Article 25 The Gospel

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Okay, all right, greetings and salutations again, good to see you, good to be back on Wednesday nights, and we will again resume what we have been doing and going through the confession that we have taken as a guide for our statement of faith, and so tonight if you hadn't remembered where we left off, we are at Article 25, which is Preaching the Gospel, and then I will do that part, and then Brother Keith will do Article 26 and 27, The Power of the Gospel and the Effects of the Gospel, and I hope we're enjoying going through the confession, I know I am, it's a good way for us to not only frame out for ourselves what it is that we hold so dear, but also to see that others have believed and held and set forth the same things for many, many centuries, and we can rest assured that God's truth is always true, it never changes, so let's just open up with a word of prayer, and then we'll look at the article, and then Brother Keith comes, so let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, again, we approach you through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, and we realize, Lord, that apart from Him we have no hope, but in Him we have all hope, because He is the Savior of sinners.
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We confess, Lord, that even now still we continue at times to fall into sin, and yet by your great grace, Lord Jesus Christ, He ever lives to make intercession for us, even the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us, so often, Lord, we don't even know the things that we ought to pray for, but we do ask you, Lord, to bless us tonight, bless our minds, bless our lives, bless our ability to comprehend your word and to enjoy it, and then to have it work in us in a way that it shows forth in our life, Lord, that we might show forth the power of the gospel as it changes and transforms sinners and creates in them a distinction, and that distinction being that we are the children of God.
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So bless us tonight, and may even a few minutes in your word be blessed by you, and that we would grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Son of God who so loved us that He gave Himself for us.
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Amen.
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Alright, so as I said, Article 25, and I'm going to read the article, perhaps we'll read the appendix, there is an appendix to this article as you can see it if you're looking at the book, and that appendix is on page 35, but let me at least read the article to us, and it's got in parenthesis preaching the gospel, and it says this.
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The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners is absolutely free.
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No way requiring or is absolutely necessary any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, or proceeding ministry of the law, but only and alone the naked soul, a sinner and ungodly, to receive Christ crucified, dead and buried, and risen again, who is made a prince and a savior for such sinners, as through the gospel shall be brought to believe on Him.
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Now, I want to make a couple of remarks, and just mention a couple of verses regarding this article, and let me just say it this way.
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I would suppose that in certain circles, and perhaps even in circles that you might not even imagine, that this article as it's been presented here, as the brethren wrote this, this might seem to disturb some, and I hope to explain a little bit why I think that might be, that this article might be misunderstood or really not agreed with, and as we go through it maybe we'll see a little clearer why that might be.
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But I want us to think about, if we understand what the brothers are stating here, they are explicitly and very clearly saying that the preaching of the gospel and the hearing of the gospel and the gospel itself is absolutely free.
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That it has no attachments to it, being the good news, being that which God has set forth for the salvation of sinners, it has no attachments to it, and I don't want to go too far into the power of it, as Brother Keith I'm sure will address, but that we begin to realize that the gospel stands by itself.
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And that it is free.
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And that the gospel itself, the preaching of the gospel, is the means by which God has been pleased to present his truth and press it on men, women, children, by the spirit of God, and that there is nothing else that is required.
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And that the gospel is, in that sense, universal in its scope.
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That it's not bound by customs, it's not bound by culture, it's not bound by time or space, in that sense.
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It's not bound by age, it's not bound by anything.
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It is absolutely free, and not only is it absolutely free, it is absolutely powerful to do that work which God has assigned to it.
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And we think we always have to remember that the gospel message is, whosoever, whosoever will, let him take.
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And even if he doesn't preach, and they use one of the verses that they use, is from Isaiah 55, and probably familiar to many of us.
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In Isaiah 55, as it says, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
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You who have no money, come and buy and eat, and come and buy wine and milk, without money and without price.
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So I think it's important for us to understand, and again, I could be wrong, but I do think that this article would disturb some, and I'll get into that in just a little bit, why I think that might be.
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But that you and I would understand that the preaching of the gospel is that which God has ordained, and that there is nothing else that is required.
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And certainly I think the brothers here make that absolutely clear.
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Remember what Jesus said at the end of Mark's gospel, he said that we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
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We are to go into the world, preach the gospel to every creature, and we are, in that sense, not to take anything else with us.
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Nothing else is needed if we simply preach the gospel.
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And I thought about terms that the gospel is called in, especially as you go through the New Testament.
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Let me just give you a few of them.
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I kind of listed some of them.
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You know it's called the gospel of the kingdom.
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And it's also called the gospel of God.
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It's called the gospel of the grace of God.
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It's called the gospel of his son.
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It's called the gospel of peace.
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It's called the gospel of your salvation.
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It's termed in the New Testament as the glorious gospel.
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It's also called the everlasting gospel.
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So when we begin to think about the gospel message, not only in what it is, but the fact that God has ordained the preaching of the gospel, that you and I would begin to understand that that's where our obligation is.
