I like that, thank you. Turn
back to 1 Corinthians. I hope that through this message,
I will gain and you will gain a new appreciation just for the
word, the gospel. You know, that word quite often
is used in a worldly way, the gospel according to this group
or that group, or the Bible of this group or that group. But
what a special, precious word this is, the gospel. Now, the Apostle Paul had been
dealing with the divisions and the contentions within the church
of Corinth, we considered that a few weeks ago. And as he was
doing that, he digressed from this in verse 17, and he would not
come back to this subject again until chapter three. And in this
digression, we're given one of the most thrilling exalting declaration
to the gospel found in all of the word of God. And this declaration doesn't
end until the end of chapter two. And then the first part
of chapter three, he gets back to his subject with regard to
those divisions in the church. So I'm going to spend several
weeks in this part of first Corinthians, but the first thing that I would
like us to notice is that before this declaration that does not
end until verse 16 of chapter two, he begins with his mission
statement. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Now that is what the Lord said. He said, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me for he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. The Lord was a preacher. You know, I think it's, um, I'm
not, this is not a slam against Charles Spurgeon in any way,
but he's called the prince of preachers. I don't think so.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the prince of preachers. No one like
him. And Paul was sent by him. You'll notice Paul said, Christ
sent me. Christ sent me to preach thee
gospel. Christ sent me not to baptize.
Now there is a group of people who think that baptism is over
and no longer valid because of this verse of scripture. Baptism
was over after this. Paul said it's no longer valid. That's not what Paul is saying
at all. Baptism is the believer's confession of Christ. It's such
a beautiful exposition of the gospel. When Christ lived, I
lived. I was in him. When he died, I
died. I was in him. When he was raised
from the dead, I was raised from the dead. I was in him. You know,
every time I baptize somebody, I think I'd like to get baptized
again. Or I've asked myself the question, maybe I didn't even
understand the gospel when I was first baptized. But I know this,
I understand it more clearly now than then. I'm sure of that. And there's not an amount of
knowledge that's needed. You need to know the person.
If you know the person, your baptism was real. But he's not
taking away from the importance of baptism because I think of
the words of the Lord, whoso believeth and is baptized. the same should be saved. Now,
you and I both know from the light of other scriptures that
the Lord is not saying that baptism is necessary for salvation. I'm
not saved because I'm baptized. I'm saved because Christ saved
me. And how I confess him is in this
thing of baptism. And baptism is very important. I wouldn't want to take away
from the importance of that in any way. In preaching, The goal is not
baptisms. In preaching, the motive is not
results. It's not to see how many are
baptized or how many confess Christ or how many. Christ sent
me not to baptize. That's not my purpose. Now, in
your average church, The purpose is conversions get see so many
people say we want to see people say, and I want to see people
say, I want to see people be baptized. I want to preach the
gospel and I want people to believe and rejoice in the message and,
and the Lord to use that. But if my end in preaching is
results. I will accommodate the message
to that end. And here's the point. I don't
have anything to do with results. I'm to preach the gospel results
are in God's hand. Baptisms are in God's hand. He is the one who builds the
church. Our mission is simply to preach
the gospel. And Paul said, Christ sent me. There's such a thing as being
sent. How should they preach except they be sent? Sent of
God to preach the gospel. And if somebody really is sent
of God, I wanna hear what they got to say, don't you? If God
sent them. And Paul said, Christ sent me. Not to baptize, not to get results,
not to grow a church, not to plant a church. He sent me to
preach the gospel. And I love the way he adds, not
with wisdom of words. And I was thinking about this. This would, I think, be an accurate
translation of this, not with marketing, not with words to
try to make the gospel more appealing to the flesh, not with words
that try to remove the offense from the gospel and make men
more likely to believe. Now, that is what most preaching
is. It's packaging the gospel. Trying
to put it in a package where it will be acceptable and pleasing
to men. Isn't that what marketing is?
We're marketing a product. We're trying to get the sale.
