The Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Burden for Young People — Paul Washer

The Gospel as the Foundation of the Christian Life

1 Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning in verse one,. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and therein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

Christ’s Death, Burial, and Resurrection

For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. I know that apart from him, I would have no part with you. Father, thou art late, and we've heard a good word.

Father, I pray that you would grant us mercy, that you would grant us grace upon grace. I pray, Father, that we would see Christ, and I pray that those who have never seen him would see him. Father, we need you very, very much to do something here for us, for your own glory.

Father, I have a special burden. I suppose you gave it to me. For the young people who are here tonight, dear God, please grant me the grace, in spite of who you know me to be, grant me grace to deliver unto them somewhat of a picture of Christ.

Father, I know that's asking a lot, but I pray that you would, in Jesus' name, amen. I want to talk to you tonight about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I know that that sounds like I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I'm not.

We're going to take a look at this text, and we'll take a look at what God has done for us in Christ. In my cry, my burden, my greatest desire is that God would open up your eyes and that you would see the preciousness of Christ, the value of Christ, the worth of Christ.

I pray that God would open up your eyes so that you could appreciate the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation that's found in him. And if you're a Christian, I pray that God would open up your eyes in greater and greater degree so that you could see Christ, because any other motivation for the Christian life is idolatry.

It's Christ and Christ alone. And look at our text. He says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Now, this is fascinating because Paul had preached the gospel to them. They had heard the gospel.

And now here he is declaring the gospel to them again. I find that very fascinating. It tells me something very important, that the gospel is not only the first step in Christianity, it's the second and the third and the fourth and the last.

It's the foundation upon which we stand. It is the constant motivation. It is the magnificent obsession. What God has done for us in Jesus Christ is the thing that propels us to follow him and to know him.

And we have a constant need to have the gospel proclaimed to us. We have a constant need to hear the gospel and to see Christ, Christ, Christ. I'm young in years, but I've been through much. In 20 years of preaching, I know that the only thing sufficient to keep a heart burning is a greater and greater picture of Jesus Christ and what God the Father has done for us and his most precious son.

And so he says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preach to you. There's something very good going on in America today in churches, but there's also some things going on that are very, very bad.

Biblical Preaching and the Authority of God’s Word

When men come before me in a pulpit and they tell me they want to share with me from their heart, the only thing I want to do is walk out the door. I'm so tired of hearing from men's hearts and hearing from their minds and hearing from their opinions.

What I want is for someone to stand back and preach to me about Jesus Christ, someone to tell me thus saith the Lord and not apologize and preach with the authority of God about the subject they've taken.

If you're here tonight and you're a young person, you might wonder about why all the the rapture and speaking, why all the passion, why the big to do about preaching, because it is through the foolishness of preaching that the wind of the Holy Spirit, we don't know from where he comes, but he comes and he moves upon men's hearts and he transforms them and changes them.

And what you need more than anything else is something I can't give you and your parents can't give you and you can't give you. Only God could give you your to get down right now on your hands and knees and cry out that the wind would blow through these doors and touch your heart and give you life so that you can come forth and take those grave clothes off.

Walk with God. He says, I preach now, what is it about preaching? There's something you need to understand in preaching, I'm going to tell you things you need to do. I'm going to tell you things you need to stop doing and I'm going to tell you about God.

And where do I come off having such authority to do something like that? Well, some preachers would tell you they have that authority because they've been called of God. God called donkeys, God calls ducks, callings has nothing to do with it.

You can be called and you can be wrong, you can be called and not have authority in the pulpit. So it's not my calling that gives me authority to tell you about God. TV preachers would tell you that they have the authority because they've received some special anointing from God that gives them the ability to speak the words of God.

First, John tells me everyone has that anointing who believes in Jesus Christ. So where do I get the authority to tell you about God, to tell you about heaven, to tell you about hell, to tell you about repentance and faith and what you must do to save your life?

