We're turning this morning for
our message to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm going to read two verses,
verses 1 and 2 of 1 Corinthians 15. Now, here's the subject. I'm asking a question. When is
the gospel the gospel? When is the gospel? We say we
preach the gospel. Everybody says we preach the
gospel. Well, when is The gospel we preach,
actually God's gospel, the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
the gospel, definite article, not a gospel, but the gospel,
which I preached unto you, and which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, by which you are also saved, if you keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain." Now this man, Paul, was confident of one thing. He
knew the gospel. Paul knew the gospel. He would
not be shaken by the legalist who would add man's works and
man's righteousness to the work and righteousness of Christ.
He said, I do not confuse, I do not distort the grace of God.
If righteousness come by the law, then Jesus Christ is dead
in vain. He would not be swayed, he would
not be shaken by the legalists. He knew the gospel. I do not
confuse the gospel, the grace of God. If righteousness come
by works, if righteousness come by the law, Jesus Christ died
in vain. And Paul would not be shaken
by the libertine who would turn the grace of God into a license
to sin. They said, well, let us sin that
grace may abound. Since God saves by grace and
grace alone, since works and man's righteousness makes no
contribution to his salvation, then let sin that grace may abound. This was Paul's answer to those
people. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Paul knew the gospel. He wouldn't
be swayed or shaken either by the legalist or by the libertine.
Nor would he be shaken by those who put a question mark on his
apostleship. He said, I am too an apostle. I'm not one whit behind the chief
apostle. He said, I've seen the Lord.
I've seen the Lord. And the gospel which I preached
was revealed to me by the Lord himself. He said in 1 Corinthians
15, 10, just 10 verses down from where I was reading, he said,
For the grace of God I am what I am. I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. So he would not be shaken by
those who charged him with being a false prophet and not being
an apostle. And then he knew this. He knew
that he did not receive that gospel from men. He said in Galatians
1, verse 11 and 12, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which I preach is not after men. I neither received it of man,
I wasn't taught it by man, I was taught this gospel by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. He knew the gospel, and he knew
that he knew the gospel. He wouldn't be swayed by legalism,
he wouldn't be swayed by licentiousness, he would not be swayed by those
who charged him with being a false prophet. He knew that he received
his gospel by divine revelation and he would not be diverted,
he would not be turned away in any way by what any person said
to him or about him. And then secondly, I know this
about the apostle, he was confident absolutely confident, not only
that he knew the gospel, he was confident that he did preach
the gospel. He called it, my gospel, my gospel. He called it my gospel because
God gave it to him and God called him to preach it and he was saved
by that gospel. And he was obsessed with that
gospel. He said in Romans 1, Paul, a bondservant, a willing,
loving, obedient bondservant of Jesus Christ, called by God
to be an apostle and separated unto the gospel of God. I've
been chosen, he said, I've been appointed, anointed by God, and
I'm separated to one thing, and that's the gospel of God concerning
his Son. In Galatians 1, 9, he said this,
If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which I have
preached, now that's confidence and that's assurance. He said,
I don't care if it's an angel from heaven. If any man preach
any other gospel unto you, then that gospel which I have preached,
let him be accursed. And then in 1 Corinthians 15,
which I shared with you a moment ago, he said to the church at
Corinth, O brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. It's the
gospel which I preached unto you. It's the gospel which you
receive, it's the gospel wherein you stand, it's the gospel which
you believe, it's the gospel by which you are saved. And woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel. And woe is unto you,
might be added, if we preach the gospel and you do not receive
that gospel. Now here are four indisputable
facts. If you listen carefully, I want
you to pull your chair up a little closer now. I want you to listen
very carefully. Here are four indisputable facts. I know this to be so. It cannot
be questioned. It's beyond question. It's beyond
argument. It's beyond debate. Number one,
the gospel, the gospel is the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. It began with God. He purposed
it. He planned it. He executed it. He applied it. He sustains it,
and its ultimate completion will be by his hand. He is Alpha and
Omega. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. No one can question that. Paul
said, I'm separated to the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. It's
not the Baptist gospel or the Catholic gospel or the Jewish
gospel. It's not even the gospel of Abraham.
