Alright everybody. I would like to say thank you so much for joining us here yet again at the everlasting truth broadcast where we give you everlasting truth for an ever-changing world. I hope you got your Bible today. I have a subject that I believe the Lord would have me cover, and it is the most important subject in your entire Bible. Yeah, there are some things that are more important than other things in the scheme of eternity. And what I mean by that is there are some things you can be wrong about and still be saved, still go to heaven. There are other things you'd be wrong about and you miss out on heaven for all eternity and you face hell. Some things matter more than others. And the most important message in your Bible and the core and the epicenter of every message in your Bible is what I want to discuss today. And that subject is the gospel. The gospel. That word has been attached just like every other important thing in Christendom. So it seems we, we attach words, uh, to things in various ways that don't really communicate what those words actually mean. We talk about the gospel and we have gospel music and we have a gospel, this and gospel, that gospel entertainment and all the, all these kinds of different things. But what is the gospel? Because there is only one gospel. Paul said, if anybody preaches unto you another gospel, and then he said, which is not another, but there'll be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So Paul said, there's really no other gospel. There are only perversions of the one true gospel. So what is that one true gospel? Well, gospel in the English comes from the Greek word euangelion, which means good news. It's also where we get the English word evangelize or evangelistic, euangelion. And so in its core definition, it speaks of good news and good tidings. The Bible says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach good tidings. And what the gospel is, it's good news to you and I. But there's one thing that you and I need to understand, and that is the fact that good news often doesn't make sense before bad news is present. And here's what I mean by that. We could tell you today that good news, there is a cure to such and such a disease. And while that may hold some value to you, it would not be near as valuable to you until you had received the bad news that you had that disease that the cure had been discovered for. You see, bad news makes good news better. And the problem with a lot of people in the world today that have been supposedly presented with the gospel is that they've heard the good news of the gospel, but they've not heard the bad news of why they need it. Just like an antidote and a cure is good news, but if people don't know the bad news of their diagnosis of the disease, they don't know why they need it. And the bad news is, and the reason that you need the good news and you need the gospel is, is the fact that you are a natural born sinner. The Bible said, there is none righteous. No, not one. That's Romans 3.10. The Bible says the Lord looked down from heaven and see if there, if any did understand and if any did seek him and the Bible said he found none. The Bible said in Romans 3.23. that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible makes it clear that you and I have sinned, and because of that sin, that deliberate intentional rebellion against the God of heaven, the Bible says, Romans 6.23, that the wages, the paycheck, The payment, the wages of sin is death. The payment that we receive for our sin and our ungodly actions is death. And ultimately the Bible says at the end of the book of Revelation that death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. So here's the bad news. You have sinned against God. You are a sinner. And because you have sinned, we ultimately deserve hell. Now you say, well, That means that everybody's going to hell then because everybody has sinned. And that's exactly right. That's the bad news. But it doesn't end there. There's good news. But the good news doesn't make sense until you understand that bad news. Here's the good news. The fact that God Even though man sinned against him, and even though man was on his way to hell, and man made that decision to rebel against God, God so loved the world. He loved that wicked man. He loved that ungodly man. He loved you and I. And so God became a human. God became man. Born of the Virgin Mary, He come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. He was born. He was raised in Galilee. He lived and walked the shores of Galilee and Nazareth. And He was an Israelite. He was a Jew. And this man was God in human flesh. And He came and He walked among human men. and all of the laws that you and I could not keep. God's 613 some odd laws and commandments that we have broken that make us sinners. Jesus fulfilled every last one of them perfectly. He never sinned one time. The Bible said in Hebrews 4.15, He was yet without sin. And then that perfect sinless man went and died the death of a sinner. The Bible said, Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things of the law to do them. And he said that who doesn't shall be hung on a tree. And what happened is Jesus took the curse of sin for you and me, and he died on that cross at Calvary. The old rugged tree that was manufactured by wicked man's hands, the spotless lamb of God, the precious son of God, went and laid his life down. The one who never sinned served the prison sentence for you and I. The one who never broke one single crime faced the penalty for the crime for you and I. And then when we receive that good news, when we receive that gospel, we place our faith in it. The fact that he did die and the fact that he rose again. The Bible says all of that perfection that he lived in for those 33 years is automatically attributed to your account. The Bible puts it this way in second Corinthians 521. For he hath made him to be sin, who knew no sin. That's Jesus. Jesus was made to be sin, even though he had never sinned. For he hath made him to be sin, who knew no sin. That we, you and I, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Jesus takes our sin, and we take His righteousness, and this wonderful transaction takes place when we place our faith in that gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one is saved through that message. There's a lot of things you can be wrong about. You can misunderstand the doctrine of tongues. You can misunderstand the pre-tribulational rapture. You can misunderstand other eschatological things. There's some things you can be wrong about, and