We're trying to make it appealing to somebody. Well, that's what
Paul is saying he does not do. Not with wisdom of words. Not
trying to dress the gospel up with wisdom of words. not with
trying to remove the offense from the gospel to make people
more likely to believe. That's not the way we preach.
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now, I love the definite article,
to preach the gospel. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
He said, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
not a gospel, the gospel, which I preached unto you. And he's
talking about, I'm bringing the same message now that I did when
I first came to you. The gospel knows no amendment,
no change. It is the gospel. It's the eternal
gospel. It's the gospel of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. There's no change in this message.
It is the gospel. Moreover, brethren, I preach
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. It's the same message
called by John in Revelation chapter 14, verse six, the everlasting
gospel. It's the gospel that has no beginning.
Isn't that amazing? It's the gospel that'll never
end. It's the eternal, everlasting gospel. That's the gospel that
I preach to you, the gospel. Now we read in Ephesians chapter
six, verse 19, these words, the mystery of the gospel. When we
talk about the gospel, when we preach the gospel, we're talking
about the, I love this word, the mystery of the gospel. Don't you love the fact that
the gospel is a mystery? It's not something you can just
figure out. It's not something that just comes up into your
head. It's a mystery that you would have never known had not
God made it known. And it's mysterious. It's glorious. The mysteries of the scripture
are not so much understood. Can you understand the Trinity? A fellow told me he could one
time. I thought, you're crazy if you think that. I remember
I said, nobody can understand the Trinity. He said, I can. A mystery is that which we would
never have known had not God made it known. And there's something
so glorious in the mystery of the scripture. This is a supernatural
message from a supernatural book, the mystery of Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. What a mystery. Look in chapter
two, first Corinthians, verse seven. But we speak, this is
the subject matter of our preaching. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom. which God ordained before the
world and to our glory. I quoted part of this scripture
in Ephesians chapter six, verse 19. Paul asked the church at
Ephesus to pray for him that utterance may be given unto me
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of
the gospel. Now these mysteries are not things
we explain. We can't explain them. They're
things we declare. a declaration of the mystery
of God. And I love the way the gospel
is a mystery. That's so powerful. If I could
understand it, I'd be God. You know, a gospel that I could
intellectually grasp, there just wouldn't be much to it. But oh,
the mystery of the gospel that we believe. Now, the gospel is
called numerous times in the scripture, the gospel of God. Don't you love that? Not the
gospel of man, but the gospel of God, the gospel that has as
its origin, God himself. It's what Paul said in Galatians
chapter one, when he said, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which was preached to me was not after man. It was not derived from any human
source. For I neither received it of
man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took Paul into the
third heavens, taught him the gospel. And he
said, the language I heard, I couldn't repeat it to you. It would be
not lawful for a man to utter that. You know, when I was thinking,
you know, Adam texted me and said, wonder what hymn Bert is
singing now. I was thinking, I wonder what
language he's singing in. I mean, what's the language of heaven?
I don't know. If there is a human language, I suppose it'd be Hebrew.
I don't know. But what is the language of heaven?
They're words too glorious Too utter. And the gospel of God, not the gospel of men, the gospel
of God, that's the gospel Paul preached. And then the gospel
is called twice the glorious gospel. the glorious gospel. Oh, we never are to use this
word conversationally. This is the glorious gospel.
