Romans chapter one, Paul is writing
a letter to the church at Rome. This is one of his later epistles,
not early on because the church of Corinth had been established.
That's where he's writing this from is the church of Corinth.
But the scripture is not really clear on when the church of Rome
was established. We know how it was established
by God's grace, but we don't really know, uh, when that took
place or how that came about other than just the Lord did
it. But look in verse eight with me here, if you will. Paul says,
first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that
your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son,
that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. making request if by any means
now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to
come to you. He desired to go to them. He desired to bring the gospel
to them. And he had heard of their faith.
Well, since he could not travel at that time, since the Lord
hadn't permitted him to, he writes them a letter. And that's what
the book of Romans is, is a letter to these believers. God purposed
this letter for multiple reasons to encourage them and to declare
his gospel clearly for 16 chapters. And it was said of many different
men of old, Luther and others, and even Hawker and Spurgeon,
how that this was one of the clearest gospel books that we
have. I agree with them 100%. I'm thankful
that the Lord is revealed on all the pages, but Paul sets
forth very clear gospel here. And that's what I intend. If the Lord would be pleased
to do tonight is to set forth a clear gospel, not watered down,
not confusing, but simple and clear. That's what I want to
look at. What, what makes our gospel different? What makes our gospel different?
That's what I've titled this. What makes our gospel different?
Now, before I go any further, I want to be clear that there's
only one gospel, but many men believe they have a gospel. And
Paul addresses, and we're going to turn there later in Galatians
1, the same people he was talking to. And he said, who hath bewitched
you? He asked them, how are you so soon? fallen away from the
gospel. You have a perverted gospel.
He says the men that's there, they called it a perverted gospel.
Well, it's not a gospel at all, then is it? The gospel by definition
is good news. If you look up the definition
of gospel, it's good news. It's not good news if it's by
the law, because that gives me something to do, something that
I must do or not do in order to please God. But he set forth,
we've already read in Galatians, We'll see in just a moment, it's
all by grace. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, not the works of the law, lest any man should boast. Now,
Paul wastes no time in his writing to tell of his purpose. He begins
by saying a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle of the
Lord. And as such, he has a message
from God for these believers. That's where his message comes
from is the Lord. I hope that's where our message comes from.
I never want to get to the place where we take for granted and
go through the actions of worship. I want us to be beggars every
time we come here, asking the Lord, give us the message, allow
us to hear the message in the heart, not just with the ears.
After he sets that forth, Paul wastes no time in clarifying
who he is writing about his subject, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
going to read all this in just a moment, but he tells them why
he's writing them. He's an apostle with a message
from God. He's a servant unto them of the Lord, and he's going
to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he tells who
he's writing to. He calls them the beloved of
the Lord. I hope we're the beloved of the
Lord, don't you? If the Lord loves us, what should
we fear? Nothing. Nothing. His love accomplished
something, didn't it, on the cross of Calvary? Let's read
this here in Romans chapter one. We'll read the first 10 verses.
It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore
by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. concerning His Son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was 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 by the resurrection from the dead,
by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience
to the faith among all nations for His name. Among whom are
you also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be in Rome,
beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace
from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank
my God through Jesus Christ for you, for you all that your faith
is spoken of throughout the world, the whole world. For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son,
that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers,
making request if by any means, now at length, I might have a
prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. Paul
announces his purpose, his charge of the Lord. The purpose of writing
unto them was to edify them, was to encourage them by the
gospel. Then he tells them why he wants to visit them. Look
in verse 15. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and to salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. His desire is to declare the
gospel, the one gospel to them. Now the word gospel has already
been mentioned three times. It's mentioned three times total
in this chapter and many more times in the book of Romans.
But in the first time it's mentioned is in verse one, it's called
the gospel of God. The second time it's mentioned
is in verse nine, it's called the gospel of his son, And the
third time it's mentioned is called the gospel of Christ.
That's not three different gospels. Those are all the same gospels.
