I better have that. You can't see any better than
I can. Well, while he's doing that,
my wife wants me to let you know she's sorry she couldn't be here. Shelby goes with me the last
10 years. Almost everywhere I go, she's
scared something's going to happen to me. So she follows me around,
takes good care of me, but I normally have four meetings every year
that she just can't go to because of conflicts with other meetings
we have. And every year, second week of December, Shelby has
open house for our folks at Parsnage on that Sunday. And she's cooking
and baking and cleaning and washing windows, and I'm in the way.
For years, I went down to Mexico. I'd leave on the Monday before
and come back on Friday, so she didn't have to bother with me.
But I've been underfoot all week this week. So she sends her greetings. I believe God's given me a message
for you. And I want you to hear every word. Are you a believer
or an unbeliever? Do you worship God? Are you one
of those Paul describes as a will worshiper? Do you worship the
Christ of God? Or do you trust a false Christ? Are you Christian or anti-Christian? Do you believe the gospel or
do you believe another gospel which is not the gospel? When your pastor called me a
few months ago and asked me to preach to you, he asked that
I preach to you on the subject, what is the gospel, as he did
the other men. I've been preaching for a long
time, and I've only been asked to preach on a specific thing
three times all my life. I've been asked not to preach
on things a few times. And that always works. I always
do exactly the opposite. But being the soft, pliable,
sweet fellow you know I am, I was agreeable. And I began to work
on a message, and I believe God's given it to me. The questions
I ask you, I cannot answer. I don't know whether you're saved
or lost. I don't have the ability to know. I don't know whether
you believe the gospel or don't. I don't have the ability to know.
I don't know whether you're a will worshipper or a God worshipper.
I don't know. I don't have the ability to know.
And I don't want to know. I don't want that ability. I
don't want that power. But I promise you, I promise
you, if God the Holy Ghost calls you to hear what I had to say
this morning, you will know. You will know. I want to speak
with clarity and such simplicity that it's impossible for you
to leave this place and not understand exactly what I have said. If you have made for yourself
a refuge of lies in which you seek to hide from God, I pray
God will, by his word, destroy your refuge of lies and cause
you to seek refuge in Jesus Christ, his son. Turn with me, if you
will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. What is the gospel? I'm not asking what do you think
the gospel is, or what is the Baptist or Protestant or Calvinistic
gospel. It is utterly insignificant what
you think the gospel is. It is utterly insignificant what
I think the gospel is. It's insignificant, totally irrelevant
what Baptists or Protestants or Calvinists or Armenians or
Papists say the gospel is. There's only one thing that matters.
What does this book declare the gospel is? How does the word
of God define the gospel? What does God say in his word? How does God, the Holy Ghost,
describe the gospel? How can we identify with certainty
the gospel of the grace of God? Read 1 Corinthians 15 again.
Your pastor read it to us last night. Read it carefully and
don't miss a syllable. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, the gospel. which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received. If you're a believer, you have
received this thing that Paul calls the gospel. If you haven't
received this thing that Paul calls the gospel, you don't know
God. You're not a believer. You're
lost. You're yet in your sins. By which also you're saved. If
you keep in memory, that is, if you never are turned away
from it. If you hold fast this gospel,
if you walk as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, if you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, otherwise, unless you
have believed in vain, if you can be moved away from it, your
profession is just so much religion, nothing else. For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received, H-O-W. Now that's the key. H-O-W. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now here God
the Holy Ghost tells us that there is but one gospel that
all truly God-ordained, God-called, God-sent preachers preach that
gospel, that all who are believers have received and stand in that
gospel, and that that gospel, which is described here, declared
to be here, the gospel, is the means by which God saves his
elect. Let me make seven brief but dogmatic
and clear statements concerning this. Number one, it should be
clearly understood by anyone who reads this book that the
gospel is an exclusive message. It is an exclusive message. Paul
did not say to the Corinthians, I declare unto you a gospel,
as if there were many gospels or even many interpretations
of the gospel. He said, I declare unto you the
gospel. In fact, if you read the New
Testament carefully, you will find that the only time the word
gospel is used without a definite article, noun, or personal pronoun
identifying it. The only time it is used without
a definite article, noun, or personal pronoun identifying
it. The gospel spoken of is another gospel. It's another gospel. This is what the Word of God
teaches. There is only one gospel. Some folks say there are many
gospels. Compromising preachers say there's only one gospel,
but it can be interpreted by many different people in different
ways. One's just as bad as the other. The Word of God declares
there is one gospel. Christ is the way. Any alternate
way is the wrong way. Christ is the truth. Anything
contrary to Christ is a lie. Christ is the life. Anything
