The Enunciation of God's Changeless Standard #2

The Question of Dying for Truth: Paul's Example

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, January 28, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I invite you to turn with me to the 20th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. I will not be expounding this portion, but it contains both a phrase and an example to which we will make continual reference throughout the message this morning. Acts chapter 20, and I shall read verses 17 through 24.

0:41 With reference to the activities of the Apostle Paul, Luke writes,

1:06 In 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. 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. But, 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 received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

2:18 I begin this morning by asking each one of you a very straightforward question. And my question is this.

2:30 As best you know yourself, sitting here this morning, as best you know yourself, and none of us knows himself fully, but as best you know yourself, is there any truth for which you would be willing to die?

2:50 As best you know yourself, sitting here, not what you were a week ago, what you hope to be a week or a year or a decade from now, but sitting here this morning, is there any truth for which you would be willing to die?

3:09 Now, I'm not asking you, is there any person for whom you'd be willing to die? I hope most of us, could answer that question relatively quickly and confidently and name those people for whom, if duty called upon us to do it, in the strength of Christ, we would be willing to die. To seal our professed love and friendship with the blood that courses through our own veins. But I'm not asking you, is there any person for whom you would be willing to die?

3:43 But is there any, truth for which you'd be willing to die? In other words, is there any truth so precious to you, that you would be willing to validate its preciousness by having it spattered and soaked with the blood that courses through your veins right now, in this place, this morning? It's a searching question, isn't it? We've just read, of a man, who could answer that question.

4:24 If you and I had the opportunity to sit down with Paul and look him in the eye and say, Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, is there any truth for which you are willing to die? He'd say, it's a no-brainer. I'll answer you immediately, reflexively. I am prepared to die for the gospel, of the grace of God.

4:45 I'm on my way to Jerusalem, I don't have a clue what's going to happen to me, except one thing. The Holy Spirit is continually testifying, to his own heart, as an apostle, and a recipient of direct revelation, and through prophets, when they had real prophets, in the apostolic age, saying, Paul, whatever happens in any city, one thing will be sure, you're going to suffer for me. And he said, if the suffering means that my life's blood is poured out, he said, it is of little account to me. He knew the truth for which he was willing to spill, his blood.

5:23 Now, for the bulk of our time in the ministry of the Word this morning, we're going to consider those truths that constitute the truth for which Paul was willing to die. The gospel of the grace of God. What is it? And how should it influence us?

Context of the Sermon Series: Church Commitments

5:44 And why should we be willing to seal it, if necessary, with our own life's blood? But we have not come to this subject, out of the blue, because somewhere throughout the week I thought it would be nice to preach on it, or in my own devotions, came across Acts 20. This is the eleventh message in a series of messages, and if I'm to bring you in so that you feel with us where we are, and understand the rationale for addressing the subject, let me spend a few minutes to give an overview of where we've been. Our Constitution puts a requirement upon those of us in the eldership that every five years, we will take a minimum of fifteen Lord's Day mornings to give ourselves and the congregation a thorough exposure to the biblical truths contained in our confession of faith and in our church constitution. And so, for a number of Lord's Days, I have been opening up, from the Scriptures, truths related to our life together as they are expressed in our church Constitution. And the first matter of real significance is the fact that the Lord's Day is not just a day of worship. Lord's Day is a Sunday in which we recognize our efforts to serve, yesterday we will be in peace, this Sabbath, this feast, on the Sabbath together with friends, to be experienced with our Lord, and to mean thus is the order and purpose of the feast the Lord is honestly equipped to bring to us, and wayfaring of ouriquity to those who seek it.

7:03 As we make the Sabbath, we will do it in a filled and skillful manner, and evangelists will be steering it with understanding our churches. Our prayer and prayer and prayer will be the prior, the chanted prayer, imiziays, and the constant prayer of the Holy Spirit, as our chants, chants, chants, we've just picked up the third. First major head was the supreme and all-encompassing purpose of the church, and it's captured in the words of our Constitution in this way. The purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures, and that is, according to the Scriptures, the supreme and all-encompassing purpose of Christ's church. Then the second major head is what I have called the God-appointed activities by which we are together to pursue that purpose. That may sound nice and noble and pious. We're to pursue the glory of the God of Scriptures, but how are we to do it as a church? Well, God has appointed certain activities which he has said will serve

8:09 that all-encompassing and supreme purpose, and I organize the ones identified in our Constitution under the imagery of the circle and the arrows. And if I'm remembered for nothing else through this series, I'll be the circle and arrows preacher. And that's fine. I don't mind if it sticks in your head and filters into your heart. I don't mind being called the circles and arrows preacher. I've been called a lot worse things in my 40-plus years of preaching, so being called a circles and arrow preacher will not upset me. And in that, I've tried to capture the biblical truths which are highlighted by our Constitution. The arrow points to the God of the Church, and pointing upward is pursuing the glory of God by promoting his worship. Worship is central and