And that could more accurately be translated. And as a matter
of fact, it's translated in most other verses or versions like
this, the gospel of the glory. of the blessed God. It's the
gospel of His glory. The glorious gospel is the gospel
of His glory. Now how do you describe the glory
of God? I reckon the best description
I can give of God is that He is other. He's other. There's nothing in
the created realm that he can be compared with. And we preach,
and this is why God gave his son for his own glory. Somebody
says, didn't he give for our salvation? First for his glory. Now, thank God our salvation
comes out of his glory, but he does what he does for his glory. And he says, I'll not share my
glory with another. And there was a missionary named
Robert Burns. He was going to China to preach
the gospel. And they said, are you going
there to convert the heathen? He said, no, I'm going there
for the glory of God. That is the only proper motive. Now, that's how men and women
are brought to the knowledge of Christ, through the preaching
of his glory. In salvation, who gets the glory? That's the issue. Who gets the
glory? Now, I know this. In my salvation,
God gets all the glory and none goes to me. And I know that and
I believe that. And if you're a believer, you
believe the same thing I do. You know that God gets all the
glory in your salvation. He didn't respond to you. He
didn't save you because of something you did or something he could
get out of you. He did it for his own glory. I love the way the gospel of
Mark begins. Listen to this scripture in Mark
1, verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I love that. The whole gospel's
in that statement, isn't it? The beginning, the origin of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's Christ's gospel. You know, Paul says later on
in this chapter, we preach Christ crucified. We preach His person
and we preach His work. And furthermore, he said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Any other subject but Jesus Christ and Him crucified is wrong. Are you saying that you should
only preach on the cross? I'm saying whatever passage of
scripture I'm preaching from, if it doesn't have the cross,
I didn't preach it right. I don't care what it is. It's
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And then Peter spoke
in Acts chapter 15 verse seven at the council of Jerusalem of
the word of the gospel. Do you know that there are specific
words used? The gospel has a content. And
if those words are not used, if that content is not preached,
the gospel is not preached. What did Paul say to Timothy?
Timothy, preach the Word. Does the Word declare something?
Preach it. It doesn't matter what it is, preach it. Preach
the word, the word of the gospel, the content of the gospel. Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Preach the
word, the word of the gospel. And I'm telling you, when we
use this word, the gospel, it ought to be done so with reverence.
This is God's gospel. Woe to me if I change it or amend
it in any way. Nobody, God's not glorified and
no sinner will be saved apart from the gospel. The gospel is called many times
the gospel of the kingdom of God. the gospel of the kingdom. I love that. And I love the way
the Lord said, because when we think of kingdoms, we think of
governments and, and different kingdoms here and there. And
the Lord said, my kingdom is not of this world. He said, the
son of the son of the son of God comes not with observation.
You can't look at it. He must be there. He must be
there. No, my kingdom is not of this world. But oh, what a
kingdom this is. The kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Daniel 4, 34 and 35 speaks of
his absolute sovereignty in his kingdom. He doeth according to
his will. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know you've heard this verse quoted a lot of times. Listen
to it again. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, doeth according to his
will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? Give me an explanation for what
you're doing. Nobody can do that. He is the King of kings and the
Lord of lords, and it's the gospel of his kingdom. He is the king
of his kingdom. And then Paul used this phrase
in Acts chapter 20, verse 24, of the gospel of the grace of
God. The good news, the gospel of
the grace of God. Now, let me save us all some
time. If you would go into, I dare say, any church in Lexington,
Kentucky, and say, do you believe in salvation by grace? What would
they say? Yeah. We believe in salvation
by grace. They might even quote a scripture.
By grace, you can save through faith. And they might not quote
the rest of it, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, but they would, Ephesians 2a, by grace he is saved. So
let me save us some time and cut through the chase. Do you
believe in electing grace? And by electing grace, I'm talking
about what the Bible says about God's electing grace. It's what,
uh, Paul called in Romans 11, verse 6, the election of grace. Have God before time began. of his own free and sovereign
will chose a people to be saved and gave them to his son and
those people he chose, he didn't do it because he foresaw they
would believe or because of some foreseen merit in them or something
they could do for him. He did it as an act of his own
free and sovereign will and that makes it right. Do you believe that, Grace? Because
if you don't believe that grace, you don't believe in grace at
all. It is that simple. And if someone really does believe
what the Bible teaches with regard to God's electing grace, they're
right on everything else in grace. I'm not talking about a A wrong
view of election. I'm talking about a biblical
view of election. If you view election as the Bible
presents God's electing grace, you'll be right on everything
else with regard to grace. The gospel of the grace of God. Now on three different
occasions in the New Testament, we read of the truth of the gospel.
