The simplicity of the gospel

Romans chapter number three. It's my goal to be very simple in the presentation of the gospel because the gospel is a simple message. You know, you can pick up your Bible and you can start a Genesis and you can read through and you can take a note of verses or of chapters or even of books that you found hard to understand.

But there's enough simplicity in the gospel that you can get saved without knowing all of the difficult and hard to understand parts of the Bible and the great news of the gospel is available to all and God in his infinite wisdom has given us in his word depth of truth and yet simplicity in terms of how to know your sins forgiven and how to be assured of a secure eternity in heaven. That is the grace of God and he wants you to understand the message of the gospel and it's our prayer this evening as you listen to the message of the gospel that you would understand it but not just that you would understand it probably you would believe and that you would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Romans then in chapter number three.

Romans chapter three and we'll read at the verse number 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And then over to chapter five. Chapter five and verse number eight. But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

That's all I want to read and I want to ask that God would bless his word and we look to God that he would speak through his word and that is why we read from the Bible because what we come to tell you this evening in the preaching of the gospel is not an invention of a preacher it is not an idea of a church group it is not the wisdom of an individual but it is the word of God and we want to point you to the Bible and tell you that this is what God says and we often hear the simplicity of the gospel summed up in man's ruin God's remedy and man's responsibility and that's what I want to speak on this evening the simplicity of the gospel all have sinned that includes every single person in this world it includes everyone in this building but more importantly it includes you and I as individuals I want you to put away the distractions or perhaps this person is not right with God perhaps you think I've got a brother or a sister and they're not saved I want you to think about yourself tonight where do you stand before God are you on the road to heaven or are you on the road to hell you know the Bible tells us that life is brief life is brief exactly a week ago within an hour of exactly a week ago today I got a text from my brother-in-law saying there's been a bad accident it just happened outside our gate and Darius was there he had come in and he jumped out he said has someone called and they said yes but he's gone he's gone and the first thought that came to my mind and the first thought that came to Darius's mind was gone where gone where and sadly we don't know too much we've managed to visit with some of the family in the last week but a man on a motorcycle going around looking at the horses in the fields he would buy and into eternity and it just really spoke to my heart to my wife's heart and to others in the family as we heard it so that life is so brief life is so brief and God wants us to know not only that life is brief but that eternity is and God tells us in the Bible that there is life after death it is not just a case of when we die that life is over and there's no consideration but the Bible tells us that it's heaven or it's hell so you could go tonight and I'm sure there's many places in Ankeny where you could go and you could hear a presentation you could go and hear a presentation on various subjects perhaps historical perhaps social whatever it may be but when it comes to God's message the message of the gospel it is so different than any other message for two reasons one it demands a response what I mean by that is if you hear the message of the gospel you are responsible before God for what you've heard and secondly it will affect you for all of eternity that is why the gospel is solemn that is why the message is serious and that is why the consequences are so vitally important to get right so some would like to try and complicate or obscure the message of the gospel but right in chapter 1 Paul he says I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ he says I'm not ashamed why because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes so tonight if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved you can know the same power of the gospel that Paul knew in his life and you know Paul there was a time where he despised the gospel he had no interest in the gospel in fact he hated the bible he hated Christians he hated the things of God he hated the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and God spoke to him and God spoke to him clearly and the Lord Jesus appeared to him and in that light he said Lord what will you have me to do and he realized that Jesus Christ is Lord and his life was altogether different his direction was different his energies were different he was no longer against the message of the gospel he was a preacher of the gospel and he said I am not ashamed of the gospel why because he had seen the power of the gospel and you know tonight the great news of the gospel is this it is available to all and we can come on the authority of the bible and tell you tonight that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved you'll be saved but the first problem that we come to and we read of in Romans chapter 3 is the problem of our sin the problem of our sin because Paul says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and really in chapter 3 as we've often heard it's like a it's like a courtroom scene and God is the God who is all knowing who is completely righteous who is completely holy and he tells us that as sinners we are in the dark we are in the place standing condemned and the witnesses come out and the witnesses are our conscience and law and God says you are a sinner I wonder tonight do you believe that you're a sinner if you say well everyone