Gospel of Christ

Well, they just wanted me to
turn back in the Bible to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter
11. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. And
I'd like to read, uh, this morning,
the first four verses. The first four verses. Would to God he could bear with
me a little in my fall, he had indeed beared with me. For I
am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
Christ. But I fear that by any means
has the servant beguile thee through his subtlety. So your
mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom ye have not preached, whom ye have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or
another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear
with him. The Apostle Paul was a faithful
minister of the Gospel of Christ. Often his apostleship was questioned,
as you are very much aware. And in this chapter in particular,
he sets forth the fact that he was indeed a minister of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he had this to say in verse
23, Are they ministers of Christ? Speaking of those who are false
apostles and false teachers, and of others who say they're
ministers of Christ, but they've never actually been proven. He
said, I am more. He said, I speak as a fool. He
says, I am more. I am more. He says, I'm more
than laborers. More abundant, he says, than
laborers. in stripes above measure, in
prisons more frequent, in death's halt. And he goes on to describe
here how that he suffered for the name of Christ and suffered
in the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now he said
here that, in verse 2, he said, I'm jealous of you with an ominous
jealousy. Being a true minister of Christ,
One would suffer greatly for the preaching of the gospel and
for the offense of the cross. Here the Apostle Paul says, I'm
jealous over you. Speaking of the church at Corinth,
this was a church which had come into existence through his ministry
in the Reed Valley in the 18th chapter of the book of Acts.
And Paul had come to Corinth and under great trial there,
he preached the gospel, and many of the Corinthians had heard
the gospel in his mouth, and they believed and they were baptized,
and this church came into existence. And so Paul knew these people,
and he had great love for them, and being a great loyal servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ, He says here, I have espoused you
to one husband. I've engaged you to one husband.
And he said, this husband, of course, is Jesus Christ. And
you are the bride of Christ. The church is the bride of Jesus
Christ. And he said, I have engaged you
to Christ. And he said, I'm very jealous
of you. And this is a thoughtfully jealousy I have of you. This
is a godly jealousy. It's not the kind of jealousy
that rages in the hearts of men in this world. It's a godly jealousy. We know the Bible says that God
himself is jealous. He's a very jealous God. And
we hear different stories at times of men, how they go into
jealous rages. Just this last week we had a
neighbor just across the field from us who went into a jealous
rage and took a high powered hunting rifle and was going to
kill both himself and his wife. And went out into the field,
both of them, took her out into the field and he was going to
kill her and herself. And they had the police to come,
and they finally talked him out of the gun, and then they had
to put him in jail. And they took him to jail because
he was in a jealous rage. But this is not what Paul's talking
about here. He is very jealous. He is indeed
very jealous over the Lord's people, but it is with a godly
jealousy. He would have them, he says,
that I may receive you as a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ. that
I may present you as one who has not been unfaithful to Christ,
one that has been faithful to the Lord Jesus, one that is a
true lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, I fear,
in verse 3, but I fear, I fear, he said, lest by any means, and
Satan is not sure on means, I want you to know that, Satan is not
sure of meaning when it comes to beguiling the people of God
through his subtlety to lead to simplicity that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Satan has many, many means. And he said that the serpent
beguiled him. You remember the serpent came
and planted doubt in his mind. and he beguiled Eve and caused
her to fall through this beguiling. Now, he says, so that your mind
should be corrupted. Now, I don't believe false doctrine
or hear false doctrine is to have one's mind corrupted. And
one becomes, one is in danger when hearing false doctrine.
