The gospel, the gospel, chapter 20, the gospel. I'm going to read this very first point, and then we'll look at my outline points. The covenant of works being broken by sin and made unprofitable unto life, God was pleased to give forth the promise of Christ, the seed of the woman, as the means of calling the elect, and begetting in them faith and repentance. In this promise, the gospel, as to the substance of it, was revealed, and is therein effectual for the conversion and salvation of sinners." The gospel means the good news. It's a proclamation of good tidings, good news. And this first section I just titled covers the eternal promise of salvation in Jesus Christ to the elect. There's an eternal promise of salvation in Jesus Christ to the elect. That's the good news, the good news. Now the gospel's good news is always must begin If we're to really understand, to appreciate, to believe, to embrace the gospel, the gospel's good news must begin with what to us is decidedly not good news. It's bad news. It's the worst of news, but most importantly, it is the truth. It's the truth about us. The gospel starts off by placing us squarely in front of the mirror of truth, not the mirror that's murky, but the mirror of God's light, of God's truth. So here's what the gospel says, here's the bad news that must begin any conversation about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The bad news is this, is that Adam's fall, when our first parent fell, Adam's fall into sin irretrievably, that means it cannot be fixed, cannot be humanly solved or humanly put back together, humanly repaired, has irretrievably broken fellowship with God and any hope of eternal life. Understand that Adam's fall into sin for everyone born that's like Adam. So everybody that comes from Adam is born with the link to God, with the favor of God, the blessings of God, the love of God, of a home with God, of the light of God, of any wisdom that comes, any true wisdom that comes from God, that link has been irretrievably broken by Adam's sin, and then, of course, by our own sins as well. And therefore, any hope of life with God is also broken, because God is holy. God is holy. There's no darkness in God. There's no sin in God. And since there's no sin in God, there can't be any favor towards sin. There can't be any desire or fellowship or union or community in God with sin. God is light, and the light of God, the righteousness of God precludes him from encountering, loving, embracing, condoning sin in any way. That's bad news, isn't it? That's as bad as it gets. The bad news is you are broken and you can't get better. You won't get better and you can't get better. There's no worse news than that. But the gospel is good news. And I love how the confession starts in the almost the very beginning of the Bible. after the worst story imaginable that tells us about the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. And even in the midst of the consequences of that sin, the consequence of that sin was that God placed a curse on the man. God placed a curse on the woman. We won't go into the details of those curses, but part of the curse or part of the consequence of sin was that they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They were cast out of the fellowship of God. They were cast out of the ease of life and the unfettered blessings of life. No longer did the ground just spring forth with fruit. Now man had to work. He had to labor. He had to be cut by thorns and thistles and sweat and agonized over whether it would rain or whether it would scorch or whether the plants would come up at all or not. Now there'll be enmity between even the man and the woman in, in, in, in, in their complimentary roles toward one another as Eve was given to Adam to be a help meet for him. Now it wasn't so suitable. Was it? Was it so desirable? Wasn't so suitable. Now there would be antagonism and misunderstanding and, and mistrust. That was to be the plot of man. And eventually there'd be murder even very long after that. There was a curse also placed upon. the serpent, the deceiver, the subtle deceiver who had cursed him. And in Genesis 3 verse 15, you've heard this referred to many times, but here in this curse upon the serpent, in the middle of this dark scene where the consequences of sin are finally seen in full blast, as Satan says, you'll know the difference between good and evil. God says, yeah, you're going to know it and you're not going to like it. You're going to see it. I'm going to tell you just what it's going to be. Good and evil. Evil means you're cast out of the garden. Evil means there's a curse upon you. Evil means life just got really hard and it's going to get harder and you're going to get old and you're going to die. And right in the middle of that, he also says, as he curses the serpent, he says that the seed of the woman who is at enmity with the serpent, the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent while the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Now who was, who is the seed of the woman that God was referring to