I've jotted down something on
the back of my notes. This is the house of the Lord.
This is God's house. Not that God dwells in houses
made with hands, but this is where his family meets. This
is where his children gather. So would it not be considered
the house of God? Christ said that one time, my
house shall be called a house of prayer. And then secondly,
this is thy people, these are the Lord's people. He has called
them and gathered them together from the east, the west, the
north, and the south, brought them together in faith, in love, in grace. This is the Lord's Word. Brother
Bob stood here a moment ago and read to us God's Word, and that's
what I'll be doing in my message, reading God's Word. And I had to say amen when he read
that, and they received it as the Word of God, not the Word
of men. It's the Word of God. That's
what it is. This is His Word. And I'm His servant. He called
me to preach. Sent me to preach the gospel.
And we're gathered here tonight in the name of His Son. We don't
come in any other name. We're met here together to exalt
Him and glorify Him and talk about Him. his person and work. So why should he not bless us? That's my conclusion. Why should
we not expect his presence? He said where even two or three
are met in my name, I'll be in their midst. So that's my prayer
that as we and as I try to preach now, that
the Lord will not leave us to our own understanding, to ourselves,
but he'll be pleased to speak through his servant to
our hearts. My message tonight is on the
subject, the gospel is a sacred trust. I'm going to do a lot
of emptying of my own heart, soul, and feelings on this subject
in this message. The gospel is a sacred trust. It's not a job, it's not a vocation. This business of preaching, it's
a calling, a divine calling. And we have committed to our
trust A treasure, God calls it. A treasure. Oh, it's in earthen
vessels, but it's a treasure. And it is a sacred trust. Now,
I asked three questions by way of introducing the message. Here
are the three questions. One, question number one is,
what gospel are we talking about? What gospel do we preach? If
someone were to ask you, what is the gospel? What is the gospel? Most of you, I'm sure, could
define it. But let's look at Romans 1 and look at Paul's definition
of the gospel here. In Romans 1, this is the gospel
that we preach. This is the gospel we're talking
about tonight that is a sacred trust. Paul, first of all, says
in Romans 1, verse 1, it's the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. He purposed
it. He planned it. He executed it. It pleased God to bruise him.
He applies it. He sustains it. He perfects it. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. It's God's gospel. Not the Baptist
gospel. It's God's gospel. And then secondly,
he says it's the gospel of the Old Testament, not just the New.
It's the gospel from the beginning. Verse 2 said, it's the gospel
which he promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. This is Abraham's gospel. This
is the gospel of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is Moses' gospel. Moses wrote of it. Christ said,
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. So it's
the ancient gospel. It's the everlasting gospel.
There's only one gospel. I read this morning talking about
the mercy of the Lord that endureth forever. That word endureth is
supplied by the translators. It's the mercy of the Lord forever.
Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
There was a gospel before there was a sinner. There was a gospel
before there was a world. There was a surety and a Savior
before God made men. He's the Lamb slain. So it's
the ancient gospel. Oh, and thirdly, verse 3 says
it's concerning His Son. The gospel is concerning His
Son. The gospel is not concerning
you or anything you do. The gospel is not concerning
men at all. It's concerning His Son. Everything
about the gospel has to do with the person and work of Christ. His deity. He's God. He was with
the Father from the beginning. He's the creator. He became a
man. He fulfilled all the scriptures,
the types, the pictures. He obeyed the law perfectly on
this earth. He loved God with all his heart,
mind, soul, and strength, and his neighbors himself. He worked
out a perfect righteousness. He did it. You didn't do it.
I didn't do it. He did it. He did it. He went to the cross
bearing our sins in his body on the tree and paid the debt.
He was buried. He arose as our justifier. He
ascended to the right hand of God where he enters in within
the veil as our representative and forerunner and servitor and
guarantor. And he's our advocate. He's our
only mediator. He's our intercessor. He will
come again and receive us to Himself. He'll raise our bodies. He'll make them like His glorious
body. What has the gospel got to do
with you at all? Or what you do or what I do?
The gospel is concerning His Son. And what's this next line? Our Lord. Our Lord is His Son. The Lord said to my Lord, I am
a father of one." His son, this gospel is concerning Jesus Christ,
our Lord, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared
to be the Son of God. He wasn't made the Son of God.