He's in danger of having himself to become unfaithful to this
one husband we have been engaged to. Now, first we must believe
the truth about Christ, and we must, if we want to be faithful
to Christ, we must know Him, and we must believe Him and believe
His truth. Now, what goes on to say in verse
4, He says, For if ye that cometh, preacheth another Jesus, whom
we have not preached. Now Paul preached Jesus Christ,
the Son of the living God. He preached that Christ was revealed
in him on the road to Damascus. He preached the Christ that God
sent into this world to fulfill God's purpose and God's word. This Jesus Paul, old and Paul
preached. Now he said, if a man comes and
he preaches, you're another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or
if you receive another spirit, if there's a spirit, and certainly
there is another spirit that accompanies the preaching of
a false Jesus, and the preaching of a false gospel, he goes on
to say, which he has not received, or another gospel, which he has
not accepted. If a man comes and preaches this
gospel, which is another gospel, There's only one gospel, the
surest God is God and Christ is Christ. There is only one
gospel, but the Lord listens. He says that if somebody comes
and preaches another gospel, and so he's referring to a false
gospel. He's referring to a gospel that
is contrary to the true doctrine of Christ as revealed in scripture. He says, which he hath not accepted,
he might well bear with him. Now, this last phrase here might
be rather confusing, but let me explain it to you so that
you can understand what Paul's saying. He's saying, if you readily
bear with him, and there were those that were preaching false
gospels, and there were those that were preaching other Jesuses,
well, there were many, many Jesuses, as Josephus would tell us, in
the days of Jesus himself. There were many, many, many,
uh, uh, boys and young men whose name was Jesus. But there was
only one Jesus that was called Jesus by the Father, named by
the Father, the one that was to save his people from their
sins. And so here he says, there are many that would come, there
are others that would come preaching another Jesus, and you readily
bear with him. Now, the word bear here means
to endure. It means that you put up with
them, and you listen to them, and you sit and you tolerate
them, and you let them preach these things in your hearing.
And Paul says, I'm afraid of you. He says, I fear for you,
because when you bear with these things, You are being unfaithful
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not remaining as you were
a case virgin engaged to Christ. You're committing as it were
spiritual adultery by listening to someone preach another Jesus,
by receiving another spirit, and by hearing another gospel. You're being unfaithful to Christ. He looked you out of your sins.
God, He'll do what's next. He prays. You're being unfaithful
to Him, and He said, I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid for you. Now he said essentially, basically
the same thing to the Galatians over in the fourth chapter of
Galatians. He said in verse 11, he says,
I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid of you lest I have
to shoulder upon you labor in vain. Now, this church remembered
that there were Judaizers, teachers, that came to the church at Galatia
and told them that they had to be circumcised after the manner
of Moses and they had to keep the law in order to be saved.
And Paul says, those of you that have designed against the law,
have you heard what the law says? Why, you have to keep every job
and title of the law if you're going to be accepted before God
on the basis of that law. And you've not heard the law.
He says, I'm afraid of you, because you've turned from Christ. And
then as we go on down in this fifth chapter of Galatians, in
the fifth chapter of Galatians here, he says this. Christ, in
verse 4, has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever you are that
are justified by the law, you are not in the grace. And so,
what he's saying here is that if you come to the place where
you feel now that you can be justified by lawful works, being
encouraged by these Judaizers, these teachers of the law. He
said, then you're fallen from grace. And he says in verse 6,
for in Jesus Christ, in the circumcision of Abraham and Abel, uncircumcised
Abel, but made which worketh by right. Now look at verse 7,
here he says, he did run away, who did hinder him? You did run
well, you run well when you were separated unto Christ, the lover
of your soul. And when you loved Christ so
freely, and when you wouldn't look away from Him, and when
you got your eyes and your soul fixed on Him, and you remedied
them there, then you run well. Now look, listen, when a man
or woman singles out Christ, When they've been taught their
need, the need of their soul is Jesus Christ and they're brought
to Him savingly. My friend, you would do well
if you would keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't turn away from Him because
you do run well when you trust Christ and Christ only for your
soul's salvation. He said, who did hinder you that
you should not obey the truth? Now the truth is in Jesus, and
the truth is that salvation is all together wrapped up in Him.
