The Gospel of Christ

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 14, 2019

00:00: I appreciate y'all inquiring about that, that was nice.
00:03: We're going to go back to Galatians and we're going to continue on with our rigorous pursuit of theological excellence, that's the goal, alright? We have, what's that? Baby steps.
00:24: Baby steps, that's right.
00:25: Alright, so we're going to look at Galatians 1 and we're going to look today at verses 6-9.
00:36: So I'll give you a second to get there, if you remember this is Paul's letter to the churches at Galatia, this is Paul's rebuke regarding the false teachers that have come in and have tried to add to the gospel, and we've discussed that in the last few weeks so I'm not going to go over that again, but we're really getting into the meat of his argument in just these three verses that we're going to look at today, and that's verses, well four verses, verses 6-9.
01:08: He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
01:20: Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
01:29: But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
01:38: As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
01:53: Let me pray and then I'll get to your question.
01:55: Father thank you for this opportunity to be with these men again, Father I love these men and I know you love these men and I pray Lord that you would open their hearts to the truth, I pray that you would keep me from error, I pray that you would fill us all with your Holy Spirit, me for the purpose of proclamation and them for the purpose of illumination and reception of your word, and Lord God that through it all you might be glorified as we discuss the gospel today.
02:26: What is the gospel of God and paint it on the very cornerstones of our heart, what the gospel is today, in Christ's name, Amen.
02:36: Yes, brother, you had your hand up.
02:38: Do you know the New King James? No, I'm reading from the English Standard Version, the ESV.
02:44: So there's various translations and I know there are and that's one of the, probably one of the more difficult realities of teaching the Bible today is if I get really caught up on a word and I'm talking about that word and you have a different translation and the word's different, it can be a little confusing.
03:02: In our church we have Bibles in the pews for people that are all the same, but we still have people who bring their own Bibles and we have people who have the New King James, the King James, the New American Standard Bible, but our chosen translation for the church is ESV and so that's the one that I preach out of.
03:25: Alright, so what we're going to look at today and the subject of today is this.
03:31: It's either the gospel or it ain't.
03:35: That's the title.
03:37: It's either the gospel or it ain't because that's really Paul's argument in this section and what we're going to do in the beginning is we're going to answer a question and I got to thinking on my way over today that answering this question may take all of our time and that's okay because I do plan to come back next week and we can get on with the outline of the text next week if we need to, but the question we're going to ask and answer today is this.
04:08: Do you understand the gospel? Do you understand the gospel? Actually I used to print t-shirts and I print that on t-shirts, I did.
04:22: Do you understand the gospel? Because many people use the word gospel, they go to gospel churches, they hear the word gospel all the time, but if I ask them, hey do you understand the gospel? They get at a loss for words.
04:44: They get tongue tied.
04:46: They don't really understand what the word gospel means.
04:49: In fact I would say, we also do a booth, we go to the fair every year, we put a booth out, we give out about three or four thousand gospel tracts every year at the Northeast Florida Fair out in Callahan and we have a big sign that we put above our booth.
05:09: Do you understand the gospel? We ask people, do you understand the gospel and very, very rarely unfortunately, even people who have been in church, are they really able to answer that question? So I'm not asking you today to stand up and give me an answer because there's forty of you guys and if each of you took a minute we'd take all of our time.
05:34: So I'm not asking you to answer, but I would ask you to answer in your own mind and in your own heart.
05:40: If you and I were on the street and I walked up to you and I said do you understand the gospel, what would be your response? Because again, I'm not saying it to insult or to challenge you intellectually as a person who might not use the same words that I use and that's the other thing too, not everybody uses the same language, but do we understand the heart of the gospel? And so we're going to look at that word today, we're going to talk about it, we're going to break it down.
06:12: I want, when you leave today, if anybody ever asks you do you understand the gospel, I want you to be able to answer that question yes and then explain it to them, okay? So that's why I said before we even really get, because Paul says this, Paul assumes they know what the gospel is here, if you read this text, he said, I'm astonished you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, turning to a different gospel.
