LibertyChurch

Sermons

December 4, 2016

The Gospel – The Power of God

Dr. David J. Vaughan

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

The Gospel Is the Power of God

All right, let’s stand together, please. Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your love. We thank you for the opportunity to come together and worship you, to fellowship, to hear your word. We thank you, Lord, that you have come. We thank you that you are here. We thank you that you’re coming again. We ask, Lord, as we open your word today, you would teach us through your spirit. We ask that the children, Lord, would learn of you as they sing these songs, as they rehearse, that they would realize that the season is about you. It’s about who you are, what you’ve done for us. It’s about knowing you, loving you, serving you. We pray today, Lord, as we contemplate your supper and your great gift of salvation, that we, your people, Lord, would desire to share the good news with others. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

So nice to have Steve Bruns close to me. Look at that. What’s that? So you hear his aren’t working today, you had to get close. We have the three musketeers over here. Good to see you. That’s too hard to say. What is this? The word See, justice knows me. He knows when I ask questions there’s a trick involved. The Gospel of John. He’s like, no, that’s too easy. You can’t just be the Gospel of John. It’s got to be something else. It’s the Word. Paul, you know what Paul says this is? Paul says this is the power of God. The power of God. Romans chapter 1. Want to read it with me? Of course you do. Here’s what the Apostle Paul says in verse 14.

I’m a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, or as much as I’m able, I am ready or eager, eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Why is he eager? He says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. Why is he not ashamed? Why is he eager? Because the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Let me say it again. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. I’m gonna say it again. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation. You can clap. [audio unclear]

The Word Begets Faith

Romans 10, just start in verse 1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them or for Israel, so he’s talking about, is that they may be saved. Now notice he desires their salvation. Notice he prays for their salvation. And of course we know that he preached to them for their salvation. desire, prayer, and preaching, right? For I bear, by the way, I wrote a book, a really good book on prayer by a hyper Calvinist. The book’s really good, but the problem is, he says in the book, there’s no prayer in the Bible for the unsaved. That’s why I call him, not a Calvinist, but a hyper Calvinist. Here’s a prayer right here. Paul says, I am praying for them. And he knows some of them aren’t gonna be saved. He’s praying for the unsaved Israel. It’s how theology and ideology can blind us to what’s right in front of us. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, quote, the man who does these things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks in this way, quote, do not say in your heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen? Jew or Greek, Jew or Gentile, any race, any tribe, any people group can be saved if they call upon the name of the Lord. But how shall they call upon him in whom they’ve not believed? Well, if they don’t believe, they’re not going to confess, right? And how will they believe in him and not heard? If they’ve never heard of him, they can’t put their faith in him. And how shall they hear without a preacher? Well They can’t hear if someone doesn’t share the gospel with them. Amen. Amen. So we need preachers. We’re going to have people who believe and stand people who confess. How shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things. And then he says in verse 17, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And the word of the gospel, the word of the gospel, are you listening? Say yes. Yes. Amy, say yes. Thank you. I knew she was listening. The gospel heard produces faith.

Produces faith. How will they hear? How will they believe if they don’t have the gospel preached to them? We tend to think that people believe or not believe simply based upon their disposition.

Actually true. That’s part of it. But what the word says is that the word itself has power and when the word is preached, the preached word, and I always preach, I don’t just mean from spoken, when the word is spoken or the word is read, the word itself generates faith.

It generates faith. We see this in James, we’re going to come back to Romans in a minute. In James, James essentially says this, if you want to turn there with me. In James 1 he says, in verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there’s no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will, he brought us forth, or begot us, it’s the word used for giving birth. So we refer to the new birth, he’s talking about being born again here. Of his, God’s own will, he birthed us, if you will, by the word of truth. By the word of truth. Look at 1 Peter, chapter 1. Peter is speaking of the precious blood of Jesus. things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you talking about the incarnation of Jesus which is what the season is about man the manifestation of the Lamb. Who, verse 21, through him believe in [audio unclear] it says, lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man is the flower of the grass, the grass withers, its flower falls away. But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

The Word of the Lord begets faith. As the gospel is preached, people believe.

People don’t believe if there isn’t a gospel. Now maybe it’s read, maybe it’s heard in a sermon, maybe it’s in a conversation, maybe it’s them remembering what they heard, but the point is the Word is the immediate object. Jesus is the ultimate object. You following me? But what we need to understand is Paul says the gospel is the power of God to salvation. The gospel has power. Do you understand it? Excuse me. By the way, you’re invited to our Christmas Eve service.