8:56 foundational to fulfilling the purpose of glorifying God. And then we looked at the arrows that point inward, our mutual edification and our mutual manifestation of the love of God in practical, diaconal concern toward one another. And then we looked at the arrows pointing outward in all directions this way. And this way, what our Constitution identifies as evangelizing sinners, the planting and the strengthening of churches. Then last Lord's Day evening, because the snow precluded our gathering in the morning, I started to address Roman numeral number three. We looked at the supreme and all encompassing purpose. Secondly, the God-appointed activities by which we are to pursue that purpose. Then we began to consider the commitment needed to continue to pursue the God-given purpose of the church. Our Constitution identifies some commitments that

9:56 are needed. Here's the language. We are committed to the proclamation of God's perfect law and the glorious gospel of his grace to all the world and to the defense of the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And I've suggested that in those words, the commitments focus on three things.

10:18 We are committed to the enunciation of God's changeless standard of right and wrong. We are committed to the proclamation of God's changeless method of making sinners right with himself. And we are committed to the preservation of the body of apostolic and revealed truth. It speaks of the kind of commitment that must mark us as a church.

Review: Commitment to God's Changeless Standard (The Law)

10:48 And it only marks us as a church, as it marks the leadership and the rank and file of God's people. Commitments not just the passing obsession with or fascination with these these. But commitments, things we are ready to die for if our death is necessary to validate our commitment. We are committed. Komitted. And so we And so we committed. Komitted. Komitted. And so we took up that first strand last Lord's Day evening, committed to the enunciation of God's changeless standard of right and wrong. And what we did in the exposition, and if you weren't here, we have it on tape. We urge you to get it. We considered the identity of that changeless standard. What is it? And I answered from the scriptures, it is the law of God. The law of God codified, but not

11:44 exhausted in the Ten Commandments. The law of God is summarized and distilled into love to God and love to man, Matthew 22, 38 to 40. The law of God understood in its heart-searching, motive-revealing, thought-exposing length and breadth as expounded by our Lord in Matthew 5. Where unjust anger in the heart breaks the commandment, you shall do no murder. Where the deliberate, lustful look of the eye breaks the commandment, you shall do no murder. Where the deliberate, lustful look of the eye breaks the commandment, you shall do no murder. Where the deliberate, lustful look of the eye breaks the seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery. And the law of God, understood as a unitary standard in relationship to the God who gave it, James 2.10, whosoever shall keep all and yet offend in one point is guilty of all.

12:33 For he who said God has spoken to violate one of his commands is to violate all because it is the God who made us, who stands behind the authority and the righteous demands of his law. And then having answered the question, what is the identity of that changeless standard, a commitment to the enunciation of which is part of who we are, I sought to answer the question, what is necessary in this matter? What is the necessity demanding a commitment to this enunciation of God's changeless standard of right and wrong? And I answered from the scripture, because of the use of the law in convincing us of our need of Christ. Secondly, because of the use of the law explaining the nature of the salvation of Christ. And thirdly, because of the use of the law in guiding us as we seek to live a life well-pleasing to Christ. I hope you noted the Christ sentiment.

13:43 I hope you have entered rationale for enunciating the law.

13:49 If you didn't get it, I'm telling you. I hope you did. So that any thought, I'm so obsessed with Jesus, I want nothing to do with the law, is theological and spiritual and biblical hogwash.

14:06 None of us knows his need for Jesus until we see we stand guilty and exposed by the law of God. And none can understand the meaning. mystery of what Jesus did in his perfect life and in his substitutionary death apart from the law, for he was redeeming us from the curse of the law. Take away its curse, you take away the significance of his cross, and at best it becomes an amazing but puzzling enigma, or at worst a cruel joke.

14:41 And when coming, guilty, defiled, hell-deserving, to Christ crucified, driven to sense our need of him by the whiplash of the law, and forsaking all hope of salvation from the law, seeing all of its demands and its punishment met in Christ crucified, and embracing him by penitent faith, our hearts overflow with love to him, and we say, Lord Jesus, how can I please you? Now pleasing you is what I'm all about. And he sends us back to that law in his own pierced hands, that it may be a guide to our life of obedience out of the motive of love to the Lord Jesus, who said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments and none of his commandments ever canceled or negated. The words of Moses and he and his apostles frequently refer to the law. To the Decalogue, in guiding the consciences of true believers, Romans 13, Ephesians chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter 1, and on and on we could go. Well, I've taken some 17 minutes to tell you where we're at, because we come now this morning

New Focus: Commitment to God's Changeless Method of Salvation (The Gospel)

16:05 in this third category of the commitments essential to our continuance in pursuit of that purpose, to glorify the God of the Scriptures, that we are not only committed to the enunciation of God's changeless standard of right and wrong, but now secondly, we are committed to the proclamation of God's changeless method of making sinners right with him. Now you see the progression. We want people to know they aren't right with God, but we want to go beyond that. We want them to know.

