G3 2014 | Getting the Gospel Right - Voddie Baucham

father what a glorious privilege it is to not only be reminded of the salvation the redemption that is ours in Christ but to celebrate that and not only to be reminded of it and to celebrate it but to celebrate it in your presence and to know that you delight in our celebration and to know that because of Christ's finished work our celebration is pleasing and acceptable in your sight and then you rejoice over us as we rejoice in you grant by your grace that in our darkest days we would be reminded not merely of this moment but of this truth for this is indeed our greatest need and we ask Lord that as we open your word together that you by the presence and power of your spirit would speak truth to your people before we spend in desperate need thereof we ask this humbly and boldly at the same time because of Christ our Lord in his name we pray amen my assignment tonight is to address the issue of getting the gospel right and why it matters that we get the gospel right we hear much talk about the gospel in some ways the gospel has become a fad and unfortunately when something becomes a fad there are those who jump on the bandwagon and have absolutely no idea why what it is that they are lauding is significant nor in some cases what it is that is so significant so there are those who speak much about the gospel but when they say gospel they don't mean what the Bible means by gospel there are some who are excited about hearing so much gospel talk because to them the gospel is the means by which God levels the socio-economic playing field in the world and so when they say gospel and when they celebrate gospel what they are celebrating is a social gospel there are others and when they hear gospel they are excited about that because for them but gospel is all the moral teachings of Jesus and so they celebrate the form of legalism there are others who are more subtle in their form of legalism because when they hear gospel they simplified the gospel and there's a there's a phrase there's a mantra that is going around now that is presumed to be a simplification of the gospel and it is love God love people the irony here could not be greater love God love people is actually an abbreviation of Jesus teaching on the greatest Commandments here's the great irony Jesus what is the greatest commandment and it was a legitimate question there were legitimate arguments and some have argued that the first commandment was the greatest commandment and that all the others rested on the first commandment some would have argued the fifth commandment was the greatest because it was the bridge between the first and second tables of the law others would have argued that the tenth commandment and coveting was the greatest commandment cuz ultimately all of your sin arises out of your coveting so Jesus what's the greatest commandment is he going to say one is he going to say five he's gonna say ten and Jesus looks at them and says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and all your mind which by the way is a summary of the first table of the law Jesus was the greatest commandment I'm gonna have to say 1 through 4 and then the other shoe drops he says the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself which is a summary of the second table of the law so here's how the conversation went Jesus which commandment is the greatest commandment his response I'm gonna have to say 1 through 4 followed closely by 5 through 10 folks this ubiquitous saying love God love people it's actually a summary of the law the whole law it's not the gospel at all it's what the gospel freed us from and to a man so when we talk about gospel we need to be clear and as I think about clarity concerning the gospel and fighting for that clarity defending that clarity my mind is immediately drawn to first Corinthians chapter 15 because that's precisely what Paul does in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 he clarifies the gospel and he does battle on behalf of the gospel but he does more than this I believe that if we look carefully what we will discover is that he outlines really three different types of arguments three different lines of argumentation I'll tell you what they are and then we'll walk through them the first is an argument from Authority the second is an argument from evidence and the third is an argument from logic all of them important and useful in their own right we know here that Paul is actually addressing in one sense a kind of mixed multitude you'll see that as we get further along in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and he actually addresses those individuals who were arguing against the very concept of resurrection as he does this he both shuts the mouths of those who oppose the gospel and emboldened and strengthens the arms of those who preach it and defend it both are incredibly important as we consider our task tonight we need to be emboldened amen we need to be encouraged we need to see an example of what it looks like when a Christian squares his shoulders and plants his feet and does battle on behalf of the gospel because we live in a culture that does not celebrate the 10 commandments we celebrate the 11th commandment which is the only commandment thou shalt be nice and so the idea of a vigorous defense is dismissed regardless of its clarity or truth if it sounds even ever-so-slightly as though it's not nice because after all if none of the other Commandments matter the 11th commandment is the greatest commandment thou shalt be nice you have to be like Jesus who was nice walked around with a lamb on his shoulders had long flowing hair like a model in a magazine pretty hands that never did a day of work Paul would beg to differ first the argument from Authority look at the beginning of first Corinthians chapter 15 now I would remind you brothers there's this audience of the gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you unless you believed in vain this is incredibly important for your communications majors out there you know that we've just seen all the three major facets of communication there must be a sender a receiver and a message and there we have it Paul is the sender the Corinthians are the receivers and the message is the gospel that he preached to them but there's something more here than just effective communication he says I'm reminding you of the gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand in other words they are standing in standing on that gospel that Paul preached right now and by which you