Turn with me again to the book
of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We read in these verse 7 verses, in Paul's letter to the church
at Corinth, we read his thoughts concerning the gospel and the
treasure of the gospel. precious it is, how important
it is. The gospel is good news. That's what the word gospel means,
is good news. I'm all for good news, aren't
you? I'd like to get some good news. Don't like bad news. You know, when you sit around
waiting on the telephone to ring expecting bad news, that's not
a good way to spend the day. The gospel is good news, a good
message. It comes from a Greek word, evangelion,
which means the welcome intelligence of salvation to sinners by Jesus
Christ. I think that's a good definition
of the gospel, don't you? That's welcome because I'm a
sinner and I want to intelligently know Christ. I don't want to
know him in ignorance, but I want to know him intelligently. I
want to know who he is. I want to know what he's done
for me. I want to know exactly what the
gospel says. The Lord Jesus Christ said the
gospel is good news, good tidings, glad tidings, a good message.
In Isaiah 61 verses 1 through 3, the Lord's words Himself in
the Old Testament Scriptures, He said, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good tidings,
to tell good news. Unto the meek He has sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives,
and the opening of the prayer to them that are bound. That's
not talking about literal presence or being literally bound by chains. He's talking about spiritual
presence and spiritual bondage to sin. To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of the vengeance of our God.
To comfort all that mourn. To comfort those that mourn because
of their sin, because of their depravity. To point unto them
that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning. praise of the Spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. You see, the gospel
is to glorify God, not us. You see, the end of the gospel,
the purpose of the gospel is to glorify God. I'm just glad
that we're included in it, aren't you? And that's so. You know, we think all of this
is about folks going to heaven and missions to hell, and it's
all about us. But the gospel's all about Christ.
Did you know that? I said, it's all about, it's
about Christ. And how He's glorified in saving sinners like me. Like
you. That's good news to me. But the
message of the gospel is Christ. The good news is the sinners.
And the good news is Christ. In Romans 10, 15, And how shall
they preach, except they be sent, as it is written, how beautiful
a feathen are the priests of the gospel of peace, that bring
glad tidings of good things? Good things. I want to hear good
news, and I want to hear about good things. Don't you? That's
what you hear when you hear the gospel. The good news is this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. This is
a good saying. This is a good message. This
is a good message. See, it's not the messenger that
makes it good, it's the message. Some preachers can say it's gooder
than others, but there ain't no better message than Jesus
Christ. That's all the message there
is. It's good news. In Luke 2, 10 and 11, you remember
where the angel announced the birth of the Savior? The angel
said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings.
Bring you good news. What is that good news? Unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord. That's good news. That's not
good news to everybody, but it's good news to the Son. It's good
news to those that know they're in need of a Savior. It's good
news to those that that see they're a sinner, that know they're a
sinner, and need a Savior. The good news is that they shall
call His name Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sin.
He's not going to try to. He's not going to make an attempt
to. But He shall. In spite of everything. In spite
of me, in spite of you, in spite of heaven, in spite of hell.
He's going to save all His people. from their sin, in spite of their
sin, He's still going to save them. And you know how He saves
sinners? He saves sinners by grace, by
His grace. He saves sinners by putting away
their sin. He saves sinners by taking all of their sin upon
Himself and putting it away, dying to God's satisfaction to
save sinners. Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians
1, 17 and 18, He said, Christ sent me not to baptize. He didn't send me to make church
members. But he sent me to preach the
gospel. That's what he sent me to do, preach the gospel. Not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect. For the Christians, the cross is them that perish
foolishness. But us who are slaves, it's the power of God. Now let
me say something right here. If the gospel means nothing to
you, you count it as foolishness. If it don't mean anything to
you, if you're not serious about it, and you take it to leave,
it don't mean nothing to you. You count it as foolishness.
And if I understand this pastor's scripture correctly, you're going
to perish. You're going to perish. If the
gospel don't mean anything to you, Christ don't mean anything
to you. Is that not a sensible deduction? If the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ means nothing to you, and you count it as foolishness,
then you're going to perish. But other than what you're saying, it's the power of God. It means
something. It means something. It's important.
It's a treasure. And he said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. That's what he said in our text.