16:42 We want them to know how they can be made right with God. And you see, it's only sinners who know they aren't right with God by nature, and who get right with God by grace, that can fulfill the purpose of glorifying the God of the Scriptures. It all hangs together like a ball of wax. I never realized how much wisdom God gave to people that framed our Constitution.

17:05 It's been a wonderful discovery for me, that God led the blind by a way they did not know. Some of us had a part in this, and little did we know. Oh, God was helping us to be biblically balanced and comprehensive, and stayed the integration of God's truth. Now, then, we're going to commit ourselves, through the remainder of the time, to wrestling with this issue of our commitment to the proclamation of God's changeless method of making sinners right with himself.

The Gospel as God's Sole Authority for Salvation

17:34 Our Constitution states it very simply. We are committed to the proclamation of the glorious gospel of his grace. At the foundation of that affirmation is the persuasion, and follow closely now what I'm about to say. At the foundation of that affirmation of commitment to the proclamation of the gospel.

17:56 At the foundation of that affirmation is the persuasion that God himself and God alone can determine how law-breaking, hell-deserving, spiritually dead sinners can get right with him.

18:14 You got that? When we throw out the question, how can sinful man be right with God? There's only one being in the universe that has the right and the authority to answer that question. And that's the offended God.

18:32 The scripture describes us in our state of sin as spiritually blind. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. We are spiritually dead. We are spiritually dead.

18:45 We are spiritually dead. We are spiritually dead. In Ephesians 2, you hath he made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins. We are spiritual rebels.

18:53 Romans 8, 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

19:01 Blind, dead, rebels. Who in the world are we to sit down at a table, look ourselves in the mirror and say, Now come up with what you think might be a good way to be right with God. Or to gather our fellow blind, dead, rebellious sinners and say, Let's come up with a conference statement of how we can be right with God. I hope you see the absolute folly of the very suggestion.

19:30 In our condition as sinners, we possess neither the authority nor the ability to determine how we can be made right with God. The grand dilemma. The ultimate question of all. All questions is this.

19:46 How can sinful man be made right with God in such a way that God's justice and God's holiness and God's righteousness are not stained or eroded? That's the question. How can God remain God and sinners who deserve His wrath, who brought themselves into a state of spiritual blindness, death and alienation, and become the slaves? How can they be made right with God?

20:20 And God still be a holy God who says He is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. A righteous and just God who says the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's the great dilemma.

Man's Futile Attempts vs. God's Gospel

20:36 That's the ultimate question of all questions. And in a very real sense, every false religion is the concoction of man, and engaged in a futile effort to resolve that dilemma in some other way other than God's way. And you know what they do when they're resolving that dilemma? They do one of two things or a combination of both.

21:01 They either pare God down to be something less than impeccably righteous and holy and just. And they say God is love. And His love sort of leaps out of his heart and swallows up and submerges. His righteousness and His justice, and God can just wave His hand and say, I'll forgive all my children because I love them.

21:28 I love them so much I'll forgive. But God, what about your holiness and your righteousness and your justice? And they have God answer back and say, don't let that trouble you. My love has just swallowed up and submerged all of my other attributes.

21:46 That's what some people do. Know what other people do? They'll name God. They'll maintain a good dimension of God's holiness and justices and righteousness.

21:54 But they pick man up to a plane that he ain't. You're not really spiritually blind.

22:03 You just need a little adjustment with some contact lenses of religious philosophy and religious activity. And you'll see 2020. You've got a little stigmatism. You've got a little nearsightedness.

22:15 You've got a little farsightedness. We'll give you spiritual laser treatment. You'll see 2020, 2015 sometime.

22:21 And so what they say? They say, as man's not as bad as God says he is and as he really is. He's not blind. He's not really dead.

22:29 He's out of breath and out of shape. A little fat and sloppy. Out of shape. But he's not dead.

22:37 Not dead, dead. Blood pressure may be a little bit too high. And he may be a little bit anemic. But he's alive all right.