I love these one word additions to the gospel that gives us more
light as to what the gospel means. We read of the truth of the gospel. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John said no lie is of
the truth. The truth of the gospel, and
Paul used it twice in Galatians chapter two. And this is so clear
what he meant by this. Peter was an Antioch eating with
some Gentiles, Gentile believers. I suppose they were having a
good time, fellowshiping in the gospel. And all of a sudden,
some people came, Paul says, from James, the church at Jerusalem. He was the pastor at the church
at Jerusalem. And some members from the church
at Jerusalem came down to Antioch, and they were Jewish believers.
And Peter thought, should I be sitting with these Gentiles?
I don't want to offend these Jewish brethren, because they
wouldn't have done it. And so he moved from the table
of the Gentiles and sat down at the Jewish table. And Paul publicly rebuked him
for that move. He didn't say anything, but he
publicly rebuked him for that move that the truth of the gospel
might remain. If Paul did not do that, he says
the truth of the gospel would not have remained. You see, when
Peter made that move, he was saying, the Gentiles are saved. I'm not denying that. They know
the gospel. But you can be more pleasing
to God by being over here with the Jews. Now, if there's anything
you can do that can make you more pleasing to God, what does
that deny? That Christ is all in salvation. And if I deny that, I have denied
the truth of the gospel. Oh, may the Lord brand this in
our hearts, the truth of the gospel. And then we read in Ephesians
1, 13, these wonderful words with regard to the gospel. It's
called the gospel of your salvation. The good news of your salvation. When the Lord saves you, you
know what you find out? You find out he saved you. You
know, I hate it when people say I got saved. I got saved. You don't use that language with
regard to God's salvation. You find out you've been saved.
You find out He saved you. You didn't get saved. You didn't
do something to become saved. And you know that if He saved
you, you know He saved you. I don't have to convince any
believer of that. He saved you. It is He that has saved us and
not we ourselves. He saved us. I find that I've
been forgiven. When I'm forgiven, I find out
I've been forgiven. I didn't do something to get
forgiveness. I didn't do something to get
salvation. I find out He saved me. The good news, the gospel of
your salvation. And can't you rest in the fact
of knowing your salvation is what He did? He saved you. We read in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 15
of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. And you
know, I love the word peace. I just, I love it when I can
be all tight and just feel tension come out of my body. The gospel
of peace. Colossians 1.20 says, having
made peace by the blood of his cross. He made my peace with
God so that God is at peace with me. He's satisfied with me. He's not looking for anything
else. The gospel of peace, having been justified By faith, we have
peace with God. Where's your peace? He justified
me. I stand before God sinless because
of what Christ did for me. When he said it is finished,
my sin was removed from me. As far away as the east is from
the west, according to the scriptures. I don't bear it anymore. Ephesians
2 14 says he is our peace. The gospel of peace. And that comes from what Paul
calls in Colossians 1 23, the hope of the gospel, the hope
of the gospel, the hope isn't something you experience and you're holding.
It's something you don't see, but believe. If you can see it,
it's not hope, it's experience. And Paul said that in Romans
8, 24. You can look that up for yourself. A hope that you can
see is not hope. A hope is something you cannot
see. Now, I cannot see that I have right now sinlessness before
God. And you can't either. But we have a hope that we are.