are being saved I love that phrase Paul doesn't say by which you have been saved although you have he didn't even say by which you will be saved although you will he says by which you are being saved this ongoing sanctifying work of the gospel amen the gospel is not just a message that you need to hear to get saved the gospel is a message you need to hear to stay saved to be saved to love safe to live saved all kinds of saved any kind of save that save could ever be requires the gospel amen but then there's this if clause if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you unless you believed in vain a couple of possibilities here possibility number one is that Paul just introduced the idea of Christian losing his or her salvation that's that's possibility number one that what he says here is if you keep holding on and you keep believing and you keep standing then you'll be saved but if you stop then you won't be saved here I'll give you a simple answer and then a more complexed answer the simple answer suffices for me but some of you may need more the simple answer comes from John MacArthur who says as only John MacArthur could if you could lose your salvation you would Amen somebody how arrogant does a person have to be to believe that it's possible for them to lose their salvation but they have it who do you have to think you are in order to be say I I'm a Christian and I'm saved and I'm on my way to heaven when I die now there's a possibility that I could mess this thing up but I have it you probably just did but there's a second idea and that's the idea that such theology would put Paul and odds not only with what he teaches in the rest of this passage but what he teaches everywhere else he's not ashamed of the gospel why because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation not me not my apprehension of a retention of the gospel that's the power of God unto salvation but the gospel and the god of the gospel to be more precise but there is also this old phrase that he puts a fee since chapter one which I believe puts all of this to rest we could talk about the fact that we have as a present possession eternal life Jesus makes that clear we could talk about the fact that Jesus gives us the two-fisted promise that he we're in his hand and that's in the father's hand and there's nobody who's going to remove us from that but beyond that let me just read this for you from Ephesians chapter one which I believe settles this quite well Jesus chapter one there in verse 13 we just begin in verse 11 and him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel there it is again of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory I love the way that King James uses this word earnest we still use that word when you give an earnest money contract same concept what is an earnest money contract you come to a piece of property and you say I intend to buy this piece of property here is a contract and a check the check is my earnest money if you sign the other part of this contract this check is yours and it's symbolic of the rest of the money that I will bring with me at closing if I do not bring the rest of the money with me at closing you get to keep your property and my earnest money what does God put up as earnest money on your salvation the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit which means if he doesn't show up on closing day he leaves us the third person of the Trinity which means the only way you can stop being a Christian is if he stops being God so no no no Paul's not arguing here that somehow we lose our salvation if we're wavering on the gospel what he is doing here is an argument from Authority that we can't have salvation if we don't believe the right gospel you don't get to reinterpret or reinvent or tweak the gospel and have the hope of salvation let's do it again I'll remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand you're standing on that gospel right now and by which you're being cite if you hold fast not if you can somehow muster up enough strength to hold on to it because you can't but if what you believe is something other than that which was proclaimed you have no hope of salvation so first and foremost it's important that we get the gospel right because if we don't there are people out there including ourselves who will be duped into believing that they are right with God when in fact they are at enmity with him you believe the wrong gospel it doesn't matter how sincere you are and your belief you are merely sincerely wrong so his first argument is an argument from Authority as an apostle he reminds them of the fact that he preached the gospel to them clearly that they are standing on the gospel that he preached that they are saved by the gospel that he preached remember the context here the resurrection is being brought into question after this argument from Authority he moves on to a second type of argument an argument from evidence for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins notice the phrase in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures so first he couches this argument from evidence not in the things around them or even in himself but in the scriptures and the prophecies of the scriptures that God foretold that he would send forth his son born of a virgin born under the law that he would come in due season that he would live and he would die and he would raise again on the third day well my favorite passages in the New Testament is there in Luke 24 when Jesus is on the road to Emmaus there's a number of reasons number one it's one of the funniest things that I read in the New Testament I love it because they're talking about what happened and they're all distraught and Jesus basically is asking them what's wrong and they look at him and say are you the only man in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened here these last few days you actually I'm the only one who does he calls them foolish ones and slow of heart to believe what Moses and the prophets he doesn't say you should have believed those things necessarily that I told you but you didn't believe Moses and the prophets and because of that you missed death burial resurrection according to the scriptures that's the first piece of evidence it's biblical evidence that's where we begin with the authority of the scriptures we've heard it here have we not the authority of the Scriptures the inerrancy of the Scriptures the sufficiency of the Scriptures it always amazes me that we hang on to the authority of the scripture and the inerrancy of