Heart of the Biblical Gospel, The

Introduction: The Urgency of the Biblical Gospel

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, April 20th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 May I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the 20th chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 20, and follow please as I read verses 17 through to the end of verse 24, Acts chapter 20, and beginning at verse 17.

0:40 Luke, writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and recording a segment in the missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, gives us this information, And from Miletus he, that is Paul, sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, You yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time, serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews, how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Spirit testifies unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

2:04 But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Let us pray that something of the spirit of the Apostle may be the portion of the Holy Spirit, spirit of the apostle may be the portion of the servant of god and that god by the spirit would give us all an ear to occupy ourselves with great attention to the gospel of the grace of god let us pray told us that the entrance of your words gives light it gives understanding to the simple you have told us that your precepts rebuke correct admonish even in the reading of these words we feel the chill of our own coldness as we draw near to the warm beating passionate heart of

3:26 the great apostle when he could face men and speak of his tears when he could with no hyperbole say that he did not count his life dear to himself but that that which truly mattered was completing his course of preaching the gospel to the gentile world oh god we ask that your spirit will so come upon us that we may be given such a view of the gospel and its suitableness to the needs of men that we may enter in at least in some little measure to the felt attachment to the gospel which the great apostle had that we may experience in our hearts something of that passionate yearning that men may know and embrace that gospel oh lord come to us meet us in this place we plead for the good of our souls and for the glory of your beloved son we ask in his name amen our subject for consideration tonight is what i am calling very simply

4:52 the heart of the biblical gospel our text is verse twenty one testifying both to jews and greeks repentance toward god and faith toward our lord jesus christ and faith toward our lord jesus christ the war subject for the heart of the biblical gospel effects twenty twenty one is our university then michael so it is that each one of you in the sound of my voice keeps serious undivided attention to fear or cleaning up of this text and out are concerned with this subject becauseас 있어 vitally seen And if you respond in your mind with the question, why should I give serious, undivided attention to such a subject as the heart of the biblical gospel? Well, my answer to you is very straightforward. First of all, because it is in your own best self-interest to do so. If you have any degree of natural self-interest, that is, any concern for your own personal well-being,

6:16 then you must give serious and undivided attention to this subject and to this text. If you have any of the concern that is expressed reflexively, if you happen unthinkingly to put your hand upon a hot stove and draw it back immediately, certainly. Any concern that would cause you to avoid knowingly and deliberately imbibing poison. This is what I mean by your own self-interest demands a consideration of this subject.

6:55 For the scripture tells us that an hour is coming in which the returning Lord of glory will deal with all mankind in terms of their relationship to the gospel. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, we read these very powerful words from the pen of the same apostle.

7:21 2 Thessalonians and chapter 1.

7:25 He writes, verse 7, And to you that are afflicted, rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power. In flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of his might. Jesus Christ will one day come. In flaming fire, and he will be God's instrument to render vengeance, divine vengeance upon every man, woman, boy or girl who was willfully ignorant of the gospel or willfully rebellious to the claims of the gospel, as well as upon those who know not God, probably having reference to those who have had no acquaintance with the gospel. My friend, to put it as bluntly as I know how,

8:44 if you do not want to be one upon whom the vengeance of Christ terminates at his second coming, you must give serious consideration to the heart of the biblical gospel, for Jesus Christ will render vengeance upon those who obey not that gospel. And my second reason is in answering the question why should I give serious attention to this text and to a consideration of this subject for you who do know the gospel and have obeyed the gospel. It is my concern that you and I be better equipped to communicate this gospel to others. And one of the ways in which we are! We are thus equipped is to have a mastery over those texts which set forth the heart of the gospel in a very condensed and succinct manner and to use those texts again and again in our witness to others.

The Setting of Paul's Testimony in Miletus

9:53 Now then, as we come to the text, trusting that if I'm speaking to rational people who either on the one hand at least have some self-interest remaining within their breasts and Christians who have some measure of desire to be useful in communicating the gospel to others, then I trust you're convinced that you ought to give serious undivided attention to our subject. And as we come to the subject, it's only responsible that we say a word about the setting in which our text comes to us. Paul, the great missionary apostle, is on his way to Jerusalem. He informs us of that in this very passage. He says that he's on his way to Jerusalem, verse 22. And on his way to Jerusalem, he has a layover in an area called Miletus. Miletus, which was on the western shore of the area that is called Asia Minor.

11:01 It was a short distance from the city of Ephesus where Paul had labored for approximately three years in the work of the gospel. And so he uses this occasion to call the leaders, the spiritual overseers of the church of Ephesus and there to open his heart to them in a parting message. He begins by reviewing the manner and the substance of his labor among them, verses 18 through 21. Then he announces his future plans and prospects in verses 22 to 27.

11:39 And then he charges these leaders with their God-given responsibilities in verses 28 to 35. Now it is in the midst of this first section in which he is reviewing the manner and the substance of his labor among them, the substance of his own labor among the Ephesians, that our text is given to us. And there are three very simple units of thought in the text to which I direct your attention this evening. First of all, I want you to note with me the manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed.

