In Defense of the Gospel (2)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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I noticed whether to spell that with an

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S defense or C defense, you know, which is right. And I did a little research, and if we were in England, it would be with a

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C, but S is actually the American way to spell defense. It means the same thing, but in defense of the gospel.

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The scriptures speak of the need to defend the gospel, and in some cases, even recover the gospel. In fact, much from what we know from the scriptures about the content and nature of the true gospel is really through the biblical writers addressing error, respecting the gospel, correcting error.

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And we, of course, know this was Paul's case. He wrote of his own commitment to this end.

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Some indeed preach Christ, even from envy and strife, some also from goodwill. Paul, the former, preached

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Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

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This is to which Paul was appointed. He saw this as a major aspect of his ministry, defending the gospel.

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We introduced our subject last week by considering how vulnerable the biblical gospel is to corruption. Paul had written of his surprise to the

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Churches of Galatia about this matter. They had quickly departed from him, turning away from God, from Christ, when you turn away from the gospel.

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Then Paul also wrote to and turned to 2

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Corinthians 11. He wrote to this church, But I fear lest somehow as a serpent deceived ye by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

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If he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, and here it is, for a different gospel, again the corruption of the gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it.

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And so he speaks of their propensity, their willingness to abandon truth for error.

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And we are all in this condition if the Lord were not merciful and gracious to keep us in the truth of the word of God.

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And so the gospel is always in need of restating, being restated and reaffirmed, because it can become easily corrupted in the minds of Christians, in fact whole churches, the churches of Galatia.

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I don't know how many there were, but a number of them in the region of Galatia and the church at Corinth.

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And so the scriptures teach us, and certainly history testifies to us, that the gospel message we proclaim needs to be reformed, that is assessed and conformed to the scriptures, the word of God, in order that we may be certain the understanding and proclamation that we espouse is conformed to the biblical gospel of salvation.

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Again, the churches of Galatia had embraced another gospel, grace.

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Paul wrote of the false teachers who adversely affected or influenced these churches to reject the gospel for another, which is not another, he says, there's only one true gospel.

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So they embraced something that was false. He declared of the false teachers, there are some who trouble you and want.

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And of course, the error into which the Galatians had fallen was legalism. We addressed this last week, which is a denial of God's grace in salvation.

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Of course, when the Bible speaks of grace in salvation, it's showing forth the manifestation of the goodness of God in saving sinners, in which he bestows his undeserved favor upon those who are actually deserving of his wrath.

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And so God makes it clear in his word that all human beings, apart from the Lord Jesus, are sinners who deserve only his wrath.

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And so with no claims, no ability, and no desire to seek God or come to him, they are lost and hopeless, but God of his own free grace, just like he sent

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Jonah to Nineveh, God of his own free grace, bestows his goodness on sinners, bringing them forgiveness of sins and life in Jesus Christ, thankfully.

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And so, in spite of the fact that we're sinners, God saves us through Jesus Christ.

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Grace is free. And what we mean by grace being free is that God is free to bestow it or withhold it.

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He's not under obligation to be gracious to anyone. God is sovereign in this, in that God chooses the ones who are to be the objects of his grace.

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For those ones, God overcomes all obstacles through his grace to bring those guilty sinners into a relationship with himself.

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It's all of God, all of grace. Of course, legalism is in conflict with the free grace of God and salvation.

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It asserts that there is some good thing that fallen man is capable of doing that will secure

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God's blessing. That's essentially legalism. Legalism corrupts the very meaning of grace.

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And there will be many who will be damned on the final day of judgment because they had embraced it as set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. Now again, last Lord's Day, we briefly addressed the opposite error of legalism as well, and that being licentiousness.

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We just read about that in Jude's epistle. And where legalism denies grace, licentiousness really distorts grace, doesn't it?

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And licentiousness basically promotes an understanding of grace. It allows for a license of sin.

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Hey, my sins are under the blood of Jesus, so it matters not how I live. I can still be saved.

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And that's a corruption of grace. And we read in Jude of these false teachers who turned the grace of our

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God into lewdness or lasciviousness or license. They denied

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Lordship salvation. They denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And so the gospel may be corrupted and has been corrupted repeatedly through the centuries by distorting or denying the biblical doctrine of grace.

