Turn back to Romans 15. We will
be having preacher's class this Saturday at 10 o'clock. Romans 15. And I want us to notice Paul's
use of the personal pronoun, my. Now to him that's of power to
establish you according to my gospel. Now here's what I want
us to deal with. When can I say that the gospel
is my gospel? When can I use the personal pronoun
my with regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Now, Paul said
earlier in Romans chapter two, verse 16, in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to
my gospel. Now, ordinarily, when somebody
would say, this is my gospel, I would think, I don't care what
your gospel is. I want to know what the gospel
is. Well, we got to begin there, don't we? What is the gospel? Now, the gospel is an objective
message with a definite content. It is what it is, whether I believe
it or not, whether you believe it or not. It is what it is,
whether I'm saved by it or whether I'm not saved by it. The gospel
is what it is, and it's not subject to man's thoughts, definitions,
ideas, or opinions. I like saying that. I love what
Paul said in Galatians chapter one. I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me was not after man. It was not derived from any human
source. He said, I neither received it
from man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now, the gospel is the gospel
with a definite content. Now, when can I call the gospel
my gospel? Now that's something we all ought
to be very interested in. I want to be able to call the
gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel
concerning his son, the gospel of grace. I want to be able to
call it my gospel. Turn with me for a moment to
first Corinthians chapter 15. Verse one, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. I love that definite
article. The gospel that excludes anything
that's not just like it. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you. It's the same gospel
that I first preached to you and it hadn't changed any at
all. It's the same gospel. Which also you have received. It's the gospel that you found
to be good news. And wherein you stand, it's the
gospel that you stand in. You could stand before God and
not be driven away in the gospel. By which also you're saved. This
is the saving gospel. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you believed in vain, it's the gospel
you must persevere in. You can't forget it. And here
it is, for I delivered unto you first of all of first importance
that which I also received. And I love this. Paul said, I'm
simply delivering to you what I received. The gospel, this
is not my take on the gospel. This is not my thoughts on the
gospel. This is what God gave to me. This is the gospel. It's 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. That's what
I delivered first. I don't know how many times I've
heard preachers say the gospel is the life, the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No, it's not. It's how that, how that, Christ
died for our sins according to the Old Testament scriptures. You can't preach the gospel and
not preach the Old Testament scriptures. It's how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. It's a definite
message that excludes anything that's contrary to it. Turn to
Galatians 1 verse 6. I marvel, Paul says, that you're
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. They're not two
gospels. There's not a different version
of the gospel. But there'd be some that trouble you and would
pervert, would change the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we've preached unto you, let him be accursed. And just
in case somebody didn't hear me, as we said before, so say
I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that which you've received, let him be accursed. Let him be damned
is what that means. Let him be sent to hell. Now, let me ask you a question.
Is Paul being harsh? Is Paul being too narrow? No, Paul's doing the only thing
of love that there is. To preach the gospel. And not give in to anything else. Peter spoke in Acts chapter 15
verse 7 of the word of the gospel. And I like thinking about this.
There are certain words that are used. Words like election,
justification, predestination, redemption, being born again,
Sanctification, being preserved, there's all kinds of words that
are used, and any time a man willingly omits any of those
words, you no longer have the gospel. The gospel, the gospel,
is made of many truths which make the gospel, and if you leave
out one of those truths willingly, you fail to preach the gospel. The gospel is also called the
gospel of God. I like that name for the gospel,
don't you? The gospel of God. The gospel of which he is the
author, of which he is the subject, and of which he is the end. Paul
said that of him and through him And to him are all things
to whom be glory both now and forever. He calls this gospel
in 1 Timothy 1.11 the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Or it could more accurately be
translated the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Now in the gospel, who gets the
glory? Now we know from the scripture
that we're saved through the praise of the glory of His grace.
