The following sermon was preached at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Jessup, Georgia. Visit our website at www.ebcjessup.net. This is not medicine in this bottle. It's water spiked with lemon juice. I heard years ago that singers and actors often use this. They call it a sweetening of the voice. And I do hope it would do that for me tonight. I did not realize until really too late to call someone else and do this this evening, but I'll do the best that I can with your endurance. I will not engage in further prayer, but come immediately to the Scripture, which is from the first chapter of Romans, the first seven verses. And I read all of these verses because there is not a period until Verse 7, Romans chapter 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David, according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about obedience of the faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are the call to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. My subject this evening is the gospel of God. Of course, in the beginning of this chapter, there are three things that might be said in verse 1. And that is Paul's introduction of himself and his calling His name, of course, is Paul. A servant. A bondservant. A slave. All of those terms apply in this passage. And he is the servant of Jesus Christ. He is no longer Saul of Tarsus. He is no longer the blasphemer that he formerly was. He is no longer one who tried to destroy the faith. He is no longer the binder and the consentor to the death of Christians. He is now Paul the Apostle, the servant of Jesus Christ. His calling to be an apostle. And Paul affirms many times his apostleship. And just let me offer you two passages of Scripture from the book of Galatians, chapter 1 and verse 1, begins this way. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. And then in verse 15, he said, But when he who set me apart before I was born, and call me by his grace, of course to preach the gospel among the Gentiles, his vocation, was the gospel of God. To preach the gospel of God. I observed twice in Brother Matt's prayer that he mentioned the gospel. I've heard that term so much lately. And of course, by no stretch of imagination do I intend to try to exhaust this passage of Scripture this evening. It is absolutely inexhaustible because of one passage, one statement in this passage, and that is concerning His Son. That is, Christ, the Son of God, the Gospel concerns Him. In the law the prophets, the Psalms, and all of the New Testament, it concerns Jesus Christ. And therefore, this passage is inexhaustible. Concerning Christ. Well, what about Christ? Any part of the ministry, of the life, of the death, of the resurrection. It is all concerning the Son of God. Paul calls it the gospel of God. And it is so. because it originated with God. I borrowed a word from Charles Spurgeon. I'd never heard it before. But it is called proto-evangel, meaning earlier or earliest or original. And therefore, it means that God was the original preacher of His own gospel. And it began in the Garden of Eden. It began when man sinned. God began to preach His own gospel. And I'm sure that many of you, like myself, that we have committed to memory Genesis 3 and verse 15. There are three things that I would mention in this that I call God's First Sermon, the original gospel of God. And that is, it has to do with the incarnation of Christ. It has to do with enmity, that is, the constant battle between Christ and the devil. It has to do with victory in Christ. And all three of these things, and possibly more, are embraced in this passage of Scripture. That is, that God mentions the offspring, or the seed, of the woman. God preached the first sermon concerning His Son. His Son would be made fresh. He would become incarnate. The off seed. The seed of the woman. Further in Scripture we learn, He would be a descendant of Abraham. A descendant of David. To be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7, verse 14, which came to pass at Bethlehem according to Micah 5, 2, Luke 2, 1-7, Matthew 2, 1-6, and Galatians 4, 4. where the apostle said, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son born of a woman. So we see the fulfillment of what God mentions about the offspring or the seed of the woman. Secondly, that there would be enmity. That is, that there would be hatred, There would be hostility. And I can say to you, brothers and sisters, that Christ and Satan have never been in agreement. There is always the controversy, and ever shall be the controversy, until things come to an end, of which I shall mention in a moment. and righteousness are always in combat. I think Romans chapter 7, if you would read all of that, is a good illustration of it where Paul speaks of the constant battle that he has with the flesh and with the Spirit. They're never in agreement. They're always one fighting against As one translation puts it, they are lusting one against another. When Satan came, or what Satan came rather to do, Christ came to undo. Satan came to sow tares, Christ came to reap wheat. Satan came to destroy, Christ came to save. God's sermon. was a sermon about victory, that is, victory in his son. Well, yes, he said, there would be her. And here we find the word or the term concerning the offspring of the woman and that of Satan. That there would be this enmity which I have mentioned, and then that Satan would bruise the heel, so to speak, of Christ. and that Christ would bruise or He would crush the head of Satan. And the reason that I use crush here, and I think some of the translations use it, Paul uses it in Romans 16, verse 20. And as he comes close to closing that book, he said, but the God of peace shall soon or shortly crush Satan under your feet. He will bring him to an end. So there will be some