I'm going to be speaking to you
this morning from the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse
9. If you care to, take your Bible
and turn to that passage of Scripture. I'm not only going to refer to
1 Thessalonians 2, 9, but the Lord willing, we're going back
to verse 1 and pick up several of those verses and some things
that Paul says. before he gets to this text.
But here's the text, 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 9. For you remember,
brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because
we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto
you the gospel of God. Now, that's the phrase that caught
my attention and motivated this message and suggested the subject,
we preach unto you the gospel of God. Blessed is the man who
can make this statement, I preach to you the gospel. I kept back
nothing profitable unto you. I have not shunned to declare
unto you the whole counsel of God. I preached to you the gospel. I determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I preach the
gospel which you have received and wherein you stand and by
which you are saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto
you. Blessed, blessed is the church
and blessed is the preacher who can say to the community to which
they minister, we preach the gospel to you. We've been faithful
to your souls. We've been true to our God. We
have preached the gospel unto you. Now, go back to verse 1.
Paul says, first of all, in verse 1, we do not preach the gospel
in vain. Blessed is the man who can make
this statement, I have preached the gospel of God unto you. I have preached the gospel of
God. Not a denominational gospel, but the gospel of God. Because
the man who can say that can also say this, we didn't preach
the gospel in vain. That is, he's saying when the
gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, it will not
be preached in vain, any more than Christ died in vain, any
more than Christ intercedes in vain. Because the gospel, if
it's preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, will accomplish
that which God purpose for it to accomplish. That's right. In Isaiah 55, verse 11, Isaiah
wrote, But my word shall not return unto me void, it shall
prosper, it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. So we don't preach
the gospel in vain. We may preach a lot of other
things in vain. They may accomplish nothing.
But when God speaks, in the power of His Spirit when He sends a
messenger, and that messenger delivers God's message. It's
delivered. And it's going to accomplish
that which God Almighty purposed to accomplish. It's going to
reach the ear He sent it to reach. It's going to reach the heart
He sent it to reach. It's going to save the soul He
sent it to save. Paul said we've got something
for everybody. Over in 2 Corinthians 2, verse
14 and 15, he said, we're the savor, the sweet smell, the sweet
aroma of life unto life and death unto death, to some life, to
some death, to some comfort, to some adding to their condemnation. But we don't preach in vain.
Not if we preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. If God sent
us and we've come to this hour, And this congregation has been
raised up by his providence. And this preacher is in his will
and delivering his word. It won't be in vain. It won't
be in vain. And then Paul says in verse 2,
we preach the gospel boldly. Boldly. We suffered, he said,
many things. We've been shamefully treated.
We've had much contention and much conflict, but we still boldly. preach the Word of God. Now,
if we were preaching our message, we would do it like some folks
do, very timidly and in a shy manner and rather hesitatingly
and reserved, but not God's message. We deliver God's message boldly
because this is God's gospel, and we don't need to hold back.
We just tell men the truth. Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith
the Lord." That's the reason we preach the gospel boldly.
And then we look at verse 3, and he says, we do not preach
the gospel to deceive. Now, every man who preaches ought
to examine his motive, and ought to examine his motive frequently,
examine his message and his motive frequently, lest we deceive ourselves
and deceive our hearers. Now, my motive when I preach
the gospel, it better be for the glory of God, or God's not
in it. Whatever we do in word or deed,
whether we eat or drink, we do it for the glory of God, to accomplish
God's purpose, to bring glory to His name. And then our one
object, not only is the glory of God, but the object or goal
of our ministry is the eternal happiness of the people. It's
not our happiness or our advantage or to gain possessions or to
win friends, but it's the eternal happiness of that person. Sometimes
we have to rebuke and reprove and exhort and hurt and wound
and kill pride in these things. But our goal is your eternal
happiness. We've got to tell you the truth,
the truth about yourself. And sometimes it's hard to take
it. And the truth about God, and the truth about the Word
of God, and the truth about Christ, and the truth about salvation.
And human flesh, human nature, human wisdom doesn't take to
this. The natural man will not receive
the things of God. The natural mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So the preacher must be forceful
and plain and bold, and he must examine his motive. And then
our message is the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Paul said,
I speak the truth, my conscience bearing witness. God is my witness. I could wish myself a curse from
Christ for my brethren according to the flesh. I want them to
be saved. And then in verse 4, he said, this gospel is a most
sacred trust. Listen to him. He said, we were
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. I tell you,
the man who hears the gospel has an awesome responsibility.