The Manner of Conveying the Biblical Gospel: Solemn Testimony

12:14 Then having done that, we shall consider together the people to whom the biblical gospel was conveyed. And then thirdly, the main ingredients of the biblical gospel as conveyed by the apostle. First of all, then, the manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed. You will notice that verse 21 begins with the word testifying both to Jews and to Greeks.

12:48 When Paul reaches into the bag of his... When Paul reaches into the bag of his Greek vocabulary to use a word by which to describe how he conveyed the message of the gospel, he chose a word which means to testify with great solemnity.

13:08 The word was originally used to describe what a man did when he gave testimony in court under oath. That's the origin of that word. And in biblical usage, it comes...

13:25 It comes to be used in two basic categories as we find it here. It is used to speak of giving testimony with great solemnity. And also, it is used in terms of charging someone with great earnestness and solemnity. It's in that second category of usage that we find the word in 2 Timothy 4.1.

13:53 When Paul writes to Timothy, saying, I charge you, that's our word, in the sight of God and of the Lord Jesus, preach the word. It's the word used in Luke 16. When the rich man in hell suddenly becomes very benevolent and concerned for his brothers and says, send someone to them to charge them that they come not to this place. With what solemnity would a man speak who had been in hell or had...

14:25 had seen someone in hell and went to warn his kinsfolk that they come not to that awful place. Now, whatever its precise nuances may be in this setting, this much is clear. The manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed was totally opposite to everything that was light and trivial. Paul said he testified.

14:56 He saw. salt knowledge but witness to certain things. I say again, whatever the precise nuances of the word may be, it is clear. It is the opposite of that which is light and trivial.

15:13 Furthermore, it is that which has no affinity with that which would be described, as jocular and humorous.

15:23 And furthermore, it is a word that has no meaning. apart from the concept of the use of a man's mouth and lips and teeth and larynx and diaphragm. It is a word which means exclusively a verbal exercise.

15:43 Now, why did the apostle choose this word? When he is reviewing before the very men who had heard him preach in a tremendous variety of circumstances over three years, when he attempts to use a word that distills the manner of his preaching, why does he choose this word? Well, for the simple reason that no other word would quite do to embody the spirit and manner in which the apostle conveyed the gospel. For the apostle believed the gospel to be a divinely conceived and divinely revealed message by which men's eternal destinies were determined and fixed.

16:36 When he opened his mouth to speak the gospel, he really believed that heaven and hell were depending on his words.

16:51 That's why he could say in verse 19, he was among them with great humility of mind with tears. And when he faced opportunity, he faced opportunity. He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity.

17:07 He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity.

17:08 He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity. He faced opportunity. He said, I was among you with trials.

17:12 You see a man in the work of the gospel. He is a slave of Christ. That Christ has laid home to him. Has given him his message.

17:29 And that on that message ride the issues of heaven and hell. That man cannot help but be a serious and a weeping man. He cannot help. He cannot help.

17:43 He cannot help. He cannot help. He cannot help. He cannot help.

17:43 He cannot help. He cannot help. He cannot help. He cannot help.

17:43 He cannot help but be a humble man. All the awesome reality that the God of heaven has entrusted him. A poor fellow sinner with his fellow mortals. With this message on which ride the issues of heaven and of hell.

18:02 And because he believes that such issues are at stake. A little opposition from men will never stand in his way. He'll plow the opposition. Face the trials.

18:15 And the difficulties. Now I tell you in that context. Can you think of a man standing up laid back telling jokes. Tickling people's ears.

18:27 Slipping in a little jag. In a little jig about Jesus once in a while. And calling that gospel preaching.

18:36 Mark it well my dear friends. Anyone who professes to be concerned about your soul. And says in that concern. He's bringing you the biblical gospel.

18:49 Check his manner. Check his manner. Check his manner.

18:56 Is he bringing that gospel in a way that can be called testifying?

19:08 You see no one was ever flattered into the kingdom of God with smooth speech. Men are flattered into hell.

19:19 No one was ever swept into the kingdom by way of a religious clown. No one was ever get into the kingdom. God will show you a side of your heart that will break it and make you a holy mourner. Blessed are they who mourn.

19:38 For they shall be comforted. God will show you your need of righteousness to such a point that that thirst for it will become what the Bible calls a spiritual hunger and thirst after righteousness. Anyone who professes to be concerned for your soul. Mark well the manner in which he brings the gospel to you.

20:02 Not only the manner with reference to what we've concentrated upon but even what is obvious the manner in terms of its form this word means nothing less than a solemn verbal testimony and if you look in the context all the other words he uses to describe his preaching starting with verse 20. I shrank not from declaring. See it verse 20 teaching verse 21 testifying verse 24 testifying the gospel of the grace of God verse 25 preaching the kingdom verse 27 shrank not from declaring the whole counsel of God verse 31 I cease not to admonish every one of the differing Greek verbs has these two things in common. It's wrong with this mood. This.