there? The seed of the woman was Jesus Christ. And while the serpent did bruise his head, he could get it as humanity, right? Yet in that moment on the cross, Christ was not just a victim of Satan's wiles, but Christ was a lamb who had been prepared from the foundation of the world by God to destroy him that had the power of death, to destroy him who brought this knowledge of good and evil, to destroy them who had brought the curse upon man, to destroy him who had brought about the tears that Eve no doubt shed as her own son lay missing and then dead, a victim of his brother. Christ was a powerful lion on the cross in a way. He was destroying him that had the power of death, and he was as a lamb. He opened not His mouth before His accusers. He did not break out of the throng as He had before, did He? But no, He meekly, He humbly, He voluntarily, He willingly went to the cross and He gave up the ghost. He gave up His life. Why did He do that? And the Gospel tells us why He did that. that they cite here, Revelation 13 verse 8. I like that verse. Because it talks in Revelation 13 verse 8 about the book of life and of the ones who, those who are in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So that Christ was on the cross as a part of the original The pre-creation plan of God to bring Himself glory by bringing many sinners to glory. This was a plan that was laid out before the foundation of the world, and so Christ on the cross was a lamb. He was a sacrificial lamb. He was not dying as part of his own curse, but he was cursed because he had taken the curse of the elect upon his own flesh. And so he was as the ram and the thicket in the story of Isaac, right? He was as the lamb that was slain through the sacrifices. He was the spotless, sinless lamb of God provided by God to take the place of those who should have died, the elect, those whose names are on the book of life that has been there before the foundation of the world. Praise God for that. This is the good news. You are a sinner, you are hopelessly caught in your sin, you are guilty because of your sin, you are cursed because of your sin, and God made a plan to rescue sinners, and He actually rescued sinners by Christ's death upon the cross, and Christ's death as a sacrificial lamb has propitiated, has satisfied the wrath of God, the wrath of God has been removed from all of the elect. The elect have been reconciled to God. The curse has been removed. That's the gospel. And it is the declaration of this good news. It's the proclamation of this good news. When you hear that you're a sinner, when you hear that Satan is a deceiver, Did you hear that God said, Satan, you will not get away with this. You will not win. You will not have the victory. I will have the victory. I will bruise your head. You hear that Christ is the one who bruised the head of the serpent. That Christ was not defeated, but Christ won the battle with the devil and Christ won the removal of God's wrath. Christ satisfied God's wrath so that God was pleased to bring Christ forth from the grave. He rose out of the grave. The grave could not hold him. because he had satisfied the wrath of God, and he burst forth from the grave, and that the bursting forth from the grave is all the sign that we need. It's the justification that Christ was exactly the Lamb of God, as he said, and that Christ was the Messiah, Christ was the Son of God, Christ was the Savior, and Christ is the favored of the Father to be brought back to glory. And so Christ did not lie. And Christ was not unsuccessful. And Christ is the remover of the sin debt. And that all those who look upon Christ shall find life. Right? That's the gospel. That's what we're declaring. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. He's the one who is God's salvation. It is the declaration of this good news. This is God's means through the preaching of the gospel. of outwardly, outwardly calling the elect and effectually bringing them forth to faith, repentance, and conversion. The gospel brings forth faith. It brings forth repentance. It brings forth conversion. Now we're going to see in a little bit, the gospel doesn't give life. I can't do that. I can stand, I can preach, I can holler, I can scream, I can paint it in beautiful ways, but the gospel won't bring forth life. Friends, the gospel is God's way. of proclaiming the glory of His Son, that those who have received life undeserved through the Holy Spirit may hear this good news and it be good news to their ears. It's outward, right? So that you are hearing this with your ears and you're processing this in your minds and you're considering this and you go, am I really under a curse or am I okay? Am I really under the wrath of God or is it not that big of a deal? Is sin really a big deal or is it not? Is Christ really the only Savior or are there more saviors? You're hearing this information as the gospel is being proclaimed and you're processing it and for those who have been brought to life by the Holy Spirit, they hear this word and it brings out Yes, I am that sinner. I am guilty. There is no