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And grace is corrupted by both legalism and licentiousness. However, there are other ways in which the gospel is twisted and distorted so that it becomes really far different from the gospel set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. And I would argue, aside from the corruption of the doctrine of grace, a second way that the gospel is perverted is by redefining salvation itself.

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And I put that in bold and italic to emphasize it. I heard a national radio preacher this week on one of the stations that we're on as I was driving, and he spent his entire half -hour broadcast talking about a man who had killed someone when he was a teenager in order to rob him, and how he was plagued with guilt for this crime of murder for years and years and years, and how it destroyed his life because of his conscience being so plagued with guilt, and how he finally turned himself in to the police and acknowledged it, and he went to jail for it, but how he read the

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Bible and found peace in his soul in reading the Psalms and Proverbs and whatnot.

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He spent an entire half -hour doing this, and I kept asking myself, when is this man going to start talking about the gospel?

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When is this man going to start talking about biblical salvation? And the salvation of the gospel is not, although it will certainly soothe the guilty conscience, the gospel is not the good news on how you can ease your conscience.

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The gospel is the good news on how you can come into a relationship with God by satisfying

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His justice against your sin that condemns you. And that was never even addressed.

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It's very subtle, very subtle, in that it sounds good, and it sounds appealing, and it can bring tears to the listeners, but when you examine it carefully, it has nothing to do with the biblical gospel that's set forth before us.

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And so the gospel becomes perverted by a redefining of salvation itself. And so the gospel, therefore, that brings forth that truncated salvation is a distorted gospel, and in some cases a deficient gospel that will not bring salvation to the one who believes it.

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But before we speak of the specific ways in which the gospel has been corrupted, perhaps it would do us well for us to affirm what the true gospel is of salvation.

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And that's what we're going to spend the rest of this morning on, and then next week perhaps get into some specifics of how the gospel is corrupted.

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How do we identify what the true gospel is? Well, one way that the true gospel may be recognized and distinguished from that which is defective or false is to identify the gospel message that answers the need of true salvation that God has revealed to us in His word, the

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Bible. And so we may better recognize the true gospel if we answer salvation.

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That's a simple question. You think you could answer it biblically, rightly? The answer to this question may be succinctly stated.

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Biblical salvation is the work of God to save people from their sin unto Himself through Jesus Christ, period.

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That's simple and straightforward, but I would argue that that's what salvation is.

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The result of salvation is that a sinner formerly alienated, condemned before God, is brought into an eternal covenant, that is, a binding relationship with God.

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And the language the Bible uses to describe this covenant relationship, you find it in a number of places, where God promises,

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I will be their God and they shall be My people. And salvation is bringing a sinner into that relationship.

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Sin, of course, had been an impenetrable obstacle preventing man from having a relationship with God, and this obstacle of sin, in all its forms and effects, had to be dismantled.

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But this could only be done by God Himself. And so sin had its dire effects upon man, leaving him in a hopeless, helpless, condemned condition.

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And so, if we are to understand what salvation is, we really have to understand what sin is and the effects of sin from which

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God delivers us through Jesus Christ. And so I listed a number of effects of sin that God would have to remedy in order to bring us salvation.

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I think there's listed eight or nine here. Each one of them had to be dealt with in salvation.

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First, of course, due to sin, man is ignorant of his condition and ignorant of God to whom he is accountable.

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Paul wrote, but the natural man, this is a non -Christian person, that will make sense, they're not attracted to him, nor can he know them.

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He's incapable of knowing these things, because these things are spiritually discerned, apprehended.

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And so God must inform the sinner, in other words, remove this ignorance, inform the sinner of his condition, and also of God's remedy of his condition through Jesus Christ.

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And so there must be this work of illumination, which the Holy Spirit enables people to understand the nature and the need for salvation.

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As Paul wrote, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in them?

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Now, you as a human being can enter in or discern what another human being is feeling and experiencing, because you know what it is to hate, you know what it is to hurt.