21:03 Ethos this spin the tea and in each case it is an exercise in verbal communication so what was the manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed according to our text the manner was one of solid conveyance of a divinely given message all did not say well there are some places in the Roman Empire where people verbal communication. It's wrong with this mood. It. Gospel is to mind the gospel and so he runs out and gets himself a jar up off white paint and he paints his face and he begins to mind the gospel that's what summer telling us in our day he didn't say there are other parts of the Roman Empire where people a very indisposed of verbal confrontation and even more so to a man who look serious than you cry.

22:19 그 really that's no way to win people the zeker religion is a sad thing. We've got to get out some bright, sprightly people with their banjos and their guitars. And we've got to get out some others with their drums and musical instruments. And we've got to sing the gospel.

22:39 Others say, well, some are not musically inclined and inclined to mime, but you see, they have a great interest in the theater, a great interest in acting, in the histrionic. And so we'll get a little acting troupe and call it Post-Traveling Acting Troupe. And, dear friends, why do I speak that way? Because in our day, there are not a few, and some who should know better, who say that we are free to present the gospel any way we want to.

23:11 I say no. The scripture says God is ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe. Faith comes of God. Blessed are the feet of those who twang a guitar.

23:33 No. Of peace.

23:42 Dear friends, the day this place becomes a platform for clever clowns,

23:57 the day this place becomes a platform for people who flatter you, may God blow it off the face of the earth.

24:08 The manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed is encapsulated in that simple verb declaring unto you. But then we...

The People to Whom the Biblical Gospel is Suited: All Humanity

24:19 Note in the second place, the people to whom the biblical gospel is suited. Notice his language. He said, I testified both to Jews and to Greeks. Now, the phrase Jews and Greeks is synonymous with saying all men of all kinds in all places, wherever I find them in the Roman Empire.

24:50 You will find this terminology used in Acts 14.1, Acts 18.1. But perhaps we are most helped in understanding its usage in two verses in the book of Acts.

25:01 Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 3. What does the little phrase testifying both to Jews and to Greeks mean? Well, accepting the fundamental dictum that scripture is its own best interpreter, let scripture interpret. Scripture.

25:22 Romans chapter 1, verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Everyone who believes will find the gospel to be the power of God unto salvation. And then he splits up everyone into two categories, Jew, and Greek.

25:53 The same thing is true in chapter 3. Paul has, in a very closely reasoned argument, demonstrated the universality of sin throughout the entire world. He starts with those who've never seen the written revelation of God, who've had virtually no, if any, contact whatsoever with the written scriptures and with God's special people, the nation of Israel. We would call them raw pagans.

26:20 And then he moves on to other classes and then deals with the Jew and he comes to this summary in chapter 3 and verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and of Greeks that they are all under sin.

26:44 So all are split up into two categories, Jews and Greeks. In other words, this phrase represents the broadest spectrum of humanity imaginable to us. There was the Jews, the chosen nation. And in this very epistle to the Romans, Paul describes their great privileges.

27:09 To them were committed the oracles of God, the Old Testament scriptures. They had the special privileges described in Romans 9, verses 4 and 5. Many of them were committed to God. They had the special privileges described in Romans 9, verses 4 and 5.

27:20 Many of them were committed to God. They had the special privileges described in Romans 9, verses 4 and 5. Many of them had been wonderfully privileged by the visits of God's own word through the prophets, many of them had been wonderfully privileged by the visits of God's own word through the prophets, God's covenantal dealings with them, and through the experiences they passed through as a nation. Many of the Jews had been forever immunized, outwardly at least, from the grosser forms of external idolatry.

27:44 And so the Jews stood out in stark contrast to the masses of the Gentiles. masses of the Gentile pagan nations the Greek there is the pagan Roman some cultured some uncultured as we read in Romans chapter 1 but throughout that world idolatry ignorance debauchery marking this class of humanity described in Ephesians 2 verse 11 and 12 as without hope and without God those who are afar off in their spiritual deadness and ignorance and yet Paul says he testified this one gospel to the broadest spectrum of humanity and all of the tremendously real differences that existed now let me ask you a question what do you call a doctor who has but one remedy no matter what the sickness may be what do you call it it's something that a duck does there was a practitioner of medicine somewhere in proximity to this church if you went to him with an earache he had one remedy

29:05 if you went with tendinitis of the elbow same remedy if you went with a gallbladder attack same remedy if you went with a tumor in your left ear same remedy it wouldn't be long before he'd no longer be a practitioner of medicine everyone would cry out he's a quack well was Paul some kind of a religious quack think of the diversity in the Jew and in the pagan think of the broad spectrum of religious ethnic social cultural diversities among all the existing people in the Roman world and yet Paul testified one and remedy in the gospel well was he a quack no no he was a quack he was a quack he was a quack he was a quack he was a quack he was a quack he was a quack a wise physician because you see the things in which we differ from one another are only cosmetic things that really count are the things that find us all in the same category let me illustrate it this way if you've never been to the United Nations over New York I urge you to go sometimes not because I esteem that institution at but it'll be a broadening experience