There's only one. There's only one. So what makes
our gospel different than all the other gospels that are being
declared throughout the world? Among others, I have four primary
points and I normally don't do points. I've been your pastor
a while. I think I've done it like twice now or maybe three
times, but the Lord's given me four points that I want to make
tonight. And those points are this, to give answer to this
question, what makes our gospel different? Number one is who's
the author of it? Who's the author of it? Number
two, who's the subject of it? Number three, who's the executor
of it? And number four, who's the revealer
of it? And I hope the Lord will give
us that answer tonight. What makes our gospel different? I had struggled to find a title
for this message. I was trying to, uh, come up
with different ones. And I've used most of them already
that I wanted to use. I didn't want to have the same
one. Part two, I guess I can put at the end of it. I don't
know. But that's what the Lord's given me tonight is what makes
our gospel different. Number one, the author of it
does. The author of it does. Hebrews
chapter 12 tells us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of faith. Now, if you look up that verse
you'll see the word our is right before faith but it's in italics
the translators put it there it's he didn't he's not the author
of our faith he's the author of faith and then yes he gives
us faith doesn't he but he's the author and finisher of our
faith who for the joy that was set before him endeared the cross
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of god jesus christ is the author of the gospel he's
the author of it Notice it's being called the gospel of God,
the gospel of Christ. This tells us that it's of him.
It tells us that he has ownership. It tells us that he's the author
of it. He is the possessor of it. It's from him. It's by him. It's for him. He's the cause
of it. And it's all for his glory. I
was thinking today on different gospels and, and I was, as I
was studying what makes ours different, I, the Lord gave me
this analogy. I hope we can enter into it.
And, um, I've been thinking about, uh, Lisa and, uh, Rob building
a house and how that when you build a house, you're going to
want to exactly how you want it exactly how you want it. You're
not. I talked to my wife, I said, I'm not going to ask anybody
to just, you pick the cabinets, do whatever you want to do. Or
you, you just pick the paint and do whatever you want. No,
I'm going to pick the paint for my house. I'm going to pick the
cabinets for my house. I'm going to pick the flooring
for my house. And it's going to be exactly as I want it by
God's grace, of course. But somehow men think that that's
not how God is in his salvation. That's not how God is in the
kingdom that he built, that he's not building it. He didn't build
it exactly as he wanted it, that it's up to you and I. Isn't that
silly? That's not true, is it? No, he
built it exactly by his gospel. He's built his kingdom exactly,
exactly the way he wanted it. And nobody, nobody can change
it, add to it or take away anything from it. No one can. That's his
house. It's his Zion. It's his building. And you know, the good news is
we just get to dwell in it for all eternity. All eternity, we
get to be with our Lord in what he has built with his own hand.
He's the author of this gospel. He's the author of it. He's the
architect. He designed it exactly the way
he wanted it to be. He made it exactly perfect for
his people. It's his gospel. His gospel's
the only thing that brings certainty because of the author of it.
His gospel's certain because he's the author of it. Other
gospels bring confusion. We have the certainty in his
gospel because he's the author of it. Our Lord, by his determinate
counsel, ordained some people to eternal life. He made a covenant. of grace by his design, according
to his will, according to his purpose, before the world was
created. He was the author of eternal
life before time existed. That's part of the design is
time. He made time for his purpose,
didn't he? He made this world for his, this is all part of
his design. This is all part of his, him being the author
of it. God counsels only with himself. And by himself, he wrote the
Lamb's book of life. He wrote it himself. And he put
the name of everyone that he chose in the covenant of grace
in that book of life. Lord who worketh all things after
the counsel of his will, willed to save some chosen elected sinners
all by his grace, all by his will. He chose to redeem us from,
He orchestrated the means of it. It's all by His hand. He created time as part of these
means. As I've already said, He's ordered
each and every circumstance in our lives for His glory. That's all part of Him being
the author of this gospel, all part of this salvation that He
ordained. He made what was believed to
be impossible Is it possible? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Or the leper his spots? That's impossible. Not with God.
God, all things are possible. Why? Because of his gospel. Because
of what he did. He made what believed to be impossible,
certain beyond measure, all by his authority, by his doing,
by his work. He made all things by his power,
according to his purpose. He's the owner of it. He's the
author of it. He's the designer of it. He's
the architect of it. He's the doer of it, made for
His glory, all according to His will. And He did this all before
time ever began. That's what makes our gospel
different than other gospels, isn't it? This is a timeless
gospel. This isn't a figment of our imagination.
