The Doctrine of God

Introduction: The Urgency of the True Gospel

0:06 We turn this morning to Galatians chapter 1, just to read a few verses as an introduction to our study for this morning and again this evening. I'm departing from our regular exposition in 1 Thessalonians in the morning and from Psalm 1 in the evening for several reasons. Number one, they just had me preaching so much out in California, I was not able to make time to do adequate preparation upon those passages, and my preaching would be very thin on both of them, and I would rather wait until I handle the next section in Thessalonians and the first psalm more adequately and with a sense that I was true to the mind of the Spirit in the Scriptures. And then the second reason, and even if that first one were not so, I think this one might direct me to this course.

1:08 The same message in five or six different places during the past seven or eight days of ministry out in the West Coast, I preached myself into conviction, and I suppose that's a good sign and probably a bad sign that I needed to preach the same message about six or seven times to get myself preached into a state of conviction on the subject with which I was dealing when I was in California. So with that, there's a little explanation. I hope not an excuse for diverting from our regular course of study. I now want to read a few verses in Galatians 1, which I trust will form a biblical framework for our study in the Scripture.

1:56 Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 to 10.

2:06 That ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that he have received, let him.

2:50 Be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

The Paramount Importance of the Gospel's Purity

3:11 The subject that was assigned to me in this conference in California was couched in the form of a question. And the question was this. Is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel? Is the gospel, by and large, believed, preached, accepted, and even in some cases loved, in contemporary evangelical circles, is this gospel the biblical gospel?

3:47 I want to break down the message which I brought on the West Coast in a number of places and preach on that subject both this morning and again, the Lord willing, this evening, coupling with this evening's message, or preceding it with. It's about a 15-minute report on some wonderful things that I believe God is doing on the West Coast, and I trust it will be both to our encouragement and to our conviction as we hear what God is doing elsewhere. But I will bypass that in the interest of time this morning and seek to move right into the heart of this subject, couched in this question, is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel? I want to preface the answer to that question.

4:31 By, first of all, reminding you of the tremendous importance of this subject.

4:37 We're not dealing with one's views of eschatology, the doctrine of last things, or one's views of baptism, or one's views of church government, all of which are important biblical truths. And nothing is non-essential in the scriptures. It's an insult to God to say that any truth which God has revealed is non-essential. But the scriptures reveal that there are truths which, in terms of weight and importance, some are relatively more important than others to the salvation of the souls of men.

5:13 And certainly there is no question of greater importance to the soul of every man or woman, fellow, or girl in this building this morning than this. Is the gospel which I know and believe and preach and believe and love and share with others? Is it? The biblical gospel.

5:32 Why did the apostle Paul speak in such scathing terms here in Galatians 1, 8 and 9? Why did he say that even though an angel should come from heaven with all the glow of the throne of God upon him and declare a different gospel from that which Paul had already preached, why did he say that the curse of God should be upon him? Why did he reach into the Greek vocabulary and drag out of it the strongest term available, to speak of the terrible displeasure of God upon a man, or an angel, or even the apostle Paul reincarnated, preaching a different gospel? Well, for the simple reason that a different gospel, believed and appropriated, would lead to the damnation of the souls of men. We live in a day that doesn't like to think that what you believe has really much importance just so long as you believe it sincerely. But that's no more true. It's no more true than to say what you eat doesn't make much difference so long as you eat it sincerely believing it'll help you.

6:38 You can eat some food with poison scattered through it, and though you may come to the table sincerely thanking God for the food and sincerely praying that it will be blessed to your body, and sincerely chew it and swallow it believing that it's for your good, it'll leave you stone dead nonetheless, and sincerity won't bleed the poison of its effect. And so with any message. That comes as a gospel. It is not enough that we sincerely believe it.

7:09 It must be the saving, healing gospel, not the poisonous, damning other gospel of which Paul speaks in this passage. So this is a question not just for preachers, though it was my privilege to have some tremendously fruitful open doors amongst preachers last Monday, three and a half hours, preached to a group of preachers. Preachers for an hour and a half, and then answered questions for two hours, as far as I'm concerned, the most profitable investment of the entire week. But this is not a question just for preachers, for as you sit here today, your only hope as an individual sinner is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7:53 And if you have embraced something other than that gospel, then no matter how sincerely you've embraced it, it will poison you and slay you as much as the poisoned blood of theido, even though the one who partakes is sincere in his partaking of that meal. So this is tremendously basic. First of all, for our own salvation. And if our motives rise no higher than the selfish motive of saving our own skin, we better be involved deeply with this question and seeking to answer it from the Scriptures is the contemporary gospel, the biblical gospel.

