THE GOSPEL (2 of 10 non-negotiable elements of a healthy church)

We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to 1st John chapter 4 1st.

John chapter 4 We're gonna start in verse 9. I know for those of you that have been here on Wednesday nights

We've been going through 1st John. So this will be fresh in your minds Let's read

John's words here 1st. John chapter 4 starting at verse 9 He says in this the love of God was made manifest among us

That God sent his only son into the world So that we might live

Through him think about that for a second that we may live through him

In this is love Not that we have loved God, but but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins

Beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love One -another this is the reading of God's holy inspired perfect word and Because of the fact that we are a fallible imperfect people

We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate that truth to us. Don't we?

So let's let's seek the source before we jump in dear Heavenly Father We Come asking that you would illuminate your truth to us.

You have spoken to us you have you have given us your word clearly

God we Have a propensity to misunderstand misread misrepresent

And so I ask that that through the power of the Holy Spirit that we would be illuminated to this truth that our minds would be renewed that our hearts would be

Lit on fire by your truth And guard me from error that I may speak only truth in Christ's name.

Amen well last week we started this new series of walking through what we've identified as as 10

Non -negotiable elements that will be present within a a healthy church

And We felt led to do this because we find that That many

Christians today. They're not quite sure what they should be looking for in a church

They they know that they have some things in their mind that they want a lot of people have their opinions or their preferences and and and honestly over the next few weeks some of these ten may

Land within your opinion or your preference However, we want to make it clear that all ten of these just as I said last week must be present

For it to be a healthy church As a matter of fact,

I'm going to go out on a limb here I would argue that they must be present to be a church at all And that's how important these ten

Non -negotiables are these ten essentials And so despite all of the other preferences that anyone may have preferences like style of music or quality of a children's program or ministry a

Preference of well, I want a good small group or Sunday school class Whatever these things may be some of some people think of a large church as healthy and they say well

I want a large church because there's a lot of amenities for me And it just seems like God's at work because of just the sheer

Volume of people that are going in them and the money that's going into it And then you have on the other side you have the introverts that think a healthy church is as few people as possible

But it's all preference, isn't it? These are all preferences that people have but but here's the thing if all ten of these are present you can be assured that it is a healthy church or a church that is pursuing health that is seeking to be biblical and So last week we started with the first one.

Does anybody remember what we talked about last week? Expositional you guys are listening expositional preaching and how

We started with that because this is a natural starting point for all of these because like I said without Expositional preaching true biblical preaching all of the other nine elements are non -starters

They're not going to go anywhere. They're not going to happen. They're not going to be in the life of the church but on the other hand when

Expositional preaching is happening Properly these other nine are just going to naturally fall into place because expositional preaching is merely pointing to the other ones

It's not that expositional preaching mind you is the most important and the others are secondary to it

That's not the point by any by all means, especially with our topic today But it points to all these others and today we're going to be

Talking about the second of these and that is the gospel The gospel and I want us to see how a healthy church will adhere to and show evidence of gospel orthodoxy and gospel orthopraxy

Big words right out the gate, right in In other words gospel truth and gospel living

The knowing the right things about the gospel and then living in light of that truth

Must be present in a healthy church Then and only then is a church

Truly what we refer to as gospel centered we hear that phrase a lot Everybody likes to use that phrase and they claim it and they say

I'm gospel centered I'm gospel centered and we hear it all the time. Are you gospel centered as a church gospel centered?

Well, we want to look at what that means today Because it's when the truth of the gospel that gospel doctor and that gospel orthodoxy creates gospel culture

So, what does that look like? What is a gospel culture? look like In order to to evaluate that I'm going to give us a couple of examples of what go gospel culture

Doesn't look like to help us contrast this. You see there are many churches today where the gospel is is technically present and In that I'm I'm grateful.