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And so because you have the same spirit as that person, you understand. Well, the only one who understands

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God is the spirit of God, is what Paul is asserting. You don't know

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God, you cannot know what God is like, the only one who truly knows God is the spirit of God.

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And what Paul is arguing, therefore, it's necessary for the spirit of God to reveal God to you, because you're incapable of knowing

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Him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. And then

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Paul reasons, as the Christian, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God.

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Why? Here's a purpose statement. So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

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In other words, the things of salvation. Unless God in his grace informs us by the

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Holy Spirit, that aspect of our sin will not be remedied.

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We're ignorant. Secondly, due to sin, of course, man is averse to believing and submitting to the true

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God to whom he is accountable. And so not only is he ignorant, but he is opposed to God, and refuses to submit to God.

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This is every non -Christian. Because the carnal mind, Paul reasons in Romans 8, 7, and here the carnal mind, again, is the unconverted person.

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Maybe a very religious person, but an unconverted person. The carnal mind. This is the kind of mind you're born with into this world.

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The carnal mind is enmity against God. You see, it's hostile. It's in conflict with.

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There is no compatibility between the sinner and God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

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It's not possible, because it's opposed to God. That's what sin is. There's an aversion to submission to God.

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And so then those who are in the flesh, and here he's describing non -Christians. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. But then he reasons to the church at Rome. But you're not in the flesh, but in the

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Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. See, you're not like that anymore. And so man is not only guilty for the sins that he commits, but he's guilty because he's a sinner.

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One who desires and delights in his sin. And therefore, if this is to be remedied, if this is to change, in order for this sinner to come into a covenant relationship with God, God must regenerate the sinner.

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This has to change. His heart has to be changed into a new heart.

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And it's really not the old heart being changed into a new heart. It's really God imparting a new heart. I remember my old friend

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Doug brought this home to my mind 35 years ago. I commented about the need for somebody to have his heart changed.

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No, he doesn't need a change of heart. He needs a new heart. And he was absolutely right. God has to impart that new heart.

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Not change that old fallen thing that's in a person. He needs to impart a new heart. Cause and be born again.

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And of course, this imparts to him the desire and the delight in coming to know and submit to God.

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A delight, a love for God and His Word. A love for the truth. This is due to the work of God.

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And it's a sovereign work of God. Declared plainly in John 1. Jesus came to His own, that is

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Jewish people, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him. And this is not talking about an act that you do, but something that happened to you.

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You received Christ. Because God willed you to receive Christ. To them gave

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He the right or the authority to become the children of God to those who believe in His name. Who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of men, but of God.

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People aren't saved by their will, they're saved by God's will. They had received

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Jesus in that they believed on Him. But they had believed on Him because they had been born again by the sovereign grace of God.

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They believed, and in believing they received Jesus. But the reason they did so is they had been born of God.

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Here it clearly teaches that regeneration, the new birth, precedes saving faith. You don't believe and therefore become born again.

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You're born again and therefore you believe. That's what John is declaring. Had they not been born of God, they would have not received

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Jesus. And then thirdly, due to sin, man of course is guilty and condemned before God for having transgressed

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God's law. Thereby incurring God's wrath upon him. And so God must of course pardon the sinner of his guilt.

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In order for God to justly receive the forgiven sinner unto Himself. There needs to be pardon secure.

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Paul indicted the entire human race of course in Romans 3. There's none righteous, no not one.

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All the world is guilty. Every one of us born in the world is in this terrible, sinful, condemned condition.

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And so we're of course in need of receiving God's forgiveness of sins. That's almost universally recognized.

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However, there are more effects of sin. And fourth, due to sin, fallen man lacks a positive righteousness in order to enable him to stand before God on the day of judgment.

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You need more than just being forgiven of your sins. You need a positive righteousness in order to stand on the day of judgment.

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Not everybody is teaching that today. There is a doctrine called the new perspective of Paul.

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Which argues, oh yes, Jesus died for sinners. But this idea of imputed righteousness is taught not taught in the scriptures.

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They are arguing. And that's a false gospel. They are proclaiming we are in need of a positive righteousness.

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If we're going to stand in the day of judgment. And of course this imputed righteousness is a gift that God confers to you freely.