I see it, and I know that that means He said, my glory I'll
not share with another. But I know this, not only from
the scripture, but on a personal level, I can say with such depth
of conviction that if I am saved, if I end up among the redeemed,
He's gonna get all the glory. None will go to me. I can say
that with such depth of conviction. This is for His glory. And it's called the gospel of
Christ. It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of God. It's the gospel of Christ. The
gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Mark calls it the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the son of God. Christ himself is the gospel. You believe that? Jesus Christ
himself is the gospel. The gospel is a person. Jesus Christ of the seed of David,
made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to
be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The gospel
is called many times the gospel of the kingdom. I like that name
for the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom. You know, the kingdom
is about the king. And it's about his subjects,
too. You know, all of his subjects love him being king. Do you love
Jesus Christ being king of kings and Lord of lords? All of his
subjects do. They all love him being king.
They need him to be king. And I love that scripture, Revelation
17, 14. He's the Lord of lords and king of kings. And all they
that are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. It's the
gospel of the kingdom. Speaking of the king of kings
and his jurisdiction. It's called in Acts chapter 20,
24, the gospel of the grace of God. What a name for the gospel. The gospel of the grace of God. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
six. Now this is the way the world
reads this verse of Scripture. Verse 5, And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually except
for one man, Noah. He wasn't like that. Noah was
a just man and righteous before God. Now, is Noah included in
Genesis chapter six, verse five? Absolutely. Now here's what the
gospel of grace does. Let's go on reading verse eight.
But Noah found grace In the eyes of the Lord, these are the generations
of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations. And Noah walked with God. Chapter
7, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. Now this is what the grace of
God does. It takes somebody like Noah. and somebody like me and
somebody like you and makes me perfect and righteous and undefiled
before God. Really, really, I really am righteous
and holy and undefiled before God. And when I say that to you,
I'm thinking, what about all the sin you commit? You think
the same thing. Could that be so? Yes, it is
so. Because this is in God's sight.
And this is what the grace of God does. It takes a sinner and
makes him perfect in God's sight. You see, Noah was the recipient
of electing grace. God chose him before time began.
He was the recipient of justifying grace. God justified him. God
redeemed him. He was in the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He called him by his grace. He
gave him a new nature. He walked with God. And this
is because of the gospel of the grace of God. In Galatians chapter
2, 14, we read of the truth of the gospel. Now, I love this
passage of scripture. I think this is one of the most
poignant declarations of what the gospel is. It's where Peter
was eating supper with the Gentiles, having a good time, fellowshipping
in the gospel. And certain from James came,
the church of Jerusalem. And the scripture says, Peter
feared them that were of the circumcision. They're going to
look down on me for eating with the Gentiles. So Peter, without
saying a word, rose up from the table of the Gentiles and walked
over and sat down with the Jews. He didn't say anything, but you
know what Paul said he did? He denied the truth of the gospel. And Paul publicly rebuked him
for that. Now, what is the truth of the
gospel? What is it that Peter denied
that Paul felt the need to publicly rebuke him for? Because, I mean,
that's a big deal to get publicly rebuked in front of Don't anybody
publicly rebuke me unless I really need it. I don't want to do it
to you. I don't want to get humiliated in front of people and embarrassed.
Can you imagine how embarrassed Peter was when Paul did this?
But Paul had a need to do it. What was it Peter was saying?
He was saying, if I leave the Gentile tables and get up and
sit over here with the Jews, I'll be a little bit more pleasing
to God. All that is is a denial that
Jesus Christ is all in salvation. That's all that is. And Paul
said he had to rebuke Peter that the truth of the gospel might
remain. He was in danger of leaving if
Paul didn't deal with that. What is the truth of the gospel?
That Jesus Christ is all in salvation. Oh, how I love that. Everything
God requires of me, he looks to Christ for. There's nothing
I can do to make myself more pleasing to God. I'm altogether
pleasing to God through Christ. My position can't get any better.
I can't get any more accepted. I can't get any more love. Don't
you love the truth of the gospel? That's the truth of the gospel.