I'm just like the Apostle Paul I think in Philippians when he says hey Some people are preaching preaching

Christ out of spite for me Some are preaching out of for vain reasons, but but I'm grateful that the gospel of Jesus Christ is going forward

So we're grateful for this situation It's the gospel is technically present. If you look at their statement of faith, you will often see gospel orthodoxy the they affirm a biblically accurate depiction and explanation of the gospel and Many of those churches will go on to even affirm that Verbally, they will express it through evangelistic sermons they will

Many of them take the last maybe five ten minutes of every service and give a gospel

Presentation and they'll tell the the the specifics of the gospel

Yet often in the life of that church Something doesn't match up It doesn't match that life -giving joy -inducing world -changing message that they claim to believe

It's not being lived out It's a matter of fact a lot of times. It's the exact opposite not always

But in a lot of American churches today, it's the exact opposite And this is the very reason that that the world looks in at the church and what do they say

What does the world say about the church? you hypocrites That's the accusation the church in America gets isn't it?

And it may be fair The world looks in it says you claim to have good news You claim to be a child of God you claim to have eternal security

You claim to be bought with a price yet. You're gonna fight over the color of the carpet that goes into the church building

Something's not lining up there You're gonna sever relationships over the style of music that you sing

Huh You're gonna smile and scream and dance and you're gonna have a party at the football game on Saturday But then the next day at Sunday, you're gonna come in with it an aura of indifference and casual careless routine

You're gonna treat me your neighbor a Subhuman Or even just with mere indifference while the atheist across the street calls me friend and then treats me as such

You may claim to have good news. But if that's good news, I want nothing to do with it.

Is there gospel orthodoxy? Helpful at all

Does it have power? Is it doing anything? See, this is how the world sees the church.

And like I said for the most part they may be right And when you realize that this is what's happening in the

American Church You start to understand Paul's words and in the love chapter in 1st Corinthians 13 How does the

Apostle Paul start off there talking about love Obviously Paul's pointing to Christ.

He's pointing the love of God because God is love and that's the only way we know it But he starts off. He says if I Paul speak in the tongues of man and of angels, what's

Paul saying? He said he's saying if I have the most lofty accurate orthodox speech that you could possibly have

But not but not have love. I Am like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal

What's Paul saying here Paul is saying the world can't hear the good news over your eardrum shattering gong of hypocrisy

They can't see your orthodoxy. They don't even hear it. It means nothing but in the midst of that paradigm the paradigm of this gospel orthodoxy minus gospel orthopraxy or Gospel truth minus gospel actions there emerged a response

Another extreme one that unfortunately swung the pendulum way too far the other way and treats the gospel like a set of humanitarian principles

Let's be honest. This is too all too often what we see in the church today, isn't it?

One of these two extremes they care very little for being theologically accurate with the gospel and put all the focus on an outward appearance of godliness

In the words of Andy Stanley Church unity is more important than being theologically correct

See how they swung the pendulum You see why people get sucked into this thinking so easily they're sick of the other extreme

They just want something real and on the outside. This seems real to them, doesn't it? You can get pulled into this.

This seems real. They seem so nice. I Love I love what

Ray Ortlund says about this. He says niceness Is just the secular counterfeit of gospel culture

It's not the real thing It's a counterfeit. He's essentially saying that gospel culture without gospel truth is a facade.

It has no real power for change It's It's fake niceness.

It's fake love So here we have two opposing paradigms.

I'll give you one much worse than the other But both problematic neither healthy and certainly not according to scripture and These are just two examples of what being gospel centered

Doesn't mean and you can you can fill in the gaps in between those two extremes, right?

You can see we must have both. So now let's talk about what it does mean and How can we find out what gospel centered does mean?

What's our source? Scripture God's life -giving words. So let's look at our text here there in first John 4 9

See John has just told us in the previous verses to love one another and that anyone that doesn't love

Doesn't know God if you don't have love real love brotherly love

You don't know God because of that beautiful declaration that he says right before these these words in verse 9

God is love. I Love how John does that he grounds it in the very nature of God, doesn't he?