06:36: He's assuming they know the right way because they're turning away from it, he's assuming they've heard the truth and that they know the truth, they're turning away from it.
06:45: I can't assume people know it anymore.
06:47: I've met people who've been in church 40 years, couldn't give me the gospel.
06:54: I'm serious, I'm not lying, there are churches that just do not preach the gospel and let me ask you this, are there different gospels out there today? There were when Paul was there, Paul says you've turned to a different gospel, then he goes on to say there's no such thing as another gospel, we're going to talk about that later what that means, but are there other gospels today? There's the health and wealth gospel, there's the prosperity gospel, there's the full gospel, there's the half gospel, I guess if you've got a full you've got to have a half, you know you've got all these different types of gospels, right? You've got the Pentecostal gospel, the Baptist gospel, the Episcopalian gospel, the Lutheran gospel, are they different, are they the same, are they true, are they false? It's either the gospel or it ain't, that's what Paul's saying, so we've got to know what it is so we know what it's not, that's right.
07:42: So we're going to look at the word gospel, we're going to break it down into its parts, we're going to take it apart, I really hate this board right here because every time I write I feel like half you guys can't see it.
07:51: Get the chairs off.
07:53: The whole thing might, yeah, I think it's load bearing, that would be, that would be bad.
08:02: Alright, we're going to look at some words, I'm going to break these words down, the word gospel, interestingly enough, is the English word for the Greek word that we use, the word evangel.
08:16: Okay, so how many of you have heard the term evangelism? What is evangelism? Spreading the gospel, right? So evangelism is that.
08:26: But actually the Greek word is a combination of two Greek words, actually a Greek root and a prefix.
08:40: The word angel means what? Angel means messenger, okay, but in this sense it simply means message.
08:51: And the prefix e-u in Greek means good.
08:58: How many of you have ever been to a funeral? It's good news.
09:00: Yes, it's good news, that's right.
09:01: Have you ever been to a funeral? What do you give at a funeral? Eulogy.
09:06: Eulogy.
09:06: What does the word eulogy mean? It was a good man.
09:09: It means good.
09:09: He was a good father.
09:10: But it means good word.
09:13: Logos is the Greek word for word, e-u is the prefix, it means good.
09:21: So a eulogy is a good word, a eulogos, a good word, so that's what e-u is a prefix.
09:28: Now, we transliterate that, meaning we take a Greek word and we make it English, like the word baptize.
09:40: Baptize is not an English word, it's a Greek word that we have anglicized or that we have made English.
09:48: Baptizo is the Greek, baptism is the English, but you see how they transliterate, one becomes the other, right? Well, the same way here, we have euangelion is the message or the word angel here, so you have euangelion is the word that becomes evangelism, which means to share the gospel.
10:13: So the gospel is the good message.
10:17: So if I had good news, like if I came up and I said, hey, brother, I have good news for you.
10:23: That would be a evangel.
10:24: It would be a euangelion.
10:26: It would be a good message.
10:28: So we have to draw it down.
10:31: The gospel is the good message of who? Of Christ, right? It is the good, sometimes I like to use the word news.
10:40: You've heard the phrase good news.
10:42: It's the good news of Christ, all right? It's the good news of Christ.
10:49: That is what the gospel is, and you say, well, you haven't told me anything, pastor.
10:54: I know this.
10:55: Okay, that's fine.
10:57: We're breaking this down one step at a time.
11:01: What is good and what is the good news of Christ? That's the question.
11:09: If I say I've got good news for you, like for instance, if I said, brother, I want you to know I paid your fine today.
11:18: That's only good news if you had a fine, right? Exactly.
11:22: If you didn't have a fine, you'd think I was crazy.
11:26: If I went up, I said, hey, I paid your debt, and you said, I didn't have a debt.
11:31: You'd think I was crazy.
11:32: If I paid a debt, you didn't know, right? You'd say, why would you do that, right? This is the problem.
11:38: See, a lot of people go up and people will go up and say, hey, Jesus, Jesus paid your fine or Jesus paid for your sins.
11:45: They don't think that they have any sin or they don't think their sin is really that bad.