This is what God said, I will and who let me? No, He's gonna
be, He's God. He's gonna do whatever He wants
to do. And the good news is, is he, he's the way of salvation
for his people. He chose to redeem. That's what we're talking about
right now. He chose to do this. The very fact that he is God
is indicative that everything is ordered and purposed by him
and comes to pass according to his will alone. Just as we talked
about the house a moment ago, he made the earth and the fullness
thereof and all things are subject to his authority. All things
are subject to his will and he'll do with whatsoever he will win.
His people love it that way, don't we? We like his house the
way that it is, don't we? We like his people the way that
he's done the work. We love his Christ. We love his
design, everything about it that we get no glory for. We love
that. Him being the author of our gospel,
of His gospel, it was written so that it was solely dependent
upon Him, not us, not us in any way, not our will, not our choice,
His will, His choice, not our purpose, His purpose, not our
authority, His authority, and He has all authority, doesn't
He? We're not sovereign in anything, are we? We can't will away a
cold. How are we gonna will to be saved if we can't will away
a cold? We can't, can we? It's not possible. Not possible. This is what makes our gospel
different than others is our author, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the second thing that makes
our gospel different is the subject, the subject of our gospel. Who is the subject? The Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the subject of it. It's
the gospel of Christ. Paul says that in verse 16, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. He's the subject of
it. Only God's gospel can bring peace. It's the only thing that brings
peace because it points to the Lord Jesus Christ, the subject
of it. All other gospels bring fear. Do you remember some of
you maybe being in false religion and it was a lot of lawmongering
as we were reading about the Galatians, you have to do this
and you have to do that. All the fear that came with that,
have I done enough? Have I messed up again? I got
a backslid again. I got to rededicate my life.
You ever heard that before? That's not what God's gospel
does. No perfect love cast out fear. Who has perfect love? The
Lord Jesus Christ for his people. Fear is gone. Why? Because he
put away our sin. He's the subject. He's the subject
of our gospel, his work, not ours. Everything about our gospel
points to him and declares him as Lord and Christ. to the glory
of God the Father. He's the subject of it. All other
Gospels point to man, don't they? All other Gospels say, I, I have
done this. I've prayed this prayer. I've
walked an aisle. I've let God. That's the subject,
isn't it? I, in the other Gospels. I don't
do that anymore like I used to. I don't do that anymore like
I used to. That's the subject, not this gospel. There is no
eyes in God's gospel. Just one, I am. I am, that's
who the subject is, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ. No, it's
not about us, it's about Him. It only points to Him. What He did, what He worked,
how He lived, His perfection, His beauty. His glory, His people. It's all about Him and what He's
done. He's the subject. He's the center
point where all life flows from. He's the focal point. He is the
life of His people. He is the light of His people. And it is His gospel all for
Him and for His glory. He's the very subject of it.
In Him is no darkness at all, just light. The light of His
people. He's the fountain whereby sinners
can be made clean. Fountain of living water. The
blood that He shed on the cross of Calvary. This is who He is
and what He's done. He's the subject. We look at
it that way, don't we? Don't look at me, Lord. Don't
look at what I've done or what I'm doing. Look to Him. Look
to our substitute. Look to Him. He's the subject.
