In Defense of the Gospel (2)

Defending the Gospel Against Corruption

Consider the important topic in defense of the Gospel. I went back and forth, and this is just a little side note, as to whether to spell that with an 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 C, but S is actually the American way to spell defense. It means the same thing, but in defense of the Gospel. 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. And we, of course, know this was Paul's case.

He wrote of his own commitment to this end. Some indeed preached Christ, even from envy and strife, some also from goodwill, the former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains.

They're only trying to make it harder on me. But the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel. This is to which Paul was appointed. He saw this as a major aspect of his ministry, defending the Gospel.

We introduced our subject last week by considering how vulnerable the biblical Gospel is to corruption. Paul had written of his surprise to the Churches of Galatia about this matter. They had quickly departed from the Gospel.

He wrote, I marvel that you're so quickly turning away, I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him. You're turning away from God, from Christ, when you turn away from the Gospel, who called you in the grace of Christ to a different Gospel.

Then Paul also wrote to another Church of his concern for them and their propensity to turn from the true Gospel to another. Here's the passage he turned to, 2 Corinthians 11. He wrote to this Church, but I fearless somehow as a serpent deceived thee by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

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

And so he speaks of their propensity, their willingness to abandon truth for error. And we're all in this condition, if the Lord were not merciful and gracious to keep us in the truth of the Word of God.

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

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.

Again the churches of Galatia had embraced another Gospel, even a Gospel of works rather than grace. 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.

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

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.

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

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

For those ones God overcomes all obstacles through his grace to bring those guilty sinners into a relationship with himself. It's all of God, all of grace. Of course legalism is in conflict with the free grace of God in salvation.

It asserts that there is some good thing that fallen man is capable of doing that will secure God's blessing. That's essentially legalism. Legalism corrupts the very meaning of grace, and there will be many who will be damned on the final day of judgment because they had embraced a false gospel of legalism rather than the gospel of God's grace that is set forth in the Holy Scriptures.

Now again, last Lord's Day we briefly addressed the opposite error of legalism as well, and that being licentiousness. We just read about that in Jude's epistle. And where legalism denies grace, licentiousness really distorts grace, doesn't it?

And licentiousness basically promotes an understanding of grace that allows for a license of sin. Hey, my sins are under the blood of Jesus, so it matters not how I live. I can still be saved. And that's a corruption of grace.

And we read in Jude of these false teachers who turned the grace of our God into lewdness or lasciviousness or license. They denied Lordship salvation. They denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Salvation as More Than Forgiveness

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 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.

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 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 Bible and found peace in his soul in reading the Psalms and Proverbs and whatnot. He spent an entire half hour doing this. And I kept asking myself, when is this man going to start talking about the gospel?

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.

The gospel is the good news on how you can come into a relationship with God by satisfying his justice against your sin that condemns you. And that was never even addressed. 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 is set forth before us. 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. 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.

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. 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 Bible.

And so we may better recognize the true gospel if we answer rightly the question, what is salvation? That's a simple question. Do you think you could answer it biblically? Rightly? The answer to this question may be succinctly stated.

Biblical salvation is the work of God to save people from their sin unto himself through Jesus Christ, period. That's simple and straightforward. But I would argue that that's what salvation is. 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. And the language the Bible uses to describe this covenant relationship, you find it in a number of places where God promises, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

And salvation is bringing a sinner into that relationship. 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.

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. 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 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. I think there are a couple of things that we need to understand about salvation. First, of course, due to sin, man is ignorant of his condition and ignorant of God to whom he is accountable.

Paul wrote, but the natural man, this is a non-Christian person, an unconverted person, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. They don't make sense.

They are not attractive to him. Nor can he know them. He is incapable of knowing these things because these things are spiritually discerned, apprehended. 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.

And so there must be this work of illumination which the Holy Spirit enables people to understand the nature and the need for salvation. As Paul wrote, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in them?

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. And so because you have the same spirit of that person, you understand.

Well, the only one who understands God is the Spirit of God is what Paul is asserting. You don't know God. You cannot know what God is like. The only one who truly knows God is the Spirit of God. And what Paul is arguing, therefore, it's necessary for the Spirit of God to reveal God to you because you are incapable of knowing Him.

Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. And then Paul reasons as a Christian, now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God. Why? Here is a purpose statement.

So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. In other words, the things of salvation. Unless God in His grace informs us by the Holy Spirit, that aspect of our sin will not be remedied.

