Understanding and Living the Gospel: A Deep Dive with Harold

In this sermon, Harold discusses the significance and responsibilities of embracing the gospel. He begins by referencing Romans 1:16-17 and reflects on the nature of the gospel as the 'good news' encompassing salvation, the grace of Jesus, and more. Harold emphasizes that understanding the gospel goes beyond mere acceptance—it requires active listening, believing, receiving, obeying, standing firm, and living a life worthy of its teachings. He addresses common misconceptions and highlights the importance of sharing and defending the gospel. Harold’s message encourages a deep, actionable faith and challenges listeners to reflect on their personal journey with the gospel.

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Sermon
00:44 Exploring the Gospel: Definitions and Reflections
04:46 The Importance of Hearing and Believing the Gospel
11:30 Obeying the Gospel: Beyond Hearing
17:37 Standing Firm in the Gospel
20:57 Living Worthy of the Gospel
28:02 Sharing and Defending the Gospel
34:06 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Thank you for being here this morning. I trust that you have enjoyed the worship thus far and been prompted to be here. And I hope that we can say some things in this period of our worship that will also encourage you and help you. And if you have your Bible and want to you might turn to the book of Romans in the first chapter in verse 16, or perhaps you already know that passage and just can call it to memory.

But, I want to use it again as a lesson text. We used it several weeks ago when we talked about the subject, What is the gospel?

I don't know if you've ever had this experience or not. I would imagine in some area of your life where you have Purpose that you were going to learn something, do something, and you start down to accomplish that. And as you get into it, your thoughts just change completely. I told you when we talked about what is the gospel that I had been asked the question by someone, what is the gospel?

And I told them, okay, here's, here's my answer. And I'm not sure I can just give you the scripture right off, but I'll go back and back it up in short time. And so I did go and look at the scriptures. I started by just taking all of the passages where the word gospel is used and looking at them and from that determined what the gospel is, but it opened up new thoughts and new patterns passed through me.

For instance, I've seen it all the time, I guess, but I've particularly focused on how the scriptures say it is the gospel of of God, and it's the gospel of Christ, and it's the gospel of the kingdom, and it's the gospel of salvation. It's the gospel of the grace of Jesus. And that just reminded me of what we're really talking about when we talk about the gospel.

And it's not just a little bit of the New Testament, it's really all of the New Testament that's talking about those things that are the good news of God and Christ and the kingdom and so forth.

It also made me realize how many times we're told to do something with that gospel. And it dawned on me, as you look at Romans 1 and verse 16 and 17, and you hear Jesus say, Or I hear Paul say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That passage is telling us what the gospel does for us, and of course what God does for us through the gospel. And we pretty well summed up, I think, in our other lesson that the gospel is the saving message. It tells us what to do to be saved.

But let me ask you, what should you do with the gospel? We talk oftentimes about what the gospel does for us, this saving power of God. But have you stopped to think about what the gospel

I, I'm pretty sure there are people that just think, well, God's going to take care of it all. And, and I don't have any duties or obligations to do anything. At most, just say, I accept the gospel. Or maybe there are some that think, well, yeah, I have something to do. I've got to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But they think that's it. But as I studied all these passages, I was, you know, impressed with how many times the gospel tells us there's something that we have to do.

And there's lots of them, and we'll not talk about all of them individually tonight, today. But I want to call your attention to some of them. And some of them will be things that you certainly already know and we'll just be bringing them to your mind. But first of all, we have to hear the gospel for it to be of any value to us.

If you would look to the book of Romans in the 15th chapter in verse 7, this is when Paul has come back to the city of Jerusalem to discuss how he'd been preaching to the Gentiles and what was to be required of them because now there's Judaism teachers. Thank you. And in verse 7, Peter is speaking, and it says, And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

Now I want you to notice, Peter says, God realized it. And he's talking particularly about the Gentiles, he's already been preaching to the Jews, but he says, God chose me, Peter, to go and preach to the Gentiles so they could hear the gospel. And so we need to start out by saying, okay, I need to hear the gospel.

