What Is the Gospel?

I want you to open your Bibles
today to the book of Galatians, the first chapter of Galatians.
I'm going to read in a moment verses 6 and 7. Galatians 1,
verses 6 and 7. My subject today is what is the
gospel? What is the gospel? We hear a
lot of talk about the gospel. I'd like to define it for you
from the word of God. What is the gospel? Paul says,
I marvel. that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel, which is not really another gospel, but is a perversion of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that I can truthfully
say three things. I'll be totally, perfectly honest
with you from my heart. I believe I can truthfully say
three things occupy my thoughts more than anything else. More
than anything else. Now, here they are. Here are
three things that I'm more concerned about than anything. The first
is this. I want to know the gospel of
Jesus Christ. More than anything else, I want
to know the gospel. The gospel which Paul calls the
gospel of God, not another gospel, not any gospel, not some, but
the gospel of God. I want to know that gospel. I
want to know the gospel which he calls the gospel of God's
glory. Don't you? I want to know the
gospel which he calls the gospel of God's grace, and the gospel,
he says in Romans 1, that is concerning his son. They're strongly
charged, some people, with not preaching the gospel. He says
they're preaching another gospel. That's right. He says, if he
that cometh to you, 2 Corinthians 11, 3 and 4, if he that cometh
to you preaches another gospel and another spirit and another
Jesus, you might well bear with me. And then he said in Galatians
1, 8 and 9, just a few verses from where we've been reading,
He says, Though we are an angel from heaven, it doesn't matter
who it is, what his credentials are. Though we are an angel from
heaven, preach unto you any other gospel, let him be accursed.
And he repeated it again in verse 9. As I've said before, so say
I again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. And then
he said this, Woe is unto me! if I preach not the gospel. Well,
you can't preach if you don't know it. And it's got to be taught. Everybody doesn't know the gospel.
It has to be taught to us by the Holy Spirit. I want to know
the gospel. If I were you, I would make it
my prayer to God daily. Lord, teach me the gospel. Reveal
unto me the gospel. Don't leave me to myself. There's
a way that seemeth right unto men, but the end is death and
destruction. God says my thoughts are not
your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. I want to know the
gospel. And secondly, I want to believe
the gospel. I want to believe it. Now, in
1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, Brethren, I declared unto you
the gospel, which I preached unto you, and which you have
received, and wherein ye stand, and by which ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye believe in
vain. How are we saved? by hearing, by receiving, by
believing the gospel. It's not by doing, it's not by
deciding, it's by believing the gospel. I'm not ashamed, he said,
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God under
salvation to everyone that believes it, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. And when our Lord had risen from
the tomb and met with his disciples before he ascended to the Father,
he gave them this commission. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel, the gospel, to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. I want to be saved, but I just
don't want religion. There's enough of that in the
world. I don't want to perish in religion. I don't want to
be left to my tradition and my heritage and my customs and my
religious training. Read Philippians the third chapter
sometimes. Read how the Apostle Paul listed
all of his religious training, his religious heritage, his religious
works, his religious zeal, his religious accomplishments. He
listed all those things, his religious morality. And he said,
I count these things, but do that I may win Christ and be
found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness of God, which is
by the faith of Jesus Christ. It's foolish for me, you, or
anybody else to perish defending a doctrine, or a denomination,
or a custom, or a ceremony, or a law, or anything else. Don't
miss Christ resting in a false religion. He said, many shall
say unto me in that day, many. Think about that, many. shall
say unto me in that day, Lord, we preached in your name, and
cast out devils in your name, and did many wonderful works
in your name. And then while I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." Brethren, this is serious. If this doesn't occupy
your thoughts, don't die in the bed of presumption. Don't lie
in the rut of presumption. And let Christ pass you by like
the Pharisee. We're all right. We don't need
a Savior. We don't need a Redeemer. I want to know the gospel. And
I don't only want to know it in my head. I want to believe
it in my heart. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Salvation's not a head work,
although God doesn't work apart from the mind. You know that
and I know that. But salvation's a heart work. With the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. They were pricked in their heart,
convinced in their heart Retentance is a heart work and faith is
a heart work. With a heart, man believes. That's
where the work of redemption takes place. It's not just deciding
some things with your mind and your emotions, but it's God dealing
with you in your heart. And then the third thing. This
occupies my thoughts more than anything else. These three things.