8:31 Then it should be of deep concern to us. us if we love the church of Christ. Well, you see, the church exists not only for her Lord to bring praise to him, but the church exists for the sake of the world. God has put us here as light and as salt, and we are to hold forth the word of life as well as to shine as light, as we read in Philippians chapter 2. Therefore, it must be of deep concern to us that that which we hold forth is indeed and in truth the biblical gospel, that as we pray and as more of us are involved in praying that God will visit his church with a mighty visitation of his grace and of his spirit, we want to know that the product we're setting before the world is the product of truth, so that the spirit of truth will be able to own it with power. And so this is a very important question for us individually, for us corporately, as individuals. And now, by way of introduction, before we begin to deal with the question itself, I want to ask and answer this very basic question. How are we going to answer the question? We've

The Unchanging Standard: God's Word Alone

9:42 asked the question, is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel? Now, how are we going to answer it? Suppose I stood up here this morning and I said, I want to make a pronouncement to you people. Did you know that I'm seven feet six inches tall, that California air did such wonders for me, and the California food was just as good as the food for the people of California? And I said, I don't know why I'm so scrumptious. And just standing around by those tall palm trees and spending a day among some of the tall redwoods and cedars and trees of that nature, why, it just had some kind of a magical effect. And I've grown to the stupendous height of seven feet six inches. And you just look at me and say, Pastor, now I realize there's been some time change involved and you've been weary and tired and I don't want to appear impudent, but you're not seven feet six inches tall. And I say, well, look, I don't want to be so scrumptious. And you say, well, I don't

10:32 want to be so scrumptious. And I say, well, look, I don't want to be so scrumptious. And I say, well, look, I don't want to be so scrumptious. And you say, well, I am seven feet six inches tall. And she says, Pastor, I know you're not seven feet six inches. And I say, but I know I am. And so you begin to get a little red in the face, you know, like a husband and wife who aren't arguing, they're just discussing, you know. When they say, but dear, I know. And she says, but darling, I know. So we would have just a little discussion.

10:58 We wouldn't argue, but just discuss together whether or not I was seven feet six inches Well, then all of a sudden, one of these young people here, who's very brilliant and enterprising and likes to be a peacemaker, suddenly squeaks out his or her little voice and says, I know how to solve the argument. And so they run out into their daddy's car, and they pull out a little folding rule, and they go over to the wall, and with a crayon that they pulled out of the nursery, they open up this little rule that opens to three feet. And they hold it up, and they put a little mark, and then they put the rule on that mark, and up to six feet, and they call somebody who's tall enough to make another mark. Then they say, now put it up another, let's see, 18 inches, and put another mark.

11:41 So, right at seven feet, six inches high, they draw a line with a yellow crayon on the wall, and they say, now, pastor, you go over and stand beneath the line, and we'll see if you're seven feet, six inches tall. So I go over, and I back against the wall, take a deep breath. I stretch up as high as I can, and lo and behold, you're right and I'm wrong. I come out 18 inches shy of seven feet, six inches tall.

12:08 Now, suppose I were able to go down into the streets of Newark and get 10,000 people who, by some power of hypnosis, I could convince that I was really seven feet, six inches tall. And after standing against that line and seeing a gaping gap there between the top of my head and the line, I said, I'm going to go down and see if I can get a mark. And after standing against that line of about 18 inches, I could convince these people that I was seven feet, six inches tall, and they all begin to chant in unison, he is seven feet, six inches tall, he is seven feet, six inches tall, he is seven feet, six inches tall.

12:45 Would it change the fact that I've come 18 inches short?

12:49 Suppose I could get LDJ and all his cabinet convinced that I was seven feet, six inches tall. Men of tremendous weight and importance in our national life. And I could have them all come with...

