I want to speak to you today
on the subject, the religion of the gospel. And we're going
to turn to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 15. That's 1 Timothy 1.15, and our
subject, the religion of the gospel. Paul says in 1 Timothy
1.15, this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am the chief. Now, in his writings, the Apostle
Paul wrote, we believe, 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament. And in his preaching, the Apostle
shunned not to declare unto the people the whole counsel of God. That's what he said. to declare
unto you the whole counsel of God. He said, I've kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you. In other words, the apostle
could rise eloquently with the doctrine of election, as recorded
in Ephesians chapter 1, in which he said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus, according as
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. In love he
predestinated us unto the adoption of children. The apostle could
rise high, eloquently presenting the great doctrines of redemption
in Christ from the foundation of the world. And in the latter
part of this same book, he could tell a husband to love his wife
and a wife to be in submission and obedience under her husband.
And then he could rebuke the legalist, and he could hold the
line on salvation by grace alone. He said, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. With his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, he could rebuke the
legalist. He could say if any man preached
any other gospel, And the gospel that I preached unto you, let
him be accursed." And then in the same book, he could say to
the servant to do a good day's work and be obedient to his master. And then tell the master to treat
his servants and his workmen fairly and pay them a good salary
and a good wage. And then the apostle Paul could
preach the good news of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15, he said,
I declare unto you the gospel. by which you are saved, if you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures,
and then turn around and exhort believers to be kind one to another,
and tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave us." The whole counsel of God. His was a balanced
ministry. He talked about the things that
happened before the foundation of the world in God's eternal
counsel, in God's eternal purpose. He talks about the things that
goes on within the Christian's heart and within his life and
in his home and in the church. He had a balanced ministry. I
have not shown to declare unto you the whole counsel of God,
keeping back nothing that was profitable unto you. And in his
writings and in his preaching, Paul did not seek the praise
of men. He said, if I please men, I'm
not the servant of Christ. Nor did he seek the possessions
of men. He said, I know how to abound,
and I know how to be abased. And I've learned in whatsoever
state I am therewith to be content. He didn't seek their praise,
nor their possessions, nor their popularity. Whether he was preaching
in Caesar's palace or on the streets of Corinth, his message
was the testimony of God Almighty. But like every true messenger
of God, every true minister of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul
majored on two points. There were two points that he
constantly, constantly preached, that he insisted upon, that he
declared every time he rose to preach. And those two points
are these. He constantly set forth the redemptive
work of Christ. And he constantly thanked God
for his grace and mercy to him personally. He said, Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. He talked about the redemptive
work of Christ, to save sinners of whom I am the chief. He said,
I thank God that he put me in the ministry. I thank God that
he saw fit to redeem me. I was a blasphemer, injurious,
a persecutor, but I obtained mercy. For Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I do believe,
my friend, that you can recognize You can recognize a true messenger
of Christ by this twofold theme. I believe every true messenger
of Christ will come declaring this twofold theme, the redemptive
work of Christ and the grace of God to him personally. As
Richard Baxter once said, I preach as one that may never preach
again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. And the Apostle Paul clearly
defines this twofold theme. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." He was preaching
at that time to the ancient city of Corinth, the capital of learning,
the capital of philosophy and oratory and all of these things,
these arguments between human wisdom and logic and things of
this nature. And he said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you save Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Jesus Christ. And he said to them again, Christ
sent me not to baptize or to organize or to promote, but to
preach the gospel. That's my thing. Woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. And then he talked about the
grace of God to him personally. He said, I am what I am by the
grace of God. Though I am not one whit behind
the chief apostle, but I be nothing. And then he said to those people
at Corinth, who maketh thee the different? What do you have that
you did not receive? And he keeps calling attention
to the fact that we obtained mercy. We don't deserve it. We're
not worthy of it. We have not earned it. But it's
the gift of God. It's the gift of God, the unspeakable
gift of God. The wages of sin is death. That
we've earned. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I once was lost, but now
I'm found. And by God's grace, I'm heaven
bound. And my only plea, My only hope
and only plea is that when Christ died, he died for me. The songwriter
said, in my hands no price I bring. Sent through the cross of Jesus
Christ, I cling. Could my tears forever flow?