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

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. Maybe a very religious person, but an unconverted person. The carnal mind.

This is the kind of mind you are born with into this world. The carnal mind is enmity against God. You see, it's hostile. It's in conflict with. There is no compatibility between the sinner and God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

It's not possible because it's opposed to God. That's what sin is. There is an aversion to submission to God. And so then those who are in the flesh, and here he is describing non-Christians, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But then he reasons to the church at Rome, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. See, you are not like that anymore. And so man is not only guilty for the sins that he commits, but he is guilty because he is a sinner.

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.

This has to change. His heart has to be changed into a new heart. 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 Doug brought this home to my mind 35 years ago.

I commented about the need for somebody to have his heart changed. 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, not change that old fallen thing that's in a person.

He needs to impart a new heart, cause them to be born again. And of course this imparts to him the desire and the delight in coming to know and submit to God. A delight, a love for God and His Word. A love for the truth.

This is due to the work of God. And it's a sovereign work of God. Declared plainly in John 1, Jesus came to his own, that is 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, you receive Christ.

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

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

They believed, and in believing they received Jesus, but the reason they did so was they had been born of God. Here it clearly teaches that regeneration, the new birth precedes saving faith. You don't believe and therefore become born again.

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 Jesus. And then thirdly, due to sin, man of course is guilty and condemned before God for having transgressed God's law, thereby incurring God's wrath upon him.

And so God must of course pardon the sinner of his guilt in order for God to justly receive the forgiven sinner unto himself. There needs to be pardon secure. Paul indicted the entire human race, of course, in Romans 3.

There's none righteous, no not one. All the world is guilty. Every one of us born in the world is in this terrible, sinful, condemned condition. And so we're of course in need of receiving God's forgiveness of sins.

That's almost universally recognized. However, there are more effects of sin. Fourth, due to sin, fallen man lacks a positive righteousness in order to enable him to stand before God in the day of judgment.

You need more than just being forgiven of your sins. You need a positive righteousness in order to stand on the day of judgment. Not everybody is teaching that today. There is a doctrine called the New Perspective of Paul, which argues, oh yes, Jesus died for sinners, but this idea of imputed righteousness is not taught in the scriptures, they are arguing, and that's a false gospel.

They are proclaiming we are in need of a positive righteousness 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 when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so the scripture Paul declared, the gift, he was talking about the gift of righteousness, is not like that which came through the one Adam who sinned, for the judgment which came from one offense, that's Adam's sin, resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

For by the one man's offense, that's Adam's sin, death reigned to the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. There it is, imputed righteousness, this is the righteousness of Christ.

It will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. And of course Paul wrote of his confidence in the Lord, that the Lord on the day of judgment would secure his salvation, for he declared, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.

See this is conferred upon him by God, it's a gift, but notice, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. All Christians are given this crown of righteousness, which is imputed righteousness, and it's that righteousness that will enable us to stand, withstand, the day of judgment.

Not just the pardon of sins, although that's essential, but we have a positive righteousness accredited to us through faith in Jesus Christ. But in addition, fifthly, due to sin, man of course is alienated from God and the people of God.

Fallen man is an enemy of God, and so God must reconcile the sinner to himself, incorporating him into the family of God, because a non-Christian is not a child of God, he's a child of the devil, is what the Lord Jesus declared.

And so the Lord, in order to deal with this alienation, must reconcile that sinner to himself, and further adopt that believer into his family, and so he becomes a child of God. As Paul wrote, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we should be saved by his life.

And then again back in John 1, but as many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become the children of God. And so, this former alienation from God, distancing from God, has been one bridged, and we're now in the family, and it's through Jesus Christ in him alone.

But there are more effects of sin, address six, the sinner needs to have the power of sin broken in his life, so that he becomes compliant, obedient to God, and ordering his life according to the righteousness of God's law revealed in his word.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about this. God's law is the moral standard by which the people of God are to conform their lives. We strive to be like Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was, of course, the embodiment of the law of God.

If you become like Christ, you become a law keeper, don't you? And in fact, Paul reasons that through this work of sanctification, that's what God is doing. He's enabling his people to become law keepers, and we read that so clearly in Romans 8, verse 3 and following.

What the law could not do, see it could not make people holy, couldn't do it, and that it was weak through the flesh, the law cannot transform sinners. What the law could not do, God did, see? God did.