I want to know the gospel. I want to personally believe
the gospel. And thirdly, I'd like to preach the gospel to
you. I'd like for the Spirit of the Living God to so come
upon me and fill me and give me understanding and power and
wisdom so that I can preach to you the gospel. Not just preach
to you, but preach the gospel to you. The judgment of God rests
upon the man who does not preach the gospel. We preach as one
who must give an account. I can't spend my time building
churches and building schools and building Orphanages and building
hospitals and these things and I must preach the gospel These
things will be done if we spend our time preaching the gospel
if we'll tell men about Christ Not about ourselves and our programs
and our great works that we're doing let God take care of these
things Let them stay in the background preach the gospel to people spend
our time proclaiming the good news and The glad tidings of
great joy that Christ died on the cross for sinners. The judgment
of God rests upon the man who does not preach the gospel. Paul
said, let him be a curse. Let him be a curse. And then,
you know, the people we preach to, they can't trust an unknown
Christ. We tell them, believe on Christ. Well, they say, who
is he? Where did he come from? What did he do? Why did he do
it? Where is he now? What does he say? What do we
believe? You say, preacher, believe, believe, believe. Well, tell
me what to believe. Then sometimes telling me what
God says. What do I believe? How shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And I and the world, are they
going to hear anything with the kind of preaching that's going
on today? There's no teaching of the Word of God. It's just
skimming the surface. It's just talking about things
that are totally contrary to the real gospel of Jesus Christ.
If our hope is a good hope, it'll be founded, first of all, on
the Word of God. If our hope is a good hope. You'll
be able to give a man who asks you a reason, if he asks you,
what is your hope, you'll be able to give him a reason, the
Word of God. And then if our hope's a good
hope, it'll rest in Christ. It'll not rest on our experience
or our feelings or our morality. It'll rest in Christ. I know
whom I have believed, Paul said. He didn't spend his time saying,
I know when I believe and I know what I believe. He says, I know
whom I believe. Not in whom. I know whom. I know
him. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I
know who he is. And then if our hope's a good hope, it'll be
felt in the heart. It'll be a genuine experience.
It won't be something that's here today and gone tomorrow.
It won't be something we feel today and is totally contrary
tomorrow. It'll be felt in the soul and
in the heart. Oh, we know our inability and weakness and failures
and imperfections, but we know His perfection and His righteousness. And our hope is seated at the
right hand of God. And if our hope's a good hope,
it'll be manifested in our lives. People will be able to see it.
Recognize it and take note that we've been with Jesus. We'll
be different people. We'll be new creatures in Christ
I want to preach the gospel Yeah, as Zachariah called it the burden
of the Word of God and one great old Puritan said well, I'll tell
you this If if the Word of God is not a burden to the preacher
now, it will be at the judgment. I wish God would burden some
of our television and radio and pulpit preachers today with the
Terrible awesome Responsibility that is ours to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ and not just tell people to believe but tell
them what to believe And tell them why they should believe
and tell them what to expect when they believe teach them
the Word of God Teach them the Word of God. We ought to spend
less time playing church and more time preaching the gospel
We ought to spend less time with our promotions and programs and
more time examining our gospel and examining our hope and examining
our faith. You know, I heard about a preacher
one time that visited one of his deacons. He'd been the pastor
of this church a long, long time, and he visited one of the men
of the church in the hospital. The man was critically ill. He
was dying, and the man knew it, the preacher knew it, the doctor
knew it, everybody knew it. And the pastor visited with him a
little while, when he got up to leave he had prayer and they
shook hands with the man and he just in comedy in passing
he said Brother, he said are you saying? And you know what
the man replied? I am if you told me right preacher
I Am if you told me right a lot rest upon what we tell me and
how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be said now? I'm going to give you a definition
of the gospel which I preach If I preach the gospel of God,
the gospel of God's glory, the gospel of God's grace, it'll
meet five requirements. And if anybody else preaches
it, it'll meet these five requirements. And I'll give them to you. First
of all, the gospel that saves, if it's the gospel that really
saves the sinner, it must, it will, it has to honor God's law. It has to honor God's law. What
do I mean? Well, I mean this God's holiness.
And the moral and spiritual law of God is the very character
of God. God is holy. And God's holy moral law is a
revelation of God's character. And the law reveals not only
God's holiness, but it reveals my sinfulness. As I see his perfect
love, I see the absence of it in myself. As I see his perfect
holiness, I see my imperfection. The more I see of his holiness,
the more I see of my sinfulness. The more I look into the perfect,
holy, moral law of God, the more I see God's holiness. Thou shalt
have no other God before me. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt not bow down to any
grave and image. Thou shalt not have any idols. Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not steal, kill, commit adultery, covet, lie. All of
these things are a revelation of the character of God. And
the holy law of God requires doing. Not just agreeing with
it, but doing it, performing it, not just knowing it, not
just memorizing it. And I know we read it on Sunday
in our congregation. We memorize it. We are for it,
100% for it. But the law of God requires doing. Perfect obedience. And not only
perfect obedience outwardly, but perfect obedience inwardly.
