Well, I invite you to turn this
morning in the Word of God to the Book of Acts, Chapter 20.
The Book of Acts, Chapter 20. I want to speak this morning primarily,
we'll begin with verse 24, where the apostle here is saying but none of these things move
me, count I my life dear unto myself, neither count I my life
dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the gospel of the grace of God. Now my subject this morning is
this, I ask this question, what is the gospel worth to you? What is the gospel worth to you? Consider, if you will, the Apostle
Paul. Consider him with me this morning,
and here is a man You know, all of the living family of God considers
the gospel to be the most valuable thing that they have. Those that know the Lord Jesus
Christ, those that have been born of the Divine Spirit, those
that are in Christ, they consider the gospel to be extremely valuable. just like a hungry man would
value bread, because the gospel is indeed the children's bread. With the full knowledge that
bonds and imprisonment and death awaited him, Paul was determined
to go to Jerusalem to preach the gospel of God's free grace
in Jesus Christ. Listen, he said to his friends
in Ephesus, None of these things move me. He just told them in
verse 22, Behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there. But God by the
Spirit has borne witness to me that in every city that I find
myself in, I shall therein suffer bonds and afflictions. I'll suffer
bonds and afflictions." He said, none of these things move me,
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. So Paul, in comparison, With
the great object of preaching the gospel, Paul did not consider
even his own life to be a precious thing. Paul was a man that was
entirely separated unto the gospel of God. In Romans 1 and 1, he
says Paul, a servant of God, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God. Now, there's three things quickly
here I want you to notice, and that is here, number one, is
a man whose life was consecrated to the pursuit of one object,
and that is to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. That was the one object of this
apostle. He said, I'm here in the world,
this is my business. Paul did at times labor with
his hands, we read that here this morning, to make tents,
but he never gave himself over to building, as it were, to the
pursuit of building a tent business. Neither did he work for the luxuries
of life or even for the comforts of life. Paul did not. He worked
to feed and clothe himself and his fellow laborers so that he
might continue to preach the gospel, so that he would be able
to continue on after this long pursuit, and that was to testify
among men of the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. He considered
it to be his life calling. He believed in a call from God
and he believed that he had received it. And he believed that it was
his life business to make the gospel known unto men. And that by all means he might
be used as an instrument in the hands of God to the salvation
of some men. Now Paul regarded, number two,
he regarded the gospel as a sacred treasure that had been committed
to his trust. Look at verse 24 here where he
says, which I have received, in the latter part of the verse,
which I have received of the Lord Jesus. Now in 2 Corinthians
4 and 7, Paul said, but we have this treasure, this treasure,
we have the gospel, we have Christ, we have the work of God in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. God has entrusted, beloved, the
Apostle Paul, He entrusted him as well as He has entrusted us
into our hands the very light of the Gospel of Redemption.
In 2 Corinthians 4 and 1 it says, Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, Paul said, we faint not. And in 1 Timothy 1 verse 11 and
12, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which
was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Now listen to him in 2 Corinthians
5, in verse 18, 19, and 20. And all things, he says in verse
18, are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. to witness
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, We pray you,
in Christ's dead, be you reconciled unto God. It is our responsibility,
mine as a preacher, yours as a believer, ours as one of the
Lord's churches. to do whatever we can to carry
the light of the gospel into this darkened world in which
we live. And the Apostle Paul felt this
is a great burden that God had committed the gospel into his
hands. He was a man of one pursuit who
believed that this glorious treasure, this gospel of grace, had been
committed and had been entrusted into his very hands. Number three,
Paul was resolved to be faithful to that trust. He was resolved,
he had resolved to be faithful in declaring the gospel even
if it cost him his very life. Look here if you will in Acts
chapter 21 in verse 13. Then Paul answered, What mean
ye to weep? Now Paul and his company had
went over to the house of Philip the Evangelist, and as they tarried
there many days, there was a certain prophet who had come down from
Judah, and this prophet, his name was Agabus, And this prophet,
well, when he first come in, he took Paul's girdle, in verse
11, he bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the
Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that
owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of
the Gentiles. Well, when they heard these things,
both we and they of that place besought Him not to go up to
Jerusalem. They said, Paul, don't go up
to Jerusalem because surely, surely it's going to be your
end. Then Paul answered in verse 13,
What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not
to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm ready not to be bound, but
I'm ready to die also at Jerusalem. Now, beloved, this should be,
I think, the heart's prayer of all of those who have truly experienced
the power of the gospel in their own lives. Anybody who has really
tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Anybody that has been
touched by the hand of God from heaven and who have experienced
something of the great victory in the gospel of God's grace.