13:00 ...a number of serious faces and sit in a council like they would a security council meeting at the UN, and they all deliberate, and then they utter their declaration that I'm seven feet, six inches tall.

13:13 Why, every one of you youngsters here has enough sense to know that... ...full of influence and the rest who are...

13:19 ...head comes 18 inches...

13:22 ...added to that opinion, standard of an inflexible rule, seven feet, six inches...

13:28 ...on the wall, I come short.

13:30 Now, why have I taken that time to use a rather grotesque and silly illustration? Well, that what we would never do on a very unimportant creature is seven feet, six inches tall. We are tempted to do again and again with the man's old well-being, namely issues of God's truth and our relationship to that truth. How are we going to tell if the contemporary gospel...

14:01 ...preached in evangelical circles...

14:03 ...today is the biblical gospel?

14:05 Well, some would say, let's get all the evangelicals together, and if they say it is, the fact that they chant out enough, the contemporary gospel is the biblical gospel. The contemporary gospel is the biblical gospel. Does that make the biblical gospel? The fact that we can get Dr. So-and-so, Dr. So-and-so, and Mr. So-and-so, and Reverend So-and-so, and amass the great important leaders of evangelical Christendom, and have them utter their proclamation. It must...

14:33 ...not speak.

14:34 No, no. There's a line on the wall by which we can tell, and once we look at that line and lay the gospel up alongside that line, we can afford to stick our fingers in our ears to every other voice. Well, the scripture says in Isaiah 8, in verse 20, "...to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." There may be many doctors... ...hundreds degrees upon them.

15:07 There may be much influence surrounding them. But, oh, dear men and women, and visitors, and friends among us this morning, God says there is but one ruler by which we put the mark on the wall, and to which we bring anything that professes to be the gospel of Christ, and that rule is the rule of the word of the living God, the Holy Scripture.

15:35 And whatever does not match... ...the rule of Scripture, the apostle Paul said is to be utterly rejected, even though an angel, right with the glow of the throne of God, stands amongst us. We are to reject his message if it doesn't measure up to the line on the wall.

15:58 So much, then, for the importance of the question, is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel? So much for the matter of how we're going to answer it. Now...

Question 1: Is the Contemporary Gospel Biblical if it Fails to Build on a Sound Doctrine of God?

16:09 ...now let's move into the heart of the question by asking four or five little questions.

16:16 And I think this morning we'll probably only get to the first two.

16:21 Question number one. Is the contemporary gospel the biblical gospel if it fails to build on a sound doctrine of God?

Apostolic Evangelism: Starting with God as Creator and Sovereign

16:37 Is the contemporary gospel preached and believed in most evangelical circles today Is it the biblical gospel if it fails to build on a sound doctrine of God? In order to help you to answer that question, I want to refer you to several portions of Scripture in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Certainly, whatever you might think about the evangelistic message and methods of anyone else, you have a high opinion of the message and methods of the apostles. For the apostles are the peculiarly commissioned representatives of the Lord Jesus, Ephesians 2.20 says, The very church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself the chief cornerstone. As you trace out the evangelistic methods of the apostles, in particular the apostle Paul, for from Acts 13 onward you have the record of his missionary journeys, you will notice that whenever Paul came into a given town, in most cases he would immediately go into the...

17:45 ...into the...

17:46 ...into the...

17:46 ...into the synagogue.

17:47 Will you notice in Acts 13, this is a specimen example, but you'll find this in many other places. Acts 13, Shortly after Paul and Barnabas were set apart by the Spirit through the common consent of the church at Antioch, they are sent forth by the Holy Ghost, verse 4, and depart into Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus, and when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God, where? In the synagogue, in the synagogue, of the Jews. Where did they preach it?

18:21 In the synagogue of the Jews. Verse 14, When they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after reading of the law of the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Amen, and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say, On. Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hands, and said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.