He said this gospel is a treasure. And you know what a treasure
is. A treasure is something you love. Something you cherish. Something you can't do without.
Something that means everything to you. Paul said, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed." The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.
And without the righteousness of God, you're going to perish. If you don't have His righteousness,
you'll perish. And in the gospel, it's revealed
to us where the righteousness of God is. And the righteousness
of God is in Christ. So to me, that's a treasure.
If I have the gospel, if I have the gospel, the gospel that reveals
the righteousness of God to me, that's not foolishness. That's
not foolishness. You see, just in a few short
days from now, I'm not going to be here. You're not going to
be here. We're all going to be gone. Somebody else will be here
and this door will be shut. We're all going to be gone. And
I'm going to face God. And it don't make any difference
what you think about Him or what I think about Him or where we
stand or where we don't stand. It's not going to change Him. He's still going to be God. And
He's still going to do exactly what He said He's going to do.
And now the way that I can be accepted by Him and stand in
Him, stand before Him, is in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He said that in this gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed. To me, that's not foolishness. To me. That's serious business. That's serious business. I'm
going to face God. And I'm either going to face
Him in my own filth and unworthiness and depravity and my own conceits
and my own lies. I'm going to face Him like that
or I'm going to face Him in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and be accepted. And to me that's serious. That's
important. Paul thought it was so important
he said it like this. He said, I determined not to
know anything among you. And what he's saying was not
to preach anything among you. Not to set anything forth to
you. For you to look at, for you to
observe, and for you to consider, except the Lord Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified. Now we can sit around and talk
all day about what you shouldn't do and what you should do, where
you should go, where you shouldn't go, how you should be or how
you shouldn't be. That's not going to accomplish
one blessed thing. You already know. You already
know what you should do and shouldn't do. We already know all these
things. But the thing about it is that
we don't know, unless God reveals it to us, is Christ. And so he
said, determined by God's grace to preach nothing to you except
Christ and Him crucified. You know, the gospel is a treasure
to me because this is my salvation. The gospel is the gospel of my
salvation, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This good
news tells me where I, as a sinner, can find forgiveness and salvation
and redemption and acceptance with God. The gospel of my salvation
in Ephesians 1.13, in whom ye also trust. Who did I trust? Myself. You know what man's theory,
you know what religion, of course you do, religion's theory is
on this. This is how you go to heaven. This is how you're accepted
by God. This is religion. Not me, not
you. But this is what religion says.
You do the best you can. Don't do anything real, man.
And if you do, just right before you die, it's God and He'll forgive
you. And you'll just go right into heaven. That's not what Scripture says. Scripture says that salvation,
acceptance before God, forgiveness of sin, is something God does
for us. It's not something we do at all.
And God has the prerogative. He's the determining power to
save sinners. He is the one that saves sinners.
He can pass men by and they'll never have a clue. You say, you mean God can do
that? He does it every day. Men perish that don't have a
clue who God is, who they are, or the gospel, or nothing else. Just go right on. What does God
have to do to send a man to hell? Nothing. Let him go. They're
standing in slippery places, and all he has to do is turn
them loose. What do I have to do to
go to hell? Nothing. Send all the church to you. Be a Calvinist. Be a Reformer. Reform everybody. Get them all to believe in the
doctrine of Calvinism. Do everything you can do. It takes God to save a sinner.
It takes the grace, the sovereign, free, irresistible grace of God,
because men are dead. in trespasses and sin. This is
the treasure of the gospel. The gospel tells us the truth.
You don't have to tell you who tell you the truth is your friend. Your enemy will lie to
you. And preachers stand today all
over this country and all over the world telling folks how good
they are when the scripture tells there's none good. Preachers standing all over this
country today telling folks salvation's up to them when it's not. And
we have the treasure of the truth. The treasure of the gospel. And
we don't glory in ourselves. We glory in Him. It's all Christ. It's all Christ. If you miss
Christ, you've missed it all. You've missed living in this
world. Your life ain't a matter of nobody else's if we don't
know Christ. Just live and die. Just take
up space and die. Christ is the treasure of the
gospel. He is the gospel of our salvation.