11:49: So what does it matter? The good news is predicated on bad news.
11:59: You have to understand the bad news before you understand the good news.
12:04: What is the bad news? You are a wretched sinner who deserves to go to hell.
12:14: Yeah, oh, you, it's going to get worse before it gets better, don't you worry.
12:21: I remember a while back, this guy came to the church, and it just happened to be a night I wasn't teaching, so he came in, and I welcomed him in, and I said, I'll sit with you since I'm not teaching.
12:32: I'll sit back here in the back, and we can sit together.
12:35: It was his choice to sit in the back.
12:36: I didn't put him in the back row.
12:37: He wanted to sit in the back, so I went back and sat with him.
12:40: About halfway through the lesson, he got up to leave.
12:44: Why are you leaving? So I followed him out.
12:45: I said, sir, is everything okay? And he said, yeah, I've got to go, I've got to go, but I've got a question.
12:53: What are you all about here? I said, we're about helping people understand that they are sinners, and that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, and he looked me right in the face, and he said, I'm not a sinner.
13:10: No, I think you are, and he said, no, I mean, he was real serious.
13:15: He said, no, and I am not a sinner, and we went back and forth for a while, and that came down to an argument over semantics, and I don't want to get off the lesson, but ultimately, he was trying to argue that because he believed he was saved, he was no longer a sinner, and there is a sense in which the Bible does not refer to believers as sinners anymore.
13:34: It refers to them as saints, so he was trying to make an argument of, but my point was this.
13:39: I said, even if you're a believer, you're still a sinner.
13:43: You still sin.
13:45: The reformer Martin Luther, he used the phrase simul justus et peccator, which is Latin for simultaneously just and sinner.
13:56: You are simultaneously saved and a sinner, because you're not saved by you, you're saved by Christ, and so the point is, the bad news is simple.
14:09: You have sinned, and here's the worst news.
14:16: You want to know the worst news of all? God is good.
14:24: That's the worst news.
14:26: You want to know why? Because you're not.
14:30: If God is good and holy and righteous and just, and you are sinful and wretched and wicked, how can you be in a relationship with Him? How can He who is holy receive you who are wicked? How can He who cannot look upon sin look upon you if you are sin? That's the bad news.
15:02: You are irreparably damaged by sin.
15:08: You are broken, you are wicked, you are wretched, and I am too.
15:13: That's why I'm not pointing at you like we always do.
15:14: One finger points, three point back, right? It's me and you, right? We're in this together.
15:19: Our first father was Adam.
15:23: By the way, that's why racism is stupid.
15:26: We all got the same daddy, right? Whether you're black, white, doesn't matter.
15:31: We all got the same daddy.
15:32: Go far enough back, we're all holding the same hands of the same ancestor.
15:37: When he broke the law of God, there was only one command.
15:40: Do not eat of the tree.
15:41: When Adam broke the law of God, he plunged himself and all of his progeny, that means his children, into ruin.
15:51: He brought the human race into sin.
15:55: And the Bible says when sin entered the world, death came with it.
16:00: And death spread to all men, because all sinned.
16:07: Every one of us follows the example of our father, Adam.
16:11: And every one of us, every time we sin, we are giving our yes and amen to our father, Adam.
16:19: Because a lot of people say, why should I be responsible for what Adam did? I say, every time you sin, you're saying, yes, Adam, you were right.
16:27: Because I'm doing just what you did.
16:32: We all agree with Adam.
16:35: We all follow his example.
16:38: And we all sin against God, who is holy.
16:44: And here's the real key.
16:47: God is not obligated to do anything to us, except condemn us.
16:58: Because God is a judge who is good.
17:01: Remember I said the most scary thing about God is that He's good? He's a good judge.
17:06: If a wicked man goes before a good judge, what happens to that wicked man? He is condemned.
17:11: If a wicked man goes before a judge and the judge doesn't condemn him, what do you say about the judge? He's also wicked.
17:18: So the good judge judges the wicked man for his wickedness and condemns him to the punishment he deserves.