The law couldn't do it, but God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, and then verse 4 is another purpose clause. Why did he condemn sin in the flesh?

So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. He's not talking about imputed righteousness here, he's talking about practical righteousness, 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. For he reasons in verse 5, those who live according to the flesh, they set their minds on the things of the flesh, those are unconverted people.

But those who live according to the Spirit, these are Christians, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded, as the non-Christian, to be fleshly minded, carnally minded, is death. But to be spiritually minded is life in peace.

Why? Because the carnal mind, again, that of the unconverted person, is enmity against God, it's not subject to the law of God. The implication is the spiritual mind is subject to the law of God. That's the whole point.

The carnal mind is enmity against God, it's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But then Paul reasons to these Christians in Rome, you're not in the flesh, however, but in the Spirit.

If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, 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, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through a Spirit that dwells in you. Now look at verse 12 and following very carefully.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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 or what, if you live according to the flesh, you'll die.

That's the outcome of a life. You're in reality an unconverted person. But if by the Spirit, not by your own will and love, but 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, these are the sons of God.

In the context, to be led by the Spirit of God is to be led and enabled to order your life according to the law of God. Clearly, it's setting forth the law of God as the moral standard for the Christian life.

And so this is how God deals with the power of sin, through the grace of sanctification, through the Holy Spirit. 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, but can you imagine what a miserable state it would be to have sin dwelling within you through eternity? 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. 70 with the fall of Jerusalem. In other words, they argue, incredibly, that we're living in the eternal state right now. Can you imagine, you know, living in the eternal state with sin dwelling within?

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 in Question 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer, the souls of believers who are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory. 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, eight, the sinner is in need of his corruptible body to be replaced with an incorruptible body whereby he is enabled to dwell with the Lord in eternity.

And this, of course, will take place at the second coming of Christ in the Resurrection. This is also declared rightly, biblically, in the Westminster Shorter Catechism in answer to Question 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the Resurrection?

Answer, at the Resurrection, believers being raised up in glory. And so we have glorified bodies like our Lord Jesus. And then lastly, we would say, of course, if God is to save sinners unto himself, he must enable them to stand exonerated on the Day of Judgment.

God is appointed today with Jesus Christ as the judge in which all humanity are going to be brought before his throne and will be each examined according to our works. And our works will either affirm that we are true believers and will be exonerated by Christ and Christ alone, or we will be damned.

And our works will prove whether we are Christians or not. They will be assessed on that day. And so on that day, he will sentence the damned to everlasting punishment. He will grant entrance into eternal life unto his people.

All those who are redeemed by Jesus Christ will be acquitted before the judgment bar of Jesus Christ. They will stand in the judgment. And so all of these facts of sin, I have listed nine, there are probably more, but I can't think of any more, are dealt with by and through salvation.

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. I would argue, therefore, the gospel, or the good news, is the message that God brings us, his salvation by his grace.

And the gospel we proclaim must lead to and result in securing or accomplishing all that we have just described. And what we are saying is that sometimes the gospel can be reduced, the very idea of salvation can be reduced to where it doesn't represent salvation at all that is set forth in the scriptures.

Primarily, for example, the idea that this is how you can have your sins forgiven. And they give you a short, you know, theological lesson, you as a sinner, Christ died, believe on him, you're forgiven, that's it, you're covered.

And as a consequence, I fear, scores, millions of people across our land believe themselves to be saved, and yet when you consider what salvation is, as we've just depicted it, they have never experienced it.

And yet we've diluted them, the evangelicals have, in convincing them that they have salvation. And so having considered the biblical nature of salvation, let's therefore consider, more precisely, the biblical content of the gospel that we're to proclaim.

Again, what we're doing is, we've already stated, the gospel is something that is easily distorted and abandoned. Paul was amazed those churches of Galatia departed from him so quickly onto another gospel, and he was afraid that Corinthians would do the very same thing.

He'd so quickly pick up a false gospel. And so, what is the gospel? Having understood salvation, understanding that the gospel must speak to these ends, how may we define the gospel? And again, I would argue, the gospel is the good news that God brings sinner salvation from sin through Jesus Christ.

I think that encompasses it all. Now, there needs to be a lot of content added to that, but I think that is a good statement about the gospel. The good news that God brings sinner salvation from sin through Jesus Christ.

But having provided a statement, a definition, let's fill out the content. Give some detail of the content of the gospel. How do we do that? Well, I went through and I looked up every phrase in the New Testament that spoke of the gospel of something.