18:50 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, exalted the people, and then he goes down through and gives something of the history of Israel, culminating his message with the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners. Now, what you find in Acts 13, you'll find in Acts 14, and in the other passages, that Paul's evangelism, when he went into Adonai, the town where a synagogue existed, was directed to that synagogue, was based upon an opening up of the scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ, that he was the long-promised Jewish Messiah. Now, when Paul would go into a synagogue and begin to preach, what could he assume? Well, he could assume that there was a structure of certain tremendously basic and vital truth. He could assume, first of all, that these people in the synagogue who were either Jews, who had been scattered abroad during the dispersion of the Jews and gathered in these different synagogues in Gentile nations, or they were proselytes, people who had come out of the Gentile heathenism and had identified themselves with Judaism. Therefore, he could assume that they had, number one, a basic understanding of the God of the Bible.

20:16 They may not have had a spiritual application, apprehension of that God, a spiritual love for that God. Many of them did. But whether they did or did not, they subscribe to the truth of the God of the Old Testament scriptures who is set before us, first of all, as the God of creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

20:41 They understood that God stood above them as creator and they beneath him as creature. They understood, they understood the doctrine of the fall. They may not have had an inward personal revelation of their own wretchedness. Paul was a classic example of this.

20:58 As a Pharisee, he was self-deceived. But of the truth of scripture that mankind was a fallen race of people, this they knew. He could assume that they believed the doctrine of revelation that God can communicate to man. That's why they met in the synagogues, not primarily for sacrifice or worship as they did at the temple, but as we found in that passage for the reading and explanation of scripture.

21:26 Someone would read the scriptures. Someone would then explain the scriptures. These people were steeped in the concept of the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of revelation. They knew that God was holy and could only be approached on the basis of sacrifice.

21:43 Now, I don't waste of being sure of attention. But this could be assumed when Paul goes to a synagogue. Where did he start in Precious? Did he start with Jesus?

21:53 Did he start with Nazareth? Did he start with the Old Testament scriptures? No. You know where he started?

21:59 Turn to Acts 14 and you'll see. Acts 14, verse 8. He comes to the town of Lystra. And here a man is healed by the peculiar gifts God has committed to Paul and to his companions.

22:19 And because they are polytheists, the worshipers of many gods, they figure, well, they must have dropped down out of the water, and they're going to be saved. of heaven. So they give them the name of their gods. They call Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker, and Barnabas Jupiter. Now, when the apostles heard this, verse 14, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out and saying, Sirs, why do you do these things? Also are men of like passions with you, and we preach unto you that God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life. You see, our country has been inundated in the past three or four years with the evangelistic pattern and program initiated by Mr. Bill Bright, the head of the Campus Crusade for Christ, to be commended for their zeal and the rest, but his four spiritual

23:21 laws have become almost the line on the wall by which we're to judge evangelism in our day, and the four spiritual laws begin with this pronouncement. You come up to the average American pagan, and they say, have you heard of the prayer machine? You say, no, I haven't. They say, no, I don't know. You've never heard of the prayer machine. The prayer system says, that's the best prayer machine that's available in the world. The prayer movement which a lot of people heard the spiritual laws, just as there are laws that operate in the physical world, there are laws that operate in the spiritual world, and if you say no, well, would you like to hear them? Yes. Law number one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

23:49 Is that where Paul starts? By telling these pagan people at Lystra that God loved them, did he start with the doctrine of the love of God? No, he didn't start there. He started where? Here it is. You should turn from these vanities unto the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. He started with the basic doctrine of what? Creation. God made. Then where did he move? Look at verse 16. Who in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Two doctrines here. Doctrine. Doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God over the world that he made. What explains

24:38 the activities and the movements of nations? God suffered them so to be. God suffered them so to be. He not only created heaven and earth and all things therein, he controlled everything in his world. And then you have here also the doctrine of the forbearance of this God.

25:00 Though he created us, though he governs us, he has... He has borne long with us in our rebellion and in our sin. Verse 17. The doctrine of the benevolence, the goodness of God. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven, etc. You see where Paul started? He knew that to speak of Jesus, forgiveness of sin, justification, pardon, would be to speak religious mumbo-jumbo unless it came to him. He knew that to speak of Jesus, forgiveness of sin, justification, psalm, counsel of God, could be rooted in and built upon a foundation of a sound doctrine of God as creator, as sovereign, as sustainer, as the great benefactor to his own creation. Now in Acts 17 you have the other example in the book of the Acts of this same principle. Paul is standing upon Mars Hill. And by the way, those commentators who say Paul was sinning when he evangelized this way don't understand the Bible.