17:26: People say, I don't understand why hell is so bad.
17:29: Because God is so good.
17:31: Hell is so bad because God does not tolerate sin.
17:40: God does not tolerate sin.
17:42: This is the difference between Christianity and Islam, by the way.
17:47: Islam believes God tolerates sin.
17:51: The Christian God does not tolerate sin.
17:54: The Christian God demands that sin be paid for.
17:59: The God of Islam, Allah, simply forgives sin.
18:04: But if you forgive sin and it has not been paid for, that forgiveness is unjust.
18:15: So these guys that go out during the weekend, they drink their alcohol, do their drugs and all that, but go to church on Sunday and ask for forgiveness and they think they're forgave, really just is blowing smoke.
18:31: Yes, but get a little off the subject that you are correct.
18:38: What you're talking about is someone who misuses or misunderstands the grace of God.
18:43: Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 6.
18:45: He says, shall we continue to sin so that grace will abound? No.
18:49: Let it never be.
18:51: We should never use God's grace as a reason to sin.
18:54: And people who do, don't understand grace and probably don't have it.
18:58: So yes, I would agree with you, but it's a little off the subject, but yes.
19:01: My point is this.
19:03: We have a judge who will judge sin and we are sinners who can't do anything about it.
19:11: We stand condemned on our own.
19:14: We can't do anything.
19:14: Brother, you want to say something? I see your hand back there.
19:16: Go ahead.
19:18: Oh yeah, I'm driving to a point.
19:21: I hope it will all make sense in a minute.
19:23: Because everything I've been trying to say for the last five minutes is how bad news is bad news.
19:28: Right? You have to understand the bad news before you understand the good news.
19:32: If you tell people Jesus died for them and you don't tell them why, it doesn't make any sense.
19:39: If you tell them Jesus took their sin and they don't think their sin is that bad, it doesn't make any sense.
19:43: But when you walk somebody through the law of God and you say, listen, the law of God condemns you.
19:53: Do murderers deserve to be put in jail? Okay, thank you.
19:59: Who said that? Yeah, go a step further.
20:02: Do murderers deserve to be punished? Absolutely.
20:06: Do rapists deserve to be punished? We can go down the line.
20:12: Alright, now let's back up.
20:16: We all give our yes and amen to those who get punished for wicked deeds.
20:21: If you went home today and your mama had been beaten mercilessly and they caught the guy who beat her, you'd want him put in jail or under the jail.
20:31: Yes.
20:32: You'd want him...
20:33: Huh? That's what I'm saying.
20:36: You'd want him...
20:37: You would want justice.
20:39: You might want revenge, but you would certainly want justice.
20:43: Here's my point.
20:46: Walk through the law of God with me and you tell me you don't deserve the wrath of God.
20:53: Start at the very top.
20:54: If we use just the Ten Commandments as a guide to the moral law of God, what's the first commandment? Have no other gods before me.
21:06: Have you ever had an idolatrous thought? Have you ever engaged in idolatry? I bet you have.
21:12: I bet you put things before God.
21:13: I'm not picking you out, but you sort of shook your head.
21:15: You have put things before God.
21:17: We can walk through your life and see whether it was drugs, alcohol, women, whether it was your own vanity, whether it was your own desires.
21:23: You put things before God.
21:25: That's the first commandment.
21:28: Second commandment.
21:29: Do not make any idols.
21:32: You say, what's the difference between the first and the second? The first one is putting another god beside God.
21:37: The second one is taking something and calling it God.
21:40: It's a little different.
21:41: It's a nuanced understanding.
21:43: Because idolatry is taking something like this pen and saying, you are my God.
21:48: What did the Israelites do when Moses went up on the mountain? They made a little calf.
21:57: But what did they say about the calf? They said it was their God.
22:01: This is the God who led you out of Egypt.
22:04: That's the very words.
22:05: This is the God who led you out of Egypt.
22:09: This golden calf that we just made from the earrings that came out of your ears.
22:15: This is the God.
22:17: Why did they think that? Because man is so dreadfully idolatrous.