The truth is that in Christ we find the full answer to our soul's
need. The truth is that no one is saved
apart from Christ. He's the only name. His is the
only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. But he goes on to say, this persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you, This persuasion that you want to turn back to
the law, this persuasion that you want to go elsewhere for
your justification and acceptation before God, this persuasion come
not of him that calleth you. It doesn't come from God. This
is another spirit. It doesn't come from God. Anytime
a man or woman is unfaithful to Christ, By looking away from
Him to something else, from their soul's acceptance with the Father,
then these individuals have been persuaded by someone other than
God to do so. God would always draw your heart
to His Son. God would always point you to
the Lord Jesus. He would always make you to rest
in His Son, as He said He would. He said, This persuasion comeeth
not in the call of you. Now look at this 9th verse. He
says, A little leaven leaveneth a whole loaf. Now what does He
mean by that? He means by that that if you
listen to these that come preaching another Jesus, these that bring
another spirit, these that preach another gospel that you've not
received, then he says this is like yeast. And you put just
a little of it in a bowl of dough, and it affects the whole lump. It makes the whole thing grow. And the first thing you know,
it permeates the whole lump. And what he's saying to you is
that if you tolerate, This unfaithfulness to the true Christ of God, and
you bear with, tolerate, put up with this kind of preaching,
these individuals that will preach another Jesus, preach another
gospel, it won't be long before the whole church will be guilty
of spiritual adultery to Jesus Christ, and they've broken the
engagement unto the Lord Jesus, the true love of their souls,
and they're bound to be before him. in a state of unreadiness. And I want this morning, if we
can, to help you with this, the best we can, because we've become
so, you know, so tolerant. This is such a terrible generation. You are now so careful we would
listen to about anybody that would come around. But I want
to tell you this, we must be very careful. We must be very
careful because a little leaven will leaven the whole loom. And
we do not want to be unfaithful to our groom, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The bride must keep herself and
she must be faithful unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then,
I want to say this this morning. I said that there is but one
gospel, and this is absolutely true. It is the ancient gospel. The Bible says Moses, Jesus himself
said this. Moses wrote of me. Jesus Christ
and his gospel is the ancient gospel. Now it cannot be said
that today The smirking that there is just one gospel in the
world because there are many, and even Baptists have other
gospels. Now they have many gospels. Let
me just make mention of some of the gospels that we hear about
frequently today, and if we're not careful, we will become tolerant
of these gospels, and they can have a terrible, devastating
effect. We have the gospel church salvation the Church, the Holy Roman Catholic
Church, and the priest. We leave it up to him, the Catholics
would tell. We leave it up to the Pope. Beloved,
this is the gospel of Church salvation. There is no such thing
as Church salvation. It's a damnable heresy that men
and women can be born into a family and into a family, a religious
family, and by virtue of them being born into that family,
christened into, baptized as an infant, sprinkled as an infant,
brought into a church on earth, and their name be enrolled there
in that church, that those people are saved thereby. But there
are multitudes this morning that are on their way to hell being
fully convinced that their salvation lies in the church and in their
priest. My brethren are alive in hell. The second gospel is this, the
gospel of church ordinance. We know that there are many that
believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments.
I can take you to my library and I can show you and read quotes
to you. Well, there are many, many in
past years gone by and many still with us today who believe in
the gospel of Church Orphans. In other words, if you're baptized,
you're saved. The Canaanites believe that if
you go into the baptistry, they go into the baptistry and say,
that is our Savior right there. Get into the baptistry. The baptistry
will save you. It's the morsel away of your
sin and your guilt in those waters that will give you acceptance
with God. Beloved, it is not so, because we know that baptism
nor the Lord's Supper is a sacrament. It is not a sacrament. And the
Lutherans will tell you it is, the Catholics will tell you it
is, and many other groups will tell you that these are sacraments,
meaning that when you participate in them, they administer saving
grace to your soul. They do no such thing. You can
be baptized as many times as you can find someone willing
to baptize you, and you can take the Lord's Supper with as many
churches as you want to take it, and you'll die for the hill
if Jesus himself does not become your personal Savior, and he's
not revealed to your heart, in your state of need, you'll die
for the hill. There's no such thing as the
gospel of church ordinances. And I want you to understand
that. And then we have the gospel of morality. Now, the Lord's
people, His people are holy people. They are loving people. They
are forgiving people. They are kind people. The people
of God are. But this idea that we're going
to heaven because we are morally good. We're going to heaven because
we're good. That's wrong. It's wrong. You and I are not going to heaven
because we're good. We're going to heaven because
the Bible says that there's none good save one and that's God.