It's the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. Now, that's
an indisputable fact. Here's the second thing. I want
you to listen to these. There's a word, I'm going to
emphasize one word each time in these four things. It's the
gospel of God. Underscore it. Circle it. It's
the gospel of God. Secondly, it's the gospel of
God's free grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works lest any man should boast. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. So this gospel is not only the
gospel of God, but it's the gospel of grace, grace, grace, free
grace. And if it's of grace, it's not
of works. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. It cannot be both. You've got to take sides either
on the side of works or the side of grace. You cannot have both.
Now here's the third indisputable fact, beyond question. The gospel,
the gospel, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now you underscore
that. It's the gospel of Christ. This
is what Paul said in our text. It's the gospel of Christ concerning
his Son, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
who was buried and rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. The gospel is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It's concerning his person and
his work. That's an indisputable fact.
Christ is the gospel. Then here's the fourth thing.
This gospel, the gospel, I said when I began this, here are four
unquestionable, indisputable facts. You cannot take issue
with them. Not if you know the Word of God.
The gospel is the gospel of God. It's the gospel of grace. It's
the gospel of Christ, and then fourthly, the gospel is the gospel
of the power of God unto salvation. It's a powerful gospel. It's
the gospel which is the dunamis. That's the word in Romans 1 16.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God. It is the power, the dynamite
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, to all nations. Our God has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue unto heaven.
And these things cannot be questioned. I challenge anyone listening
to this program to question any of these four statements. This
is the gospel. These things cannot be disputed.
The gospel is God's gospel. It originated with Him. It's
the gospel of God's free grace. It's the gospel concerning a
person, Christ alone, and it is a powerful gospel. It is a
life-changing gospel. It is an awakening, quickening
gospel. It is a gospel that is the power
of Almighty God Himself. So when is the gospel we preach
the gospel? I'm saying that when the gospel
is preached, you listen for them. You listen for these four things. These four things. It's not only evident, but clearly
defined. When you listen to a man preach,
And you listen with these four things in mind. The gospel is
the gospel of God. It's the gospel of grace. It's
the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel of the power
of God. You listen for these four things, and they will be
evident. They'll be evident in His message. They'll stand out
in His message. And not only will they be evident, but they
will be clearly defined in His message. Clearly defined. So
this is what I'm going to give you now. This is my outline.
I want you to listen to it, and I want you to... Think carefully
on these four things. When is the gospel the gospel? When is the gospel the one and
only gospel? The gospel God honors, the gospel
God blesses, and the gospel God will use for His glory. Well,
first of all, we preach the gospel, as I said before, when God is
given His rightful place. When God, all the way through
the message, from beginning to end, from the reading of the
Scripture, Through the message and the prayer, when God Almighty
is given his rightful place, we're preaching the gospel. When
Moses came down into Egypt and demanded of Pharaoh that he let
God's people go, Pharaoh asked Moses a question. I want you
to listen to it. Pharaoh said to Moses, Who is
the Lord? Who is the Lord? That I should
obey his voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord. I know
not the Lord you speak of, neither will I let Israel go." Now, this
is a good question for you to consider today. We listen to
preachers preach. They say they're preaching God,
they're preaching God, talking about God, using God's name.
Who is the Lord? That's what Pharaoh said. Moses
came into his throne room and said, God said, let the people
go. He said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?
I know not your God. Well, who is our God? Who is
our God? Well, first of all, our God is
eternal. In Psalm 90, verse 2, David said,
talking about the Lord God, Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God. We preach God who is eternal. From everlasting to everlasting
thou art God. And our God is holy. He is just
and He is righteous. All of the prophets talked of
God's infinite, immaculate holiness. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord,
high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. And the cherubims
and seraphims cried, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Our God is not only infinite
and eternal, but our God is not only a spirit, but our God is
just. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He is a righteous and holy God,
and our God is sovereign What do we mean by sovereign? I mean
this. The definition of the word sovereign
is right there in the word. S-O-V-R-E-I-G-E-N. God reigns. God reigns. They said, David, where is your
God? David said, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, earth, in the seas, and in all deep
places. Our God is absolutely sovereign,
almighty. all-powerful in creation, in
providence, and in redemption. Our God is love, and He delights
to show mercy. Moses asked of Him, Lord, show
me Your glory. Show me Your glory. And the Lord
replied, I will cause all my goodness to pass before Thee.