22:25: We do not want to worship the God who is, so we replace Him with a God of our own creation.
22:31: Most people's idols are in their minds.
22:33: I had a girl one time tell me, she said, well, my goddess wouldn't send anybody to hell.
22:38: And I said, that's true.
22:40: Because your goddess doesn't exist.
22:42: She doesn't have the power to send anybody to hell.
22:43: She's in your mind.
22:44: You made her up.
22:45: You've got an idol.
22:45: She's right here.
22:47: You have an idol sitting between your ears.
22:53: I wasn't trying to be ugly.
22:54: I just told the truth.
22:55: So you've got the first commandment.
22:57: Have no other gods before me.
22:59: You've broken that.
22:59: The second commandment.
23:01: Create an idol.
23:01: Well, I've never carved an idol.
23:02: You put them in your mind.
23:03: You make idols in your mind.
23:04: John Calvin said this.
23:06: He said, the mind of man is a factory of idols.
23:10: We are constantly creating new things to worship.
23:14: Third commandment.
23:15: Take the Lord's name in vain.
23:17: I won't even have to stop.
23:19: We just keep on going.
23:19: You know where you're going.
23:22: Fourth commandment.
23:23: It's the Sabbath day.
23:24: Now we can talk a little bit about how we understand that, but have you always kept what God says to be holy as holy? No.
23:32: Fifth commandment.
23:33: Honor your father and your mother.
23:35: Were you a teenager? We move on.
23:41: Here's the ones that people start feeling real good about themselves.
23:45: You get around number six.
23:46: What's the sixth commandment? Thou shall not commit murder.
23:51: Murder.
23:51: Number six is murder.
23:55: And people say, oh, well, there it is, Pastor.
23:57: I have not committed murder.
23:59: Jesus said, if you've ever hated your brother, you have murdered him in your heart.
24:05: Anybody here never hated anybody? You've never hated? Oh, okay.
24:11: I was going to say that.
24:12: Yes.
24:13: Well, you just said that.
24:14: I don't remember that.
24:16: I can't retain it.
24:17: But, okay.
24:18: I've always been thinking.
24:20: You just said not.
24:22: What did you just say? I said commit murder in your heart.
24:25: Okay.
24:25: If you commit murder in yourself, it's a sin, right? It is a sin.
24:29: You're taking your life away, which God gave it to you, right? Oh, you're talking about killing yourself.
24:34: Yeah, but that's a different.
24:36: Again, I don't want to get too much into that.
24:39: Suicide is a bad thing for sure.
24:42: The question of whether or not somebody can be saved and commit suicide is not something I want to get into right now.
24:46: That's a heavier question.
24:48: I'd be happy to talk to you about it sometime.
24:49: But that would take me way off and spend way too much time.
24:53: But the point I'm making is if you hate someone, you commit murder in your heart.
24:57: You're not murdering yourself.
24:58: You're murdering them in your heart.
25:00: And I don't know about you, but I've hated some folks before.
25:08: So we're at number six, and we're pretty damned right now, right? I mean, if we look at simple condemnation.
25:15: Number seven.
25:18: This is the one I always get men on.
25:20: Adultery.
25:21: Yeah.
25:22: So the law says do not commit adultery, but Jesus said if you've ever looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery.
25:30: You say, well, how do you define lust, Pastor? Mental pornography.
25:34: That's how you define lust.
25:35: Lust is defined as mental pornography.
25:37: You've undressed her.
25:38: You've molested her.
25:40: You have hurt her physically through your sexual desires with your mind.
25:46: That is lust.
25:49: The mind does it.
25:50: This is why Jesus said out of the heart of man.
25:52: That's where the danger is.
25:54: The heart, the mind, it's inside.
25:56: Yes? If you just look at someone and say she's a beautiful person, that's not lust.
26:00: That's not lust, but what did I say it was? It's mental pornography.
26:03: When you look and you lust, you think about your sexual, how much you'd like to do, whatever you'd like to do.
26:10: If you've ever looked at pornography, there's the answer, because you weren't looking at that to read the articles.