Paul's Method on Mars Hill: Declaring the Unknown God

26:10 Bible are speaking foolishness when they thus speak. Paul had a purpose for doing what he did here. He's standing with these Athenian theological and philosophical beatniks. These were the hippies of the first century. I wonder if they had welfare statism there. I've often wondered how these guys got enough food to eat, for it says in verse 21, for all the Athenians and strangers that were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Well, how in the world do you get bread on your table if all you do is stand around hearing some new thing and telling some new thing? This has often bothered me. Maybe they had, well, I won't say who, for their president to help give a dole to everybody. But be that as it may, this crowd, able to stand around

27:06 doing nothing but hearing and telling some new thing, Paul confronts them and is going to give a declaration. A declaration of the message of God. Now, where does he start? Well, he starts in verse 22 with a point of contact by saying, as I passed by, beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. You've got a God here, a God there, a God there. Then you've got this inscription to the unknown God, the unknowable God, the God that we can't set before our own minds or the minds of others clearly. He said, all right, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. All right, he's going to declare some facts about God. Now, where does he start? He doesn't start with the love of God. He doesn't start with the salvation of God. Where does

27:57 he start? God that made the world and all things therein. He starts with the doctrine of creation that made the world. Now, where does he go? He goes to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

28:14 Seeing he is Lord, he is the despot, the mighty controller, the sovereign ruler of heaven and of earth, the creator. All is not in temples made with hands. He speaks of the immensity of God, the incomprehensibility of God, the spirituality of God. You can't confine him to a temple.

28:49 Verse 25, he's not worshiped with men's hands. As though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. He speaks of God here as the author and sustainer of all life. He speaks of him as the father of the nation, as the one who sets the bounds of the nation. He speaks of him in verse 28 as the God in him whom we live and move and have our very being. Do you see what Paul does? He's going to evangelize these first century pagans and he begins his evangelism with a sound doctrine of God. Then and only then can he begin to build the great truths of redemption and

29:40 forgiveness and man being reconciled to God through the death of his son. Then he concludes his message with the summons to repent in the light of the coming day when they will stand together again. He's going to evangelize these first century pagans and he begins his evangelism with the sound doctrine of God. Then and only then can he begin to build the great truths of redemption and forgiveness and man being reconciled to God through the death of his son.

The Consequences of a Weak Doctrine of God: Worship and Repentance

29:54 Before this God in judgment whose judgment will be administered through his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is this just a matter of playing with words, dear ones? We're in a battle, I'm convinced, more and more, and this is a life or death battle. We have in our midst this morning a missionary couple who are the proofs of this battle. And I hope Doug and Joyce don't mind me mentioning this just to let you know this is a real thing. When you insist to come to modern 20th century pagans, and that's what we are in this day. For the evolutionary hypothesis or the evolutionary lie has so permeated every structure of society, every discipline in the academic world, that though once you could assume that the average American, and the doctrine of God all over the world, you can't assume that anymore.

30:56 If we come starting with, starting, you know what we end up with? End up with those, things that are reflected in the hymnody of our day. Hymnody, the songs of any given period of the church, are perhaps one of the most clear indications of the level of the life and worth of that church. For what is singing?

31:18 Singing is the reflex action of your concept of God and the truth. That's what singing is. And what is the mark of the modern day hymnody? What's the mark of the modern songs that are the big hits in our evangelical circles, that are the oft-played favorites over WFME?

31:37 What are they? Songs that leave you with something of the consciousness of the breathless wonder who is God? No. Songs that have the tawdry, sensuous note of a nightclub, sprinkled with a little flavor of Jesus.

31:58 Songs like that tremendous hymn of Vinnie, eternal lure that soul must be, which is within life's burning light, shrinks non-delight. Can live.

32:20 Spirits that surround thy throne may bear that burning bliss, but surely that is theirs alone. For they have never, never known a fallen world like this. How shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear? And on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being?

32:42 See the process? How come? Before a holy God? And the answer there is a way for man.

32:49 Arise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice of Holy Spirit's energies, an advocate with God. These, these prepare us for the sight of holiness above. The sons of ignorance and night may dwell with the eternal light, through the eternal love. You see what we've done in our day?