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When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the scripture Paul declared the gift.

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It's talking about the gift of righteousness. It's not like that which came to the one Adam who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense.

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That's Adam's sin. Resulted in condemnation. But the free gift. Which came from many offenses.

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Resulted in justification. For by the one man's offense. That's Adam's sin.

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Death reigns to the one. Much more those who receive abundance of grace. And the gift of righteousness.

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There it is. Imputed righteousness. This is the righteousness of Christ. It will reign in life to the one

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Jesus Christ. And of course Paul wrote of his confidence.

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The day of judgment would secure his salvation. For he declared.

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There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. See this is conferred upon him by God.

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It's a gift. But notice. Which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day. And not to me only.

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But also to all who have loved his appearing. All Christians. Are given this crown of righteousness.

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Which is imputed righteousness. And it's that righteousness that will enable us to stand.

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Withstand. The day of judgment. Not just the pardon of sins. Although that's essential. But we have a positive righteousness.

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Accredited to us. Through faith in Jesus Christ. But in addition.

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Fifthly. Due to sin. Man of course is alienated from God. And the people of God. Fallen man is an enemy of God.

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And so God must reconcile the sinner to himself. Incorporating him into the family of God.

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Because a non -Christian is not a child of God. He's a child of the devil.

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Is what the Lord Jesus declared. And so the Lord. In order to deal with this alienation.

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Must reconcile that sinner to himself. And further adopt that believer into his family.

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And so he becomes a child of God. As Paul wrote.

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For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God. Through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled.

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We should be saved by his life. And then again. Back in John 1. But as many as received him to them.

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Gave he the authority. Become the children of God. And so. This former alienation from God.

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Distancing from God. Has been bridged. And we're now. In the family.

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And it's through Jesus Christ in him alone. But there are more effects of sin.

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Address 6. The sinner needs to have the power of sin broken in his life. So that he becomes compliant.

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Obedient to God. And ordering his life according to the righteousness of God's law.

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Revealed in his word. There's a lot of misunderstanding about this.

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God's law is. The moral standard. By which the people of God are conformed their lives.

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We strive to be like Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ was of course. The embodiment of the law of God.

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If you become like Christ. You become a. A law keeper. Don't you. And in fact.

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Paul reasons that through this work of sanctification. That's what God is doing.

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He's enabling his people to become law keepers. And we read that so clearly in Romans 8.

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Verse 3 and following. What the law could not do. See it could not make people holy.

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Couldn't do it. And that it was weak through the flesh. The law cannot transform sinners.

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What the law could not do. God did. See. God did. The law couldn't do it.

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But God did. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.

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And then verse 4 is another purpose clause. Why did he condemn sin in the flesh? So that the righteous requirement of the law.

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Might be fulfilled in us. Who do not walk according to the flesh.

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But according to the righteousness here. He's talking about practical righteousness.

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A life in conformity to the law. This is why God sent his son. In order that his people would be conformed to his law.

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For he reasons in verse 5. Those who live according to the flesh. They set their minds on the things of the flesh.

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Those are unconverted people. But those who live according to the spirit. These are Christians. The things of the spirit.

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For to be carnally minded. As the non -Christian. To be fleshly minded. Carnally minded.

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Is death. But to be spiritually minded. Is life and peace. Why? Because the carnal mind.

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Again. That of the unconverted person. Is enmity against God. Is not subject to the law of God.

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The implication is. The spiritual mind is subject to the law of God. That's the whole point.

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The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God. Nor indeed can be.

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So then those who are in the flesh. Cannot please God. But then Paul reasons to these Christians in Rome.

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You're not in the flesh however. But in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.

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And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ. He is not his. And if Christ is in you. The body is dead because of sin.

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But the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised

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Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Christ from the dead. Will also give life to your mortal bodies.

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Through a spirit that dwells in you. Now look at verse 12 and following. Very carefully. To live according to the flesh.

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For if you live according to the flesh. I don't care what you claim to believe about Jesus. Whether you trust him to be your savior.

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What if you live according to the flesh. You'll die. That's the outcome.

