I want to say good morning to everyone. I've been looking forward to this meeting so much and have enjoyed so much all the teaching that has gone before. It's so wonderful to be with the people of God, to see ministers, fathers in the ministry still pressing on, and our friends that we grew up with now in the yoke, seeing young men come up behind us carrying on the banner of King Jesus. We have much to be thankful for, much to praise God for. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 20. I want to talk to you about the purpose of the Gospel in evangelism. You know, there's a fine line between being crazy and courageous. Amen? Will y'all give me an amen on that? Now, putting me up third before lunch, you're either courageous or crazy. But I'm going to do the very best I can. Brother David Piles, he preached one time. We were at a meeting, and he preached in ten minutes one of the best messages I think I might have ever heard. And I was just amazed, you know, because I'm an hour guy. I can't clear my throat in ten minutes. I went up to him after, I said, Brother David, that was just such a blessing to me. I said, I just appreciate that so much. He said, Brother Nathan, you know, no message is a bad message as long as it's short enough. Well, beloved, everybody has to have something in their life that is motivating them. Amen? Even the Gospel, even evangelism, you have to be motivated in it. And Christ has given us the great motivation in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, what moves you today? What moves you to be here? What moves you to come Sunday after Sunday? Or what would move you to see a stranger and see their want and their need and feel like that maybe God might use you in some way to be a loving instrument in His hand? It's that we have the power and the efficacy of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's a lot out there that's called gospel, brethren. And I'm not here to diminish any that's out there. But I want you to know that to me, the greatest evangelist of all, the Apostle Paul, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said there was something that moved him. Amen? Turn with me here. The Apostle Paul had a lot of things going on in his life. Amen? We read about his experience. It's amazing. I'm sure every one of us in here could get up and spend the rest of the time talking about everything that they have going on. But what motivates you? Is it the size of your church? Is it the size of your bank account? Is it the trophies on your children's bookcase? Well, what is it that motivates you? Well, there was something that motivated the Apostle Paul. Something, he said, that moved him. And I want to stir our hearts up that it be the same thing that moved me and moved you. Because I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in going to Ethiopia this summer, which I will be, because the Scripture says, Ethiopia shall reach out unto the Lord. Amen? And we know that even the Ethiopian was one of the first ones of the sons of Ham to even receive the Gospel and believe it and be baptized. Hallelujah. And so the work just continues on through the generations. But I'm not interested in going there and telling people about a Jesus who wants to save them but can't. I'm not. Lord, I am interested in risking life and limb in what moves me. We've been at the bottom of a river in a car wreck before. We've been stranded in airports. I was telling my father today about a wreck that I had on 45 years ago when I was just going to visit somebody in the hospital. I almost lost my life. A hydroplane got spared me. Hallelujah! The Apostle Paul had been shipwrecked. He had been beaten. In this chapter, he's talking about fixing to go to Jerusalem, and Lord knows what's going to happen to me there, he said. But he said, none of these things move me, brother. So I'm asking you, and I'm asking me, and I'm asking the church here today, what moves you, dear brothers and sisters? So he says here, and I hope it will be this for us. Verse 24, But none of these things move me, neither count I myself my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is what moved the Apostle Paul. If we will have revival among us, and if we will be successful in the evangelistic doors and opportunities that God gives to us, Here's the heartbeat of it, that I might testify to the gospel of what? The grace of God. There it is, my beloved brethren. That's the gospel that I'm interested in talking to you about today, that you might be motivated to testify of the gospel of the grace of God, no matter the cost. no matter the years, no matter the failures or successes, but I will remain faithful in what God has shown me and what God has called me to do. I will have a passion for the glory of God, for the truth, and for the souls of men. The Apostle Paul was moved. It moved him that he was called and given the blessing of being able to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. I love quotes. I'm going to give you some. Let this be to you the mark of the true gospel where Christ is everything and the creature is nothing. Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. If the old gospel is not competent to work a revival, then we will do without the revival. Two groups truly appreciate the value of the gospel, the damned in hell and the saved in heaven. For unto one it is a salver of what? Life. Unto life. Unto the other it is a salver of death. Unto death. And who is sufficient? These things. A man said this one time, for me there is no joy in life and no hope in death except in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is from Spurgeon. You'll recognize it. Avoid a sugared gospel. Seek that gospel which rips up, and tears, and cuts, and wounds, and hacks, and even kills. For that is the gospel that makes alive again. Let it enter in your inmost being as the rain soaks into the ground. So pray, the Lord let His gospel soak into your soul. Hallelujah. So we want revival in our day, don't we? Revival comes when we regain the understanding of the purpose, the preciousness, and the power of the gospel. The Apostle Paul in the Roman letter, I know you all know this one, Romans chapter 1, right? Oh yes, we must turn there and remember what he told us that the Gospel, this great promise of Christ, the Gospel is the good news of the promise of Christ and His finished work. It is the announcing of the good news, the declaring of the glad tidings, the promise of Christ's suffering, of His salvation, of His righteousness. Amen. Yes, and so in Romans chapter 1, you know what he says here. It's so beautiful. We love it so much. Verse 16, he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Oh, but the Gospel was given far before the Apostle Paul ever came onto the scene. And it continued on after he was gone off the scene. And so it has been here before me and will be after me until Christ returns. But in the very beginning, when our parents fell, came the promise of Christ and of the Gospel that unto the seed of the woman will be born one. One will be born. that would crush the head of the serpent and his heel would be bruised. Never forget, in the Gospel are the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, I'll never forget this, brethren. In Kenya, going with Elder Walter Asango and Samuel Sengunti into the bush in Kakamega, we started out on a paved road in a car, came to an end, Got onto a dirt road in a little contraption that had some kind of engine on it. Went as far as we could, came to the end. Came to a little dirt trail where we walked together to a house made of mud with a metal roof and we walked in and it was a circle room. There was hardly any light and the room was full of people who couldn't understand a lick of English. Sammy told me, Brother Nathan, they've never seen a white man here. Ever. Boy, I lit up the room, guys, let me tell you. I lit up the room. I said, what will I preach to these? What will I preach to them? You know, they ask Martin Luther. If we take away the icons, if we take away the rosary beads, if we take all these things that we use to prop up our people's faith, what will you give them? He said, I will give them Christ! Hallelujah. What do our people need? What do our day need? It needs the gospel. of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the grace of God. What does your congregation need? Your community needs the gospel of the grace of God. Let that be what moves you, dear brother. Let that be what moves us. Now, Spurgeon said some people can preach the gospel better than me, but they can't preach a better gospel. Hallelujah. One sister, Pine Hill one time, she called me, she was crying. She said, Brother Nathan, I've blown it. I said, what is it sister? She said, I had an opportunity to talk to one of my friends about what we believe in. I was trying to tell him about the tulip and I turned it into a turnip. I said, sister, it's okay. Let the results be with God. You shared with her the deep things of God and what was on your heart. Oh, let me tell you, in that little mud hut, I took them. In the Gospels it says, and there they crucified Him. And there they crucified Him. And we began to talk about the agonies and the sufferings of Jesus Christ. You could hear a pin drop as the translator began to tell them the words that I was saying. And at first, the little kid began to cry. as they heard about what they did to Jesus Christ. And then the women began to weep and sob. And then those old men and hard and deadies began to weep too. And all that little place there turned into a cathedral of the glory of Jesus Christ. Many souls were baptized that day from the simple message of a Savior who was willing to die and stand in the place of sinners and suffer and give hope to men. Beloved, the Gospel is used by Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit to convert the elect. Can we agree on that? That's why there's no evangelism without the Gospel. Right? It's the point of the spear. And we know the Scriptures, 1 Timothy 1, 9 and 10, that it is the Gospel that is used to bring what? Life and immortality to life. The Gospel doesn't regenerate. It does not. It does not have that power. But God and the Holy Spirit use the Gospel to convert His children. And that's what's so important. The outward call of the gospel will reveal the