you'll still make it into heaven. But you get the gospel wrong. You don't make it. You see, Jesus said it this way, John 14, 6. He said, I am the way. only one, the way, singular, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. This was the words of the Son of God. The Bible said, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life. The Bible said, he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. See, either you have Christ and his gospel, or you don't. And either you are saved and going to heaven because you have Christ or you are lost and on your way to hell because you don't have Christ. You see, we all deserve to go to hell because we've all sinned. But what makes the difference is, are your sins forgiven? The Bible said in Luke 24 that repentance and remission, forgiveness, remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations. The gospel. Look at first Corinthians chapter number 15 and verse number one. Let me give this to you very quickly. First Corinthians 15 verse one through four, the Bible said, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. Are you standing on the gospel? Is that your hope? As the song says, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. He goes on speaking of the gospel in verse number two, and he says, by which also ye are saved. The Bible says that this gospel is what saves us. Not our lifestyle, not our actions, not our efforts, not our church membership, not our baptism, nothing but the gospel. It is this gospel by which also we are saved, if ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain, God said. In other words, if you retain and cling to this gospel in belief, you're saved by it. You say, well, what is that gospel? Verse three, for I delivered unto you, first of all, how that Christ died. for our sins, according to the scriptures. You see, everybody believes that Christ died. That's the good news, but the bad news is that you and I are sinners, and therefore we need that death. And the gospel says that Jesus didn't just die just to die. He died for our sins, which posits the fact that you and I are sinners and are in need of one to die for our sins, because if he does not die for our sins, we will die for our sins. But the good news is that Christ has already died for our sins. Verse number four, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. He died, he was buried, and he rose again the third day. This is the gospel that the Bible says saves us. If somebody were to ask you if you were going to heaven when you died, what would you say today? And if you were to say, oh, yes, I'm going to heaven when I die. And then the next question they asked you was, OK, well, what's going to get you to heaven? What would your answer be? I want you to ponder that in your mind right now, what would you say if somebody said, why are you going to heaven when you die? And if your answer is anything, anything, and I mean anything other than Jesus died for me, he was buried for me. He rose again the third day for me and he paid for my sins. If you got any answer other than that, you have problems. Because salvation is found in one plan and one man. It is Christ Jesus and his gospel. Now, I want to tell you very quickly that the gospel has power within it. And I speak from personal experience about this. People say, well, if we're saved by what Jesus did, does that mean that we just get to do whatever we want to do? And the Apostle Paul knew men would ask that question. That's why he said in Romans 6, 1, he said, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, though, he said, how shall we continue in sin? How shall we that are dead to sin, I'm sorry, continue therein? He says, no, you don't understand. There is a power that takes place when you place your faith in the gospel. The Bible said this, 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There's power in the gospel. There is power to change lives in the gospel. The church is always looking for some new way. The church is always looking for some powerful way to reach people. And the church is always trying to craft some new method. But the Bible still says that the gospel is the power of God. And if you want to see God's power work in somebody's life, and if you want to see God's power work in your life, the Bible says you need go no further than the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Can I tell you that when that gospel got a hold of me, it changed my life completely. When that gospel got a hold of me, God's power was made manifest in my life and He took away my desire for the alcohol. He took away my desire to run with the wrong crowd. He took away my desire for the things of this world. He gave me a desire for righteousness. He took my desire for sin away, and God transformed my life radically, not by me doing this and doing that, but simply because the gospel in itself is powerful. And whenever I decided to accept that gospel, receive that gospel, place my faith in that gospel, God's power was made manifest in my life. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He said, well, I want to see that power in my life. I want to see God work in my life. I want to see God change my life. Well, number one for the gospel to have power, it must be preached. Look at first Corinthians chapter one in verse number 18. And here's the good part about it. You're hearing the preaching of the gospel right now. That means you have access to the power of the gospel. One way that the gospel has power is through it being preached. First Corinthians 1 and 18 says this for the preaching of the cross. The preaching of the cross, the preaching of the gospel for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. The preaching of the cross is the power of God. You say, well, I want the power of God in my life. I want to see God change my life. Then you need to get under the preaching of the cross. You need to hear the message of the cross. And I've gave you that message already. The message of the cross is that sinners like you and I are lost and on our way to hell. And we are perishing in our sin because of our sin. We cannot break free from our sin, but Jesus comes and he lives perfectly and he dies a death for people who did not live perfectly and he suffers in their place. And when we place our faith in that message after hearing it, we can be saved and God can change our life. For the gospel to have power, it must be preached. But not only that, for the gospel to have power, it must be believed. Look at Romans chapter number one. Romans chapter 1 and verse number 16. Romans 1 16 