Not only perfect obedience in deed, but perfect obedience in
thought. This is where people are missing.
That's what Christ said. He said, you say you've never
killed anybody, but I say unto you that hate is to be guilty
already of murder. And these thoughts of ours, these
imaginations of ours, the law of God requires perfect obedience. And God can accept nothing less
than perfection. He can demand no more than perfection,
but He can be satisfied with no less. And God can't forgive
you or me at the expense of His holy law. It's got to stand. How good does a man have to be
to go to heaven? He has to be as perfect as God, as good as
God. Two can't walk together except
they be agreed. And God can't receive you and
me in our imperfection without the law being honored. And that's
what I'm saying about the gospel of Christ. He honored God's law. Galatians 4, 4 and 5 says, in
the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a made
under the law, in subjection to the law, under the requirements
of the law, in order that he might redeem those that were
born under the law. By the disobedience of Adam,
we were made sinners. By the obedience of Christ, we
were made righteous. Jesus Christ came down here in
the flesh as a man, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He
was tried, tempted, tested at all points as we are, yet without
sin. And as our perfect representative,
the God-man, he obeyed the law. He honored God's law. And that's
the only way that God can save sinners, is by his law being
honored. In that way, the attribute of
righteousness is satisfied. You see that? So whatever gospel
you preach, if you preach the gospel of baptism, it better
honor God's law. If you preach the gospel of morality
or the gospel of good works or the gospel of church membership,
the only thing I ask you, number one, does it honor God's law? Have you honored God's law? Does
the righteousness you claim honor, perfectly obey, give it its rightful
position, God's holy law? Now, God won't be satisfied with
any less than perfected. You who believe the gospel of
Christ can rest in what he did. He honored God's love. He did
it. You didn't. You can't. You won't.
But he did it as your substitute. All right? Secondly, now listen
to me. This is so. The gospel that you preach, if
it's the gospel of grace, if it's the gospel of God, if it's
the gospel that says it'll honor God's love, secondly, it will
satisfy God's justice. Now God must punish sin. He must, if he's going to save
God. He has to. God will punish sin. God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. If you have a God who will not
punish sin, and you don't know the God of the Bible, he will
punish sin. Listen to what he said. He said,
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Not perhaps, not
maybe, surely die. He says, I will in no wise, under
any circumstances, clear the guilty. I won't do it, God says.
The guilty will be punished. So if our gospel is the gospel
that says somehow it's got to honor God's law and it's got
to satisfy God's justice, God will punish sin. He must punish
sin. He can do no other. Sin has got to be punished. Now,
I say this to you, if we come forth with a gospel that does
not satisfy God's justice, it's not the gospel of God, because
a God who can pardon without justice just might one day condemn
without reason. Think about that. A God who can
set aside his righteousness may one day set aside his mercy.
You can't trust him. If your God can set aside his
justice and set aside his righteousness, he may someday change his mind
and set aside his mercy. A God who can deny his law may
one day deny his gospel. That's right. And a God who can
change his character may someday change his promise. But God is
never unjust in order to be gracious. He does save sinners. He does
forgive sinners, but not until their sins are paid for by the
death of his Son. That's right. God sent forth
his Son into the world. to be a propitiation for our
sins, that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth
on Jesus. God spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who can condemn us? Christ died,
was buried, rose again, is even at the right hand of God, interceding.
That's our hope. He satisfied God's justice. I'm
telling you the truth. All right, thirdly, the gospel
of faith. If it's the gospel of God, it must honor that law.
It must satisfy God's justice, and that's what Christ did. Thirdly,
it has to be free, completely free. Don't you put any strings
on it. If you do, it's powerless to say. When you tag a condition
onto the gospel, when you put a string onto the gospel, you
make it absolutely impossible for any son of Adam to be saved,
because God says in his word, we are without hope, we are without
help, we are without strength. And if there's a payment to be
made, then I have no hope, because I have nothing to pay, and you
don't either. If there's a righteousness to be presented, then I have
no hope, because God says my righteousnesses are filthy rats. That's what it says. And I've
got no hope. You don't either. If you knew
your heart, you'd have to confess it. You'd have no hope either.