the scripture and everything else until we get to apologetics then it's reason don't argue from the Bible they don't believe the Bible so you got to go to something else that they believe cuz they don't believe the Bible to which I respond that's like standing in front of a man with a sword and the man saying I don't believe in this sword you putting down your sword to go write on a chalkboard the mathematical equation that will prove to him through reason that if you cut him he will bleed he begins his argument from the scriptures we begin our argument from the scriptures why because there is nothing more certain than nothing more authoritative than the Scriptures alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword from the scriptures but then he goes on and then he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep then he appeared to James then to all the Apostles now you have eyewitnesses first we have the evidence of what the Scriptures have taught the argument from Authority is this is what the Apostles have told you the argument from evidence begins with what the Scriptures have taught and then there is evidence that Christ has fulfilled what the Scriptures have taught because there are these eyewitnesses who saw him most of whom remain until now which means that if you do the math there are over 300 eyewitnesses to the resurrection still alive during the time that first Corinthians was written which by the way demonstrates the early not the late dating of the New Testament Paul is not talking about some secret that he and a few others know that nobody else knows Paul is not speaking about men who are wielding their own personal authority because of information that they have to which others have no access Paul is speaking about events that took place in public in the open the gospel that we preach is a historical gospel the gospel that we preach is a gospel of things that actually took place the gospel is real it is historical enough already with the idea the gospel doesn't necessarily have to be true if it just changes your life these are historical events in fact the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most well attested event in all of antiquity if we can't trust the resurrection of Jesus Christ we can't trust anything from antiquity over 300 eyewitness is still alive during the time of this writing not until then does he go to himself last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me for I am the least of the Apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace toward me was not in vain on the contrary I worked harder than any of them though it was not i but the grace of God that is with me whether than it was I or they so we preached so you believed connecting this argument to the argument from Authority what evidence scriptural if it is the Bible foretold these things that would occur what evidence eyewitness evidence that there are individuals who saw this resurrected Christ after his resurrection what evidence personal evidence that I saw this resurrected Christ after his resurrection note that Paul does not take his own isolated experience and argue solely from that isolating experience that's not the power of the gospel the power of the gospel is not that I've been changed what's the difference between you and the thousand other people who've been changed by a thousand other things what's the difference between you and the man who's been in a a for 15 years and hasn't taken another drink it changed them what's the difference between you and the Muslim are you on the moral Hindu or the moral Buddhist or the moral Mormon what's the difference there is no difference if all we have is our own personal story but that's not Paul's line of argumentation Paul says this is true first piece of evidence the scriptures that were fulfilled second piece of evidence the eyewitnesses who saw this third piece of evidence my own testimony now be careful here here's what Paul is not doing Paul is not giving us a pattern whereby we argue first from those evidences and then from our own testimony his testimony is little bit different than your testimony but even so watch this in Galatians chapter 2 at the end of Galatians chapter 1 Paul goes back to the other apostles after three years of being instructed by the Lord and confirms his gospel watch this one of the most fascinating and most overlooked pieces of the New Testament Galatians chapter 2 just to the right a little bit then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me I went up because of a revelation and set before them the apostles though privately before those who seemed influential the gospel that I proclaimed among the Gentiles in order to make sure I was not running or net or had not run in vain same phrase unless you believed in vain he says I want to make sure that I hadn't run in vain but wait a minute Paul you've seen all this fruit from your ministry among the Gentiles for 12 years how could you possibly have run in vain you've got all this fruit in front of you if what I was preaching did not line up with what they were preaching then my fruit would have been in vain he does not point to himself as the authority but to the gospel as the authority he points to himself as one in the apostolic line he is defending his Apostleship here Paul is not saying that you have to somehow muster up your own personal experience that will be as powerful as my personal experience because that's what's going to tip the scales now what Paul says is this number one there's the argument from Authority and the authority as I preach this gospel to you you listen to this gospel you're saved by this gospel that's where you stand unless you moved away from this gospel that I preached to you then there's the evidence what's the evidence the scriptures that have been fulfilled the eyewitnesses who saw and I myself who have apostolic authority because God placed me in this line of eyewitnesses this goes back to the authority of the New Testament people it's not about me and my experience this is about the authority of the New Testament here's the problem if we look at this and all we see is that Paul is saying you tip the scales with your own personal experience then our job becomes this I have to have a compelling enough story to tip the scales so the men will be safe now so not the gospel that's the power of God unto salvation it's my story that's why people start a lying amen if you can't say Amen y'all say ouch you ought to hear some testimonies and how they develop over time person gets in one fight in the third