33:11 Instead of setting God before man in all the glory and power and majesty of his sovereign being, until man sees himself. Undone, crushed before the weight of divine holiness and sovereignty, and then setting the Lord Jesus in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work, as the one who can bridge that terrible chasm, so that men draw nigh with breathless wonder at the revelation of grace. What have we done? We've dragged God to where man can cuddle up to him, dripping with his sin and reeking with his pollution.

33:51 And feel at home with the deity. We have a wonderful guest who makes our home a heaven every day, and if someday you should decide, just let him in, and he'll abide, this wonderful friend of ours. Now you see, dear ones, the root of this is that the gospel that these people have embraced was not faulted in Acts 20, 21, a verse that we'll be looking at in more detail tonight, but I want to look at it for a moment with you this morning in this connection. When he said in Acts 20 and verse 21, verse 24, so that 21 can be said in a larger context, but none of these things moved me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I might

35:02 finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I've received of the Lord Jesus, now notice, to testify the gospel of the grace of God, Paul said my testimony was of the gospel of the grace of God. Now how did he testify the gospel of grace? Well he tells us in verse 21, testifying, same word, both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me ask you something.

35:37 If repentance is a change of mind with regard to God, his law, his government, his claims, his glory, his grace. What is repentance? How can you preach a change of mind to God, his government, his laws, his glory, the purpose for which he made me, unless you have first of all spoken of God as the God of glory, the God of creation, the God of law, the God who is worthy of my life and my devotion and my love and my service. You can't preach repentance toward God unless you first of all teach something about the God.

36:17 When you preach about that, during the process of repentance to God. There is no such thing. talking for 11 years about the plan of salvation. Romans 11, he's been unfolding the plan of salvation, and when he's done, he says the whole goal is this. Of him, through him, unto him, are all things to whom be glory. I submit that our hymnody in our day is an indication that we've not been laying a proper foundation in the sound doctrine of God in our evangelism. In the second place, I would say that the climate of our worship indicates that we've not been building a foundation of the doctrine.

37:38 Our evangelism is not producing worship.

37:43 It's producing little activists who work and run around like busy beavers doing lots of work for Jesus.

37:51 But it's not producing worshipers. It's not producing people who know what it is to be enraptured with the thought of the glory and the majesty. As we sang this morning in many, many churches, because they don't say anything about what we get from God. Majesty, how bright, how glorious is thy mercy seat in depths of burning light.

38:27 Yeah, but what do I get? Well, just be quiet for a while and forget what you get. You were made to worship God. You were made to know God.

38:35 You were made to be lost in God.

38:40 ...from its gimme-gimme grasping position.

38:44 Put your face in the dirt and on the dust. Do what you were made to do. Worship this great, this mighty, this glorious God. I ask the question this morning, is the contemporary gospel, the biblical gospel, if it fails to build on a sound gospel of God?

The Practical Necessity of Starting with God in Modern Evangelism

39:06 I ask you that question, and then I direct you to the line on the wall, the word of God, the evangelism of the apostle Paul, who, when he could not assume what he could assume in the synagogue context, did not begin, essentially, with those central doctrines of the gospel, the cross, the person of Christ, salvation in his name, but he began with what I like to call the supporting doctrines of the gospel, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the doctrine of the majesty of God, the doctrine of man's utter dependence upon God. Oh, you say, oh, this is just a bunch of theory. No, it isn't. And I'm not even going to try to get to the next point, because, the clock's beating me, and I'll just amplify this a little bit more than I'd planned. You kids in high school, you want to be a witness to your friends? You know where you've got to start? You've got to start right where Paul started, at Lister and at Athens.

40:08 But the average buddy of yours, girlfriend in high school, doesn't have a clue about the fact that God, the sovereign, eternal God of Scripture, created the heaven and the earth. They've been brainwashed into the theory of the Big Bang. It just happened. There it was.

40:29 What about them? They just happened. Back billions of years ago, the little wiggle of the little amoeba in the little pool of slime.

40:45 They don't have any biblical concept of God as creator. That's why they have no sense of identity or morality. The whole structure of any concept of purpose in life is rooted in this. I've been made by God with a purpose.

