I only want to read two verses. Mark's Gospel, chapter 16. In verse 15 and verse 16, the Lord
Jesus had risen from the dead, spent several days with his apostles
and disciples, and now he was ready to go back to heaven. And
this is the instructions that he gave to them. He said unto
them, Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. This is
the commandment the Lord Jesus gave his apostles, but not just
the apostles. But he gave it to the church
through his apostles. When he said here to them, Go
ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,
he was speaking to his church of all ages. If you compare this
to Matthew's account of it, when the Lord Jesus said, You go teach
all nations, you go preach to all nations the gospel. Then
he said, Lo, I am with you always. even to the end of the world.
So this is the commission to the church of all ages to be
cheerful, to preach the gospel, and as much as in us is as a
church, to preach the gospel to every creature. And as long
as the church is in this world, that's the commission that the
Lord Jesus gave to her. We cannot profess to be members
of the universal church if we do not obey this command. If
a church, if it be a local church, ceases to preach the gospel,
then that church is at best living in disobedience to her head who
tells her to go unto all the world and preach what? The gospel. Preach the gospel
first. Preach the gospel foremost. Preach the gospel always. This
was his last command. Go and preach the gospel. Don't preach yourselves. We preach
not ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't preach denominations. He says nothing of denominations. Don't preach your local church
covenants. Don't preach man's commandments. Don't preach your personal convictions. Don't preach your customs. Well, we dress like this, and
we don't go here, and we don't do that. Don't preach your customs. the gospel. Preach the gospel. I have some friends, and they're
still my friends. They're in a Baptist church there
in Indianapolis, one of the churches there. I preached there a couple
of times for them years and years ago. And they sent me the tapes
of the meetings of a conference that they had. And I listened
to every message, and every message that Those men preached, several
of them, it was on the church. They preached themselves. They preached their denominations. This is what they said, and I
wrote some of the things down. They preached that the true church
is a Baptist church. They preach that the true church
can trace its name back to John the Baptist. They preach if you're
not a member of the Baptist church, then you're not a member of the
Bride of Christ. And if you make it to heaven,
you won't be as near as they are because you're not Baptist.
You at best will be on the outskirts. What is that, brothers and sisters?
That's to preach yourself. That is to preach our denominations. That is not the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. As I listened to those tapes,
it made me ashamed that I was ever a Baptist. And I resolved
God helping me never to be one again because of that. When denominations preach themselves,
it doesn't matter if they're Baptist. It doesn't matter if
they're Presbyterian. You have the same among the Nazarenes
and Wesleyans. When they do this, it's in direct
opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ and his commandments. And they should be ashamed of
it. And they should be embarrassed because they do it. There was
a Baptist church having a big conference, and they assigned
all the preachers a subject. And all the subjects was on the
church. And they invited Scott Richardson
to come, and his verse that they assigned him was my text that
I read to you this morning. And they wanted him to preach
on the church's commission. And they wanted him to emphasize
the church and how she went about and her responsibility. And Brother
Scott got up and read his message and said, this is the commission
that Christ gave to his church. Preach the gospel. And for the
next 30 or 45 minutes, he proceeded to do that and never mentioned
the church again. The bride eyes not her garments,
but her dear bridegroom's face. The church does not preach herself. She never says, look to me. She points away from herself
and speaks on God's behalf and says, look unto me, saith the
Lord, and be ye saved. She never points to herself and
her name. She points people to Him who
is called the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Preach the gospel. Go into all
the world and preach the gospel. Ain't that so important? Preach
the gospel. What's the main reason the Lord
Jesus left His church in this world? to preach his gospel. Preach his gospel. This is the
very last command that he gives her. When the Lord had saved
Saul of Tarsus, that self-righteous Pharisee, and changed his name
to Paul, he sent him to do this very thing. You go preach my
gospel. You go preach my gospel. If a
man wants to know if God's called him to preach, what's he preaching? Is he preaching the gospel? Paul
was so convicted on this that he says, I won't even baptize
people. Ain't that what he said? I refuse
to even baptize you people there at Corinth. For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And when the church leaves the
gospel, She may seem to prosper for a while because the world
loves her when she leaves the gospel. When she starts preaching
morality, the world loves her then. And they'll sit under her
preaching for a while and they'll finally look with contempt upon
her. And she loses her authority and
she loses her influence just because she's lost the gospel.