This ought to tell us what the gospel is, right? And I've listed all the instances in the New Testament. You have the gospel of God, interestingly, and it's repeated a number of times. There's the references.

The glorious gospel of the blessed God, 1 Timothy 1. And then, of course, you have the gospel of Christ, and you notice that seems to be the most numerous number of instances. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the glory of Christ, the gospel of His Son, the gospel of peace, the gospel of your salvation, and then the gospel of the kingdom, which seems to be almost like an odd man out.

Of all these references to the gospel, if you look at them closely, however, many of them have to do with the biblical theme of the kingdom of God. Now, granted, the gospel of the kingdom is only cited in those four places.

You see, Matthew's gospel, Mark's gospel. However, those other expressions where it speaks of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the glory of Christ, really those are speaking to the matter of the kingdom of God also, because is that not what Christ means?

He's the Anointed One, the Anointed King of Israel, the Anointed Son of David, the Promised Son of David. And so, really, many of these statements of the gospel have to do with the nature of the kingdom of God.

And so, I would argue that the gospel of the New Testament, through which God brings salvation to sinners, has to do with the good news that God has inaugurated His kingdom through His Son, Jesus Christ.

And I would argue that that is the major theme that you have throughout the Bible. You have in the Old Testament the promise of the kingdom, the Messiah's coming, and in the New Testament you have the realization of that, the King has come.

And the King is Jesus Christ and He has established His kingdom. And to experience salvation is to come into that kingdom. In other words, the gospel of the kingdom addresses each and every one of those issues of sin that we spoke about earlier.

And I would argue, for different reasons we'll get into next week, Lord willing, in a little bit, that this gospel of the kingdom is not something that is universally proclaimed widely. You can read books, Christian books, and listen to Christian radio, watch Christian television a long time and never hear about the kingdom of God.

Oh, you'll hear about a future thousand year millennium, that kingdom on earth, the kingdom of Israel, but as the kingdom of God as a substance and content of the gospel that has come into realization through Jesus Christ, that is not a major thrust or emphasis, I would argue, in evangelicalism.

And I think that is a real problem. And so this message of the kingdom of God addresses all of the conditions to which sin has plunged the human race. The way of salvation is to come into the kingdom of God, even into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this involves coming to an understanding of and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord, even as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And you cannot have salvation, you do not have salvation, unless you come to that recognition.

Jesus is Lord. And I would argue that there is frequently a gospel proclaimed all day long, that you can, as a sinner, you can have forgiveness of sins, but you never have to address or deal or submit to Jesus as Lord.

And I believe that is a false, or it is an abbreviated, truncated gospel. And so what is the gospel? Well, what is it we are to proclaim and teach to our world? Yes, it is the good news of salvation from sin 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, perhaps even chiefly, in terms of the arrival of the kingdom of God, promised and prophesied through the Old Testament, realized through Jesus Christ, who is now presently the sovereign Lord of history.

The gospel is the gospel of the arrival of the promised kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. And we ought to understand that. It ought to be at the very center of our being, I believe, and our proclamation.

And so to believe the gospel is to believe all that Jesus Christ is revealed to be. He is the promised Son of David, who was crucified, buried, and risen, who ascended into heaven and was enthroned. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

And to come to acknowledge that and realize that and live accordingly, that's going to address the whole matter of sin in all of its forms. Is that not right? Well, let's consider some passages that address this.

We're not going to have time to go through all of this, but I hope that you take the time to read it. And what we want to do here, and we did this, by the way, last fall at the Bolden Conference, is to show you how pervasive this theme is in the scriptures, and yet how little it seems to be addressed in the so-called evangelistic meetings and efforts, even in gospel tracts, when you read it.

You have nothing of this set forward in my mind, or it's very rare. So let's consider some passages. Well, of course, the Bible, the New Testament opens up with the Gospel of Mark, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And in the opening of these 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.

He announced it to Mary. And we read, When Mary saw him, she was troubled at his saying, Consider what manner of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb, bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, he will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

The very first announcement in the early part of the Gospel of Luke. We also read in the opening of the 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.

And so there you have the word Gospel, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then Mark immediately quoted Isaiah 40 verse 3, which is a prophecy of the messenger who preceded the promised Messiah.

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, John the Baptist, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And so Mark ties the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the realization of the long-anticipated Kingdom of God.