My glory is my goodness. God's chief glory and greatest
glory is His redemptive glory. And He said, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I will be merciful when to whom
I will be merciful." So when is the gospel that we preach
the gospel? You can preach a gospel that's
not the gospel. And when we're preaching the
gospel, we're preaching the gospel that glorifies God. It will bring
God all the glory, glory for all that He has done, all that
He is doing, and all that He will do. To God be the glory. Great things He hath Now, that's
the first mark of gospel preaching. God will be glorified. When we
compromise God's character, when we compromise God's attributes,
when we bring God down from His rightful place of glory, not
cheap glory, all the glory, not some of the glory, all the glory,
He will not share His glory. He is a jealous God, and we must
not share His glory with anyone, anyone. All right, secondly,
when is the gospel? The gospel. We preach the gospel
when man is put in his rightful place. Do you know where God's
place is? The throne. Do you know where
man's place is? The dust. That's right. Man is a fallen, depraved, guilty,
helpless sinner. And the scripture said, at his
best, at his best state, he's altogether vanity. In our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. From the sole of our feet to
the top of our heads, there's no soundness in us, nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying souls. Man is a fallen, wretched,
depraved, guilty creature. And in the flesh, no man can
please God. And even our righteousnesses,
even our goodness, in God's sight are filthy rags. Now that's so.
And we're not preaching the gospel as we shut man's mouth. and render
him unable to offer one alibi or one excuse for his sins unless
we put man in the position where he has no justification but the
mercy of God. Listen to some scriptures, Ephesians
2, 1. And you hath equipped who were dead, dead in trespasses
and sin. My friend, there's no final word
like dead. Dead means without life. Dead
means without hope. Dead means without any, anything
at all, just dead, lifeless. That's what he says we are, by
nature. Romans 5, 12, "...by one man's sin entered this world,
and death by sin, so death, spiritual death, passed upon all men for
all sin." We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3, 19, "...what the law saith, it saith to every one
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped." Every mouth
stopped and all the world becomes guilty. The reason I preach this
so emphatically and so strongly is because no man will ever be
saved. No woman will ever know God in
grace until that individual is firmly convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that by birth, by nature, by choice, by practice,
we are sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He said, I'm not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repent. The angel said to Joseph,
Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. John said, If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
But if we say we have not sinned, well, we make God a liar, and
his word is not in us. The songwriter said, In my hands
no price I bring. Simply to the cross of Christ
I cling. The gospel of Christ is addressed
to sinners. Our Lord came to save sinners,
He came to minister to sinners, and He came to call sinners.
He said, ìCome unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
O every one that thirsteth, come to the waters. Come, let us reason
together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.î So itís perfectly clear,
if I preach the gospel, I preach God in His rightful place, and
I preach in the place that he has chosen, in the place where
he has fallen, in the place where God's grace finds him, inability,
dead in trespasses and sin. All right. Thirdly, when is the
gospel the gospel? The gospel is the gospel when
Christ is given his rightful place. Now, I want to ask you
the question of questions. What think you of Christ? What think you of Christ? Our
Lord asked the disciples that question. He said, whom do men
say that I am? And they gave some answers. They
say you're a prophet or a healer or some great teacher. He said,
but whom do you say that I am? On another occasion, he asked
the religious multitude, what think ye of Christ? Whose son
is he? I ask you, what think ye of Christ?
If you want to, turn the question back this way and ask me what
I think of Christ. And I'll tell you. Number one,
he's God Almighty. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth, born
of Maverick, brought up in the carpenter's shop, lived in Nazareth,
walked the shores of the Galilee, died on the cross, was bared
and rose again. He's none other than God Almighty.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The disciples said to the Lord
Jesus, Christ, show us the Father, and we'll be satisfied. He said,
you've seen me, you've seen God. I and my Father are one. I am
a believer that I am in the Father and the Father in me. God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Let me tell you
something. God is a spirit. You'll never see God except by
one revelation. That's in Christ. When it says
he sat down at the right hand of God, that doesn't mean there's
another human body there. That's speaking of his position.
That's speaking of his authority. That's speaking of his power.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one embodiment of God. In Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is God. Every appearance of God in the
Old Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came down to
this earth, God walked on this earth. When He ascended to glory,
He ascended in a body, in the body of a man, and Jesus Christ
is God. Our God's one God. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. If you see Christ, you see God.
Not only that, He's a man. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Jesus Christ came down to this
earth in human flesh and walked on this earth. Not only that,
what I think of Christ, He's God, He's man, He's the God-man.