sins you know we all do wrong we all we all have broken God's standard in one way or another you know the people that get saved are not just the people that think well everyone is sinning the people that realize that their sin makes them guilty before God your sin actually puts you in a position of being guilty before God that your sin that you have committed the sin that so easily comes to us is that which is offensive to God it's that which God hates and is that what will take us down to hell and the bible says that God is a God who is completely righteous and we think of the question in the old testament it says this shall not the judge of earth do right shall not the judge of all the earth do right I read a story of a man and he he stood and he had stood in a dock condemned arrested charged for a certain crime that he had committed and yet he managed to escape condemnation and the penalty for the crime that he committed because there was some technicality in the law that made it difficult for him to be condemned and to be judged for the crime that he committed and you know the judge said to him he said sir you know you're guilty and I know you're guilty he says and you have escaped on a technicality of the law he says but one day you will stand before a wiser and an all-knowing judge and justice will be served all of us in this room will stand before God I wonder if you are in your sin and you will stand and you will face him as your judge if you continue on the road and which you're on you know many of us we want to just brush aside the problem of sin we want to just say well well the gospel is good news and it is good news but you know the fact that we have sinned sin in our lives and the fact that we're guilty before God it drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ because we see that we need a savior and that we need to be forgiven that we need to be more than just changed in terms of the things that we seek to do we don't just need to brush up in our lives we don't just need to attend more meetings we need to seek the Lord Jesus Christ we need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and his work on the cross and be saved and many people in this world and perhaps even some in this room you're trying to work your way to heaven and you're thinking of all the things that you do the good deeds that you do the good behavior that you exhibit to your family but really God says all these things are just like filthy rags in my sight no value and connection with eternity i read a story of a businessman in boston and he was really trying to attain some sort of status before God and he said i'm going to go to Israel and i'm going to go on a pilgrimage and try and find something of the law and a man said to him well rather than trying to go to Israel and find the law he says you could just stay in Boston and keep it and so often we look for some sort of way that will make us right with God but the Bible says that there's nothing that we can do because we have sinned and we've fallen short of the glory of God and it means that we're condemned before him and you know the thing is there's no wrongful conviction of God there's no miscarriages of justice with the almighty God of heaven and when he tells us in the Bible that we've sinned he knows our heart he knows our condition he knows our life and he knows that the whole world is guilty before him but you know that is what makes the news of the so much more precious than against the backdrop of the darkness of sin there is a light that shines so clear and so bright and it is a message of the gospel and that's what we read in Romans chapter 5 we read these words that God commends God shows his love towards us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I wonder tonight have you recognized that truth in your own soul Christ died for us Christ died for the ungodly and all of us every single one of us in this room fit into the category ungodly and then we can put our name in the word and in the verse and see if Christ died for the ungodly then he died for me and tonight I wonder if you're trusting in the of Christ as we heard earlier when it comes down to it ultimately you're trusting in something you're trusting in something what are you trusting on for heaven what are you depending upon in order to be right with God and to know your sins forgiven God has given his son in order that you might be saved and we see that God shows his love he demonstrates his love you know perhaps we say to people well I love you I love you but our love is shown our love is exhibiting and the attitudes and the actions that we show towards people if we say to our family that we love them and we never show them kindness and we never exhibit care and we never do anything for them you would think well maybe it's just words maybe it's just words the bible says God shows his love the bible tells us that God is love and he shows his love not only in giving us life not only in sustaining our breath not only in bringing us under the sound of the gospel all of these things are examples of God's love but the supreme and greatest example of God's love to this world is the giving of his son the bible says that the father sent his son to be the savior of the world you ever thought what it costs both the father and the son in order that we might be saved the lord Jesus dwelling with his father being worshiped by angels knowing the position and the authority that was rightfully his in heaven and he prepared to humble himself not only to go to Bethlehem not only to go up in Nazareth not only to be rejected the bible says that he was a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief the life of the lord Jesus was not a life of pleasure and of ease and yet none of that would have paid the price for our sin God commands his love towards us and that where we were still sinners Christ died for us I want you to grasp that tonight Christ died for us and we can put the emphasis on any part of the verse and it's all so precious Christ died for us Christ died for us Christ died for us and in every way we