Harold Hancock addresses the profound question: 'What is the Gospel?' Drawing from the Scriptures, particularly the book of Romans, Harold examines different facets of the Gospel, emphasizing its significance beyond just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Discover why the Gospel is the word of truth, the message of hope, and the power of God unto salvation. This thoughtful sermon invites you to reflect on your understanding and encourages obedience to God's commands as revealed in the New Testament.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction
01:16 Understanding the Gospel
02:23 The Gospel in the Scriptures
05:44 Commands in the Gospel
11:09 The Importance of the Gospel
11:40 The Gospel of Truth and Salvation
15:03 The Power and Hope of the Gospel
28:50 The Gospel of Peace and the Kingdom
33:28 The Gospel of Christ and God
39:27 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Thank you for being present this evening. Trust that you will enjoy the worship and be profited by it and that we will all leave excited and grateful for having been here. We serve a great God. If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to be turning to the book of Romans in the first chapter in verse 16.

And you probably know that that's where Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein has revealed the power of God unto salvation. By faith unto faith, just my opinion. But I would guess that that's probably one of the most well known passages in the scriptures that uses the word gospel.

And I used it as a text because I want us to focus on the idea of the gospel. In fact, I, I want to begin by asking you a question. What is the gospel? And I, I hope you'll take a moment and just think about that. What is the gospel? And, and maybe make some kind of sentence in your mind that describes what you think the gospel is.

So as we talk about it, you can compare your thoughts to what we have to say about the scriptures. And as you're thinking about it, I'll tell you that not too long ago that I was asked the question, what is the gospel? And I answered, and I told the person that had asked me the question what I thought it was, and I told him I wasn't sure that I could give him just the answer.

A scripture that would back it up, but I'd go home and look. And so I came home and I've been looking and this is the result of really that search. What is the gospel? If you ask some people what the gospel is, they'll tell you, well, the gospel is the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, period.

That's it. And you can understand maybe why some think that if they pick up their Bible and are looking at the book of 1 Corinthians in the 15th chapter and verses 1 through 4 when Paul talks about that he preached to them the gospel. And then he said, I declared unto you how that Jesus lived and died and was buried and was raised from the dead.

And so they said, well, he's preaching to them the gospel and he preached the death and the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so that must be the gospel. And they want to stop it there and say, that's it. And nothing can be added to it or taken from it, it's got to be this, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And I think, without a doubt, that that's probably what you might call the foundation of the Gospel, that Jesus came and He lived and died and was buried and raised from the dead. It's certainly an important part of the Gospel. But my question would be, is that all of the Gospel?

I think the scriptures make it plain that the gospel is more than just those facts. Because the gospel talks about, or the scriptures talk about, our obeying the gospel. For instance, in the book of Romans, in the 10th chapter, in verse 16, Paul is talking about how the gospel has come, and he says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.

And it's similar in the book of 2 Thessalonians, in the first chapter, in verse 8. Paul said Christ will come in flame and fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God and those who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then add to that also Peter's words in the book of 1 Peter in the fourth chapter in verse 17 when he says, What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?

You don't obey facts. You learn facts, and, and maybe you memorize facts, and know facts, but you really don't obey facts. You obey command. And the very fact that he talks about, that God is going to ask us, or we're going to have to give reason why we haven't obeyed the gospel, or that's going to be a part of the question that we have to face.

would tell us that it's got to be more than just the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That may be what's the foundation of it, but there's got to be something more than just those facts. There's got to be some commands involved in it.

Well, what about the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? If you look at those books, in the top of them usually, there are headings that says the gospel according to Matthew. The gospel according to Mark, the gospel according to Luke, the gospel according to John. And I, I, I know that that's apparently written by man as a heading but if you look at Mark's gospel.

He tells us in the very beginning of his gospel that it is the gospel of Mark, or the gospel of Christ given by Mark. And so that heading seems to be fitting for the gospel, that if he writes about Mark and he says this is the gospel of, of Jesus, the gospel of Christ, well, you can understand Put the book together, just put up in the head and the Gospel of Mark.

And since you see a very much parallel between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all telling the same story, you can see how all might be considered the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of John. And they all do tell about the birth, or about the death, and the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Amen. And not only that, but they record command. For instance, in the book of Matthew, in the fourth chapter, in verse 17, it, it tells us that Jesus started His ministry by saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That word repent is a command. You need to do something. You need to repent. Because I'm preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, or as a part of the gospel.

