Title: The Glorious Gospel
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:11
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
One of the most famous stories from the ancient world is based on the events surrounding the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. In this famous battle, the Athenians defeated the Persians, warding off the first invasion of Greece. So decisive and glorious was the victory that the Athenian generals, they dispatched a runner named Pheidippides to travel from Marathon all the way to Athens to share and announce the good news. As the story goes, Pheidippides ran 26.2 miles all the way to Athens and when he had arrived, he delivered this message, Nikomen, which is translated, we won or we win.
And after he delivered that good news message, he immediately collapsed and he died right on the spot. He quite literally gave his life to deliver a good news message of victory. Of course, it wasn't just good news, it was actually great news, it was even glorious news because now the war was over and he could announce that they were victorious.
In the ancient Greek speaking world, the message of good news was called Euangelion, which is literally gospel. And we identify the similarities here as we ourselves possess a gospel message, a message of good news that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. Countless Christian laborers have run the race and given their lives to declare the gospel message.
After his departure from the region of Macedonia, the Apostle Paul sent a letter to the Thessalonian church reminding them of the ministry that he had to them, along with Silvanus and Timothy, and he writes in 1 Thessalonians 2, he says, For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, not with a pretext for greed, God as witness, nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority, but we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because for you had become very dear to us. For as you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. And while the cause of the gospel would eventually cost Paul his life, there was nothing greater for him than to proclaim the glorious gospel of the blessed God.
And so with that, we're going to turn in our study to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1, carrying on this theme of the gospel, and really all of this morning, but even all of today, is ultimately about the gospel, what a providential treasure it is to be talking about only the saving gospel of Christ today. The Apostle Paul in his letter here, he notes in chapter 1, verse 3, that the reason why Timothy was to remain in the church at Ephesus, he says, was to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, but rather to further the administration of God, which is by faith. And so out of love for God's people, Timothy was committing himself to ministering God's word, and not to follow after the wayward teachers who veered into speculation and fruitless discussions, not misusing the law of God to enslave God's people, but rather to make this deposit into the hearts and minds of God's people so that they might grasp sound or healthy teaching.
Even more specific than that was Paul's insistence that Timothy and others not misuse the law. Paul writes to them in chapter 1, verse 8, he says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law was not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious. For the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
And so last week we saw that this purpose, the purpose of God's law, is not to produce legalists. We don't proclaim the law of God to enslave you to law keeping and just doing things. Sinners who attempt to justify or even sanctify themselves through law keeping, it doesn't ever work.
It's not possible. In fact, Paul explicitly says here the law is not made for a righteous person. It's not made for the just.
It's not made for the righteous. In other words, those whom God has justified by faith in Christ have done so not through how well they can keep laws. It's not if I can be a good person, then God will love me and save me.
It's not if I can do all the things and keep all the laws and go to church and check off all the boxes. That does not produce Christianity. That does not produce faith.
That does not produce eternity. Well, why not? Sinners do not become righteous by keeping all of God's laws. Why? Because, number one, because of our sinful nature, it's actually impossible.
It's impossible. Try to be a perfect person for one day. Has anyone ever tried to do that? How long did you get? 20 minutes? Half hour? You know? It's impossible.
There's no way that we can offer 100% perfect obedience to God every single day, all day, for our entire lives. Can you imagine trying to live 90 years of your life in perfection in this sinful flesh? It's utterly impossible. It's completely impossible.
So that's, number one, why we can't do it. Number two, any obedience that we do offer is tainted by our sinful flesh. We are sinners by nature.
The only way that this can happen is a perfect person must offer perfect obedience. And the only one who's ever done that, by the way, is Jesus. The rest of us, we fall so, so short.
And so Christians do not become Christians through law-keeping. Therefore, the law is not given for that purpose. Rather, the law is given both, number one, to demonstrate the righteous standard of God.
We see His character, His attributes, His righteousness. So we see that in the law. But the second reason is also to expose the sinfulness of our own sinful nature.
The law comes in so that sin might be exposed. Again, v. 9-10, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious. It reveals lawlessness.
It reveals rebellion. It reveals ungodliness. It shows God and shows others our sin.