else is death. There is but one gospel, and
that's the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. If indeed there's
only one way, one Savior, and one gospel, you would be wise
to make it your business to find out what that way is. who that
Savior is and learn that gospel. The preaching of the new birth
is not preaching the gospel. The preaching of the new birth
is not preaching the gospel. We rejoice in and recognize the
necessity of the new birth. But the preaching of the new
birth is simply declaring something that is done by God through the
gospel. The focus of the gospel is not
your experience of grace, blessed as that experience it is. The
preaching of the gospel is the declaration of the mighty saving
operations of grace for you and in you. And there's a huge difference. The preaching of the love of
God is not the preaching of the gospel. How we rejoice to hear
and sing together about the love of our Redeemer. My God loved
me and gave himself for me. But the preaching of the love
of God is not the gospel. The gospel is the declaration
of the righteousness of God. The love of God is the cause,
but it's not the gospel. The gospel is not found in John
3.16. The gospel is found in John 3.14. As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Christ must die or there is no
salvation. Christ must die or there is no
redemption. And all who believe on this one
who died and accomplished redemption are born of God. The preaching
of Christ's second coming. That's a wonderful thing to anticipate.
I hope we learn. I hope God will teach us more
and more with every passing day to live on the tiptoe of faith,
looking for Christ. Looking for him. Oh, God, teach
me to live every minute of every day, looking for Christ. But
preaching his second coming is not preaching the gospel. The
preaching of the gospel is the declaration of what Christ has
done and is doing, not what he's coming to do. The preaching of
revivalism may be stirring emotional preaching, but it's not gospel
preaching. Revivalism preaching focuses
on man and his experience. Gospel preaching focuses on grace
and Christ. Some folks love to preach on
holy living, what they call practical godliness. That's not preaching
the gospel. That's not preaching the gospel.
Gospel preaching inspires and promotes godliness. But it talks
about God, his holiness, his righteousness, that righteousness
that's revealed, manifest, and satisfied in Jesus Christ the
Lord. That's what inspires godliness. Those who talk about practical
godliness and holiness and that kind of stuff, they always wind
up talking about your works. And that's not gospel preaching.
The gospel of Christ is an exclusive message. Now, before we proceed
any further, I want you to understand what I'm saying. Those who do
not believe the gospel believe a false gospel and they're lost. Well, you're saying my daddy's
lost. No, you just concluded that from what I said. There's
a big difference. There's a big difference. I had
a conversation, I've had it many times, but not too long ago,
I was down in North Wilkes-Barre, North Carolina, near my hometown,
and somebody came to hear me preach a preacher that I knew,
and we chatted a little bit, and he said, well, where were
we before we came to know the gospel? I said, you were lost,
just like anybody else. You don't come to know the Savior
and learn the gospel. You come to know the Savior by
learning the gospel, and there's no other way. Second, the gospel
is an exclusive message about a past historic events. The gospel preached by the apostles
always refers to something in the past, a finished work. an accomplished deed, a completed
task. Now, this is very important.
When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will convince you
of sin, of your sin, and this is the heart of it, because you
believe not on me, and of righteousness. Righteousness, not the fact that
God is righteous. That's stamped on your heart
by nature. Everybody knows that. Not the
fact that you're not. You know that, too. but rather
that righteousness is finished because I go to my father. I
could not go to my father if I hadn't brought in everlasting
righteousness. And the judgment, judgment's over because the prince
of this world is judged. The gospel refers to a past thing. The pastness of the gospel is
an essential aspect of it. The preaching of the gospel is
the declaration of something done in the past. It's presently
preached. It's presently received. It presently
saves. But it is a past, finished work,
which we declare in the gospel. In preaching the gospel, we declare
specific, undeniable facts. Paul lists them here in 1 Corinthians
15. We preach how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. How did Christ die? How did Christ die? Let me give
you four words that ought to always be in your mind every
time you think about the death of Christ. Everything concerning
his death. These four words. First, sovereign
death. Jesus Christ, the son of God,
died at Calvary by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. By God's sovereign, eternal purpose
of grace in sovereign predestination. Our brother just talked about
it. That's how he died. God created this world to crucify
his son at Calvary. Let it sink in. God created this
world to crucify his son at Calvary. He did not have his life taken
from him, but he, being God in the flesh, said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. He died according to his own
sovereign will, exactly at the time he ordained before the world
was, by exactly the means he ordained, and even spoke of in
prophecy before he was crucified at Calvary. Second, substitution. Substitution. The Lord Jesus
Christ died in the place of his elect. Did you get that? He died in
somebody's room, in somebody's stead. He died for somebody specifically. He didn't die for everybody.