It's interesting if you look up this word, hear, as it's used here in this verse. It's defined as to hear, and in parentheses, in various senses. And the reason it does that is because the word hear can mean lots of different things. It can be just And we, we know there's sound going on around us. For instance, in the book of Acts, in the ninth chapter, you have the, the occasion of the conversion of Paul.

And you remember Paul was traveling to Damascus with some of his companions. And his purpose was to put in prison and destroy those people that, that took an interest in the gospel. But on the way, he said that the, we know the Lord appeared to him, and particularly in verse 9, chapter 7, talking about those people around him, it says, they hearing a voice, and it went on to say they didn't know what the voice was.

In fact, in Acts the 22nd chapter, in verse 9 Paul is kind of recounting that event that took place in Acts 9, and he says those people around him, they saw a light and were afraid and heard not the voice. It's not a contradiction where one passage Paul is saying, hey, these people heard the voice.

And the next passage, he didn't, they didn't hear it. Now what he's saying is, the first time, they knew something was going on. They heard sound. But the second passage is saying, they didn't comprehend that sound. They didn't realize that God was speaking to Paul and understanding what Paul was, or what God was saying to Paul.

And I want you to know that when we talk about we need to hear the gospel, I'm not talking about you need to be in the audience and And doing something with your thoughts and minds that has nothing to do with my speaking. And, and yeah, you hear me, but you're not really hearing me. And maybe I'm preaching the gospel, and so yeah, I, you, I'm here, and I'm hearing the gospel, but you're not really hearing it.

You're not receiving that sound. And in fact, that's another thing that you find that's similar to this hearing. That when you go over to the book of 1 Corinthians in the 15th chapter, and Paul, Right into the rankings, he says, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel, which I preached unto you, then he says, which also you have received, you know, you can be in this audience and I can spend my time talking and talking about the gospel and you can leave.

And never give it another thought. Or just go out and say, You know, I know he talked about the gospel, but I don't know what he said about it. But when we hear the gospel, like, we're talking about, like Peter said, I need you to go preach, and they need you to hear the gospel. He's saying more than, I need people in the audience and let me talk about the gospel, and then them go out and not know anything about it.

He's saying, I want to talk about it, and I want them to receive the things that I'm saying. I want them to understand it, and accept it. And that's what we mean when we talk about hearing the gospel, and, and say that one of the things that we need to do, we need to hear the gospel. We need to receive it.

And then you can even add to that, maybe, the idea that, We need to believe it, that that's probably included in this idea of receiving it. There's several passages that we could refer to that shows you that we really need to believe the gospel. In the book of Mark, in the first chapter, in verse 15 Jesus is going out to preach and he says the kingdom is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel, he says.

Jesus is going to preach the gospel. He's going to command his disciples to preach the gospel. And he don't want it just to be sound that, that falls on our ear and then forgotten. He says, I want you to receive it. And more than that, I want you to believe it. In other words, you accept it as truth. And you're going to use it in your life, is the idea.

And there's a difference in hearing and actually believing it. To believe it suggests, I understand that it's truth. And receiving it means, okay, I understand this is truth, and I'm going to take that truth, and I'm going to apply it to my life. I'm going to do the things that it says do. And that's what we mean by, We have an obligation to hear the gospel.

Don't mean you just need to show up in some assembly where we think we're going to hear the gospel and it's going to be preached, but I'm going to be fiddling with something else while that man's speaking, and, and when I walk out, I won't be able to tell you anything. He's saying we need to hear and believe the gospel is true and then receive it into our life.

Let it be a part of our life. It brings us to the next point that we need also to obey the gospel.

Interesting enough, I don't find a lot of passages that says you need to obey the gospel. Most of them come from the other standpoint. For instance, in the book of Romans in the 10th chapter in verse 4. 13, if you want to turn there for a minute. Romans the 10th chapter and verse 13. And Paul is telling them and talking to them about Christ's coming and the plan of salvation and so forth.