The Gospel Around the World

The gospel is prospering all around the world. The church is growing in Africa. Now, Africa, of course, is many nations, but in the majority of African nations where the gospel is being preached, which is many, the church is growing. The church is growing in the Middle East, believe it or not, in spite of persecution. Now, many Christians are fleeing, but many, many Muslims are getting saved. I’ve talked to Muslims who know, who have family and other relatives in the Middle East and they will tell you the most amazing stories about Jesus is saving Muslims. In the Middle East. What we re must understand is the, one of the, God is amazing. Amen.

Let me tell you something. A lot of Christians are missing, I think, the hand of God in what he’s doing.

You know, ISIS is a bad thing, right? Bad, right? Cutting people’s heads off, that’s bad, right? Bad thing. It’s amazing how God uses the bad thing for good. Because that becoming the global face of Islam, many Muslims are leaving Islam because of ISIS. Because of ISIS. Because they’re not only killing Christians and Jews, they’re killing Muslims. And so here we have a radical Muslim group that God is using to drive Muslims to Jesus. It’s true. So it’s amazing how God’s working in the Middle East. The church has been growing in South America for decades. We know this. The church in China-China is, again, for a long time, China is being transformed from the inside out by the gospel. Even though the government is hostile to the gospel, the church is flourishing there. Everywhere you look, the church is growing except America. Astounding. I shouldn’t say everywhere. It’s not really, the church isn’t prospering in Europe. There’s some things happening, but in in the Christian West. You say, well, why? Don’t we have the same gospel? Well, we do have the same gospel, but I’m not sure we have the same faith in the gospel. And I can assure you of this, the gospel not preached is a gospel that doesn’t save. Or let me put it in the positive. A gospel preached is the gospel that saves. How will they hear without a preacher? How will they hear without a preacher the breach of critical question with answers they will not hear People do not get saved by silence The gospel that saves not silence Not what we in our society called kindness and tolerance and acceptance and getting a longness That doesn’t save the gospel message say So I ran into, I was looking for a car from my wife and I ran into this guy at the car dealer and he was, he said he worked there and he’s like, so what do you do for a living? I said, well, I’m a preacher, I’m one of them bad guys. So he’s like, oh, really cool. And so he’s actually, he was a Christian. He started telling me a story about, he might’ve been, I don’t know how old the guy was, late 40s, early 50s. aAnd he was telling me a story about he got saved 11 years ago. And he told me about, his story about how he got saved. He said, I had a neighbor. I had a neighbor, he kept on talking to me about Jesus. I had a neighbor, and I didn’t wanna hear it, but he kept on talking to me about Jesus. I didn’t wanna hear it. And I put it off and I put it off and I put it off and I didn I didn’t wanna hear it. They said, you know, I had some hard times in my life. He didn’t go into details. He said, you know, he said, I came home one day and I said to my wife, I think her neighbor’s right, I need Jesus. and he got saved, and his wife got saved, and his kids got saved. Now what if that man had died of a faithful neighbor? I know you Calvinists say, well God would’ve saved him anyway. Well, it’s a comforting thought, but we delude ourselves.

God works by secondary means. Actions have consequences. The church has responsibilities. There are warnings in the Bible about having people’s blood on our hands. It’s real. What we do and do not do affects history and eternity. You know, how that all fits with God’s sovereignty. You know what, the greatest minds haven’t figured it out, so I’m not going to figure it out. I know this, the Bible calls his church to witness. The Bible calls, and I believe that means each one of us. Now I was watching YouTube the other day, and you know TV is bad when you’ve got to watch YouTube, because there’s nothing to watch. No, but I was actually watching these teaching and sermon things, and there’s a guy on there who was a guy that I like and respect but he was asked a question it was it was a Q&A kind of format not a preaching format, and he said he was asked is the Great Commission is every Christian how was a word it was something like this something like there’s the Great Commission mean every Christian has to witness and he said no now he made a good point and here’s the thing. He’s like, you know, the commission is to the church and the church is an army and in the army you have cooks. Cooks aren’t fighting, right? And the army have medics. Well, they’re not fighting. And the army, so in other words, in an army you got some people on the front line, some people in the middle, some people in the back, some people, but they’re all contributing to the victory. All right. Who’s… Wait, you’re pointing the finger at her and she’s pointing the finger at you.