hope for me in myself. But I believe what he's preaching right now. I believe that Christ really did bruise the head of the serpent. I believe that Christ won the battle over Satan and that Christ did remove the sin debt of his people. And I'm going to look to Christ. I'm going to call upon Christ as the one to whom my soul can find rest in. This happens through the preaching of the gospel. We won't turn to those passages here in this section, but you can look those up for yourself. The gospel is a power of God and a salvation to those who believe. Isn't that true? The good news of what God has done for his people in Christ is powerful to those who are able to receive it by faith, who are made able to receive it by faith. Isn't that true? Now the next section says this. That salvation or the story of salvation, the reality of salvation is outwardly, in other words, Christ doesn't work inwardly, the spirit doesn't work inwardly, but the story of salvation is outwardly proclaimed through the gospel alone. And here's sort of their point. I think it's a very important point. God reveals himself or God manifests his glory, his existence in more ways than just through words, doesn't he? The scriptures teach us that. Do you think any scripture might teach that? Psalm 19 is one of my favorites. Remember that that says, anybody remember what that says? I heard somebody saying something. Psalm 19 verse one, the heavens, remember the heavens declare the glory of God. Um, We see the existence of God displayed throughout creation, don't we? We see the existence of God, the power of God, the glory of God, even displayed through God's providential workings, the story I just told. Now, take God of that story and you still gotta go, wow, what a coincidence, and probably think more than that, right? You mean two men that know each other back then and they're their stories if they were they were both coming to the Baptist they didn't know each other and then years later their grandchildren meet each other and The providence of God points towards a God doesn't it? So there's things that we learn about God that we know about God There is no true atheist, right? Everybody knows in their heart, in maybe the dark, deep recesses of their heart, that there is a God who we are accountable to. So we can see God's works, we can see God's glory, we can see God's goodness through the rain, and the sun, and the crops, and the seasons. But you know what it cannot teach? It cannot teach the story of redemption. It can show us that we're sinners. We know we're sinners. But God's works do not tell the story of redemption. They don't reveal redemption. Redemption and salvation in Christ are only revealed in the word of God. We've been talking about the importance of the word of God recently. And let me tell you, that is the, that is, when we say this is the revelation of God, what an important point that is. This is the authoritative revelation of God. God is revealing Himself. He's revealing truth to us in the scriptures. Now, we know that. Let me tell you, friends, that's the only way that we can ever know of, cognitively, ever know of salvation Redemption, forgiveness, the only way we could ever know that is because God has revealed Himself and has revealed His salvation, has revealed His redemption and His forgiveness in Jesus Christ through this book. so that men can study this book and can discover its glory, and it can come before people and say, I want to tell you, there is a Savior, and His name is Jesus, and He has came to this earth that He might save all His people from their sins. And that Jesus said that all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So you don't have to be ashamed. You don't have to be scared to go to Jesus. He won't cast you out. Let me tell you something, friends. If you saw a lightning storm, and the lightning struck really close to where you were, and that lightning reminded you that I'm going to die one day, and I almost died just then, and then your conscience tells you, there is a God out here, and you know Because we have it written, as Brother Lewis said last week, I think it was, it's written in our hearts that the law in some way is written in our minds and our consciences that we know to some degree the difference between right and wrong. Even the Gentiles have that, he said. You're standing there and you know that you're mortal. And you know that you almost just caught death. And you know that you're not right. Aren't you thankful? If there is the gospel of Jesus Christ to reveal to your troubled mind, there's a Savior. His name is Jesus. And there's nothing to fear in going to Him. You would not go to God. You would not run to God. Remember what happened at Sinai? They saw that lightning there, didn't they? And they ran the opposite direction as fast as their legs could carry them. They said, Moses, you stand before us. We've got to have a mediator. We cannot go to God. And the gospel tells us there is a mediator. There's a man between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, the son of man. And he