But the gospel of Christ declares that salvation is free. Our Lord
said when they had nothing to pay, he freely forgave them. The wages of sin is death. That's
what we earn. That's what we merit. That's
what we deserve. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For God so loved the world
that He gave His Son. He didn't sell Him to you. He
gave Him to you. And whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. The great Augustus Toplady
wrote that hymn, Rock of Ages, In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to the cross of Jesus Christ I cling. Could my tears
forever flow? Could my zeal No respite, no. These, for sin, could not atone. Christ must save you and Christ
alone. That's the gospel. It's free.
It's free. It's free to all men everywhere. Don't bring anything but an empty
hand. Don't bring anything but a need. All the fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requires is
to feel your need. Christ meets the need. Now, don't
you try to buy salvation from God. Don't you try to bargain
with God. Don't you try to offer anything
in return. I hear a lot of people saying, now Lord, if you do this,
I'll do so and so. God doesn't deal with me in that
way. It's free. It's free. Free grace. Free grace. All right? Fourthly, the gospel
of faith, it must honor God's law. It must satisfy God's justice. It's got to be totally free,
without charge. And fourthly, It's got to be
available to any sinner. That's right, to any sinner.
Now, the Word of God plainly declares that Jesus Christ will
have a people out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue unto
heaven. That's right. The Lord Jesus
Christ in glory is going to have a people. You find every tribe,
I don't care in the center of the deepest, darkest jungle,
he's going to have a people. That's what it says in Revelation,
out of every kindred. Every tongue, every nation, every
tribe on this earth. Now that's not possible. It's
not possible if Jesus Christ is only a Jewish Savior. So you
see, your sectarianism won't do here. It won't bring the gospel. And it won't do if he's only
a Catholic Savior. It won't do. And not if he's just a Baptist
Savior. You people who are wrapped up
in your little sectarianism and your landmarkism, you better
back off. Because he's got a people in every tribe, kindred, nation,
and tongue unto heaven. That's what he says. And if he
is a sectarian savior, if he belongs only to the Jew, or to
the Catholic, or to the Protestant, or any other tribe by any other
name, then he's not the savior of sanity. This gospel's got
to be preached to every creature. To every creature. And he that
believeth, salvation's not in your church or mine, it's in
Christ. Salvation is not in your doctrine or mine, it's in Christ.
Salvation is not in your works or mine, it's in Christ. Salvation
is not in your standard or mine, it's in Christ. He's able to
save even a thief on the cross. Can your gospel do that? Huh? Your gospel, it tells a fellow
he has to come to the front and he has to pray through and be
baptized and he has to wait six months before the church will
receive him, he has to fulfill this law and that law, and he
has to be catechized and circumcised and confirmed and ceremonialized. How about that thief on the cross?
Would your gospel save him? Could it help him? You say, well,
I don't think he could make it the way it would. Then it's not
of God. It's not of God. That's not God's gospel you've
got a hold of. That's your gospel, and that's another gospel, and
that won't save a fleet, you or me or anybody else. Because
the gospel of God can save even a thief on the cross who believed,
who couldn't work, who couldn't wash, and who couldn't witness,
and who couldn't walk. He was nailed to a tree, but
he could believe. He could look. He could look.
And Christ said, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends
of the earth. I'm God. There's none else. So
we better study our gospel a little bit and find out if it honors
God's law, and if it satisfies God's justice, and if it's free,
totally free, and if it's available under any circumstances at any
time to any son of Adam in his need. Fifthly, the gospel it
says has got to be eternal. It can't fix me up today and
leave me tomorrow. Now if this gospel that I believe,
if it won't take me all the way to heaven, I don't want It's
of no use. The Israelites who died in the
wilderness might just as well have stayed in Egypt, for all
the good it did them. For a gospel that won't take
you all away, a gospel that won't finally bring me to glory, it's
not worth the time that it'll take to preach it. You tell me
I can be saved today, and a child of God today, and on my way to
heaven today, and next week I'm lost? I'm not a child of God
anymore? I don't want any part of that
gospel. That's not an eternal gospel. My sheep hear my voice,
I know them, they follow me, I give them eternal life and
they shall never perish. Now that's the gospel I want
to hear. That's the hope that I want to hold to. That's the
Christ that I want to believe. I want to believe a Redeemer
who can take me all the way from Egypt to Canaan. Whatever the
trials and the mountains and the valleys and the dark places
and the deep places and the shallow places and the rocky places,
All the way. Trust in Him. Not myself, trust
in Him. All the way. That's the gospel.
It'll honor God's law, satisfy God's justice, it's free, it's
available to any needy sinner, and it's eternal.

What Is the Gospel?

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What Is the Gospel?

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