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Of a life. If you're in reality an unconverted person. But if by the spirit. Not by your own will and love.

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But if by the spirit. You put to death the deeds of the body. You will live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God.

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These are the sons of God. In the context to be led by the spirit of God. Is to be led and enabled.

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To order your life according to the law of God. Clearly it's setting forth the law of God.

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As the moral standard for the Christian life. And so this is how

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God deals with the power of sin. Through the grace of sanctification. Through the Holy Spirit.

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However there's other problems with sin. Seven. The sinner is in need of deliverance from the very presence of sin. Not just the power of sin.

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But can you imagine what a miserable state it would be. To have sin dwelling within you through eternity.

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There are some that are called full preterites. You know who they are? They argue that Jesus Christ came back the second time in A .D.

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70. With the fall of Jerusalem. In other words they argue. Incredibly. That we're living in the eternal state right now.

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Can you imagine? You know living in the eternal state with sin. Dwelling within.

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No this has to be taken out doesn't it? And thankfully the Lord will do that upon our death. The Westminster Catechism rightly states this truth.

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In question 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? Answer.

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The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness. And do immediately pass into glory.

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You leave sin behind. When you die. And you go to be with the Lord. But more than just being delivered from the presence of sin.

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Eight. The sinner is in need of his corruptible body to be replaced with an incorruptible body.

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Whereby he is enabled to dwell with the Lord in eternity. And this of course will take place at the second coming of Christ.

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In the resurrection. This is also declared rightly. Biblically.

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In the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In answer to question 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

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Answer. At the raised up in glory. And so we have glorified bodies like our

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Lord Jesus. And then lastly. We would say of course. If God is to save sinners unto himself.

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He must enable them to stand exonerated on the day of judgment. God is appointed today.

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With Jesus Christ as the judge. In which all humanity are going to be brought before his throne.

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And will be each examined according to our works. And our works will either affirm that we are true believers.

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And will be exonerated by Christ and Christ alone. Or we will be damned.

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And our works will prove whether we are Christians or not. They will be assessed on that day.

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And so on that day he will sentence the damned to everlasting punishment. He will grant entrance into eternal life unto his people.

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All those who are redeemed by Jesus Christ. And so all of these facts of sin.

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I have listed nine. There are probably more but I can't think of any more. Are dealt with by and through salvation.

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And so we see that the work of God in bringing salvation to his people. Is quite an extensive matter. Which encompasses a number of critically important aspects and issues.

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I would argue therefore the gospel. Or the good news. Is the message that God brings us.

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His salvation by his grace. And the gospel we proclaim must lead to and result in.

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Securing or accomplishing all that we have just described. And what we are saying is that sometimes the gospel can be reduced.

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The very idea of salvation can be reduced. To where it doesn't represent salvation at all that is set forth in the scriptures.

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Primarily for example the idea that this is how you can have your sins forgiven. And they give you a short theological lesson.

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You as a sinner. Christ died. Believe on him. You're forgiven. That's it. You're covered.

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And as a consequence I fear scores, millions of people across our land.

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Believe themselves to be saved. And yet when you consider what salvation is.

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As we've just depicted it. They have never experienced it. And yet we've deluded them.

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The evangelicals have. In convincing them that they have salvation. And so having considered the biblical nature of salvation.

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Let's therefore. Consider. More precisely. The biblical content of the gospel.

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That we're to proclaim. Again. What we're doing is.

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We've already stated. The gospel is something that is easily. Distorted.

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And abandoned. Paul was amazed those churches of Galatia. Departed from him.

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So quickly. Onto another gospel. And he was afraid the Corinthians would do the very same thing.

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He'd so quickly pick up a false gospel. And so. What is the gospel?

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Having understood salvation. Understanding that the gospel must speak to these ends. How may we define the gospel?

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And again I would argue. The gospel is the good news. That God brings sinner salvation. From sin.

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Through Jesus Christ. I think that encompasses it all. Now there needs to be a lot of content added to that.

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But I think that. Is a good statement. About the gospel. The good news that brings.

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God brings sinner salvation. From sin through Jesus Christ. But having provided a statement a definition.