He is the Son of God. He has always been the Son of
God. He was made of the seed of David. He was a body God prepared
for him. But he who inhabited that body
is from everlasting. His goings forth are from everlasting. See that? And declared to be the Son of
God with power. According to the Spirit of holiness
and God's revelation of His acceptance of this person and His work is
when He raised Him from the dead. by the resurrection from the
dead, and received him, and said, Come up and sit on my right hand,
or I'll make thine enemies thy footstool." So, this is what
concerns me so much today, is people talk about they're preaching
the gospel, they're taking the gospel to all the world, and
I listen to their preaching intently. I don't hear any gospel. I hear
them talking about what they're doing, I hear them talking about
what they're singing. I hear them talking about how
much they're giving. I hear them talking about buildings they're
building. Organizations, churches, going into other countries. But
the gospel hasn't got anything to do with those things. The
gospel is concerning one person. From eternity to eternity. His
person, His work, Himself, His righteousness, His blood, His
grace, His mercy, the hope we have in Him. And a lot of people
are preaching about the gospel. They're not preaching the gospel.
They're preaching about Jesus Christ, but they're not preaching
Jesus Christ. That's our gospel. And it's a
gospel, look at verse 16 in Romans 1. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It's the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, of course. Came unto his own, his own received
him not. And also to the Greek, for therein,
in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed, and only in
that gospel, without which no man will see the Lord. That righteousness
of God is revealed in that gospel from faith to faith, from one
degree of faith to another. He's still revealing to us the
righteousness of Christ in this gospel. Every time you hear it
preached, you learn a little more about that gospel, about
that righteousness. A little bit more. A little bit
more. Line upon line, precept upon
precept, here a little, there a little. from faith to faith,
because the just live by faith. And also in that gospel, verse
18, is the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. And this is the gospel of your
salvation. And that's the gospel we're talking
about. Now, here's my second question. Why do we preach the gospel?
Why do we preach the gospel? I've thought about that quite
a bit. Why? I've been doing this for a long
time and quite often. Why do we preach the gospel?
And I came up with about five reasons. There are hundreds,
I'm sure, of reasons why we preach the gospel. But to me, these
are the five fundamental reasons. We preach the gospel because
our master commanded us to. That's enough, isn't it? Why
are you doing that? Because my daddy told me to.
That's the reason. My father told me to preach the
gospel. That's why I'm preaching it.
Somebody said, well, if I believed what you believed, I wouldn't
preach. That hadn't got anything to do
with it. He told us to preach. He said, you go into all the
world and preach the gospel. And I'm going to do it. The Lord
willing. That's reason enough. But secondly,
I know this. This gospel glorifies God. This is the gospel of His glory. This gospel glorifies God. Moses asked the Lord. in Exodus 33, he says, Lord,
and God talked to Moses as a man does to his friend, and Moses,
the scripture said God revealed his ways to Moses, his acts to
the children of Israel. Moses is just not, like Brother
Scott said one time, he didn't come into town on the back of
a pickup truck. Moses is a special servant. And Moses asked God, after all
these miracles in Egypt and mighty works, he says, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your greater glory. And
God said, I will cause my goodness to pass before you. I will be
merciful to whom I will be merciful, and I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious." So God showing mercy to sinners, grace to the
guilty, and saving folks like you and me is his greater glory. That's right. That's what he
told Moses. And when our Lord Jesus Christ was going to that
cross, he said, Father, glorify me. that I may glorify thee."
When he laid down his life for sinners, for the ungodly, for
enemies, for sinners, paid their debt, reconciled them to God,
and the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, took them hold of the
glory, that is his greater glory. So when we preach the precious
work of Christ, we are glorifying God. I ask you, The Lord said
he's a shepherd. He's the good shepherd, the great
shepherd, the chief shepherd. When is the shepherd most glorified? Now you just think, when is he
most glorified? Well, he took the sheep over
here, he found a wonderful pasture of blooming clover. That's when he's glorified most,
feeding his sheep. Or one of the sheep strayed away
here and he brought him back into the fold. I'll tell you
when he's most glorified. It's one of them's lost. He leaves
the 99, goes out into the wilderness, out into the rain and the storm
and the briars and the suffering and finds his lost sheep, because
he loves him, and picks him up. puts him on his shoulder and
fights his way back and brings him home. That's when he said
that. That's when he's most glorified.
His goodness, his grace, his mercy to the lost. When is the
father, the father of the prodigal son, when is he most glorified?