And this gets us to verse 9 John says in this

He's about to tell us what that's connected to in this the love of God was made manifest among us like I said

John is getting ready to to point us to the only means of actually comprehending the the immensity of God's love

As you can see we can read and hear the Intellectual fact that God is love we can read the previous verse that John wrote and say

God is love God himself could come to us which he did in his word and tell us about his love, but until we experience that love

Until we experience that life -changing heart -melting Presence It's just all theoretical to us

Yes, it's still true God is love Despite what

I feel Despite what I've experienced despite what I know Doesn't change the fact that God is love

We just don't experience that That is until look at the next part of the verse

So John has said in this the love of God was made manifest among us that Here's the reason

God Sent his only son into the world I'm gonna let that set for a second

God sent his only son Into the world. I don't want you to miss this to truly comprehend this

Sacrifice that we're reading here It starts with understanding the nature of God We must understand the nature of God to even begin to comprehend this phrase here

You see God God is sufficient of himself and God would have still been love had he not done this

I mean, that's why John made sure to tell us in the verse previous to this God is love

Not God shows love not God does love God is love it's his very nature

It is an attribute of him. It is a very it's who he is Now he's many other things we see many other attributes

But this is the one attribute that we see in Scripture that says God is this But God would have still been love had he not

Done this action of sending his son. He could have left us all to ourselves Everyone to themselves without hope headed for eternal damn nation

And we in that eternal damnation and utter torment Four billion years from now never seen an end of it would still have to acknowledge that.

This is perfect love We would hate that fact

But we couldn't deny it Even even his wrath being poured out on us.

We would have to acknowledge. He is love This is perfect love So it doesn't change the fact we need to understand this about God And understanding this about God and then seeing this great truth that he sent his only son to take on flesh

This reveals to us the nature of true love This shows us the nature of relentless love selfless love you see some look at passages like John 3 16 for God so loved the world and They try and present it as well.

God couldn't live without you So he sought after you and he sacrificed his only son because he he couldn't he couldn't stand a future without you

God needed us so much that he sends his only son He so loved us that he was in desperate need he couldn't do anything other wise

And you see that thought process could not be further from the truth Because when we understand who

God is we know God is perfectly sufficient in and of himself he

He didn't need you He could have sent you into eternal torment for for every one of us

Not not redeeming a single one of us and he would still be love He would still be who he is righteous perfect just holy

We have to understand that and then and only then are we gonna be able to read a phrase like this is that he sent his only son and You begin to comprehend anything.

He didn't have to He didn't have need There was nothing in him that that was that was void of something

He was sufficient and he still did it Oh, this makes the gospel so much richer, doesn't it?

Then and only then do we see the truth of what John is saying here the gospel of Jesus Christ that he sent his only son because of his love

It deepens our understanding of for God so loved the world that he gave his only son for the purpose that whoever believes

In him We'll have eternal life That brings on a new meaning doesn't it?

What a sacrifice Not out of necessity but out of love Love that we would not have known

Had not God sent his only son into the world John essentially tells us this in chapter 1 of his gospel in verse 14

If you remember he says and the word became flesh who's he speaking of he's speaking of Christ and The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory

What glory? Just Jesus's glory Well, it's the glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth.

We see the glory of God Through his son we can only see him

We can only comprehend what he's done through that and he does all of this for the purpose of Look at it with me there that last phrase in our passage so that we

Who is the we Whoever believes right? so that we

Those that he said his love and affection upon before the foundations of the world those that he has set his love on Regardless of what is in them

There was nothing lovable in us and he sets his love on us He says so that we think about that for a second.

You're part of that if you're in Christ might live through him through him

Through him through him no other way no other means

Not through my works Not through my input not through my resources

Say it with me through Ha ha through Christ So, how is it that we live through him and we believe right that's what

John 3 16 tells us, right We believe and we believe in what? What are we believing in the next verse tells us look at verse 10?

in this His love now again This is how we see love.