22:45 And give him the right vitamins of religious notions and religious activities. And get him to go out and do some religious training. Get him to pump a little iron. Run a few laps.

22:54 And he'll be all right. And that's what men do when they wrestle with this great dilemma. How can sinful man be right with a holy and a just God? And in their blindness, they either pare God down to be something less than he is.

23:10 Or they bring man up to be something more than he is. Or a combination of both. But you know what the Bible does? And I tell you this is what thrills me as a preacher of the gospel.

23:23 And as I told Mr. Davies earlier, this morning when I called him, just to think again of what the gospel is.

23:32 God not only maintains the full integrity of his holiness, of his justice, and his righteousness. His holiness, justice, righteousness, love, and mercy shine in their greatest billions in the gospel.

23:51 And rather than flatter man, they tell him he's just as bad and worse than he ever thought he was. And yet wonder, of wonders the gospel gets that wretched creature and this glorious God together. Together! So that God is still God!

24:09 And man is still God! In the language of Paul in Romans, in the gospel alone we see how God can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. So then, we want to think our way through this gospel. Because we're committed as a church, we've said it, we're committed to the proclamation of the gospel of God's grace to the ends of the world.

The Bible's Assertion: Gospel Alone Resolves the Dilemma

24:41 We're going to do this by following a trail marked out for us by the biblical answer to three simple questions. Where are we going? We're going to go down three trails. Who's marking out the trail?

24:52 The Bible. Well, what portions of the Bible? The portions of the Bible that apply to three questions. That's our organizing principle.

25:00 You got the image? Where are we going? It's always helpful when a preacher tells you where you're going. More helpful when he goes there with you.

25:07 And when you got there, turns back and tells you how you got there. That's introduction, anticipation, exposition, review and conclusion. Alright? And I'm the teacher-preacher.

25:17 I just can't stand up here and preach and hope you sort it out. That's my job at the desk, to do much of the sorting out. But I can't do the listening for you. And I can't do the mental exercise and diligence essential to grasp this.

25:30 I've paid the price of preparation. I'm paying the price of delivery. I'm preaching with every ounce of my being from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. I've done all I can.

25:42 Now you got to do your part. We stand now to press this issue. And we're going to do it with three questions. And the Bible's answer to the questions will be the paths down which we go.

25:53 Question number one. Where does the Bible assert that the gospel of the grace of God and this gospel alone resolves the great dilemma? Where in the Bible does it say the gospel of the grace of God alone resolves this great dilemma? How can God remain God, the sinner be as bad as he is, and yet get the two of them together?

26:21 Well, I want you to look at the voice of two and three witnesses. The Scripture says at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. Let's look together. Romans chapter 1.

26:34 And here I'm not just going to quote the text as I've quoted a number already, but I want you to get these texts through the eye gate as well as the ear gate. Paul, in typical Greco-Roman cultural fashion, has given a proper introduction of himself and of his letter. In verse 8 of Romans 1, he's expressing his thankfulness for the Roman Christians and then tells them that he's constantly praying for them. And then he bears his heart.

27:07 He says, I long to see you. I've never been to Rome. I want to come to Rome. Later on in the letter, he says he has a number of motives, not only to contribute something to the faith and spiritual stability of the Romans, but to establish Rome as the launching pad for new gospel enterprises up into Spain.

27:25 And in this context, he says in verse 14, the reason he wants to come and have gospel fruit among the Gentiles there at Rome is this. I am debtor, both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome. Paul, you've expressed all these longings to go to Rome and the things you want to do, and now you focus it all on this passionate desire, this abiding readiness to preach the gospel out of the crucible of ascension.

28:06 The crucible of a sense of a holy debt that you are indebted to both Jew and Greek, and that the only way you can discharge that debt is by preaching the gospel. What makes you think the gospel is such a big deal that it can deliver you from your sense of indebtedness both to Jew and to Greek? He says, I'll tell you. Verse 4, For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

28:29 I've never had occasion to be ashamed of the gospel. I've never preached it, defended it, suffered for it, and then went away and pulled my skirt over my head saying, what a jerk I've been for standing up for the gospel. It's no big deal. It promises so much but delivers so little.

28:46 Paul said, never once, never once have I ever had occasion to be ashamed of the gospel. Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, that is, in the gospel is revealed a righteousness of God, a way to be right with God from faith unto faith as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith.

29:21 What is Paul saying? Paul is saying, and he says it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that the gospel alone is God's method of bringing people to salvation, to rescuing them from sin and its consequences. The gospel and the gospel alone is the divinely ordained method of imparting God's saving grace and power without discrimination to Jew and to Greek. And then he goes on from chapter 1 verse 18 all the way through to chapter 3 and verse 20 to demonstrate that all men without distinction need what the gospel alone can give. And then he comes back to the very theme of verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1 in verse 21 of chapter 3. But now, but now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested. It's been made openly known.