And then we read in Ephesians 6 verse 19 of the mysteries of
the gospel. I love this. The gospel is a
mystery. It's something we would have
never known had not God been pleased to make it known. Do
you think you could come up with the formula of the Trinity? Well,
I believe God is one God and three distinct persons. You'd
never know anything like that. You never know how God could
be just and justify the ungodly. You never know anything about
the great mystery of union with Christ. I speak a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. The two shall
be made one flesh. I'm one with Christ. The great
mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now these are
mysteries that we would have never known had God not made
them known. And we could read them all day
long without even thinking about them or knowing what they mean,
unless God was pleased to reveal them. Unto you it's given to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Oh, how we love the
mysteries of the scripture. And you know, what I love about the mysteries
of scripture, I just believe them. I don't so much intellectually
comprehend them, I believe in them. And everything God, you
know, regarding say creation, you don't have to have revelation
for that. You can know with common sense that God created the universe. It just makes sense. Something
couldn't just take place. Something couldn't just be all
of a sudden there's life. Somebody had to cause this. Somebody
made this and nobody made him. You can know that intellectually. You don't have to have revelation
to know that. But you have to have revelation to know God forgives
sin for Christ's sake. You have to have revelation to
know that God is holy. You have to have revelation to
know that you can only be justified by what Christ did. Now we love
the mysteries of the gospel. And then we read in Philippians
4.15, or I mean in Ephesians 6.5 of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace. I'm sorry, it's Ephesians 6.15. The gospel of peace. Now, what
that is, is the peace, when we talk about the gospel, we're
talking about the peace that Christ made for me. Having made peace, Colossians
1.20. Having made peace through the blood of his cross. Is it
any wonder that the angels broke out in that choir, glory to God
in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. You see,
Christ is my peace with God. I can't tell you what kind of
peace I experience when I'm made to see that I'm justified by
what Christ did. And that God doesn't have any
reason to be mad at me. That God doesn't have any reason
to be displeased with me. that I'm perfect in Christ Jesus. And I can't express to you the
peace I feel from that. Now, if you tell me there's something
I need to do, all my peace leaves. I don't have any peace. But if
you tell me that Christ did it all, Jesus paid it all, all the
debt I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as
snow, what peace I experience. Truly, it's the gospel of peace.
It's how He made my peace, and the peace we experience is this. He was delivered for our offenses,
He was raised again for our justification, therefore, being justified. I'm not justified by an act of
my faith. I'm justified because He was
delivered from my offenses and raised again for my justification.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my subjective experience
of peace is believing that He made all my peace and that all
God requires of me, He looks to His Son for. Do you believe
that? If you believe that, you know what you're gonna experience?
Peace. The joy and the peace of believing. And then in Colossians
1.23, we read of the hope of the gospel. Now let me remind
you about this thing of hope. Hope's something you can't see.
If you can see it, it ain't hope. Isn't that what Paul said? What
a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for
that which we see not, then we with patience wait for it. Romans
8.24 and 25. Now, I've got a hope that I can't see. First of all,
I've got a hope that I am sinless before God. And when I say that, I'm laughing
at myself while I say it, because while I can't see it, I can't
see justification. I can't see perfect righteousness.
I don't see it. Somebody says, do you really
believe you're that way? Well, not by what I see. But I believe. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. I have a hope that when I stand
before God in judgment, I'm gonna be accepted, that He's gonna
say to me, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And I can't
see any reason why He'd say that to me in myself. You know, I
don't know how many times I've said that and people say, y'all
don't say that. I've had people here, you know, say that. Do
you really believe you're going to hear that? Yeah, I do. And
it's because everything that God requires of me, he looks
to Christ for. That's the reason. That's the
only reason. What a hope there is that when he said it is finished,
my salvation was finished. The hope of the gospel. I have the hope of Romans 8,
28, that everything is working together. It's not working separately. I mean, there's all kinds of
stuff that happens. It doesn't, I mean, this is awful. I can't
believe this. I can't believe this has happened
to me, or I can't believe this has happened to them, or I can, oh, this is
terrible. What good can come out of this? All these things
separately work together. Work together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. What hope there is in the gospel. And I love II Thessalonians 2.14
where He called you by our gospel. The gospel is the calling gospel.
