Ready to Preach the Gospel

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. What I want us to speak about today is being ready to preach the gospel, being ready to preach the gospel. And I want to do that from version 13 to verse 15.

If the Lord gives us freedom to speak and freedom to receive the word, I'm going to invite you, brother and sister, to read with me from verse one of Chapter one all the way to verse 16. We're speaking about being ready to preach the gospel. After we read those 16 verses, I'm also going to invite you to come with me and read in First Corinthians Chapter two, the first five verses of First Corinthians Chapter two. The reason why I want us to do that is because in Romans we have Paul writing to a church that he has not visited yet. And then, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we have the reflection of the apostle upon the visit that he had gave the people at Corinth.

So we have the perspective of two different churches, one that the apostle wants and desires to visit to preach the gospel, and another church that the apostle has already visited, at least as we have it in the scriptures. And he reflects upon that visit that he gave to the Corinthians. So my dear brother and sister and friend present here, I'm going to invite you with much reverence, paying attention to each one of the words, knowing that is the word of the Lord and asking that the Spirit of God will instruct us even as we read the scriptures. Let us read together Romans chapter one from verse one to verse 16. And then we go to 1 Corinthians chapter two.

This is the word of the Lord. First Romans chapter one, Paul, A servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised, that is the gospel, 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 in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom, that is Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you. who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God, and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far I have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise or the foolish.

So I'm eager. So I'm ready. to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God. For the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

This is what the apostle says to the Romans. Now we come to first Corinthians chapter two. The gospel is the power of God. She says to the Romans, then we come to first Corinthians chapter two and we read the word of the Lord. The first five verses of chapter two and I, That is Paul speaking to the Corinthians, reflecting upon his visit to this church.

And I, he says, when I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not impossible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that, brothers and sisters in Corinth, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of God, but in the power or in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Amen. This is the reading of the Word. I ask you to come and carefully read with me verse 5. This is the message of the apostle to the church. "...

So that I did not come to you with lofty words of wisdom, I did not come to you with words of wisdom of men, but rather I came to you trembling with much fear. with a demonstration of the power of the spirit so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but rather your faith may rest upon the power of God that in Romans he calls the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I ask you, in light of the scriptures, where is your faith resting, my dear soul? Is your faith resting upon the wisdom of men? Or is your faith resting upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the power of God?

Where is your faith resting upon when you ask yourself, what am I trusting? Are you trusting the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified and victorious? Is your conscience taking you to know that you are trusting in Him alone? Or is your faith resting upon the wisdom of men and lofty doctrines of men? Is your heart finding rest and consolation at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the message of the gospel?

Or are you finding temporal rest in the wisdom of men? The power of God is found only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified and it was him that was the one that accomplished the work upon the cross. The Apostle Paul knew that Christians are going to be tempted to deviate from the sufficiency of the message of the gospel and to be tempted to hear lofty words of wisdom that come from men. So when he visited the Corinthians, he said, I'm proclaiming to you Jesus Christ and him crucified so that your faith will be a real faith and not a fleshly faith. Not a faith that stands upon the wisdom of men, but a faith that will stand upon the power of God.

And when he's manifesting his desire to visit the people in Rome, he says the same thing. I want to be ready or I'm eager to preach the gospel of God to you who are in Rome. Those of you who are far away, those of you who I don't know, those of you who are already Christians, the apostle says, those of you who are in Rome, I am eager, I am ready to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it is the gospel of Christ, the one that is the power of God unto salvation. It is only the message of the cross, the one that can produce in us what nothing else can produce.

It is only the message of the cross, brethren, the one that can deal with the problem of sin. The problem that we have of sin cannot be dealt with absolutely anything else than the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if our faith is not resting upon the power of the Spirit, and if our faith is not resting upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, how are we going to be ready to proclaim it? How are we going to be ready with boldness to speak to this world that what they need is Christ Jesus through the gospel? If our faith is not resting upon the cross, but it's resting upon any other thing that is not the cross, how are we going to join the apostle and say that we are eager and ready to proclaim the gospel?