Paul wrote to Timothy He said it like this, Be not therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, of the gospel of Christ,
nor of me, his prisoner, one that preaches Christ. But be
thou partakers of the affection of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling. Not according to our words, but
according to His own purpose and grace, His own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Isn't the gospel a treasure? It's a treasure to those that
know it. We have this treasure, the apostle
wrote to the church of Corinth. He said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. We have the treasure of Christ
himself. We have the treasure of the gospel,
the word of God. And we have the treasure of the
ministry of the gospel. We talked about these things
last Sunday. We have the treasure of the gospel
The ministry of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
world. Consider this. The gospel is a declaration,
an announcement, a proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
preaching of the gospel, the ministry of the gospel. The Lord
said, go in all the world and preach the gospel. Paul said,
I'm determined not to know anything among you. Christ and him crucified,
and he said, I'm not going to preach anything except Christ. The preaching of the gospel,
the preaching of it, is to them that perish Buddhism. But I'll
tell you what you're saying, it's the power of God. Consider
this, the ministry of the gospel is the Word of God in his church,
in this world, today. That's what God is doing in this
world today. This ministry of the gospel is
God's Word. Purpose work is His ordained
work. The proclamation of Jesus Christ,
the declaration of Jesus Christ to His people. Nobody else will
hear it. Nobody else will look at it. Nobody else will receive
it. But he's people-winged. And this
ministry is the feeding, the giving forth of bread of life
to those that are hungry, to those that are thirsty, to those
that are dying, to those that are dead, to those that are chosen. This is the ministry of the church.
It's not to get everybody to join up and get everybody to
make some kind of commitment or to build huge churches. It's the declaration of Jesus
Christ to those that are His. They feast on Him. They eat upon
Him. He's the bread of life. He's
the water of life. He is their life. And we have
this ministry, Paul said, in earthen vessels. We have the
treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels. God in grace and mercy
and everything He does for His people, You can put these two
words with me. It's grace and mercy. Your salvation,
my salvation is by the grace and the mercy of God. God gave
me what I don't deserve. And He didn't give me what I
do deserve. That's grace and mercy. God in
grace and mercy has called. You know, without God's call,
we're not going to answer. But that He calls affectionately,
we're not going to answer. If you don't hear, you're not
going to answer. We're just going to sit on and sleep away. Because
that's what we are. We're dead. Dead to the things
of God. But if He calls, we're going
to answer. And He has called His people. In Romans 8, 28, that verse we
know so well, that God has done everything,
everything works to our good, to His glory, to His purpose,
to those who are called according to His purpose. But He calls
His people, He also calls chosen vessels to proclaim unto His
chosen people the glorious message of His gospel. What was he told
Saul of Tarsus? He was on the road to Damascus
to have Christians put in jail, have them killed. He had no idea
what was going to happen to him. And on his way there, the Lord
Jesus Christ confronted him. And you know what he told Saul? You know what he told Ananias
concerning Saul? Do you know what Paul later saw
his name changed with Paul? Do you know what he told him?
He said, you're a chosen vessel. You're a chosen vessel to preach
the gospel which you once tried to destroy. God has chosen you
for that. Folks enter the ministry for
an occupation. They get into the ministry to
get paid. They think it will be a good way to make a living. They think it would be a good
way to be successful, to be heard. But God called his ministers
to preach the gospel. It's kind of like Saul on the
road to Damascus. He had no idea it was going to
happen. Look, I had no idea this was going to happen. I didn't
plan for it. It wasn't something I charted
out. But he said, you're a chosen
vessel. What was Paul concerning that later? He said, I thank
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. To what? To reveal His Son in
me. You mean He done all of that? You mean He called me to be born
and put me through all of that just to reveal His Son in me?
That's it. That's the only reason He saved
you. was to reveal His Son in you. That's the only reason He
saved me, to reveal His Son in me. The only reason He called
ministers of the gospel, to reveal His Son. You see, Christ is the
treasure of the gospel. Though the unbelieving world
looks upon the preaching of Christ as a fool's folly, it don't mean
nothing. Rather, it means less than nothing.