Most of us are familiar with the book of Matthew, and know that 5, record the, the sermon on the mount. But there's commands in those sermons. For instance, in Matthew 6 and verse 31, He said, do not worry, but seek first the kingdom of God. That's, that's a command. I'm not at liberty just to decide, well, do I want to worry or don't want to worry?

I've got that freedom. But if I'm going to obey God and obey Christ and obey his word, then he's telling me, don't worry. And rather than being concerned about what I'm going to eat or how, what I'm going to dress in or how, where I'm going to live, he says, seek first the kingdom of God. These other things will be added to you, he says.

And if you go over to the book of Mark in the fourth chapter in verse nine, after giving the parable of the sword, Jesus says, to his audience. He that has ear to hear, let him hear. That's the command. He's not telling them, now, if you get some spare time and you would just don't have anything else to do, I would suggest that maybe you rehearse in your mind this teaching about the parable of the sower.

No, he said, he that has an ear, let him hear. He's telling us. This is something you need to do. Or in Mark 10 in verse 9, when he says, What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. That's a commandment. Unfortunately, not everybody in our society obeys it, but God is saying it. Man woman should be joined in marriage then don't just put that person away and he's commanding that and so also you could look in Luke the 12th chapter in verse 15 He says take heed and beware of covetousness.

That's not a choice of We are just free to make or not make. We've got the abilities to do that, but he's telling us this is what I want you to do. I want you to put away covetousness. And then how about John 13, 34, and when he says, this is a new commandment I give you, love you one another as I have loved you.

You should love one another. Now, this is just a sampling of of commandments, but what we said about talking about the death barrel, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how that there are commands to be obeyed. Matthew, mark, Luke, and John all meet those commandments.

So what is the gospel? We will ask that again.

And as we ask that, think about what you've answered. And what I want to do at the moment is just let you think about that question for a minute. And I want for a moment to, to just give you some reasons why we even ought to be concerned about the gospel. What difference does it make if, if I can know the gospel or can't know the gospel?

Why should I even give thought about the gospel to begin with? And there's lots of things we could say about this, but because of the limit on time, limit it, I can give you a few things. First of all, I would suggest to you that the gospel is the word of truth. I want you, if you would, to look over to the book of Ephesians and the first chapter, and look, if you would, at verse 13.

Ephesians 1 and verse 13. And Paul says in him, talking about Christ, you also trusted after you heard. Now notice he says, the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. I want you to notice what he says, you have heard the word of truth and our English Bible and language puts comma, then he says the gospel, which means I'm telling you to listen to the truth and, and that's equal to the gospel.

And you could look at the book of Colossians in the first chapter, in verse 5, and I won't ask you to turn there particularly, but you'd find the very same structure where he talks about truth, and then he makes point that that's referring to the gospel.

So, we ought to pay attention to the gospel because it's truth. And so we're made to ask, well, what is truth? Well, truth is something that's right. It's not false. Truth is something that's trustworthy because it is right and can be known to be right. And then you could say it's the Word of God from the standpoint that Jesus one time said, Thy Word, O God, is truth.

And so this is what he says, the gospel is truth. And that's one reason we need to be paying attention to the gospel. Because it is truth, and it's trustworthy, and we can know that what it says, we can trust it. But the second thing I would, I would point out to you is that the gospel is the word of salvation.

If you're still there in the book of Ephesians in the first chapter in verse 13, listen to him again. In him, talking about Christ, you have also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel, of your salvation. And so he says, this truth that I'm telling you, this gospel, it's the word of salvation.

Is salvation important? If you say yes, then you've got to admit, well, the gospel is worth listening to. It's worth our, our under, trying to understand it, trying to obey it, because it is the word of salvation. And I suggest to you, it's really more than just the word of salvation. It is, as we mentioned in the book of Romans from the first chapter in verse 16, it's the power of God unto salvation.

There is power there, he says. He's talking about the fact that the gospel

contains this sacrifice of Jesus. And that sacrifice of Jesus is able to take away our sin. and to be a propitiation for our sin. We sing sometimes, what can wash away my sin? And we answer, nothing but the blood of Christ, or the blood of Jesus. There's power, power, wonder working power in the blood. And that's the book, the gospel, that's the book that tells us about the resurrection of Jesus, and that's power.

Do you realize that in the book of Ephesians, in the first chapter in verse 19, when When Paul has been talking about all the blessings that we have in Jesus, and then he, he kind of switches and, and says, this is why my prayer for you is. And one of the things he wants them to do is see the power of God.