How are we going to trust the sufficiency and the power of the gospel if our faith is not rooted at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He was conquerors, that He was victorious upon the cross? My dear brother and sister, We're going to be tempted to deviate from the sufficiency and the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe that what we need and what the world needs is something else that is different to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we have entrusted a great message and that message is the message of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the power of God. There is nowhere else where the power of God can be found other than the message of the cross and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You might say, well, brother, this was the calling of Paul. He was the one that was an apostle. He's the one that was called to preach the gospel to the nations. He's the one that was entrusted to go to the Corinthians. He's the one that was entrusted to go to the Romans and to preach the gospel.

That is certainly his calling. We have a different calling. We have not been called to bring the gospel to the nation or to be eager to be ready in the same way that Paul was ready to preach the gospel. To that, I say to you, my dear brother and sister, simply read the scriptures and come actually with me. Come with me, please, to Acts chapter, the books of Acts chapter one.

And I want to show you something powerful that in the moment in which you question yourself about your calling to preach the gospel, I just ask that you remember this that I'm going to show you, that you keep that in your mind and in your heart and in your soul, because this is the power of God in building up his church. Acts chapter 1, you remember what the Lord asked to the disciples, that they will be witnesses of the Lord in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And then he says that they were gathering, verse 14, Acts 1, verse 14, all of these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, mother of Jesus and all his brothers. We know that there were approximately 120 people that were gathered there, that had received the commission of the Lord, that they were going to be witnesses to the outermost part of the earth. Then we know in Acts chapter 2 that the Spirit of God will come with power and that many thousands of people will be added to the church.

Go to Acts chapter 2. It says in verse 41 of Acts chapter 2, it says, so those after the preaching of Peter and after the coming of the Holy Spirit and after people, many people were saved, it says in verse 41, so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls, 3,000 souls, none of the high and lofty of society, but rather 300 souls of slaves and people that were rejected by the society. Thousands of people were being added to the church. If you quickly go to Acts chapter six, as the church progresses, we learn and we know how the church is advancing with a mission of the gospel. And we have in Acts chapter six, the first difficulty that the church is facing, Acts chapter six, Now, in these days, we have in Acts chapter 6, now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

The church is growing, and we know that they have women and people who are in need, and the church is increasing in numbers. And then we find in Acts chapter 8, with the persecution of the church, these many thousands of people that had been converted and brought to the feet of Christ Jesus by the Apostle, by the power of the Spirit, to Christ Jesus. Now we know this, that this church is now receiving persecution, and in Acts chapter 8 we have this. You remember how Stephen was healed. And then we have the testimony, or at least what happens with Saul, which is Paul.

Then Acts chapter 8, we have, and Saul approved of his execution, that is, Stephen's. And then or there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. Pay attention to this. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except who?

The apostles. The church was spread, scattered throughout the whole region of Judea and Samaria. All the church in Jerusalem, all of these thousands of people that had been added through the proclamation of the gospel, they were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And then we have in verse 2, devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church.

and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. But now pay attention to verse four. And this is the one that I want you to remember. Verse four. And those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

And those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Who were the ones that were scattered, if not the church in Jerusalem that received the persecution? Praise God that he has established his church upon the apostles and what the apostles did. My dear brother and sister, if we had the eyes of God and we had an insight in how the church of the Lord has been built. you will realize that the gospel has reached the outermost part of the earth through people that we do not know, through the work of the Spirit working in Christians that have been scattered and forgotten, whose names are not written in the Bible, whose names are not written in books, that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through thousands of people is the means that God has used to build up His church.

And the reason why you are saved is because a person was saved by a message that has been passed throughout the generations. Thank you, brother. But a message that has been passed throughout the generations by the power of the Spirit of God. Praise God for the apostles. Praise God for the prophets.

Praise God for the Spirit of Jesus. That is the one that is building the church. And He's going to build up His church. And no, you know what? He's going to use every one of His saints.

to build His church. If you have the Spirit of God in you by virtue of the grace that has made you a child of God, then that means that we are called to preach the gospel. The gospel that saved us is the gospel that we are to preach and that we are to proclaim. This is not a work of a pastor. This is not a work of an apostle.