grade twenty years after being saved I fought every day person took a sip of whiskey when they were a teenager all of a sudden after 20 years to telling their testimony I used to get drunk almost every day after school father looked at him disapprovingly one day 20 years later and they're just my daddy abandoned me I had no but here's what's worse you have Christians in church who listen to these inflated testimonies who will say this phrase and I just I don't know whether to hug them or hit them I don't have a testimony in other words there are these powerful stories these captivating stories and what we're all about is these powerful captivating stories that's a testimony because it tips the scales it gets people to respond it makes people stand up and take notice of God and what he has done all I have is God wrapped himself in flesh died on a cross nailed my sin there too was placed in the grave rose again on the third day ascended to the right hand of the Father and is there making intercession for me until such time as my salvation it's completed and he takes me home that's all I got don't you ever ever fall into that trap Paul is not making much of his own personal story here Paul is making much of the fact that God has gone out of his way to present this gospel in an historic context that is verifiable and falsifiable in other words it could have been proven false but it wasn't that's the point that's the the argument from Authority says to those who claim to be Christian you say you follow Christ you say you believe the gospel but what you're preaching is not the gospel something here doesn't add up the authority from evidence says this God went public with the gospel and it's verified it's real as John says in 1st John 1 what we have seen what our hands have handled I love that freddie's that's his argument then he makes the third argument the argument from logic here's where he gets right into the face of his opposition now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead there's the question if Christ has proclaimed has been raised from the dead how can some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead he's not he didn't say happen some of you say that Christ wasn't resurrected here's the problem there are people who evidently are hanging on around the Corinthian church and like some aspect of what they're experiencing but they don't like this one aspect where the gospel that is being preached rubs up against their personal philosophy that doesn't allow for the concept of resurrection so what they want is a resurrection list Christianity they want a Christianity that will fit within the context and confines of their presuppositions so Paul says argument from Authority here's what I have preached to you as an apostle argument from evidence here's what God has verified and validated historically in the open now he gets to the argument from logic and he says there are some of you who on the one hand want to say that you are attached but on the other hand want to say that your personal philosophy doesn't allow for the concept of resurrection now you know you can sit here and before we sit here high and mighty well you know I'm never I would never question the concept of resurrection yeah but you question something we just don't like the idea of Hell and so we want a Christianity without hell we don't like the idea of judgmentalism so we have a Christianity that doesn't speak the truth to sin we don't like the idea of holiness or righteousness so we have a Christianity that doesn't require it we don't like the idea of the church so we have a Christianity and it's absent of it and so on and so on and so on what he does it's masterful seven things that logically must follow if this one thing is correct seven things that they must follow you you think you've just you know removed a small problem you think that you can hold on to something meaningful while getting rid of resurrection but there are seven things that must follow as inexorably as night follows day the concept of resurrection is not true here they are one but if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ has been raised that is brilliant why because he's just demonstrated from authority and from evidence that Christ has been raised so what here's so what he's going to give you seven things that must follow inexorable eight the first one can't follow cuz he just disproved it you're saying there's no such thing as resurrection there's a seven problems with that problem number one yeah I just proved to you that Jesus was raised and if there's no such thing as resurrection then that even Jesus was raised which means you just we'll get to that in a minute number two and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain here's what's interesting there are people out there who want to pick the supernatural parts of the gospel out they don't like the supernatural parts and so they don't believe in virgin birth they don't believe in resurrection they don't believe in this and that in the other but at the same time they say but your Christian faith is good your churches are good you do great things in the community good for you go preacher go make those people better Paul says if there's no such thing as resurrection number one Christ hasn't been raised already proved that one so you've got huge problems before I can get past that number two our preaching is vain in other words it's empty and it's useless so you cannot say on the one hand that there's no such thing as the resurrection or virgin birth or hell or whatever and in the other hand that it's a good thing that we preach it's a useless thing we're fools for preaching the gospel oh no no I would never say that yeah but you did when you said there's no resurrection logically it must follow three your faith is vain so much for all those who say you can still have a viable Christianity without this resurrection thing no your faith is vain your faith is useless our preaching is useless your faith is useless if there's no such thing as resurrection why because the resurrection is central to the gospel that we preached you'll just get it the gospel you've got a gospel that's another gospel which is no gospel at all not even Christ has been raised our preaching is vain and your faith is vain yes preach it but my faith is strong my faith helped me through your faith helped you through what cuz if there's no resurrection you not through that for we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we are testifying about God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised that even Christ has been raised there's no such thing as resurrection you just called me a liar I like this one I do I use this one well you know the Christianity stuff that's fine but you know I mean the resurrection in the virgin birth you called me a liar no sir no absolutely yeah actually you just did well no I know I'm a man of peace I didn't I didn't I wouldn't know I didn't call yes you did you said there's no such thing as resurrection which means Christ has not been raised my preaching is vain your faith is vain and I am misrepresenting God not only am i a liar I'm a blaspheming liar cuz I lied on God by saying he did something that he didn't do well I would never say that but you did logically it must follow if you believe that there's no resurrection I'm a liar for preaching resurrection if you believe there's no virgin birth I'm a liar for preaching virgin birth Christ is not raised preaching is vain and useless waste of breath waste of life your faith is vain and useless go eat drink be merry for tomorrow we all died and I don't blaspheming a liar that's what you believe whether you admit it or not if you don't believe this or any other supernatural aspect of the gospel next and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins if Christ has not been raised there is no justification he died for our sins he rose again for our justification if Christ has not been raised there is no penal substitution area tone meant if Christ has not been raised then that means he went into the ground with something that would keep him there the only thing that would keep him there is sin if Christ has not been raised he was a sinner and no one has satisfied the righteous wrath of God on your behalf or mine and you and I are still in our sins and we are only waiting marking time until we face Almighty God and are consumed by him the consuming fire you have offended a holy and a righteous God and you have no hope he will crush you a must Justice cries out for it from the time that you were a child one of the first concepts you learned was that's not fair because everything on the inside of you cries out for it and for God not to consume you would not be fair for God to give you a pass without the shedding of blood and the remission of your sin through the person and work of Jesus Christ finally then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have talked in this life only we're of all people most to be pitied I want to hold on to Christianity but I don't I don't like this resurrection thing you got 7 problems number one Christ is not raised that's a huge problem because I just demonstrated that he was back to that in a moment number two our preaching is vain number three your faith is vain number four I'm a liar and everyone who preaches the resurrected Christ is a liar number five you're still in your sins six everyone else who has died before you still in their sins and finally you and I are the most pitiful lot in the history of mankind because we have hoped and the greatest lie ever perpetrated but if you remember number one here's the wonderful thing that happens because of the way Paul situates his argument if there is no such thing as resurrection from the dead these seven things are true the first one has already been proven which means not only are you wrong but all seven of these things are flipped there is such thing as a resurrection from the dead which means Christ has been raised which means our preaching is not vain but it is the power of God unto salvation your faith is not vain but by grace you are saved through faith which means I'm not a liar I am a truth teller which means that you and I are not still in our sins Christ died for sins once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us back to God all we like sheep have gone astray each of us had turned to his own way but God have laid upon him the iniquity of us all I am NOT in my sins I am redeemed from my sins I am cleansed from my sins those who have gone before me did not die hopeless vain deaths but absent from the body they are present from the Lord and I am absolutely not to be pitied don't you dare pity me because somebody's gonna come to you one day and tell you a lie they're gonna say phony Bachman has died he is no more you look him in the face and say you're a liar he may have died but he is some more the gospel matters the content of the gospel matters it all matters do I have to know everything there is about the gospel I'll spend all eternity and not know everything there is about the gospel but what does it mean to believe the gospel savingly it means to believe what we have received and whatever it is that will continue to receive argument from Authority we believe it because the Apostles have said it is so argument from evidence we believe it because God did it in the open and there is evidence verifying what it is that he did why do we believe it because logically it makes absolutely no sense to believe otherwise because there are things that not only are we not willing to accept but things that literally cannot be the case because Christ indeed has been raised the gospel matters what we mean when we say gospel matters what we say when we preach gospel matters and what we hold to when we come to the end of our days matters because ultimately this gospel is the only hope of those of us who will face a righteous God and have to give an account it is only through the gospel that the account we give yes that our debt has been paid in full by the one who lived and died and rose again and is coming again to judge the living and the dead and to redeem that which was put on deposit let's pray father we are grateful for the truths that you reveal that you have not left us to wander aimlessly in the dark or to depend upon our own emotions our own experiences our own abilities our own righteousness but that your gospel has been preserved and proclaimed by your apostles that you operated in the open and in history that it might be witnessed and verified and that the result is a hope there's not an empty hope but a logical hope based in these truths that you've communicated through your word grant by your grace that we might hold firmly to this gospel that we might preach it faithfully and that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he laid down his life for this we pray in his name amen you

Channel: Truth Endures

Views: 67,575

Keywords: Voddie Baucham, The Gospel, G3 Conference

Id: tkd0lQhAYYc

Length: 56min 47sec (3407 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 26 2015