30:30 culturally I had occasion one time to go there with a missionary who was seeking to track down some contacts and it was utterly amazing in the space of a few minutes you'd see someone coming obviously from one of the african countries turban upon his head brightly colored robe and right behind him someone in white linen with a turban and a beard obviously from india pakistan then you'd see someone who looked like a dignified european all kinds of races and ethnic and national and cultural representations all gathered under that one roof it's a tremendous experience just to stand there in the lobby and watch these people go by now suppose on a given day everyone between the hour of about one in the afternoon and two in the afternoon everyone in the building began to complain of having tremendous stomach cramps and upon investigation it became known that somehow every source of importance in the name of god and in the name of the holy spirit problems cleanly being addressed supply for water into the U.N. building had been polluted, and it wasn't a deadly disease, but it was something that could cause great discomfort, and there was a relatively simple and broadly available remedy. Would you consider a man, a quack, who made a general announcement

31:55 over the P.A. system to all of the people from Zaire and Ghana and the United Arab Emirates and from Pakistan and from other parts of the world? An announcement went out to the whole bunch of them to report to such and such a place in order to take such and such an antidote that in 30 minutes would take away all their cracks. Would that man be a quack? No, because you see, they all had a common ailment for which there was a common remedy, and that is precisely why Paul could say, testify to every Jew, any Jew, no matter where he comes in the spectrum of what a Jew knows and possesses and has experienced and understands, and to the Greek, no matter where he comes in the whole spectrum of the pagan world, educated, uneducated, cultured, uncultured, relatively refined, debauched, it matters not. I say to Jew, I say to Greek, one gospel. Why? Because you see,

33:04 whatever the external differences were, they were all cosmetic, all cosmetic. In the matters that truly counted, they were precisely in the same condition. And what is that condition? They are all, Acts 17, he hath made of one nations to dwell upon the face of the earth. They are all equally accountable to God, Romans 14, 12. They are all equally in a state of rebellion against God, Isaiah 53, 6. They are all equally under the wrath of God, Ephesians 2, 3. We were by nature children of wrath, even as, and they are all to the judgment of God, Acts 17, 31. He's appointed

33:57 a day in which he'll judge the world. No, you see, Paul was not a spiritual quack doctor. He understood that it would have been quackery to have come up with, a different remedy for all different categories. For in the things that really counted, all men stood on the same ground, creatures accountable to him, as fallen in Adam, as conceived in time, guilty as living out their life in disobedience to God, under the wrath of God, hastening on to the day of God's judgment. And as the apostle viewed men not, he said, I am not a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual

34:45 quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual quack doctor. I am a spiritual terms of the cosmetic differences, but in terms of the essential similarities. That's why he had one gospel for Jew and for Greek. And I want to say by way of application, before we move on to our third head, this is why I can look out tonight and I see many differences, differences racially, socially, differences in many areas. What I know of you from a pastoral standpoint, you whom I know well, others of you who are visitors, I could predict that your taste in music and art and general culture are not identical with any other person in this place. Your background, your

35:38 influences, all of these things, tremendous diversity. But my friend, listen, whatever makes you different from any other human being, no matter what your background is, you are not different from any other human being, no matter who he or she may be. It's all in which you are one with every single creature of God. And because you are one, I can say there is but one remedy for you. There is but one remedy for you as there was for Paul. You may fit the category of the Jew.

36:13 You may have had the privilege of religious nurture and contact with the word of God from your birth and all of the ennobling privileges of Christian nurture. You would come to the church and you would come to the church and you would come to the church and you would come to the church and you would come to the church and you would come to the church. You would come in the category, broadly speaking, of the Jew. You may be here tonight as a Greek, as a 20th century American pagan. If someone held a gun to your head and said in the next 30 seconds, name five books of the Old Testament you couldn't do today among, quote, well-educated people, you may be such a one. You may have no more think that the fornicate is no more evil than to sneeze. You may have no more sense of right and wrong than to lie to God. You may have no more sense of right and wrong than to lie to God. You may have no more sense of right and wrong than to lie to God.

37:00 You may have no more sense of right and wrong than to lie to God. You may have no more sense of right and wrong than to lie out of both sides of your mouth and while those are in the middle of your mouth. But it matters not, my friend, whether you sit here as one whose life is reasonably hedged up and respectable because of Christian nurture and the cultivation of a conscience by the word of God and the restraints of godly discipline and training, or one who is utterly dissolute and abandoned to your sin. Oh, hear me, my friend. There is but one remedy for all of you wherever you fit in the full spectrum. That's the glory of the biblical gospel. It is God's one true remedy for man in his true state of sin and guilt. Now then, having looked at the manner in which the biblical gospel was conveyed, solemn testimony, having looked at the people for whom the biblical gospel is suited, all men equally, all men individually, discriminately, for their need is the same. Now then, note with me, what are the main elements

The Main Ingredients of the Biblical Gospel: God-Centered Repentance and Christ-Centered Faith

38:11 of the biblical gospel? The main elements of the biblical gospel are given to us in these words, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks. Two things, repentance toward God and faith toward our Jesus Christ. Now, before we get to the main elements of the biblical gospel, we need to get into breaking these down a little bit individually. Will you notice something on the very outset? That the main ingredients of the biblical gospel have to do with the issues that surround God, his demands and standards as lawgiver, his rights as the moral governor and judge of the world. Whatever the gospel is in its specific contents, it takes us immediately into the orbit of God-centered perspectives and concerns. Do you see that? It doesn't take us to