We're going to heaven because of Christ and his righteous merit. that has been infused and accredited
to our account. We're not going because we're
good. And so love this doctrine of
morality. Just live good. Don't buy any
candy on Sunday. Don't buy this or don't buy no
gasoline on Sunday. Do this, do that, do something
else. The gospel of do good. No, no,
no. The gospel of morality will save
nobody. Christ only and will. He's the only one that can save.
We are uncomfortable servants. Is that your opinion of yourself?
If it is, my friend, it's probably because you have found Christ,
the true Savior, and you have Him within your heart, and you
have a true view of yourself. You know what you are. We are
uncomfortable servants. But you find these preachers
of morality, you'll never hear them say, we're unprofitable
servants, because that would be a contradiction of their doctrine. It would contradict their doctrine,
don't you see? To admit that they're unprofitable
servants. And then we have the gospel today
of decisionism. The gospel of decisionism. The
gospel that God's done all He can do, and now sinner, you do
something. Jesus Christ hung on the cross,
and that'll never save anybody unless sinners do something,
they say. Now, I went to Vine this morning.
This is a damning statement to tell sinners that God's done
all He can do, and now sinners, you do something. I want to tell
you this, that if what Christ has done, if what God has done
through Christ is not sufficient to save our souls, there won't
be anything you can add to it that will get the job done. I'll
tell you that. God Almighty is able, He's fully
able to save the soul. Bow down to Jesus as Lord and
submit to Him as the one who is willing, able to save. He's
willing and able to save. Give your mind to this thought
that Jesus Christ can save. He can save. And it's not a gospel
of decisionism. We're told that when a man makes
a decision, that's when he's saved. A man's already made his
decision. He made it when he was in the
island in the Garden of Eden. Adam chose to die rather than
live. And all of us in Adam made that decision. That was my decision. I chose to die rather than live. If I ever live, then Jesus Christ
will have to make that decision. And that decision was made, as
it were, in the Council Halls of Eternity when God chose me
in Christ and purposed my salvation. That's when the decision was
made that I'd be saved. Somebody said, did you make a
decision? Yes, sir. I decided all my life, up until
the time God saved me, that I'd live in a period against God.
That's what I decided. I decided to sin. I decided to
walk contrary to God. But when God Almighty arrested
my heart and brought me to the Lord Jesus, I came willingly
because He drew me. But I'll tell you why. I came
willingly, and I was glad to come because I was taught what
I was. And I'll tell you why. A sinner
never knows what he needs until he's taught what he is. And you
should be taught what you need by being shown what you are. And when you come to see what
you are, then you know what you need. And whatever a sinner needs
is Christ. And you come then to the Lord
Jesus Christ and come willedly to Him. He chose me and I choose
Him in return. I shall serve Him in this gospel
of decisionism that God's done all He can do, and now you've
got to do the rest. Beloved, that's a damnable heresy. It's a doctrine which we cannot
tolerate here. And then, too, we have the gospel
of household salvation. This infant baptism. Now England,
Ireland, and Scotland, along with Grand Rapids, Michigan,
is full of this heresy. We know that this heresy is that
you, oh yeah, baptized in your faith. Born in this world and
been baptized in this purple and white of your faith, and
you are a child of grace from their own house. See, they're
a child of grace. You're a child of grace? It's not so. It's not
so. This business of being in this
household, everybody's got to be born again. Every tongue stands
on its own body before God. and you cannot sponsor another
soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor
another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor
another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul.