It shows ourselves our sin. And so it is by the law of God that sinners are shown to be sinners. What is the solution? Because this sounds really depressing, doesn't it? There's just no way out.
The solution that God offers is the free offer of the Gospel, which is the focus of our time today. It's good news. Now, if you look at 1 Timothy 1, we're admittedly jumping right in with v. 11.
We're jumping into the bottom of a whole paragraph here. And so how do we sort of back into this study? This really begins in v. 3. The paragraph is really the beginning in v. 3 all the way to v. 11 before he changes his thought and kind of moves on to something else. And so how do we back into the verse? I think the first way to do this is to remember that there's a stark contrast here between the law that is given in v. 9-10 and then the sound teaching and the Gospel that shows up in v. 11.
There is a distinction between the law and the Gospel. See that contrast here. And while those two are connected, they are separate.
What do I mean by that? Well, obeying the law is not the Gospel. They're different things. Obeying the law of God is not the Gospel.
Now, we might see that the law is that which brings and delivers bad news. So the law brings us to the place where we receive bad news, but then the Gospel delivers the good news. So we have to have both together.
You cannot have the Gospel without first the conviction of sin. Otherwise, what am I being saved from and to and for? You tell someone, Jesus died for you. So what? If they don't understand their own sin.
But as soon as a person comes to realize the standard of God, the sinfulness of their own hearts, then they realize, I need Jesus, and I'm thankful that He gave His life for me. So you must have both the law and the Gospel working together. But let's look specifically at verse 11 here.
If you dart your eyes up just slightly to verse 10, we see that Paul, again, is juxtaposing that which is sinful, wrong, and unsound with whatever is according to sound teaching. In other words, strange doctrines are contrary to sound teaching. Myths and endless genealogies and speculation and fruitless discussions, all of that is contrary to sound teaching.
Legalism, law-keeping, even the wrong use of the law is contrary to sound teaching. But what is sound teaching? What is healthy doctrine? In short, it's anything that aligns with the Word of God, rightly interpreted and rightly applied. That's really important.
It has to be rightly interpreted and rightly applied. But what is the pinnacle of all sound biblical teaching? Well, it is that which is according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. That's what I want to focus on.
I want to keep on going with this. Now, if you look at this in verse 11, he says, according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, and then he adds, with which I have been entrusted. But this phrase here, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, some translators, some scholars have actually seen the original Greek slightly differently.
They've translated it, the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. If you use an ESV Bible or a legacy standard Bible, that's how they translated it, the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Well, other translations, so the one we're using this morning, New American Standard, if you have an NIV, New King James, they render it this way, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.
The Gospel of the glory then modifies Gospel. Well, which one is it? Well, the translators are not agreed. They have different reasons for why they render this this way.
But I think we can actually find agreement here with these two options, and let me show you how we do that. Number one, the Gospel, as the only saving message, is itself glorious. That's a true statement.
So the Gospel is glorious, which leads us to number two. The reason why it is glorious is because in it, the glory of God is put on display. And so it is both the Gospel of the glory of God, which makes it the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.
They work together, and I think we can find commonality because both things are true. Well, how is this true? Well, the message of the Gospel, in sharing that, God's character, God's attributes are showcased. They're put on display.
Well, how does that work? How do we see the glory of God put on display in the Gospel? Well, just for a couple of examples, we see God's holiness in the fact that God cannot look upon our sin. He sees sin and He turns away from it. He won't engage with it.
He won't look at it. He won't condone it. He doesn't accept it.
His holiness forbids by His own character of looking upon sin. We see God's righteousness displayed in His judgment of sinners. But then we also see God's love displayed in sending His Son Jesus Christ to the earth.
And then we see His mercy on display as He forgives sins. And we see His grace on display as He gives us the gift of saving faith. And so the message of the Gospel, it displays the attributes, the perfections of God in their totality.
It's a wonderful thing. And so in a very real way, the Gospel displays the glory of the blessed God, and in so doing, it becomes the glorious Gospel. But let's talk about God as the blessed God.
The blessed God is how Paul refers to Him. He's actually going to repeat something of this sentiment later in chapter 6, verse 15. Let me just read it to you.
Paul, he refers to, He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. It's a wonderful benediction, isn't it? But that's who He is.
