Well, that's one of my favorite
songs. Turn back to Romans 16, please. In Paul's doxology to the book
of Romans, in verses 25 through 27, but we're just going to look
at several phrases And tonight I want to look at that phrase
in verse 25, the preaching of Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be a blessing of
God's grace if tonight we would hear the preaching of Jesus Christ? Actually, If we don't hear the
preaching of Jesus Christ, we've wasted our time. What is the preaching of Jesus
Christ? To hear the preaching of Jesus
Christ, when you're unable to hear, and you know this, I can
testify to every believer. If you're unable to hear, in
the power of the Spirit, and you know, you know what I know
I'm saved, is when I hear the preaching of Jesus Christ. When
I hear the gospel, that's when I know I'm saved. I might feel
a little bit different once I walk out the door, but while I'm hearing
the gospel, I know I'm a child of God. And there's nothing this
earth, this world has to offer that can duplicate that. It's
better than anything to be enabled to hear the preaching of Jesus
Christ. Not just preaching. That can
be toilsome. to listen to preaching, but to
hear the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is what God uses to save
and to establish his people. The preaching of Jesus Christ.
Turn with me for a moment to Acts chapter 5. Look at this
summary of the teaching and preaching of the apostles in Acts chapter
5. Verse 41, and they departed from
the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. Now they'd just been beaten,
flogged. How painful was that? But they
left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for his name. And look at verse 42, and daily
in the temple And in every house they ceased not to teach and
preach Jesus Christ. Now, I love the way it says they
cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. It doesn't merely
say sometimes they preached and taught Jesus Christ. It doesn't
say most of the time they did. It says they never ceased doing
this. You know what that means? That means that's all they did.
That's all they did. They ceased not to teach and
preach Jesus Christ. And there was no other subject.
That is all they did. Turn with me to Acts 8. You know the story of Philip
coming to the Ethiopian eunuch. Verse 30, And Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And at this time, he didn't know
that even if a man guided him, he couldn't know what it meant,
unless God the Holy Spirit was pleased to reveal to him the
meaning of the scripture, the gospel. The only way you can
hear the gospel is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Can't
hear any other way. Now let's go on reading. The
place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led
as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb before her shearer,
so opened he not his mouth in his humiliation. His judgment
was taken away and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet? This of
himself or some other man. Now the word man is not in the
original. of some other being. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at that same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Now notice Philip opened his
mouth. That means something came out.
There was something that was said. There was a definite content
to what he was saying. And notice this. It says, Philip
opened his mouth and began at the same scripture. That's the
starting point, isn't it? The scripture. That's the authority.
The scripture. Not what some man says. Not some
church's denomination on distinctives, but the scripture. He opened
his mouth and began at that same scripture. The authority is the
scripture. And what did he do? He preached
unto him Jesus. Jesus. Now, generally speaking,
when I hear people talk and they say Jesus this and Jesus that,
it just annoys me. He's the Lord. He said, you call
me Master and Lord. And you say, well, for so I am. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
not one time in all of the New Testament do we ever see any
of the apostles come up and address him as Jesus. He was always Lord
and Master. But when we're talking about
him, we can talk about him as Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. He preached
unto him Jesus. I love what our Lord said to
the Pharisees in John 5, 39. He said, you search the scriptures.
Always studying the scriptures, trying to find out how to live,
how to live better. You search the scriptures. And
in them, you think you have eternal life. And they are they, the
scriptures. They are they which testify of
me. every single one of them. They are they which testify of
me. Now when we speak of Jesus, we
speak of his pre-existence. Before Abraham was, I am. He's God. He's the creator of
the universe. He's the sovereign controller
of all things. Right now, everything about you,
He's in control of. If you take another breath, you
know who willed it? He did. If your breath stops, you know
who wills it? He does. He's God. When we preach Jesus,
we preach Him as the surety of the covenant. Before time began,
God the Son agreed to take full responsibility for the salvation
of all of the elect. I love thinking about that. He
took full responsibility for my salvation before I was ever
born. Is that great or what? There's
nothing I can do in time to destroy this if He's already agreed to
be my surety and to be my Savior. When we preach Jesus, We preach
His incarnation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Great is the mystery of godliness. When we preach Christ, we preach
His virgin birth. He's the seed of woman. He wasn't
born like you and I are with an evil nature. We preach Him
as the seed of woman. When we preach Christ Jesus,
we preach His life. His life, His law-keeping, His
righteousness, His perfect life before God. That's my personal
righteousness. That's the confidence we have.