And I'm not talking about the hope of probability. You know, I did some research
into this. It was in an article in the bulletin. Do you know there's a one in
20 million chance that you'll die in a plane crash? One in 20 million. That's pretty
good odds. And I'm sure people think, well, I'll take those
odds. I'll get on that plane. There's
only one in 20 million that will crash and get killed. I'll take
those odds. Listen, that's not the hope of
the gospel. It's not the hope of mathematic
probability. It's the hope of actually already
being in heaven, in the person of Jesus Christ. I'm already
there. I don't have a 20 million to
one shot of not getting there. I'm already there because the
scripture says, as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4, 17. Question, is he
in heaven? I am too. And this isn't a 20 million
to one shot. I'm already there. The hope of
the gospel, the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of his
precious blood. Now, Paul said in Philippians
1 17, he said, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. I'm set
for the defense of the gospel. Now that's a good scriptural
term, the defense of the gospel. It's where the word apologetics
comes from. You've probably heard of apologetics,
and when somebody talks about apologetics now, they're talking
about arguing. I'm trying to prove this, I'm
trying to prove that, a debate, an argument, I'm an apologist,
I defend the gospel, and that's not what he means when he's talking
about I'm set for the defense of the gospel. He's not talking
about arguing with people and trying to prove whether they're
wrong and try to use logic and whatever. That's not what he
means. Well, what does he mean? Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse
15, be ready always. Be ready always to give an answer. And that's the word, same word,
defense. Be ready always to get an answer
to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. Now,
you know, your way, the way you stand for the defense of the
gospel is by preaching it clearly. Not by using philosophical arguments
and, you know, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. I'm going
to protect it from its enemies and so on. No. The gospel doesn't
need your protection. You preach it clearly. So as
the false is clearly seen. I like what Spurgeon said. He
said the best way to show the crookedness of a stick is not
to try to give the outline of the crookedness. It's to put
a straight one right beside it. And you'll see the crookedness
of this stick very easily by seeing the straight. The defense
Paul said, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. Now, Satan comes
as an angel of light, his ministers as ministers of righteousness. Other gospels use the same words
we use. They use words like grace and
faith. and redemption and blood atonement,
but they change the meaning of the words. We're set for the
defense of the gospel, to preach the gospel as God presents it. And if we don't, God's not glorified
and no one is converted under a false gospel. We're set for
the defense of the gospel. Look what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Look with me there in verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. Now, Paul could have done it.
He was highly educated. He could have come with all kinds
of philosophical arguments speeches that would have wowed everybody.
But he said, that's not the way I came. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. That's the way Paul came into
Corinth. That was some kind of cocksure attitude, but weakness,
conscious of his own weakness, fearfulness, lest he misrepresent
the gospel, much trembling. He said in verse four, in my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, plausible arguments, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power. I preached the gospel completely
relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to make it known. That's You know, some of these
modern versions of the scripture, they're trying to make it understandable. God, the Holy Spirit, makes His
Word understandable. We preach the gospel and trust
the results with Him. Paul said to Timothy, In 2 Timothy
1.8, be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. There are afflictions associated
with the gospel because if you preach the gospel, if you believe
the gospel, if you stand for the gospel, you're not winning
popularity contests. It's not going to happen. But
you stand by the grace of God. the afflictions of the gospel.
Don't be ashamed of the gospel, nor of me, his president, but
be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. You know, Paul
knew, and this is such an amazing thing to me. You and I have never
been faced with this. Everywhere he went, he knew he's
going to be tied up to a post and beat, or he's going to be
thrown into a prison, or he's going to be put in stocks for
preaching the gospel. What a man he must have been,
you know, and that was by the grace of God, I know. But he
knew, he said, I know that bonds and afflictions abide me wherever
I go. The last word or description
of the gospel I love, and it's more sweet if I can
say this. Several times Paul called the
gospel my gospel. The gospel that saved me. Now the gospel you believe you
were saved under, that is the gospel you believe. My gospel. Well, I was saved
under works preaching, but I learned the gospel later. No, no, no. The gospel that saved me. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words. Not trying to market the gospel.
Not trying to make it more easy to believe. Not trying to make
it more appealing to the flesh. Not trying to hide the offense
so people won't become offended by it and leave. Preachers are
afraid of offending people. The Apostle Paul was afraid of
not offending them. Not with wisdom of words. Not
with marketing. Because if we do, what happens? It makes the cross of Christ
of none effect. When the wisdom of words is used
in the preaching of the gospel, The gospel is not preached. God
is not glorified and no one is saved. It makes the gospel powerless. Now we know the gospel is not
powerless, but when we try to cover it up, it makes the gospel of none effect. And I pray that the Lord will
cause every one of us by his grace to be determined To be right with Paul, Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Let's pray. Lord, cause the gospel to be my gospel. Our gospel, the gospel of peace,
the gospel of the grace of God, the truth of the gospel. Lord,
cause us to say with Paul, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. For it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believe it. Give us this faith. in thy son, who is the gospel. In his name we pray, amen.