30:27 And as he begins to expound it, it is a righteousness focusing upon the saving work of Jesus Christ as propitiation, as the one who swallows up God's righteous wrath against sin in himself on behalf of his people. And he then opens up the glorious gospel that focuses upon Christ, upon Christ crucified, upon Christ risen, upon Christ offered to all men in the gospel, of the fact that sinners can be united to Christ, and in Him there is no condemnation. In Him there is newness of life. In Him there is the pledge of resurrection and life eternal. So, question number one takes us down past number one. Where does the Bible assert that the gospel of the grace of God and this gospel alone resolves man's greatest dilemma? Romans 1 and verse 16.

31:30 It is the power of God, not one among many, not one among several, it is the singular instrument of God's power unto salvation. Then we turn to 1 Corinthians 15. The second verse in this first path marked by the question where does the Bible assert that the gospel alone resolves this great dilemma. There were some at Corinth who had imbibed current pagan philosophical notions that the resurrection of the body was a bunch of humbug.

32:10 Not immortality of the soul, but resurrection of the body. And so Paul wants to show them that if you imbibe that philosophical notion from your pagan associates and those with whom you interact, you're undercutting the whole gospel, your hope of forgiveness, your hope of resurrection and eternal life. And now he begins to do it in these words. 1 Corinthians 15.

32:33 Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, it was a definite propositional declaration that could be called the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, wherein also you stand, now note, by which you are saved if, if, conditional clause, if you hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except you believed in vain. I preached a gospel that had substantial, definable content to it. That gospel was the means of your salvation. If you continue to cling to that gospel, you will know the blessedness of consummate salvation. If you relinquish that gospel, you show that your initial profession of faith was never real. I labored in vain on your part. What's he saying?

33:31 He's saying the gospel alone brings us into salvation, and the gospel maintained in its doctrinal integrity will alone carry us unto consummate salvation. You get in at the front door by the gospel, you walk along the way by the gospel, and you'll be glorified at last by gospel faith. You see, Paul does not in any way kowtow to this idea, well, if that was your truth for you when I spoke it, fine. If someone comes along with some new truth, and his truth for him, you want to make it your truth for you, we don't want to appear dogmatic and harsh, and we don't want in any way to give people the idea that we believe we have a corner on absolute truth. That's the mindset of our day in a so-called pluralistic society, but God has never been to it and He won't today. This text clearly teaches it is in the faith of the gospel that we are saved, in the ongoing faith in that gospel with its essential doctrinal propositional content. Paul can say, if you hold fast the word which I preached unto you.

34:49 And then the third witness is Galatians chapter 1. The gospel had been preached in the area of Galatia, and then along came these people saying, look, the gospel you've heard is all right as far as it goes. It was a gospel that said to blind, dead, deaf, rebel, hell-deserving sinners, in Christ crucified, embraced by faith, is your whole salvation. You come as a guilty, hell-deserving, blind, dead sinner, come as you are, embracing Christ for who He is in the gospel.

35:28 You'll be forgiven, you'll be adopted as sons, you'll be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. God is committed to take you safely through life and glorify you at the last day. Christ alone, by faith alone. Along came the Judaizers and said, hey, we got the inside track.

35:45 These gospel preachers, they were all right as far as they went, but they were a bit simplistic. They put periods, full stop, where there ought to be commas. You want to be right with God? Yes, Jesus fits in there, and faith fits in there, but you need to take a visit with us to the local rabbi and get fixed.

36:03 You've got to get circumcised, and then you've got to submit yourself to the whole Jewish framework of dietary laws and all that constitute of the Mosaic covenant. That way, you keep the best of the old covenant, and you overlay it with the best of the new, and then you will be two covenant Christians, honoring Moses in the law and honoring Christ in the gospel. What could be better? Two for one.

36:32 Paul said, no, no. Where we put periods, full stop, anyone puts a comma, you know what he's welcoming on his head? The anathema of God. Look at Galatians chapter 1.

36:44 I've given you a little flavor in modern 21st century parlance. Verse 6. I marvel that you are so quickly removing from him that called you. Now notice, in the grace of Christ, the gospel of the grace of God, so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, which is not another gospel, only there are some that trouble you and would pervert, would twist the gospel of Christ.

37:14 But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be. And then he reaches into the grab bag of his Greek vocabulary and finds the word that was the strongest word to speak of someone being damned by God. Now children, I am not cursing. I'm trying to explain the meaning of this word.