That's the blessed God. This notion of blessedness in the Greek, the word is makarios. It literally means happy or favored.
Well, how is it that God can be made happy or favored? How is He blessed in that way? What does it mean for God to be blessed? Well, quite simply, it's this. That God is the very embodiment of blessing. He is the source of all blessing.
We receive blessing from Him. He needs nothing from us. But He is the epitome, the source, the origin of all blessing.
And we see that expressed in places like Ephesians 1-3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. It all begins with God providing blessing to us.
Yet even beyond the source of blessing, His very name is blessed because of the greatness of His glory. Our God's name is joyful, favored, beloved. And again, the Gospel displays that glory.
And all of this then brings us to this fundamental question because you could look at this, what we've covered so far, and we can say, well, we get the words. We understand what it means, the blessed or the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. We understand now.
Except that we have to look at what this word actually means. What is the Gospel? That's a confusing question for many people today. And I would even argue that many, many people around this country, around the world, who are even sitting in churches, do not understand the Gospel.
I talk to a lot of people, a lot of professed believers, I've talked to all of you, I've talked to a lot of people, and I will ask a very simple question, what is the Gospel? And then if they look at me kind of funny, I might elaborate and say, what is the message of the Gospel? Now, with believers, we have some semblance of what that is, and so a person would share that. But I'll tell you, a lot of people struggle with this. They really do, and so I'm excited to be here because I want to help make this more clear.
I want to encourage you, I want to teach you, I want to exhort you, and frankly, I'm probably telling you and teaching you things that you already know or should already know. And that's a good thing. We know from Romans 1-16 that Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. I want to share it. Why? For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
There is something powerful about the message of the Gospel. And you look at it on the surface and you're like, how? How is it possible? I say a couple of sentences about biblical truth, and all of a sudden a person comes to the realization of their sin and they profess faith in Christ and they become a new creation. How in the world does that work? There's something powerful about the truth and the message of this Gospel.
And I'll tell you, we try to be innovators. We try to find some other way to get people into the kingdom of God because we don't ultimately trust that the power of God is the Gospel. We're going to give people free things, and we're going to put on a show, and we're going to try to win them over, and emotional music, and all the feels and all the experiences and all this other stuff to try to manipulate people into believing the Gospel when the truth is that all you have to do is share it.
Because the Gospel itself, not me, not you, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. My friends, it is so simple, but oh, how brilliantly complex. And we say amen to the Gospel.
The Gospel is the power of God to save. But how do we know if we have the right Gospel message? Remember Galatians 1, Paul says, if anyone preaches to you a Gospel that's contrary, different, twisted from what I preach to you, let them be accursed. So we don't want to get this wrong.
And admittedly, when you read your Bible, there is no verse, there is no presentation that says this is how you share the Gospel. No verse says that. And yet when we look at the Bible, when you read the Bible, especially the New Testament, the message of the Gospel starts to become very clear, very, very clear.
In fact, you could read Peter's sermon in Acts 2 and see the Gospel very clearly. You could read Acts 2 and come to saving faith in Jesus. The content is all there.
We even have the essence of the Gospel in shorthand in places like, for example, 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, where Paul says, for I delivered to you that which is of first importance, what I also received, he says, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And so in its most simplistic, truncated form, the Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ has died on the cross to pay for sins and rose again. Even if you were to share just those two verses from 1 Corinthians 15, that could be enough to lead a person to saving faith in Christ.
And yet we also recognize that explaining the message of the Gospel, it does ultimately take a little more information. Because again, for starters, the good news is only good news if we first understand the bad news. I have to know why and how I need this good news message.
To go back to our illustration from the beginning, if the Athenians didn't realize they were at war, then someone coming and saying, we've won, doesn't make any difference to them. But they feel the tension and the stress and the terror of war, and so the message that we won becomes wonderful news. Do you see what I'm talking about? We have to have the bad news before the good news, and as we mentioned earlier, that's one function of the law of God.
But even before that, we have to understand who it is that is saving us and why. Why must we be saved? Why do we need to be saved? And some people, maybe some of you even sitting here, I don't know everybody in the room here today. Maybe you're sitting there thinking, I don't need this.