This is not a work of a prophet. This is the work of the Christian. That we are the light and that we are to bring the message of Jesus Christ. And in that message, my dear brothers and sisters, there is power. Power like in any other message.

Kings and rulers and presidents and prime ministers, they send important messages to their people, dealing with different situations and planning what is going to happen in the future. None of this message is compared to the message of King Jesus that has been entrusted to his church. And you and me, as feeble as we are, as ignorant as we are, as weak as we are, as needy as we are, we have been entrusted with this glorious message of the gospel, so that when he comes, All the glory of men is burned down by the exaltation of the glory of God, so that when He comes, the ways of men that are lofty and colorful and squared and nitty will be presented and burned down with the ways of God that will mock the ways of men. This is the way of the Lord. And my dear brother and sister, it is our mission to be ready to preach the gospel to the world.

And in Paul, we find a very important example of how and why to preach that message. If you return with me, please, to Romans chapter one. The only thing that I want to do it is with the time that I have. He just show you a couple of things from this text that is important that we will know by faith, that we will know by faith, that we will understand, brethren, by faith so that We will be ready and eager to proclaim this message of the gospel that I'm referring about. So go, please, to Romans chapter one.

There are a couple of things, two or three, depending on how the time goes that I want to show you from Paul that we can learn so that we are eager to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Two or three. I'm not going to say number because time is passing now. But two or three things that I want to show you from the text that are very important, that the Spirit will illuminate to us. so that we will not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, that we will not be ashamed to proclaim in the cross, that we will not be quiet when we have to speak, that we will not be ashamed of this glorious message that he has given us.

Two things that I should mention quickly, otherwise my time is going to run out. The first one, maybe your brother and sister pay attention to this. We must understand the sufficiency of the gospel. Brethren, we must understand the sufficiency of the gospel. The apostle says in verse 15, I am eager to preach the gospel.

I am eager to preach or I'm ready to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. This apostle has not seen these people in Rome. He has not met them. He could have many good Christian reasons to come and minister to the people in Rome. But the reason why he wants to come to visit the people in Rome is because he wants to preach the gospel.

Why? Because Paul understands and comprehends the sufficiency of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he did with the Corinthians. For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." The Apostle, who is wise, who knows so many things, who has so many experiences, who has met so many people, who has sat at the feet of Gamaliel, who has so much doctrine to explain, he says, I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul, as we all Christians, should and must understand that the gospel is sufficient.

The gospel is enough. If the gospel is sufficient and if the gospel is enough, then that means that people are not going to say in any other way that through the preaching of the gospel, we might be tempted to find any other way to present people and to bring them to church. But people who will come to church who will be generally say will only come through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the sitting at the right hand of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the promise of His coming. It is the message of Christ, the one that is sufficient. And sufficient for what? The Apostle says in verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

There is no other way how people are going to be saved than through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you're speaking to someone, when you're sharing your testimony, when you're speaking about religion with another person, please know this, that there is not going to be any other way in which that person is going to be rescued from their sins and the wrath of God that abides upon that person if it's not through the work of Christ Jesus as it is presented in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. People are justified and forgiven only through the gospel. But brother and sister, the gospel is sufficient for much more than just being forgiven initially. The gospel is what we need for our life as Christians.

The gospel is not one Christianity 101 that we are just praying a prayer that we are forgiven. And that is the gospel, the presentation of the cross. No, my dear brother and sister, your soul, my soul need the gospel every single day. Justification, forgiveness, sanctification, interceding, loving one another, the church, the gospel is supposed to permeate every aspect of the Christian life. And this is not something that we know as a church.

This is something that Paul himself knew and experienced. Come with me, please, to Galatians chapter two and read these words of the apostle who had been saved by the power of the gospel and who did not only know that people were going to be justified and forgiven by the gospel, but he also had experience that this glorious gospel is what sustains us in our life. Please, if you can, and if the Lord has given you this ability, memorize this verse Galatians chapter two verse 20 Galatians chapter two verse 20. The Apostle Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life that now I live in the flesh.

