GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #470
The Grace of God,
The Word of God, and The Gospel of God
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
(1 Peter
1:23-25) "Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever. {24} For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as
the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: {25} But the word of the Lord endureth
for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."
In
these few verses of Scripture, the Holy Spirit distinctly teaches us three
things which we need to lay to our hearts, three things which need to be
understood and remembered by all who seek to do good to the souls of men.
1.
The new birth is the work of
God alone.
Sinners have life only by
the gift and operation of God’s sovereign, irresistible grace and power. The
new birth is not an offer from God, but the operation of God. In these days of
religious nonsense, idolatry and superstition almost everyone vainly imagines
that the new birth is accomplished by something a sinner does for God, not by
something God does for the sinner.
People ignorantly imagine,
because they blindly follow their blind guides, that sinners get saved by making a decision for
Jesus, walking an aisle, kneeling at an altar,
saying the sinners’ prayer, getting
baptized, joining the church, or starting to do good things. Are you listening?
Will you pause for just a minute to hear this preaching before you go to hell
hiding in a refuge of lies? No one has ever been saved by any of these things. “Salvation is of the Lord.”
You don’t get saved by something you will, choose,
decide or do. If ever you are saved, you will be saved by the free, sovereign,
irresistible grace of God. You will be saved because God the Father chose to
save you, God the Son redeemed you, and God the Holy Spirit regenerated you,
gave you life in Christ, called you by his irresistible grace, gave you faith,
and graciously fetched you to Christ. If ever God saves you, you will sing with
all God’s saints, “Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee.”
2.
The instrument by which God
performs this sovereign operation of grace is the Word of God.
God does not save sinners
apart from the means he has ordained.
“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Of his own will begat
he us with the Word of truth.” Faith in Christ does not come to anyone by
angelic visits, dreams, visions, or mere contemplation. Faith is the gift of
God. It is the operation of God in us. It comes to chosen, redeemed, called
sinners through the instrumentality of the preached Word of God. God never by
passes the use of the means he has ordained for the accomplishment of his will.
And God has ordained the salvation of his people through the instrumentality of
gospel preaching. Now be sure you get this third thing revealed in our text.
3.
The Word of God is preached
only when the gospel of Christ is preached.
All truly biblical preaching
is gospel preaching. Christ crucified is “all
the counsel of God”. The Word of God is not preached when the preacher
simply talks about morality, politics, prophecy, family values, health,
healing, the church, the ordinances, or religious duties. The solitary message
of Holy Scripture is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God is
preached only when Christ crucified is preached. Therefore, I say, with the
Apostle Paul, “I am determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified…God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You
would be wise, as you care for your soul, to find yourself a church and a
pastor under whose ministry you will hear the gospel of Christ faithfully
preached, and pray that God might be pleased to give you ears to hear and a
heart to believe the gospel of his grace to the saving of your soul.
AMEN.