The Gospel

Hello, dear ones. I want to take just a few moments and share with you the gospel.

And the gospel is this. All of us are sinners. You are a sinner.

All of us have broken God's laws, the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not lie.

Every single one of us has told lies. And if you've told one lie, you are a liar. Thou shalt not steal.

All of us have taken something that does not belong to us. Thou shalt not take the name of the

Lord thy God in vain. All of us have used God's name in an irreverent way.

And taking God's name in vain is not just saying OMG or some derivative of that.

We take God's name in vain in word and in deed. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Jesus says if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery already in your hearts. If you have ever looked at another person with lust, you're an adulterer.

All of us have broken God's laws thousands of times over the courses of our lives.

And just like when we break laws on earth, there's a penalty to be paid, how much more so when we break the laws of God.

But because we have sinned against God who is eternal, the punishment of that sin is also eternal.

And if we die in our sin, we will very rightly and very justly go to a very real place that the

Bible calls hell where the worm will not die, the fire will not be quenched, there will be wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth.

The full undiluted fury of God's wrath will be poured out forever and ever day and night, and it will never end.

And there is no amount of good works that you and I can perform to overcome the debt that we owe to God, to overcome the debt that our sins have incurred.

God is good, and because He is good, He must punish sin.

If He did not punish sin, then He would not be good. Think of it in a courtroom setting.

If someone has committed murder, and that person is caught, and the security cameras were rolling, they've got footage, all the evidence is there, this person committed murder, and he stands before the judge, he's been found guilty in a court of law, and the judge says, well, sir, before I pass sentence on you, you've been found guilty for the act, for the crime of committing murder.

Before I pass sentence on you, do you have anything to say for yourself? What if you were to say, well, judge, you know,

I think you're a good judge, and because you're good, I think you should let me go. After all,

I've only committed one murder on one day. I've lived thousands and thousands of other days, never killed anybody, just this one person on this one day.

So, you know, I think my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. What if the judge were to say, well,

I've never really thought about it that way. I am a good judge, and yeah, your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, so I'll tell you what,

I'll let you go, you're free, we'll see you later, have a nice day, and that person walks out the door. Would that be a good judge?

No. It would be a terrible judge, right? A good judge must punish crime.

God is the ultimate good judge, and he must punish sin. If he did not punish sin, then he would not be good.

But because we have sinned against God who is eternal, the punishment of that sin is also eternal.

And dear ones, there is no amount of good works that you can perform to overcome the debt that your sins have incurred to God.

God is eternal. The punishment is also eternal. Our works, doing nice things, you know, for people, helping little old ladies across the street, philanthropic stuff like that, you know, in and of themselves, they are what they are, but they do not touch what we owe to God.

Our works are as filthy rags before a thrice holy God, and that's what

God's Word says in Isaiah chapter 64. Our works are as filthy rags. Lay your works down.

They will not profit you anything. There is nothing that you can do to save yourself. You deserve hell.

That's the bad news. But there is good news, and the good news of the gospel is this, is that God has made a way of escape.

He has made a way for you to escape His own wrath. God sent

His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth, and Jesus lived a perfect life.

He was one person with two distinct natures, truly

God, truly man. And as the God -man, Jesus lived a life of perfect pleasure and satisfaction to God the

Father. He never sinned. He never displeased the Father. He lived a life of perfection.

And then Jesus willingly laid down His life on the cross. His life was not taken.

He gave it. And on the cross, this perfect person offered

His perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God.

Died on the cross. Three days later, bodily raised from the dead, proving Himself to be who

He said He was, God in human flesh. And if you will repent of sin, turn from sin, and place your trust in the risen

Lord Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross, you will be saved. Now I want to talk a little bit about repentance because that's something that most people don't really understand.

Even many professing Christians don't understand repentance. Repentance, first and foremost, is granted to us by God.

God grants repentance. We see this in Acts 5, Acts 11, 2

Timothy 2. God grants repentance. And when God grants repentance, our minds are changed.

Some of you may have heard that repentance, the Greek word metanoia means to change your mind, so just change your mind about your sin.

That's what the word itself means, but when you look at that word in the

Scriptures in its proper context, it does include a change of mind, but it's so much more than that because when

God changes our minds, when our minds are changed by God, everything about us is changed.

Our desires are changed. Our affections are changed. We begin to love what

God loves and hate what God hates. If you are a true Christian, then you will have a desire for God.