When is he, he reached the pinnacle of the most, when everybody looks
at him with admiration. When everybody looks at the father
of the prodigal with admiration and with praise and with gladness
of heart, huh, William? I'll tell you, William, when
he saw that dirty, ragged rabble of a son coming home, and he
stood there in the window and he saw him, he'd been looking
for him for a long time, been waiting for him to come home,
and he saw him. That boy that had taken his money
and spent it and wasted it and threw it away, embarrassed him,
saw him coming, and he went running out the door and ran up the hill
and grabbed that boy and kissed him. Kissed him. And that boy said, Father, I'm
not fit to be called a son. Just make me a servant. Oh, you're
my son. You're my son. When you left,
you're my son. You've done it. You're my son.
You came home. And he said, bring the best robe and ring and shoes
and put them on him. And he kissed him. Took him down
to the house. Restored him. That's when the
Father most glorified. Now you preach that, and you'll
glorify God. But you preach this commercial
religion, that God will do this if you do that. And we'll exchange. Boy, if you'll come home now
and straighten up and make a few amends and make some restitution,
I might think about in two years letting you be a son again. You
can have that kind of gospel. Because that don't glorify nobody.
But when he shows his mercy to the miserable, without reward, without merit,
without anything in return, that's the gospel of glory. That's why
I preach it. It glorifies God thirdly. I'll
tell you why I preach it. Because it's by the preaching
of the gospel that men believe. God has turned to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Isn't that what this says? 1
Corinthians chapter 1, he says in verse 21, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, "...for
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believed." Now, a fellow told Brother Bill
Clark in a letter that the days of what Brother Mahan doing and
what you're doing are over. The day it's right. He wrote
a letter, a long letter, and said, Those days are over, those
days of preaching. He said this is a day of sharing.
This is a day when everybody gets together. And they all express
their opinions and they share with one another and they come
up with something. But let me tell you, the day of preaching
is not over. It hasn't even changed. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
men aren't saved. Not generally. In councils and
in bull sessions and yarn swapping and argument and debates, men
are saved, women are saved, boys and girls will be redeemed when
God brings them by His Spirit to hear a faithful minister preach
the gospel. That's just so. It never has
changed and never will. Noah was a preacher, and that
goes a long ways back. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
David was a preacher. Solomon said, I was a king, but
the preacher was a king. He didn't say the king was a
preacher. That's backwards. He said, my first calling is
to preach. You know what he said? The preacher
was king of Israel. That's what I did on the side,
was rule the roost. But my main business was preaching
the gospel. Our Lord, the scripture said,
was a preacher. He came preaching. Preaching. And this generation
may relegate preaching to the scrapheap, but when they do,
they'll relegate the gospel to the scrapheap and their opportunities
of being saved to the scrapheap. That's the only way men are going
to be saved is the gospel. God decreed that. Then the third
and fourth reason why we preach is by preaching, the people of
God gain assurance. They elect about the Christ.
and the elect are taught. He said to his disciples, go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples, baptize
them and teach them. The pastors are called pastor-teachers. Pastor-teachers. God has prophets,
God has apostles, God has missionaries, He's got pastor-teachers. That's
right together isn't it Cecil? The same thing. And that's the
way God teaches his people, by the preaching of the pastor.
Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
And then, fifthly, the reason why I preach the gospel, it's
the only comfort for those who are dying. There's no other comfort. The gospel is the only... David,
when he came to die, He took comfort and consolation in the
fact God had made with him a covenant. And every one of us are going
to have this experience sooner or later. Some of us sooner. And we're going to lie up on
a bed and we're going to understand that we're not going to get up,
that we're going to leave here. What's going to give you any
comfort? Tell me. I just know one thing,
and that is He loved me and gave Himself for me, put away my sins,
reconciled me to God, and I'm accepted in Him. And when I leave
here, by His grace, through His blood, I'm going to be with Him.
Now, the third question is how do we preach the gospel, and
that's where I'm going to 1 Timothy, 1 Thessalonians, what Brother
Bob read a moment ago. How do we preach the gospel?
How we preach it has everything to do with God blessing it, and
men preaching it, men hearing it. How we preach it. It has
a lot, it has everything. This has so much to do with God
blessing it. How we preach it. I'll give it
to you just in almost bare outline. Verse 1 says, Yourselves, brethren,
know our influence unto you, it was not in vain." We don't
preach the gospel in vain. We preach it expecting God to
bless it. That's what I said while ago.
This is His house. These are His people. This is His Word.
It's His Son we've come to glorify. It's His gospel we're preaching.