I'm not the subject. It's not about me. It's about
Him. It's all about Him. He's the primary object of the
message. Do you know why? Because he is
the message. He's not only the subject, he
is the message. Christ is salvation. Christ is salvation for his people. That's why he's the subject of
it. Acts 4 tells us, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is no other name. No other name. There's no other focal point,
is there? No other name given among, given under heaven, given
among men whereby we must be saved. He is salvation. And he
has all the authority, all the authority. I'm talking about
Jesus Christ. I'm not just talking about the
father. Jesus Christ is God. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, isn't he? And he was declared to be the
son of God with power. I want to show us that in Hebrews
chapter one, if you'd like to turn there. Hebrews chapter one. Look at verse one with me. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manner spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by, you see
that italic word, his? Take that out. He's spoken to
us by son, that's his name. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who did he make the
worlds by? The sun. Who, being the brightness of
his glory and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. He's the brightness of his glory,
the express image of his person. And he is who speaks, the son. It's all about him. He's the
focal point. He's God. He's God. He's the reason that the whole
earth was made. This is who we preach. This is
what makes our gospel different than any other gospel. the focal
point of it, the Lord Jesus Christ, the author of it, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the third thing is, is the
executor of it. The executor of it. God elected
a people, the son redeemed that people, and in time the spirit
regenerates that people. You know what that means? He's
the executor of it. That's the only thing that brings
hope to us, isn't it? Is he did all the work. All other
gospels leave men hopeless, not having surety or certainty, not
having assurance. So many times I remember in religion
of talking to my pastor and being, how do you know you're saved?
And he said, well, you've done this and you've done this and you've
done that. If you come to me and say, how do you know you're saved?
I'll say, what's he done? Tell me what he's done. Don't
tell me what you've done. It's not about what you've done
at all, is it? It's about what he's done. See, he's the focal
point. He's the focal point. He's the, He's the executor of
the gospel. All other gospels bring despair.
They can't bring peace. Because he's not the focal point.
He's not the one talked about as being the executor of his
gospel. But if he's talked about, he's
the prince of peace and he gives peace. He's the only one that
has it. Because he is peace to his people. All other gospels
declare that God executed salvation then they say, you have to do
your part. God executed salvation. God fulfilled
salvation. Was Christ successful? Oh yeah,
Christ was successful, but you have to do your part. Well, he's
not the executor of it then, is he? He didn't do it then,
did he? He's relying on you to do something
or relying on me. That's not true. He did it all. He did it all. Look at Hebrews One verse three
again, who being the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his
power. He kept his word, didn't he? He kept his word. When he
had past tense by himself purged our sins, they're gone. He sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He upheld his
father's will. He kept his word and he sat down. He executed it. It's done. It's
finished. It's finished. When the fullness of time was
come, God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the
flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a woman,
born under the law to redeem them that were under the law.
Jesus Christ being the fullness of the Godhead bodily bore the
sin of those that the father had given to him in the covenant
of grace before time ever began. And he executed the responsibility
he had perfectly. Without spot and without blemish,
he went to the cross and died in his people's stead, putting
away their sin. He didn't leave one thing to
be done, did he? But how do we know there's not left something
for us to do? How do you know? How do you know if you're saved? How do you know that? What are
you looking to as the object of your salvation? Because if
it's you, we're not believers. But if we're looking unto Jesus,
he's the author and finisher of faith. The author and finisher. Look unto him. Look unto him. Believe on him. How do we know
that there's nothing left to do? Because he sat down. The
Lord would not have sat down if there's still work to be done.
No, it's finished. It's finished. Look back in Romans
chapter eight. Look at verse 31. What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession. God was satisfied. God, that's
what that's saying. God was satisfied and resurrected
his son and he declared him. He declared him his son with
power by the resurrection. That's the evidence that the
father was satisfied with him. He hath secured salvation. That's
our gospel, isn't it? That's our gospel, and that's
the gospel. That's the reason that it's different from all
other gospels is it's a finished work he fulfilled. all the requirements
for the salvation of His people. He satisfied the Father. Our
sin are gone. If we're in Christ, our sin's
gone. That's the difference in our
gospel and others, is it says, they say, you gotta do this,
or you gotta make God's work effectual. You have to do something.
It's not true. It's finished. That's our gospel. That's what the difference is,
isn't it? He's the executor of it. Lastly, He's the revealer
of it. What makes our gospel different?
He's the revealer of it. It's the only thing that gives
faith, the only thing that gives faith. Other gospels point to
something else other than the Lord Jesus Christ. This gospel
is the only gospel that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, believes
the Lord Jesus Christ by that faith. Look at Romans 1, go back
with me to our text. Verse 16, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jews first, and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Now understand that last part
of that verse, I heard in religion a lot. If you're saying that
you're a Christian, then you should live this way or you should
live that way. And they called that living by faith. That's
not what that says. Because we've been justified
in God's sight, we live by looking to Christ. That's what it's saying.