Every one of them should have a prayer like this in their heart. Lord give me a heart that is
so separated and committed to the gospel that nothing else
will be of such value to me as your gospel. And it will be by
your grace to give myself and all that I have down to life
itself for the furtherance of the gospel which has saved me
from an ever-ending hell. Now are we thus committed, beloved? Are we committed as Paul? I mean,
do we have one pursuit? As a child of God, as a church,
as a preacher, do we have the one pursuit? I mean, do we highly
value this which has been committed into our trust? And do we, this
morning, are we resolved to be faithful to the trust that God
has given us to the point even to the lay down of our lives? What is the gospel worth to you
this morning? What is it worth to you? Now
I want you to turn, if you will, to the book of Romans, chapter
one, and I want us to look at verses 14 down through verse
16. Verses 14 through 16. Paul here,
he says, I'm a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise. What he meant by that was, he
said, I feel like that I'm in debt. Because of what the Lord
has done in me, because of God's calling, because of the blessing
of the gospel in my own soul, and because of the vision which
God by the Holy Spirit has given me, he says, I feel like I'm
in debt. I'm in debt, he says, to the
Greeks, to the barbarians, to the wise, and to the unwise. He says, so as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and also unto the Greek." Now, verse 16, where
he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. He was
a man that was so tied to the gospel, so united to the gospel,
the gospel was that, as it were, that spiritual power that flowed
in his veins, and he said, I'm not ashamed, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of God's free grace. Now there were many in Paul's
day, as in our day, who were ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
though they claimed to preach it and defend it, Beloved, they
were ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is of no value to
those who are ashamed of it. They place no value upon it.
They don't value the gospel like Paul did. They don't value it
that way. They're ashamed of it. Now let
me ask this morning, who is ashamed of the gospel? How can we identify
a man or a church that is ashamed of the gospel of God's grace. Well, first of all, I'd like
to say that those who are ashamed of the gospel are those who hide
and conceal the gospel from men, from those that they minister
to. those who have the ability and those who have the opportunity
to preach the gospel, but they choose not to do so. They will
not do so. Willingly, they choose to conceal
and to hide the gospel of God's free grace. Reasons they'll offer
many, but they want to hide this gospel. All who preach But do
not preach the gospel are those who are ashamed of the gospel. Mark it down, my friend. And
we have many that are preaching. And I don't care what it is that
a man preaches, if he doesn't preach the gospel of God's free
grace, That man, beloved, is not preaching, and that man is
certainly ashamed of the true gospel of God's grace. Let him preach prophecy. Let
him preach morality. Let him preach eschatology. Let
him preach the law. Let him preach Bible history.
Let him preach the church doctrines. Let him preach whatever he will.
And that man may be very busy and may be very eloquent in his
presentation of these subjects, but he has not yet preached because
he has not preached the gospel of God's amazing and free grace. Now, beloved, when a man has
preached and he has preached the gospel, when? I've often
asked myself this question. When has a man preached? If he
hasn't preached when he preached eschatology and prophecy and
morality and the law of the church and these things, if he hasn't
preached that, when has he preached? When has he preached? Well, beloved,
a man has preached when he has preached God as He is to men
as they are. Now, you will have to figure
that out yourself, but that's where a man begins. He begins
by preaching God as He is, God as He's revealed in the scriptures,
to man as the scriptures reveal Him to be. This my friend is
a place where that we have to starve now then also I believe
that a man preaches when he is preached Christ as God's Righteousness
Paul said in the 17th verse of Romans 1. He says therein He's
been talking about the gospel in verse 16 therein is the righteousness
of God revealed and Do you want to know God's righteousness?
Then you must hear the gospel. And when a man preaches the truth
about God's righteousness, God's righteousness is a person. And
that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 10 verse
4 says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And so a man has preached when
he has preached Christ as God's righteousness. And then he's
preached when he preaches Christ As the way to God, John 14 and
6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father except by me. And if a man doesn't preach
Christ as the way to God, Christ as the only way to God, he has
not preached. And then, when does a man preach?