That's what justification is. His righteousness is my personal
righteousness before God. You see, God can do this. I was
in him. He agreed to be my surety. He
agreed to do everything necessary to save me. He kept the law for
me. and He gives His righteousness
to me and it becomes mine. To preach Jesus is to preach
the power of His death, what He accomplished by His death.
They spake of the disease which He should accomplish. He actually,
positively, really put away all my sin so that I don't have any. When we preach Jesus Christ,
We preach His resurrection. Not only did He die and put away
my sin, but He was raised again for my justification. When He
was raised from the dead, that meant Todd Nybert and everybody
else Christ died for was justified. Justified. I love, I can't talk
about it enough. To preach Christ Jesus is to
preach His ascension to the right hand of the Father, ruling and
reigning. controlling everything and everybody,
and making intercession for His people. If any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteousness.
We preach His return. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found. Now, don't miss this. The preaching. the preaching
of Jesus Christ. Now, how significant is that?
Now, let me say right off the bat, preacher isn't significant. So don't get me wrong. The preacher's
not significant. I love the fact that Balaam's
ass told the truth, but he was still Balaam's ass. He wasn't
anything more than that. And when we're talking about
the importance of preaching, we're not putting a preacher
on a pedestal. A preacher's a sinner. I hate the very idea of clergy
laity, like the preacher's different than everybody else. He's the
clergy. He's God's servant. He's God's
man. And then you got the regular.
No, no, no. We're not putting a preacher
on a pedestal. I guarantee you. I believe from the very depths
of my heart that there's not anybody in this room more sinful
than I am. I believe that about myself.
That's the truth. That's what I believe. So I'm not putting
the preacher on a pedestal in any way. Still, 1 Corinthians
121 says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. This is what God uses. He uses
the preaching of the word. It pleased God by the foolishness. A fool like me standing up here
and speaking to fools like you and communicating the truth of
the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Don't ever lose the sense of
the importance of what's going on right now, the preaching of
the gospel. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. 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. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Now
you think of that statement. I determined not to know anything
else. Now listen real carefully to this statement. If Jesus Christ
is not all that's preached, He's not preached at all. Let
me repeat that. If Jesus Christ is not all that
is preached, He's not preached at all. I determined not to even
consider anything as worth thinking about, save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Let's go on reading. And I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And I can't tell you how much
I fear misrepresenting the gospel, misrepresenting Christ. It scares
me. And that fear gets bigger. I've become more anxious. I'm
more anxious about preaching than I ever have been. Don't
you have confidence? As far as self-confidence, I'm
a pretty confident guy. I am. I always have been. My
mother made me that way. She always told me I was greater
than everybody else, and I believed it. Good thing she's not here
tonight. At any rate, that being said,
In this thing of preaching, do I have confidence? No, I'm asking,
I'm begging the Lord to teach me the gospel and enable me to
preach. Not with some kind of cocksure, arrogant attitude,
but in weakness and fear and much tripling. And verse four,
in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. I wasn't trying to package the
gospel when I first came to you and I'm not doing now. I wasn't
trying to package the gospel to make it so it'd be easier
for you to receive. The worst thing somebody can
do is to try to make the gospel attractive rather than just preach
the naked truth of the gospel. And here's why. He said, it was
not an enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power, I'm completely reliant upon the spirit
of God to take the word and bless it. Why? That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Titus 1.3 says, God has manifested
His Word through preaching, which is committed unto my trust. This is how God speaks. God speaks
through the preaching of the Word. He speaks of the preaching
of Jesus Christ. So what is the preaching of Jesus
Christ? And the reason I ask that question
is you can preach about Christ and not preach Christ. Let me
repeat that. You can preach about Christ and
never preach Christ. Well, just think of his name
when you think of the preaching of Jesus Christ. Let's start
with his name, Jesus. Jesus. What does his name mean? Savior. Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He has
a people. He came to save those people
