The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans
1, verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is
the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. I'm a debtor both to the weak and to the strong, both
to the barbarian and to the free. I'm ready, he said, to preach
this gospel to you that are in Rome also, because I'm not ashamed
of it. My friends, I thank God that
we have a gospel to preach, don't you? Guilty sinners are not without
hope. Guilty sinners are not without
mercy. Guilty sinners are not without forgiveness. Guilty sinners
are not without pardon. Because God has determined to
save. God has purposed to save. The
gospel is called the gospel of God. It's not man's gospel, it's
God's gospel. It originated with God. He purposed
it, he planned it. God delights to show mercy. God
Almighty delights to show mercy. He delights to reach out to the
guilty in love and mercy and forgiveness. Paul said he was
separated to the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. And not only
that, but it's the gospel of free grace. We are justified
freely by his grace through the blood of his Son. So it's a free
gospel. It's not only God's gospel, but
it's a free gospel. Not only that, but there is but
one gospel. Paul wrote in Galatians 1 that
if an angel from heaven preached any other gospel than the gospel
that we have preached, let him be accursed. There is but one
gospel. One gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel of free grace,
and this one gospel is concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. John said this is the record.
that God hath freely given to us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son. He that hath the Son of God hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So
I thank God we have a gospel. What does the word gospel mean?
It means glad tidings. It means good news. It means
a proclamation, not of a work to be done, the proclamation
of a work that has already been done, a complete work, a sufficient
work, an effectual work. The work that's finished, that's
what our Lord said on the cross, it is finished. But remember,
this gospel must be preached. Paul said, Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. Necessity is laid upon me, I
must preach the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. When our Lord sent his disciples
out into the world before he ascended back to the Father,
these were his parting words. You go into all the world, not
just to your nation, not just to your people, but go into all
the world and preach this gospel, the gospel of remission of sin
through his blood, the gospel of repentance toward God in faith
in Jesus Christ, the gospel of mercy and grace through the sacrifice
of God's Son. You go into all this world and
you preach this gospel to every creature, he that believeth and
is baptized, he that believeth what? He that believeth this
gospel. And is baptized shall be saved,
he that believeth not shall be damned. And Paul, writing over
in Romans 10, said, Whosoever, Jew or Gentile, male or female,
old or young, bond or free, black or white, whoever, whosoever,
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how
shall they call on him in whom they have not And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent?" So we have a gospel, but this gospel must be preached,
this gospel must be heard, this gospel must be believed. It must be heard and it must
be believed. Listen to what Paul said in 1
Corinthians 15. That's what I've been talking
about, the gospel of God, the definite article, not a gospel,
the one gospel. I declare unto you this one gospel,
the gospel of God, the gospel of his free grace, the gospel
concerning his Son, which I preached unto you, which also you received,
and wherein you stand, and by which you are saved. Now, the
question comes. Well, preacher, how does one
learn the gospel? How can I learn the gospel? Well,
I'll tell you this first, and this must be stated. This is
the foundation that has to be laid. The gospel is called a
mystery. The gospel is said to be hid
from ages and generations. The gospel is said to be hid
in the sense that men's eyes have been blinded by Satan. The
gospel has been hid in tithes and chattels and pictures and
ceremonies and in Christ. Christ is the gospel, so it must
be revealed. I have not seen, e'er hath not
heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man the things God
has prepared in the gospel. For everything God has prepared
for the sinners is in Christ. Everything God gives to us is
in Christ. So it has not entered the heart
or understanding of man the things God has prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. What man knoweth the things of
a man, save the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. And he to whom
the Spirit of God will reveal it." You see, the natural man
receives not the things of God, they are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them, they are spiritually understood. And
God has to reveal them, so this gospel must be revealed. Our
Lord asked the disciples one day, he said, that is, natural
men, the people of the world, whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? And the Apostle Peter spoke up
and said, Well, some of them say you're John the Baptist,
and some say you're Elijah, and some say you're one of the prophets.