We expect Him to believe. He said, Christ, my elect, my
servant, shall not fail. He said about his word, my word
will not return unto me void. He said about his sheep, other
sheep I have, them I will call and they shall hear my voice.
He said about his preachers, thanks be unto God who always
makes us triumph in Christ. He said about his work, I pray
not for the world, I pray for them that has given me. for all
thine are mine, and mine are thine, and I'm glorified in them."
We don't preach the gospel in vain. I'm here tonight for a
purpose. You're here tonight for a purpose.
And that purpose will be accomplished. Secondly, verse 2, we're bold
in our preaching. He says in verse 2, but even
after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated,
as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God. Bold to preach
the gospel. Although there's much contention.
Much contention. Shamefully entreated. But we're
bold to speak unto you the gospel of God, even though there is
much contention. Turn with me to Acts 20. When
I saw that word contention, I thought about some words that Paul spoke
over here in Acts 20. Verse 23 and 24. He had so many enemies, so many
people resented the gospel which Paul preached. He said in verse
22 of Acts 20, And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. save
or accept that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city saying
that bonds and afflictions await me, wait for me, bonds and afflictions,
persecution, harassment. But listen, none of these things
move me. None of these things move me.
Contention, opposition, neither can I my life dear unto myself. so that I might finish my course
that God laid out for me, I'll finish it with joy and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify of the
gospel of the grace of God." These things don't move me, he
said. I'm bold to preach the gospel of Christ. We're content and comfortable
with our gospel. Think about these things. We're
content and comfortable with our gospel. Not a shade of doubt
about it. Just so comfortable with our
gospel. So content with this gospel of
God, of grace, of glory. Don't you love it? Don't you
feel good with the gospel? I do. None of these things move
me because I'm content with my gospel. Secondly, I'm content
with my call. I didn't take this office unto
myself. God put me in the ministry. Literally,
actually, put me in the ministry. There's so many things, so many
things in my upbringing and where I was and what I was in, false
religion, that are contrary to the gospel. Yet God took me up,
put me here. I'm content with my call. He put me in the ministry. And
I'm content with where He put me. Content with my place. Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever
state I am to be content. I'm not looking for another place.
I'm content with the place He put you. Are you content with
where He put you? Doing what you do? A servant
is. A servant is a master servant.
A servant doesn't pick his place. To serve God, he serves where
God puts him, and he's content. I asked Brother Gruber one time,
I said, are you happy down here in Mexico? He said, happiness
doesn't have anything to do with it, I'm where God put me. And therefore I'm content. Happy,
I don't know whether I'm happy or not, but I'm content. I'm
content with my gospel, content with the fact he called me, I
didn't. volunteer for this. I'm content
with the place he put me, and I'm sure happy with the results.
Because it's in his hands. Let me show you a scripture in
Jeremiah 45. The results. In Jeremiah 45, this is so interesting
here. You'll get a blessing out of
this, look at it with me. Whatever he does, it's the Lord. Let him do what he will. Jeremiah 45, verse 3, "...Thou
didst say, Woe is me now. The Lord hath added grief to
my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and
found no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him,
The Lord said thus, Behold, that which I have built will I break
down." That which I've planted, I'll pluck up, if I please. Even
this whole land. Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Lasting things, monuments, names on your monuments, buildings,
organizations, you seek great things for yourself? Seek them
not. For behold, I'll bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord,
but thy life will I give unto thee, for I pray in all places
whither thou goest. If I'm pleased, what I build
up, I'll break down. What I've planted, I'll pluck
up. That's all in my hands. And we're bold in our preaching
because we're content with our gospel. We're content with the fact God
called us. We're content with the place
He put us, be it small or great. And we're content with the results.
If He continues it, praise God. If He doesn't, praise God. We're
content. That's right. It's in His hands.
Those things are in His hands. Not in ours. We don't leave any
legacy. They're all in His hands. And
we're content to labor as a servant. Oh, look at another word here
in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 4. I want to get to this especially. As we were allowed of God, as
God enabled us to be put in trust with this gospel, even so we
speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. The gospel is a sacred trust. We were allowed of God, called
of God, appointed of God, set apart by God to put you and I
to be put in trust with this gospel. God put this gospel in
this pulpit, in this congregation. He entrusted us. Where's the
word trust? You know, Paul, let me show you
something. Paul mentions that several times in 1 Timothy. 1
Timothy 1, 11 and 12. 1 Timothy 1, verse 11. Listen.
