FBMB
June 13, 2010
Sunday Evening
The Gospel
Romans 1:16-17: I Corinthians 15:1
Intro.: This week messengers from 44,000 SBC churches will be meeting in Orlando, Fl for the national southern Baptist convention. A major part of the conventions business is to hear a report from the Great Commission Task Force. A group of pastors, seminary presidents and lay people that were appointed at last year’s convention by the president convention in hopes of casting a new and revised vision for winning lost people in our world to Christ.
In May the Task Force released their preliminary report. I read that report with much interest for what they had concluded. Much of it was encouraging where other areas needed prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit for understanding. The report was filled with passion and sincerity from which the leaders of the Task Force wrote.
This week they will bring their full report and elected messengers will be voting on their recommendations. A vote that will change the structure of the convention, change the routing method in which money is received and allocated, and ultimately and I might even add hopefully, bring a higher awareness and need to evangelize our world.
It’s that last statement that I want to focus on tonight - - - The need to evangelize our world. The call before us today is not just as Southern Baptists but as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ to take seriously the Great Commission from our Lord.
Even though we have a great convention our convention is not going to win our world to Christ, even though we have great programs there not going to keep people out of hell, even all the money we send through the Cooperative Program, and pastors, ministers and lay people are not going to keep people from spending their eternity in hell.
Only the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves people from their sins, establishes a secure relationship with Jesus Christ and provides the promise of ones eternity with God in heaven.
As messengers meet in Orlando and hear the GCTF report and renew their labor to renew their vision and passion for winning lost people let us as believers tonight do likewise. (READ TEXT).
I. The PURPOSE of the Gospel
A. This answer may not be as obvious as some would think.
1. Depending on who is answering this question you could get many different and wrong answers.
2. Because unless you believe Jesus Christ Himself is the Gospel incarnate you can be lead astray.
3. Therefore some would say the gospel is only a good teaching by a good teacher.
4. Others may even add that the gospel is a set of commandments or laws that people are to follow in order to go to heaven.
5. More literally some would call the first four books in the New Testament the Gospel.
B. To find the purpose of the Gospel we need not look outside the very source that has the only and right answer for us.
1. The Bible provides us with the answer – Scripture is full of references for the purpose of the gospel.
2. Jesus said about the Gospel, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
3. He also said in context of the Gospel, “I have come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
4. To redeem mankind from their sins.
5. Paul said, “the gospel is the power of God for salvation.”
6. Paul also said “this gospel which I preached to you and you received and also stand on is the gospel in which you were saved.”
C. Perhaps the most defining purpose of the Gospel is John 3:16.
1. “FOR God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son so that whoever believes in Him would not die but would have eternal life.”
2. The purpose of the gospel is to keep people like you and me from going to hell.
II. The GLORY of the Gospel
A. # 1 The glory of the gospel is found in the word grace.
1. God’s grace – Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
2. The glory of the gospel is found in the humble statement that I don’t deserve the gospel, none of us do.
3. The glory of the gospel is that I deserve hell, every one of us.
4. The glory of the gospel is that you and I have something that we didn’t deserve, we received something we couldn’t buy and that we would never be able to earn it.
5. Its grace – God’s grace – grace that is greater than all our sin.
B. # 2 The glory of the gospel is found in a believer’s recreation.
1. The gospel of salvation has changed me – I’m not the same person I was before I trusted Jesus.
2. “If you are in Christ you are a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, all things are becoming new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
3. I think differently, I talk differently and I act differently.
4. That’s the power of the gospel unto salvation.
5. I’m not what I want to be but thank God I’m not what I used to be.
6. The glory of the gospel is that it changes or status.
7. From filthy rags to righteousness, from lost to saved, from born to born again.
8. Illus.: Blind Girl and Boy.
C. # 3 The glory of the gospel is that my sins are forgiven.
1. The very thing that kept me from being saved and going to heaven has been dealt with through Jesus.
2. My sins yesterday, today and forever.
3. When Jesus said his last words on the cross, “It is finished,” the Greek puts it in the perfect tense.
4. It describes the progress of an action that has been completed and the results of the action are continuing on, in full effect.
5. In other words, the progress of the work of Christ on the cross didn’t end on the cross, it continues today in its full effect.