At home, when we sing that hymn, we're just saying, I recommend
you do it. Get your hymn book out and change the words. He
didn't die for Adam's helpless race. He died for all his race. There's a huge difference. There's
a huge difference. Christ didn't die for all men.
He passed by fallen angels and took on him the seed of Abraham. He died for a covenant people.
And limited atonement is essential to the gospel of God's grace.
It's the hinge point of the gospel. Deny it and you deny the totality
of the gospel. Because Christ died making satisfaction
as a substitute for his people. That's the third word. Satisfaction. The Lord Jesus said, I'm the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And there were a bunch of fundamental badgers
standing around. They said, we don't like that.
He said, I wasn't talking to you. You're not my sheep. Read
it for yourself, John chapter 10. You're not my sheep. I didn't die for you. I wasn't
talking to you. You got nothing to do with this. You only exist
for the benefit of my sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep.
And when he died in the stead of Marvin Stoner, He made complete
satisfaction to the justice of God for Marvin Stoddard. Complete satisfaction! So that God looks on his son
as he dies in the room instead of his people, like the great
high priest with the names of the tribes of the children of
Israel on his breastplate. And God hears his son cry, it
is finished! And God Almighty says, that's
enough. That's enough! Justice is satisfied. That means that God Almighty
cannot, I chose the word deliberately, God Almighty cannot charge me
with sin if Christ died in my stead. It's called redemption. And anything else is just a stab
at redemption. Anything else is a frustration
of the Redeemer. Anything else is a denial of
the accomplishments of the Redeemer. Here's the fourth word, success. I love this statement by which
the Lord God describes his servant. Are you listening to me? Behold,
my servant. Who is he? Who is he? Preparing this message kind of
inspired me to preach and plan and preach the next three weeks
at home, tomorrow morning, the next three weeks on identifying
the Christ. Who is he? Who is this Messiah? Who is Jehovah's servant? Who
is this one who comes spoken of by all the prophets? This
is him. He shall not fail. Failure is an impossibility with
the Christ of God. He doesn't try to do anything,
he does. I recall years ago, I was 19 years old, sitting on
a hearth in the living room with Brother Harry Graham, one of
my dear friends who's with the Lord now. He was 35, 36 years
my senior, but he and I were dear friends. Passed a little
church in Asheboro, North Carolina. I said, Harry, I believe the
Lord's trying to teach me something. He said, hold on, son. God doesn't
try. God doesn't try. God does. Christ didn't try to redeem,
he did redeem. Therefore, he shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. I had a note recently, and I've
had many of them, as many of you pastors have, a dear friend,
young lady, had miscarried. And you hurt for them. Now listen
to this and understand it. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
shall never be discovered a miscarriage. Every sinner for whom he prevailed
in birth shall be brought to life in all its fullness by God's
omnipotent grace. We preach that he was buried
according to the scriptures, this one who is the Christ. He
made his grave with the wicked. He died in the stead of his people
and was buried. But blessed be his name, he didn't
stay dead. He rose again the third day according
to the scriptures, Romans 4.25. He was delivered for our offenses. Our Lord Jesus was delivered
up to death at Calvary in our room and in our stead because
of our offenses made his and he was raised again for our justification
according to the scriptures. What? Raised again for our justification
so that it might come to pass? No, no, no, a hundred thousand
times no. He was raised again because he
had accomplished our justification. He lives and his resurrection
is proof that he who was made sin has put away our sin because
now he's risen from the dead and is no more chargeable with
sin. Now, how important is it that
we understand these things? How important is it that we clearly
see this? Down in the latter part, or in
the next verses in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul talks about