I don't need to be saved from anything. I'm not such a bad person. I do okay.
I don't know what you people are talking about. Well, I'm here to talk to you about that today. I'm glad you're here.
So for the remainder of our time, I want to walk through really four essential prompts. If you're taking notes, this might be helpful to you. Four essential prompts for learning and even sharing the Gospel.
And so I want to give four words to you, because I think that sometimes if you have just a simple word, it's a trigger to remind you of all the truth that you know about this. So let me give you four prompts, four words. Number one, the first word, the first idea, is God.
Number one is God. Number two is sin. Number two is sin.
Number three is Christ. And number four is the response. So God, sin, Christ, response.
Let's start by talking about God. Now, there is a thousand things I could say to you about God. And ten thousand more other things that you could tell me about God.
There's a lot about God. But with regard to the Gospel, we need to focus rightly on His holiness and His righteousness. His holiness and His righteousness.
And throughout all of Scripture, we learn that God, if not everything else or anything else, we know that God is holy. In fact, the Seraphim in Isaiah 6 declare that God is holy, holy, holy, and that the whole earth is full of His glory. God is holy.
And His holiness, it portrays to us that God is perfectly pure. He's perfectly pure. He is uniquely set apart and different from anything or anyone else.
And He's utterly transcendent. He is high and lifted up. So what does God's holiness mean? It means purity.
It means a set-apartness. And it means a transcendence. God is holy.
Not only does this teach us that God is exalted over the creation, but we also understand and learn that in His perfect purity, He is just and He is righteous. In other words, all that God is, says, and does is good, right, and true. He's righteous.
He is the standard of rightness. That's righteousness. Psalm 117 says, For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness.
It isn't that He just is. He loves all things that are right and good and true. So the Lord is righteous.
He loves righteousness. And then the psalmist adds, The upright will behold His face. In addition to being the Holy One and the righteous God, the Lord is also the Creator.
God created all things. Genesis 126, that He created humanity, you and me, all people, in His image and in His likeness. In other words, God created us to be like Him in some way and to reflect His image throughout the entire world.
Now, it doesn't mean that we're little gods. We're not deified. But God has stamped His fingerprint onto each human soul.
It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, how old you are. God has stamped His fingerprint on you and said, I made this, this belongs to me, and this is created to show, case, my glory and image to the whole world. We are special.
We're not like cats and dogs and monkeys and whales. We're different. We're special in the fact that we reflect the image of God.
And so God created us to know Him, to love Him, and to reflect His righteousness. But that leads us toward the problem, again, the bad news, which leads us to the second prompt here, sin. Sin.
Because not long after God created Adam and Eve and He placed them in the Garden of Eden, we read in Genesis 3 that despite God's command to refrain from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve, they defy God's commandment and they rebel against Him. In doing so, they violate His righteous standard and they sinned against Him. Literally, the word sin means to miss the mark or to not hit the target.
So if God's target, if His mark, His righteous standard is perfect, we've missed it by a mile. That's what sin literally is. What would be the punishment for sin? Well, God had already told them beforehand that if you disobey and eat of that fruit, He says you will surely die.
You'll be cursed. He warned them. Furthermore, all who would sin in the likeness of Adam would receive the curse of God's judgment.
And the Bible teaches in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And furthermore, Romans 6.23 teaches that the wages of sin is death.
In other words, our sins, it earns the consequences of not only physical death and the judgment of God, but also eternity in hell. We are punished for our sins. Now, it's at that point that most people hear that, the bad news, and they bristle at the notion of God's judgment.
And we always instinctively push back and we say, well, certainly my sins aren't that bad. And do you ever notice when someone declares to you how good they are, that they always go to the worst possible example, and they say, well, I haven't killed anybody. Well, good job for not killing someone.
But that, I haven't killed anyone. I haven't stole anything big. We always go to that, but let's even walk that back and say, have you broken any of God's laws? Forget the 613 commandments in the Old Testament.
Let's just do the 10 commandments. Start with that. Have you worshipped and served God as the only true God? No.
Well, then you've broken the first one. Have you worshipped and made an idol out of anything else? Have you placed something else on the throne of your heart where God belongs? Have you put anything else there? Well, yeah. I mean, you can go down the line.