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Now, why I think, and if you want to have some conversation about it, we can certainly.
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We've got a few minutes.
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So the real reason why I think that this might cause some to disagree is that there are men, and there are many, who would stipulate that before you present the gospel, that you must also present the law.
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That the law must precede the gospel.
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In other words, there are those who would set forth that before a man ever comes to the truth, he first has to know his guilt before God.
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And what I found really interesting in this article was as they word it, let me just point you to it again.
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The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners is absolutely free, and then look what it says, no way requiring as absolutely necessary any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, or preceding ministry of the law.
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And so, I think that's where some might be tripped up a little bit, but I do think that the brothers make it absolutely clear that they are not saying in any way that the preaching of the law, or the setting forth of the law, or in that sense the reality of a man, or a woman, or a child having to come to deal with the law is not useful in the preaching of the gospel.
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I think the point is that they are setting forth very clearly, it's not absolutely necessary that the gospel stands on its own.
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That Jesus said, whoever believes in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
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What do you think? That's always a loaded question, what do you think? I have a thought on this and I just want to throw it out there, because when a person does not understand their guilt before God, that the law is useful.
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And I think that someone might see this and think that using the law in that regard is wrong.
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I don't think that the law is wrong, and I think that the phrase that's been very helpful for me is, law to the proud and grace to the humble.
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If I meet a person who already knows that they are a sinner, who is already broken under the weight of their sin, then you give them the gospel freely.
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But if you meet a person who is prideful and is proud of their works, then you give them the law so that they understand their weight of brokenness and understand their need of grace.
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So I think the phrase law to the proud and grace to the humble has been helpful for me.
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And I don't think the brothers would have disagreed with that.
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No, and again, I want to be careful because I'm not saying, because I would set forth also the same truth, that the law is a very gracious, useful way in which God allows us to show men their true state.
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Yeah, Galatians is the schoolmaster, right? Right, it's the schoolmaster, and in that sense it shuts us in to push us to Christ.
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But I think the key is that it's not an absolute requirement, certainly as what you just said, and that's where I think we need to be careful.
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That we don't add to the word of God, and we don't take away from it.
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So again, don't misunderstand me, I am not trying to say that the law is not useful.
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Not only do I believe that it's, I'm trying to think how to say it, it's very useful to show a man his true state, and also to make someone, or seek to make someone understand, not only what their true state is, but the ramifications of it.
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In other words, the fear of God, right? I've met people, and maybe you have, and I know one person in particular, true brother, loved the law with all his heart, and he said the thing that brought him to Christ was his fear of going to hell.
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He says that was the exact thing that caused him to look to Christ, was he was afraid to go to hell.
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And God used that in that way to crush him, and then to lift him up by the gospel.
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So again, I don't believe that the brothers would disagree with what you're saying, or what I'm saying to a point where what we are setting forth is that there is nothing that is needed other than the gospel.
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That we can simply tell people, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, even as the Philippians tells us.
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So were you going to say something? I hate that you're interjecting.
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No, you've been on vacation, you can interject, come on, come on.
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Because this was actually the article that, you know, like you said, I felt like there would be a lot of questions.
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I also think within this is also the idea that we do not put requirements of the law on people.
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And I'm sure you would get in there, but that's a thought too.
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Yeah, I mean, again, because if we do that, in a sense, you could almost move to the point, almost what Paul says, that if anyone preaches any other gospel than the one I preached, I'm going to be accursed.
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And that's why I say we've got to be careful that we don't add to the word of God, nor take away from it.
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And again, I'm not diminishing the use of the law.
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I'm not diminishing the use of trying to have someone understand the fear of God.
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I will say, even as I said Sunday in the message on irresistible grace, that in the psalm, which I quoted several times, it says that as soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
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And I believe that I could show from the scriptures that there are times, as we walk through the gospels, that the Lord Jesus Christ simply presents himself to many and they believe.
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And that they're not necessarily cut down.
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And again, there are many, many examples of it.
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I think of Zacchaeus.
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And I don't know the preceding work of the Spirit of God in the heart of Zacchaeus.
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All I know is that he climbed up in the sycamore tree and Jesus said, come on down, I'm going to your house today.
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And that was it.
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I think of Lydia, who was a cellar of purple, and it says the Lord opened her heart.
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Now, I don't know if he opened her heart through the fear of hell.
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I don't know if he opened her heart through being stricken by the law.
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But I know he opened her heart.
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I know this, and I will say this, and I've told you this a number of times.
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For me, I did not fear the wrath of God.
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I was not crushed under the law of God.
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I was lost.
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And in that sense, that's how the gospel, when the gospel came to me in its power, it was from lost to found.
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Not from lawbreaker to the gospel.
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Nor was it the fear of, in that sense, the fear of God's wrath.
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Now, I want to be careful, too, because just because I had that experience doesn't mean that experience is the biblical experience for everybody.
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What I'm trying to say is, as we think about it, and as I think the brothers rightly said, there is nothing that is absolutely necessary to be attached to the preaching of the gospel.