39:21 things and to happiness and to peace and prosperity and all the rest. It takes us immediately to God and it takes us immediately to Jesus Christ. The things pertaining to his person, the things pertaining to his work, the gospel immediately in its essential content brings us right to the great smack into the middle of the great concerns of God and of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't do so abstractly in a detached theoretical way. It has to do with your repentance, something that happens in your own moral, ethical, spiritual relationship to this God and faith into our Lord Jesus Christ, something to do with your own personal relationship to this person who is called the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my friend, understand that at the outset, if your perception of the gospel does not immediately bring into focus the great concerns of the living God and the great realities surrounding his blessed son, you are ignorant of the biblical gospel. All right now, as you sit there, say, God, give me a teachable heart.

40:45 If your son is going to deal with me in the day of judgment on whether or not I've obeyed the gospel and I don't even have a clue what the gospel is, oh God, I'm in bad shape. Lord, use that man as he preaches now to teach me. Oh God, teach me. Teach me what the gospel is. I thought the gospel just had to do with feeling good and having peace and feeling I got my act together. I don't think of God as a Jesus Christ, I don't think of Christ as the central concerns who, my friend, you don't know the gospel then. And you need to listen and you need to listen with the day of judgment beating, as it were, behind you and hear the footsteps of a returning Christ coming to take vengeance on all who obey not the gospel. Now let's look briefly at each of these components. He said, I testified first of all, repentance toward God.

41:45 He said, I testified first of all, repentance toward God. He said, I testified first of all, repentance toward God. God. Notice the thing itself. He testified repentance, and then the specific object of that thing, repentance towards God. And we'll do that with regard to faith as well. What is repentance? The activity itself. Why, it is nothing less than a change of mind. A change of mind about God, about sin and self. A change of mind that involves the whole person standing in the presence of God, his creator and lawgiver, only of his sin, acknowledging with grief the horrible reality as David did against you, and you only have I sinned, and then a disposition to turn from that sin, to be done with that sin, to abandon that sin, and by the grace of God to plant one's feet in a way that is not sin.

42:47 No sin is a way of righteousness. Repentance is a change of mind that takes within its orbit the intellectual acknowledgement of sin, but more than that, grief and horror in the face of that sin, and more than that, a will to turn and to be done with that sin. And notice the specific object of that repentance. And in the original, it's very forceful that the unto God repentance. The unto God is thrown forward in Paul's statement to make it abundantly clear that it is not a repentance that has me as its ultimate object or society or others. It has almighty God as its object. It is the into or unto God repentance. You see, repentance comes when by the work of the spirit in relationship to the word. I

43:51 see that sin is not just a word invented by religious people to send people on guilt trips so they'll get dependent on the church and the church can bleed them and keep its institutions going. No, my friend, that's not it at all. Sin is an ugly reality. And it began when our first father rebelled against God.

44:14 When he wanted to be like God in a way he had no business to attempt to be like God back, as it were, on his hind legs and said, I will take the place that belongs only to my creator. When we begin to discover the great truth out of scripture, a truth that thunders at times, even in our consciences. And when we hear it articulated from scripture, it comes with tremendous augmentation of it. It comes with great intensity in the chambers of our heart that God is our creator whom we've not honored. He is our lawgiver whom we've not obeyed. He is the benefactor who has given us life and breath and all things. And we've not appreciated him. He is our judge and we've not feared him. He is the forbearing one. And we've not acknowledged him. And yet

45:10 wonder of wonders. When repentance toward God is preached in the context of the gospel, we learn something else about God. He's the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He is the God who sent his son to die for the ungodly, raised him from the dead, commissioned his servants to go out and preach in his name. Repentance unto remission of sin among all the nations. You see, no one will ever repent toward God unless he sees himself a sinner against God. But listen, no one will ever repent toward God with biblical repentance if he doesn't see that the very God against whom he has sinned is the God who has made provision for the guilty sinner. If all you know about God is that you've offended him and he's holy and righteous and just and he would have every reason to cast you into hell, you can only dread him and run from him. Learn that that

46:10 very God is the God who, though he could destroy you in his burning justice and holiness, he has in love and mercy for you. For lost sinners made a way of deliverance in the person and work of his son, by which he can receive sinners into his favor without staining his justice or his holiness. He's made a way in which rather than stain it, I say it reverently, God polishes to the highest luster all of his glorious attributes in the gospel. God polishes to the highest luster his holiness, his justice, as well as his love.

46:49 And that's what makes sinners bold to turn toward him, turn from their sins and unto God and to face their Creator now for the first time and say, Oh God, I'll gladly take the place of a creature content to let you be God, to call the shots, to run the show. And I'll take the place of a creature in conscious dependence, in loving submission. You're the lawgiver. I will gladly let you be what you are in my life. Oh God, I accept your laws, the rule of my life. Let it regulate my thoughts, my motives, my deeds, my relationships, how I spend my time, my money, how I choose my friends, where I go, where I don't go. Oh God, you're God, you made me. Oh God, you are God, and you have expressed your will for me as your creature and your law. I embrace that law.