You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot
sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot
sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor
another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor
another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot
sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot
sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor
another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You cannot sponsor another
soul. You cannot sponsor another soul. You I'm a member of this lodge. I'm a member of this lodge. I want to tell you that's a gospel
we can't tolerate around here. It's not the gospel of Christ,
and it's a gospel we cannot believe in. Now let me bring it home
and get into the gospel that God preached. Now let me talk
about a little bit, try to identify this gospel. Turn to 1 Corinthians
9, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and I want you to look, if you will,
at verse 16. And the school of words here,
I want you to see. He says this, for though I preach
the gospel, there's the word, I preach the gospel. Now, beloved,
I am convinced, I don't know who else, preach the gospel,
but I'm convinced Paul preached the gospel. I'm convinced that
the church in Corinth heard the pure, unadulterated gospel. Paul said, I determine not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul preached the gospel to the
church in Corinth. Now the question is this. The
gospel that Paul preached, do we preach it? Do we preach it
here this morning? Now, there are four things that
I will mention that if we preach the gospel, these four things
are true. Now, in order that you would
be able to spot those who would preach another gospel, another
Jesus, or would bring another spirit, you must listen to these
four things. Listen carefully as I give them
to you. Number one, If we preach the
gospel that Paul preached, God will be given his rightful place. God will be given his rightful
place when we preach that gospel. Who is the Lord? Pharaoh said
that I should obey him. Now that's a question that many,
many people have asked. When the gospel is properly and
rightly preached, I want you to turn to Psalms 115. Turn back
to Psalm 115 and let me read to you here verse 3. Verse 2
and 3 where it says, Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? When our God is in the heavens,
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Now this is the God
of the Bible, and this is where the psalmist tells us that he
is. And this is what the psalmist
would tell the heathen. He would tell the heathen when
they would say, where is now their God? He would say, our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleases. Now, it doesn't make any difference
to me this morning what you think about what's going on in this
world, whether God's in control of it or whether He isn't. I
know the Bible plainly teaches that He is in absolute control
of everything that's going on in the world and that His purpose
is being fulfilled. And what do we believe and what
do we don't? It doesn't make any less so. God is in control
of all things. And one of the first things that
men ought to be told is that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
and they ought to be convinced by what was preached out of the
word of God that God is God. And until you believe that He
is, then you're not saved. Until you believe that God is.
because the scripture says that it's impossible to believe God
until one believes that He is. That is everything that the scripture
reveals it to be. Psalm 135 and verse 5, the scripture
says this. For I know that the Lord is great
and that our Lord is above all gods. Now, beloved, to preach
the gospel rightly, this is the view that one must have in God's
desire. He must believe that the Lord
is great and that He is Lord above all little gods. And that means that He is Lord
above all men. And that we must believe that
Jesus Christ has been given authority and power over all flesh that
He might give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
to Him. Anything less than this is an
idol. Remember it. Remember, if you
ever hear a man preach and he implies that man has the ability
to thwart God's purpose in salvation, you just mark it down, that man
worships an idol. He's not worshiping the Lord
which is great, the Lord which is above all. The God of the
Bible is one who can save his people from their sin. Now, this
is not a God that can be in any way sloppy. His purpose shall
be done in one place. Where a man will worship, he
is at the throne of the sovereign God. If a man is ever going to
worship God, he will worship at that throne. God is a sovereign,
and you must bow down to him and submit yourself to his lordship. This is the first thing I want
to say is that God will be given his rightful place when the gospel
is truly preached. Now, if you can sit and you know
the gospel, and you know the truth of God, and listen to a
man preach, and he preaches God up, Christ up, the Holy Spirit
up, and man down, then you can be comfortable and you can listen
promptly to what that man is preaching. Now, the second thing
is this. The second thing is it must be
the gospel of the grace of God It's got to be the gospel of
the grace of God turn to Romans 5 and let's look at the last
two verses of Romans chapter 5 Where it says there's more
over the log in verse 20 and 21 that defense might abound
but where sin abounded grace abounds did much more abound,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so my grace reigned
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God help me to be able to say
the right thing about this verse. I want you to see sin has reigned
unto death ever, son of Adam. Ever sin has reigned unto death,
and if there's ever going to be life, eternal life, come to
the soul, it's got to be by the reign of grace. As grace reigns
through the righteousness of Jesus Christ unto eternal life,
it cannot be any other way. It's got to be by grace. it cannot
be by your works. It cannot be by anything that
you do. It's got to be by God's favor. God has got to come to sin and
have, and show you his favor. God must do that. And if he doesn't
do it, then, and this is what happens in the gospel. God is
pleased to come to sin to us poor sinners and to have mercy
on us, to have mercy upon our souls. Now, I want you to know
this. that a man will never know God's grace or mercy until he
knows that he's a sinner. Until he knows he's a sinner.