says this it says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. You see we've got all kind of methods to try to get people saved and God said there's still one method. He said it this way in Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is one gospel, there is one way, and that one gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. But listen to this, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Romans 1.16 said. So that gospel cannot have power in your life until you hear it preached and until you believe it. You must hear it and you must believe it. You must completely trust it. You must confide in it. And when the Bible speaks of believing the gospel, believing that Christ died for your sins, believing that Christ was buried, believing that Christ was raised again on the third day, it doesn't speak of mere mental ascent. You know, not just some mental acknowledgement. It speaks of trust. You see, it doesn't just believe in the existence of the gospel. It believes in the effectualness of the gospel. That the gospel is sufficient. That the gospel is all that we need to be made right with God. That there is no other hope, there is no other plea. I am placing all of my stock, all of my trust, all of my faith, not in me, but in Jesus Christ. This is what it means to believe the gospel. to abandon hope in self and put all of your spiritual weight on Jesus and trust that on judgment day, if you believe that He died for you and He rose again, that you will completely depend upon that truth and nothing else for your salvation. It must be believed. So we talked about the proclamation of the gospel. We talked about the power of the gospel. But let me give you this very quickly. The pairing of the gospel. We are saved. By faith alone. Like I just told you by believing the gospel, but let me say this faith will never be alone. And here's what I mean by that. We are saved by faith without the first work. I believe that the drunkard, the alcoholic, the fornicator, the adulterer, whoever they are, I believe if they will come to Christ, the moment that they believe that gospel, before they ever quit drinking, before they ever quit smoking, before they ever quit sleeping around, before they can ever do the first good work, they are saved in that moment without works, the Bible said. However, when they do place their faith in Jesus Christ, there will be works. And we've got a whole crowd out there today, and we call them easy-believism, and I don't know if that's a good term because I don't believe in hard-believism. But what we mean when we say easy-believism is there is a crowd out there that thinks so long as you mentally ascribe to this idea that Jesus existed and he did die, without repentance, without any desire to serve him whatsoever, and without any change in your life, that you're saved. Now, you don't have to change your life before you get saved. But what I'm talking about are people who say after you get saved, even if your life doesn't change afterwards, they believe you're still saved. But what you'll find in your Bible is everywhere this gospel of grace goes, there's the idea of repentance tied to it. Mark chapter one and verse number 15 said this, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Jesus said repentance was tied to believing the gospel. The Bible said this in Acts 20, 21. Testifying both to the Jews and the Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So I thought we were saved by faith alone. We are. But what I want to share with you is that true biblical saving faith will have repentance tied to it. And if it does not, then the Bible says it is a dead kind of faith. It's not real faith. It is not saving faith. And I will also say this, repentance is not you stopping sinning. If you had to repent to be born again, and repent meant stop sinning, then that means you have to stop sinning and do some kind of work before you ever can get saved. That is the perversion of the gospel. When I say repent, repent comes from the Greek word metanoia, which means to think after or to change the mind after hearing something. And so when we say repentance, what we mean is you must change your mind. You may not follow in that action before you get saved, but if you change your mind and you repent before you get saved, your actions will change after you get saved. You see, if you come to the gospel with a heart of faith and a heart of repentance saying, I know that Jesus died for my sins. Now that I see what his sin cost him or my, I'm sorry, my sin cost him. I'm willing to repent. That means you're saying. After seeing that, I don't want to sin anymore. And you change your mind. And as you live after you've been born again, you won't keep living in that sin because you've repented. And a faith that does not have any type of outward action, no kind of repentance tied to it, is not a saving faith. The Bible said it this way in James 2.14, What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say, He talks about it. He say he hath faith. And have not works, can faith save him? James said, can a kind of faith that doesn't produce any kind of work, there's no repentance, there's no change attached to it. He said, can that kind of faith save him? And he answers the question in verse 17. He said, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. So if you've been running around with the kind of faith in the gospel that's never changed your life, I'm not telling you to do works to get right with God. I'm telling you need to get some real faith in the gospel that will make you right with God and then works will follow. The problem is not works. The problem is. faith that's not genuine. We need real saving faith. We need faith that's mixed with repentance. Repentance and faith are inseparable. They go hand in hand. They are one in the same. They go together. You cannot have biblical saving faith without repentance. They must be together. Jesus put them together. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Paul put them together. Peter put them together. They are tied together. John put them together. In the book of first John, he said, we know that we've passed from death to life because we don't continue on in sin. There will be a change. You're saved before you change the first thing. You're saved by your faith, but when your faith is there, you will change. God bless you, friend. Tune in tomorrow. I know today was simple, but it was important and we'll build upon this truth tomorrow. This is the gospel. Have you placed your faith in it? God bless you, friend. We'll see you next time.