But he said, Whom do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? And
Peter again spoke up and said, Thou art the Christ, the Messiah.
Thou art the Son of the Living God, Thou art that Prophet, Thou
art the One for whom we look, Thou art the Consolation of Israel,
Thou art the Redeemer of which Job spoke, Shepherd of which
David spoke, Substitute of which Isaiah wrote, Thou art that Passover
Lamb. And our Lord said, Blessed are
you, Simon, you are blessed of God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you, but my Father which is in heaven. If my voice is
the only voice you hear, We'll just have us a little logic and
a little natural wisdom and a little human understanding and build
us another religious denomination. You must hear him speak who speaks
from heaven, who speaks through his word, who speaks with convincing,
convicting, and converting power. You've got to hear from God.
God's Spirit speaks. You see, new birth, the regeneration,
the awakening, the quickening is of the Spirit of God. So it
comes by revelation. But now watch this. How does
one learn the gospel? That's what we're talking about.
Well, he learns it at the feet of Christ. He learns it from
the Word of God. He learns it from the Holy Spirit.
But God doesn't work apart from the understanding. I know salvation
is a hard work. Man repenteth with the heart.
Man believeth with the heart. Man receives Christ with the
heart. It's a hard work. Keep thy heart out of it or the
issues of life. This is so. But God doesn't work
apart from the understanding. A man can't believe in his heart
what he doesn't know in his head. Now, that's so. Now, listen to
this scripture in 1 John 5.20. We know that the Son of God hath
come. We know that he hath come. Christ
has come into this world and hath given us an understanding. Now, underscore that word. I
know a lot of religion is emotional. I know a lot of religion is left
up to feeling and excitement and emotion and all of these.
So people holler, believe, believe, believe. And I want to say, well,
believe what? Believe what? Give me something to believe.
They say, just trust the Lord. Yeah, but which Lord? Which Jesus? Which God? Which Spirit? Which
message? Give me something to lay hold
on. Give me something to understand. Give me something to comprehend.
Faith has to have an object. It can't just believe out yonder
in space. And so the Son of God hath come
and given us an understanding, an understanding, listen to the
rest of the verse, that we may know him that is true, that we
are in him, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is a true
God, this is eternal life. Do you see what I'm saying? There
is a gospel, a saving gospel, a power of God unto salvation
gospel. It must be preached. But my friend,
let me tell you something, it must be heard and understood
and believed. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding that we may know him that is true,
not just a name, not just a mythical character, not just a historical
character, but him that is true, and that we are in him that is
true. Now, this is eternal life and this is a true God. So we
know this. The gospel has to be revealed.
The gospel has to be preached from the Word. But the gospel
must be preached with sincerity and simplicity and clarity and
understanding. A man cannot believe what he
does not understand. You can't receive an unrevealed
Christ. So I'm going to take five words
in this message and try to teach the gospel. I want you to listen
to these five words. I believe they'll give you some
understanding. Now, where we begin is in this place here.
We begin where the Bible begins. We begin with God. And the word
is sovereignty. Don't be afraid of that word,
sovereignty. The meaning is right in the word,
R-E-I-G-N, God reigns. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said
when he came to himself. You remember what happened to
him. He boasted about building the great city of Babylon. He
bragged about his accomplishment. And the Lord God said, I'll send
you out in the field and your hair will grow like feathers.
and your fingernails and toenails like bird claws, and you'll eat
grass like an oxen, and you'll stay that way until you realize
that I am the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, verses
34 and 35, said, When my understanding returned to me, I praised the
Most High God, who ruleth, who reigneth in the armies of heaven. and among the inhabitants of
this earth, and giveth it to whom he will." God reigns, that's
what the word sovereign means. He reigns, he's God, he rules. God reigns in creation. He created
all things as it pleased him. God Almighty rules in providence.