That's how we live. We live looking to Him. That's
what faith does. The just shall live by faith.
That's how we live. That's how we live, just looking
unto Jesus, looking unto His finished work, faith bestowed,
is righteousness revealed. Faith bestowed is righteousness
revealed. And who's the one that reveals
it? God. God does. The Holy Spirit, the
Holy Ghost, His Spirit reveals the finished work of Christ,
reveals this gospel. What is the means He uses to
reveal righteousness? What is the means that He uses
to make someone that's dead alive? What is the means that He uses
in order to make a leper clean, to take a sinner and reveal perfection. What are these means? What is
the means that he uses? The gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the means. That's the
means. In God's purpose time, he calls
his people by his spirit, by the gospel, according to his
purpose, by his one true gospel. Hold your place, we're gonna
come right back here, but let's go to Ephesians chapter four. He's in chapter four, verse four. There is one body, one spirit,
even as you are called in one hope of your calling. The spirit's
the revealer of it, isn't he? One Lord, one faith, one baptism. one God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. He is the revealer of it. By
his Spirit, the one Spirit, he reveals his one gospel. He reveals
his one Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the revealer of
it. His ways are past finding out.
We couldn't discover it if we wanted to. It's a hidden mystery,
but the Lord reveals it to his people by grace, through faith. Scripture says, if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them which are lost. It says, whom the God
of this world hath blinded their eyes, lest the light of what?
The glorious gospel should shine into them. Our only hope is that
he would choose to reveal Christ by his gospel. And we know that
it's all by his doing, not ours. It's all his work. It's not ours.
It's his saving, his calling. I love that it's his calling,
not our choice. Because when he calls, we don't
choose. We just say truth, Lord. I love that it's his keeping
by his own power. We can't keep ourself. We have
no power. This is what makes our gospel the gospel. This is
what makes our gospel different than all the other gospels, is
he's the one that chooses to reveal it to whomsoever he chooses
to. And the revelation of Christ
is salvation. Revelation of Christ is salvation.
I want you to look back, you're in Romans 1 still, and I wanna
notice one more thing here, and then we're gonna turn to Galatians
in closing, but Romans 1 16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. That is the gospel,
that is the power, that is the singular one salvation, that
is the righteousness and the just. It's the Lord Jesus Christ,
isn't it? It's singular. It's all about
him. He's the one that must give us the revelation of himself.
And he does it by sending his spirit and power when the gospel
is being declared. When His gospel goes forth in
truth, He chooses whether or not to reveal the Lord Jesus
Christ to whomsoever He will. He's the revealer of it. It's
all about Him. And He gets all the glory in
this one gospel. That's what makes our gospel
different than all the others. There's only one. There's only
one. All the other gospels that you
hear, there's many different ways. You ask somebody, what's
your hope of eternal life? And they'll say, I did this or
I did that, or I haven't done this. I haven't done that. I've
already said these things and I know that, but I'm saying to us again,
because their gospel kind of changes. It's never constant.
We get that. Well, I don't, I don't do that anymore. So I know I'm
good now, but I'm working on this. And I remember hearing
a song, he's still working on me to make me what I ought to
be. Uh, that's not true. He's made us the righteousness
of God in Him. He's made us the righteousness
of God in Him. It's finished. It's not that we're looking to
anything that we're doing. It's looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of faith. There's only one gospel. There's
not a bunch of different ones. There's only one way. He is the
way. He is the way. It's singular,
isn't it? He's the way, the truth. There's only one. He is the life.
There's only one. There's plenty of men that's
going to try to sneak up like a thief and a robber, aren't
they? Climb up a different way, but they're never going to make
it. Never going to make it. It's this gospel. This is the
only way. Now, in closing, turn to Galatians chapter one. We will probably be seeing this
again in a couple of weeks when we're in Galatians, but I want
to go ahead and just look at it now. Paul gives us the gospel simplified
right here. And to be clear, the gospel is
easy to understand. I had somebody tell me one time,
said, I don't understand what you believe. And I said, that's
not true. You choose not to believe it. It's not complicated to tell
somebody that Christ is all in salvation, that God did the choosing,
Christ did the redeeming, and the spirit does the regenerating,
and that leaves you with nothing to do. He does it all. That's
not complicated, is it? You know what's complicated?