look at the truth we see the preciousness of the work of Christ and the bible says that was by his grace as a gift and Titus we read these words the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men tonight that includes you I want you to grasp it in the love of God and the grace of God not only concepts not only things to pay mental ascent to but something that is actually real and living because it's not just a characteristic the bible says the grace of God is bringing something it's bringing something and what did the grace of God and the giving of his son bring to this world salvation and it's not just appeared to a few it's not just appeared to a certain group of individuals or a certain country or any of that the bible says the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men perhaps tonight there's some that have never been saved and as you listen to the preaching of the gospel I want to ask you to search your own heart and see where you stand before God and ask yourself why am I still in my sin when Christ has paid the price why are you still in your sin when Christ has paid the price because the Lord Jesus and the cross he paid a price that I could never pay he died a death that I could never die there was men on either side of the Lord Jesus and they had committed crimes and they were subject to the legal system of the day but the Lord Jesus was completely holy completely righteous completely innocent and in those hours of darkness the bible says the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of his own the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of his own so God sent his son to pay a price that I could never pay and then his death and in his burial and his resurrection he proved to this world that he is God and that he is the savior of sinners that he can be trusted and perhaps you've read these words and you think of the man and pilgrims progress and he has this burden of sin and whether or not you realize it tonight if you're not saved you're carrying a burden of sin the man says thus far did I come laden with my sin nor could I ease the grief that I was in till I came hither what a place is this must here be the beginning of my bless must hear the burden fall from off my back must hear the strings that bound it to me cry less cross less sepulcher less rather be the man that was put to shame for me Jesus paid it all all to him I owe sin had left its crimson stain he washed his white as snow you know the great use of the gospel is that there's nothing left to be paid and the Lord Jesus not in weakness but in power said it is finished it is finished you know that means tonight there's nothing that you can add to it it's all been done the price has been paid but there's something that is perhaps lacking and you say well what's lacking is it's all been finished and the work has been done because Christ has died because Christ has finished the work does not mean that you will be in heaven does not mean that you're saved doesn't mean that you're on the road to heaven because the point that I made at the beginning of the three points the root of man the remedy of God and the responsibility of man and tonight every single person every single person in this building has a decision to make what will you do with the message of the gospel perhaps you've heard it time and time again I'm sure you've heard the verses that I've read so many times in the preaching of the gospel and perhaps over and over you've heard the precious truth of the death of Christ and yet you remain in your sin well Paul he said that in Corinthians he says we're ambassadors for Christ he says we're representatives of Christ as though God were pleading through us and you know he said we implore you on Christ's behalf be ye reconciled to God be ye reconciled to God he says we have brought you the message of the gospel we have told you of Christ and now I implore you get right with God get the matter settled before it is forever too late and he puts the responsibility squarely on the hearers of the message he said I've presented it I've told you of it I've been an ambassador for Christ but you need to be reconciled to God and today as you hear the message of the gospel I want you to hear the same truth that Paul preached you have to get right with God God has done all the work in order that you might be saved and the responsibility falls upon you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved repentance towards God believing what he says about your condition is true believing that what he says about his son is true believing that what he said about the death of Christ is true and believing that when God sent his son to the cross and when Christ paid the price for sin that truly there was nothing left to be paid I'm sure we've all seen the track and I want you to ask yourself this question God is satisfied are you God was satisfied with the work of Christ he knew there was nothing else that needed to be he was raised the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and he sat and he sits on the right hand of the majesty on high a place of power a place of authority and from that place he sits this evening with the power to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and to give you new life and to fit you for heaven and to cleanse the record of your guilt and to make you a new creation right with God you know the message of the gospel is so full there's so many aspects to it there's so much truth that you will come into when you trust Christ but you know in order to get saved you don't need to know all that but you need to know this that you are a sinner and Christ died for sinners someone wrote these words upon a life I have not lived upon a death I did not die another's life another's death I stake my whole eternity the gospel is a serious business because your eternity rests on it the ruin of man to all their sin they come short of the glory of God the remedy of God God commends his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us the responsibility of man be reconciled to God may God bless his people