He said, I create light, darkness, I create good, evil, I the Lord
do all these things. None can stay in my hand, none
can say unto me, what doest thou? Our God doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth. None can stay his hand, he cannot fail, he is omnipotent,
he is sovereign, he is almighty in all things. But my friend,
I'll tell you this, there's just one place a man will really worship,
and that's at a sovereign throne, a God who reigns and rules, a
God who cannot be frustrated, who cannot be defeated, who cannot
be disappointed. who doeth as he pleases. That's
the only place you'll worship. Men will bargain with an equal,
they'll argue with an equal, they'll quarrel with an equal,
but they only worship, bow down and worship, bow down at the
throne of a God who does what he will, when he will, with whom
he will, for his glory and their good. And I tell you, the only
place a man will find any comfort in the midst of trials and struggles
and tribulation heartache, sickness, death, whatever, there's just
one place you'll find any comfort, and that's at the throne of a
sovereign God. Well, you can say we know that
all things work together for good to them who love God, to
them who are called according to his purpose. Only a sovereign
God can work all things together for good. Only God can do that. And there's just one place a
man will find a true salvation, and that's at the throne of a
sovereign God who is able to save and to keep. who is able
to save to the uttermost, who is able to keep that which we
have committed to him, who is able to present us faultless
before his throne, who is able to raise our bowed bodies and
make them like his own. They asked David, they said,
where is your God? Psalm 115, verses 2 and 3, the
heathen said, where is your God? They knew where their gods were.
Their gods were down at the temple, down at the shrine, down at the
altars, down where they left them. And most people today know
where their gods are. They're down at the building
where they worship. They leave their god in their holy places. They say, David, where's your
god? He said, our god's in the heavens. The heaven of heavens
won't contain him. The earth is his footstool. Our
god's in the heavens. Well, what's he like? Read Psalm
115, verses 2 and 3. David said, this is what he's
like. He does what he pleases. in heaven, earth, and under the
earth. He repeated it in Psalm 135, verse 6. He said, Our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased
in heaven, earth, and under the earth. So that's where you start.
The Bible starts that, in the beginning, God. And that's all
it says. It doesn't prove his existence.
It doesn't argue about his existence. It doesn't give any thought of
his existence not being true. It just says, in the beginning,
God. He does what he pleases. What has it pleased God to do?
Well, if you'll get a concordance and look up that word, pleased,
it pleased the Lord. You'll find in 1 Samuel 12.22,
it pleased God to make you his people. It was no accident. You didn't choose God, he chose
you. And then in Colossians 1.19, it pleased God that in Christ
should all fulness dwell. He bested everything in Christ.
He put everything in Christ. Refuse Christ and you can't know
God. Turn from Christ and you can't
know God. The Son said this, No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal.
You can't know God. You can't be blessed of God,
except everything is in Christ. Colossians 1.19, He pleased God.
Our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.
It's not a question do you have a God, but do you know the living
God? Eternal life is to know the living God, not a God, the
living God. David said, My soul panteth for
thee, the living God. And then over in Isaiah 53.10,
it says, it pleased God to bruise him. That is, Christ's death
was no accident. Men didn't kill the Lord of glory.
They did what their wicked hearts determined to do and their wicked
hands wanted to do, but they did what God determined before
to be done. Read through the Old Testament.
You'll find the place of his birth. You'll find the tribe.
You'll find the family. You'll find the nation. You'll
find how they plucked out his beard, spat in his face, drove
nails in his hands, how Judas sold him for 30 pieces of silver,
came back and cast the money on the floor in the temple, hanged
himself, they bought the potter's field. You'll find how his disciples
betrayed him. You'll find all that, what he
said on the cross, how the soldiers cast lots for his garments at
the foot of the cross. That's all in the Scripture.
Men did it willingly. They did it because they wanted
to do it. They didn't read the Scripture and say, now, is this
what we're supposed to do here? Let's see if we're supposed to cast
lots for his garment or tear it apart and separate. They didn't
know anything about the scripture. God prophesied what they would
do. God knows all men. He knows their hearts. And then
in Galatians 1.15, it says, it pleased God to reveal him. And
then in 1 Corinthians 1.21, it pleased God with the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. So what I'm saying is,
if you want to learn the gospel, you start with a fountain, the
source of the gospel. You start with him who purposed,
designed the gospel, planned the gospel, gave the gospel,
it's his gospel. You start with God's sovereignty.