You will love God. You will love His Word. You'll have a desire to read and study the

Word of God. You will have a new relationship with sin. The things that you used to love that were sinful, now you'll hate.

The things that you used to hate that were holy, now you're going to love. You'll have new affections.

The Bible speaks in 2 Corinthians 7 about two different kinds of sorrow over sin, and I tell people, you know, if you doubt your salvation, whether or not you're a true

Christian, spend some time in 2 Corinthians 7 and understand the difference between a worldly and a godly sorrow over sin because the apostle

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 that a worldly sorrow leads to death, but a godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation.

So what is a worldly sorrow? A worldly sorrow is nothing more than a guilty conscience. What would happen to me if my sin were exposed?

What would be the consequences to me? You know, what would people think of me if they knew what

I was doing on the side? And what would people think of me if I was caught in my lies? What would my spouse think of me if he or she knew who

I was talking to on social media or texting that I didn't want my spouse to know about?

What would happen to me if my spouse knew what I was looking at on the computer, things that I shouldn't be looking at?

So we try to cover up our sin, not because we grieve over it, but because we don't want the consequences of it.

But if we could get away with it, ask yourself this question, if I could get away with my sin, if nobody would know about it, would

I go right back to it? And if the answer to that question is yes, then that is a worldly sorrow, and a worldly sorrow leads to death.

But then there's this other kind of sorrow over sin, and Paul says it's a godly sorrow. Paul says that a godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation.

A godly sorrow over sin is that sorrow that is vertically oriented. A godly sorrow comes when we grieve over our sin because we understand that our sin grieves

God, and we do not want to grieve Him. We do not want to grieve His person.

He has been so good, so kind, so patient, so generous, so faithful, so merciful to us, that when we sin against Him, it grieves us that we've done that because our sin grieves

Him. It is not that a true Christian never sins. As Christians, true

Christians can and do sin, but here's the difference. A true

Christian will stumble into sin, but he doesn't swim in it. He doesn't relish sin.

He doesn't look for opportunities to sin. He doesn't plan out his sin. When we as Christians sin, it grieves us that we do.

Does your sin grieve you? It is good and it is right to warn people to flee from hell.

It is good and right to fear God, to fear hell, but just as much as we should want a

Savior from hell, we should want a Savior from our sin. Does your sin grieve you?

Not that you're perfect, but when you do sin, does it grieve you that you sin? If it does, that's good.

That's good. That's one of the hallmarks of being a true Christian. But if you're not certain of where you are in your relationship with the

Lord, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.

Do I have a love for God? Do I have a love for His Word? Do I desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ? Do I desire to grow in holiness? Do I desire to put to death the deeds of the body, as Paul describes in Romans chapter 8?

Do I desire to have a decreasing pattern of sin? Is there a decreasing pattern of sin in my life in an increasing pattern in holiness?

Do I have a love for the brethren? Do I have a love for fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ?

Do I love them? Do I love the church? Do I have a desire to fellowship with fellow believers, like -minded believers in Christ in a local church?

If you're a true Christian, you will have that desire. So ask yourself these questions.

And if you're not certain of where you are in your relationship with the Lord Jesus, if you've never truly placed your faith in Him as Lord, then

I would encourage you to get real honest before Christ. Confess your sins to Him. Cry out to Him for forgiveness.

Don't trust in yourself. Trust in Him and what He did on the cross, His finished work.

And if you will come to Christ in a godly sorrow over your sin, desiring a

Savior not only from hell but also from sin, if you will come to Him empty -handed, desiring

Him and Him alone, He will save you. You will pass from death to life.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 that the old things will pass away, all things will be made new, and there will be no condemnation upon you.

If you will come to Christ, He will save you. He says, And if you have trusted

Christ as Savior and Lord, if you're not already a member of a good church, then find a good doctrinally sound church that is being led by biblically qualified men that we call elders, the

Bible calls elders, that is committed to what we call expository preaching, that is simply taking the

Word of God and preaching it verse by verse. You read the Bible and then you explain the meaning.

You exposit the meaning to the people. So you want to find a church. Dear friends, there's a lot of bad churches out there.

All churches are not created equal, but there are some good ones. Find a good doctrinally sound church that's led by biblically qualified men that's committed to expository preaching, that practices church discipline per Matthew 18.

Look for a church that has these things and join yourself to it because it's only in a good sound church that you'll be able to truly grow, use the spiritual gifts that God gives you as a

Christian, encourage one another, love one another, have accountability with one another, do all of these things, and that's where you will truly grow in Christ.