And then he will rejoice at the amazing grace of God. He'll joy
in God because of his favor toward him. And the reason why you can't
get much excitement about grace is because you don't know much
about yourself. You don't know too much about
sin. You don't know too much about your condition. But once
you come to see it clear that God reveals to your heart what
you are by nature, you're going to really appreciate the grace
of God. John Newton wrote those words,
Amazing Grace, and the reason he could write those words with
feeling and passion is because he knew himself to be a sinner. And so I said to you this morning
that it must be the gospel of the grace of God. If a man preaches
anything else, in any way suggest that God will have and show mercy
toward a man on any other basis besides grace. Reject it and
put it out of your mind. God will never show favor to
a son of Adam except by grace, by grace and grace alone. Now you shut up to it and see
that helped you to identify the gospel and helped you to spot
another gospel a mile off. A man comes to you and says,
well, now you know that if we do this, we do that, and some
other way, you know, we in some way, we'll entice God to look
upon us with favor. No way, no way. It's got to be
of grace altogether, or it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then two-thirdly, let me
quickly go on here, quickly, Christ will be given his rightful
place. I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 1 and look here. I want to read the first three
verses. The first three verses. Look
at Romans 1. I say Christ will be given his
rightful place in a man's message when he's preaching the same
gospel Paul preached. Listen to it. Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called an apostle separated under the gospel of
God. which he had promised to pour
by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Look at verse 3. Concerning,
concerning, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now then, we learn something
here, and that is that the Gospel concerns Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, the Gospel does not concern
whether you drink a bottle of beer or not. That's not the gospel. It doesn't concern whether or
not you play cards or not, either with a marked debt or a unmarked
debt. It doesn't say anything about
that. It doesn't say anything about that. The gospel is not
whether or not you've been married once or twice or three times.
That's got nothing to do with the gospel. The gospel is concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The gospel concerns Christ. it's crap and so I cannot, I
cannot, I cannot, listen to me. We're living in a time when,
and I'll have a little bit to say about this later, just quickly,
I'm slowly trying to get my way, but I want you to see what I'm
saying to you this morning. We have made the gospel, we said
the gospel concerns how to go to sleep, you gotta wear your
dress. We said the gospel concerns how to own your hair, We say
the gospel concerns many, many things, but the Bible don't say
one. The gospel is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's what the gospel is about. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew
22, verse 42, He said, Thank you, Christ. Now, beloved, that's
your own assignment for the rest of your lives. What think ye
of Christ? What do you think of him? What
do you know about him? What do you know about what the
Father said about him? What do you know of him? This
is what I'm talking about. This, I say to you, as a man
preaches the gospel, this is one thing he's going to be clear
on, and that is that Jesus Christ is going to have his rightful
place. He is salvation. He is salvation. There is no
salvation apart from He is salvation. You got Him, you got Him. If
you don't have Him, you don't have Him. He is salvation. Mark it down. Mark it down. Here, what else you got? What
else you don't have? He is salvation. Now, that's
clear, isn't it? All right, the next thing is
this, the fourth thing. is that a man that preaches the gospel
will give the Holy Spirit his rightful place. His rightful
place to end the message. Now, we know that, as it said
over in the book of Zechariah, not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, say the Lord. Now, beloved, we know that Christ
is, when he is preached, that unless the Spirit of God comes,
and takes the message and reveals sin to the heart of the sinner. If he doesn't come and reveal
Christ to the heart, then there may no salvation take place.