Now, brethren, I don't have the ability to explain this, but read just by faith, the Spirit is able to communicate those words into your heart. Once again, 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son or in the Son of God. This is what the apostle says, who loved me.

and gave himself for me." The apostle, I live my life, not based upon my expertise, not based upon the result of my ministry, not upon the letters that I have written. Well, perhaps that was the first one, but the things that I have done, or the many times that I have preached, or the many Jews that I have confronted, but I live my life By faith in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me. The apostle who had many answers to many questions needed the gospel in his daily life. He needed to be reminded to himself that he loved him and that he gave himself for him.

Brother, sister, when was the last time that you preached the gospel to yourself? When was the last time that you dealt with your sin in light of the gospel? When was the last time that your mind was confronted with guilt? And instead of jumping onto how am I going to fix my problems and how am I going to fix the consequences of my sin, that your heart came to the cross and actually said, He loved me and gave himself for me. When was the last time that you dealt with your issues and your problems in light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Hear this, the gospel is sufficient. I was making the kids to repeat and I'm not going to say that because perhaps it's not the best to do it with adults. But brethren, the gospel is enough. The gospel is sufficient. You don't need to be smart.

You don't need to be of high reputation. You don't have to have read 115 books. You don't have to have a big library. You don't need to have a lot of money. You don't need to have 25 or 30 or 40 years of experience in Christianity.

You need one thing. And that thing is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it points you to Him and what He did upon the cross. My dear brother and sister, the gospel is sufficient. The gospel is absolutely enough. And you know why the gospel is enough?

Come with me, please, to Romans once again. You know why the gospel is enough? Pay attention to how Paul refers to this gospel, Romans chapter 1. The gospel is enough because the gospel is not a message of men. The gospel is a message of God.

Did you pay attention to how Paul refers to the gospel? Verse one in chapter one, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of Nelson of the church, the gospel of God. Then he says in verse nine, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of. His Son. And the apostle is not saying that the gospel is about God.

The apostle is saying that the gospel comes from God. Literally what he says is the gospel out of God. The gospel is the word of God, brethren. The gospel is coming from God, from God's being. It is the message of God for His people.

It is the message that is coming from Him. And if it's coming from Him, how are we not going to trust the gospel? If we hold many high reputation and we trust them, or we trust each other because of the little things that we have known about each other, how are we not going to trust the message of the gospel that is the message of God? This is the Word of God. And because it is the Word of God, it gives life.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. Many times in the scriptures, the gospel is going to be equated with the Word of God, and hence, The gospel shares the attributes that scripture has. So we know that scripture is true. So the gospel, my dear brother and sister, is true. It does not matter what your flesh tells you.

It does not matter what your guilt tells you. It does not matter what the circumstances tell you. The message is the same. Christ Jesus died upon the cross. He was victorious.

He's sitting at the right hand of the father and he's going to come and he's going to judge the living and the dead. And God is going to be victorious in Christ and with him, his church. The message does not change. The message of the gospel shares the attributes of the scriptures. It is true.

And there's absolutely no one who can bring a question against this glorious message of the gospel because it is the word of God, just as the scripture is immutable. does not change. Also, my dear brother and sister, the gospel is immutable and does not change. Because if anyone changes the gospel, that is another gospel and that person is anathema, is a curse. Not that there is another gospel, but the one that dares to change the gospel and to think that the gospel is not enough and I need this program and I need these ways and I need these other things so that people will come to church and be saved.

The curse of God is upon that person because the gospel is enough. And it's true. And it does not change. And because it is the Word of God, my dear brother and sister, it is a message that is secure. It does not matter what they do.

It does not matter the darkness of this world. It does not matter how much they hate Christ. It does not matter how much they hate the church. It does not matter how much they hate Christians. The message of the word of God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will prevail until the end.

There's nothing that they can do. There's nothing that they can buy. There's no system that they can invent. There's no technology that is going to be sufficient and powerful enough to go against the message of the word of God and the gospel. And we can be completely certain that the gospel that saved Paul, it is the same gospel that saved this unknown brother or sister of the fourth century.