hurt, of course. And I pondered this long in my mind about bruising the heel of Christ. And I think that this is not a literal situation, but it is summed up somewhat In whatever, folks, hurts the Christian, there is that hurt. And that is responded by Christ. It's kind of like the pastor read this morning from Matthew 25. It is much as you have done it. To the least of these, my brothers, you've done it unto me. You might remember that Saul of Tarsus, as I mentioned him a little moment ago, being the binder of people of Christendom, consenting to their death, and in that Damascus Road experience, when Christ struck him down by the brightness of his being, that he said, why are you persecuting me? Well, what was Saul of Tarsus doing? He was persecuting the Christians, was he not? And that, of course, was reflected in Christ. you're persecuting me, Christ said. And so I thought in two ways about this, and that is a bruised heel, there is pain, and there is lame. And that is, A bruised heel is painful. I don't know if any of you have ever had it or not. But I remember having it as a barefoot boy. And it is painful. And it will slow you down, will it not? And I think Paul about it in this term where Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about his desire many times to come to them But he said, Satan hindered me. In other words, he slowed him down in a sin. And there is that hurt, and there is that lameness. But Christ would crush Satan's head. When the earthly work of Christ was finished, he returned to heaven. to sit in glory at the right hand of the Father. And when Satan's work is finished, he shall be cast into the bottomless pit, into eternal fire, prepared for him and his angels, or his servants. So God preached His own Gospel in the Garden of Eden. And also the Bible tells us that God preached the Gospel to Abraham. Well, what did He preach about when He preached the Gospel to Abraham? Galatians 3.8 tells us, and the Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12, 3. So here in the book of beginnings, God began preaching His own gospel. And it was about, or it concerned, his son. Also, it is written twice in the Bible, in the volume or in the scroll of the book, it is written of me. And then, as I quoted a moment ago, The Son of God came as God had preached in the Garden of Eden. He came born of a woman. And then, what did the Son of God Himself preach? Well, He preached mainly about Himself. probably some of the more memorable and forceful passages of Scripture. One of them being found in Luke chapter 4, very early in the ministry of Christ, when He returned home to Nazareth, as we remember, and He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. And He stood up to read from the scroll of Isaiah in chapter 61, He read about himself. And he read this, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And notice that. The Spirit of the Lord says the Son is upon Me. In other words, the Spirit of the Father is upon Him. The Father had anointed Him to preach the good news, to proclaim the good news. And so what greater subject could the Son of God find to preach about other than preaching about Himself? And that's what He did. In Matthew 12, when the question about the Sabbath came up, and some argument about that, and Jesus was accused more times than one of violating the law of the Sabbath. But He said on this occasion, that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. And again in this same chapter, In verses 38 through 42. It is mentioned about Jonah's preaching to Nineveh. It is also mentioned about the Queen coming from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But, Jesus said something greater than Jonah and Solomon is here. Now I ask you, what could be greater? What could be greater than the preaching of Jonah? What could be greater than hearing the wisdom of Solomon? Christ's gospel about Himself is greater than Jonah. It's greater than the wisdom of Solomon. On the road from Jerusalem to Emeus, Jesus joined two men who were talking about what had taken place at Jerusalem, and that is about the crucifixion of Christ. Their hope seemed to be wilted somewhat And as they talked, and Jesus joined Himself with them, they explained that their hope was that He would be the one to redeem or set Israel free. I think they were thinking in natural terms. They did not, as many did not, and much about that we do not have a grasp on even now, But they did not understand why all of this went about, and Jesus saying maybe to be so promising, but yet He was crucified. And we hoped that He was the one that would redeem Israel. And Jesus said, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe. It was necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory. And the Bible says that there He began with Moses and all the prophets. And he interpreted, or he expounded, the things concerning himself. In all of the Scriptures, he interpreted the things concerning himself. Well, God's Gospel concerns His Son. Concerning the Scriptures, Jesus told some of the Jews that wanted to kill him, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness of me. Paul mentioned What God promised through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son. Well now, what did the prophets say about Jesus? More, certainly more than I can tell you this evening. But let me just give you a sprinkling of some of the things that was said about Him. and about what He is or who He is. Of course, in the book of Genesis, we've already mentioned that God mentions the offspring or the seed of the woman. And also, the offspring are the seed of Abraham. But Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, that God shall raise up unto you a prophet from among you like unto me. And it is affirmed in Acts 22, 322 that Christ is or was that prophet. And