47:48 If you're a God who saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, you saw me, and you saw me, you saw me, and you saw me, oh God, I accept my law. If you're a real sinner, and you love the way that I love you, and you love your power, and you so love the likes of sinners like this sinner, then surely, surely you cannot will anything that is to cramp their style and to crush them and crimp them. Oh God, forgive my evil thoughts of you. I do take you as my God, as my lawgiver. I do take you to be my father. I do take you to be the one to whose glory and praise I will live. My friends, that's repentance toward God. You got the idea?

The Main Ingredients of the Biblical Gospel: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

48:22 And any gospel, any gospel that doesn't tell you that that is an essential spiritual disposition if you're ever to escape hell, somebody's told you a lie.

48:37 If you're a stranger to what I've just described, my friend, you know nothing of the power of the gospel. The biblical gospel is a gospel from the throne of relationship with God on the basis of what he has done in the person and work of his son. That's why it's inseparably joined to the second element. Look at it.

49:07 He said, I solemnly testify not only repentance toward God, but faith into Jesus Christ. The activity itself, faith. What does it mean? It means trust in, reliance upon, commitment to.

49:27 It refers to the heart's trust. And confidence in another. That's the simple meaning of the word faith. The heart's trust and confidence in another.

49:40 The reliance on the whole another. And notice the specific object. Look at it. He didn't preach faith toward Jesus, faith toward the Lord, faith toward Christ.

49:55 He said, I preach faith toward our Jesus.

50:02 And in those three words comprise his full and glorious, the idol as the Savior of sinners, is the whole marrow gospel of the grace of God. He said, I preach that men should trust in, rely upon, commit themselves to one who is Lord. That immediately tells us you, as you heard on Easter morning, he's not dead. Joseph's tomb is empty.

50:33 But God's right hand throne is not empty to someone sitting on it.

50:45 He has put all things under his feet. He has been exalted to the place of God's messianic king. And to be Lord is nothing less in this setting than to be the one who is the sovereign ruler of his people, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus points to that name given to him at his conception, which in turn points to the purpose for which he was conceived in Mary's womb.

51:17 It means, Jehovah saves, or Jehovah is Savior, or Jehovah is salvation. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save. He shall save his people not in, but from their sins. Paul said, I preached to Jew and to Greek alike, whatever the differences may have been in all of their cosmetic variety at heart.

51:45 They were sinners. They were rebels. They were, they were those who had the wrong sovereign. And I pointed them to the Lord.

51:53 But I pointed them to the Lord who is Jesus, conceived in Mary's womb by the Spirit. And in that humbled existence lived out a life of perfect obedience. It was Jesus of Nazareth who grew up in the little home, there with his brothers and sisters. It was Jesus of Nazareth who was baptized in Jordan's waters.

52:17 Jesus of Nazareth, who was approved of God by mighty signs and wonders. Jesus of Nazareth, cruelly and unjustly apprehended in the middle of the night and dragged from one puppet court to another and then impaled upon an instrument of Roman execution until he cried out, Into thy hands I commend my spirit and died. It was Jesus of Nazareth who was placed in Joseph's borrowed tomb. It was Jesus of Nazareth who came forth the third day.

52:49 From the tomb it was Jesus who 40 days later ascended up into heaven. This same what? Jesus, whom you've seen go into heaven, shall so come. And so the gospel points us, you see, to one who is a sovereign Lord upon a throne, who's come to that throne by way of Mary's womb.

53:12 The humiliation of the cross, Joseph's open tomb, all that he might provide a just death, a basis for the forgiveness of sins. He is Jesus the Savior and he is Christ the Anointed One, God's final prophet, priest, and king. God's final prophet according to Hebrews 1, in whom the will of God is fully revealed. God's final priest, so that we need not have any lamb to bring to any minister or priest or rabbi.

53:48 We need have no hope, no focus over a so-called altar and a so-called priest offering up a so-called bloodless but real sacrifice unto God on our behalf. No, no. He is Christ, the Anointed Priest, who according to Scripture offered one sacrifice for sin forever. And now he sat down.

54:10 You see, when a priest was working, he wasn't sitting. He was standing. Eh, ministers! But it says of him, having offered one sacrifice, one sacrifice for sin, he sat down.

54:26 Oh, I love the definitiveness of that statement. He sat down henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. In other words, may I say it reverently, he is now receiving from the posture of sitting the fruit and the reward of that once-for-all sacrifice as God's anointed priest. And then he is God's anointed king.

54:53 He is king, Jesus. He is king now in ruling over that kingdom of which you heard this morning. That kingdom over which God rules in His sovereignty and by His providence. He is king in the kingdom of grace.

55:10 And he will be king when he ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. And Paul said, The gospel I preach told men that they must trust in, rely upon, commit themselves to a person. Do you see that? He said, I preach faith not in certain doctrines about this person, but in that person and all the doctrine that's in him.