Go preach the gospel. And look here in verse 19 and
verse 20 of this chapter. When they heard this, man, that's
what they did. And so after the Lord had spoken
unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right
hand of God. And look at this. And they went
everywhere. And they went forth preaching
everywhere. They preached every word, the
Lord working with them. Go preach the gospel. And what
did they do? They went preaching every word.
They went preaching every word. And Acts chapter 5 said this
about these people. And daily in the temple and in
every house, in the temple and every house, they ceased not
to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. And when persecutions
came and they were scattered abroad, the Scripture says they
didn't go looking for jobs as much as they went everywhere
preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? That's the commandment of
their head and their Lord. Go preach it. Brothers and sisters,
we can be deficient in a lot of things, and we are as a congregation. There's no doubting that we are.
God help us. But we don't want to be deficient
in this, do we? That's the command from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Go preach the gospel, the gospel. Notice this, first of all, a
definition of this word gospel. Let's begin with that. Just the
definition of the word gospel. I have a little article here
from William Tyndale, Brother Larry sent me two or three years
ago, and he was a great translator. We have our King James Bible,
much in part thanks to William Tyndale. The Lord mightily used
this man. He was very fluent in Greek especially. But he gave this definition of
the gospel. And I want to read part of it,
just the definition of the word. He said the gospel is a Greek
word that means good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings. That's the meaning of that word,
gospel. And every word that you read
in the scriptures, you'll find that definition given to the
gospel. Let me read some places to you.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings
good tidings, that publishes peace, that brings good tidings
of good. Good tidings of good. And then in another place he
said, O Zion, O church, that brings good tidings Get up into
the mountains, O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings of good. Lift up your voice with strength,
lift it up, don't be afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God." Good tidings of good. And then in another
place he says this, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
he has anointed me to preach good tidings." You remember who
said that? That was somebody who came down
from heaven. And the first profession he made
is this, I'm a preacher, and I preach good tidings. And this
is what the angels preached when God gave them the permission.
The angels said unto those shepherds, Fear not, for I bring you good
tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Good tidings
of great joy. That's what the gospel means.
Unto you is born a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Just the definition of the Word,
that is enough to hint at us a reason that you and I should
preach the gospel. It's good news. I've said this
often, and I'll say it again this morning. You may not agree
with me, but this is a sorry world we live in. It's a sad
and sorry world that we live in. But you found it that way. It's not what it used to be when
it came from the hand and breath of its Creator. Sin entered,
and I tell you, it's been a bell of tears ever since, hasn't it? Brother Larry studied the epistle
of Peter now for a long, long time, and all it contains is
suffering, suffering, suffering. Why is that? That's what this
life is full of. A man that's born to a woman
is a few days and is full of trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble,
trouble. Sometimes one trouble comes on
the heels of another. If you ain't seen a lot of trouble,
just wait. You're still too young probably. Just wait. You'll find
it. He'll find you. Poor Joe one day was sitting
in his rocking chair on the porch enjoying the warm sunshine, and
here come a servant, and he's sweating, he's dirty, his pants
was torn. And he said, Oh Joe, something
awful's happened. These bunch of civilians have
fell on us, killed the servants, and stole all your donkeys. Every
one of them's gone. And while he was still talking,
here comes another fellow. And he was in bad shape too.
He said, Oh, Job, something awful has happened. Something awful
has happened. Fire fell down from the sky and
burned up all your sheep and killed the servants. I'm the
only one that's left to come and tell you about it. And while
he was still talking, here comes another servant. And he said,
Oh, Job, something awful has happened. There's a whirlwind
that came out of the desert and it smoked the four corners of
the house where your kids were and killed every last one of
them. One bad thing after another. Have you found it that way sometime
in your life? God knows what kind of life this
life is. He knows we need some charity.