26:15: I mean, right? Yes, sir? I just want to ask you this question a few minutes ago.
26:23: Go ahead.
26:24: It's fine.
26:24: How significant is it that Eve and Adam sinned? Hypothetically question.
26:31: What if Eve ate the apple and Adam was like, I'm not having any of that? He did.
26:37: You know what I mean? Again, the practicality of getting into the ifs is a little dangerous.
26:44: I will simply say this.
26:45: Eve was not the head of the human race.
26:48: Adam was.
26:49: Right.
26:49: But we don't have to worry about the if because we know he did.
26:52: Right.
26:52: But Adam was the representative.
26:56: That's why the Bible never says we send an Eve.
27:00: It always says we send an Adam first.
27:01: Basically asking the question, why does it say that? Adam is the representative.
27:05: Someone never told Eve not to eat the apple.
27:08: Well, Adam did.
27:10: But even then, the point is, Adam was the representative.
27:14: How much Eve understood, we don't know, but we know Adam knew.
27:17: And he wasn't supposed to.
27:20: All right, we got through seven commandments.
27:21: Let's do number eight.
27:23: What's number eight? Don't steal.
27:26: You guys don't know.
27:27: One day I'm just going to come teach you how to memorize the Ten Commandments.
27:31: You should know that.
27:32: The Ten Commandments is a good thing to remember.
27:35: Number eight.
27:37: Do not steal.
27:40: What did Jesus say? Covet.
27:43: That's right.
27:45: That's in the Ten Commandments too.
27:47: When we want something someone else has, we feel like we deserve it more than they do.
27:50: In fact, sometimes we don't even want them to have it.
27:54: That's coveting.
27:55: It's not that we want it.
27:56: We don't want them to have it.
27:59: It's not that I want what you got.
28:00: I don't think you deserve what you got.
28:02: People look at rich people like that all the time.
28:04: Oh, I don't think he deserves to have $100 million.
28:07: Why not? What's it to you? That's between him and God.
28:12: I have a father-in-law who really, he's very socialistic in his view of politics.
28:19: He's more socialistic.
28:21: Oh, I don't think any man is worth $100 million.
28:24: Why not? What's it to you? Now, if he's mistreating you, that's one thing.
28:33: But why do we have to live with such covetousness? Why do we have to look at what somebody else has and say he doesn't deserve it? Who are we? Yes, sir.
28:41: Jesus and Satan.
28:45: Yeah.
28:46: They were coveting you.
28:49: That's true.
28:49: And people who all the time fussing about taxes, which I mean obviously we could get into another conversation about taxes, but the reality is we have responsibilities.
28:58: We have to do, if we're going to live this life and not be criminals, we've got to do what's right.
29:04: It seemed like they were coveting though, you know what I mean? No, I think so.
29:07: Yeah, I agree.
29:09: So that's eight and nine, right? Eight and nine is actually no, that's eight and ten.
29:15: We had stealing is number eight, ten is coveting.
29:18: What's number nine? Bearing false witness.
29:21: That's right.
29:23: Lying.
29:24: That's my first question I always ask people.
29:27: If I'm witnessing, I'll say, do you think you're a good person? Ray Comfort taught me to do this.
29:33: Do you think you're a good person? They'll say yes.
29:35: Everybody.
29:36: The proverb says that.
29:37: Every man will announce his own goodness.
29:40: Or most men will announce their own goodness is what the proverb says.
29:42: Most men will.
29:43: If you give them the chance, they'll announce how good they are.
29:45: Are you a good person? Yes, sir, I'm a good person.
29:49: Beat my wife, cheat on my taxes, but I'm a good person.
29:53: Whatever.
29:54: I don't do those things.
29:55: People come up to all kinds of reasons.
29:59: And you say, have you ever told a lie? Yes.
30:03: What do you call people who tell lies? Liars.
30:06: Liars.
30:07: What does Revelation 21.8 say? All liars will have their place in the lake of fire.
30:13: Revelation 21.8.
30:15: All liars will have their place in the lake of fire.
30:18: Do you still think you're a good person? No.
30:20: That's the point.