We know that regeneration is by the Spirit. We know that faith
in Christ and repentance to Lord God are fruits of the new birth. The Holy Spirit borns the soul
anew. The wind bloweth where it is,
and thou hear'st the sound thereof. Can't stop till whence it cometh,
or whence it goeth. So is everyone who is born of
the Spirit. The Spirit of God comes miraculously. The Spirit of God comes mysteriously
upon a soul. The soul is born again, and he
believes the gospel, and he repents. This is fruits of regeneration. It is from the cause of salvation. It's the fruit of salvation. The Holy Spirit must be presented
as a sovereign, the one who comes and regenerates, borns the soul
again. The Holy Spirit leads the children
of God. If you believe the Spirit, you
are the sons of God, led of the Spirit. And the Spirit God sanctifies. That means he sets us apart to
God, through his work. That's the only way that there's
a line drawn between all of the peoples of this earth. Us and
them, separated us and them, the only way is by the Spirit's
sanctifying power. Mark it down. You say, I hold
my hair different than you do. Don't make any difference to
me. That's not going to make me any different. You say, well,
Preacher, I just don't do this, I don't do that, I don't have
that kind of problem, brother. No, no, no, that's not wrong.
No, no, no. It's the Spirit's sanctifying work. That's what's
going to make a difference. For you, if you're a worthy disciple,
that's what it is. It's the work of the Spirit of
God in our hearts. Every jewel that's found around
the neck of any child of God, the Holy Spirit is the author
of it. Mark it down. Every jewel. you just don't have
any spiritual graces, spiritual character, apart from the working
of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Now, I'm just trying to help
you to see this morning that this is what it's all about.
Now, let me give you just quickly three things, and I'm not going
to preach on these things. I just can't do it, but I must
give them to you. And that is number one. It must
be our preaching. If it's going to be true gospel
preaching, And if you won't be able to tell the difference between
it and these fellows that come preaching another Jesus, bringing
another spirit, preaching another gospel, it must be preaching
that honors all the persons and the perfections of deity. I said it must not block God
of his sovereignty, it must not block God the son of his responsibility,
and it must not block the Holy Spirit of his efficient ministry. Now then, secondly, It must be
preaching that is invariably uniform, not contradicting itself. We must have an invariable conformity
in these things. This is no yea and nay gospel. In him was yea and amen. All certainty is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. If it be Jesus at first, it must
be, it must not be the preacher afterwards. Now when you get
down to talking about consistency, I'm talking about conformity,
I'm saying that our ministry must not contradict itself. I
cannot preach that salvation begins with Jesus and you finish
it. I cannot preach that. That is
contradictory. If it be electing love or curse,
it cannot and it must not be free will at the end. You cannot
take yourself out of Christ after God sovereignly has put you in
Christ. Now I'll tell you what, in our
talk, our conversation with some of the people around in false
religions of this world, they're constantly contradicting themselves.
Oh, I believe in election. but then you can be lost again. You can take yourself out of
Christ. What foolishness. That's utterly absurd. Cannot
be so. If it be grace in one part, it
cannot be works in another. There is no rule of rhetoric. There is no law in the universe
that connects one grace. It's either grace or its works,
it cannot be a mixture of the two. And I cannot, if I am preaching
the gospel, I cannot get up and imply. Let me read to you Romans
11. Romans 11. This is not easy to
do, is preach this in a hurry. Romans chapter 11. Let me read
just a couple of verses. Look at verse five, even so at
this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election grace. We're looking for seven. What
thing? Israel have not obtained that which he seeketh for, and
what was he seeking for? Look in verse, over here, over
here in verse, chapter 10, and look here in verse three, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Who is God's righteousness? It's
Jesus Christ. Now look at this seventh verse
again. Israel hath not obtained that which ye received it for,
because they were trying to establish a righteousness for themselves. But, look at this, but the election
hath obtained it, and the rest were blind. The election hath
obtained it. They darkened it. They've got it. You say, well,
what about everybody else? The rest will learn. The election
has to change it. Now then, you just let people
talk all they want to about this, that you've got to start it by
election, start it by grades, but then you've got to finish
it up on words and won't let them talk all they want to. there's
nothing in the Bible that's more clear, and that is that whatever
it is that justifies the soul and gives us acceptance and completeness
before God, the election have obtained it. They obtained it,
and they didn't get it while the other soul did. I'm going
to spring here to chapter 10. You can read verse 2, and you
can see how that they have a zeal For God, I mean, they worked
at it. They worked at it harder than
you do, I suppose, but they never attained it. Because they never submitted
themselves under God's guidance. All right, now the third thing,
and I'm finishing. It must be preaching that is
suitable to a sinner's room. It's got to be. Let me just say
a couple things on this. It's no use giving a man what
he doesn't need. A starving man does not need
to suit clothes. He doesn't need that. The naked
man wants clothes. The starving man wants food. You've got to give the sinner
what he needs. Now there's no need. Now listen.