He knows we need something to make us happy. So what does He
do? The very name that He gives cheers
us. The very name cheers us. Oh,
what good news! Joyful! Joyful! Joyful! Thanks being to God, in the midst
of our sorrows, we have this word, gospel. Good news, merry,
glad, joyful tidings. He tells these poor apostles
and his disciples, go into all the world, and when you find
somebody whose heart is full of sorrow, and they are oppressed
by the devil, and they are in trouble, give them some good
news. preach the gospel to them. The
gospel. What is the gospel? Oh, it's
good news. It's good news. It's glad tidings. It's joyful tidings. Just the
very word itself. What is the gospel in itself,
in and of itself, that it could merit being called the gospel? Why would he call it the gospel?
Does it live up to its name? Is it truly good news? Will it
make the heart sing and shout and leap for joy? What is the gospel? Well, let me name some things
to you. Here's what it is. The dear and
blessed Son of God came down from heaven, and in our humanity,
He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He suffered for
our sins, the just for the unjust. That's good news, isn't it? To
bring us to God. He died for our sins, and by
that death, He put those sins away. He made his very soul a
sacrifice for sin, and God saw that sacrifice and said this,
My son, I am satisfied. The tremendous debt is paid. The debt owed to me for sin. By His blood poured out upon
that cross, He removed the enmity between God and the sinner and
made reconciliation. We are reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. Is that good news? And the Scripture says that in
His very death, He killed death. that he destroyed death, he abolished
death, and arose victorious over that death, never to die again. And never will death have dominion
over him. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and now I am alive forevermore." Did you notice while I was reading
this? This is not talking about a thing that you and I have done.
Everything He has done, great things He has done. If you have to enter into this
and do something, it's not good news. It's not glad tidings,
because you failed, you see. I failed, you see. But oh, when
the Son of God comes down from heaven, And he undertakes to
do something and to accomplish something. That's good news. That cup of eternal damnation
that was given to him, he drank it dry, even the very dregs of
it. And you know something? The wrath
of God and eternal damnation have nothing to do with him anymore. They have no effect upon him,
and he has nothing to do with them. Let me read just a little
bit more from William Tyndale on his definition, not only of
the word gospel, but the gospel itself. Now listen to this. This gospel is called the New
Testament. Because as a man, when he shall
die, appoints his goods to be dealt out and shared after his
death among those whom he names as his heirs, even so Christ,
before his death, commanded and appointed that such gospels or
titans should be declared throughout all the world, and therewith
to give unto all that believe all his goods." And what is some
of his goods? His life, wherewith he swallowed
and devoured death. His righteousness, wherewith
he banished sin. His salvation, wherewith he overcame
eternal damnation. That's the gospel. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that
wonderful? Go, he said, and tell them the
gospel. What is the gospel? My life to
them. I'll give my life to them. If you have His life, Then you
know something, brothers and sisters, death can never have dominion
over you. If it's his life, his righteousness,
that's his good things. Give them my goods. What goods? My righteousness. That I give
it to them, the heirs. And if you have that righteousness,
sin can never condemn you again. You'll never be judged and condemned
again. His salvation, that's His good
thing. Then the wrath of God and eternal
damnation can have nothing to do with you because you have
His salvation. And you know something? His salvation
is eternal, everlasting salvation. And if you've got His salvation, you're as safe and as saved as
He is. And how long is He saved? Forevermore. He grappled with the judgment
of God one time. He dealt with the wrath of God
one time. And He's safe from it now. He's
saved from it now. When he turned that cup up and
drank it, he drank it dry. And now there is no more wrath.
All there is, is his salvation. And he sends us out to preach
these things. And says, I have appointed that
everyone who believes this gospel, I will share with them my good
things. My good things. I've often told you about when
my dad died, he left his kids everything that he had. And before
he died, he wrote that in his will, what each one of us should
have. And it held up in court. Nobody
could protest it. And when Jesus Christ, before
his death, he put it down in his very will, these are my good
things. And you go proclaim this good
news that what I've done, and then those who believe it, I
have appointed to give these good things, my things, to them. If this gospel is not good news
to anyone here this morning, then consider this. If it's not
the good news, dear child of God, that it ought to be to you,
then maybe this will help you. Who did Christ command this gospel
to be preached to? Who is it to be preached to? The world. A miserable, wretched,
fallen world of sinners. Sinners who have been taken captive
by the devil, who are in the dungeon of the devil himself,
in his darkness, who are blind as a bat and cannot see. Souls who have been bruised and
mangled by their fall into sin and who cannot get out on their
own, who cannot see on their own. sick, perishing souls. You know what lost people think?