We've sinned. We've broken God's commandments. But not only that, but that reaction, I'm not that bad, or I'm basically a good person, it misunderstands two key things.
Number one, it misunderstands the perfect holiness of God. And it also misunderstands the wretchedness of sin. We don't think our sins are that bad.
Let me just give you an example to kind of drive this home. My sins aren't that bad. Even a word that comes out of your mouth.
Say you were to look at a person that you don't like and say, you're stupid. That's just a word, right? But you don't know the impact that that has on that person. And this happens all the time.
We think about bullying in schools with children. One child tells another child that, or calls them a name or insults them. That weighs their heart down.
And they don't tell anybody because they're scared or ashamed or they actually believe the lie. And then they go in hopelessness and they take their own life. What is the cost of that one hateful word? The depth of the depravity and the wretchedness of even one word to hurt somebody else.
Don't you think that God sees that and will judge that? And that's just one word. Now pile on to that the whole day, the whole week, the whole month, my whole life. We don't understand just how wretched our sins are.
And God's holiness and goodness and righteousness and justice are so much more perfect and profound than we could even ever conceive of. I don't even understand the depth of the holiness of God. Not only does He see the outward sins, He also sees the sins in the heart and in the mind.
And not only that, He remembers all the sins that I've conveniently forgot. Frankly, we fail to comprehend the majesty of God's glory. We don't know Him.
We don't understand Him. We don't see Him as holy, holy, holy. Furthermore, we don't manifest a right and realistic view of our sins.
Again, my friends, these sins that we have in our hearts are wretched and vile, and God hates them. And because He's just, He's a good judge. A good judge doesn't let a sinner, a lawbreaker, go free.
Otherwise, they're a bad judge. And so God is just. He must punish the sin to the fullest extent of His law.
And so when we measure ourselves against His holy law, we must see that we actually are really sinful. And so we're kind of at this crossroads now. What do I do? How do I fix the problem? How do I make it right? How do I make it better? How do I fix my relationship with God? What can I offer? This is where false religion comes in.
Well, maybe I can offer some kind of a sacrifice. Maybe I can give money. Maybe I can go to good deeds.
Maybe I can appease this God, and He'll leave me alone. But the terrifying truth is that there is nothing that you can do on your own to make it right. There's nothing.
And humans have been trying this for thousands and thousands of years. There is nothing you can do. No amount of good works done from a sinful heart can satisfy God's righteous standard.
Because Romans 3.20, by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And so, we're stuck. Holy God, sinful humanity, and no way to reconcile it.
As R.C. Sproul used to say, God is holy. We are not. Very simple.
And yet, that's the bad, bad news. And so here comes the good news. Number three, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ. This, my friends, is the best news. Because John 1 shows us and declares to us that Jesus of Nazareth is both with God in the beginning, and was God Himself.
Was God and is God. He is the second Person of the Trinity. He's known as God the Son.
He shares in the fullness of God, the holiness and righteousness and justice and loving kindness of God. He is co-eternal with God the Father and God the Spirit. But then at a certain point in time, He came to the earth and was born to the Virgin Mary.
He wrapped Himself in a human body and walked among us on earth. And in His incarnation, He took on the fullness of our flesh. And the Scripture says He is like us in every way with one caveat, except for sin.
And yet unlike us, He lived a perfect life on earth with full obedience. He never once sinned in word, thought, or deed. There was never a misstep.
There was never a wicked thought in His heart. He never once sinned. And not only did He not sin, but everything He did was perfectly righteous.
He always had the right response, the right action, the right deed. In so doing, Jesus accomplished living a life that was completely satisfying to God. And yet this is affirmed in Matthew 3.17 when God speaks audibly from heaven at His baptism and He says, booming from the clouds, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And yet, we see that Jesus didn't come to earth just to show us up. He didn't just get here and say, well, hang on you guys, this is how you do it. That was not the reason He came.
Rather, Mark 10.45, Jesus says of His own ministry of Himself, He says, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. I came to give something, to do something for those who could not do for themselves. And that's what He does.
He's arrested by sinful men. He's put on trial for sins He didn't commit. And He was sentenced to death even in innocence.