You may not be paying much attention to me this morning, but I'm telling
you this, you've got an awesome responsibility laid in your lap.
I'm preaching to you the gospel. I'm telling you about Christ.
I'm telling you what God says in his word. And you've got a
terrible responsibility. You're going to be held accountable
for what you heard and what you could have heard and what you
wouldn't hear. That's right. So it's an awesome
responsibility on your part. But think how fearful this responsibility
is on my part. Woe is unto me. If I don't preach
the gospel, I know many men who devote their television programs
to music and entertainment and trying to get money and giving
away pictures and records and albums and books and all of these
things and trying to build great organizations. But I'm telling
you this, woe is unto me if I don't preach the gospel. I must take
every moment and every opportunity to deal with eternity-bound souls. I'm preaching as a dying man
to dying men. I'm preaching as one who may
never preach again. I've got to handle this responsibility. God has trusted me with His gospel. Shall I fail the Lord? Shall
I spend this time talking about insignificant, unimportant things? When men's souls are at stake,
people are listening who may be dead tomorrow. We've got to,
we've got to, this is a sacred trust and we've got to handle
it as such. And then look at verse 5 and 6, and he says, we're
not going to preach the gospel with flattering words and to
conceal a greedy, covetous nature and motive and desire. We don't
preach as pleasing men. Now, we're pleased when men believe
us. Nothing pleases me more than to hear from one of you saying,
The message was a blessing, and you believe it, and you've embraced
Christ, and God has saved your soul and brought you to love
the Redeemer. That pleases me. But that's not why we're preaching.
We're preaching to please God, I hope. I believe that's our
motive, to tell the truth. I'm delighted. Paul was delighted
when men were pleased and when they rejoiced in the message,
but that wasn't his object or his motive. It was to please
God. And then he said, not as a cloak
of covetousness. Now I'm telling you this, men
who use the ministry and who use the pastorate and who use
the platform of evangelism to indulge their fleshly ambitions
to amass for themselves great wealth and to live luxuriously
are an abomination to God Almighty. and they betray the trust of
the people to whom they claim to be ministering. God's men
are to live by the gospel. The church is not to be in the
business world. And I know we're discussing this
thing about taxing churches, but I'll tell you this. Any church
that's in any kind of business other than preaching the gospel
ought to be taxed. Any church that's in any kind
of business, any preacher that's in any kind of business other
than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and worshiping the
Lord God It's in competition with businessmen, renting houses,
selling, buying, ought to be taxed, and that as heavily as
anybody else. They're not doing God's business,
and it's not called God's business, and it's not glorifying to God.
It's nothing but a flattering words to cover a malicious, covetous,
greedy motive to take advantage of men and women. And then Paul
says, not for personal glory for men. Preachers of the gospel
are worthy of honor and respect. Some of them have sure lost it.
But a man who preaches the gospel to you is worthy of your respect.
He's worthy of double honor. But he's not seeking it. He's
not demanding it. He's not looking for it. He knows
his honor comes from God. And if he honors God and he honors
the cross, God will honor him. And then look at verse 7 and
8. He says, we preach the gospel in a gentle, affectionate manner. Two words we all ought to learn,
and that's the word gentle and the word affectionate. And Paul,
we're not, we're not, we're wielding the sword of God, but let's,
let's wield it carefully and gently and affectionately and
not cut men uselessly and needlessly and not batter and bruise the
saints of God. You know, he says we preach the
gospel as gently as a mother nourishes and cherisheth her
child. And affectionately, he said, I preach the gospel to
you because I love you. I love you so much. He said,
I'd lay down my life for you. I'd give my life, not only preach
the gospel to you, but I'd give my life for you. That's the way
to preach the gospel. And then he said, here's the
heart of the whole matter. And he gets down to verse 9. And he said,
when he summed it all up, he says, you don't owe me anything.
And I don't want to be chargeable to any man. But one thing I can
say. I've preached the gospel to you.
I've preached the gospel to you. Well, what is this gospel that
Paul preached to them? And I've talked about the gospel
in this message. I've said a lot about the gospel,
but I haven't preached the gospel yet. And this is what I fear
is going on on the average program and the average church and the
average pulpit and revival meeting and so forth. Men are talking
about the gospel, but they're not really preaching the gospel.