It is the same gospel that saved that brother and sister from the 12th century. It is the same gospel that saved that brother and sister from the 18th century. It is the same gospel that has saved you by God's grace and is the gospel that will continue to save all those who have been called to be part of the people of Jesus Christ because the gospel is efficient and is going to be enduring until the end. If that was not enough, brother, if that was not enough, this message of the gospel is for those who believe. The message of the gospel, this powerful, glorious message that comes from God, that is sufficient for everything that we need, is for you who believe.

Did you pay attention to verse 16? For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God of salvation to everyone who believes. You know what he says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18? That the word of the cross, that the gospel, it is foolishness For those who perish, but for those who believe, you remember that passage? It is the power of God.

Brethren, He has given this message for His people. The gospel is supposed to permeate absolutely every aspect of the believer. The church, the gathering together of the saints is supposed to be impacted. It is supposed to be permeated by this glorious message of the gospel. Let me ask you, do you believe in this efficiency of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Not with your mind, but practically. Do you believe in this efficiency of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? for your personal life, for the life of the church, for the proclamation of the gospel in the streets. Do you believe in the sufficiency of this message? Or do you find yourself trusting something else?

Because, my dear brother and sister, we are not going to be able to walk in the Spirit and to live in the fullness of Christ in us if we do not rest upon the gospel of God that is the power of God, but something else. If we tell ourselves in our wisdom, in our ways, our faith is not resting upon the demonstration of the power of the Spirit that is found in the Gospel, but something else. Paul knew that. And because Paul knew that the gospel is sufficient, he had a genuine desire to preach it, brethren. He had a genuine...

If you genuinely know that this message has this power to save, to transform, to convert, to bring glory to Christ. If you know that this message is the only message that we have to accomplish that, how would you lack desire to preach it? Paul had a genuine, powerful desire. That's what we have in verse 13. This letter is written to the Romans because Paul wanted to come to them.

In verse 13 he says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you. But thus far I have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles." This longing of Paul to come to the Romans was more clearly explained in verse 11 when he says, For I long, I desire, I yearn, to see you, that I might impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you." Paul is not saying, I have heard that you make a very good rum and pie, and I would like to come and eat it and share it with you. I have heard that you are very hospitable and that you have all of these things in rum that I have not seen before, and I would like just to come and spend some time with you.

No, he longs and he yearns to come and see the Romans because Paul has a purpose. That is to preach the gospel to this church. But they are already Christians, but they are already saved. Well, brethren, the gospel does not only save, but builds the church. The message of the cross is absolutely everything that we need.

So all the items and sectors of our theology will come together in light of the fact that there is someone who died whose name is Jesus Christ. So the apostle knew that the best service that he could do to the church is to come and to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And because he knew the sufficiency of the gospel, the uniqueness of the gospel, He desired to come and preach the gospel to the people in Rome, to the people in Galatia, and to the outermost part of the earth. We are not going to be driven by this desire, my dear brother and sister, if we don't come in our knees and by faith believe that that message is enough. And if we don't believe that this is the message that God has used to build up his church, and if we don't understand that our lives, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years, whatever the Lord has given us, Nothing compared with eternity.

That the things are passing away. And the futility of the things of this world are going to be gone and passed and forgotten. The things that you had 15 or 20 years ago are gone. And you don't remember them anymore. The strength and the power that you had in your body is gone and you cannot recover it.

And it is forgotten there in the past. But brother and sister, one thing you have, and that is your faith and the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ has given you. And if we come to the conclusion that this is the message that the Lord uses to save, How are we not going to be able to join the apostle and say that we are eager to preach this message to the lost? How are we not going to have this unquenchable desire that the apostle had? Because I don't know if you paid attention to verse 13, but the apostle tells us that many times he has been hindered in coming to the Romans.

That many times. I have often planned. I have often intended to come and be with you. and many people in the many attempts to come and see a church to preach the gospel, perhaps they would say, okay, I've tried, I've done my best, I've tried once, I've tried twice, I tried three times and I have not been able, that is God's will that I might not be there. Brethren, This apostle knew that the Church of Jesus Christ was going to be built up upon the message of Jesus Christ.