Alright, the moment of truth. Jordan? It’s Jesus, you better answer.

Lost Faith in the Gospel

Jesus calling. Okay, I don’t even have any idea what I was saying. That’s why our phones need to be off. What? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, so he made a very good point. And I agree in general with the fact that the – if you think of the church corporately, we have different roles, we have different gifts, we have different functions, and it all fulfills the Great Commission. and the great commission isn’t just about witnessing, it’s about discipling, right? Of course, you can’t disciple if you don’t ever witness. So even though go is a really little word in the Great Commission, it’s foundational because if you don’t go, you can’t disciple. You have no converts to disciple, right? So he’s right and I agree with that. However, I think it’s the matter of, I see evangelism like this. I see it as the same way I see prayer. I see it as, I mean some people have a gift for prayer. I mean they’re intercessors. I mean they really are. But you don’t say, well they’re intercessors so I don’t have to pray. You don’t say that. where some people have the gift of giving. Some of you here probably have a gift. Matter of fact, in light, justice exhortation, why don’t you use your gift? And I’m serious, use your gift. Use your gift. I don’t have that gift. Now I tithe, by saying that, I’m not bragging because I think tithe is a minimum thing that we ought to do, a minimum. I don’t have that gift. But I don’t say I don’t have the gift of giving therefore I don’t tithe. I don’t say I don’t have the gift of teaching so I don’t ever have to study the Bible, or I don’t have to share, we don’t do that about other things, so why all of a sudden do we do that about evangelism? Why do we make this special category where, well, this they know, you don’t have to do that. Now, some people are gifted in evangelism and they’ll do it more frequently, they’ll do it more successfully. And yes, your role might be less vocal in terms of witness. But the thing to understand is that church, as we practice church, is a community where we build one another up in love in Jesus Christ, right? We grow in the faith. But we don’t live in church all week. Now, I got a good friend, it has a passage to church in St. Charles, and there’s a sign on their driveway as you exit, and it says you are now entering the mission field. Do you get it? You get it? Okay. So when we leave shortly, and I know you’re hoping it’s really shortly, you are leaving and going to the mission field. Now maybe you’re just going home, you’re not stopping anywhere, so maybe, okay, tomorrow morning you’re definitely going to the mission field. Now I used to have a secular job. I worked in a secular field for quite a while. when I was in ministry, pretty much almost full time, I was still working. And I had jobs I didn’t like, but I always liked the fact that I had the opportunity to share the gospel of people. And I always took advantage of it. No matter where I worked, I was always sharing the gospel with someone, usually several people. I mean, it was just, it made, to me, it redeemed what I was doing. You know what I mean. Now there’s other functions of work, I understand that. But as a young Christian, to me it was like, this is really why I’m here. I’m here because these people don’t know Christ, and I do. I have the power of God unto salvation. That’s what I have. And so, back to my point about the world in America, is that we have, I believe that the American church, and I know I’m a nobody, and I pastor a small church in a town nobody’s ever heard of, but I believe the American church has lost faith in the gospel. I mean the church has lost faith. Not the unbeliever. The unbeliever hasn’t even had an opportunity to reject the gospel. Now Mike was telling me the other day, he’s been passing these out, although they were the other ones before the, but basically passing out Gospel John’s to people. So before he gives it out, Mike says to the person, have you read the Gospel John? And then they’ll answer in a little conversation, he gives them a Gospel John. Now I don’t do that, I just pass them out and say, hey, it’s the Gospel John, good news, God loves you, blah, blah, blah, whatever. He said that of 21 people, now he’s giving it out probably more than 21 now. How many now? About 30. One on one, 30. At the time he told me 21, he’d give him about 21, and only one person had read the gospel of John. Now this is America, a Christianized nation. Do you get what I’m saying? In America, 20 out of 21, how is it now out of 30? 28 out of 30 have not read the Gospel of John. Well, those people are not rejecting the Gospel. They’ve never heard the Gospel. In America, we have people growing up who’ve never gone to church.. People in America do not have a Bible in their home. People in America that even if they do have a Bible in their home, They’ve never read the Gospel of John. We’re talking adults. It’s astounding. How would they believe without a preacher? And you wonder why people aren’t getting and saved in America? Because the Gospel is the power of God and the Gospel is not being shared. A hundred people? Home-related sin People are not hearing the Gospel, they’re not reading the Gospel. I guess they’re not getting saved. The Gospel hasn’t changed. If the Gospel can save people in Africa, the Gospel can save people in America. If the Gospel can save people in South America, it can save people in North America. If the Gospel can save people in China, it can save people in America. It’s the same gospel. Now I know some people come up with theories about how God’s abandoned America because we’re so decadent and all this stuff. I think that’s an excuse. Because we’re sin abounds the grace much more abounds. In times of the greatest social decay, you often see the greatest revivals. Right at the same time. We saw it in England with Wesley. saw it, I mean just throughout history we’ve seen this pattern. Now I’m not saying God never forsakes a nation, but why would God be forsaking America and and and why would God be blessing China? I mean think about it. They have a enforced abortions. We have abortions, they have enforced abortions. They have more babies in China than we do in America. They’re communists, they’re dictators. Why would God bless that country? God’s blessing this. God’s blessing the gospel is what God’s blessing. He’s blessing the gospel because God is honoring the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That’s what God is doing. And if the church in America got serious again as once we were about sharing the faith, desiring as Paul says, their salvation, praying for their salvation, sharing the gospel in faith with them, we would see people getting saved. I’m telling you, the loss of faith [audio unclear] True. And so we come up with all kinds of cool things to get people to come to church. That are substitutes for the gospel. As I’ve said many times to my different friends, I’m not an institution builder. I don’t care about big institutions. I don’t care about a big church. I’m a people builder. In other words, I care about people getting saved. I care about people growing in the faith. That’s what I care about. And there’s a lot of ways to build an organization, but I don’t want us to build an organization. I want us to be used by God to build this church. And that means people coming to Christ in saving faith. So the question is, do we believe in the power of the gospel? I do, do you? A couple people do, apparently, got a couple of minutes. No, she laughs. I’m serious. I’m dead serious. You know, Spurgeon, I read a story by Spurgeon, where a young evangelist, he would encourage people to go out and preach in the streets, and this guy came back and said, you know, I share, but nobody ever gets saved. And he says, well, do you expect people to get saved? He said, well, not everyone. He says, well, that’s why they’re not getting saved. You’re not expecting them to get saved. You don’t even have faith. So this is why Paul wasn’t ashamed because he knew it was the power of God.