What is this gospel? But I'll tell you this, it's
not a plan. Now, God planned it, and a plan
led to the giving of it. But the gospel is not a plan,
it's a person. It's not a plan. I heard people
say there are four steps in the gospel, repent, believe, confess,
and be baptized. Well, you could do all those
things and still be a stranger to the gospel. Not any of those
things are the gospel. The gospel is not four steps
to anything. It's not a plan. It's a person.
It's a person. I'm going to show you that in
a moment. And then the gospel is not a proposition. Some preacher
spends his whole time trying to get people to do something
for God. He hasn't preached any gospel. The gospel is not this,
do, and live. The gospel is a declaration of
a work already done by a person, not you. The gospel's got nothing
to do with what you do. The gospel has to do with what
Christ did, not what you do. You're not the gospel. Christ
is the gospel. You don't fulfill the gospel.
You don't execute the gospel. You don't make the gospel complete. You just receive it. You believe
it, but it's something outside of yourself. It's something Christ
did. The gospel is. It's not this do and live. It's
a transaction already accomplished. He has done the great transactions
done. I am my Lord's and he is mine.
There's very little gospel preaching going on. The gospel is not a
reformation of outward character and conduct. Oh, I know when
men hear the gospel and believe the gospel, their conduct is
changed and their conversation is changed and their attitudes
and manners are changed. And the gospel changes them,
but that change is not the gospel. The gospel effects that change
and brings about that change and influences that change. But
that man can change and turn over a new leaf and reform his
life and not even know the gospel and not even believe it. So I'm
going to give you three or four things now, and you listen carefully
to them. What is this gospel? I preached
the gospel to you. Well, first of all, the gospel
is good news. It's a declaration, a proclamation
of good news. The angels came down and appeared
to the shepherds and they said, we bring you glad tidings of
great joy. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, Christ the Lord. The gospel is
an announcement, good news, of something God has done, something
Christ has accomplished, something Christ has fulfilled. It's not
a proposition or a plan or a reformation or an invitation, it's a declaration. of what Christ did. The gospel
says to the guilty, you're pardoned. You're pardoned. That's the announcement. That's the good news. The gospel
says to the blind, look and live. The gospel says to the lame,
take up your bed and walk. The gospel says to the bankrupt,
your debts are all paid. The gospel says to the dead,
Lazarus, come forth. The gospel says to the captive,
You're free. To the prisoner, your debt is
paid. To the hungry, the table is spread. To the thirsty, come and drink. To the orphan, you're a son. To the poor, all things are yours. To the lonely, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. So that's
the first thing about the gospel. It's good news. Now secondly,
the gospel is the good news of a person Now, if you read the
book of Romans, actually now, the book of Romans is a better
presentation of the gospel than either Matthew, Mark, Luke, or
John. I know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are called the
gospel according to Matthew, and the gospel according to Mark,
and the gospel according to Luke. But those writers gave the life
story of Christ, and the words of Christ, and the work of Christ,
and these things. But Paul, in Romans, presents
to us the gospel of God. Sums it all up in the book of
Romans. That's where he starts out the book of Romans. Luke
1, verse 1, Paul, a bond slave, of Jesus Christ, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he promised before in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This gospel is concerning
a person. That's the reason Paul said,
I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's the reason he said we
preach Christ and Him crucified. Christ is the gospel. The gospel
has to do with a person. It's concerning a person. It's
not concerning what you do with Him or what you give to Him. It's concerning who He is. and
what he did and why he did it and where he is now and what
he accomplished by what he did. The gospel is an announcement
of what Christ has already done. Somebody said one time, the gospel
is summed up in two words, substitution and satisfaction. Christ took
our place, bore our sins and paid our debt and satisfied God's
justice and honored God's law. That's true. But I believe the
gospel as a whole can be summed up in one word, and that word's
Christ. Christ is all. Christ is all. That's what Paul said in Colossians
3, 11. Christ is all. Now, there was a time when there
was no world. There was a time when there were
no men on this earth. There was a time when there was
no sea or sand or earth or trees or flowers. There was a time
when there was no angel. Well, if Christ is all, where
was he then? Well, listen to the Scripture.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. That's Christ. The Word is Christ.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And our Lord
prayed once. He said, Father, glorify me with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Well, there's
a time when the world was created, and God made the earth. The dry
land appeared. He said, let there be light.