And he had an unquenchable desire to come and see his brothers and sisters, whatever they are, to preach the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, to exalt the name of Christ, something that perhaps they had already known and heard. But he knew that he was going to bring power and light and depth to this glorious message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And hence, He had a strong desire, a desire that was driven and that was moved, brothers and sisters, by the calling. If you pay attention there in verse 14, he says something very important that was a reality of the Apostle Paul, that is a reality of us. He says, I am under obligation.

both to Greeks and to barbarians. I am under obligation. In other words, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish. It would have made sense that the apostle says, I'm a debtor to God who saved me and he has called me to go and preach the gospel.

I'm a debtor to my calling, to this great calling that I have. So I will be fulfilling the ministry that the Lord has given me. But the apostle says that he is debtor to the lost, that he is debtor to people, that he is under obligation to the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the one that is wise and the one that is foolish, the apostle himself saw himself in need, in debt of bringing this message to the gospel. How can a person see themselves in obligation of sharing their message if it's not that the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ comes and gives them a genuine heart of compassion? Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, we see in our flesh that others are in debt to us to do, to say, to bring, to serve us, to provide emotionally what we need.

It is only when Christ Jesus has come into the heart of a person that that person comprehends that their life is a vapor that vanishes and passes away very quickly. And that if there is going to be any benefit in the life of a person, it is going to be in benefit to others, because that is what Christ Jesus did. How did the apostle learn this? How did the apostle came to the conclusion that he was going to preach this gospel to the one that is high and lofty, and to the one that is poor, to the one that is wise, and to the one that isn't wise? Well, he understood the meaning of his life.

I have counted all things as laws for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a message, this is something not only of the apostle brethren, but this is what the Spirit of God is meant to do in our hearts. Count it all loss for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians chapter 3. Count it all loss for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that He is able to say in chapter 1, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Brethren, we live in a world that has tempted us so much to look into our hearts and to make us ourselves the center of everything that has to be satisfied.

We think that we are the ones that need to receive, that we are the ones that have to be put in a pedestal, that we are the ones that are to be served, that we are the ones that need to be helped and guided, that we're the ones that are to receive. But brothers and sisters, the heart of Jesus Christ is one of sacrifice and sacrificing life, that we will lay down our lives for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the purpose of proclaiming this glorious message to the uttermost part of the earth. Because we have this message that is all sufficient. And it's a message that is coming from God, a message that is given to the church, a message that is supposed to move in us this powerful, unquenchable desire to proclaim it because we have a calling. And that calling is that when we see a person, we may not know their name.

We may not know their physical needs. We may not know where they're coming from. We may not know where they're going. We may not know how much money they have. But we do know one thing.

And that is that they need the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. all the people that we have known, all the people that we have met. The Lord providentially allows us to meet and to be in front of the people so that we will be light to those people. Yes, we are light with our good works, Matthew chapter 5, but also we have been trusted with this glorious message. With this glorious message, people spend their lives, some people spend their lives trying to have their names written on books and that they will be remembered in history and that their names will be remembered by the history of the world.

My dear brother and my dear sister, what a great thing is to save a soul for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because on that day, on that day, your name and your work and the proclamation of the gospel that you've done for the glory of Christ on that day. So on my brother's sister, please tell me, how were you saved? How did you come to the feet of Christ? How did you come to realize the need of your savior?

How did who preach the gospel to you? And someone must say that brother, that sister did not close his mouth. She was not ashamed of the gospel. I had been asking myself this question about God and about my life and about my future, and nobody had given me any answer. But this person, that person opened his or her mouth and spoke to me the glories of Jesus Christ.

And even though our names might not be written in books, our names can be written in the heart of the brother or sister to whom we preach the gospel and we bring them to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ for the glory of the Savior. And what a glorious thing it is that someone will come and see Christ by the proclamation of this glorious gospel that we have. So my dear brother and sister, if your faith is not resting upon the power of God, if your faith is not resting upon Jesus Christ and him crucified, how are you going to be eager and ready to preach the gospel? Are you ready to preach the gospel? Are you ready to preach the gospel to yourself when condemnation comes and your heart condemns you?