and no one else. And he points that out. John
17 verse 9, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me. And he saved them. That's what he came to do. And
that's what he did. The Savior saved his people from
their sins. The Redeemer redeemed Jesus. What a Savior. Christ Anointed
Messiah. Christ, God's prophet. The very
Word of God. Christ, God's priest. The one who brings us to God. And the one who brings God to
us. Christ, God's King. Yet have I set my King. on my
holy hill of Zion, the priest after the order of Melchizedek,
who was king of righteousness and king of peace. Now I repeat, what does the preaching
of Jesus Christ mean? I've got five things I want to
give you. Five things. Number one, the preaching of
Jesus Christ is to declare in no uncertain terms that Jesus
of Nazareth is God. He's the creator of the universe. Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter,
the carpenter's son. The one who walked 33 years here
upon this earth is nobody less than him whose goings forth have
been of old, of everlasting, the ancient of days, the one
who never began to be, the great I am, God, manifest in the flesh. That is Jesus Christ. He is God. Now, to say that Jesus is God,
is to say that He's sovereign in all things. You know, I heard
somebody preaching recently, and they were using the word
sovereign. They used sovereign a lot, four or five times, never
told what it meant. Well, let me tell you what it
means. It means that your eternal destiny is in His hands. It means you don't have any control
in this. Whether or not you're saved or not is up to Him. To say He is sovereign means
that every thought you have, He is ultimately in control of. Everything you do, He's ultimately
in control of. You're in His hands. You know, this foolishness of
won't you accept Jesus as your personal Savior, that's foolishness. The issue is not whether you
accept Him. He's not up for your acceptance
or rejection. He's God! He's God. He's the object of worship. Jesus
Christ is God. To say He is God is to say that
it's impossible for His will to not be done. Don't you love
that? It's impossible for His will
to not be done. To say Jesus Christ is God is
to say it's impossible for Him to die for you and want to save
you and you not be saved. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Now, let
me tell you something about that name. You know, we go to a counselor
to try to get us straightened up. That's not what that means.
My counsel shall stand. The word's a verb. The word's
a verb. His counsel is always done. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Somebody says, explain to me how Jesus Christ can be called
the Everlasting Father. I can't explain that, but I do
know this. When Philip said, show us the
Father, and it sufficeth us, he said, you're looking at him.
Are you saying that Jesus Christ is the Father? No, I'm not saying
that. But I know He did say, He that
has seen me has seen the Father. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is God. So to preach Jesus Christ,
we preach Him as the eternal sovereign God. Secondly, The
preaching of Jesus Christ is to preach his true and real humanity. Jesus Christ is a real man. He's got flesh like you. He's
got bones like you. He heaves in air like you do. He's got blood. He is a real
man. Now there was a time when he
was not flesh. There was a time where the Eternal
Son of God was not a man as we would think of a man. He was
not a man. He was the second person of the
Blessed Trinity. He was God, He was the one who created the
universe, but at that time He was not a man. He didn't become
flesh until some 2,000 years ago when the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. He was made to be what He was
not, a man, while never ever changing
who he was. God, the word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. I want you to see this. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse five, wherefore, when he
cometh into the world, He saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest
not. He's talking about all those
Old Testament sacrifices, the millions of lambs that were slain
and the blood was shed. He said, sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not. But look at this next statement.
But a body hast thou prepared me. This is talking about him
becoming flesh. A body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. Now, he stood as the surety for
God's elect before time began. So he had to come in time, assume
our nature, human nature, not sinful nature. He was born of
a virgin. He didn't have Adam's sinful nature, but the word was
made flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
Now here, here's why. Man sinned. I sinned. You sinned. Man must die. But there's a problem with the
death of a man. It can never satisfy a holy God. The only one good enough to satisfy
God is God. Problem is God can't die. He's life. Man can't satisfy
and God can't die. The God-man did both. The God-man satisfied God. The reason hell's eternal is
because no man could ever satisfy God. Christ did. He satisfied
God and he died. Now, how did the God-man die?
