“Good News of the Gospel”
1. Who here has never been to a doctor?
2. Quite a few in this room have not just been to the doctor, they have been to the hospital.
3. Not only have several here been to the hospital, they have had surgery.
AS PEOPLE AGE HEALTH ISSUES CAN AND OFTEN DO INCREASE. ONE PROBLEM THAT MOST ENCOUNTER INVOLVES THE EYES.
a) As we age our vision changes.
b) Long ago there was a man who fared quite well as he got older and older.
c) This man was Moses, and he lived to an age of 120 years.
d) We were asked to hold Deut. 34 in readiness and we now want to read verse 7 – READ.
e) At the age of 120 Moses had no problem with his eyesight.
f) If he had to look at something up close, he had no problems.
g) If an object were in the distance, he could see just as well as any young person.
2) Not only was Moses’ eyesight very good, he also retained his strength.
3) His bodily vigor did not weaken with time and age.
4) What if researchers had a pill or a program to duplicate these two things today?
5) What if a pill could give someone who is 90 the strength of a 20 year old?
6) What if our eyesight at any age over 50 was as sharp as that of a 10 year old?
7) Folks would be lining up at Walgreen’s.
8) With modern laser surgical procedures on the eyes, we know that people want good eyesight.
9) As human beings and especially as people in the Unites States, Americans like the good life.
a) There is a desire for good health, pleasant surroundings, and other niceties.
b) On nearly every hand we see people who want something.
c) In recent weeks and months there has been a lot of discussion about people from Mexico.
d) Citizens of another country are flowing into this country because they want a better life.
10) On virtually every hand people want the best life they can have or at least an improvement.
11) Such an attitude is not new; throughout time people have wanted to better their lives.
a) When Christianity was first preached God’s people spoke about the word “gospel.”
b) Early in Jesus’ life (Mt. 4:23) we find Jesus going and “preaching the gospel.”
c) Later in Matthew (9:35) we again find Jesus “preaching the gospel.”
d) What is the “gospel?” Literally gospel meant “good news.”
e) News may be bad, it may be neutral or it may be good.
f) The gospel is not neutral and it is not bad; it is good news—the best news.
12) There is a connection between the gospel and the good life that people of today want.
13) People want a better life and the gospel offers that.
TODAY WE WANT TO LOOK AT SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE GOSPEL MAY BE RIGHTLY CALLED THE “GOOD NEWS,” AND WHAT WE RECEIVE FROM IT.
a) Moments ago I cited Mt. 4:23, the “gospel of the kingdom.”
b) I also mentioned people coming across the U.S. border for a better life.
c) There are nations in the world were people do not want to live.
d) People often want to be a citizen (or at least live in) a certain country.
e) The gospel of Christ is good news because it says we can be a citizen.
f) We do not become a citizen of an earthly nation with the gospel.
g) Any nation on the earth is flawed in some way; not one nation has ever been perfect.
h) God has a perfect place, and the good news allows us to be a citizen of this place.
2) When we look at America and Mexico, we find there is supposed to be an immigration process.
3) In order to be entitled to live in this country, a procedure is to be followed.
4) A similar thing is true for God’s heavenly kingdom.
5) We will not show up, as it were, one day on the heavenly doorstep and say, “I would like to come in.”
6) Eph. 1:13 speaks about the “gospel of salvation.”
a) The “good news” contains a plan (we might say “the plan) to become a heavenly citizen.
b) If we are interested in a really good (or the best life), we should desire the best place (heaven).
c) God offers heavenly citizenship if we apply for it.
d) We should thus become very familiar with the best book ever written (the gospel of salvation).
e) A lot of people think highly about a lot of books.
f) We may find young people who have an entire series of books in their homes.
g) It is not uncommon to hear people say, “This book” or “this series” is “so good.”
h) There are great authors in our day and time; the best selling author of all time is God.
i) He has given us a book filled with “good news” if we will read and obey it.
j) This book is our heavenly guide to a heavenly home.
7) Eph. 6:15 uses the word gospel in conjunction with something else: “the gospel of peace.”
a) A lot of things in our world are not peaceful.
b) We have wars, crime, strife, difficult economic times, pain and destruction.
c) In the greatest of nations peace is never perfect.
d) The gospel of salvation promises citizenship in a place of perfect peace.
e) That is good news; it should be appealing to people.
f) A man at *** who I talk to more and more recently went on a vacation on an island.
g) He took a little more than a week off, and when he returned he said, “it was so peaceful.”
h) People want peace; people will pay for peace; they will leave their country or home for peace.
i) God says He offers peace to those who are obedient.
j) A special peace in this life and peace eternal afterwards.