And He is our representative. By one man's transgression, many
were made sinners. That's by Adam's transgression,
identification with Adam, representation. Even so, in the same way, by
one man, many were made righteous. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
In Adam I die, in Christ I am made alive. In Christ I am complete. He is my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, and my redemption. Everything I need, everything
the law requires, everything justice demands, everything God
Almighty Himself requires is mine in Jesus Christ. He is my
representative. Not only that, but he is my sacrifice
and sin offering. By one offering, this man, by
one offering, has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Jesus
Christ, our Lord, died on the cross bearing our sins in his
body on the tree, and by that sacrifice all of our sins are
purged, all of our sins are paid for, all of our sins are put
away. They're cast behind the back
of God to be remembered no more. He is a perfect sacrifice. He's
the end of all sacrifices. And when that one final sacrifice
and sin offering is made and presented before the Father in
glory, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. There remaineth
no more consciousness of sin. There remaineth no more guilt
of sin. We are clean in Christ. In Christ there is no sin. And
then in the next place, what I think of Christ, He is my great
high priest. Seeing I have a high priest at
the right hand of God, I can come boldly into the presence
of God. I can come boldly before the
throne of grace, there to find mercy and grace to help in time
of need. He is our high priest. He makes
our prayers holy. He makes our praise holy. He
makes our gifts and sacrifices holy. He makes us holy. Without
Christ, we couldn't even come into the presence of God. Our
communion with God is in Christ. We are accepted in the Beloved.
He is our High Priest and He is our Mediator. There is one
God and one Mediator, not a host of Mediators, only one. Don't
ever pray in anyone else's name but Christ. Don't ever look to
anyone else but Christ. Don't ever rest or trust in anyone
else but Christ. Don't ever rejoice in anyone
but Christ. Have no confidence in the flesh,
only in Christ. I don't care how long ago they
lived, I don't care what office they held. It doesn't matter
what the world thought of them. There is no one who can intercede
for the sinner except Jesus Christ, one Mediator, Jesus Christ. And then He's our Lord. He's
our Lord by decree. God has made Him Lord. God has
given Him a name above every name. That is the name of Jesus
every knee will bow, and that means every angel, every man,
every devil, every demon, every creature. Every creature in heaven,
earth, and hell, every Neobite, every tongue, every being that
has a tongue will confess that he's Lord. He's Lord by decree,
he's Lord by design, and he's Lord by death. He died that he
might be Lord of the dead and the living. And he always has
had, and he has now, and he always will have all authority in heaven
and earth, all power over all flesh. He's our Lord. It's not
will you make Christ your Lord. God's already made him your Lord.
It's when will you bow and confess his Lordship. He's Lord not only
by decree and design and death, but he's Lord by choice. We have
confessed him as our Lord. Now, we preach the gospel in
the last place, when the Holy Spirit is given his rightful
place. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2
that eye hath not seen, the natural eye, ear hath not heard, neither
hath it entered the heart of man. the things that God has
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us, unto the elect, unto the sheep, unto the believer, by
his Spirit. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, the foolishness to him, but he
hath revealed them to us by his Spirit." That's what Christ told
Nicodemus. You must be born again of the Word and of the Spirit.
It's the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Spirit that giveth life.
It's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit. said the Lord. Our Lord declared that the Holy
Spirit would take the things of Christ and show them to us.
The Holy Spirit would not speak of Himself, but He will glorify
Christ. The Holy Spirit regenerates.
The Holy Spirit convicts of sin. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ.
The Holy Spirit teaches believers. The Holy Spirit prays through
us. The Holy Spirit seals us. The Holy Spirit is our earnest
or token of everlasting inheritance. And the Holy Spirit empowers
us Service and to glorify God by filling us with his power
and with his wisdom yes, sir the gospel the gospel is the
gospel of God and The gospel is fleet preached when God is
glorified When God is exalted when God is glorified in everything
that's a and the gospel is not only the gospel of God But it's
the gospel of his grace when man is put where he is and where
he belongs in the dust and made a recipient, not a giver, but
a recipient of God's mercy. And when Christ is given his
rightful place and honored and glorified in all things, and
when the Holy Spirit is not put in front of Christ, but when
the Holy Spirit is given his rightful place as the glorifier
of Christ Jesus and the revealer of Christ Jesus. Now, this message
is on a cassette tape, along with another message I'll bring
next week, a message I'd like for you to hear. So if you want
this message, write to us, send a $2 contribution, and we'll
send you these two messages on tape. Until next week, may God
bless you.