And then you go secondly to the word S-I-N, sin. Now there's
only one place to learn the reality and the depth and the nature
of sin, and that's to go back to where it started. Where did
sin start? It started in the garden. The
scripture says God created one man, Adam, and all other men
came from him. All of the men and women came
from Adam. He created that first Adam without sin, holy and upright,
the scripture says, but he sought out many inventions. His will
turned against God. And he sinned. I can't explain
that sin. I don't know what happened. I
know that Satan tempted Adam, and Adam said, you'll be like
God. And Adam took the forbidden food,
and God said in his word, in the day you eat, you die. And
Adam died. He didn't die physically. He
lived 800 years or something like that, but he died spiritually.
He became a man of shame and a man of fear and a man of guilt
and a man of hate. He didn't know these things before.
In other words, the Bible teaches sin threefold. It teaches original
sin. That is, that's where it began.
Listen to Romans 5.12. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin. So death, spiritual death, and
disease, and physical death, and all that's associated with
sin. So death passed upon all men for all sin. We sinned in
Adam. That's original sin. That's where
it started. The Bible teaches inherent sin. That is, we not only had imputed
unto us guilt, but imparted unto us guilt. I was shapen in iniquity,
I was conceived in sin, I was brought forth from the womb speaking
lies, because I came from a sinful father." Now, you can't reject
this unless you reject the Word of God, because this is what
scripture teaches. It had them all die. That's what it said.
By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. That's what the scripture teaches.
You can fight it, you can argue it, you can do what you want
to. But the Bible teaches original sin, started with Adam, inherent
sin. It's passed to every son from
his father. We're the seed of our father
and it's a fallen seed. You can't get clear water out
of a corrupt fountain. And then the scripture teaches
thirdly, indwelling sin. That is, sin dwells in all people.
There's nobody out there listening to me without sin. You can pop
off all you want to about being perfect and having the sinful
nature eradicated and getting the Holy Ghost and never sinning,
and you're a liar. That's what scripture says. If
any man say he hath not sinned, he's a liar, and the truth's
not in him. He deceives himself. And not
only is he a liar, but he's making God a liar, because God says
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. God said, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, that's scripture.
You can fight it all you want to, but that's the word of God.
And I call this to your attention. If you're going to buck the truth,
you're bucking God and his word. So why not just receive the truth?
You know it in your heart. You know what you are in your
heart. You live with yourself. You know that sin is a nature.
A lot of people don't understand what sin is. They think that
what they do outwardly and act is sin. Well, it is sin in a
sense, but it's the product of sin. The sin started in the heart.
The sin is in the thought. When the thought is conceived,
when the thought is planned, that's when the action takes
place, but the sin's already started. That's what our Lord
was saying. To hate a person in your heart is to be guilty
already of murder. You may never pull the trigger. You may never
use the sword. You may never take his life,
but you wanted to. And God sees the heart, not just
the outward countenance, but the heart. Sin is a principle.
It's in nature. It's in the imagination. It's
in the motive. It's in the thought. That's where
sin is. And that's where God looks, and
that's where God judges a man. And that's where we've got to
do business with God. These outward acts are but the
product and results of the inward thought. And our sins have separated
us from God. They come between you and your
God. And that's what renders us helpless and hopeless and
unable to fulfill God's law, is our nature, inherent sin,
indwelling sin. Now, that's a problem. So that
brings me to the third word. You've got God, holy, upright,
he won't change. You've got man, sinful, depraved,
fallen, he can't change. What are we going to do? The
law has to be satisfied. The law has to be satisfied.