Could my zeal no respite know? These for sin could never atone.
Christ was saved and Christ alone. Charles Wesley wrote these words,
and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
Died he for me, who him to death pursued amazing love? How can
it be that thou, my God, should die for me? And then the old
hymn writer said, Depths of mercy, depths of mercy, can there be
mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear,
and me the chief of sinners spare? So I say this is a two-fold message
of every true minister of Jesus Christ, the two-fold topic. He
preaches as a dying man to dying men the unsearchable riches of
God's grace in Jesus Christ. He preaches as one who may never
preach again, who doesn't deserve to preach again. But he preaches
as one who is what he is by the grace of God. That's the twofold
thing. The mercy of God in Christ Jesus
and the mercy of God to the chief of sinners. Now there's a lot
of religion today. There's much religion today.
Nearly everybody today is religious to some extent. I suppose there
are more religious TV programs on the air now than in the history
of the world. I suppose there are more religious
radio programs on the air today than ever in the history of the
world. And much good is done in the name of religion, and
much evil is done in the name of religion. Even Iran and Ireland
and other nations are killing in the name of religion, spreading
hate in the name of religion. And men today in the name of
religion worship idols, and they abuse their bodies, and they
compete with one another for glory in the name of religion. But there is a true religion.
There is a true religion. Amid all of the false religion,
there is a true religion. It's the religion of the gospel.
It's the religion of Jesus Christ. And it's as much a mystery as
it ever has been. The Bible talks about the mystery
of the gospel. Our Lord said, broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many, many there be that go in
thereat. Narrow is the road that leads
to life, and few there be that find it. Have you found the religion
of the gospel? Have you found this twofold message,
this ministry that Paul declared, this is a faithful saying, it's
a true saying, it's as true as the promise of God, it's as certain
as the oath and counsel of God. It's worthy of acceptation by
all men that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
That's his redemptive work, to save sinners. And he saves sinners
just like you and me. Saves sinners of whom I am the
chief. Now I want to point out to you seven things about the
religion of the gospel. And I think these are very important.
I think it would be about wise for you to jot them down that
you might remember them. seven facts about the religion
of the gospel. Now let me give them to you briefly.
First of all, the religion of the gospel, this message that
Paul is preaching, this message that I'm trying to preach and
want very much to preach, this gospel of Jesus Christ, the religion
of the gospel, arises out of a right knowledge of God and
of ourselves, a right knowledge of God and ourselves. David said,
when I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the sun,
the moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained and appointed,
for it is man that thou art mindful of him." David had the right
understanding of God's glory, God's majesty, God's sovereignty,
and God's power, and he had the right understanding of himself.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, eternal life is to know thee. the living
God, not to know about God or there is a God, but to know God.
Christ said to the Pharisees, you neither know me nor my Father. And this religion of the gospel
begins with a right understanding of the glory of God. Our Lord
taught us to pray, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Holy and reverend is his name. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. extolling
the attributes and the greatness of God is the beginning of prayer. It's the beginning of worship.
It's the beginning of any kind of understanding of what salvation
is, who God is, and what I am. And you find this throughout
the Bible. You'll find Isaiah declaring, when Uzziah died,
when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. How did he see the Lord? He saw
the Lord high and lifted up, mighty. and his glory filled
the temple. And the cherubims and seraphims
cried, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. And then he said,
I cried, woe is me. When a man sees God in his greatness,
he sees himself in his weakness. When a man sees God in his holiness,
he sees himself in his sinfulness. When a man sees God in his majesty
and power, he sees himself in his inability and corruption.
And Isaiah cried, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Job saw the
Lord, put his hand over his mouth, and he said, I've spoken once,
twice, things too wonderful for me. I'll never speak again. I've
heard of you, Lord, by the hearing of the ear, but now, man, I see
it thee and I hate myself. I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth
and ashes. John saw the Lord on the Isle
of Patmos and he said he fell at his feet as a dead man. And
the publican in the temple had some understanding of the holiness
of God, because he wouldn't even go down to the front of the temple.