You know what all of them think? All lost people have this one
thought, and you know what it is? The gospel is for good people. You know how we know the gospel
is not for good people? It's not good news for good people.
It's not for good people because good people don't need it and
good people don't like it. It's for sick folks. The Lord
Jesus came into this world and here's what He said. The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because He sent me to preach the gospel
to the poor. People who have nothing, no money
to buy. They're poor people. Pour in
the Spirit. And listen to this, He has sent
me to heal the disabled. That's what that word broken-hearted
means. If you're out riding your bicycle
and you break the chain, you're not going any further, are you?
Your heart's broken. It means you're unable to do
anything. You're stopped in your tracks. He sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives, those that are in the dungeon of Satan and can't
get out. Deliverance! Deliverance! Recovered of sight to the blind
and to set at liberty those who are bruised and to tell these
miserable, wretched sinners this. that this is the year that God
is receiving sinners. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Are you wretched? Are you miserable? Are you ready
to perish? The great trumpet shall be blown,
the gospel shall sound, and those who were ready to perish shall come. We went down to Georgia
a few years ago, Stone Mountain. If you've ever been there, you
know what I'm talking about. Just a big rock out in the middle
of nowhere. I don't know how many hundreds
of feet it is, how many acres it is. It's huge out in the middle
of nowhere. It's made in the shape of an
egg. And they got a little fence around
it, but it wouldn't stop you if you started to fall. But they
got a little plaque. How many people have got over
that edge so far? So far over that edge. They fell
all over. They couldn't stop. Some of them were rescued. Threw
them a rope. I crawled way down on some of
that ledges. And you can just crawl and, boy,
you realize I've about gone too far. Can you imagine being down
on that thing and you get scared and afraid to move and you can't
get back up and somebody throws you a rope? If somebody don't help me, I'm
going over this edge hundreds of feet down to the rocks below. That's what the gospel is. It's
the rope. When you're ready to fall over
the edge, that pulls you back and pulls you up. It's the gospel. It's good news for those in trouble. It's salvation for the perishing. It's cleansing for the filthy.
It's life for the dead. It's healing for the sick. It ain't for good folks. It ain't
for good folks. If you look at me this morning
and that's the impression I gave you, I apologize. I apologize. It's not for good people. It's
not. There was an old saying among
the old saints in the early church. They started looking upon them
and thinking, boy, what a holy bunch of people. They're so holy. They looked at those old white-headed
women and thought, man, they're so holy. They're so holy. That's who the gospel is for,
those holy people, those good people. So those old holy people
got a saying started. And it just spread everywhere.
And Paul finally wrote it down in the Bible and said, this is
indeed a faithful Savior. Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners. Well, if you're a sinner this
morning, here's some good news. Here's some excellent news. It
will make your heart leap. It will make you sing. I mean,
if you are a perishing, miserable, wretched sinner, somebody has
come to this world and did everything that is required. And everything has been given
unto His hands. God, His Father, has given Him
everything. And He said, I am the possessor
of heaven and earth. And if you hear my gospel and
believe it, I'll share my goods with you, my life, my righteousness,
my salvation. And who could ask for more than
that? Who could even think to ask for more than that? My goods,
my goods, what I've earned. Tyndale went ahead to say this,
how can the wretched man that is in sin and in danger of death
and hell hear a more joyful thing than such glad and comfortable
tidings of Christ, so that he cannot help but be glad and laugh
from the low bottom of his heart if he believes that these tidings
are true. And that brings me to my last
point, and I can see why. And we need this last point.
In verse 16, we have a promise. We have the word gospel. Go preach
the gospel. And we saw what it is. And now
to everyone that believes it in verse 16, they have this promise. He that believeth shall be saved. I left out baptism because we
are not dealing with baptism. The Lord distinguishes between
salvation, the gospel rather, and baptism. Paul does that too. Here's a promise. He that believes
this gospel shall be saved. I mean, it's enough to have the
Word. And it's enough then to find
out what the gospel is. But it's probably so good that
we just can't hardly believe that it's for us. Is this true? The disciples saw the Lord Jesus
after He rose from the dead, and they believed not for joy.