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Let's fill out the content. Now. Here's some detail of the content of the gospel. How do we do that?

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Well I went through. And I looked up every phrase. In the New Testament. That spoke of the gospel of something.

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This ought to tell us what the gospel is right? And I've listed. All the instances. In the

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New Testament. You have the gospel of God. Interestingly. And it's repeated a number of times.

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There's the references. The glorious gospel of the blessed God. First Timothy 1.

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And then of course you have the gospel of Christ. And you notice that seems to be the most numerous.

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Number of instances. The gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the glory of Christ.

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The gospel of his son. The gospel of peace. The gospel of your salvation.

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And then the gospel of the kingdom. Which seems to be almost like an odd man out.

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Of all these references to the gospel. If you look at them closely however. The kingdom of God.

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Now granted the gospel of the kingdom is only cited. In those what? Four places.

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You see Matthew's gospel. Mark's gospel. However those other expressions.

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Where it speaks are speaking to the matter.

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The kingdom of God also. Because is that not what Christ means. He's the anointed one. The anointed king of Israel.

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The anointed son of David. The promised son of David. And so really. Many of these.

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Statements of the gospel. Have to do with the nature of the kingdom of God. And so I would argue.

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That the gospel of the New Testament. Through which God brings salvation to sinners. His kingdom through his son

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Jesus Christ. And I would argue. That that is. The major theme.

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That you have throughout the Bible. You have in the Old Testament. The promise of the kingdom. The Messiah is coming.

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And in the New Testament. You have the realization of that. The king has come. And the king is

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Jesus Christ. And to experience salvation.

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Is to come into that kingdom. In other words. The gospel of the kingdom. Addresses each and every one of those.

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Issues of sin. That we spoke about earlier. And I would argue.

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For different reasons. We'll get into them next week. Lord willing a little bit. That this gospel of the kingdom.

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Is not something that is universally. Proclaimed widely. You can read books.

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You can watch Christian television. A long time. And never hear about the kingdom of God. Oh you'll hear about a future thousand year millennium.

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That kingdom is a substance.

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And content of the gospel. That has come into realization. Through Jesus Christ. That is not a major thrust or emphasis.

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I would argue. In evangelicalism. And I think that is a real problem. And so this message of the kingdom of God.

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Addresses all of the conditions. To which sin has plunged the human race. To come into the kingdom of God.

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Even into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this involves. Coming to an understanding of.

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And submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. Even as King of Kings. And Lord of Lords. And you cannot have salvation.

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You do not have salvation. Unless you come to that recognition. Jesus is

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Lord. And I would argue. That there is frequently a gospel. Proclaimed all day long.

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That you can. Submit to Jesus as Lord.

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And I believe that is a false. It is an abbreviated. Truncated gospel.

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And so what is the gospel? Well. What is it? We are to proclaim salvation from sin.

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Through faith in Jesus Christ. Secured for us through his life. Through his crucifixion. Through his resurrection. But the gospel of salvation is set forth frequently.

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Perhaps even chiefly. In terms of the arrival of the kingdom of God. But realize through Jesus Christ.

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Who is now. Presently the sovereign Lord of history. The gospel is the gospel.

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Through Jesus Christ. And we ought to understand that.

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It ought to be at the very center of our being. I believe. And our proclamation. And so to believe the gospel.

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Is to believe all that ascended into heaven.

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And was enthroned. He is the King of Kings. And Lord of Lords. And to come to acknowledge that.

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In all the materialistic and that form. Is that not right? Well.

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Let's consider some passages that address this. We are not going to have time. To go through all of this. But what we want to do here.

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And we did this by the way last night. Is to show you how pervasive.

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This theme in the scriptures. And yet. How little it seems to be addressed.

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The so called evangelistic meetings. And efforts. Even gospel tracks. when you read it.

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You have nothing of this set forward in my mind, or it's very rare.

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So let's consider some passages. Well, of course, and in the opening of these

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Gospels, you have it declared, basically, what was being realized. Gabriel appeared to Mary, and what he did was announce the birth of the king, the promised king, the son of David, and announced it to Mary.