37:43 When someone in anger says to another, God damn you, that's profaning the name of God. If someone were to say with the authority of God, may God damn you, this is the word they would use. Paul pronounces the damnation of God not upon whom, but upon whoremongers, and murderers, and liars, and homosexuals, and thieves. No.

38:16 Other portions pronounce the judgment of God on impenitent liars, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals. But notice, he pronounces the damnation of God upon anyone that alters the content of the gospel. And as though someone said, now look Paul, your Jewish temperament is rather volatile. And at times, you know, you Jews get excited.

38:39 And though you're converted, Paul, you really didn't mean that, did you? Look at the next verse. As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preaches unto you any gospel other than that which you received, let him be damned by God. Amen.

39:02 Now folks, if those three witnesses don't persuade you that the gospel of the grace of God and the gospel alone resolves man's dilemma, bringing in ten more would not move you. That's why as a church, and if we are to be this as a church, it must be you individually, committed to the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of God. Because the gospel alone reveals God's method of resolving the great dilemma. Question number two, more quickly now, what is the essence of the content of the gospel of the grace of God?

The Essence of the Gospel's Content: Indicatives and Imperatives

39:45 What is the essence of the content of the gospel of the grace of God? Well, six weeks ago, we had occasion to answer that question in a different context. We were looking at the first arrow going outward. The church glorifies God, fulfilling its purpose by evangelizing sinners.

40:06 And we spent almost a week and we spent almost a whole message on what is the message that we proclaim in evangelism. So you got a full dose of that six weeks ago. So I'm not going to go back over all that ground just to review the heads. At that time, I sought to show you from the scriptures that the gospel which we are to proclaim is a message comprised of divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth.

40:31 That is, truth that comes from God that is definable and is found in the pages of the Bible. You see, it can give nice ordinary language for all the theological terms. Now, you ought to know the theological terms, but it's on us preachers to explain what they mean to you. So when we talk about divinely revealed, we mean God's told us.

40:51 It didn't come out of the stuff of our own heads or the head of some other fellow blind sinner. God's told us. Objective, what we mean is it's the same wherever you may find it. For example, if I were somehow to qualify to be shot up into orbit and be on Challenger or one of the other spaceships, and I were to sit there during a moment of relaxation and stick up two fingers on my right hand and two on my left and count them, how many would I get up there in space?

41:22 Children, how many fingers would I find? Two here, two there. I'd find how many? Ah, thank you, Katie.

41:29 You'd find four. You're on tape now, Katie. Okay? We can have Mr. Heist scrub that out if you'd like. You can talk to him afterward. All right? Four.

41:39 Four, that's right. And if I got in that new submarine that we're told is going to go down 10,000 feet into the ocean, see things that no human eye has ever seen, and down there I should stick up my right hand, two fingers, left, and I count them, how many would I have? Up in space? Down in the belly of the sea?

41:59 If I could somehow jump on a ray of the sun and be shot out to what to us is infinity and stopped in the midst of God, I'd be going at so many light years and the rest, two fingers, I don't mean to be a reverend, but when I'm in the presence of God in heaven and I have a minute to think of my hands and a glorified body surrounded by glorified saints, Christ on the throne, the light of His presence flooding us all, and I pick up two fingers here and two fingers there, you know how many I'm going to have even in heaven? Four. Now, that's the gospel. The truth of the gospel is true at all places, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all times, in all circumstances.

42:43 It is not relative to culture. It is not relative to current philosophical thought. It is objective truth. And it is up to us to determine to know what it is.

42:58 So that's our second question. What is the essence of the content of the gospel of the grace of God? That gospel that God has revealed has spoken in categorical terms and put it in the pages of the Bible. Well, when we studied that six weeks ago, I gave you two very simple categories.

43:18 At least I thought they were simple. I hope you found them so. The gospel is a message containing magnificent indicatives, and it's a message containing magisterial imperatives. Now, what do I mean by majestic indicatives?

43:33 An indicative is the use of a verb that simply states what is, what happened and what is. For example, I'll give you five or six indicatives. At 11 o'clock, I left the back room with my fellow elders and made my entrance through the door to your left and my right. That's an indicative statement.

43:52 Second statement, I then climbed the stairs to the platform. Third, I then sat on the pew at the back of the wall. Number four, I came to the pulpit to lead you in worship. Number five, I sat down during the offering.

44:06 Number six, I rose to lead you in the final hymn and to preach the word of God. Six or seven indicatives. They are statements of what is, what has happened, what is. Now, the gospel is a message containing magnificent indicatives.

