Doctrines of God Centered Gospel

We live in a day of a spiritually impoverished church that preaches a man-centered gospel which puts the focus on the happiness of man. This man-centered gospel has elevated man and shrunken God down to man's size and consequently all the teeth and power has been stripped out of the gospel with this modern-day version of evangelism. But the real gospel of my Bible, friends, is a God-centered gospel which proclaims the glory of God in the salvation of sinners.

There are certain truths, doctrines, that the old gospel proclaims. The prophet Jeremiah exhorts us to seek the old paths. In Jeremiah 6 16 we read, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

But the modern church has said, We will not walk therein. That pretty much sums it up in our sad day of spiritual declension in our churches today, friends. The title of my message today is Doctrines of a God-Centered Gospel.

And if you are a young preacher boy, you may want to take notes. First, I will contrast the modern man-centered gospel against the old God-centered gospel that has power to save, the apostle Paul declares in Romans 1 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

But the watered-down man-centered gospel has taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man. You make a decision for Jesus today. It's all in your power, and you can come to Jesus anytime you are good and ready, because Jesus is an impotent Savior who stands helplessly at the door of your heart knocking, hoping you will let him in.

He stands there helpless like an insurance salesman with his hat in his hand. Won't you let him in? The man-centered gospel leads itself to false professions of faith, as many just respond to an emotional appeal by an evangelist through a physical act like walking an aisle or repeating a prayer, and then they make an empty religious profession, and the result is a mental flip for Jesus, which does not result in a changed life. However, the God-centered gospel cuts like barbed wire and burns like a fire in the conscience of man.

When its doctrines are proclaimed in the preaching of the full counsel of God, it acts like a hammer breaking up all false foundations, and like a double-edged sword it cuts through and exposes all false refuges of the lost sinner. It brings men to see their lost condition and to feel their need of a Savior from sin. Well, at this time, friends, I will list the seven doctrines of the God-centered gospel that should always be proclaimed.

I will first list them, then I will elaborate upon them one by one. The true gospel of God's grace should proclaim, number one, the sovereignty of God in the salvation of men, number two, the badness of man's heart in his ruined condition, number three, the strictness and severity of God's unbending law, number four, the miseries and torments of a burning hell, number five, the demand of man's duty of repentance, number six, the utter necessity of regeneration, and lastly, number seven, Christ's reception of sinners. Well, let's look at these one by one.

First, the sovereignty of God in salvation. In John's gospel in chapter 6 and verse 65 we read, And he said, Therefore said I unto you, That no man can come unto me except it were given of him of my father. And over in Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9 we read, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Listen, friend, if you are a saved individual, it's because God gave you saving faith. Salvation is in the hands of a sovereign God.

Number two, the badness of man's heart and his ruined condition. Because of Adam's fall, every mother's son enters this world with a ruined nature and a bent toward sin. We are sons of fallen Adam.

I was born of my father, and he bequeathed to me what he was in the flesh, in the likeness of fallen Adam. The word of God says this about the badness of man's condition. In Job we read, How much more vomitable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water.

That means, friends, that man can't get enough of sin. He drinks it like water. Listen, friend, you're not a sinner because you sin.

Rather, you sin because you are a big sinner. And over in Matthew 15, 19, Jesus had this to say about man's wicked heart. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Listen, friends, men must see the badness of their hearts to see their need of a savior. Number three, the strictness and severity of God's unbending law. God requires perfection to get into his holy heaven, and no man is perfect.

In Matthew 5, 20, Jesus said, For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Every person will one day at a future judgment be held up against the strictness and severity of God's unbending law. And if you stand there, friend, in your own merits, you will fail that test.

You must stand there in the merits of another. Listen, friend, I know I am a sinner, and I need a substitute for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. And so do you, friend.

So do you. The only hope I have is when Christ's life is laid down and applied to me. Number four, the miseries and torments of a burning hell.

In Luke 16, 23, we read, And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments. You see, friends, hell is a place of torments, a place of everlasting burnings, where the worm dieth not. The Bible says that hell is a place of punishment for sin, that hell is inhabited by demons.

Hell is the abode for the wicked dead, and hell is a place of eternal suffering. Jesus describes hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping speaks to great loss and grief.

Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. When you drop down into hell, your cries are drowned out by the awful shrieks around you of the tortured damned. The miseries of hell never end, for the tortured and tormented souls shut up in there, Revelation 14, 11 declares.

And the smoke of the torment ascended up for ever and ever. Well, let's look at the fifth doctrine that must be preached, the demand of man's duty of repentance. Repentance is the missing doctrine in the modern church today.

But over in the book of Acts, in chapter 17 and verse 30, we read, And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And repentance means, friends, that the love of sin dies. A man is not only sick with sin, he is a rebel at heart, a rebel against God and all things holy.

And it's man's duty right now to surrender to a sovereign king, the Lord Jesus. Years ago, when the old God-centered gospel was preached, it meant something to stack arms, to throw down your shotgun, to repent, to surrender, to come into the presence of the living Christ in such a way as to be saved. Listen, friend, the doctrine of repentance must be preached.

John the Baptist preached it, and it cost him his head. And I preach it, and failure to obey it will cost you your soul. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

The sixth doctrine that must be preached is the utter necessity of regeneration. Jesus told Nicodemus, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, as he passed through towns and villages, those who encountered him experienced change.

Salvation is a changed life through a regenerated heart. Ezekiel 36.26 declares, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Listen to me, friend, salvation is not a mental flip for Jesus in an intellectual ascent.

It's changed life through a work of grace that God performs upon the heart. You must be born again. And this brings us to the seventh doctrine of the gospel, Christ's reception of sinners.

Jesus declared in Matthew 11.28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's an invitation from Christ to the sinner to come and he will welcome you. Christ wants to pardon and receive sinners.

Jesus is willing for sinners to come to him, for he states, him that cometh to me will I no wise cast out. Jesus came down here so we can go up there. Jesus said, for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Christ was on an errand, a mission to save souls, and he has a warm reception for sinners. The gospel call must go out to all. In John 7.37, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come to him and believe on him. The duty required is to come.

At a place called Calvary, the Son of God was nailed up on a bloody cross and was crucified for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God, a guiltless Lamb of God, sacrificed for sin, a bloodstained Savior hanging there for sinful man with his arms outstretched, beckoning sinners to come to him and believe on him. Listen to his pleas to come to him. And the Spirit and the bride say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

In these gospel invitations is the mercy of the Lord and his readiness to receive poor sinners in need of him. And that's the key, friend. You must see your need.

You must see your lost condition and your need of him. He is not willing that any should perish. Ezekiel 18, 32 states, for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God.

Wherefore, turn yourselves, and live ye. Jesus came to earth to win souls to himself, and he is ready to receive all who come to him in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own him as Savior and Lord. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all exception, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Christ's reception of sinners is a fact, friends. He will abundantly pardon. O friend, repent and come to him now.

Let us pray.