And yet, He declares in John 10, no one takes My life from Me. I give it, I lay it down of My own initiative. Even though He was arrested, He gave Himself willingly.
And with that, Jesus willingly goes to the cross. He's nailed through His hands and His feet. A crown of thorns is pressed into His head.
He dies as a perfect blood sacrifice to make a full and final payment for sins. And Isaiah 53 says that God sees the sacrifice of the Son and His wrath is satisfied. The war is over and Jesus is able to come and say, I win.
And with that, our ransom is paid. With His sacrifice, our sins are forgiven. All of them, beloved.
Our relationship to God that was broken irreparably at the fall is restored by the work of Christ. God accounts all of the sins of the sinner. All of my sins as belonging to Jesus even though He's innocent.
And He's punished in the place of the sinner. And at the same time, God accounts the perfect righteousness of Christ as belonging to the sinner even though they're the ones guilty and He adopts them as His own children. This divine exchange.
My sinful rags for Jesus' perfect righteousness. This exchange. This accounting is called justification.
Whereby God declares, pronounces that we are righteous in His sight. I'm not righteous. But in Christ, I'm declared to be righteous.
Because of Him. And once we have been justified, Romans 5.1 says, guess what? We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is entirely the work of God to save.
It's even better than we think. Let me just read this to you. In Romans 5, he says, for while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But here's the thing, God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His light. And not only this, but we also exalt, we rejoice, we proclaim in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. So, why does Paul call this the glorious gospel of the blessed God in 1 Timothy? It's because of this.
It's because even while we were sinners, rebellious and disobedient to Him, even while we were enemies of God, we hated Him in our sinfulness, even while we were ungodly and totally helpless, God chose to demonstrate His own love toward us by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. And He was sent here to be punished for us, judged for us, cursed for us, hated for us, tortured for us, killed for us. But then He was resurrected for us.
So that by all of this, His work on the cross and resurrection, we would be reconciled and restored to God and saved from His wrath. 2 Corinthians 5.21 God made Him who knew no sin, that's Jesus, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And so, again, undeserving sinners who were addicted to breaking God's law are redeemed from the wrath of God, by the power of God, all for the glory of God.
And so, to understand this, we could say this, we are saved from God, by God, for God. It's all of Him. It's all of grace.
Once you see that, and the Gospel becomes clear, it's amazing. This is why it's glorious. And all that is required of the sinner is to understand this, see this, and believe it.
Which brings us to number four, the response. How do we respond to such a great message? Is it possible to then go and try to get busy working for this? Do I have to go and pay it all back? How can I pay it back? I can't pay back any of this, can I? How do we respond to the Gospel? A few verses. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that this is not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one can boast. I can't brag about this. I didn't earn it.
I didn't deserve it. I didn't work for it. Let me ask you this to put it in an example here.
How do you earn a birthday gift? How do you do that? How do you earn a Christmas present? You don't. I don't care about the mythology of Santa watching you, that's garbage. I hope I didn't just ruin your Christmas with your kids.
Sorry, not sorry. I'm preaching truth here. How do we earn grace? You can't.
You can't earn grace. Galatians 2, 16, Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ. That's how we are justified, restored, declared righteous in His sight.
We understand the character of God, the sinfulness of our own hearts, and the saving work of Christ. The only logical, biblical thing we could do is receive it and believe it. To say, yes, it's true.
And I recognize I am the recipient of it. I want it. I delight in it.
But how do we demonstrate that faith? What does that look like? Mark 1, 15, Jesus says, repent and believe the Gospel. What does repentance mean? Again, it's not a working. Rather, it's the acknowledgment of your sins before God.
Expressing godly sorrow. Purposing in your mind and heart to turn away from it. Again, it's not a work.
It's a recognition. It's an acknowledgment of the truth of the law of God. If God says, you're a sinner and need to be saved, if you don't repent, you say, no, I don't.
No. A person who's been convicted of sin says, yes, I have sinned. I hate my sin.
Please forgive me. Take it away from me. I don't want it anymore.
I turn away from it. That's repentance. And so the Bible says, repent and believe the Gospel.