44:24 That is, indicatives that are glorious, for they announce not what you are to do or what you can do, but they announce what God has done to bridge the gap between Himself in His holiness and justice and righteousness and you in your sin and guilt and hell-deservingness. The gospel is an announcement, a magnificent announcement, an announcement that points us to what God has done to resolve this dilemma. It tells us what God has done. John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that He, He gave the gospels about God and what He has done. Ephesians 2, 1 to 4, in verses 1 to 3, Paul describes us dead, walking dead men, walking about, having life determined by the course of this age and under the power of the prince of this age. But then in verse 4, he says, But God, but God, who is rich in mercy. You see, this is a magnificent indicative telling us that God has done something to resolve our dilemma.

45:44 And those indicatives set before us what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They are indicatives that focus on what God has done in the person and work of Christ. In the interest of time, let me just cite the references, some of you taking notes. Luke 24, 45 to 48, where Jesus opens up the scriptures and shows how he had to suffer, he had to die, he had to be raised from the dead.

46:12 And then he said to his apostles, You are witnesses of these things. 1 Corinthians 15, if we read on, verses 3 to 5, Paul says, Here is the heart of the gospel that I preached and you received and you must continue to hold to. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

46:35 And he was seen. You see, the gospel is an announcement of indicatives. And this is all messed up in our day. People have got the gospel being you feel lonely, come to Jesus.

46:47 It focuses on your feelings and what you need to do. That's not the gospel. I don't mean to shock you. Saying to people you must be born again is not the gospel.

46:55 Now they need to be born again. You better tell them they need to be born. That's not the gospel. The gospel is an announcement of what God has done in the person and work of his son righteously and justly to resolve the problem of human sin that deserves divine retribution.

47:15 And then it is a message containing magisterial imperatives. Imperatives that are magisterial they bristle with the authority and the power of the throne of the majesty on high. God doesn't come to hawk his son in a cheap and tawdry way. Through his servants he entreats, he encourages, he begs, he pleads.

47:38 But it always is with this magisterial atmosphere and climate. And what are the imperatives? We read them this morning. Repentance toward God.

47:48 Faith toward the Lord Jesus. Acts 20.21 Acts 17.30 God commands all men everywhere to repent.

47:56 What must I do to be saved? cried the jailer in the answer of Acts 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. From the throne the God who sent his Son who poured out his wrath upon his Son who raised him from the dead who has validated his perfect life in his substitutionary death is righteous and sufficient ground to forgive sinners and accept them as righteous in his sight.

48:24 That God comes to us and says now stack arms. Get out of the God business. You weren't made to run your own life by your own standards to your own ends. Get out of the God business.

48:36 That's repentance. When you're in the God business you don't care about God's law. You don't care about God's fellowship. Communing with God.

48:43 You don't care about God's people. You care about yourself. You live to yourself. God says stop it.

48:48 That's repentance. Get out of the God business. Faith toward our Lord Jesus. That means throw the whole weight of your soul upon Christ who died for sinners.

48:59 Who was raised from the dead. Who as the living Lord sits at the right hand of the Father ready to receive all who come to him. For he said him that comes to me I'll in no wise cast out. Those are the magisterial imperatives.

Summary of the First Two Questions

49:15 So we've asked two questions. Question number one. Where does the Bible assert that the gospel of the grace of God alone resolves our great dilemma? We looked at three witnesses.

49:28 Romans 1. 1 Corinthians 15. Galatians chapter 1. Second question.

49:35 What's the answer? Is it the essence of the content of the gospel? Whatever it is, it's a message comprised if something comes out of God's mind, not ours. It's not a bunch of mishmash you can't get your handle on.

49:46 It's objective. And it is found in the pages of the Bible. And it focuses on two categories. These grand indicatives that tell us what God has done in Christ.

49:58 And these grand imperatives. What we must do in the light of what God has done. Now thirdly and finally. Question number three.

Personal Application: To the Unconverted

50:07 What does all of this say to you? I originally had in the notes say to me. Well, you don't want to know so much what it says to me, but I got news for you. Whatever it says to you, it says to me.

50:18 It says to all of us. But I want you to personalize this third question. What does all of this say to you, sitting here? Well, if you're not a Christian, that is, if you are not savingly united to Christ, hear me now.

50:31 If you have any regard for your never-dying being. I didn't say your never-dying soul. You have never-dying being. Yes, if the Lord tarries, your body will die and be in the grave for a while.

50:46 But when Jesus returns, John 5, 28 and 29, your body will be raised to join your soul. And body and soul, you will be consigned to hell, if you're an unbeliever. You have a never-dying being. Body and soul.