then Christ is the star to come out of Jacob. And this came from Balaam. Balaam? What kind of a prophecy would Balaam make about Jesus? You remember that He wanted to curse Israel, didn't He? He wanted that money that Balak offered Him. But God wouldn't let Him do it. And one of the great prophecies of Christ came from the mouth of that man in numbers. And I want to mention that to you in chapter 24. Beginning at verse 17, Balaam said, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And the pastor, of course, this morning mentioned that scepter, did he not? And the One who holds that scepter. And undoubtedly, that is Jesus Christ. And as I read that prophecy that came from Balaam, I thought about the wise men that came to Jerusalem inquiring about where is He that is born King of the Jews? We have seen Him. in the east. One star apparently among the thousands in the heaven was different from all of the rest. We have seen his star and we've come to worship him. He is the shepherd of Psalm 23 that was given by David. He is the Emmanuel of Isaiah 7.14. He is the root of Jesse, the father of David, in Isaiah 11.10. He is God's chosen servant in Isaiah 42.1, fulfilled in Philippians 2.7, where He took upon Himself the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death. He is the tested, precious cornerstone of Isaiah 28, 16. He is the He, His, and Him of Isaiah 53. He is the ruler of Micah 5, 2. He is the King of Zechariah 9-9. He is the Son of Righteousness of Malachi 4-2. So what did God have to say through the prophets about His Son? He had much to say, did He not? And this is just as frankly as I said to you to begin with. And may I add, if you are searching biblical shadows, you will find Christ to be the substance. In typology, you will find Christ is the antitype. In systematic theology, Christ is the center of the system. If you want to think of it in a mechanical sense, Christ is the cog that keeps all of the other wheels of theology turning. He is the center. of systematic theology. I have said all of this now, and I want to come back to Romans chapter 1 and verse 1, and then following that. Speaking of his apostleship and vocation, Paul said, set apart for the gospel of God That which originated with God Himself. That which concerns Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And Paul had this to say, I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. And I thought, Paul, that has to be so. Brother, you would have quit long ago if it had not been in the Spirit that you served in the gospel of the Son of God. And I say that for this reason. Listen, folks. He says in 2 Corinthians 11, and I begin at verse 24, Five times I received at the hand of the Jews forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stolen. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." Now you think about that kind of load. that the man was carrying. It had to be, as he said in Romans 1, where I just read, where he said, I serve in my spirit. In the gospel of his son. Well, what did Paul do? But other than serving, in His Spirit. Jesus had this to say about him. When Paul had that Damascus Road experience and he was led on into the city, Jesus sent Ananias to talk to him, but he instructed Ananias and he said this about Saul then and became Paul. He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. For I will show him how much He must suffer for the sake of my name. And suffering he did, but relentless he preached the gospel wherever he went. His former religion, that was set aside. He suffered the beatings, he suffered the shipwreck, he suffered prison, he suffered cold, he suffered hunger and more. But he carried the gospel everywhere he went. and heard this morning about Mission Sunday. We heard a good bit about mission. But I'll tell you folks, there's never been a greater missionary in the history of the New Testament, and I don't think since then, the Apostle Paul. He had one of the greatest, one of the broadest influences of any person of the New Testament that I know of. He preached the Gospel of God as he mentioned it, and that which God had set him apart to do. He preached in the synagogue. He preached before King Agrippa. He preached before governors Felix and Festus. He preached to the Philippian jailer. He preached to marauders in a life-threatening storm. And lastly, and apparently, he preached at Rome, where we understand that he was beheaded. But, he encouraged. all of those who would come after him in the ministry. He left these words of encouragement where he said to Timothy, preach the Word. Meaning to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. To preach the Gospel of God. Of course, it's one of the faithful sayings that you and I have heard quoted and quoted ourselves many times, even most recently. And this faithful saying was worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. My question is, are you a sinner? Is it possible that Christ came into the world to save you? Is it possible that the agony that He suffered, the death that He died, the grave that He was victorious over, And the fact that He ascended to heaven was for you. Jesus said, I came to seek and to save the lost. And I say to you, my dear people tonight, that this is the Gospel of God. This, mainly, was the mission of Jesus Christ into this world to save the lives of you and me. God dispatched an angel from heaven to say that a Savior is born. And He sent a multitude, no doubt, of angelic beings to fill the sky and to join harmoniously in their praises to God, to say glory to God in the highest. And I say, Amen. We invite you to worship with us at Emanuel Baptist Church, located at 1618 Waycross Highway, Jessup, Georgia. Visit our website at www.ebcjessup.net for information about the church, service times, and to listen to other sermons. you