55:34 The truth is in Jesus, in who He is and what He's done. And it's Jesus whom the sinner engages. He believes into Jesus. Faith is the bond of the sinner's youth.

55:49 Faith is union with the Savior in all the plenitude of His saving grace and power. The best uninspired definition of saving faith I ever encountered in all of my years of reading was that definition given by the late Professor Murray in which he described saving faith this way, Saving faith is self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person, and in the perfection of His work as He is presented to us in the gospel. My friend, I want to be as simple and as plain as I know how. What does it mean to have faith into the Lord Jesus? It means self-commitment. Now what makes you yourself? Well, you say it, everything that I am, my mind, my affections, my will, my body, my ambitions, my desires, my desires, my desires, any talents, any energies, possession, myself is me.

56:53 It's all that I am. It's the whole thing. What? Commitment to Christ.

57:06 It's the commitment of one being in the entirety to another being in His entirety. It is self-commitment to Christ, but particularly in the light of two things, in the glory, in the glory of His person. Commitment to Him as the God-man in all the glory and the uniqueness of what He is, as God of God and man of man, true man, true God, as much God as though He were never man, as much man as though He were never God. In that great mystery of the two natures in the one person forever, because He's God, He can deal with my dilemma with power and with all the might of heaven. But because He's man, His life of obedience under the law is a real obedience. His death is a real death. His work for sinners is the valid work of the man Christ Jesus.

58:05 My friend, it's self-commitment to Him in all the glory of His person and in all the perfection of His work. You see, faith is not some kind of a woozy leap into some unknown realm. It is the commitment of yourself to one who lived the life that God demands, but you never gave Him. A life of obedience to the law in all of the breadth of its demands, touching thought and word and motive and desire, action and reaction.

58:37 It means commitment to Him who lived the life you should have lived but didn't. Commitment to Him who died the death you should die, but that He was willing to die on behalf of sinners. A death under the curse of God. A death under the wrath of God.

58:52 A death under the breaking billows of Jesus. A divine anger against human sin. A death under the frown of the Almighty. A death that, as it were, took hell out of hell and nailed it to the cross of the Son of God.

59:09 Now that's faith. It's self-commitment to this person in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He's offered in the gospel. Now that's the heart of the biblical gospel. You see, it sets before you God, and your relationship to Him, and it says you're all wrong.

The Burning Necessity and Inseparability of Repentance and Faith

59:29 And if you want to get to heaven and sustain what's so wrong, you must repent with reference to God. You must commit yourself to, rely upon, entrust yourself over to the Lord Jesus Christ as He's offered in the gospel. The gospel has to do not only with the fact that you're all right and wrong with God, but that you can be all right with God. But not on the basis of what you do, not on the basis of what someone else could do for you who's a fellow human being and a fellow sinner, but on the basis of what Christ has done for sinners. Now as we close, I want to just underscore very briefly what I hope has been already evident. But will you notice in this text in which the heart of the biblical gospel is set before us, will you notice the burning, the burning necessity of these issues?

60:50 Paul solemnly testified to Jews and Greeks. He sought them out publicly, house to house. There was this conviction born in his heart by God Himself that the gospel was no luxury. No luxury without the gospel.

61:13 That's why when he preached it, he preached it with tears. It broke his heart to see men, on the one hand, cry God, the God in whom he saw such glory. It broke his heart to see men treat him in such a shameful way. In Acts 17, when he saw people worshipping idols, it said his spirit was stirred when worship sticks and stones, when there's such a glorious God to be worshipped.

61:43 In that conviction that men had to be right with God, he preached repentance. They must repent if they go through life and into death and on to judgment without repentance. They'll meet God as an angry judge. And if they meet Him as an angry judge, they'll hear the words, depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire.

62:02 Paul believed that. I think I believe it. My own lack of brokenness makes me wonder if I do. I do believe it.

62:12 God help my unbelief. Help is to smite me. I can look into the faces of men and women, boys and girls, in this building whom I know. Make no profession of repentance.

62:27 And not stand here and have a flood of tears just spill out of my eyes and splash over this pulpit. My friends, we solemnly testify because we're not playing games. Repentance is a necessity. Faith in the Lord Jesus is a necessity.

62:49 He that believeth not shall be damned. You must notice in this text the necessity of these two spiritual things. These two spiritual exercises. Notice their inseparability.

63:06 He didn't preach just repentance or just faith. Just faith and not repentance. Whoever professes to believe on the Lord Jesus but who is a stranger to repentance is presuming upon the grace of God. If your professed faith in the Lord Jesus has not been joined to a vital, deep, pervasive change of mind to God so that your whole relationship to God has been radically altered, my friend, you know nothing of true faith in Christ.

63:37 You know nothing of true faith in Christ. When Paul describes the conversion of the Thessalonians he said, You turned unto God from your idols. There is no true turning in faith unless that faith be permeated with repentance. But there is no true repentance in simply mourning over sin and complaining how wretched I am and how bad I am.

64:02 It's not complaining into hell complaining about your wretchedness. It's not complaining about your wretchedness that brings you into touch with the virtue of Jesus. It's faith. It's faith.