Paul, and No One Unreachable

He experienced it in his own life. Let me read a couple more scriptures. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me because he kind of made me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. That word insolent means violent. He was murderous, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord Jesus was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.

Paul was the last person you would have thought was going to get saved. I mean understand? Paul is the kind of guy that if you are Christian in the early church you probably heard rumors about this guy. He was a bad dude. He was a Pharisee and you read the gospel you see how the Pharisees as a group were so hostile to Jesus, they plotted Jesus’ murder. I mean, these people are serious, right? That was Paul. As the church began to be persecuted, we read in the book of Acts, Paul was consenting. Paul was dragging people before the Sanhedrin. Paul was consenting to stoning. Paul was a bad guy, a blasphemer he says, insolent, your version may be different, full of hubris, rage and hatred for the gospel, for Jesus and for the church. And yet that’s the person God saved and then made in apostle. Now think of the guy at work that is the most obnoxious guy you can think of. No, I’m serious. Think of the guy that is, as you think about the people you work with, the person you think is least likely to ever get saved. That’s the person you need to pray for and witness to. Because that’s God’s way. it’s always been God’s way. He takes the least, and makes him the most. Don’t look for the good religious person. religious people are often the most difficult people to reach with the gospel. And in that sense, this ignorance we’re now seeing, which has really been probably this past generation which we’ve seen our society decline so much in other areas, this corresponds to the ignorance of the word. This is a great opportunity now. Because we have people that don’t have religious, religion in their background. They don’t have churchianity. A lot of times you have to overcome people’s churchianity, whether it was Catholicism or Lutheranism or whatever they were. I was Catholic and my wife was Lutheran. We don’t have, have to overcome that now because we’re dealing with people that are essentially pagan. And I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean as a description of their worldview. Okay. That can actually be an advantage. So no one is beyond the reach of the gospel.