Where do I get that authority? I have that authority only to the degree that I correctly interpret and clearly proclaim the word of God. So it's not about my opinion. It's not even about my passion. It's about God's word and it being transmitted to you clearly, but that is not enough.

Not only do you need to hear, you need to see. And even if you saw it wouldn't do you any good, you need life to come forth from the grave. And so in preaching tonight, I'm like a clown or puppet. There's absolutely nothing that I can do to save you, and there is absolutely nothing these words can do to save you unless God himself has mercy on your soul.

And if that troubles you, then cry out at this very moment before we even begin. God, have mercy on my soul. God, open up my eyes, open up my heart, open up my ears. It is more of a brother and I declare unto you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you have received.

Receiving Christ as Life and Lord

I want you to think about that today in America, after even good gospel preaching, we have preachers messing it all up by saying now you need to receive Jesus Christ by opening up your heart, by praying a prayer.

That's not what this means, not at all. I have served so many years in a Catholic country where people are actually told that if they are baptized into the Catholic Church, they will be saved. I find no different doctrine among most Baptists who say if you will simply pray this prayer, you will be saved.

That is not true. It is not true at all. What does he mean by receiving? Do you remember what he said? Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood to receive Christ doesn't mean to pray some little prayer or nod to some confession of faith or even to memorize scripture to receive Christ is to take him in as your sustenance, your very life.

He's not just some accessory that you wear, like a pair of shoes or a belt or a purse that matches your outfit. To take in Christ is not to take him is as an accessory or even a ticket of salvation to take him in is to take him in whole as Christ, as the son of God.

As the Lord of Glory, as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to take him into your life, to receive, to embrace the fact that you are not your own, you belong to God and he is your Lord. And your life, you draw everything you have and everything you are from him.

I hear people say all the time, Jesus is all you need. No, Jesus is the only thing you have apart from him, there's nothing there is no life, there is no light, there is no meaning apart from Jesus Christ, there's nothing to receive him is to take him in.

And he says here, he says, which also you have received and where in ye, it's an idea here of conviction. An idea that I stand upon Christ and Christ alone. That he is my only hope of salvation and apart from him, I have no part with God.

Salvation Rests on Christ Alone

Young person. I know what it's like to suffer for Christ. I know what it's like to burn up with fever in the jungle, I know what it's like to freeze to death on top of the Indies Mountains, five times I've been robbed, three times I've had a gun to my head, I've been chased through the jungle for six days by terrorists for preaching the gospel.

I know what it's like to almost die with fear. And if I died right now, I'd go to heaven and not because of any of that, if I died right now, I'd go to heaven because two thousand years ago, the son of God died for this man.

And he is my only hope. And I expect to grab that thread and swing out into eternity with the greatest of confidence because he's able. He's all. And it says in verse two, by which also you're saved, I hate much preaching today, I hate much offering of Christ today that I hear in pulpits because they talk about Jesus and then they offer many other things to embellish Christ and make him attractive.

When when did we come to decide that salvation just wasn't enough to motivate us? When did we come to decide that Christ was not precious enough to draw men and so we have to embellish the gospel with other things, he says, by Christ, you are saved by faith in him.

You are saved. What else do you need? And if you're waiting for a greater offer to come along, well, they'll come along, but they're given by men who have something to sell. Not by God. Yet you sit here and you hear gospel preaching, but your heart's not moved.

Do you know what that means? If your heart's not moved and you hear gospel preaching and it doesn't draw you to Christ, it means that the Holy Spirit's not moving on your heart. And if you continue in that condition, if God does not grant you mercy, you'll go to hell.

And you need to fall down before God and you need to cry out, God, have mercy on me, blow on my heart, open my eyes. I'm a young person and I've been in this church and I've been under this type of preaching, but my heart has never been moved.

Could it be, Lord, that I'm to be shut out forever? Oh, a good dose of fear would do you good, it says, by which also you're saved if if you keep memory what I preached unto you, if you hold on to what I preached to you.

Now, there is no way. There is no way I can compromise this text. Let me finish before you throw a stone, but there's no way I can compromise this text. He says here quite clearly, you are saved if you hold on, if you continue.