Other Gospels. Other Gospels are complicated. Paul gives us
a simplified Gospel here. Now, it's impossible to believe
it. God must give faith, but it's
simple. It is simple. Look here at verse 1. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
forever, forever and ever, amen. God tells us that it was by his
will, all by his will, Christ gave himself for the remission
of sin, to put away our sin. And because he was successful,
the father resurrected him. That's all right there that we
just read. That's all right there. Now, because of that, we have
peace with God and it's all by grace. That's what he just told
us. That's a simplified gospel, isn't it? Christ Jesus put away
the sin of his people. The father was satisfied and
resurrected his son. Now we have peace with God all
by grace. It's that simple. That's what
he's telling them here. For by grace are you saved through
faith, not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now let's read a few more verses.
Verse six. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him
that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel,
which is not another. He says another gospel immediately
says it's not even another. It's not a gospel at all. That's
what we've been saying, isn't it? There's only one. There's
only one. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed, cut off from God, damned. That's what that word means.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased man, I should
not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by, and
here's salvation right here, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That's it. Wasn't taught by man. If a man
can talk you into it and say, here's the gospel, and you believe
it because that man told you that, another man can talk you
out of it, says, no, this is the gospel. It's the revelation of
Christ, isn't it? He reveals it to his people.
He reveals it. Now, what gospel was he saying
here? Another gospel. What gospel is
he talking about? What's the issue that he's dealing
at with these Galatians or what gospel is he referring to? It's
the gospel of works. It's the gospel of works. And
that's exactly what perverts the gospel of grace. For as soon
as it starts, as soon as a work is done, it perverts the truth. There is no work to be done by
you and I. Christ did it all. That's the
gospel. As soon as we lay one finger
to it, as soon as we do one little thing, we defile it. We defile
it. Now, this gospel of works was
them law-keeping. Actually, it came down to something
very simple. It was circumcision. They were saying, okay, you need
to repent and be baptized and be circumcised. That's what they
were adding to that one thing. Paul goes on throughout the whole
of Galatia. He says, do you not know that if you are under the
law, you're in a debt to the entire law? You just take one
law and you make that law your object of salvation because you
do it. You've made yourself indebted into the entire law, every single
one. And he says the best news to
the sinner, the best news that a sinner can hear, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone, everyone that believes
on him. everyone that believes. That's
good news, isn't it? I'm a somebody. I mean, I'm a nothing. Don't
misunderstand what I'm saying here, but I'm part of that. Everybody
is my hope. Lord calls me to be an everybody.
That doesn't exclude anyone, does it? Everybody that will,
let him come, take the water of life freely, but you have
to come believing this gospel. That's the only way. This is
the only means of salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ and his
finished work. Well, the other gospels have
one little thing that must be done, not God's gospel. You know
how you've heard me probably use this analogy. A bank, bank
tellers and those that are trained in recognizing counterfeit bills,
they don't study counterfeits. What do they study? They study
the real thing. We've been given the real thing,
haven't we? And as soon as you hear a false gospel, does your
ears not perk up and say, nope, No, that that tastes funny. That's
not the grass of the Lord. That's not the manna from heaven.
That's not the blood of Christ. That's that's tainted with man
with filth. No, we've got to have God's gospel.
Why? It's the power of God unto salvation. It's his power unto
salvation. I got to have his gospel, the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We don't want
to counterfeit. We want the real thing. All these
other counterfeit gospels say do, God's gospel says done. It
is finished. That's what makes our gospel
different than all the others. May God keep us clinging to his
gospel, clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ. May we never find
ourselves in a position where someone says, I marvel that you
are so soon removed from him that called you. Oh Lord, keep
me. Lord, keep us. Keep us loving
this gospel. I hope he keeps us, don't you?