And he says, For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He's talking about salvation. And certainly he means more than just us saying, Lord, Lord. Matthew 7 would say, Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But whoever calls on the name of the Lord, whoever actually does what he means here.

He says, how then shall they call on him if they have not believed? We're back to the idea of belief. They're not going to call on him unless they really believe. And so we need to hear it, and we need to believe it. He says, and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they be 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. But now listen to verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah said, Who has believed our report?

It doesn't tell us we have to obey in, in, in the positive statement. But he's certainly suggesting that. They have not all obeyed. The gospel is being preached, and they've not all obeyed. Maybe they didn't hear it. Maybe they, they just didn't listen. Maybe they listened and just chose not to. But Paul says they've not all obeyed.

And he's suggesting that we need to obey the gospel. Second Thessalonians, the first chapter in verse eight. Paul talks about how Christ will come in flame and fire, taking vengeance on those who

Notice that Christ is going to come again, we're going to stand before him in judgment. And it's not just those who heard or haven't heard that's going to be lost, but it's those who haven't obeyed the gospel. And the idea is that we're doing the things that the gospel tells us to do. We mentioned in our other study about the Gospel that some people think, well, it's just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And they'll quote 1 Corinthians 15, which talks about the death, burial, and resurrection of the Gospel. But we point out it's more than that. It's more than just the facts, because he talks about obeying, and that means there's commands that we need to obey. And you see, for instance, in the book of Acts in the second chapter, just in case we get cut off and you don't hear the whole sermon, that Peter is preaching the gospel.

He doesn't actually call it the gospel there, but that's what he's doing. And they cry out, What shall we do? They understand there's something to this gospel. And there's something we need to do. And he tells them on that occasion, You need to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sin.

And that's where we start our obedience. You'll see in a minute there's more to it than that. But that's where we start. And it's not enough just to hear in the sense of letting sound fall on our ears. We need also to obey. We need to do what that gospel tells us to do, is the idea. It's all from God. And so we need to obey all of what God says to do.

James the second chapter in verse 10 will say, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. And so, you know, you've got people, for instance, that will say, Well, I don't want to get baptized, but I'm going to repent.

Well, you're not doing what the Bible says to do, or what the gospel says. You're not doing all of it. And all of this is a part of the gospel, and I'm to obey the gospel. Not just part of it, but I'm to obey the gospel, he says. Galatians 5 and verse 7, Paul said, You ran well. Who has hindered you from obeying the truth?

Notice a couple of things. One, we are to obey the truth. That's equal to saying obey the gospel. The gospel has the truth, so we obey the gospel. But notice also he's writing to people that are called Christians, people that have already supposedly repented and been baptized, and yet he said, somebody's hindering you from obeying the gospel.

And that suggests to us that there's more to it than just repenting and being baptized, that any command we find in the scriptures We need to be obeying it, if it's given to us. There's something for us to do. We first need to seek it out, hear it, believe it, receive it. And then secondly, we need to obey it.

We need to do what it tells us to do. But let me add to this and tell you that we must stand in the gospel. We, We mentioned 1 Corinthians the 15th chapter a moment ago where Paul writes and says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand.

It's not a passing thing. You don't hear it, repent, be baptized, and then go on your way and do what, forget the gospel at that point. The idea of standing in the gospel, that is, You're going to, you're going to hold on to it. Let me give you another passage that I think is teaching the same thing, but just uses a different word.

Paul in the book of Romans in the 16th chapter in verse 25 told them they needed to be established in the gospel. It carries with it the idea that they know it, and they've received it, and they're not going to be moved from it, is the idea. It's not just a passing thing where you, you know, You come, it is steadfastness in that.

You're going to stand fast in the gospel, believing that gospel and holding to whatever it teaches. Stand in it. Be established in it.

Paul's probably talking about the same thing in Colossians, the first chapter, verse 23. When he says, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, grounded. I mean, you're not going to be easily moved, lose your faith. You're, you're grounded in it. You know why you believe, you know the reason for your belief and you're standing on that belief.