He preaches whenever he says that Jesus Christ is the door
to eternal life. And when he preaches Christ as
that door, Jesus says, I am the door by me. If any man enters
in, he shall go in and out and find pasture. When does a man
preach? He's preached when he has declared
that Jesus Christ only in a man. is the hope of glory. We read
it in Colossians 1 and 27, Christ in you, the hope of glory. A Christ not formed in you by
the divine Spirit is a Christ not yours. You do not know Christ
unless He's formed in you by the Spirit of God. And it's Christ
in a man that's the hope of glory. I mean, you can declare if you
want that a man becomes the Lord by giving up a few things and
by starting a few things and he gives a certain amount of
his income and all of this is figured in. There's not a word
of truth in it. A man belongs to the Lord. When
Christ is formed in him, when Christ is in your heart, when
Christ lives in you, then you can say, I'm a Christian, I'm
a child of God. When a man has preached Christ
as the all in all of a believer's hope, then my friend, that man
has truly preached the gospel and that man is not ashamed of
the gospel. Well, let me go back a little
bit to who is ashamed of the gospel. Those who acknowledge
in private what they refuse to preach in public are really ashamed
of the gospel. And the gospel is of no worth
to them. I've talked to a lot of people,
preachers, who would tell me in private that they believe
the doctrines of grace They'll tell me, well, I believe all
that. I believe that, preacher. Yes,
they will, but whenever they get into public, they refuse
to preach from a pulpit what they have said in private they
believe. Those men are ashamed of the
gospel. Those who use ambiguous words
and phrases, being careful not to offend anybody, offend their
hearers with the truth of God in a word any man. who speaks
to please men in his preaching, who molds his message to win
the approval and the applause of his hearers, refusing to bear
the reproach of Christ for whatever reason, is ashamed of the gospel. He's ashamed of the gospel of
God's grace. And any preacher who is ashamed
of the gospel is ashamed of Christ. and is a false prophet, you mark
it down. You mark it down. If he's ashamed
of the gospel, then he's ashamed of Christ, and I wouldn't want
to sit under his ministry. Let me make haste to say that
God's true servants, Paul was a true servant of the living
God, is not ashamed of the gospel. They glory in the gospel. They glory in it. God's servants
faithfully preach electing love and effectual redemption and
sovereign grace openly, publicly, and boldly in the face of opposition
without regard for their personal interests. That's the kind of
man Paul was. He said, I don't count my life
dear to myself. He said, none of these things
move me. And they wept over him and said,
don't go Paul, don't go. And finally they said, well,
the will of the Lord be done. He's going to go anyway because
he's possessed. with this gospel, and the gospel
of such value to him, he's possessed with it, and he'll go anyway.
Now, once a preacher starts thinking about his own interests, then
he's out of business. He's like a racetrack driver.
I mean, you get a fella that drives race cars, and you can't
get that fella to a funeral. Not only can you not get him
to a funeral, you can't get him to talk about death. And not
only that, but if he's to hear In the pulpit, you ever get him
thinking about his pocketbook? I'm talking about a true servant
of God. You ever get him thinking about
his pocketbook? You get him thinking about his
personal interests? And that fella's shocked. He's
no good anymore. It's only when a man like Paul
says, I don't count my life dear unto myself, This thing don't
mean anything. The thing that means something
to me is to declare boldly, publicly, the truth of God's grace in Christ. To preach this gospel. That's
what matters to me. And this is what Paul was all
about. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. That gospel of which the Lord
Jesus Christ is the very sum and substance. There's no other
gospel. You listen to me this morning.