You know what he uses to, to help us understand and see that power? He says it's the resurrection, that the resurrection of Christ shows us how powerful God is. Steve made a good point of telling us that when he was talking about the resurrection, that the resurrection shows us how powerful God is. And how did Paul seek to convince the, the Corinthians when apparently some of them no longer believed in, in the resurrection?

He asked me, he said, how are you going to be saved and, and how are you going to enjoy the salvation unless you are raised from the dead? He said, if we're not raised from the dead, our faith is vain. And so we need to understand that this salvation, this gospel is the word of salvation. It's the Word through which we will find forgiveness and the things by which we attain forgiveness from the blood of Jesus.

And salvation is, is that forgiveness of sins and it's the removal of the piety of sin as we talked about not too long ago. And it's freedom from the guilt of that sin. And it's the promise of eternity in heaven. That's salvation. And this gospel is the good news of that salvation. Now, can you imagine somebody coming up to you and saying, I've got this

fail proof way that you can live eternity, and not only live eternity, but be joyous throughout eternity. And you said, not interested. I don't want that. I don't want to live eternal. I don't want to be happy or joyful all my eternity. Ah, let me just live here miserly. Well, that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about the gospel of our salvation. And if you actually just don't care about it, then really you're turning your back on this idea of being joyous.

But then further, let me point out to you that we're going to be judged by this gospel. Paul talks about it in Romans, the second chapter in verse 16, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus, according to my gospel.

I won't say I never took a test that I didn't know what was coming, but most of the time that was my fault. Most of the time the teachers would tell us, here's what's going to be on the test or give you some idea. Can you imagine the idea of standing before God, having no idea what kind of life He expected you to live?

Thinking, well, I've just got to go out here and try this, and try that, and I myself have got to decide what's going to please God and what's not going to please God, and just hope that I find it. You know, Stephen Covey talked about it in his book, that there are people that try and climb the ladder of success and so forth.

They get to the top and find out the ladder lean against the whole wrong wall. What if we're talking about salvation and, and we were, it was all just guesswork. We didn't know what God was really expecting of us. But he tells us this gospel is what we're going to be judged by. And so it would seem to me like that should pique our interest.

And I'd want to say, well what is God going to, going to expect of me? What's He going to require of me? How can I prepare for this all important judgment? And we're aware of the book of Revelation in the 20th, 21st chapter, I guess it is, that he talks about the book being open and being judged from it.

I used to, and well, I guess I still have it, it's just, I don't have anything to show it, but the little film strip, there used to be a track verse called, The Day Christ Came Again. And then they put it into the track. And it was a picture of a community and there was a meeting going on at the church building and some people were going, some people weren't going, there was an older couple and she was bedridden, he made sure she was comfortable and taken care of, and then he went to the service.

And then there was another fellow that was married to a Christian, she went to the service and He didn't. He wasn't a Christian. But he thought, you know, someday I might just think about it. Guess what? That day, according to that tract, was the day Christ came again. And suddenly, he was going to have to be judged.

I taught a class one time when I was in Fort Smith. It was a man who had moved in. His, his sister was already a member of, of whatever church I preached for, South 46th Street. And I remember I went out to see him. He'd moved in from California. She said, Oh, be careful. He's, he's ex army and he's rough and tough and you're going to have to be really walk on eggshells.

I sat in his house and ate bread with him and his wife and taught him. But I remember I'd gone through some film strips and he hadn't obeyed and I showed him that film. I didn't say anything when it was over. They just showed him the film. I packed up and left. I think that was on Tuesday. We open our services on Wednesday at that desk.

That's all the standing for God in judgment.

And he's telling us this word is the word that will judge us. We need to know it. And then not only that, but I'll suggest to you, it's the message of hope. Colossians 1 and verse 5, he says, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven of which you heard before. In the word, truth of the gospel.

So here again, we're, we're back to this idea that the gospel is equal to the truth. But he also says, it is the word of hope.

Can you just imagine how many people, or, or think about how many people end their life because they are so desperately miserable and helpless that they feel hopeless and so they take their life. Or how many people maybe don't take their life, but they're still miserable because they're just walking around not knowing what to do or, or they're walking around in sin knowing it's not right.

And all the time he's telling us this gospel. This is the gospel that can give us hope. Something that we would desire, but also something we could actually expect.