I don't know. But He did. That's enough for
me. He did. And He rendered complete
satisfaction to God. He is fully God, just as if He
were not man at all. And He's fully man, bone of our
bones and flesh of our flesh, just as if He were not God at
all. And I love thinking about this.
There's a man in glory right now. Jesus Christ the righteous. The preaching of Jesus Christ,
and listen to this real carefully, the preaching of Jesus Christ
is the preaching of the solitariness of his redemptive work. Catch that word. The preaching
of Jesus Christ is the preaching of the solitariness of his redemptive
work. What's that mean? Well, have
you ever played solitaire? When you're playing solitaire,
what's that mean? You're the only one in the game. What you're
doing, you're doing by yourself. You don't have anybody else involved.
You're not competing with anybody. Everything you're doing, you're
doing on your own. The solitariness of His redemptive
work. Now, works religion, and this
is all you can call it. There's grace religion and works
religion. Please listen carefully. This is such an important point. Works religion presents the work
of Christ as incomplete and unfinished. Incomplete and unfinished. He can die for
you and pay for your sins, but you must do your part to make
that work. That is an unfinished and incomplete
work. You're the one that needs to
complete it. You must accept Him as your personal
Savior. Your faith and repentance activates
what He does for you, or maybe come in another form. It may
become like this. You improve your standing, you
work so hard here and become so good here that you earn a
higher reward in heaven and that your works actually improve your
standing before God by what you do. It makes you over above somebody
who's only saved by his righteousness. Or it may be you become more
holy. and less sinful through your
diligence, and your putting down of sin, and your reading the
scriptures, and your praying, and your seeking to honor God,
you become more holy, more pleasing to God, and less sinful. Rubbish. That's all that is. Rubbish. Dung. There's no truth to it. It's not the preaching of Jesus
Christ. It's a denial of the gospel.
Here's the gospel. Here's the solitariness of the
redemptive work of Christ. Hebrews 1, 3 says, when he had
by himself purged our sins. You know what that means? Me and
you didn't have any hand in this. when he had by himself, I'm so
thankful for those words, when he had by himself, no help from
me, no contribution from me, when he had by himself purged
our sins. Now there's nothing you can do
to make that work or not make that work. When he said it is
finished, my sins, were completely put away and my salvation was
accomplished. Now, this is good news to a sinner. If you're hoping in your works
in any way, it's not good news to you. It's messed up what you
believed. But if you're a sinner who has
nothing to bring to the table, this is good news. The good news of the gospel. Now, The solitariness of his redemptive
work, if that's not preached, the gospel's not preached. Somebody
that preaches, that doesn't preach what we call effectual redemption,
Christ died for the elect and only the elect and accomplished
their redemption. Somebody doesn't preach that, listen to me, they
do not preach the gospel. It's another gospel. The solitariness
of his redemptive work. Romans 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's me that accepted Him as
my personal Savior. Well, that sounds bad, doesn't
it? Who is He that condemneth? It
was me who by my faith and repentance activated what He did. Why, that
grates on your part, doesn't it? He himself is salvation. The preaching of Jesus Christ
is the preaching of him as the only mediator between God and
men. There's one mediator between
God and men. And who is that? The man, Christ
Jesus. His humanity as our mediator
reaches the bottom. Us. And His deity as the mediator
reaches the top. God. And brings us to God. And brings God to us. And He excludes all other mediators. There's no Mary. There's no priest. There's no preachers. He is the
only mediator, the one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. And the preaching of Jesus Christ
is to preach Him as the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Now, I love that scripture in
1 Corinthians 12, 3, where Paul says, no man can say that Jesus
is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, I spent one miserable semester
in a Baptist college. It's a religious college. And
everybody went around, they'd look at each other, and they'd
give this grin, and they'd say, Jesus is Lord! You know, look, I'm
speaking by the Holy Ghost. No, they were speaking by a demon.
Because saying Jesus is Lord and not believing it is blasphemous. It's wicked. The Lordship of
Christ, it's not just being able to say Jesus is Lord, it's believing
that he's Lord. and confessing that he's Lord
to the glory of God the Father. Believing he really is Lord of
creation, Lord of science. You know, I think it's interesting
where, interesting's not the word, where people think that
there's some kind of a problem between religion and science.