We bring in here, we bring in here a man who needs clothes,
and we bring in here a man who's hungry, and we want to make him,
or religious do, false preachers do, we want to make him walk
two miles to get it. And we want to charge him 10%
of what it's worth. We want to get something out
of the sinner. Let me tell you this. What will
suit the sinner, I mean the sinner that has been convinced of his
sinfulness and his wretchedness, been convinced of what he is,
what will suit him, well, bring the food, bring the clothes,
in the gospel, bring it to him. Without money and without price,
bring it to him. Bring it down to the center.
The Holy Spirit can breathe it into his soul. imparting another
nature in him, creating a new life in him, communicating the
life of God to his soul through the gospel, bringing this gospel
that we've been preaching to you this morning, bringing this
gospel, give it life, give it life, give it what Jesus Christ
can give it, bring it to him in the gospel. Now this is so
important that we see this, Because I'm convinced that in our day
and time, somehow or other, we have said that the gospel, we've
said what the sinner needs. What sinner really needs on the
shelf. And we've been hearing something
that does the sinner no good. Does him no good. We've got to
bring this simple plain message to the center, center if you
are convinced, and there again I want to say a sinner is taught
his need by being taught what he is. And when we teach him
what he is, then he knows what he needs. And when it's presented,
he says that's it, that's it, that's what I need, right there,
Christ is what I need, that's what I need, that's what I need. And it's not, I just don't need
it. I just don't need to see tongues. I'm hungry. I'm naked. I just don't need a meal. I need
Christ. I need all that Christ gives
to make me all that God demands that I do before Him. And anything short of Christ
dwelling in your heart Anything short of Christ dwelling in your
heart makes you less than what God demands of you. Now, you
hear me now. Don't you leave this world without
Jesus Christ dwelling in your heart. If you leave this world
without Christ dwelling in you, you've come up short at the judgment. You say, but I've got some other
things for you to do. you better, you better bury him while you're
here in this world. Dig a hole and bury him. Just like a man who would counterfeit,
dig a hole and bury him. Don't take it before God. Christ is all God demands and
he must have it. You cannot come before God apart
from him. If you do, you're lost. You're
lost forever. Well, then, I think that if you're
able to put these things together, you're able to see why Paul said,
I'm afraid of you. And why Paul said it? A little
later than the whole line. You get off this gospel, and
I'll tell you what, the church becomes unfaithful. Unfaithful to its group. May the Lord Be pleased to bless
these things with our hearts this morning. Make us a little
more selective about who we're listening to, what we'll tolerate,
and what we'll bear in doing it. Father, we thank you this
morning for this privilege of preaching the word. We ask that
you bless this message and that it will bear fruit. And if there
be some poor sinner here this morning, who our father has been
struggling hard to come up with something, that they can lay
hold of, that you will accept on their behalf when they stand
before you at the judgment. May it be this morning they shall
say in their hearts, I found it, I found it, this is it, Christ
is what I need. And may they seek him with a
whole heart. And the scripture says that in
seeking with a whole heart, we shall find him. This morning
to any troubled sinner here, pray with me in Christ. I pray
in Jesus' name.

Gospel of Christ

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