6. The glory of the gospel is I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
II. The UNITY of the Gospel
A. The most amazing things happen when people are brought together under or through the gospel.
1. God delights when His people are united under the influence of the gospel.
2. Paul uses a wonderful metaphor in I Corinthians 12 describing the unity of believers as a body that works together.
3. It should be an easy task – when you have people understand the purpose of the gospel and the glory of the gospel the unity of the gospel should naturally occur.
4. You would expect that people would always get along under the heading of the gospel of salvation in a church.
5. However, if you’ve been an active member of a church you know this isn’t always true.
6. I’m grateful that it is true of this body that we do unite together when it comes to winning our world to Christ.
7. The danger always lurks though when we take our eyes off the gospel and put it on ourselves or the things of the world.
B. Acts 2:44-47.
1. When I was in Cherokee, OK (rural farming community) I use to interpret this like this – all those who had John Deere tractors were to share them with Bro. Ray.
2. Now I interpret this verse – ALL those who believe in the gospel join together in ALL things so that ALL people will get saved.
3. Caution: Our danger of breaking the unity of the Gospel is when people embrace the Gospel plus works.
4. When those are tempted to say the gospel is Jesus plus something else unity of the gospel is in danger.
C. Apostle Paul was the champion in bringing the unity of the gospel to his people.
1. Galatians 2 bleeds with Paul’s desire/passion for the unity of the gospel; you see this in other letters too.
2. Paul knew that there was more power when believers and churches are united with the gospel.
3. “One snowflake is really frail, but you put a bunch of them together they will stop traffic.” Vance Havener.
4. By the way this is the danger that’s lurking at the SBC this week, that’s why we should be praying.
5. The report from the GCTF has the potential to pull us together and make us stronger or to pull us further apart and make us weaker.
D. Are we always going to agree on everything in the church or the denomination? I guarantee we won’t.
1. But for the sake of lost people we have to stay united under the banner of the gospel.
2. It may surprise you but my wife doesn’t always agree with me, vice versa.
3. But because of our commitment to marriage we are united in purpose for that reason.
4. This truth has reminded me that this world is full of people who are different – we’re all the same here???
5. Yet those same people that are different are able to come together in the body of Christ in unity.
6. The makeup of our world reveals that some people are going to ride elephants and some donkeys.
7. Some will only drive cars and some will fly.
8. Some are going to drive Ford’s and some Chevrolet’s.
9. Some are going to fish and some are going to golf.
E. The weapon of division is always loaded in the arsenal of Satan for the family and the church today.
1. Unless we stay united as a church under the power of the gospel we will loose the blessing of God in our midst and become a church that is divided.
2. Illus 2.: Worship Center remodel
3. When we do that we will again be a church that is united through the gospel of Jesus.
Conclusion: The Gospel – It’s purpose, It’s Glory and its Unity.
Prayer for the convention and prayer for our church.
Illus # 1 Girl Born Blind
There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind.
She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always
there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'
One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages
came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.
He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The
girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.
Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her
saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before
they were yours, they were mine.'
The Bible says you and I were dead in our sins, that all of us had come short of the glory of God, we were all blind to the truth of God’s redeeming grace.
But one day Jesus stepped out of heaven and He not only gave us faith necessary for salvation, He gave His whole life for us. He gave it all so that you and I could be transferred, propitiated, into His very likeness.
Today I stand here before you not as a condemned sinner, but a forgiven sinner, not as a saint of manhood but as a saint of God, clothed in His righteousness – that’s the glory of the gospel.
One day I shall stand before my Creator and my Savoir not by faith but by sight. And on that day I shall proclaim, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” Revelation 19:1b.
That’s the glory of the gospel!
Illus # 2 Worship Center Remodel
In two weeks from tonight the Church Council is going to be bringing a recommendation along with the Finance Committee, and Buildings and Grounds to remodel our sanctuary. This has been discuss for almost two years and has been prayed for several months.
Their recommendation will include painting, carpet, replacing pews with pew chairs and adding to our current audio and video needs. The biggest need is improving our lighting in this room. These committees have been meeting steadily for almost a year to bring this recommendation.
Do I expect everyone to agree with the wall color and the carpet and the video updates and the pew chairs? In the ideal world yes – but my spirit also reminds me of this need I’m speaking on tonight.
As this church has done so many times before – for the sake of the unity of the gospel let’s put aside our disagreements and join together so that one more person will trust Christ as their Savior.