This is how we see true love John's affirming that and then John wants us to make sure that we don't get this backwards.

So he says Not that we have loved God John will actually confirm this later in this chapter in verse 19 when he says we love

Because he first loved us No one seeks after God no not one

Everyone has turned aside gone their own way, right? John wants us to remember that hey if you think you're a part of this equation

Yeah, you got a second guess coming You have no idea what

I'm talking about if you think that you have loved God God God did not look down the corridor of time.

God did not look at you and go. Ah I'm so glad Jeremiah loves me.

I Love him for that My son's blood is gonna pay for him. I love him.

Thanks for loving me That's not how it works Hmm a

There's not a there's not a you take the first step and God will take the rest You had no love for God.

Let me tell you what you did You hated God You may not realize that you may have you have made you may have conjured up some

God in your mind that you thought was God and love that But you did not love the

God of the Bible and I can tell you that for certain because scripture says that no one does No one seeks after God.

No, not one. They all turn aside You did not love

God you hated God You despised God you committed high treason against God But this makes this next line even greater doesn't it

John says but that he loved us That he loved us

He said his love upon us Nothing lovable But he loved us.

And what did he do and sent his son? to be the propitiation for our sins

This right here, this is the key this is what we believe You get this wrong you don't have the gospel you hear me you get this wrong you don't have the gospel

I Don't care how much gospel language you use. I don't care how much you say you love

Jesus and trust in him I don't care how much Theological jargon you can throw at me.

It means nothing if you get it wrong Because here's here's all the bulls down to if you believe that Romans 3 23 is true

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Key in on that phrase all the word and Then that Romans 1 18 is true for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all

Unrighteousness and ungodliness of man Then you have no choice, but to acknowledge something

You have to say in your mind. Well, wait a second if Fall or sinners and God's wrath will be poured out on all sin.

Oh We're all in trouble Everyone you see how scripture doesn't give us an out

When we are seeking to be doctrinally accurate and have the gospel orthodoxy there is you you can't wiggle out every person is a sinner and God will judge all sin.

Hence. Everyone is in deep trouble But you see realizing this is the first step toward understanding this phrase

Propitiation that John used back in our passage The true gospel

See God is going to pour his wrath out on all unrighteousness and mind you

God would be unrighteous if he didn't if God allowed

Even the smallest of sins to go unpunished if God allowed a three -year -old

Stealing a stick of gum from his mother's purse To go unpunished

He would be an unjust God It's an extreme statement, isn't it?

But you have to understand that's the holiness of God God is altogether different from us.

My three -year -old steals a stick of gum from my desk Well, technically it's theirs.

I don't mind if they do it, but another person's three -year -old I'm gonna forgive that and Rightfully, so I should but see

I'm not righteous I'm not God. I'm not perfect. I don't demand perfection because I'm not perfect, but God does

And even the smallest of sins will go punished will will be punished and God will be sure to do so And he would be unjust in doing otherwise

And just like I said before he would be just in leaving us to ourselves mind you to suffer the consequences of our sin but in this

What does John say says the love of God was manifest? Here's the hope

How was the love of God manifest by sending his only Son?

to take our place Look at what

Paul says after that verse. We just mentioned Romans 3 23 Flip over in your

Bibles if you can Romans 3 23, I want you to see what Paul says after this Paul says there

And that verse we just read a moment ago for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Oh That's a hopeless phrase, right

Hmm the Lou verse 24 now speaking of believers here and are

Justified What is this justified? It's made righteous

Just as if I had never sinned made righteous

How are we justified by his grace as a gift? Again this wasn't something of your doing this was

God's God alone He did it It was a gift you didn't earn it through The Redemption That is in Christ Jesus whom

God put forward as a here's that word again propitiation and Then how did he put him forward as a propitiation by his?

blood By his wounds we are healed, right? He paid the price he was the sacrificial lamb that went to the slaughter

When he hung on the cross, and he says father. Why have you forsaken me?