inward call of the Holy Spirit. Let's go to the book of Ephesians just to drive that home. That's important for you to understand in so many ways that in evangelism and in the gospel, I heard somebody say it one time that it's not just like the elector in an aquarium Right? And we're just pouring food in the aquarium. But the Bible says that we're to be fishers of men, that the gospel is to be spread out like a net, that we're to go into the highways, into the byways. Hallelujah. All those things must be applied if we want to follow the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I love this in Ephesians 1 and verse 13 because I think the Apostle Paul phrases it so beautifully here. It says, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that she believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And that's why that the gospel is so important in the work of biblical evangelism. It is because it is the normal means that the Holy Spirit uses to convert the elect family of God after they have been regenerated immediately by the Holy Spirit. If you don't understand that, you're going to have problems. in trying to apply the great work of evangelism. The gospel, beloved, is not an offer of salvation. to the sinner. We have some people among us, good brethren, that I love. They've got that wrong. I'm trying to do everything I can to prove it to them otherwise. And I don't see that in Scripture. The Gospel is not an offer of salvation to the sinner, but it's a divine summons to repentance and faith in Christ. Read the great gospel message of Peter on the day of Pentecost. He said, men and brethren, you've got to hearken unto me. You have crucified both Lord and Christ. And they said, man, what will we do? He said, repent and be baptized. Repent and believe. These are commands. It is divine summons to repentance and faith. that the Gospel is a royal decree of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and hope in Him and in Him alone. He is the way, not a way. He is the truth, not a truth. He is the life, not a life. And no man can come to the Father except by Him, such is the truth of the Gospel of the grace of God. And though the gospel is not an offer of salvation, beloved, the gospel is inviting. The gospel is persuasive. But at the end of the day, it is either obeyed or it is not. Can I get an Amen? Oh, who can not say that this is inviting? Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That means nothing to the hardened unregenerate sinner but to the heart that has been broken by the power of the Spirit and given life to. The Spirit and the bride say what? Come. Come. Oh beloved, as has been said by our brethren so much better than I, the Gospel should be propagated by all believers in every age until the return of Christ. Amen? This is the Master's plan. This is the prime directive of the church for us to be salt, for us to be light, for us to be a voice in a lost and dark and dying world. We proclaim the Gospel of the grace of God. Oh, may we be busy about it. May we be willing now the Apostle Paul to say, I don't count my life even worthy of it. But it's what moves me that I might testify of the Gospel, of the grace of God. May it be so for you. May it be so for me. This is the Master's plan of evangelism. is that we proclaim the gospel of the grace of God. I want to say how much that I love the church here. I want to thank them so much for their support over the years of our work to Africa. As I said, God has opened a door to Ethiopia, and I'm going to go for one week this summer right after camp. We have found a group of believers there. They've already had a wonderful introduction to the doctrines of grace, and they want to find people to have fellowship with, and they want to learn more of what it actually means to be a Baptist, and to be what we call in Africa, original Baptist. We call them here primitive Baptists. It means the same thing. In Africa, when you translate primitive in most of their languages, it means ignorant. So, you know, If the stone hits, you know, if the shoe fits, you know, that's right. But anyway, you know, the Lord moves in such a mysterious way, so we've been talking about, among the ones of us that'll be going, well, what should we really focus on when we go and spend that time with Him? Because you want it to be purposeful. You want it to be impactful. And so one of the brothers was saying, you know, brother Nathan, I think one of the things that you really need to preach on and emphasize on is the doctrine of the church. And I was like, well, I said, you know, that was kind of in the program there that I was thinking about. And the preacher this week instant messaged me. And he said, brother Nathan, I don't know what you're going to preach about when you come. But he said, one of the things I hope that you'll focus on is ecclesiology. Isn't it amazing the Spirit of God? So brethren, let's get excited about the Gospel, the grace of God. Amen. My Lord, I did not choose you, for that could never be. My heart would still refuse you, had you not chosen me. You took the sin that stained me, you pinched me, made me whole. How old you have, Lord, they ain't me.