You listen to me. Let me try to just say a few
things about this gospel to enhance It's value this morning in your
heart. Listen to it. The gospel, first
of all, is a declaration of Christ's glorious person. This glorious
person, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Almighty
God. The Almighty God. And the Almighty
God was veiled with the robe of our inferior clay. He came
into this world and He lived in this very world. I'm talking
about the God-man. He's a man. He came down from
heaven. This God-man did. This Almighty
God in this body of flesh joined to us and received our nature,
sin accepted. And He came into this world to
redeem His people from their sin. I say the gospel is a declaration
of Christ's glorious person. Number two, the gospel is a proclamation
of redemption accomplished. And I love that. I don't know
how any man can get up and get any kind of joy out of preaching
that the Lord Jesus Christ, that he merely made an effort to save
people from their sin. That he just merely made an effort. No, my friend, the gospel of
God's grace is a gospel that testifies of a redemption that
is accomplished. It is accomplished! Now you mark
it down, my friend. Christ Jesus, by the shedding
of His blood, has put away, He has put away the sin of His people. Not one of those sinners for
whom He died can by any possibility be lost. They cannot. This is
the proclamation of effectual redemption. And you cannot preach
the gospel of Christ without preaching it. You can't get up
and preach the gospel without declaring to those that hear
you that the redemption of Christ is an accomplished redemption. Now, beloved, that I glory in
that, because the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life, and
by the laying down of His life, you and I have been Say we have
been delivered from the judgment of God to come upon the poor
sinners And then also let me say that the gospel is the announcement
of of Christ's saving power. It's the announcement of the
saving power of Christ. Paul tells us that in verse 16. He said it, the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. And in Hebrews 7 and 25, he is
able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He has power. He has power, John
17 and 2 says, over all flesh. that all that He came to give
eternal life to, He will successfully impart that eternal life. I'm talking about when you preach
the gospel, you must preach that Jesus Christ, that He has power,
and all power in heaven and on earth is His, and that He has
power to save, and every child of God is a trophy of that power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the revelation
of Christ's exaltation and glory. And I like this because so many
preach that Jesus Christ is a floor, just a doorman. Wipe your feet
on Him, do with Him what you want to. I mean, just treat Him
any way you want. But the true gospel of God's
grace is the revelation of Christ's exaltation and His glory. The Son of God was raised from
the dead. He ascended up on high to be
seated at the right hand of eternal majesty. He rules the universe! from the throne in total sovereignty
to give the gifts that he bought on Calvary to his elect. Repentance, faith, life, victory. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns
to give those gifts unto his people. Now then, this is a Christ,
the Christ we trust, the Christ we worship, the Christ we preach. This Christ cannot fail. He is
a sovereign, successful, saving substitute. And when we preach
the gospel, we preach that glorious truth that shows His exaltation
and His glory. My friend, would we rob Him?
I mean, if the gospel means anything to us, we'd say, Amen. That's
the gospel we want to hear preached. That's the gospel that we would
support. That's the gospel we'll stand
behind and we'll defend that gospel as long as we live. Now, beloved, there is no more
glorious message in all the world than that of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Are you settled on that? There
isn't any, I mean, listen to me now, listen to me. The good
news of the gospel, you never heard any good news till you
heard that. And since you heard that, you
haven't heard any bad news. The most glorious message that's
ever been heard is this message of the gospel of God being in
Christ, reconciling the world of the elect unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them. but imputing the glorious,
perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ unto them. What a message! The most glorious
message that this world has ever heard, that men or angels have
ever heard. The greatest privilege that God
Almighty can give a sinner in this life other than the gift
of faith in Christ is that of being able to hear the gospel
of Christ proclaimed by one of God's servants. That's the greatest
gift that God can give to any sinner, is to allow them, I mean
to permit them to come unto the sound of a faithful word. concerning the gospel of God's
grace. And my friend, the most dangerous
thing that you can do in this life is to trifle, is to trifle
with the gospel when you hear it. How do men and women trifle
with the gospel, you ask? Well, you turn with me, if you
will, to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, and I want us
to look here in verses 40 and 41. where it says, beware therefore
lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
There's been some glorious things that have been spoken to these
people. The brother had preached that through this man, Christ,
that they have forgiveness of sins and by him, that is by Christ,
in verse 39, all the belief or justified from all things, from
which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. And then
he went on to say, beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which
is spoken of you in the prophets. Behold, you despisers and wander
and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you
shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And then we'll go over here to
verse 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary
that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but
seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Now then, when
these Jews heard the gospel, They were indifferent, they were
despisers, they were filled with unbelief and apathy, and they
were contradicting and blaspheming. And we notice that in verse 45.
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Now, beloved, these individuals
This is their reaction toward this glorious message that I've
just described to you here this morning. Now, to do this, what
these individuals did, my friend, was to trifle with the gospel.
And to do this, to trifle with the gospel, is to flirt with
reprobation. It's to flirt with reprobation.