Are you willing and are you ready to come to Christ and to proclaim yourself the cross and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done so that you will deal with your own things and with your sin and with your tribulations and with your difficulties in light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you ready and are you willing, are you eager to preach the gospel to your family members, to deal with the issues of our lives within our families through the lenses of this gospel that is the same gospel that Paul had? Are you willing, are you ready not to try to deal with problems and the problem of sin in your own strength? Because my dear brother and sister, the only thing that can solve the problem of sin is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not even the judgment and the wrath of God is enough to deal with the problem of sins.

If not, just pay attention to the flood. Waters came and the fury and the wrath of God was not enough to remove the problem of sin. The only one that can remove the problem of sin is Jesus Christ, because he's the only one that can bear the fullness of the wrath of God. And that is the only one that can be resurrected from that. Not even the judgment of God deals with the problem of sin.

It is only Jesus Christ dying upon the cross through the gospel. There is propitiation and there's expiation in Him alone. And that is the only way that seeing can be dealt with and that forgiveness can be accomplished. So are you ready, my dear brother and sister? to preach the gospel to each other when we find ourselves in trouble and in difficulties, not to see our issues and our difficulties through the lenses of our preferences, but to allow the gospel of Christ to permeate every aspect of our lives and to say that we're eager to live our lives in light of what Christ Jesus has accomplished.

Are we eager and are we ready not to close our mouths, but to proclaim the gospel to the many people that are around us, brothers and sisters? to the lofty and to the poor, to the wise and to the unwise, not to discriminate, just so that those who are around me and that look like me and that smell like me and that sound like me, I will come and bring the gospel to them. But are we willing, just like the apostle, to go to the Greeks, to the barbarians, to the wise, to the unwise, obligated to preach the gospel to them? Or there's going to be something in them that will prevent them from even coming close to them? My dear brother and sister, this is the gospel of God.

That is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. And if there's something valuable that you have, let me tell you, that is not your bank account. If there's something powerful that you have, that is not the type of house that you have. If there is something powerful that you have, that is not your looks. If you have, if there's something powerful that you have that is not your family of your experience of your future or whatever thing, if there's something powerful that you have, it is the faith that the Spirit has given you.

And this glorious message of the gospel that the Lord is the one that uses to build up his church, to accomplish his great purpose, to bring glory to his name. And that when the end of all things will come, He will show humanity that the way that he has built up his church is not in the way that people want to think of through the people that we might believe that the Lord is building up his church, but through the simple, through the vile and through the one that is despised. Because this is the way that God rejoices in doing all things. That's why he has given us this glorious message of the gospel. Amen.

Amen. Let us pray. Father, Lord, We give you thanks for your glory, for everything, Lord, that you have done. You are good and you're patient and you're merciful towards us, Lord. We certainly have what we do not deserve.

And as we come before you, Lord, I ask that you will teach us, by your grace, the glorious sufficiency of the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you will teach us, Lord, which we have entrusted to us, that we will not be ashamed of the message of the gospel, that our mouths will not be closed for a sense of self-protection. Lord, empower us and strengthen us to open our mouths and to speak and to proclaim. Build up your church in the way that you have determined that you will do, Lord. Guide us and give us of your Holy Spirit.

You know how weak and feeble we are. Teach us to deal with our own issues and problems in light and under the reality of the gospel. Teach us, Lord, to deal with issues among us, Lord, in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach us, Lord, to trust and to rely upon this glorious truth that you have saved us, that you have redeemed us. and that this is not of ours.

There's nothing in us that we can bring before you, Lord, to be accepted or to be forgiven. That you have done it of your pure grace and of your pure mercy. So I ask, Lord, please, that you will teach us, that you will strengthen us, that you will grant us. a genuine desire, an unquenchable desire to preach the gospel to each other, to preach the gospel to the lost, to meditate upon the depths and the glories of the cross. Protect us, Lord, from thinking that we need to do something else.