Jesus in his humanity Is taking on the sin of the world?

Those that are the his elect and how was this and how is this applied?

There's a pat last part of that verse He says by his blood to be received by faith to be received by faith

Jesus took our place on the cross and what we call the great exchange

We see this great exchange and in Paul's letter his first letter to the

Corinthians in 521 he says for our sake Christians He made him

God made Christ to be sin to be sin

Who knew? no sin You see Christ was the spotless lamb

Christ was perfect Christ did not deserve the punishment Me and you deserve the punishment, but Christ didn't because he was perfect He was spotless and he knew no sin, but God in the great exchange takes

Christ grabs our Nasty filthy disgusting sin that deserves the eternal punishment and wrath of God Puts it on his perfect Son in that great exchange

Then what does he say says so that in him so that in Christ through faith?

That we trust in the merits of Christ not in our own merits not in what we can do But we look and say

Christ did it all so that in him we might become The Righteousness of God so not only does the spotless perfect lamb become sin

He takes sin upon himself And then the wrath of the father gets poured out on that sin in a finite amount of time which would have taken me and you

Eternity To pay for and still never scratch the surface He does it in a moment and in that moment the moment of faith the moment that the

Holy Spirit Awakens you and brings about new birth And you see Christ for who he is and you stand up like Lazarus in a tomb

Because you've been awakened from death and you look at me You have a voice of Jesus at the end of the tomb and the light and you gladly run to it

And yes, you trust in it and you say Christ alone Christ alone

Christ alone, I was dead and Christ alone And he pays the price for us, and then we run to him and in that very moment then

That filthiness is stripped from us and not only is it stripped from us

Not are we just made not the fact that we're just made clean then the very Perfection of Jesus himself is given to you

It's placed upon you Righteous made right justified just as if I had never sinned

Because my Savior Christ alone never sinned That's great news

That is the news This is the gospel and we must get it right when we don't have the gospel it is

Propitiation Christ paid for us the gospel truth this gospel doctrine

And if we don't understand this we're not in him There has been no change in us and all we can do is show outward expressions of that gospel culture all we can do is pursue niceties

Outward displays of kindness But it is all a facade We are still broken and hopeless like the rest of the world

Without gospel orthodoxy Without gospel doctrine gospel truth.

Oh, but when that truth has changed us When it goes from just intellectual ascent to experience

And we experience the love of Christ that he has changed us that he has made us a new creation

It becomes evident through gospel living And what does that look like look at verse 11 in our passage here in first john 4

John says oh beloved Believer saint

Beloved if god so loved us If if this is true, and it is

We also ought to love one another Because god shows his love for us

In that while we were still sinners christ died for us God has bestowed his love on us before the foundations of the world not because we were lovable We were not

Yet his love for us has been nothing but long -suffering patient kind gentle fatherly selfless merciful any of you

Come to christ And have ceased to sin since then I don't want to go raise my hand as an example.

It's like oh, no i'm like Oh, we we still have the sinful flesh don't we we

We we like peter sometimes deny our savior We like paul we we do the things we don't want to do.

We don't do the things we want to do This wretched flesh is always battling I must be delivered from it

And we fight it but yet god Sees his son

And he is so merciful towards us. He's so patient with us.

He chastens us like sons and daughters He doesn't punish us

He's never angry with us God God sees his son when he sees us

He sees righteousness He has adopted us as children and that merciful fatherly gracious Demeanor towards us.

I mean so much so that he has sent his only son to redeem us At the price of his blood

He sought after us and so john says now love each other that same way

Few Have been changed There will be evidence of that change and if you are accepted in love there will be evidence of that acceptance and love

Or not to be like the unforgiving servant that jesus refers to who was forgiven a tremendous debt a debt that he could never

Repay, it'd be like one of us owing billions of dollars and getting forgiven of this great debt only to turn around and mercilessly

Demand a payment from an insignificant debt owed him But this is often how christians act in the church

We acknowledge the gospel after all that's what got us in the door Gospel orthodoxy truth

However, sometimes we act as though it is merely a heavenly insurance policy Something to believe once and now we're good.