Whoever: your obnoxious neighbor, your obnoxious co-worker, your boss who you think is unfair and unfit doesn’t matter. These people are objects of God’s love, and I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. And what I love about this passage here in Timothy is Paul says this, he says, in verse 15, he says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And we read that and we refocus on that last clause, of whom I am chief, wow. But look what it says, Jesus Christ came in the world to save sinners. Are you a co-worker of centers? The most obnoxious sinner is the one that God came to save. I’ve had people say to me, you know, I don’t think Jesus died for everybody. And the answer is, is everybody a sinner? Yes or no? Jesus Christ came to save sinners. If someone is a sinner, then Christ came to save them. Now willy, we don’t know. But I know this, that people don’t get saved apart from this. They don’t get saved apart from the gospel. And so the only way we know who’s really elect is to preach the gospel to all and let God apply the word in the Spirit and draw them into the kingdom. Grant them faith in the new birth. But it’s not our job to presume that someone is unfit to be in the kingdom.

Who are we? Who are we? Have you forgotten or do you not know your unfitness apart from Jesus Christ? I mean, it shows a profound lack of self knowledge to think that we’re better than other people apart from God’s work in our life. To think that someone is unreachable, but I was reachable? Do we understand the implications of that? I’m smarter, I’m better, I’m something. the implication. If I’m reachable, anybody’s reachable. That’s what Paul is saying. But it’s true of all of us. Because we’ve all sinned and we all have fallen short of God’s glory. Let us not, through our unbelief, keep people out of the kingdom. Whether it’s unbelief that thinking that somehow they’re so bad that they could never be saved, and I think we believe that, or somehow thinking that the gospel is not powerful enough to save that person. If the gospel can save Paul, it can save anyone. He was a murder of Christians. This is like, you know, the guy in ISIS who just cut off a Christian’s head getting saved.

The gospel is the gospel for sinners, not just about sinners. Jesus came, said, I came to seek and to save the good people. Did he say that? I came to seek and to save the religious people. Did he say that? I came to seek and to save who? The lost. It’s the sick who need a position. the well. So you go to the sick, share the gospel with the sick. That’s your neighbors. They might not know they’re sick, you know, and you can be sick for a long time. I had an uncle who died from cancer. I think he was probably actually maybe a little younger than me. He felt fine, fine, great. Going along Several days later he was dead. They cut him open. His entire, entire insides were covered with cancer. But he felt fine until a couple days and then he died. That’s how people are. They feel fine. They think they’re fine. But we know, because we have this, the word, which is like an x-ray, we can see inside. And we know they’re sick. And if we had the love of God in our hearts, we would say, oh my gosh, this person is ill. I need to help them. I need to apply the cure. The cure. I have the cure. So let us Christians, let us believers believe. Amen.

And if we would begin to believe again in the Gospel, that it truly is God’s power, I believe God will honor that faith and we’ll see people get saved, amen?

The Lord’s Supper

Now we’re gonna take the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Supper is really a profession of your faith. The symbols are there to explain the Gospel, to remind us of the Gospel, the bread, his body, the wine, his blood, shed for our sins. If you believe enough to take the elements, then you should believe enough to preach the gospel. The gospel that saved you and made you fit for the table is the same. Gospel that you need to be sharing with family, friends, and co-workers. Do you like to share about Thanksgiving? So we had Thanksgiving and one of our relatives and before the 4-8 I asked the host if I could share a few minutes. So I got up and moved by 25, 30 people there and I shared the gospel to relatives. And then I gave them one of these books. And some of them, you know, were giving me dirty looks and frowning and Oh well, that’s okay. That’s okay, right? We have all kinds of opportunities like that in our lives. And especially over the holidays, we have opportunities. You’re going to see your family more than you like. Let’s all be honest, more than you like over the next few weeks. You have opportunities to share Jesus Christ with those people. opportunities. Let’s share the gospel in love. Let’s share it in faith and then we’ll see God. We will see the power of God. Amen. The if you believe you can partake because you’re really professing the gospel here today and really renewing again, your faith and commitment to the Lord. So let’s pray and then we’ll take the elements. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your son Jesus. I thank you Lord? Lord, that you saved me, me, a wretched sinner, me. And I know that because you saved me, you can save anyone. Lord, remind us of the power of your gospel.

Make your gospel powerful in our lives by giving us victory in our lives. But Lord, I pray that we would share the gospel in faith, believing, and as we do Lord, we would see your power manifested. I believe God that you wanna use us to reach many souls. I have no doubt about it. No doubt if we will just apply simple faith and obedience That’s all you ask. It’s not our ability. It’s our availability So Lord, I pray that you would use us To bring others to you and I pray in your name, amen.

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