41:02 By God. The whole basis of morality is the God who made me has told me what to do and what not to do. I'd better get with it and find out what he says.

41:14 You people seeking to witness to your friends at work, neighbors, most of them don't have a clue as to the biblical doctrine of God. The ignorance of Scripture in our generation is absolutely appalling. The tests that are taken of kids coming into Christian colleges. Now, if ever you find some knowledge of the Bible, it would be from kids who apply to Christian colleges, wouldn't you?

41:39 Wouldn't you think so? No. There come many of them out of Christian homes and Christian churches. But the ignorance!

41:46 Most of them can't even write out 67 books of the Bible.

41:52 And it's from the simple, absolute ignorance. Scripture is when we've reiteration so astute in the new morality. The basic truths of Holy Scripture. So you'd better start with where God starts.

42:17 Genesis 1, what? God created. In the beginning. We're beginning to perhaps think for the first time which matters is Christian education.

42:32 You see, God's name can be found in the Bible. In the Sunday, a school teacher in a half an hour a week, in a preacher in an hour a week. Seek to build biblical concepts of sin and guilt, of the need of regeneration and redemption.

42:50 When that child's mind has been marinated five and six words a day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Philosophy that says, you're not basically evil. Problems in the structures of society and environmental conditions that are not evil. That make you what you are.

43:15 So some of you know that you're environment and kick your environment. But don't you ever feel guilty. Not one word in the report on the last summer riots that laid any blame at the feet of the rioters. Not one word.

43:30 To these brutes of the environmental conditions. Not one word saying that the man who went in with wicked hands and broke a window and took a TV set was a criminal in the sight of God and of society. Not a word. Not a word to condemn him.

43:56 Why?

43:58 He was brainwashed. All of these great men have been brainwashed with the non-biblical teaching that your environment makes you what you are and they don't know the simplest fact of scripture that the heart is the thing out of which the issues of life come. They don't know it. And they'll never get it under that kind of climate.

44:31 And if a little arrow of conviction begins to pierce gently and yet sweetly pulled out Monday through Friday. The sense of the binding nature of the moral law. Of God. There are no absolute standards.

44:55 The phrase that occurs again and again are the existing standards of society. All changes. What? All the time.

45:10 How can they be brought to the place where their conscience is? To a range of sensitivity of right and wrong. How long is their brainwashed? What's the root of it?

45:29 It is basic as the doctrine of God. Our creator. Our governor. Not the sovereign lord of men and of history.

Conclusion: The Call to Re-establish God's Foundation

45:43 And the gospel. Basic doctrine of God. It cannot be the biblical gospel. And one night in California I'll never know.

46:01 It did take me an hour and 45 minutes one night. I didn't think I should try old friends. I'm strangers. I got away with it.

46:10 Seriously, I hope this is communicated this morning. Well, you see, dear ones, if your response to the gospel has simply been in the context of all this sentimental ooze about Jesus and forgiveness and the rest, and you've never been gripped with those basic factors of the character and nature of God, then maybe you've been eaten poisoned. Say to those of us who love the work of Christ and the work of his kingdom in this generation, if we as a church are to stand together intelligently to establish truth in the earth in our generation, this is the battle that's on our hands. We're going to have to buck the whole tide of quick, cheap Jack Evangelists, starting with the most elementary issues, and declare to our generation in the beginning, God, what God created. And because God made us, he stands over us as our sovereign, our sustainer, our lawgiver. And in that context, maybe we'll begin to see some men and some women begin to be smitten with the sense of the enormity of sin, terrible things for the puny little creature

47:35 to lift up his fist to the mighty creature. Maybe then we'll begin to see

47:47 before this great God. Let me just tell you, one of the questions I'm going to ask tonight, is the contemporary gospel, the biblical gospel, if it fails to make a proper use of God's holy law, if it fails, as they really are, if it fails on the clear note of repentance, if it fails to insist on the necessity of holiness and obedience as the fruit, these are some of the questions that I hope to ask and answer tonight in our study. I trust you'll come, I trust you'll come prayerful, that you might not go out and listen to the chant of the multitude, but for the voice of the authorities, that you'll look at the yellow line on the wall, the only thing that matters, that yellow line on the wall, to the law and to the death.