He's the Lord of science. He's the Lord of physics. He's
the Lord of the weather. He's the Lord of angels. He's
the Lord of demons. He's the Lord of the devil. He's
the Lord of wicked men. He's the Lord of believers. He's
the Lord. That's who He is. And if you
don't preach that, you don't preach the gospel, He's the Lord. And we love, we love to sing
of Christ our King and hail Him, blessed Jesus, for there's no
word here ever heard so dear, so sweet as Jesus. And finally,
the preaching of Jesus Christ. Now listen to this real carefully.
The preaching of Jesus Christ is not an offer. The preaching of Jesus Christ
is not an offer. God does not offer anything. Christ did not make salvation
possible or available. And now it's up to you. You need
your help or you can accept him or reject him. No. The preaching of the gospel is
not an offer. It's a command. And you're right
to believe. Everybody in this room, listen
to me. Somebody's saying, well, I'm afraid I'm, what if I'm not
one of the elect? What if he's not calling me? He's calling
you. And his command to you is to believe the gospel right now.
That's a command. What about coming to me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest? That
sounds like an invitation. Well, it does sound like an invitation,
but it's a command. Heavy laden with the burden of
your sin? Would that describe you? You
know, you're commanded to come to Him right now for rest. He
commands you to, and you're right. To come is because He commands
you to. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That's a command. You're commanded to believe right
now. Don't worry about, well, does He mean me? Yes, He means
you. He means you. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. Now you say you're invited to
my house to eat dinner at six o'clock tomorrow night. You know
I got something to do tomorrow night and I've already got plans
and I'm gonna have to decline your invitation. But if you say,
you're commanded to come to my house tomorrow at six o'clock,
or you'll be shot and put to death, I'll be there. I'll be
there. You can write it down. I'll be
there. Everybody in this room, you're commanded to come to Christ. You're commanded to believe on
Christ. You're commanded to rest in Christ. That's God's command to you. You know, I think it's interesting
that the one time it even sounds like an invitation where he says,
bid them to come to the feast. And really the word bid is command.
If you look it up, it's not, it's not invited. But the one
time it even sounds like it was an invitation, you know what
happened? Every single one of them rejected it. Every single
one of them, they all with one consent began to make an excuse.
Every one of them. But then he said, you go out
and compel them to come in. My house might be full. The preaching of Jesus Christ
is the preaching of God's command for you to come to His blessed
Son, believe His gospel, rest in Him, and really believe that
all that God requires of you, He looks to His blessed Son for.
That's the command of the gospel. And that is the preaching of
Jesus Christ. And really, every time we preach,
no matter what the subject, That's in there. I want to look at one
last scripture, Revelation 22, because this is the Lord's last
description of himself. And I think that makes it very
interesting. The Lord is giving us a description of himself. Verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent
mine angels to testify unto you these things in the churches.
Now here's his last description of himself. I am the root and
the offspring of David. You know what that means? David came out of me and I came out of David. I'm the root of David. I'm the
cause of David. The only reason for David is me. He came from
me. And I am the son of David, the
promised Messiah. And look what he says next. The
bright and morning star. He's the light. He's the sun. He is the light as to how God
in His holiness can embrace and receive and love and accept somebody
as filthy and sinful as me and do it in a way that glorifies
His justice and glorifies His grace. That is the preaching
of Jesus Christ. And, you know, we're getting
ready to observe the Lord's table. You know, Paul said in 1 Corinthians
11, you show forth the Lord's death till he come. In observing
the Lord's table, you're showing forth his death. You know, we're
preaching Jesus Christ in observing the Lord's table, aren't we?
In obedience to his command. And may God give us grace to
truly do this in remembrance of him. Let's pray together. Lord, may we always hear the
preaching of Jesus Christ. And may we always believe the
preaching of Jesus Christ. And may our message be only the
preaching of Jesus Christ. And oh Lord, that you would save
by the preaching of Jesus Christ, how glorious he is. And Lord,
as we prepare to partake of the Lord's table, we ask that you
would bless us and enable us to do this in remembrance of
thy dear son. In his name we pray, amen.