That's what he said. And what does that mean in that conditional clause? The negative of that is this. If you do not continue, you are not saved. Now, what is this a proof text for falling from grace to say that a true believer can lose their salvation?

Not at all. What this is, is a warning about evidence that if you have truly been converted by the power of God since salvation is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. If you've truly been converted, you will continue until the end.

But if you find yourself in the younger part of your life bearing fruit and you turn away from that, you apostatize, you walk away from Christ. Christ is not rich for you anymore. The love of Christ does not burn in your heart.

You can care less about the things of God than tremble with fear because it means that God's never worked on your heart. You've never been converted and you need to fall down and cry out to him for his mercy.

This is unless you have believed in vain, for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which also I received, for I delivered unto you, first of all, I delivered unto you as of first importance. While back we were hit when I was in Peru, we were hit with several heresies of one shape, form or fashion and another.

The Gospel Is of First Importance

But one of the greatest was this, that the gospel of Jesus Christ and we hear this today, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is milk for babes, you will not find any doctrine, any truth more profound and unsearchable than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And to say that is for babes and you are to grasp it and then move on to other things is the blaspheme, the blood of Christ. And the gospel is not something that tags on to something else, it is of first importance, there is nothing of greater importance.

There is nothing I could do for you tonight any greater than what I am doing, and that is preaching to you about Jesus Christ and him crucified. You will hear no greater thing. It might be said in a better way by a greater preacher, but you will hear no better thing.

This is it, this is the message. This is the only message with the power of God to bring about salvation in the heart of a man. There is no other. I go to these missions conferences all the time and they're always talking about mission methods and mission ways and new theories and new ways of winning men.

We have three weapons. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, intercessory prayer and sacrificial love, if you want another weapon, then get another job because you're just looking for an easy way out.

And for you here that don't know Christ, you need to understand something. There is not something else that's going to come along that's going to bring you to God. Even if God were to bring men out of hell to testify to you, it will not do you a good.

This is the only message that will ever save you. This is the only message that will ever transform you. And you do well to listen, strain your ears. To listen. I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, Paul talking about his apostolic authority here, this message is not for men, men would never think up such a message of salvation being brought to men through the death of the son of God under the wrath of God.

It's absolutely preposterous, it's foolishness to men. This is not something that you learn in a seminary, this is not something that you learn when you pass some some some class. This is the very message of God and it is to be preached as the message of God.

If I could reach out right now and grab ahold of your heart and pull it to me, if I could scream into your ears, I would do it. If I could beg you long enough to be converted. Be converted tonight, trust in Christ tonight, repent of your sins tonight, run to God tonight, please.

Young people, please. Don't delay this, for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. The hardness of our heart is tested whenever we read that text and do not weep.

Christ died my sins. Why does that not touch us? Could it be that we do not understand sin? Could it be that we do not understand how he died? What I want to do right now is I want us to take our leave from this text and I want us to go and search through scripture for a moment.

Human Depravity and the Need for Grace

Tonight, I want scripture and I pray the Holy Spirit would show you. If you are a Christian, what you were. And if you are not a Christian, what you are. And I am going to be as rough and offensive as I can possibly be.

I'm not going to speak to you with words like smooth stones. I'm going to come against you like a rasp. I hope it tears away at your flesh and I hope it burns in your heart. I would rather have it infuriate you and you stone me than just to sit there calmly.

But this is what God says about men. This is what God says about. The most innocent looking child here, let's go to Rome, let's go to the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis. Chapter six, verse four, for the length of time, let's go to verse five.

Genesis, chapter six, verse five. And God saw the wickedness of man. It was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continually, a reporter come to me one time after preaching at a university and he was furious, absolutely furious, because I taught on the depravity of man.

He was beside himself with anger. He said, I am not that way. What that passage says in Genesis six, five, I am not that way. Maybe you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, I am not that way. I have never been that way.