The calling gospel. The gospel is a call. It's a
call to believe. It's a call to repent. It's not
just giving people information. We're called upon to respond
to the gospel, to believe, to repent, to bow the knee to Christ.
It's the calling of, we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which
are thee called, both Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power of
God. Christ, the wisdom of God. I'm called upon to repent. of
anything that's contrary to the gospel. I repent of believing
in salvation by works in any way. I believe the gospel. And you know something the called
do? They call. Anybody that's been called by God, do you know
what they're going to do? They're going to call on the name of the Lord.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we read in Philippians 4.15
of the beginning of the gospel. the beginning of the gospel.
And this is talking about the beginning of the gospel in our
experience, because the gospel had no beginning. It's called
in Revelation 14, six, I think, yeah, Revelation
14, six, the everlasting gospel. The gospel never had a beginning.
It never had a point in which it began to be. It's as old as
God, and it'll never have an ending. The gospel, like its
author, is eternal and immutable. It's the everlasting gospel.
But in my experience, there is a beginning. There was a time
when I was not saved. And there's a time when I was. There's a time when I didn't
know God. And there was a time when I came
to know him. Now, there was a time when I
would have been described as children of wrath, just like
everybody else. No different than any unbeliever,
no different than any heathen, no different than anybody that
didn't know God. I was described as a child of
wrath, wrathful children, even just like everybody else. But
then there was a time when I believed the gospel. I think of that passage
of scripture in Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be what? Saved. Two things Paul says about these
people. I want them to be saved. That's my heart's desire. They're
not saved. And he says in the next verse,
I bear them record. They have a zeal for God. They're very religious. Even
the God of the Bible. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. Now somebody that's ignorant
of God's righteousness is somebody who thinks somehow they can please
God by some act of their own righteousness. Anybody that believes
in anything like that is completely ignorant of God's righteousness. If you have any, if I have any
understanding of God's righteousness, I'm going to know something about
my complete unrighteousness. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness. Here's what they haven't done.
They haven't submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
They haven't agreed with God. When God says, you deserve to
be damned. They'd say, no, I don't. No,
I don't. They've not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God for Christ. God has saved you. You get a
cold. You get diseases. You get awards. But you don't get salvation.
You find out God has saved you. You know what else? You find
out when it happened. I can tell you when I was saved.
I was saved before time began. He saved us and He called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. You find out when you were saved.
I was saved when He said, it is finished. And I was saved
when I heard and when I believed the gospel and not before then. There's no salvation apart from
hearing and believing the gospel, the gospel of your salvation. Then Paul said in second Timothy
one, not one eight, 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, the afflictions of the gospel. If you preach the gospel to somebody
that doesn't believe, they're not going to like you for it. And that's what the Lord was
talking about when he said, you're to deny yourself. You're to take
up your cross. That's the afflictions of the
gospel. The natural man hates the gospel. Now I've said this
several times in the last couple of weeks, he doesn't hate Jesus
that is a doormat that wants to save you but he can't unless
you let him. Nobody hates that Jesus because he's not fearful.
But the Jesus that salvation's in his hand and it's up to him
as to whether or not you'll be saved or not, it's not up to
you. It's up to him. It's up to him. You don't have any control
in this. That Jesus being nailed to the cross. They didn't like
that Jesus and they don't now. And may God give me grace to
be willing to bear the afflictions of the gospel. Okay, I've said
all those things to say this. I've talked about these definitions
of the gospel. I've given everything in the
scripture that goes with the gospel. Now, when is the gospel
my personal gospel? Well, first of all, The gospel
is gospel to me when I see the gospel that excludes all other
gospels. And I'm glad it's that way because
I don't have two things to make me confused by. There's only one gospel. And
it's the gospel that excludes all other gospels. And that's
good news to me. when it's good news to me that
the gospel is the gospel of God. It's not man's invention. Oh,
how I love this. This is the gospel of God. This
is not the gospel of Todd or the gospel according to the Baptists
or the gospel according to the Presbyterians or Catholics. This
is the gospel of God. And this is the gospel of Christ.