That doesn't mean that there's no consequences to our sins on earth. We can do some things and we have consequences of it, but it can be forgiven because of the gospel. And it doesn't mean that we're not going to have some problems while we're here in this earth and maybe some pains and aches and so forth, but it does mean that there'll be a time when we make it to heaven and all the tears will be wiped away and, and death will be gone.

No need for a sun and moon. That hope, you learn about it. And you learn how to get it in the gospel. And so I'd say that's the reason we need to know what the gospel is. And, and not only do we need to know it, but we need to, to do it. We need to obey it. And so we're back again to that question. What is the gospel?

The word gospel comes from a Greek word euangelion, the word we get our word evangelist from. And if you look it up in Strong, he tells us it means really, literally, a good message. And even if you look in Thayer's, it says it's good tidings. And Vines in his expository dictionary says it's a good message.

And according to my computer program, it's a word that's used in the New Testament some 79 times in 75 verses. And I, I ran all of those verses and looked at them. But about 33 times, That word, gospel, is connected with the word of, and it says the gospel of,

and I think we can learn a lot by looking at these phrases that connect the word gospel with these words. We've already talked about the fact that it is called the gospel of salvation from Ephesians the first chapter in verse 13, and so we might go back over that again just to tell you that, that we need to be saved, and it's the gospel.

It is the message that saves us, he says, and that we're going to have to believe in his death and burial and resurrection, and we're going to have to obey those commands that he was talking about, that he said, what's going to happen to those people that obey not the gospel? It is the gospel of salvation.

Very closely associated with that maybe is, it is the gospel of the grace of God. In Acts 20 and verse 24, Paul is preaching, he said, None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Notice this gospel is called the grace of God. of God. That's because it's good news to find out about grace. That our salvation is by grace and if it was not for grace, we couldn't have salvation. Paul wrote in the book of Romans the sixth chapter and he said the wages of sin is death and I think he's talking about spiritual separation from God, not just death on this world, but eternal death even.

Second death is revelation. But the free gift of God is eternal life or his life. That's good news that we don't have to suffer the consequences of sin even though we've been sinners. That there's grace whereby we can get rid of our sins. That's good news. That's the good news of the gospel.

And maybe also along those lines, it's the gospel of peace. Romans, the 10th chapter, verse 15, Paul would call it the gospel of peace. How beautiful are the feet of those who are preachers for the gospel of peace. And then in the book of Ephesians, in the 6th chapter, verse 15, Paul is talking about the armor that we have.

And he says, having your feet shod in the gospel of peace. And maybe somebody thinks, how can it be a gospel of peace when this world is so chaotic? Well, the peace that he's talking about comes from salvation. The peace that comes from knowing your father is the almighty God. The peace that comes from God inviting you to cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you, as he talks about in first Peter five and verse seven, knowing that there's nothing.

Beyond His knowledge and His power, there's peace in His promises. There's peace in the promise that He shall wipe away all our tears, and there'll be a time when there's no more death and no more pain. The peace that we sing about when we say peace, perfect peace, that's the message of the gospel. It is the gospel of peace.

And then let me suggest to you, it's called the gospel of the kingdom, and sometimes the gospel of the kingdom of God. Amen. And what he's telling us, this is good news. He's telling us about a kingdom that is really good news. There's lots of kingdoms you could talk about that wouldn't make you want to go there.

But somehow this is a kingdom that is considered to be good news. And it's because it's a kingdom like no other kingdom. This is a kingdom in which Jesus is the king. You remember how he stood before Pilate, and they asked him, Are you a king? And he said, Thou sayeth. He wasn't talking about being a king of the Jews in this world or any other country, but he was talking about I am king of the kingdom of God.

It is a kingdom of righteousness. Romans the 14th chapter in verse 17. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It's exciting just reading the gospel of God. Righteous. I don't know about you, but I get tired of even listening to the news and all of the evil and corruption that we have to put up with.

And yet, here's a place that is saying, it's a kingdom of righteousness. He points out there's not going to be this evil, and it's going to be an everlasting kingdom. You know, we Americans pretty much think, you know, the best type of government is democracy. Only if you don't have the very best king forever.

If you had a good king and he was going to die, that gives you concern. You have a bad king, you warn him to die, maybe so you can get out from under his yoke. And maybe when you look at that, then democracy looks pretty good, because we can vote people in and vote people out. But we've had some pretty bad fellows for a while, at times, that were in the office and wasn't doing things I like.