It's not that my thoughts are so wicked. It's not that every intention of the thought of my heart is wicked continually. That's not about me. Well, then let's take a test. If I could now bear with me, follow my words, if I could pull out your heart.

At this very moment, and I could take every thought you have ever had since the moment you were conscious. Until this very moment, if I could take every thought you have ever had and I could put it up here on a screen, I could put it on a film strip and show it tonight to all the people in this church.

You would run out of this building and you would never show your face here again. And you know what I'm saying is true. You have thought things so vile, so perverted, so wicked that you cannot even begin to share them with your closest friend.

And you know that I'm reading your heart correctly. Now, I have not even mentioned your works. I'm talking about your heart. I'm afraid for you. Look, man, look inside. Look, what's going to be exposed on the day of judgment.

Is that what you really desire? That your heart be for laid like a fish and opened up and every intent, every thought of your heart to be judged under the righteousness of God, is that what you desire?

Look in your heart. You know what's there. Darkness so deep it cannot be calculated, perversion so strong that if anyone even got a whiff of what was brewing in your heart. You would run a thousand miles to escape.

Their notice of you. You know, that's true, you know, that's true, and if you know that you would be ashamed before sinful men with a heart like that, how much more would you be ashamed before a holy and righteous God?

Go to Genesis chapter eight, verse twenty one. And the Lord smelled a sweet savior and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Scripture is quite clear. Men are born with a corrupt, Adamic nature. The tiniest child in this room. Dressed in white ribbons in their hair, possess a corrupt, Adamic nature, apart from the grace of God, has the potential to make Adolf Hitler look like a choir boy.

Let me give you an example. I say I'm holding a child in my arms or the child you hold in your arms, 12 months, 18 months, the child sees your watch shining, grabs at your watch. You say no, grabs at your watch again, you say no, grabs at your watch again.

I want you to know something and correct theology backs me up on this. If that child, that 18 month old baby had the strength at that moment of an 18 year old man, that baby would slaughter you where you stand, rip that watch off your arm, walk over your dead body, leaving bloody tracks on the floor and walk out the door without an ounce of remorse in their heart.

You say, I have never heard of such a thing. Well, you should have. Because that is what we mean when we say that men are born with corrupt, Adamic, I have received the greatest news for me that my wife is pregnant when it's absolutely medically impossible.

She's now pregnant and I'm so happy. But that boy that is going to be born to me, apart from the grace of God, could be the greatest monster the world has ever known. Just to throw something in the other day, I was preaching and I said, I pray with all my heart.

It is my greatest desire, my greatest hope that my son would glorify God. And it's like at that moment, God stopped me. Do you realize something? My son will glorify God. And you will glorify God, and this is a this is an awesome statement for a father to say, but my son will either glorify God in heaven as a demonstration of the mercy of God, or my son will glorify God in the deepest bowel of hell as a demonstration of God's justice.

But my son will glorify God. And so will you. Don't think you're going to rob God of glory. He'll get glory out of you. He got it out of Pharaoh and you're no pharaoh. Some people talking so much about Satan today and how dangerous he is.

Satan's not dangerous. He's not the one you should fear. God's the one you should fear. He's the dangerous one walking around in this congregation this evening. So many people. I heard someone today talking about they heard a preacher talking about a child.

The parents said, but my child, ever since my child has been born, my child has loved God, that all my child just loves God and loves God. She just loves to go to church and she loves to sing and she loves to do all this.

She hasn't been converted. She hasn't been regenerated, as you suppose, but she loves God. Let me explain to you something. She hates God. Then what is she loving? She's loving the image of a God she has made with her own mind.

That is what she is loving and that is what she is worshiping. And for this very reason, Sunday morning in America is the greatest hour of idolatry in the week because so many people who are loving God are not loving God of Scripture.

They're not loving Yahweh. The person they are loving is a God they've made out of their own sinful mind. They've projected him out there in space and they adore him. But if the real God showed up or the real God was preached, they would walk out that door as I've seen them so many times saying, my God's not that way.