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And we read, in the early part of the Gospel of Luke. We also read, in the opening of the

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Gospel of Mark, we have the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Those are the opening words of Mark's Gospel.

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And so there you have the word, Gospel, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then

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Mark immediately quoted Isaiah 40, verse 3, which is a prophecy of the messenger who preceded the promised

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Messiah, John the Baptist, who will prepare your way.

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And so Mark ties the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the realization of the long -anticipated kingdom of God.

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The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the kingdom. At the onset of John the

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Baptist's ministry, Matthew 3 .1, John quoted this passage in Isaiah, and he announced the need to prepare for the onset of the kingdom of God.

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In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness to Jesus, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the kingdom of heaven is identical to the kingdom of God.

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They are one and the same. And then he quotes Isaiah. Later, in Mark 1, we read at the beginning of the ministry, a message.

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After John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee. What did he preach? The Gospel of the kingdom of God.

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There you have the Gospel. Saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the

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Gospel. The Lord Jesus declared the Gospel was the realization of the kingdom of God.

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This was the message our Lord Jesus proclaimed throughout Galilee. We read in Matthew 4 .23, Jesus went about all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the

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Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness. See, we are going to be proclaiming to the fallen world out there, that Jesus Christ is

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Lord of Lords, He is in control of history, and He is going to judge the world.

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And you better humble yourself and repent and acknowledge Him as Lord and submit to Him as Lord, or you are going to perish in your sins.

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This is the kingdom. The main theme of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount was the kingdom of God, with particular emphasis on the ethics of the kingdom.

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The kingdom is mentioned nine times in those three chapters, Matthew 5 -7 of the

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Sermon on the Mount. In fact, the entire sermon could be understood as delineating the meaning of our

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Lord's words, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In Matthew 8, our

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Lord promised the Gentiles would have a part with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God.

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In Matthew 9, we have a summary of our Lord's preaching, which is almost identical to the description of His ministry at the beginning.

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And so Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

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What is the gospel? It is the gospel of the kingdom of God realized through Jesus Christ. Our Lord declared in Matthew 12, the kingdom of God had been realized.

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Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. All of the parables of Matthew 13 are parables about the kingdom of God.

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In contrast to the expectation of the Jewish people, who envisioned a thousand -year millennium, you might argue, an earthly kingdom,

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Jesus said, no, the kingdom is spiritual in nature. It is not a political kingdom with physical borders, but rather it is spiritual in nature.

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It would encompass and permeate the entire world. There would be unconverted people in the world under the authority of this

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King, terrorists and weak in the world, even as Jesus is Lord. But one day the

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King would come, judge the world and separate the world.

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Our Lord continued to teach regarding the kingdom, which is contained, is really in the book of Luke's gospel.

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It begins in Luke 9 .51. He set his face toward Jerusalem. And from Luke 9 .51 all the way to Luke 19, those 11 chapters, you have

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Jesus going to Jerusalem for His, where He is to meet His crucifixion.

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But the whole travel narrative is an exposition of the kingdom of God and how it was being realized.

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And then when He entered Jerusalem, in celebration, the promised son of David has arrived.

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Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And so throughout the entire ministry of our

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Lord Jesus, throughout the gospels, we have the emphasis of the kingdom of God, and the gospel is clearly declared to be the gospel of the kingdom.

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In fact, the kingdom of God was the primary message of the

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Lord Jesus. George Lead famously said in his theology of the

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New Testament, modern scholarship is quite unanimous in the opinion that the kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus.

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And I would ask, is it our central message? Now commonly our central message is justification.

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Ask Jesus into your heart and be forgiven of your sins. You can have eternal life. And I would argue that that is a truncated salvation.

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It's far -reaching. And Jesus Christ as Lord, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will have a response of them that must be life -changing.

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We could go into the book of Acts, because of our dispensational friends, they argue, well, the reason there's so much kingdom language in the gospels, and particularly the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is that Jesus was offering the millennium to the

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Jewish people. Had they embraced Jesus as their King, the millennium would have begun. But because they rejected

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Jesus as their King, they argue that God withdrew His offer of the kingdom, and it was postponed until the second coming of Christ.