According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust. And I thank Jesus Christ, our
Lord, who hath enabled me, he counted me faithful, putting
me in the ministry and giving me the gospel as a sacred trust. Would I dare compromise it? Would
I dare trim it? Would I dare seek to improve
on it? Would I dare seek to change it? Would I neglect it? Would I preach
something else? Look at 1 Timothy 4. Let's just
stay with Timothy. He's talking to Timothy, a young
preacher. 1 Timothy 4, verse 13. Listen to this. Now Timothy,
till I come, give attention to reading 1 Timothy 4, 13, to exhortation
to doctrine. Now neglect not the gift that's
in thee which was given unto thee by prophecy with the laying
on of the hands of the presbytery. Now, you meditate upon these
things. Give yourself wholly unto them. That thy profiting may appear
to all in all things. Take heed to yourself and unto
your doctrine. Continue in it, in them. For in so doing, you'll save
yourselves and those that hear you. What an awesome, awesome
responsibility. committed to our trust in this
gospel. And we give ourselves wholly
to it. Wholly to it. And stay so in
this gospel. And in so doing, our souls will
be saved and the people that hear us will be saved. Now, let
me show you one more. 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6, verse
20. Oh, Timothy. Oh, my son Timothy, my son, my
son Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust. What is that? The gospel. I say to some fellows in the ministry that haven't
done this, gone off on this tangent, gone off on that tangent, gone
off on this project, that project, deny particular redemption, deny
some of the cardinal truths and fundamentals, oh my soul, keep
that which is committed to your trust and avoid profane, worldly,
carnal, natural, vain, babblings, oppositions of science, Don't
worry about what science says, falsely so-called. Science is
not a very good name for theories. Science, you would think, is
something that's true, a science, but this is falsely so-called,
which some professing have erred concerning the faith. We're careful to protect. If
someone leaves their car with me, I don't know. My son, Danny,
has borrowed my car and left his truck with me. I wanted to
go back to him. I saw something tonight on television. I know how people love their
trucks. You fellas that got trucks. I thought about all of you. This
thing on TV says, women will forsake you, bosses will fire
you, and friends will forget you, but a truck's forever. And he leaves that truck with
me, and I'll take it down, have it washed and waxed. I want to
give it back to him. Better shape than he gave it
to me, because I know he loves his truck. If you were to leave
your little girls with me and with Doss, oh, when you came
back, I'd want them to be happy like when you left them and well-fed
and wasted. Wouldn't you just do everything
in your power to, whatever you leave, I tell you, if you left
your dog with me, I wouldn't want him to get killed,
would you? But listen, God's given me the
gospel of His dear Son, His glory, the glory of His name, His character. Man, I'm not going to... Pleasing men? We were allowed
of God, verse 4, to be put in trust with the gospel, even so
we speak, not as pleasing men, but God. God have mercy on a preacher
that will compromise the gospel to please men, but he won't. He won't have mercy on him. In that next verse, neither at
any time did we use flattering words as you know is a cloak
of covetousness. Isn't that awful? Catering is dishonest. Catering
to men Using God. These preachers on television,
oh, that's terrible. Terrible. Neither of men sought
we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others. We might have
been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but let me give you
this, and I'll close. Verse 7 and 8. How do we preach
the gospel? There are two words here. Verse
7 and 8. Gentle and affectionately. I hope I've learned something
about that firmly, boldly, truthfully, but gently. We were gentle among you as a
nurse cherishes her children, as a mother nurses her baby.
That's what they say, as a mother nurses her baby, as she's feeding
that baby gently. That's how we ought to preach
the gospel. And affectionately, being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to impart, to have imparted unto
you, not just this gospel, but our very own souls. You were
so dear to us. So dear. So dear. I want to give you one
verse here, 2 Timothy 2. He said something else to Timothy
along this line. Preach it in a gentle fashion and if you
don't love the people you're ministering to, the Lord won't
use you to minister to them. In 2 Timothy 2, I'll give you
this and then we'll close. 2 Timothy 2 verse Verse 24, And
the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all, apt to teach, and patient in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves. They're not opposing you, they're
opposing themselves. They're hurting themselves. If
God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil who's taken captive by him at his will. How do we
preach the gospel? We don't preach it in vain. We
preach it boldly. We preach it as one who has been
trusted with a sacred trust, not compromising or changing
it. And we preach it to men as gentle as we can, affectionately,
praying that God would use it to turn them to Christ.