God Almighty has given his law, it's got to be kept, it's got
to be obeyed. And the justice of God has got
to be honored. God can't clear the guilty. He
will by no means clear the guilty. God can't just put his tongue
in his cheek and say, well, I'll overlook it this time. To be
just and holy, he has to punish sin. He said, the soul that sinned,
it shall surely die. Well, we've got to have, the
third word, a substitute. We've got to have a substitute.
We've got to have a substitute, first of all, that's acceptable
with the Father. And secondly, that's a friend
of man. We've got to have a substitute that the Father will accept.
We've got to have a perfect substitute. We've got to have a holy substitute.
You see, God cannot change. His holy law must be honored.
His justice must be satisfied. So if we're going to have a right
standing before the law, the scripture says if a man sinned
against God, who will stand for him? Well, there's only one who
can. An angel can't, a man can't,
but Christ can. Mary can't, the priest can't,
the preacher can't, but Christ can, because he's the God-man.
And not only must we have a right standing before the law, but
justice has got to be satisfied. The soul that sinneth shall die,
and somebody's got to die for our sins. They must be paid for.
The gates cannot swing open and the captive be set free until
the law and justice has said, I'm through with you. My needs, my demands are exhausted. The debt is satisfied, the ransom
is paid, he's free to go. And the holy law of God and the
holy justice of God is not going to open the gates and set these
captives free. Captives of sin, captives of
the law, guilty the law says, guilty before God. Every mouth
stops. Not going to set us free. Until
the law of God has been honored in every jot and tittle by our
substitute Jesus Christ. Until the justice of God The
last bitter drag in the bottom of the cup of God Almighty's
wrath is going to be drunk and going to be satisfied before
that gate swings open. Thank God Christ did it all.
He paid it all, all the debt I owe. In the fullness of time,
God sent his Son into the world, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them under the law. He was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was wounded
for our transgressions, and by his stripes we are healed. We
see that the word substitutes not in the Bible, but it's the
theme of the Bible. It's the very theme of the Bible,
Christ bearing our sins in his body on the cross. All right,
here's the fourth word. God is sovereign, no question
about it, unchangeably holy, immutably holy, infinitely holy.
Secondly, man's a sinner, unchangeable evil. Thirdly, Christ is the
only substitute. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. All right,
here's the fourth word, satisfaction. Is God satisfied? We have a song,
I Am Satisfied With Jesus. Have you ever heard that song?
Well, I am, I am, but that's not the question. That's not
the question. At the end of that song it says,
the question comes to me, is Christ satisfied with me? That's
not the question either. The question is, is God satisfied
with our substitute? That's the question. Because
we rest in him. We live in him. Our hope's in
him. Our salvation's in him. He's the city of refuge. Now,
when God accepts him, he accepts me and you. When God receives
him, he receives us. When God sits him down on his
right hand as his accepted son, then he sits us down on his right
hand. Is God satisfied? Well, has the law been sufficiently
honored? Has justice been sufficiently
satisfied? Is God reconciled? Has peace
been made? Has pardon been secured? What
proof do we have? Could you give some proof like
that right now? What proof do you have that God is satisfied
with Christ? He raised him from the dead.
He raised him from the dead. Our substitute lived on this
earth and obeyed God's law. He died on that cross under God's
wrath and he was buried. Now the question, if God is satisfied,
if the law is honored, if justice is satisfied, if the debt has
been paid, if everything is secure, God will raise him from the tomb.
And God did. And he went to the right hand
of God and the scripture says, listen to this, this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down. on
the right hand of God, by one offering he hath protected forever
them that are sanctified. We are seated with Christ in
the heavenlies. Now here's the last word, submission. I turn to you. I say this, I
preach a full, free gospel of reconciliation. I say, God in
Christ is reconciled. Now, Paul said, be you reconciled
to God. Believe on Christ. Bow to Christ. Receive Christ. Bow to the Lordship
of Christ. Lay down your arms of rebellion.
Submit to the only substitute and Savior, that's Jesus Christ
the Lord. How does one learn the gospel?