Most folks would rather be doing anything under God's Son than
listening to the gospel. They'd rather be out playing
mumbly peg. Do you know what mumbly peg is? I see two or three
of you. That's a stupid game. You can
get cut. You can get hurt playing that. But folks would rather be doing
anything, and it's evident. It's evident. Any little old
thing comes up. More important than the gospel. Folks that are unbelievers, no
matter what they profess, looks upon the preaching of Christ
as folly. The child of God counts it a
great treasure. Let me say at the outset, Those who do not love and support
the ministry and the ministers of the gospel. Now I'm not talking
about supporting everything down the road. But I'm talking about
those that preach the gospel of God's grace, preach Christ,
faithful to the ministry. And they don't support that ministry.
I'm talking about the office of it. I'm talking about the
glory of God in it. I'm talking about embracing Christ
and the message of the gospel. I'm not talking about some flashy
attachment to a preacher. I'm not talking about some sentimental
attachment to a church. I'm not talking about that at
all. I'm talking about the gospel and those that preach the gospel.
Those that don't support that for the glory of God, they don't
count Christ as a treasure. They do not. Because this is
God's gift to the church and God's work in the church. And
they love it for Christ's sake. They embrace it and they support
it for Christ's sake. And I'm not talking about just
monetarily. I'm talking about with their heart. With their
prayers. They weep over it. They glory
in it. It's their life. And if it ain't,
you missed it. Ten thousand miles. A casual Christian, there ain't
no such animal. No such animal. All those who have this treasure,
the ministry of the gospel, esteem it highly for the glory of God
and Christ's sake. You know what Paul said? He said, for we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ the Lord. And that serves your service
for Jesus' sake. I'm just a servant. That's all I am. Just a servant. And I don't mean that lightly
when I say just a servant. But I put emphasis on that to
say this, that I'm no more than anyone else. Just a servant. But oh, what it is to be a servant. What a wondrous thing it is to
be a servant. But I'm nothing more. He said, I'm your servant. For Christ's sake. And this is
why. This is why. For, he said, God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, I shine in our
hearts. In our hearts. Your heart. And my heart. To give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And he said, we have this treasure. What treasure? The ministry of
the gospel. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. On earth. Right here. Right now. We've
got it. It's ours. All those who have this treasure,
esteem it highly, to hear Christ proclaim in all His glory, Would
you love to hear Christ proclaimed as glorious as a man could? Have you ever heard Him proclaimed
as highly as He could be? I don't think so. We've heard
Him proclaimed as highly as men can proclaim Him, but He's still
higher than that. The scriptures use words like
this concerning Christ. Unsearchable riches of His grace. Unsearchable. His grace is so
rich. His love is so great. His forgiveness
is so profound. It's unsearchable. When a believer cannot attend
the gospel because of problems, he's heartbroken. It's not a small thing. He said,
Oh, I wish I was there. I wish I was there. I know one time I went to a Bible
conference up in Lexington where Pastor Todd Nyberg is. Todd was
sick. He had blood clots in his leg.
He's in the hospital. Didn't even get to be there at
the conference where he's pastoring the church. We went over one
Saturday afternoon to see Todd. He said, Boy, I'd like to be
there. Wish I was there. That's the way a believer is.
Wants to be there. I was glad when they said, Let
us go worship. When the writer of Hebrews, Paul
probably, said in Hebrews 10.25, he said, Not the forsaking of
the assembly that are together as man or son is, but exhorting
one another, so much the more as you see the day approaching.
To the child of God, this is not a law. It's not a grievous task. You
know what it is? It's a loving invitation. to
come and dine. The tables spread. Crafty priests
come and eat. Those to whom the ministry of
the gospel is esteemed as a treasure from the storehouse of God are
gladly, willingly, and diligently searching for a way and a means to honor and glorify God in the
ministry of the gospel, the furtherance of the gospel. Like that widow
woman, she just had, what was it, a penny? And all the others cast in all
their great abundance. She cast in her penny. She said, the Lord said, she
cast in more than all they did, than all the rest of them did,
because she gave all she had. Why did she do that? Because
the gospel of Christ was a treasure to her. It wasn't that she wanted
to be seen, because all she had was a painting. She didn't do
it to buy anything, because all she had was a painting. She didn't
do it to get accepted, because all she had was a painting. But
it was all she had. Why'd she do it? Because Christ
was a treasure. Christ was a treasure. We have this treasure of the
ministry of the gospel. And we can't separate this from
Christ. The gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ are triplets. They go together. They're joined
together. There's no separation. The preaching
of Christ What does it take to save a sinner? Just answer me
these questions. Think with me. What does it take
to save a sinner? You say Christ. His Word. His
person. Ain't that what it takes? Sure
it is. It takes the power of His Spirit,
the power of His grace to call sinners to life. Sure it does. What else? God has chosen the foolish to
preach Him the gospel. to save them that believe. Isn't
that treasure? How can you separate that? I'm
asking you how can you do it? It can't be done. It can't be
done. Do you believe God can save sinners
without them hearing the gospel? No, I don't. You know, I've heard
preachers hymn hall around it and try to evade the question.