the resurrection of Christ. And he says some folks deny the
resurrection. Some folks deny that Christ literally
raised from the dead. Others deny that there's going
to come a resurrection of the body. And Paul said, if that's
true, then we're false witnesses of God. And I'm here to tell
you that any man who denies the effectual accomplishments of
Jesus Christ at Calvary, I don't care how kind and sweet and good
you think he is, I don't care how well he plays the game of
religion, I don't care how high up in the ecclesiastical hierarchy
he moves, any man who denies the effectual accomplishments
of Christ at Calvary is a false witness of God. and you who follow
him are yet in your sins. That's exactly the language of
1 Corinthians 15. All right, here's the third statement.
The gospel is an exclusive message about a singular person, just
one person, just one person. a person who accomplished a perfect,
complete, finished work for a specific people called them. The elect
of God is chosen to preach the gospel, is to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. to declare that he, by his perfect,
complete, finished obedience to God as a man, brought in everlasting
righteousness, made an end of sin, and obtained eternal redemption
for God's elect. Now let's look at some scripture
and see if I can make good on that. Turn back to Matthew chapter
one. Matthew chapter one. Very familiar scripture. Verse
21. The angel said to Joseph, she
shall bring forth the son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
That's Joshua, Jehovah, our savior. For call his name Jehovah who
saves, because he shall save his people. They were already
his people before he ever came. He shall save his people from
their sins. That's talking about sovereign,
eternal election, and the actual redemption. Turn back to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. How many times have you Tried
to tell somebody about things of God, talk about election or
predestination of God's sovereignty, Christ's death and effectual
calling. And some babbling wheel worshiper says, but God has no
pleasure in the death of any man. Whoever said he did? Whoever
said he did? He declares he has no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. That means if he sends you to
hell, hell's going to be eternal for you because you can never
satisfy God's justice. If he sends the world to hell,
all the world suffering the wrath of God forever can never satisfy
infinite justice. But there is one man by one sacrifice
by whom Jehovah is pleased, fully satisfied. Isaiah 53 10. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, that
is, he's gonna live again. And the pleasure of the Lord,
the purpose of God from eternity shall prosper in his hand. And
he shall see of the prevail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by his knowledge, the text
does not read by knowledge of him. The text reads by his knowledge. By his knowledge of who he is,
what he did, and for whom he did it. He shall justify many. for he shall bear their iniquities. That's limited atonement. That's
particular effectual redemption. Now, I want you to look at Daniel
9, 24, a text that's just a little bit less familiar. Daniel 9,
24. Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? Who is the Christ? Who is the
Christ, not a false Christ? How can you identify this one
as the Christ, distinguishing him from every false Christ that
Satan raises up? Daniel 9, 24. Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Now watch
what he says is going to happen. This is what the Messiah will
accomplish. This is what the Christ will
do. To finish the transgression. All the transgressions of his
people stop right here. To finish it. To make an end
of sins. To put a period to sin. The stopping
point of sin. The ending of sin. To cast their
iniquities away. To put their sins away. To purge
them away. Not make it possible, but finish
it. Look at this. This one who is
the Christ. He shall make reconciliation
for iniquity. full atonement, full satisfaction
for all the iniquity and transgression and sins of his people. This
is how he puts an end to sin and puts an end to transgression.
He made reconciliation for us, made a full propitiation for
our sins. to bring in everlasting righteousness
by his complete obedience unto death, obeying the law while
he walked on this earth and obeying the fully satisfying the will
of God at Calvary and satisfying the justice of God in his death.