Make no mistake. I hate God. Hate God. Can you imagine? Here's God. He tells constellations, put yourself in order. He tells stars thousands of times larger than the sun, you go there and stay put. He tells entire planets, stand up and dance, and then he looks at you and says, come and you say no terrifying and you should be afraid.

Reporter also asked me one time, why are you always telling people to be afraid? And I said, because they should be afraid. They should. But it goes on. Let's go to Isaiah 64, verse six. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

Have you ever seen a leper? I have. Worked among the lepers of San Pablo. Leprosy is a horrible thing. There was a leper standing here with me right now, you would have smelled him before you came through the doors.

Well, let's imagine that we have a leper standing here for a moment, naked. His flesh rotting off his own body, body fluid and pus flowing down his legs onto the floor. A sight that you can't even bear with, you must turn away for fear that your stomach is going to betray you.

There he is. So we all get together and decide as fine people that we are, that we're going to do something for this leper. So we go to we go to Austin or we go to San Antonio, we go to Dallas and we buy the finest, widest silk we can possibly find.

And then we come back all happy with ourselves and we wrap the leper up in silk and we sit down and applaud ourselves. Why? Because we've made him presentable. We've made him decent. We've covered his filth.

Yes, we have. For a few minutes and then what happens, the cloth placed upon the man becomes as vile and corrupt as the man himself. And for this very reason, no good work can save a man because even your highest morality is nothing but filth because it has been touched.

By the corruption of your nature. Corruption gives birth to corruption, your nature is morally corrupt and therefore all your deeds are abominable to God. They are unacceptable to a holy God, they are unacceptable to a righteous God, there is nothing you can do, you can wash yourself with soap, but can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?

Can a leper change his spots? No. Can we bring forth something good from that which is evil? No. This is the way we are. Let's go to Romans three, verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. The idea of the word righteous is simply straight came to mean a standard or a norm.

If this is a straight standard and a norm, and then in order for this arm to be righteous, it must parallel and perfectly conform my standard. If my arm goes this way or this way or twists in a certain way, it no longer conforms to this standard and it is not righteous.

The great standard in the universe is God's nature and will. And in order to be considered righteous, you and I must perfectly conform to that standard in nature and will, and we do not. We do not. The synonym for crooked is what?

Perverted, twisted. Those are words that are best used in describing men, perverted, twisted, corrupt, wrong, out of place, out of joint, being used for wrong purposes. That's you. I'm not preaching this as an angry man.

I'm not preaching this as a fanatic or maybe I am. But how would you preach about something so important? How would you cry out to men and say, repent and believe the gospel? Because in your own nature, you're corrupt and there is no good deed you can offer to God.

You cannot grant be granted immunity. Because of your sin, and he goes on, he says, verse 12, he says, there's they've all gone out of the way and they're all together become unprofitable. There is none that do it good.

No, not one. So many people, even so many young people in good churches, believe that somehow God has a scale of morality. And if you've done more good things than bad things, somehow you can get in. But let's say that's true.

But you don't have any good thing, you've never placed one good thing on the scale, you're destitute of goodness of heart and you're destitute of goodness of works. Yet people all the time theologically getting into this argument about free will, I have no problem with free will, I'll grant you your free will.

The problem is you don't have goodwill. Your free will is governed by a corrupt heart. You always do that, which is corrupt and you have no good. But let's say you had a million deeds of good and one wrong deed of bad.

Let me ask you a question. How many times did Adam and Eve sin before they were cast out of the presence of God? Once. How many times have you sinned? You can't even begin to count it on a calculator.

Can you? Doesn't that make you afraid? Take each sin like a marble on a string and push it to one side, count all your sins tonight, let them be, oh, that God would place your sins before you, that he would make your sin so ripe like fruit before you.

That you would have to count every one and be drawn into such a condemnation, such a trial. You'd repent and believe the gospel, because that's exactly what Paul is doing here. Look at verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

It's like they asked the old preacher, how many did you get saved tonight? He said, I didn't try to save anybody. I tried to condemn everybody. If I can get them condemned, God will get them saved. And that's exactly what Paul is doing here.