Well, I'm just going to ask you point blank. No, God don't save
sinners apart from the gospel. Scriptures teach that he saves
sinners by the preaching of the gospel. God's chosen that. That's
His means, that's the way He does it. So if you sit around
and don't hear the gospel, it's not, it's foolishness to you,
you're going to perish. Because that's what He uses,
to save sinners. Because therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. God has ordained the preaching
of Christ to save His people. In Romans 10, 14, 15, there are
some questions asked in this verse of Scripture concerning
the ministry of the gospel and the preaching of the gospel.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
That's a good question, isn't it? That provoked you to think. How can you call on somebody
that you don't believe in? I mean, why would you call on
somebody you don't believe in? Why would you? You wouldn't. You'd say that's foolish to call
on somebody you don't believe in. The second question, and
how shall they believe in Him in whom they've not heard? How
can you believe on somebody, believe in somebody that you've
not heard of? Well, everybody's heard of Jesus,
the one in the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
that came and actually put away his people's sin, actually died
as a substitute, died for his people, and accomplished the
salvation of his people, and put away their sin. How shall they believe in Him who
they've not heard? You can't. You can't believe somebody who's
not heard of Him. The third question. How shall
I hear without a preacher? God asked all these questions.
This wasn't something Paul just wrote to fill up space. He asked
these questions. How shall I hear without a preacher? And I think all these questions
are answered the same way. What he's saying is, this is
my order. This is how I do things. This is how I save sinners. Christ
must be preached. Christ must be revealed. And
I call my preachers to preach Christ. Because He answers this question,
or another question, and how shall they preach except they
be sinned? Not everybody that's carrying
the Bible to the pastor of the church is somebody that's got
to sin. Not everybody wears a towel around
their neck and their collar turned backwards as a preacher. It's those that God has called
and sent to preach the glad tidings, the good news of the gospel in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. How shall they preach except
they be sent to Cain? You can't preach something, you can say
words. But that's about it. How can they preach except it
be sin? I wonder why God called Abraham. I wonder why God called John
the Baptist. I wonder why He called Paul.
Why didn't He say just whoever wants to, just preach the gospel?
Or if you think that would be a good thing to do, just preach.
He called me and he called his twelve. He said, are you not
chosen me? I've chosen you. How soon will
they preach? They can't. He answers the question
finally. And this is a quote from the
Old Testament Scriptures. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them. And I don't think preachers have
pretty feet. That means they've got a good
message. They've got it. Glad to hear
it coming. The sound of their feet coming is good because they've
got a message that I love, a message I need to hear, a message that
causes my heart to rejoice. How beautiful it will be of them
that preach the gospel of peace. What is the gospel of peace?
God made peace between, Christ made peace between
God and man through the blood of His cross. He's reconciled us to God by
the death of His Son, that bring glad tidings of good things. Glad tidings of good things.
The preaching of the gospel, what I've just done this morning,
I hope, I believe I've preached Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the message. What I've done this morning to
some of you is foolishness. You'll probably walk out these
doors and forget it. It won't mean nothing to you.
It'll just be foolishness. You'll perish. But to those that
are saved, it's a treasure. It's the power of God. Let me
get to the gospel. A believer will knock down doors,
saw down trees, stay up all night, do without, whatever he has to
do. And I'm not just being funny,
I'm telling you the truth. A believer will do whatever he
has to do to hear the gospel. He has to live on bread and water,
on a rock, He'll do it if you hear the gospel. Because he cannot
do without it. Do you believe that? I do. I
believe it. That's my story. I'll stick to
it.