Willing to defend that belief if necessary. You're steadfast in the gospel. You're not in the gospel one day and then out of it the next, and in it the next, and out of it a week or a year, and then back in it, and so forth. No, you're in the gospel and you're going to stay in the gospel is the idea. You remember in the book of Ephesians in the 6th chapter, Paul talks about putting on the whole armor of God.

That's the way we stand in the gospel. Incidentally, is putting on the whole armor of God, we're able to, to withstand the temptations of the devil. He's going to try and lure us away from the gospel. But we stand having full armor of God. But one of the things he says isn't having your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of truth.

And that's how we stand. That's how we get to where we stand. We. Make preparations to stand. We, we understand the commandments, and then we, we put it to heart. And we say, this is what I'm going to do, and I'm not going to be easily moved from it. In fact, I'm just not going to be moved at all, is the idea.

That we're going to stand in the gospel.

Well, let me suggest yet another thing. We must live worthy of the gospel. In the book of Philippians, in the first chapter, and you, you remember that Paul had a good relationship with the Philippians and writes to them. But one of the things he says to them in chapter 1, verse 27, he says, Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast.

There's that idea of standing again. That you stand fast in one spirit. With one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Notice, particularly, let your conversation be worthy.

What he's saying is, the gospel tells us how we should live. The gospel is all about righteousness. We repent, we baptize so that our sins can be washed away, and we can be experiencing the righteousness of God, as he talks about in the book of Romans, in the third chapter. A righteousness that comes from God.

By God, because He forgives us of our sin, and because we walk according to His laws and His righteousness is the idea. And so, we're walking in that truth. We're walking in that, and that is worthy. It reminds me of Paul writing to the Ephesians. You remember when Paul writes to the Ephesians, the first three chapters are what I'd call theology, maybe.

He started in chapter one and he talks about all of the blessings that we've got in Jesus Christ and they're great blessings. Then when he gets to chapter four and verse one, he says, now let us walk according to our vocation or our calling. What he is done is then for three chapters, let me tell you about Christ and, and what he does for us, how he saves us and and what he requires of us that we're sanctified so forth.

And then in chapter four, he says, now, now let me tell you, you need to be living in accordance to the principles that Christ set forth. And he'll go on in chapter four and chapter five and, and he just talks about the kind of life that we are supposed to live. He'll start out talking about how we ought to be concerned with the unity, but then you get over into chapter five and he begins to, in the end of chapter four, and he begins to tell us, we need to control our tongue.

And we don't need to be covetous and all of those kind of things. It even begins to talk about how I'm to live as a husband and how I'm to live as a wife and how I'm to live as a child. All of that is directed to us in the gospel. I don't have the right to say, well, I'm a Christian. And didn't go out and treat a wife any way I want to.

He tells me I need to, to be the head of the house, but she needs to be in subjection, but I need to love her. You know, I, I think it's really from Camelot, the way to handle a woman, simply love her, just to love her. Men ought to learn that. It'd make life a lot easier for people. They'd learn that. I was

watching, I think, Good Morning America,

and there had been a cruise ship that was off some island that had begun to sink. And I was Trying to get the passengers off, but they were running out of,

this girl that was on the show was saying they were getting, where they were down to the last boat, there were still others to go. She said, my husband put me on that boat. She was a newlywed, and sent me off. She said, you know, there are couples that go all their life, and they don't know whether they're really loved or not.

She said, but I know that my husband, that he was willing to give his life for me. Turned out they both got off, and she was back telling the story. But here's Paul saying, you've got to live according to the gospel. You need to To live a life worthy of that, and a Christian that's not treating his wife right, or a wife that's not treating her husband that's a Christian, you're not living like the Bible says to live.

And maybe we don't think about it enough, but you're going to give an account for that also when you stand before God. It's a shame that people in the church have problems in marriages and other things too, but it comes mainly because we're not conducting our life worthy of the gospel. Amen. You not only see this in the book of Ephesians, and he talks about speech and a lot of other things there, but you'd see it in the book of 1 Thessalonians too.