64:13 It's faith. And faith alone. They are inseparable. And if I'm speaking to someone whose thought will only if I inwardly flagellate myself long enough and mourn over my sins and grieve over my failings and constantly remind myself of how short I fall, then somehow, somewhere along the way, I'll get relief.

64:34 No, friend. Relief never comes looking at your sin. It comes by looking at the sin bearer. Look and live is the message of Scripture.

The Centrality of Repentance and Faith in Gospel Preaching

64:48 And I close by saying this particularly for you, the people of God, who are here. Notice not only the necessity of repentance in faith, the inseparability, but notice their centrality in the preaching of God. In the preaching of Paul, he had no trouble summarizing what he did for three and a half years. He didn't have to say, now you people know, when I was among you, I was with you with humility.

65:14 I was with you with tears. I was with you with trials, testifying. Now let me see. Wait, wait, wait.

65:20 Fellas, hold it now. I preached so many things and I covered such a broad range of things. What in the world really was my center? He didn't have to pause.

65:31 Had no hesitation in saying that the lodestone truths, the magnet truths, the central truths, the one that had the highest wattage in the spotlights of apostolic spectrum in preaching were these, repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord Jesus. They were central. Not only central in calling sinners to an initial entrance into grace and forgiveness, but central in reminding the people of God of just where it is and how it is that they have found the favor of God through the gospel. And we never grow away from the gospel.

66:16 We grow into and in the gospel. That's why God's given us an ordinance that calls us back again and again to the central facts and issues of the gospel. This do in remembrance of me. This is my body.

66:31 This is my blood. This do in remembrance of me. You do preach the Lord's death till he come. I say to you men preparing for the ministry, get over the itch to be novel.

66:46 If you gain the reputation of just being an old Bible thumping, Christ-centered, repentance and faith-centered preacher, glory, glory, glory in the title. And all is said and done. Very few of us, probably none of us here, ever going to write anything that's very original. Never going to say anything very original.

67:13 But may God use us to take a few sinners to heaven with us. Take some sinners to heaven. Because if we made one thing plain, we made this plain. Your problems are plainer than that.

67:33 And my friend, you need to get that problem resolved. That's why we don't stand up here and tell you jokes. That's why we don't stand here in a laid-back way. Listen.

67:44 You think the preaching is too earnest? At times, there's not a man who's ever preached in this pulpit who's ever been as earnest as his subject demands. You hear me? I've never once left the pulpit and gone home with my conscience condemning me.

67:58 I was too earnest. But I've gone home many a night condemned in my conscience and wondered, oh God, if there was more genuine passion and earnestness and the fire. Someone was near the kingdom but wasn't quite convinced. Not because of the content of what I said, but because the manner of which I said it.

68:27 Oh, may God make of you men gospel preachers in the truest sense of the word. May he make of this whole church an army of gospel preachers in your station, in your place, in your natural context, seeking opportunities to bring men to these great issues that they're wrong with God and they need to get right with him. And the only way is in the person and work of Jesus. That's what we're out after.

68:59 It may take us five years to gain confidence, gain entrance, establish a bridge, but that's what we're always waiting and praying and laboring for the time when we can tell them, you're wrong. You need to get right with God. There's only one way. And then open up the central truths of the gospel and call them to repentance and to faith.

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

69:25 This is the heart of the biblical gospel. And my friend, if that gospel has not found its home in your heart, I plead with you, repent and flee to Christ. And if it has its home in your heart, pray that God will renew your repentance, renew your faith, and then fill you with a holy passion to see others brought to repentance and faith so that they may know the blessings of forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Let us pray.

69:58 Father, we never cease to marvel when our minds concentrate even for a few moments upon the great issues of your relationship to your sinful creatures that you should have stooped to devise so marvelous a scheme of salvation. We stand blinded before the brightness of your wisdom revealed in Christ. We stand overwhelmed before the revelation of your love in the giving of your Son. We stand, O Lord, as it were, paralyzed in our spirits that you would condescend not merely to conceive, bring to pass and announce, but then you'd stoop to entreat rebel sinners to come. Lord, we thank you for condescending grace that you bid us to taste and see that you are good. You bid us to look at what we are eating and drinking to try to fill our souls and to face that it never satisfies.

71:25 You plead with us to consider and then to come to that feast spread in the person of your Son. O Lord, constrain sinners to come tonight and then come to us as your own and may our hearts be filled afresh with holy longings to proclaim this glorious message by which alone sinners are brought to deliverance and to the possession of eternal life. Lord, seal your word to our hearts. Thank you for your presence.

72:04 Thank you for your servant Paul. We know that left to himself he'd have gone to his grave being a Christ-hating, church-persecuting Pharisee and gone to hell. And we know the last thing he would want as he's now in your presence is that we should glorify him. For we know that whatever he was as a man or a preacher he was by your grace.

72:27 O may that grace work in us, that we too will have something of his spirit not counting life dear to ourselves but counting as our great concern that we may fulfill your will in this life in terms of the gospel. Hear our prayer. Dismiss us with your blessing. Receive our praise and thanksgiving for your mercy and kindness to us in the Lord Jesus.

72:54 Amen.