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And that sometimes, as we all often do, we usually err too far on one side, or too far on the other side.
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Right? And so you'll find those that will be of that mindset, that before you ever present the truth of the gospel of the saving work of Christ, you first have to get them to be struck down by Mount Sinai, before you ever lead them to Mount Zion.
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And I just don't believe that that is what is absolutely necessary.
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I think there are those, again, those examples of many that Jesus encountered.
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And it actually helps me understand, because if you go through, if you read the narratives in the gospels, friends, and you go through the accounts of Jesus in his interaction with a group of different kinds of people, there are some people that simply, Jesus says what? And I'll even say it as far as Peter and John and the opening of the apostles.
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What does he say to them? There they are fishing in the boat.
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What does he say? Follow me.
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And what do they do? They leave their nets and they follow him.
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Now again, I'm not trying to say that there wasn't things that had worked in their hearts, but nevertheless, the point still remains.
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It's simply the word of the gospel, which is really the good news of Jesus Christ, is all that's necessary.
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You think of Matthew, there he is sitting at the tax collector's table and, follow me, he's going, I think we need to be careful.
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I think that we need to be careful because, would you not agree with me that God's revealed will to us is that which we should come as close to as possible? Agree? That what God has revealed to us in his word about him, about us, about what he wants us to do, wants us to be, wants us to say, we ought to be as close to exactly what he says as we can.
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And that, again, I think you can go either way.
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You can dip on one side and maybe become a bit of a legalist.
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You can dip on the other side and maybe become a bit of an antinomian.
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And again, perhaps you've dealt with that where you go and you never really hear the good news of the gospel, all you hear is the bad news of your sin.
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Or you go in the other direction and all you ever hear is the good news when you never really understand that, as Jesus said, that those that are whole don't need a physician, but what? Those that are sick.
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And God uses and is pleased to use many different things to show men their sickness, but it's not a prerequisite to again strike them down with a lightning bolt to the law of God.
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I believe that's what's used certainly in our sanctification.
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And so is, in many ways, as I said, some come from that side, as this brother I spoke to you about, he was truly just absolutely convicted about going to hell.
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And he said that that was the very thing.
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Certainly as we move along in the Christian life, we would say that those things are useful, used by God, certainly the law of God, because otherwise, again, we would be called antinomian.
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But I do believe that we need to be careful that John 3.16 stands on its own.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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Brother, you going to say something? The gospel of the good news, it's good because there's bad news.
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Correct.
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In the gospel, it does say that Jesus died for our sins.
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Sure.
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So you're covering that.
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Yes.
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I think that's why they're saying absolutely nothing has to be added to it.
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Added to it, right.
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Yeah.
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And again, and I think your point, brother, is an excellent point, right? Where we find people or we can discern where they are, again, the Pharisees didn't really need anything but to be broken, right? But the lame man laying by the pool, waiting for someone to help him come in, or the lepers, or those that were broken over the loss or near death situations of their children, it was more grace than humility.
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Humility, it was more of hope than the lightning bolt, right? Again, I think we just need to be careful that we do it because, and I know Brother Keith's going to touch it and I'm just about out of time anyway, but you think about what Paul says in Romans 1, right? What? I am not ashamed of the gospel, God, for it is what? The power of God unto salvation.
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And that word power is dunamis, which is where we get the word in English for dynamite.
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The gospel is the dynamite of God.
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It is that which explodes the heart and brings the good news of the gospel.
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So that's really all I wanted to say, although I would like to read the appendix and remember, it's on page 35, remember why the appendix was written.
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The appendix was written after, by Benjamin Cox, and the reason for his writing it was to give further clarity over what the brothers had said previous.
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And so under article 6 on page 35, the necessity of gospel preaching, just read it with me.
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He says this, Though some of our opposers do affirm that by this doctrine we leave no gospel to be preached to sinners for their conversion, yet through the goodness of God we know and preach to sinners this precious gospel.
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Gospel of the world, that is, having been so loving to mankind that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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And this faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and all those sinners, how vile and grievous soever, not only which already do, but also which hereafter shall believe on him to life everlasting.
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And that to Christ and all the prophets give witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
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And this is called the word of the gospel.
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This is the gospel which Christ and his apostles preached, which we have received, and by which we have been converted unto Christ.
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And we desire to mind what Paul says in Galatians, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than you have received, let him be anathema.
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In that sense, if you go back in the book of Acts, and I'll close with this, just a thought, you go back into the book of Acts where there was that tremendous issue that was brought up about circumcision, that in a sense, if we begin to attach things to the gospel, are we not almost falling into the same trap of saying that Christ alone is not enough, that in order for, as they said, in order for a man to be really a rabbi God, he had to be circumcised, and we just need to be as clear with the gospel message as God intended us to be.
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And I'm sure Brother Keith will follow up with that.
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Any other thoughts before? Very good.
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Okay.