8) Sometimes the gospel is described in unique ways.
a) One example of this is 2 Cor. 5:19; Paul refers to the “word of reconciliation.”
b) Most of us understanding something about reconciliation.
c) At times at least two people or at least two groups do not see eye to eye.
d) In certain instances peace is shattered; people really disagree.
e) At some point all the parties are brought back together; this is reconciliation.
f) The gospel is good news in that it is a book about reconciliation.
g) Men and God are brought together and there is peace.
9) Last Monday night I received a phone call.
10) The caller said, “I am your neighbor and my bird is loose in your house.”
11) “It is fluttering all around; please catch it and bring it back to me.”
12) I have taken some interesting calls over the years, but this one was unlike any before.
13) I asked the person who was calling which neighbor she was. “I can’t tell you.”
14) Then I asked what the name of the sub division was; again she said she couldn’t tell me.
15) I asked for her to put one of her parents on the line; she said they were not home.
16) I asked if she knew what caller ID is; she said she did.
17) I told her lots of people have that, and prank calls like she was making could be turned into the police.
18) Was she aware of that that the police could be contacted?
19) All the sudden the bird was not hers; it was her friends; she was calling for a friend.
20) I do not know how old this young lady was, but I don’t suspect she was much over 10-11.
a) Had the caller appeared closer to the late teen years, I may have taken other action.
b) As it was, I did nothing other than talk to her for a minute minutes about making prank calls.
c) I did not believe she was old enough to involve anyone else.
d) In a similar way, we must become old enough and responsible enough to be charged with sin.
21) When we do become accountable and we are guilty of sin, we create a debt that must be paid.
22) If the debt of sin is not cancelled, God requires us to pay for the sin with our eternal spirit.
23) The gospel says it is the “word of reconciliation”—it shows us how someone else can pay the debt.
24) That is good news. When it comes to sin, God has a plan to completely “get us off the hook.”
25) In the next chapter of the 2 Cor. letter 6:7 says the gospel is the “word of truth.”
a) People have gotten “good news” but it was not true.
b) A person may have received a phone call from a doctor’s office – “no cancer was found.”
c) That was good news, but the person later found out they got the results for another patient.”
d) Scores of people have been told they “won” something.
e) Additional investigation revealed there was an error.
f) God promises us the gospel is “true.” Not a single part of it incorrect.
g) Not one of God’s promises is a little fuzzy or shady.
h) Because the gospel is true, we must have faith in it.
i) Rom. 10:8 refers to the “word of faith” (the gospel is to be believed and obeyed).
j) Again and again we find the gospel being spoken of as good news.
26) If the gospel is really as good as these verses say, who may receive it?
27) Lots of people look at America and see this as the land of promise.
28) Many want to come, but not everyone is welcome.
29) No one wants everyone from Mexico leaving that country and coming here.
30) Many good things are somehow restricted.
31) The gospel is good news in that it is not limited to a particular group of people.
a) Any person in any nation may receive, believe and obey the gospel.
b) There is no limit on class, race, or anything else.
c) The gospel is such a special book filled with so many promises Gal. 1:8 was written.
32) If anyone tries to preach another type of “good news” they are under divine condemnation.
33) God has said any religious news besides His good news will result in destruction.
a) To some, that sounds restrictive and even unkind.
b) How dare God be so unbending and say only His way is right.
c) This kind of thinking really shows us how much Americans want.
d) Our nation is so greedy and selfish it wants to create its own faith.
e) America needs to be reminded that we have many things, but we are not God.
f) God is our creator, and we are the creation.
34) God has, in His kindness, chosen to give us “good news.”
35) We can take that good news and make full use of it, or we can say, “no thanks.”
36) If we say “no” to the good news, we say “yes” to some bad news.
37) We cannot reject God’s gospel because it is the perfect gospel.
38) It is so important Paul spoke of having a life “worthy” of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27).
39) The gospel is good news in way after way; the New Testament associates it with hope.
40) The last time “gospel” is used in the ASV is 1 Pet. 4:17.
41) Peter asked what would happen to those who do not obey “the good news.”
42) We can answer that question.
43) Not obeying the gospel will leave us eternally separated from God.
44) We obey the gospel initially by a process explained in the New Testament; faith, repentance, baptism.
45) Then we continue to obey the gospel by faithful Christian living.
46) Are we obeying the good news so all the promises in it are ours?