He brings in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the prophecy and
the vision. You start reading in Genesis
chapter one. And you get to the end of Malachi and you say, man,
who is this book talking about? Who is this? It is he who sealed
up the vision and prophecy, who made an end of sin and brought
in everlasting righteousness by full satisfaction of justice. And the result is this, to anoint
the most holy. What's that talking about? The
most holy. He's going to anoint everyone
whom He sanctified with His blood, whom He made the very righteousness
and holiness of God by His obedience. He's going to come and put His
Spirit on you. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree, for this purpose, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on you. He comes to anoint the holy ones. This one who is our Redeemer,
the Christ of God, calls us by his gospel to life everlasting,
giving us faith in him, anointing us with his spirit. The preaching
of the gospel is not the preaching of possibilities, but the preaching
of our Lord Jesus Christ and his perfect, complete, finished
work of redemption and righteousness as our substitute. With his own
blood, our blessed Savior entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. The preaching of the
gospel is an exclusive message about one person, Jesus Christ
crucified. Now I don't commonly listen to
garbage and I don't read garbage unless I need to be instructed
about something or I just need to get my blood boiling. And
one Sunday night years ago, I decided why shall we were getting supper
after services to flip through the channels and see what the
religious fools were saying. And I flipped on Jerry Falwell.
And Mr. Falwell made this statement in
a message. He said, when I got saved, which
mean he didn't. When I got saved, I didn't know
anything about God or Jesus or redemption or grace. Somebody
just told me. I'm telling you exactly what
he said. Somebody just told me there was a man in heaven who
loved me, wanted to save me, and if I believed in him, he'd
do it. And that's how God saved me. There is no saving experience
without the knowledge of this saving person, Jesus Christ the
Lord. Here's the fourth statement.
I want you to see this clearly. The gospel of Christ is the exclusive
message of this book. Not the best message, not the
central message, the exclusive message. Now turn to 1 Peter
chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. I sometimes actually hear preachers
excuse themselves from not preaching the gospel under the pretense
of preaching all the counsel of God. But their excuse won't
hold water. The man who said, I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, the Apostle
Paul, also made this statement to the Corinthians, I am determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said, necessity is laid upon
me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me
If I stand on the walls of Zion as a watchman for your soul,
and I dare to pretend to sound out the word of God, and I don't
preach the gospel, woe is unto me. Now your blood's
on my hands. Now your blood's on my hands.
The gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ The
message of redemption and grace through our sin atoning Redeemer
is the singular exclusive message of Holy Scripture. Bible preaching
is gospel preaching. You can preach the facts of Scripture,
the letter of Scripture, the doctrine of Scripture and preach
it right and never preach the gospel. Several years ago, somebody
who thought I needed some instruction sent me five sermons by a fellow,
well-known, renowned theologian, one of the best known theologians
among Calvinist folks in our day. He preached in chapel at
Calvin College in Philadelphia. And I listened to them. There
were five sermons on the five points of Calvinism. I listened
to all five of them twice. And I wept when I got done, literally
wept. What the man said about total
depravity and unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible
grace and perseverance of the saints, everything he said, Todd,
was so. Everything he said was so. And
he never preached the gospel. I thought to myself, if I had
been attending there those five days, and I had never heard anything
about grace and redemption, salvation, and how to get it, I'd have gone
out just as ignorant as when I came in. That's not preaching,
that's babble. That's not preaching, that's
babble. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 23. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. Born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Some might say, well, that's
talking about Christ. That's not the word that's used
when it's talking about Christ. That's talking about this book
right here. I'm gonna show you. Talking about
this book. Doesn't matter whether you're talking about Genesis
chapter one, verse one, Or Isaiah chapter 53 verse 1? Or Isaiah
62 verse 1? Or are we talking about Revelation
chapter 4 verse 1? Doesn't matter. We're talking
about this book. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. Now watch this. And this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. You young men who preach, times
I've spoken to you in your classes here, I've said this to you,
I say it again. When you stand up to preach,
don't come to this place guessing about things. Leave your study in your study.
When you come to this place, find out God's message in the
text and declare what God intends from the text. So I don't see
the gospel there. Go to another text. I don't see
how that is talking about redemption. Well, wait until you do. Don't
stand around and guess about it. You can't preach this word
in any part except by preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It can't be done. Everything else is a perversion
of the word. Everything else is a perversion
of the word. I gotta move on, but I'd like
to spend a lot of time there. Number five. The gospel, this exclusive message
of redemption and grace in Christ, is the power of God unto salvation. Your pastor read earlier today,
Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. You know what that word is? If
you were transliterating, you folks who are linguists or have
studied foreign language know what I'm talking about, our word
baptism in the New Testament is a transliteration of the Greek
word. Rather than translating the word, the translators simply
took the Greek letters and gave them English, put them in English
letters. So that our English word baptism
is just a transliteration from the Greek. That word power in
Romans 116, if you would transliterate it, let me spell it for you,
dynamite. That's the word. Dynamite. Now, I don't watch a lot of television,
watch even less movies. I just, I don't invite folks
in my living room to entertain me. I wouldn't have dinner with.