30:24: We are not good.
30:25: But God is good.
30:28: Therefore, we're in a bad situation.
30:31: We've got a good God who's going to judge us bad people.
30:36: We need help.
30:39: That's the good news.
30:41: Now we can understand what good news is.
30:43: The good news is this.
30:45: We are dead in trespasses and sins.
30:47: And God sent a Savior with the power to raise us from our deadness and give us life.
31:01: We were dead in our trespasses and sins.
31:05: God sent a Savior who had the power to raise us from our deadness and give us life.
31:11: Yes, sir.
31:17: Yes, that's James.
31:18: We talked about that when we studied James.
31:19: It says if you've broken the law in one place, you've broken the whole law.
31:23: And that's the other part, right? What if somebody's only ever lied once? They're still worthy of condemnation.
31:31: They're still a sinner.
31:33: So, everybody understand you're in a bad situation? That's where you've got to get before you can appreciate the good situation.
31:41: Now we talk about the gospel.
31:43: What is the good news? This is the good news.
31:46: God sent His Son, born of a woman only.
31:58: He was not born of a man and a woman, but He was born of the Holy Spirit through a woman.
32:05: When He was born, He did not have the taint of Adam's sin.
32:12: Neither did He have any sin of His own.
32:17: And He lived His whole life never breaking one of God's commands.
32:28: He didn't have Adam, and He also willfully chose to follow God.
32:33: He willfully, He says it is I'm here to do the will of Him who sent Me.
32:38: And so He willfully chose.
32:40: 33 years is what we approximate based on the Scripture.
32:44: He started His ministry when He was about 30.
32:46: We believe His ministry lasted about 3 years.
32:48: So 33 years of life, He never once sinned at all.
32:54: In fact, He was righteous.
32:58: Everything He did was righteous.
33:01: He had righteousness within Himself.
33:05: And He demonstrated that righteousness every day of His life.
33:10: I've told you guys this, I think.
33:12: He had brothers and sisters.
33:13: Can you even imagine? You talk about, I don't know if you had brothers and sisters.
33:18: And sometimes, oh you got a brother who's perfect.
33:21: They did.
33:22: They had a perfect brother.
33:26: When He was 33 years old.
33:31: After having spent 3 years of ministry preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
33:37: God took His Son and He smote Him.
33:44: Now that's an old King James word, so I'll solve that word.
33:47: If you got a problem with that word, I'll solve it.
33:49: He struck Him.
33:52: In fact, Isaiah chapter 53 gives us a picture of what happened.
34:00: In fact, let's read that.
34:01: Let's go back to Isaiah 53.
34:05: Remember, Isaiah 53 written about 700 years before Christ.
34:08: So this is a prophecy.
34:16: Go to Isaiah 53.
34:23: Go to verse 4.
34:29: Surely He has borne our griefs.
34:34: That means carried them.
34:36: And carried our sorrows.
34:38: That's a parallelism.
34:40: Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
34:46: Meaning struck by God.
34:48: But He was wounded for our transgressions.
34:52: He was crushed for our iniquities.
34:54: Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
34:59: And with His stripes we are healed.
35:05: All we like sheep have gone astray.
35:08: We have turned every one to his own way.
35:12: And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
35:20: Now it goes on.
35:21: Brother Charles, let's read.
35:24: So, God took the sin that you have.
35:34: And He took the punishment that that sin deserves.
35:40: And He applied it to Christ.
35:44: And Christ bore the sin debt on your behalf.
35:54: He was punished for you.
35:57: As if you were supposed to be punished, Christ stood up and He said, No, I will be punished in His place.
36:07: We call that substitutionary atonement.
36:12: Substitute.
36:13: Think of like when you had a substitute teacher when you were in school.
36:16: The teacher is out for the day and somebody else stood in their place.
36:19: This is you.
36:20: You stand before a cross that you deserve to be nailed to.
36:25: You stand before a cross that you deserve to be punished on.
36:28: Christ comes and He grabs you by the shoulders and He moves you out of the way.
36:32: And He steps into your spot and He takes the punishment for you.
