browbeat you to try to
get you to start acting like Christians when you're not. I know so many times I see fellows,
we all have a tendency to revert to law and preachers have a tendency
to revert to law. Brother Cody over there young
man suddenly starts to slack off a little bit I'll call and
I'll encourage you but I'm not about to revert the law if you
don't want to serve God you won't serve him It's that simple if
God saved you by his grace you'll serve him Compelled by what force? You got a whip Thunder's in line.
Don't you don't no, you don't watch this first Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 9. I Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
accusers of abuses of themselves in mankind, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. That's
the slime pit where God found you. That's where you wanted
to be and that's where you were. But ye are washed. But ye are sanctified. But ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. Look at verse 19. What? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? which ye have of God, and you're
not your own. For you're bought with a price. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. How do I know this is the gospel? Because this is what I've experienced
and experience today continually. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Amen.