But I do like to watch those old Clint Eastwood Westerns.
I used to be a pretty good shot. I can't see well enough to shoot
good anymore, but I can shoot the way he did. He'd ride along,
he'd reach in his saddlebag, get a stick of dynamite or maybe
two or three, suck on that cigar, just throw it and get out of
the way. You don't have to take very good aim, just throw it
and get out of the way. That's what the gospel is. Throw it
out there and get out of the way, see what God does. It is
the explosive power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. In other words, if you believe,
it got you. And you don't need anything else. All the stuff
that goes on in religion, the entertainment, and the programs,
and the shows, and the child's plays, and the children's church,
and the old people's church, and the single people's church,
and divorced people's church, and sodomite church, and women's
church, and men's church, all of it is just a whole lot of
hooey. And it just gets in the way.
What do you do at your church? We throw the dynamite and get
out of the way. That's all. That's all. This
is the means by which God saves his people. No other. This is
the means by which God calls out his elect. No other. God
doesn't save sinners by a false gospel, and it doesn't save sinners
apart from the preaching of the gospel. If he did, Paul would
not have said, let that Arminian freewill worksmonger be damned
who preaches another gospel. And that's exactly what he said
in Galatians chapter one. But brother Don, I didn't read
that that way. Well, let me read it again for you. Let that Arminian freewill
worksmonger be damned who preaches a false gospel, which is not
the gospel. Those who have a form of godliness
while denying the power thereof, are religious men and women,
be they Baptist, or Pentecostal, or Pathist, or Mormon, or Islam,
or Jewish, those folks who have a form of religion while denying
the power of godliness, the power of God in the gospel, are men
and women who live in a refuge of lies, and the sooner it's
destroyed, the better. Paul said, I have begotten you
through the gospel. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. This is how God saves sinners. Those whom God intends to save,
he will save by the preaching of the gospel. But brother Don,
what if there's no gospel preacher around? That's not a problem.
He's God. He's God. But there's an Ethiopian eunuch. He'd been up to Jerusalem. He'd
been up there at the Jewish feast and reading the scriptures and
he's never heard the gospel. How's he gonna be saved? Philip's
gonna preach it to him. Philip? Man, he's a long ways
off. That's no problem. Next thing
you read about him, he's standing right beside him. And he's listening. That eunuch is reading the scriptures.
It's a good way to read scripture. You can remember better if you
read it this way. He's reading out loud. He's reading Isaiah
53 out loud. And Philip said to him, do you
understand what you're reading? He said, how can I, except some
man showed me. Philip said, scoot over, I'll show you. And he proceeded
to preach to him the gospel. If the gospel is necessary for
man's salvation, if that means that the ship carrying God's
messenger must be lost at sea, to land that messenger on an
island inhabited by chosen barbarians. I never think of this example
in scripture. I don't think about, where's
Bob and Jeanette? There they are. Jeanette's from Malta. God
sent Paul through a shipwreck. Do you know when they left the
port, there was another ship that left on the same day, sailing
under the sign of piracy? And they landed in a lot of trouble.
But Paul's ship was shipwrecked. Broken up! So, those folks swam
to shore, came home broken pieces of the ship. And Paul's out there
helping gather some firewood. They're building a fire, and
he threw a piece of wood on fire, and a viper bit him right there.
They said, well, he's a wicked man, watch him die. And he shook
it off and got some more wood. He's God! Paul said, no, but
I'll tell you who he is. And God was pleased to save a
barbarian because God saves sinners by the preaching of the gospel.