It's gospel to you when you delight that it's the gospel of Christ.
It's concerning Him. It's concerning His glory. It's
concerning His sufficiency. That's good news to you. And
you love the gospel of the Kingdom because you love the King of
the Kingdom. You love Him being King. Are you glad that Jesus
Christ is sovereign? That He controls everything and
everybody and that He's truly got the whole world in His hand
and He's doing whatsoever He's pleased to do. Where's your God,
David? He's in the heavens. He's done
whatsoever He's pleased. Oh, I love the Christ who's the
absolute King and monarch of the universe. And the gospel
is your gospel, it's my gospel when grace becomes good news. You know, it's good news to me
that God elected a people. It's good news to me that Jesus
Christ died for the elect and accomplished their salvation.
It's good news to me that God's grace is invincible and irresistible. That's good news. That's the
only kind of grace that will save me. That's what saving grace
is. The gospel becomes your gospel
when it's good news to you that salvation is of the Lord, that
he does it all because you know you can't bring anything to the
table. It becomes good news. The gospel of the grace of God. And then the truth of the gospel
that Christ is all. Does that make you happy? Is
that good news to you that Christ is all? That everything that
God requires of you is in Christ and no works for you to do? You're
complete in him. You're accepted in the beloved.
Good news. It's good news, it's your gospel
when you believe the mysteries of the gospel. You just believe
them. You know, I do. I was telling somebody that,
Claire, I think I was telling you this morning, the message of
everything being understood only by the cross, I really believe
that. I really believe that. I don't believe it simply because
somebody taught it to me, I see it. That's the good news. That's
the mystery revealed. The mystery of union with Christ.
I love that, to think that God has never seen me independently
of Christ. That I'm one with Him. What good
news! What a gospel! And then the gospel
of peace. I find peace only from the gospel.
The gospel of hope. What hope I have in the gospel. The calling gospel. The gospel's
called me to believe. It's commanded me to believe.
It's commanded me to repent. Now, you know God's called you
when you believe. Somebody says, I don't believe.
Well, God never called you. If he calls you, you'll believe
the gospel. You'll bow the knee to Christ. And in the beginning
of this eternal gospel, I understand that I was saved before time
began, and I love that. That's my gospel. My gospel is
that I was saved when Christ said it is finished. My gospel
is that I was saved, I found out I was saved when I found
out Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. And by his grace, I would find
it the greatest honor I could ever have to have the afflictions
of the gospel. Now, I know that apart from his
grace, whenever I'm called upon to confess Christ, when it's
going to cost me something, I know I'll check it out. If it's going
to cost me something, I know apart from God's grace, I'll
check it out. You know that too, don't you? You know that too. But I also know this. By His
grace, the greatest privilege I could have is to die for His
namesake. You would count that a privilege. You know the only way you'll
do it is by the grace of God, but if you're a believer, you
want to take up your cross, deny yourself, take up your cross
and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that is when the gospel
becomes my gospel. Now, when I'm saying my gospel,
I'm not talking about my take on the gospel. I'm talking about
when the gospel becomes my gospel. Let's pray. Lord, I ask in the high and holy
name of thy blessed son that every one of us, by your grace,
might be enabled to say of the gospel, the gospel of God, the
gospel of Christ, that we might be enabled to say, that's my
gospel. Lord, what a blessing of grace.
that we can say that this is indeed our gospel. We thank you for the gospel of
your son. We thank you for the forgiveness
of sins and the acceptance we have in him. And Lord, we ask
for grace to glorify your gospel in our words, in our attitude,
and in our conduct. I bless this message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.