I walked the aisle. I said the prayer I'm good That's what

I needed the gospel for now. It's time to move on to other things. I got to go to deeper doctrines now

And then i'll share the gospel and the good news with those that don't have the gospel or the good news yet Because that's all it is a heavenly insurance policy.

No Paul said in romans that it's the power of god Unto salvation.

It's the power of god that changes us and god showed us his power through the gospel

This shows through our actions Some of us may have never truly been changed by it while those of us who have

Unfortunately sometimes show little fruit of that and it's because And sometimes it's because our life is not one of a gospel culture.

So how about you? Is your life marked by a gospel culture?

Has it been changed by the gospel the truth of the gospel? Have you experienced it and been changed from it?

And now it's evident in your life As I was thinking through this this topic

I Couldn't help but ask the question is Is our church a church? It has a gospel culture

And I thought of a few questions here to ask ourselves

Are we showing the love of god the way that we're meant to? Are the lost drawn to us?

like a lighthouse in the dark Because that's what the gospel is It's that light

As we preach through in the sermon on the mountain. God. Jesus says you are the light of the world a city set on a hill

Is twelve five church that? Is the lost wandering around in the dark tripping over everything looking up and going there's hope

Oh, there's hope I gotta run to that Do our brothers and sisters in here?

Do they feel loved? Do they feel fully?

accepted fully understood fully respected Do we give that in return?

Is our speech seasoned with grace? Or are we harsh and impatient?

Do we get frustrated with each other when someone doesn't do something the way we want it done?

Does love cover a multitude of sins? Do we?

Do we live for each other? Do we live for ourselves? Is there grace?

Is there mercy? You know i've often wondered about myself as a father am I the kind of father where my children make a mistake?

And hide it from me out of fear Or am I the kind of father that when that when my children make a mistake?

The first thing they think is I gotta run to dad when you sin

Is this a place that you think I gotta run to I gotta run first to christ? But then

I gotta run to to the people that god's called me to the people at church because oh there's forgiveness

There's acceptance And and there's there's camaraderie where they're going to surround me and gather around me and help me

Not to fall prey to this again Are they going to help me fix it or are they going to condemn me and ostracize me?

What kind of church are we? Do we have a gospel culture because that's a gospel culture

A gospel culture. There's only one sin in this church that gets you disciplined only one.

That's it And that's the sin of unrepentance But when you're ready to repent we should be able to come and confess our sins one to another

And here's the problem in the american church today. I'm, sorry Everyone's afraid to confess their sins one to another because they know that that brother or sister is going to use that against them

And now they've they've wielded power Let's be honest That's typically how it goes, isn't it?

But when we come together and we confess sin one of one to another Ah And then there's grace

There's mercy because that's what we've been shown In the gospel

That gospel orthodoxy now changes us and our gospel orthopraxy our gospel truth changes us into gospel living the gospel being real being true being accurate then informs us of how we are to live out our lives and carry out a life of grace and mercy and acceptance

Not that we just tolerate unrepentant sin But that we see it and and we have a place where we can come and confess one to another

And rest in that And then

I can tell you also when someone comes through those doors When a guest comes in here a lost person another believer who doesn't know us our actions can drown out our doctrine

This is why we must be a church That is a gospel centered church

Gospel orthodoxy plus gospel orthopraxy Otherwise we are showing ourselves not to have the gospel

Without the gospel again, we're not a church We're just a country club

It must be present in everything we do Because it is the reason for who we are a redeemed people that are bought with a price

Now act like it And i'm not pointing to you i'm pointing back at me i'm i'm saying nathan why can't you act like it

That's my prayer this morning for us as a people As a matter of fact before we go and prepare for the lord's supper

Let's bow our heads right now And let's pray that god will be merciful and create in us a gospel culture