Protect us, Lord, from thinking that to the fact that Christ has been crucified and that he's risen and that he's victorious, we need to add something else. Protect us, Lord, from thinking that the gospel is not sufficient, not perhaps in word, but in our hearts. But teach us, Lord, please, teach us genuinely and in our hearts through your Holy Spirit, that we will depend only upon you. And that when we see other people, Lord, that we will know that we are debtors, debtors to preach, that we will not do it out of compulsion, but out of love that moves us into doing what you have called us to do. Help us, Lord, open doors, even as we say these things, Lord, I pray that you will open doors for us to preach, to speak of Christ, to the needy, to the poor, whoever that is that you put in our way, Lord, that we will not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

But that with compassion, we will come and bring your glorious gospel, that is the power of God unto salvation. I pray, Lord, that you will edify this church in this way, Lord, through the preaching of the Word and through the sufficiency of the Gospel, that you will conform us, each one of us, to Christ Jesus through the Word of God and the sufficiency of the Gospel, that we will bear fruits of righteousness in Christ Jesus for the glory of God through your Word and through your Holy Spirit according to the Gospel, Lord. Help us, Lord, to to live in light of this glorious message, the gospel of God, the gospel of the Son of God. We ask that you will do this, and now as we come to this table, Lord, that we will be reminded in our faith that we have been united to you, that we have been forgiven, that we have been accepted, that the gospel has been applied to us by the Spirit, and that we're being conformed to the image of Christ in the application of that gospel. As we take those elements in our hands, we are proclaiming that we have been forgiven and that we are united to you, and that there's going to be one day in which we are going to see you as you are, and faith will come to a final consummation.

And we will be eternally united to you, O Lord. Strengthen us in our faith and help us and guide us even as we partake of this table, O Lord, I ask. that you will do it for your glory, that you will grant us the reverence that is needed, that we will be edified and strengthened in our faith as we do this. I ask that you will do this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And dear brothers and sisters, now we come to the time of our service in which we are going to be partaking of the elements that are in front of us. We do this every week because that's what the scriptures command, that as we gather together, we will partake of the table. We have the wine and we have the bread that represent the fullness of our Savior, that He gave His body and that His blood was shed so that a better and new covenant will be established. This is the glory of the good news of the gospel, that in Christ Jesus we can be reconciled to God in Him. And part of that reconciliation, a beautiful and powerful part of that reconciliation, is that we are made one with our Lord.

We are made one with Him. And the fullness of Him dwells in us by the Spirit. And there's going to be a day in which we're going to be with Him. And as you come to this table, and then you take with your sinful hands, as I take with my sinful hands the bread and the wine, the hands that I have used to sin against the Lord who died upon the cross for me. And as I take those elements into the mouth that I have used to curse and to sin, that I can do this not because I have improved myself or not because I have prayed enough during this week or not because I have preached or because I have done this or that, but rather because He died upon the cross And His grace was bestowed upon me and upon you, so that the sinner can be reconciled to God through Christ.

So the darkness can be made light in Jesus Christ. So that which dwells or that who dwells in an approachable light can be approached only through Christ Jesus. This is not religion, brethren. This is not something that people do every once every Sunday. This is the reality of the life of the Creator in His people, not because they deserve that, but because Christ Jesus is our Lord.

So while the bread and the blood is not the body and the blood of the Savior, they certainly represent that. And they are symbols of this glorious new covenant. That when we come together, yes, we're doing it together, but in a sense, brethren, we're doing it before the Lord. Some invite in you that with reverence before the eyes of your savior, with joyful heart, that you take that bread and that wine, that we will celebrate together, that we are united to him. And if we pass and if we die after we take the wine and the bread, that we're going to be united to him, not because of the life that we've lived, but because he died upon the cross and it is completed and it's finished there.

So brother, my dear sister, I'm going to invite you, whoever you are, the grace of the Lord has been given to you and you have put your faith and you have repented of your sins and you are united to Christ Jesus. And also in God's providence, you have participated of the ordinance of baptism in full immersion. I'm inviting you with freedom of conscience, with a heart that rejoices that he died upon the cross for you. I'm inviting you to come. and let us partake together of these elements.

Let us do so.