51:05 You were made of the stuff, of foreverness and unendingness. That's the stuff of which you were made. And all of the pompous pronouncements of evolutionary theory notwithstanding, you are not made of the stuff of the primeval slime. Plus time, plus chance, plus random physical forces, you were made with the stuff of unendingness.

51:39 It's one of the most sobering thoughts that a human mind can contemplate. You'll never forget standing by the crib of my children when they were brought home from the hospital and say, that little being in the crib is made of the stuff of unending. And in God's will, I've had a part in bringing into the world something made of the stuff of unendingness. A sobering thought.

52:16 Are you sobered by it? If you are, then you are not fighting with your conscience. You're not fighting with God's law, both of which agree to tell you you're not ready for a state of unendingness in heaven. And you don't desire unendingness in hell.

52:36 Then my word to you in answer to this question, what does all of this say to you? It says to you, here, now, in this place, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice, I'm not up here earning a paycheck, folks.

52:58 I'm not up here engaging in a performance. I hope your own conscience has said, whatever that man is, he's real. He's speaking of things that he believes. And you're right.

53:11 And as I sat at my desk and even wrote this word, I'd never seen it before, in this conjunction, trying to have my own mind and spirit feel feel afresh the awesomeness of pleading with never dying immortal human beings. The word unendingness made of the stuff of unendingness. My friend, I beg you, don't be like that fool who thought he could count on many days and many years. This night, this night, my soul should be required of me.

53:52 I know of someone remotely connected with the church family, who in his place of business this week saw a man fall four stories splattered on the concrete apron below, dead. One minute his two pounds around his waist, the next minute launched into an irreversible state of unendingness. While you have breath in life and sanity, your state as an unconverted man, woman, boy or girl is not irreversibly fixed. Blessed be God.

54:33 The door of mercy is open. And as I reflected on this, I asked myself the question, Lord, if I plead again, and young people and teenagers and children and men and women and visitors go out indifferent to you and then up in hell, will they remember this morning, January 28th, the year 2001? My mind went immediately to Luke 16 where Jesus describes a man who died and in hell, lifted up his eyes. He was in torment and he said, send someone to put a drop of water on my tongue for I am tormented in these flames.

55:11 And you remember what Jesus said? The answer would be, son, remember that in your life you had your good things. Son, remember that you had. It's a horrible thing to think that the memory of this morning may be one of the worms that never died in your conscience in hell forever.

55:39 When a preacher told you from the Bible, from the Bible, that you're blind, you're dead, you're condemned, but God in love and mercy has sent his son and Jesus lived and died that he might procure the salvation of every blind, dead, helpless sinner that cast himself upon his grace. That's what all this says to you, my friend. And what does it say to us as the people of this world that we are to say to us as the people of God? I may yet someday preach a sermon.

Personal Application: To Believers

56:13 I can only give you the four heads. Time is gone. Ground yourself in the essence of the gospel. Tether yourself to the truth of the gospel.

56:23 Strive to have your life shaped and molded by the gospel. And let's together commit ourselves afresh to be a church zealous for the proclamation of the gospel. I am basically prepared to preach something else tonight, but I think it's time for you to get off your lazy spiritual dust and stop piddling with God's truth, knowing more about what's in the New York Times and People Magazine and Entertainment Tonight and the Jim Lehrer Report than you know about the gospel. It's time some of you stopped piddling and doodling about. Of course you're not going to be bold to witness. You can't sit and count even these basic texts that we've looked at today and yet you've been a Christian for years. Shame on you.

57:25 We're not going to be committed to communicate what we don't have a handle upon. Dear people ground yourself in the gospel and then say with Paul I'm prepared to be tethered to this gospel. God giving me grace prepared to die for its propagation and its maintenance. May God help us.

Closing Prayer

57:48 May God help us. Let's pray. Father we can never begin to focus our minds upon these realities which angels desire to look into without feeling anew the horrible narrowness of our minds and at times the even greater narrowness of our hearts. That we could speak of incarnate deity dying dying under your wrath and curse and not have floods of tears gush from our eyes.

58:30 God forgive us for our hardness of heart. Forgive me for my hardness. Lord that we can use the term unending ness and not be stunned not be shocked into an immediate cry son of David have mercy. Oh Father break through the careless dullness of sinners and come by your spirit and construct and train them to repent and to believe the gospel.

59:07 And we pray for us as a church especially Lord the rising generation who have known gospel truth from their mother's arms. We pray that familiarity rather than breed contempt will by the blessing of the spirit breed consuming zeal and passion and determination that if necessary they will seal their blood the truth of the gospel rather than relinquish that which is the only method of making sinners right with you. Oh God for Jesus sake hear our prayer and answer us we plead. Amen.