He wouldn't even approach the altar. He stood, the scripture
said, afar off. And he wouldn't lift so much
as his eyes to heaven, let alone his hands. And he smote upon
his breast, for he knew that was the source of his trouble,
his sinful heart. And he cried out with bowed head,
O God, Lord, be merciful to me. the center. So I'm saying that
this religion of the gospel does not produce or promote a strange
familiarity with God like we have in this day, when men so
flippantly and carelessly talk about God being their next-door
neighbor and their co-pilot and business partner and things like
this, you know. These Old Testament saints were
said to be men who feared the Lord, who feared the Lord. who
were awed at his presence, who were filled with reverence for
his presence. They understood something of
the holiness of God, of the majesty and power and glory of God, and
they understood something of themselves in their sinfulness. They remembered the pit from
which they were hewn, the rock from which they were hewn. They
didn't forget that. They remembered their state of evil. from which
God delivered him by his grace. And you'll get a hold of that
to some extent if you ever come to know the living God. And then
the religion of the gospel arises from a sense of the great things
that God has done for fallen men. Salvations of the Lord.
That's the theme of the Bible. Salvations of the Lord. Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jonah said, salvations
of the Lord. David wrote again and again,
the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. God didn't pass
us by. He could have. He passed by the
angels that fell. Yes, they're reserved in everlasting
chains of darkness unto the day of judgment. God passed them
by. He took not on himself the nature of angels, but he took
upon himself the seed of Abraham. When Adam and Eve fell and they
were crouched and hiding in the bushes trying to cover their
sins and nakedness with fig leaf aprons. God came walking in the
cool of the day down that path, and he could have walked right
on by and condemned man and all of his children to eternal condemnation,
but he stopped and showed mercy. Yes, sir, God chose to save a
people and to make them sons from all eternity. The apostle
Paul wrote, We're bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Not only did he not pass us by,
not only did he determine to have a people and gave them to
his son, but he made Christ their surety. He made Christ our representative. And in the fullness of time,
he sent his son, his beloved son, his only begotten son, into
this world. Christ took upon himself our
nature, the likeness of sinful flesh, was made of a woman, made
under the law, and met the holy law of God and obeyed it in every
jot and tittle that we might have that righteousness that
God requires, that righteousness that God demands, that righteousness
with which God is satisfied, the righteousness of Christ.
And in our Lord Jesus, Christ was buried and rose again. He
died on the cross, was buried and rose again, and even now,
He intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Paul said, Who is
he that condemned? Christ died. Yea, rather, is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. But he didn't stop there. He
sent his Holy Spirit to convince us of sin. He sent his Holy Spirit
to convict us of our inability to reveal Christ to our hearts
and to give us repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He called us by His grace. He
called us by His Spirit. Oh, the religion of Jesus Christ
of the Gospel arises from a sense of the great things that God
has done for fallen men. And then the religion of the
Gospel produces a well-grounded hope of our interest in God's
mercy and grace. Paul said, He hath given us a
good hope, a good hope. I like that word hope. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him. And he
that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure. But what is this hope? If you
listen to those men who wrote the scriptures taught, you'll
find that they speak of a blessed hope as being more than a wish
and more than a desire, but is a hope based on the Word of God,
a hope based on the promise of God. Abraham believed God that
he was able to do all that he promised. That's our hope. Our
hope is in the Word of God and in the person of Christ. Listen
to David. The Lord is my shepherd. That's
more than a wish or desire. That's a blessed hope that's
based upon expectation. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. Listen to Job, I know that my Redeemer lives. Listen
to Paul, thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to John, we know that
we pass from death unto life because we love the brethren.
Listen to Jude, he said he is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before his presence with exceeding
glory. That's assurance. That's a hope,
a blessed hope that's built upon expectation. And then in the
fourth place, the religion of the gospel produces a principle
of love to Christ and to one another. It produces this. We
love him because he first loved us. Our Lord sat down with the
apostle Peter across the fire in that early morning hour, and
he said to him, he said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said,
Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. Three times he asked him.