They said, this is too good to be true. Could this be so, that
He's actually risen from the dead? Oh, Glenn, you hear this
good news? You say, surely that's not for
somebody like me. Even after you believe it, and
you begin to find out more about it, is this for me? Could Christ
have given me His good things? Oh, and then you may fall into
some doubts and fears about it all. So what does He do? He says,
you tell them, I'll give a promise. I've given them a promise. He
that believeth shall indeed be saved. Saved now and saved at
last. We find this linked to the gospel
all the way through the scriptures. Listen to this, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, gave Him and then
gave Him up on the cross of Calvary. That's the good news. That's
the gospel. And here's the promise attached
to it, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And listen to this, God sent
His Son into this world not to condemn the world. The world
is condemned already. But listen, that the world through
Him might be saved. That's the good news, ain't it?
Through Him saved. Get a hold of that. Through Him
saved. In Him, by Him, saved. That's good news, ain't it? And listen to the promise. He
that believeth on Him is not condemned. The promise. And listen to this promise. Here's
the good news. I am the resurrection and I am
the life. That's the good news. That's
the good news. Christ is the resurrection. He arose out of death, and He's
the life. That's good news, isn't it? I
don't want to lose my body. I want my body to be saved as
well as my soul. I want it to be raised someday
and go to heaven. He says, I am the resurrection. I want to have life eternal.
I want to have it here. I want to have it yonder. He
says, I am the life. And now he gives the promise.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, and yet shall he
live. Though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never The promise. The promise. Listen
to this in Hebrews 9.15. Christ is the mediator of the
New Testament, that by means of his death, for the redemption
of our transgressions that was against that first covenant,
the law, they which are called. Here's the promise. Here's the
promise. not receive the promise of eternal
inheritance. What is that eternal inheritance?
That's Christ's good things. His good things. Whatever that
includes, it's eternal and it's not inheritance. And He left
it to all of those who hear and believe His gospel. And it's
not enough for Him to say, I'm going to do it. For all who believe
this gospel, he says, I promise you, I promise you, I'll do it. When God made promises to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, surely, bless him. I will bless you. I will bless
you. That's a promise. I cannot change
and I cannot lie. If I have told you this, the
promise is sure. One last scripture. Look here
in Romans chapter 4. Look in Romans chapter 4. Go
and preach this good news, this glad tidings of what the Son
of God has obtained. And those who believe it have
this promise, that they'll have eternal life.
And all things that belong to Christ shall be theirs. Don't just make your heart sing.
Don't make it dance and leap for joy. Look in verse 14. He is speaking here of the same
thing. All of this is talking about the gospel. If they which
are of the law be heirs, if keeping the law or trying
to keep it will make a man an heir of Christ, this inheritance,
and give him life and salvation. Faith is made void, and the promise
made of none effect. What's the promise concerning?
Those who believe the gospel. Not those who try to keep the
law, but those who hear the gospel and believe it. That's the promises
to them. Why is it not through the law?
Verse 15. Because the law works wrath.
Where no law is, there is no transgression. Look in verse
16. Therefore it is of faith. faith, he that believeth, he
that believeth, hearing the gospel and believing it, that it might
be by grace. You can't earn it. It's by grace. It's given to us freely for Christ's
sake upon our hearing it and believing it. And look what that does. to the
end, the promise might be sure to all the seed. To all the seed. If it's by faith
and not works, then grace that gives us faith
makes it sure to everybody that believes. Everyone that believes. And then he went on to say this. that the promise might be shared
to all the seed, all the believers, not to that only which is of
the law, the Jews who believe, but to that also which is the
faith, the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all."
Verse 18, poor Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope. that he might become the father
of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded
that what God had promised he was able to perform. Therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. It wasn't written for his sake
alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. The gospel. The gospel. Do you believe it? Do you believe
it? Do you see why it has to have
a promise attached to it? The gospel is the most difficult
thing you'll ever believe in your life. You can't believe
it except through grace. It's too good. And you'll never
realize that until you find yourself in trouble. Then you spend the rest of your
life praying for grace just to believe it. Oh, just to believe
it. Oh, if I don't believe it this
morning, Lord, give me grace to believe it. Give me grace
to believe the gospel. Lord bless you. Let's pray.