bruised the head of the serpent. So therefore Prince conversion, which is. faith and repentance, faith being brought forth, trust in Jesus Christ, repentance, turning from sin to serve him, faith and repentance, conversion comes through as a result of the gospel's influence in the life of those whom God has given life to. So the question always comes up, often comes up, so can God reveal salvation any other way? You know, Can God reveal salvation any other way? What about those who haven't heard the gospel? And my answer to that is God can do anything God wants to do. God can reveal salvation to Abraham and even preach the gospel to Abraham, probably through the experiences with Isaac. I don't know exactly how that happened, but through the experiences with Isaac, I think Abraham saw the gospel on bright display there, didn't he? You hear these stories about these people who You know, they're in a remote tribe, and they say, well, I always believed that there was a God, and I didn't know his name, these kind of things. It just strikes me that those people they're talking to, they now have heard the gospel, and they've come, and the one whom they knew as maybe being God, they've come to embrace through Jesus Christ, as has been revealed to them. So God speaks salvation, God brings salvation to. the elect infants who die in infancy. God brings salvation to those who don't have the capacity mentally to understand the gospel. God brings salvation in any way he wants to, but what the scriptures declare, what the scriptures show, the scriptures show that God's way, God's, we can say even an ordinary way, because God can do whatever he wants to do, but God's way of bringing conversion, God's way of bringing life and immortality to light is through the gospel. The gospel being proclaimed, the gospel being received. Okay? It's God's ordinary way. Now section three was go over very hurriedly. I don't want to mention this. I think it's really smart. They put this in here. Just, uh, it's kind of humbling. I call this God's sovereignty over the gospel, where the gospel goes and where it has success. God's sovereignty over the gospel. And I was going to read my, my, my, my, my, what I wrote down from this, the revelation. the prominence. So if you think of a nation like the United States, for most of our history, the gospel has been very prominent in many ways. There's churches on every corner. And I'm not saying they're all preaching. But the truth I'm saying, the idea of the gospel, the knowledge of the gospel, even if it's in a warped form, but we're gospel saturated. I'm not saying absolutely in good form. I'm just saying there's a familiarity with the idea of Jesus and the story of Jesus. And, and, and, uh, but it's not like that everywhere, is it? So the revelation, the prominence and the receipt of the gospel who receives, who believes are not geographical or generational certainties or birthrights. In other words, just because we are who we are doesn't mean that we have a right, our children have a right, our families have a right to be believers in Jesus Christ and embrace the gospel. The gospel will always be right here on our shores. That's not the case. Israel had the word of God. Israel had the law of God. And Israel was destroyed, weren't they? And he said, it's not all Israel who's real Israel, but those who are of faith. Man is not better prepared to receive the gospel. Listen to this. Man is not better prepared to receive the gospel through refinement or education. to make ourselves closer to being able to see the gospel. So it's not through our refinement. In fact, they make the point, man will not become refined enough ever. Man always degrades into depravity, Romans 1. Man becomes more reprobate. Therefore, the gospel success and area of influence is only by the sovereign will and pleasure of God. And they cite Acts 16, 7 and actually said, I don't remember the exact details, but Paul and his companions were desiring to go to this place to preach the gospel. And God said, Nope, you're not going. He didn't suffer them to go and he brought them back to another place. Now, as, as, as believers in the new Testament church, we are commanded to go to, to, to, to preach the gospel to all nations. That we're to have the, that we're to show forth the praises of Him who's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That we're to be witnesses of His faithfulness and His truth and of His love and of His mercy. That we're to share with our friends and our neighbors and that the words of Christ should always be about us, right? We should always have the praise of Jesus on our lips. But where it will have success, and who will believe, who will receive, whose hearts be made open, that is totally and completely by the sovereign will and pleasure of God. So we should not become, and I think this has happened on occasion, we should not become so lifted up in ourselves. We think because we have a good family background or we have a good church background, we have a good, you know, community background, the gospel is always going to take