The third time Peter said, Lord, you know all things. You know
I love you. And I'm telling you this, the
religion of the gospel produces a strong, sincere love for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And not only for Christ, but
for other believers and even for unbelievers. If any man love
not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. But the scripture
also says, by this shall all men know you are my disciples,
if you love one another. And he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And if any man loveth not, he knoweth not God, for God is love. This religion of the gospel produces
a genuine, sincere, benevolent, brotherly love for all men, chiefly
for Christ. He said, if any man loved father,
mother, brother, sister, husband, wife more than me, he's not fit
to be my disciple. Christ is first. And then in
the fifth place, the religion of the gospel consists of a total
surrender, a total surrender of ourselves to the Lord Jesus
Christ, a complete commitment. That's right. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded he's able to keep that
which I have committed, committed unto him. Now this thing of salvation,
I want you to listen to me. It's a whole lot more than giving
mental agreement to some facts stated by a preacher. It's a
whole lot more than signing your name on a dotted line with some
sort of decision that you send in to a church or denomination.
It's a whole lot more than having water either sprinkled on your
brow or being put beneath water. It's a whole lot more than attending
a sacrament or a Eucharist, or a communion table. This thing
of salvation is a commitment to Christ, a surrender to the
Savior. Our Lord has no unwilling disciple.
He has no secret followers. He has no part-time soldiers.
He said, He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is
not fit for the kingdom of God. That's right. God Almighty does
not demand just my time, talent, and tie. He demands myself. That's what the scripture says.
Job says, though he slay me, I'll trust him. Committed. Surrendered. Absolute, unconditional surrender
to the Lord Jesus Christ. True union with Christ involves
a surrender of myself and my will to the Son of God. Christ
is first. He'll be Lord of all, or he won't
be Lord at all. And the sixth place, the religion
of the gospel. makes the goodness and grace
of God to us. God's goodness and grace to me
will be the motive and model of my conduct toward you. That's
what we're saying, that the goodness and grace of God to me will be
the model and the motive of my conduct toward you. Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. Everything
God commands us to do is based toward other people, is based
upon what he's done for us. He says, be ye kind, one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving, as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. He says, be ye merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.
He says, to forgive people their trespasses, as your heavenly
Father forgives your trespasses. You see, that's the motive and
model of our conduct and conversation and behavior toward other people
is God's mercy and grace to us. One of my friends said recently,
there's no way, there's no way that you can claim any promise
of God unless you, to some degree, fit the character described in
the promise. There's no way that you can claim
a promise of God, a promise written in the Bible, unless you can,
to some extent, to some degree, fit the character described in
that promise. For example, ye are my friends,
Christ said, if you do what I command you. I command you to love one
another. Now, you're my friends if you
do what I command you. Listen to this promise, you're
my disciples. That's good news, isn't it, if you love one another.
Listen to this, you are of the household of Christ if you hold
fast the profession of your faith firm unto the end. You see, every
promise of God, all things work together for good. You hear that
quoted all the time. But there's a character described,
there's a condition there. to them who love God, who are
called according to His purpose. All things do not work together
for good to all men, only to those who love Christ and who
are called according to His purpose. That's what Scripture says. And
you can't lay claim to any promise in the Word of God if you don't
to some degree fit the character described in that promise. But
the religion of the gospel makes the goodness of God to me the
motive of my behavior toward you. And then last of all, The
religion of the gospel presses upon me in three goals. Three
goals. I know they're unattainable,
that is, imperfection in this life. But the seed is planted
and the bud is there and the bloom begins to develop. And
these three goals, the goal of every believer, is total commitment
to Christ. Total commitment. My life, my
love, I give to thee, thy son of God, who died for me. That's
what every believer wants. He wants a total commitment to
Christ, of everything he is and everything he has. And then secondly,
total communion with Christ. He wants to walk with Christ
and talk with Christ. He wants Christ to fill his very
being, his heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then total
conformity to Christ. He wants to be just like the
Lord. David said, I'll be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.