Furthermore, when you think about the woman who's caught in adultery in John 8, Jesus forgives her sins, but what does He say to her? He doesn't say, well, there you go. He tells her, go and sin no more. Have a heart change here.
Recognize what I've saved you from and purpose to stop sinning. Does that mean that she was perfect afterwards? No, certainly not. But it's a recognition of the sin and the recognition that I can't do this anymore because Jesus has saved me.
It's a purposing in your heart not to do it. And so acknowledging your sin, confessing your sin, turning away from your sin, that's repentance. That's an act of faith.
And yet we understand that this kind of repentance is merely meant to be the fruit of a person who believes and trusts in the promises of the Gospel. This is what it looks like. You must entrust your whole life to the Lord and believe in this finished work.
Most of us know the verse, John 3.16, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have eternal life. Do you believe that? Do you believe that truth? And so again, this message of the Gospel is glorious because it displays the love of God to those who are utterly unlovable. In the Gospel, Jesus Christ is magnified and the blessed God is glorified.
And it's in this message that Paul had been entrusted with. He was entrusted with keeping this message and preserving it and guarding over it. But he was also entrusted with sharing it and teaching it.
And he would ultimately die for it. Let me ask you. Have you been entrusted with this message? If you're a Christian and you've received that message of the Gospel, guess what? It has been entrusted to you.
And we have the blessed opportunity and responsibility to share this freely. And maybe you're here today and you don't know this. Maybe this is the first time you've ever heard this before.
Or maybe it's the first time in a long time that you've heard this and now you're hearing it again. Let me just entreat you. Plead with you.
Don't leave without something changing in your heart. We're about to go and witness people who've given their lives to Christ. We're going to watch them be baptized into death spiritually in Christ and resurrected spiritually in Him.
We're going to go watch nine people who've given their lives to Christ and bear witness to His saving power. And it's wonderful. Don't do that from here to there unless something has changed in you.
Do you recognize that God has made all things and He's holy and righteous and good? And as so doing, do you recognize that your sins have damned you? That without the grace of God, when you die, you will perish. You'll be cast into judgment without being saved. And yet, if you see that, receive the message that Jesus Christ has given His life for you.
He's paid for your sins in His own blood. And He's offered you life freely. All you have to do is receive it.
Even now, pray. Lord, I've sinned against You. And I know I'm not worthy.
I've been unworthy my whole life. Please, forgive my sins and give me new life. And the Bible says, if you confess your sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you confess, He will hear you. If you believe, He will save you. This is not a bait and switch.
This is the whole reason this exists. This is the whole reason I was born. To tell you, you need Christ.
Don't leave without Him. Don't go on your merry way and think you're fine. You're not promised tomorrow.
Turn from your sins and trust in Jesus and you will live. Heavenly Father, we give praise to You. This is the glorious Gospel of a blessed God.
And Lord, we proclaim Your greatness. And Lord, we see in Your greatness how small and insignificant and sinful and vile we really are. And yet, in Your mercy and in Your grace, You have elevated us in Christ and have seated us in the heavenly places in Him.
Not because we deserve to be there, but because You desire to place us in Him. It's for Your glory that You forgive the sinner. It's for Your glory that You have paid the price.
It's for Your glory that You redeem and adopt and justify and sanctify. It's because it brings You glory and honor and pleasure to redeem that which has been lost. And so God, I entreat You, I beg You, I plead with You, O Lord, that You would save sinners today.
And yet, in the midst of all of that, we proclaim, we share, we exalt in Your holy name that You have saved. Even here in this congregation, Lord, You've saved dozens and dozens and dozens of us. Dare I even say hundreds of us that You've saved and redeemed for Your glory.
And how do we respond? Praise, adulation, thanksgiving, rejoicing. We praise Your holy name because You have saved that which has been lost and redeemed for Your glory. We thank You, O Lord, for the gospel.
We thank You, Jesus Christ, for giving Your life as a ransom for many. Spirit of God, we thank You that You have taken the work of salvation and applied it to our hearts through regeneration, giving us a new heart and a new spirit that desires to walk in Your precepts. Father, Son, Spirit, You, our God, have worked to save sinners from God, by God, for God.
This is Your glorious gospel. We declare and pray in Jesus' name, amen.