effect, it's by the sovereign will and pleasure of God. Now the last point, I'll just mention this briefly, this is very important. I'll read this last section. Although the gospel be the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace, and is as such abundantly sufficient therein to So God has given us his word and he's called men to preach his word and his word sufficiently shows the glories of redemption and salvation and of Jesus Christ. Yet, that men who are dead in trespasses may be born again, quickened or regenerated, there is moreover necessary an effectual, insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul for the producing in them of a new spiritual life, without which no other means will effect their conversion to God. What is this saying? It is saying this, while the preaching of the gospel is wonderful and it's sufficient to outwardly talk about Christ, it teaches about Christ, the preaching of the gospel is completely ineffective. It's not its design. It is ineffective in giving spiritual life to those who are dead in sin. The primitive Baptists have always been very careful to maintain this, the idea that we do not believe that the gospel regenerates. We do not believe in gospel regeneration. And I think it's a very, very important point that we always keep close to our minds. Friends, for several reasons, let me give you a couple. Number one, we must remember that life must precede faith. There must be life. There must be the capacity to believe. There must be a new heart before one can hear and believe and respond to the goodness of Jesus Christ. And guess what? We can preach the gospel, praise God. We have the word of God. You ought to know as much about the gospel as you possibly can because the gospel is the best news you ever heard. It's about you. You ought to share it. But friends, we are so radically depraved. We really are dead. We cannot, we will not. There's a refusal, there's an inability. We cannot, we will not receive the things of the Spirit of God. We teach, because the Bible teaches that there is not a spark of life that can be stirred up to receive the gospel. We also teach that the gospel is not an offer. It's not an offer that's given indiscriminately to all so that if you would just take God's offer, God means for all in some way to have salvation for those who will come. We believe that no man can come unless the Father has drawn him. And the Father will only draw. He will only draw. He's not wooing. He's drawing. Regeneration is a radical heart surgery. It's something that's done by the Father through the Spirit. And it is a radical change. It's not a wooing. It's a change. It's a giving of life. It's a birth. It's a resurrection. It's a creation. so that God is not offering that which He does not plan to give. What God is saying through the Gospel is, all that I have given to Christ will come to me and you will come to me because I have drawn you to me. So we stand and we declare that man is hopelessly lost in sin, but that God, before time began, formed a plan to rescue man to bring himself glory. That Christ executed that plan with every jot and every detail and Christ redeemed his people from their sins and that those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved. It's not a condition in order to get saved. It's a reality. Those who are believers in Christ are one in the same with the elect. They're one in the same with the saved. They're one in the same with those who will live eternity with Jesus Christ and God. But the Holy Spirit alone is the life giver. No other means can bring conversion to God. New life, regeneration must occur for the gospel to have any outward effect in an individual's life. So I believe If I've communicated well and you've heard well, what you've heard tonight is that the gospel is glorious and the gospel is of the utmost importance. The gospel is the outward call that brings outward conversion that is necessary to do our sanctification. The repentance and faith are brought out. The word in James 1 is to beget. Which means to bring to birth, to bring forth. There must be life before birth can occur. It wasn't, wasn't there. And life comes directly through the Holy spirit's gracious work. Oh, the scheme of salvation is glorious, isn't it? So we, we, we strongly proclaim the gospel. We strongly believe in the gospel. And yet we say the gospel is a declaration of what God has done. It's not an offer to all. but all those whom the Father has given will receive." Thank goodness, because they're brought by the Holy Spirit. May God bless you is my prayer. Thank you for listening to this message. Our prayer is that you've been blessed by the messages and the daily devotional blog on Sermon Audio from Ripley Primitive Baptist Church. We would love the opportunity to be of greater service to you in your walk with Christ. In other words, we would like to get to know you better. Do you have need of counsel, of a home church, or can we just pray for you? Please feel free to contact us by phone at 662-837-8590 or visit our website at www.ripleypbc.com.