But if you could pick a king, That was forever righteous, forever using His power to make things right and good. And that's what the kingdom of God is. It's an everlasting kingdom. Look if you will, excuse me, look if you would to the book of Hebrews and the 12th chapter. Listen to him in verse 28. He says, Therefore since we've received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, Let us have grace by which we may serve God except with reverence and godly fear.

It's not going to pass away. It's going to be there forever. And this is the gospel of the kingdom. It is the gospel of Christ, or the gospel of the Son of God, or the gospel of the Lord, or the Son of, or Christ the Lord. I give you a whole lot of passages. This is probably the most frequently of all these gospel like things.

And maybe one of the quickest passages to look at that gives you a good idea of this. Philippians 1. 27, Only let your conduct be Worthy of the gospel of Christ. So he calls it the gospel of Christ. The good news of Christ, if you would. And that's because he came to save us. Matthew, the first chapter. He shall be called Jesus because he will save the people from their sins.

His death, burial, and resurrection are essential to our salvation. Yeah, he did that. He's the Savior, the only Savior. Acts the fourth chapter in verse 12. There's no no salvation in any other, other than the, or no other name unto heaven given by men whereby we can be saved. You ever stop to think about that?

If you could line up, or, or maybe not line up, that'd be beyond our, our scope, but if you could somehow just amass all the people that have ever lived and, and just have this one huge giant wad of humanity,

how many saviors would you have? One. It would be Jesus. He came and lived and died so He could save us from our sin. That's good news that He came. Without Him, we could not be saved. And you look at Acts 2, 38, and He says, Here's what you need to do. You need to repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I remember hearing Ed Harreld preach one time. Well, he did a good job. But he said, You know, if the Lord told me If you want to be saved, you've got to start, he was an Alabama guy, or really from Florida but taught in Alabama at the colleges most of the time. He said, you know, if he were to tell me that, that you've got to walk from here to West Texas, he said, I'd start out walking today.

He said, I want to be saved. How much more so when he says, believe him and repent and be baptized. Why won't we do it? Why won't we do it? Let me go back for just a moment to this, this question that we asked in the beginning. Well, let me mention, you also have the Gospel of God, and I think probably that's talking more about origin, that it came from God, it's His eternal purpose and plan, yea, it is His will that is done but it's Him directing things and also to, so rightly called the Gospel of God.

But then let's, let's go back for a moment to this idea, what is the Gospel? And obviously, it's the saving message of Jesus Christ, the saving message of His grace, the saving message of His kingdom, all those things we heard.

And where do you find that? Do you find the message of salvation and grace and kingdom just in the death, burial, resurrection? Just in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? I don't think so. I see a lot about the kingdom and the everlasting kingdom in Hebrew. I I see the message of salvation being preached in the book of Acts in the 2nd chapter and I see it acted out throughout the book of Acts.

Is there any place in the New Testament that you're really not looking at the words of Jesus? Remember that Jesus promised His disciples when He was leaving, I'm going to leave you but I'm going to give you the Spirit. He's going to recall to your mind all the things I've already told you and tell you the other things that you need to know.

What was that about, other than our salvation? And so if you ask me, I just say, I'm going to include the New Testament. I was talking to another preacher about preaching this and about how I answered and I said, you know, now I've got to find the proof. And he said, you know, Harold, he said, I don't think that this was ever a question.

It was just always the New Testament. Until some people started trying to do more toward. We figured out how we could have unity while we're divided. And so they came up with this idea, let's divide gospel and doctrine and make the gospel the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And as long as you accept the gospel, just the facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, then you can be saved and we can all be together.

He said, it's when that came along that I think people started trying to dissect word gospel or dissect gospel and find, separate. What's in it? What's out of it? He said, but probably prior to that, it was pretty much just the New Testament. Well, I think it probably is the New Testament. Let me close by just reminding you that it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation.

If you want to be saved, it's got to be through the gospel. But if you're sitting here and you're not obeyed that gospel, then listen one more time to Romans 10 16. They have not all obeyed the gospel. Are you content just not to obey it? What about 2 again? Christ will come in flaming fire taking vengeance on those that do not know God and on those who obey not the gospel of our Lord and Savior Christ.

Or 1 Peter 4 17. Amen. What shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Are you content to know that you not obey the gospel

and meet God that way? You run the risk unless you obey now while you can. So if you're subject to the gospel, knowing that Jesus Live, die, raise from the dead, and that he says you need to repent, be baptized, rise up to walk in newness of life, and that, that newness of life is told to us and described for us throughout the New Testament.

Won't you come while together we stand and sing.