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And that's why they argue we don't preach the kingdom, but we preach, rather, forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus without the language of the kingdom.

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And I would argue that that strips the gospel of its essence. We read in the book of Acts that basically the same proclamation was made.

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We read in Acts 1 that the appearance of our Lord among His disciples, He spent those many days, 40 days, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

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Our Lord instructed His apostles as they were getting ready to do their new test of ministry.

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It had to do with the kingdom of God. And what was Peter's declaration on the day of Pentecost? This Jesus, this

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Son of David, whom you crucified, God has exalted, and He is enthroned. The kingdom of God has been inaugurated.

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Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings, and you with wicked hands have crucified Him. You better repent because He's going to damn your soul unless you don't.

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And they were cut to the heart. What should we do? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of sins was the argument that Peter gave.

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And so the opening of Acts had to do with the kingdom of God. And then we read later on in the book of Acts, for example, that when

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Philip went down into Samaria to preach the gospel to the Samaritans, what did he preach?

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Well, we read in verse 12 of Acts 8, when those Samaritans believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God.

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Philip was preaching the gospel to the Samaritans. What did he preach about? The kingdom of God. Acts 14,

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Paul came among the churches of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, while he was saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God, talking about the future manifestation of the kingdom when the

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Lord Jesus returns. And we read, for example, in Acts chapter 19, we read of when

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Paul came to Ephesus, that he spent, he evangelized the city, and we read of his ministry and message.

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He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading the things, concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

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The kingdom of God was at the heart of the message of the apostolic testimony and proclamation.

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And then we read in Acts 20, where the apostle is rehearsing his ministry among the elders at Ephesus, and he said that he had preached among them the gospel of the grace of God, and indeed now

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I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.

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Here, Paul declares that preaching the grace of God is preaching the kingdom of God, in Acts 20.

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And then we can look at the very last few verses of the book of Acts, plain and solemnly testified the kingdom of God.

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Throughout the book of Acts, the apostolic testimony and proclamation had to do with the realization of the kingdom of God.

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And what we are arguing is that this whole message of the gospel of the kingdom is something that is not widely proclaimed, certainly not clearly proclaimed in today's world.

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And I believe that we are forfeiting the blessing of God in our evangelistic efforts because our gospel is set forth so plainly and clearly in the scriptures.

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We are basically going around telling people how to feel better about themselves and not have guilty feelings, as though that's what salvation is, as though that's what the gospel is.

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And it's not, and yet so many people perceive it as such.

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And so, I would reason, I would argue, that in our proclamation of the gospel, that it must deal with Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

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And He came and presented Himself as the promised King. He demonstrated it, and through His faithful obedience to God the

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Father, death could not hold Him. And because of His faithful obedience,

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He therefore was awarded all authority in heaven and earth.

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How much more authority can you have? Jesus said, all authority has been given me in heaven and earth, therefore go make disciples of all nations.

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Jesus Christ is Lord, He's King, and we as Christians see that with the eye of faith now.

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The Bible tells us one day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the

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Father. We see that now with the eye of faith, and we confess that now with our lips, don't we?

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We confess Jesus is Lord, and that's what the gospel is a proclamation of that, and salvation is the realization and embodiment and the living out of that.

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Jesus Christ is my Lord, He's your Lord, and therefore we resort to Him as the one who's to govern our thinking, our attitudes, our lives, as He, by the gift of the

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Holy Spirit that He gives His people, enables us to conform our lives to the law of God that He has set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. It's not that difficult. And yet, it's so easily passed by and diluted.

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May the Lord help us to be true and faithful to the Scriptures, and may the Lord be pleased to bless that message to the saving of many souls.

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Amen? Let's pray. Thank you, our Father, for Your Word, and for these citations that are so numerous, and we pray that You would help us to take these matters to heart and see the implications of them.

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We thank You, our God, that You have sent Your Son, our Lord Jesus, and that You have exalted

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Him, and that He is our Lord, He is our King, promised King, and that we are dwelling in the

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Kingdom of God even now, and we enjoy the joy and peace and righteousness, which is ours through Your Son, our