36:38: He becomes sin.
36:40: The Bible says in Colossians, He became sin for us.
36:46: Actually, that's 2 Corinthians 5.21.
36:48: Colossians says our sin was nailed to the cross.
36:52: Again, another expression of the same idea.
36:54: But 2 Corinthians 5.21 you should memorize.
36:57: God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.
37:03: That we could become the righteousness of God in Him.
37:08: The great transaction is the good news.
37:11: The good news is this.
37:13: You deserve to be punished.
37:15: God in His goodness took your punishment and gave it to Christ.
37:21: God took His righteousness and gave it to you.
37:25: And now you stand before God, not in the wickedness of your sin, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
37:33: And you can add nothing to that.
37:40: You see, that's the problem.
37:41: Going back to Galatians.
37:42: What was the problem of Galatians? Wanting to add to the work of Christ.
37:50: Wanting to add something.
37:52: Something I've done that would add righteousness to the work of Christ.
37:57: You can't.
37:59: You can only by faith receive what He has done for you.
38:04: You cannot add one inch.
38:07: You cannot add one molecule.
38:11: You cannot add one gram to what Christ has done.
38:17: That is the gospel that saves.
38:23: Anything that adds anything to Christ, or anything that takes anything away from Christ, is not the gospel.
38:31: There is only one gospel that saves, and that is it.
38:35: All of salvation is all of Christ, and not by you at all.
38:44: That's the gospel Paul was preaching.
38:46: That's the gospel Paul was defending.
38:49: That's the gospel that we stand on.
38:51: Either He did it all, or not.
38:57: You've heard the old song, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
39:02: Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow.
39:13: I'll finish with a quick story, and then we'll close.
39:17: There was a boy and his father.
39:19: They were in England, and they were going to watch the changing of the guard.
39:28: Some of you probably don't know what that is, but out in front of Buckingham Palace, there are guards that stand, and they have giant hats, and they have big red jackets.
39:39: What is it called? Beefeaters? Oh, is that what the hats are called? Well, you know those jackets are bright red.
39:47: In fact, what did we call them during the Revolutionary War? Redcoats, that's right.
39:53: It's a bright red coat.
39:56: That's okay.
39:57: Well, the boy and his grandfather wanted to watch this event, but they knew the little boy couldn't see really well, so they went to a building that was nearby, and they went up the steps, and they looked down at the event through a window.
40:16: And the father, grandfather rather, he looks down with his son, grandson, and he says, what do you think of those men in those bright red coats? And the little boy said, Papa, those coats aren't red.
40:30: Those coats are white.
40:35: And the grandfather was confused, and he said, no, those are red coats.
40:39: And he said, no, son, those are...
40:40: And he said, no, Papa, those are white.
40:42: So finally, the grandfather stepped back, and he realized there was two panes of glass.
40:48: The top pane of glass that he was looking through was clear.
40:52: The bottom pane of glass was tinted red.
40:56: So anything on the other side of red tinted glass that is red looks what? White.
41:03: So he looked at the men through the red tinted glass, and he saw them, and they looked white.
41:10: This is an analogy of how God looks at those who believe in Christ.
41:17: Our sin is red like crimson, but we have been covered in the blood of Christ.
41:25: When God looks at us, we are white as snow.
41:33: As imperfect as we are, God sees us as perfect because He sees us through the blood of Christ.
41:47: Now that's a gospel that will save.
41:51: Let's pray.
41:52: Father, I thank You for Your Word.
41:54: I thank You for the truth, and I pray, Lord, that this gospel would go into our ears, through our minds, down to our hearts.
42:01: And Lord, if there's anyone here who has not received Christ by faith in Him, that they're still trying to hold on to something.
42:08: Maybe it's their own righteousness.
42:10: Maybe it's the righteousness of their parents.
42:12: Maybe it's the righteousness of some kind of good thing that they did in the past.
42:16: Lord, may we sacrifice it all and give it all up and cling to Christ.
42:21: For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved except the name of Jesus Christ.
42:29: And it's in His name we pray.
42:31: Amen.