What is reprobation? Why, it's a judicial act of God
whereby sinners who refuse to believe the gospel are damned
while they live. Are damned while they live. Reprobation
is God's response to a man's unbelief and rebellion and blasphemy. It is an irreversible and irrevocable
judgment which God brings upon some men and women who have treated
the gospel of His grace with something less than love and
faith. Reprobation I'm talking about
now these Jews heard from God through Paul and Barnabas God's
preachers and they were confronted with the gospel of the glory
of Christ and they treated that message as useless and Unimportant
they put it from them and they judged themselves unworthy of
everlasting life and Paul says that's it. That's it. I You crossed
the line, that's it. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. We turn to the Gentiles for so
in verse 47, the Lord commanded us saying, I've set you to be
a light of the Gentiles that you should be for salvation unto
the ends of the earth. Paul said, that's it. You've
reprobated yourself and God sent you to hell while you're standing
on your feet and you're lost and you'll never be converted.
Now hear me out this morning. God may put a man's conscience
so to sleep so that he may never again feel the guilt of sin if
he's had the glorious privilege of being able to sit under a
true gospel message. God may so harden his heart that
he cannot that he will not, that he ever will believe and he cannot
be saved because God sent him to hell because he trifled with
the gospel. He's still walking around but
he's as sure for hell as if he is already there because he trifled
with this glorious gospel of God's free, amazing, and sovereign
grace. It is extremely dangerous to
refuse and to deny the witness that God has given concerning
His Son. God, who in sundry times and
in different manners spoken to the fathers in the past, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. And this is my
beloved Son. Hear ye Him! And if you don't
hear Him, if you won't hear him, then my friend, you must go to
hell and you ought to go to hell if you'll not bear the witness
that God has given of his own glorious, the son of his love. For one to persist in unbelief
and to turn his back on that which is plainly revealed in
God's word, that salvation is all in Christ, will prove to
be fatal. It'll prove to be fatal. God
does not look kindly upon those who refuse to honor his son. Kiss the son, the Bible says,
lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way when his
anger is kindled, but a little. Now, you may say something like
this when it happens, preacher. Don't that discourage the preacher
when this happens? I mean when things like this
occur, when people Flatly refuse to obey the gospel, believe it,
to trust Christ. I mean, don't this put God between
a rock and a hard place? I mean, don't this put God out
of business? When these Jews here, I mean,
the Word was spoken to them and they wouldn't believe it? I mean,
don't this thwart the purpose of God? Well, my friend, I'm
here this morning to stand before you and to boldly declare that
this does not hinder the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. I'm here to tell you this morning
that God has all of his bases covered, brother. He has them
all covered. and there isn't anything. Listen,
this hadn't put God between a rock and a hard place. How's that,
you ask? Well, look in verse 47 here and
verse 48. Verse 48, let me just read verse
48 for time's sake. And when the Gentiles heard this,
Paul said, we're gonna turn to the Gentiles. God commanded us
to do it. Paul didn't go off somewhere
and say, well, I'll just quit preaching them Jews. They treat
me like this. People treat me like this. Why,
they don't want my message? Well, I'll just quit. No, no,
no, no. He said, I just do what God tells
me to do. I'm God's servant. And so he
goes on and he preaches here to the Gentiles and the Gentiles
heard this. that the message was going to
come to them. It says they were glad and they
glorified the word of the Lord. And listen to this, and listen
to this, and as many, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Now what do you think of that?