He is weaving a net and he is drawing it close. He has spent a great deal of time in these first three chapters of Romans. He has been plotting and planning and writing and scheming. To show you one thing, your sin and to corral you, to trap you and to leave you in the dark, in the dirt, corralled, captured with your hand over your mouth because you have no excuse and the only thing for you is to wait for condemnation and death.

That's exactly what Paul is trying to do. And I'll show you why. Does anyone have any keys, keys? I don't have any. Listen to this. Does that make you happy? Does that bring you joy? It does. You probably need counseling, but listen to this.

You know why it doesn't bring you joy? Because you're not in a dark dungeon waiting to be executed. You put a man in a dark dungeon waiting to be executed. He hears keys, first the ear, then the heart, then the mouth cries out, hallelujah.

Do you know why the gospel is so impotent the way we preach it? You haven't got anybody in jail yet. They can't appreciate the key. They can't appreciate the freedom. Do you know why when so many times some of you young people, you have sat under the gospel and sat under the gospel and your mind has wandered and wandered and wandered about so many things?

And do you know why? Because you do not see the sinfulness of sin. You do not see the danger you're in. You don't see you're condemned, you don't see it, but you are, you are, you are. And the moment you do see that, Christ will become precious to you.

He will become precious. Now, this is what you are and God is holy. Holy. Now, what does that mean? God is holy. You know, when I said God is holy, the majority of you thought about one thing, moral purity.

Well, that's that's a small part of holiness. You see, you could be morally pure and still be completely out of the will of God. What do I mean? Now, the word holy means separated when it's when it's attributed to God.

It means that he's distinct from all other beings. He's not greater than us. He is a totally different thing. There's a greater difference between God and a cherub as there is between God and a microbe.

He's completely different. He's off the charts. He's not like us in any shape, form or fashion, but for us to be holy means for us to be separated unto God. You see, you could look at all of God's rules and you could keep them with all your might and you still would not be holy because holiness is not just rule keeping.

It is a heart that is passionately in love with God, that is passionately separated unto God, that has left everything else not out of duty, not out of moral requirement, but out of passion. For God. And so you could you could come to church and do your little holy thing and still be so displeasing to God.

Because there is no love for the divine. Young person, let me ask you a question, does your heart ever beat for God? Do you ever desire his presence? Then it's not well with you. It's not well with you.

Even moral makeovers are not all the evidence you need to confirm your salvation. Is there a passion in your heart for God, is there a desire for God, is there a longing for God like the deer, like the heart that panted at the Waterbrook, does your heart pant that way?

We all know times of deadness. We all know times of of not wanting God. We know the dark night of the soul. But my question is, can you see in your life a heart that beats for God because God is holy and he made you for himself and the greatest sin you could ever commit is not submit to that one great thing of being made for God and his good pleasure.

But holiness not only means that, it also means that God is morally pure, that God hates sin. God hates many things. Two years ago, I was preaching a message and I got to Psalms five and the first night of a revival and right after I preached it the next day, every few leaders came to where I was staying and they said the revival has been canceled.

And I said, why? They said, because you said God hates people. I said, yes, I did say that, but that's not all I said. Psalms five is very clear. You've heard the statement over and over, God loves the sinner and hates the sin, you've heard it so many times and it's so beautiful.

God loves the sinner and hates the sin, but it's not true. That's the only problem with that statement. It doesn't say in Psalms five that that God hates iniquity, says he hates the workers of iniquity.

God doesn't send sin to hell. He sends men to hell. Sin is not necessarily the object of God's wrath. Men are the object of God's fierce anger. God hates workers of iniquity. And someone always comes up to me and they say, well, what about John three sixteen for God's to love the world?

I said, I believe every word of it, but I also believe Psalms five. And so what are we talking about here? First of all, people have this idea that God is love and therefore cannot hate. I want to submit to you.