Couldn't he just as well have knocked him in the head and drug
him to heaven? Easier. But God's ordained by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. But we believe in God's
sovereignty. I don't take a backseat to anybody
on it. We believe God's sovereign, absolutely sovereign in all things. He's ordained who he will save,
by what means he will save them, when he will save them, where
he will save them, at the very moment he will save them, by
the gospel through which he will save them. And he won't do it
another way. And that means God's messenger must be falsely accused
of ungodly behavior. Arrested, put in jail, and sent
through an earthquake so that a crusty old Philippian jailer
may, at the appointed time of love, be born again. God can
arrange that real easy. The heavens rule. Do you believe
that? The heavens rule! We don't have
to bend, bow, or scrape for anybody except God. We don't have to
back up for anything. preach the gospel of God's free
grace. Somebody was talking to me just recently about a meeting
I was in recently, a place I'd never been. Said it sounded like
you was giving them everything you had. I always do. I go somewhere
and preach the first time, I unload everything I got, I just presume
I'm not coming back. But you just preach the gospel. You just
stand up here on your hind legs and tell the truth. That's what
we're here to do. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God to salvation, nothing else is. Number six, the gospel
of Christ is the exclusive message which every preacher called and
sent of God is sent to preach. I fully agree with Roland Hill,
who said, any message which does not contain the three R's, ruined
by the fall, redemption by the blood, and regeneration by the
Holy Ghost, ought never to have been preached. Every man called
of God to preach is called of God to preach the gospel. This had been 35, 36, 37 years
ago. One of the men in church in Danville
used to take bulletins and things and tapes and things and invite,
leave them on his desk at work and invite folks to come hear
the gospel. And one Tuesday night, one of
the men he worked with decided to come listen to me. It was
a Tuesday night prayer meeting service, you know, don't do much
on prayer meeting night. If I had my, if I could only hear Don
Fortner preach once a week, I'd come on Tuesday night. That's
the freshest thing on my mind. And I prepare for it diligently.
And that man came and heard the gospel. The next morning, six
o'clock in the morning, got up, went out for his morning walk
and dropped dead. And I don't believe. I could
live with myself if I had preached the gospel to him. Folks we're preaching to are
going to hell right now. Right now. I talk to them about
bubblegum and moons. They're going to hell! Preach
the gospel to them. This is the power of God to salvation. And unto me, To me, who am less than the least
of all Adam's fallen race, is this grace given, that I should
preach to you the unsearchable riches of Christ. Oh God, let
me never take that lightly. And let me never fail to meet
the requirements of the call God's given. Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. One more thing, the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ is our only hope before God. Lord God tells his people, his
servants in Isaiah 40, he said, now when you go preach, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. That means Bob Morello, I'm responsible
right now to speak to your heart. That's what the word comfort
means. Speak to us, I can't speak to your heart. I can talk to
your head and your emotions, I can't speak to your heart unless
God speaks by me. Oh, but if God speaks by me.
He says, declare to them, her warfare is over, her iniquities
are pardoned. She's received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Not only has God put away your
sin, finished your warfare, reconciled you to himself, he will give
you, he has given you, and he will heap upon you continually
full and perfect righteousness in his son. I wonder if you might meet the requirement of those who
get this righteousness, who get this salvation. Let me tell you something. Find me a sinner. A blind, captive, poor, helpless
sinner. Is there one here? Anybody here? Anybody here who's got to have
a substitute? Who's got to have somebody to
save them? Who's got to have somebody to
lift them? from the deep pit into which
you have plunged yourself. Somebody to pick you up and set
you on a rock. If there's any such person here,
man, woman, or child, let me tell you something. You're one
of them for whom Christ died. I say that with no reserve. Find
me a sinner, I'll tell you God chose him. Christ died for him. The Holy Spirit's called him.
If he hadn't called you, you wouldn't know you was a sinner. You wouldn't, you'd go on blind
and groping about in darkness. Now, this is what God says in
his word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Folks talk about evidences of
salvation. How can I know I believe? He
didn't say anything about that, did he? I don't believe like I know I
should. Does anybody in here believe like you know you should?
Please, anybody? I've got another sermon for you. Anybody? Anybody? But I don't feel like I ought
to. Anybody? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. I don't know much and don't pretend
to. I can't point to anything in
my life, in my experience, in my work. Nothing. I can't point to any feeling
any emotion, any love, any devotion, which gives me any peace before
God. That thing. And I'm going to
tell you something about this one thing I'm sure. I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. I do. I do. Oh, thank God I do. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
and whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. Oh, God give you faith. If he'll
give you faith right now, right where you are, come to Christ.
Come to Christ and go home justified. Go home rejoicing. Go home blessing
God for the gospel of His grace. Amen.