You think God don't have his bases covered? I'll tell you
he does and this gospel there ain't no preacher and there ain't
no there ain't no church There isn't anybody on the face of
God's green earth. That's gonna rob God of his purpose
God's gonna be a success God's gonna win the day. He'll have
his family. He'll have him now There's four
things and we're done. I want you to just bear with
me here four things which are a blessing to me which will show
you that God has all of his bases covered and this great and glorious
gospel is, my friend, a gospel that we ought to value and be
willing to lay down our life for. Listen to this, number one,
he has a particular people. Listen to this, as many, as many,
as many, no more, no less. This is a specific number which
can never be increased or decreased. As many. As many. The phrase as many, it designates
a definite number or group of people chosen by God before the
foundation of the world and given to Jesus Christ in the covenant
of grace. As many. As many. Now, these people, they are born
again by the power of the Holy Spirit. John 1 verse 12 and 13,
they are called to saving faith in Christ. Acts 2 and 39, the
promise is unto you and to your children and to as many as the
Lord our God Shall call and so beloved. This is what you have
first of all a particular people as Many and then you have a particular
action were ordained as many as were ordained now the word
ordained means to a point or to assign to a certain position
or lot the verse might be translated like this and as many as were
appointed or assigned to eternal life believed. Now beloved, if
you'll go back and you'll read the context carefully, These
verses, we read part of it, looked at part of it. You will no doubt
see that the Holy Spirit is informing us of some people who believed
Paul's message in spite of the opposition of the Jews. These
believed because they were ordained to believe. Now that's the second
thing. We have a particular action ordained. Now number three, you have a
particular benefit and that is eternal life. Notice it. As many as were ordained to eternal
life. Notice it. And that means eternal
life means to know God. It means to know Christ. It means
for God to have given us an understanding so that we might know Him and
His Son, Jesus Christ. Well, what have we learned so
far? We've learned this, as many, no more no less, as were ordained,
appointed, determined, and assigned to eternal life, to know God
and to know Christ. Well, what did these do? Well,
number four, you have what they did, a particular means they
believed. They believed. These people believed! The Jews didn't believe. I mean,
these blaspheming Jews, reprobate Jews, they didn't believe. But
these Gentiles, they that were appointed, ordained to eternal
life, they believed. Now, beloved, to be sure, faith
is not the cause or the condition of eternal life. Now you think
about that a little bit. Faith is not the cause or the
condition of eternal life. It's the result. It's the result
of being chosen of God. It's the result of being ordained
of God. It's the result of being appointed
by God, determined by God. It's the result of eternal life. It's the result of being born
from heaven, being born again. If you believe God, it's because
God's given you the gift of faith and in regeneration he imparted
that to you. You believe because you are a
child of God. You don't believe in order to
become one. And that's where this generation
of theologians have screwed up, is that they think that a man
is converted when he believes. And our sinner is dead in sin,
not able to believe anything. You that are the children of
God will testify to how difficult it is to believe in the midst
of trial, in the midst of difficulty. You can't make yourself believe
even when you know you ought to. And you know that's the gospel
truth. The only way you're going to
believe is when God gives you the gift of faith and enables
you to believe. Well, beloved, faith in Christ
is the result of the new birth. And these people believed. because
God gave them this faith. Nevertheless, it's vital because
no man can go to heaven without it, the scripture says. Without
faith, it's impossible to believe God, it's impossible to please
God, and you can't go to heaven without faith. But it's got to
come, faith cometh, it's got to come from God. You can't raise
it, and until God gives it to you, you haven't got it, and
you're not going to heaven until He does give it to you. Faith,
I'm talking about. We're all the children of God
by faith. In Christ Jesus, Paul said in the book of the Acts,
or in the book of Galatians. Now then, faith is believing
and trusting in Christ's blood and His righteousness. It's trusting
Him as your all in all. That's what it is. It's trusting.
It's trusting Christ. Believing on Him. Trusting Him. Well, what's the gospel worth
to you? Is it worth more to you now than what it was when I started
this morning? Is it? Is it worth more to you?
Well, bless God if it is, then praise the Lord because the purpose
I had in mind has been accomplished. If the gospel, the true gospel
of God's grace means more to you right now than it did when
you walked in that door this morning, then brother, sister,
we've accomplished that which God sent us here this morning
to accomplish. I hope this morning that the
Lord give you the ability to remember these things, Remember
these things. I believe Paul, I do not set
him up as one that you should idolize or bow down before, worship,
but I set him up as a man who had the right attitude about
the gospel of God's free grace. A man who had the right attitude
about it. A man who had one pursuit, to testify of that gospel and
everything I do is toward that one thing. Preach that gospel. It's been committed to me. I'm
resolved to be faithful if I gotta lay down my life. I'm resolved
to be faithful in proclaiming that gospel because I'm not ashamed
of it. I'm not ashamed of it. May the
Lord be pleased to own his own word. Father, thank you for this
day, for your gospel. Might you be pleased, oh Lord,
to reveal that gospel in power to some poor soul here this morning
that they might be liberated from their sin and be able, our
Father, to look up into that glorious face of Christ and give
Him praise not only today but throughout eternity for being
willing to lay down His life in order that we might be saved.
Do Thou undertake for us And receive the glory, receive the
praise, receive the glory for every victory, for every mercy. In Jesus name, amen.