He made the trees, and the robin sang, and the fish swam, and
the birds flew, and the sun was shining, and the stars were twinkling. There was night and day, and
then he made man. Well, if Christ is all, where was he then? Well,
it says, and all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made. And in Colossians 1, verse
15, it says, He is the image of God and the brightness of
His glory, and by Him were all things made that were made in
heaven, earth, under the earth, visible, invisible, principalities,
powers, and by Him all things consist. Christ is all in creation,
in eternity, in creation. It was a time when darkness came
into this world and death by sin. Man failed, man rebelled
against God. Oh, the darkness and depression
and disease and death that descended on this earth. What a terrible
hour. If Christ is all, where was he
then? He was the only ray of light in a dark world. He was the only light to a dead
sinner. He was the only hope. to a hopeless
race, for in that hour God spoke and said to Adam and Eve, the
woman's seed will bruise the serpent's heel." This terrible
mess that you've gotten yourselves into, this terrible consequence
that's come upon you because of your sin shall be lifted by
the woman's seed. That was the announcement. Christ
was everything in that hour. And then there was a time 4,000
years later when all the types must be fulfilled in the prophecies.
But religion was in a state of utter superstition and idolatry
and ceremonialism and legalism. Men didn't know God. And the
temple of God had become a den of thieves. If Christ is all,
where was He then? In the manger, the virgin son,
behold, The Lord himself shall give you a sign, a virgin shall
be with child, and I shall call his name Immanuel, God with us.
In the temple, fulfilling the law. In the Jordan, fulfilling
all righteousness. On the cross, paying our sin
debt. In the tomb, our scapegoat. Risen, our justifier. Seated
at the right hand of God, our intercessor. That's where he
is. He's everything. There's coming a day when this
world will be dissolved with a great fire, a burning heat.
He said heaven and earth shall pass away and death shall come
upon all. If Christ is all, where will
he be then? Well, I'll tell you this, he's
the resurrection and the life and the dead shall be raised
at his voice and he's the judge who sits upon the throne, for
the Scripture says we shall all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ. And John 5, 22 says the Father
judges no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son. And
there'll come a day when there's a new heaven and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness, and righteousness shall cover
the earth as waters cover the sea. And all men on this earth
shall know God and love God and worship God forever. There should
be perfect peace and happiness and joy. There'll be no more
tears, no more sorrow, no more death, no more crying for the
former things that passed away. And God himself shall be our
God and dwell with us. Well, if Christ is all, where
will he be then? Well, the scripture says, God
hath given him a name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue shall confess
that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father in heaven, in
earth, and under the earth, that in all things he might have the
preeminence. My friends, the gospel is good
news, and the gospel is concerning a person from eternity to eternity,
and all in between. He's the Alpha and Omega. He's
the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last.
He's the author and the finisher of our faith. It's Christ. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Christ who is the resurrection and the life. Christ
who is the only mediator. You've got to know him. I know
to some people Christ is nothing. And to some people he's something
but not much. And to some people he's much
but not everything. But to those who know and seen
his glory. You know what salvation is? Real
salvation is not church membership or getting religion or reforming.
Salvation, real salvation, is the ability of a man to see.
and to love the glory, the redemptive glory of Jesus Christ. He that
seeth the Son and believeth on him hath everlasting life. This
gospel is good news of a person and that person's work. Well,
now, what was the work of Christ? The work of Christ consists in
many things, everything. Everything's the work of Christ.
It's manyfold, but it's principally threefold. There's a work of
Christ to the Father, for the sinner, and in the sinner. Now, you need to think about
those three things. First of all, the work of Christ was toward
the Father. Christ didn't die as an example
for you. His life and death certainly
is an example, but that's not why He died. He didn't die as
a martyr. He didn't die as a frustrated reformer. Christ died as a sin
offering, as a sacrifice. He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. You see, the wages of sin is
death. And those wages are upon me and you. And we've got to
die unless somebody dies in our place. That's what the law says.
That's what the justice of God says. That's what the righteousness
of God says. That's what the eternal court
of God's immutable, unchangeable justice declares. So Christ came
down here and died that I might not have to. He justified God. He enabled God to be just and
merciful. His work was toward the Father,
and it was for the sinner. He died in our stead and in our
place. And then His work is in the sinner.
When Christ comes in to dwell, He said, I and my Father will
take up our boat in you. And Christ comes in to dwell
and brings with Him peace and rest and joy and assurance and
confidence. Look to Christ and have the peace
of Christ.