Paul would write and talk about how he's come there, and how joyous he was that they received the gospel and so forth. But then he'll get to chapter 4 and he'll say, but now listen. And he'll start just telling them, this is some things you've got to do. And what he's doing is, he's saying, here's what the gospel demands of you, and, and you've got a responsibility.

You've got to live a life. That is in accordance with the gospel.

You remember one of the sad statements about David was that somebody said, you know, after he committed adultery, that, that people could point at that, and don't you know it must have broken David's heart later on when he, he realized that he had, Let the Lord down. The Lord is gracious, and He forgives us, but I want to do all I can to glorify God, and that places a responsibility upon me, not only to, to obey the gospel, if I do that really, then I'll have the life that, that corresponds with it, but I've got to live a life of That is in accordance with that gospel.

It's, you know, I've, I've been places and, and people will find out you're a preacher and they'll say, Oh, you know, that guy really lives what he believes. And I'm thinking, who doesn't? Why wouldn't everybody be doing that? And that's what Paul is saying in this occasion. We need to live like the gospel.

Well, let me suggest to you furthermore that we need to share the gospel. I think, you know, if we realize how great the gospel is, what it does for us, we just do it. We wouldn't even have to have a scripture. And probably the one I'm fixing to give you is really primarily to the apostles, but he, he, he talks about disciples.

But it's certainly showing us the need that we have. Look 28th chapter. This is when Jesus is about to ascend into heaven. And he's got his apostle there, and in verse 18 he says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. And then he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

You know, if I've obeyed the gospel, I've found the message of salvation, the power of God into salvation. And part of that tells me that I need to love all of us, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, love your neighbor, even as yourself. How do I love somebody? Know they're in need of the gospel and turn my back on them.

Love ought to take care of this commandment, but it tells us we need to share the gospel. I've listened a couple of weeks ago to the Reagan Sermon on the Compassion of God and thought how good it was. It reminded me of, of how I can't be more compassionate than God is. And I need to be telling these people God's decision that if you obey, you are saved.

But remember all those pastors says if you don't obey and they can't obey it unless they hear it unless they're encouraged to do so And so I have a duty and I have a responsibility not just as a Christian a preacher But as a Christian to share that gospel with other people And sometimes you'll find people that just love it and want it, can't get enough of it.

And other times you'll find people that just really begrudge you for even trying to tell them about it. Maybe some of it is that they don't want to be reminded of where they're headed or, or what they're doing. But they need to be. They need to realize they've got a choice to make. And let me suggest to you further that sometimes we have to defend the gospel.

Paul in the book of Philippians in the first chapter in verse 17 said, I am set for the defense of the gospel. Here's the truth of the matter. You can go out and begin to teach the people the gospel, preach the gospel, whatever you want to call it. And you're going to find some people that will rise up against you.

They're, first of all, some are going to deny the idea that God exists, or that Christ exists. And the Gospel is built on the idea that God is, and He sent Jesus to die for our sins. He was raised so that we could, could have the hope of eternal life. But we've got people in this world that don't believe that and so we're, we're going to have to defend the gospel sometimes and, and have to be able to show them why I believe there's a God and why I believe that Jesus is the Christ.

And I'm going to have to be able to show them why that Jesus said, or, or, or that for sure Jesus said you need to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. There will be people that says I don't believe that and I'm going to have to do that. Or some of the other.

Things that we see in, in gospel and, and teachings that we have, that people are going to object to, and we're going to have to, to defend that gospel on occasion. It reminds me of, of Paul, or Paul, Jude's writing in Jude, the third verse. You know, when he said, I, I intend to write to you about common salvation, but other things have come up.

And then he would say and then he said, Contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered. Contend! You're going to defend it. And, and that place when he says, Contend for the faith once for all delivered, that faith is equal to the gospel. We've, we've stuck with pretty much passages that mention the word gospel.

But they're, the faith is equal to the gospel oftentimes. The truth is equal sometimes to the gospel. And what Jude is saying is contend earnestly for the faith that you've got people out there that, that don't believe it and don't care about it. Or, or maybe just don't obey. And he says sometimes you're just going to have to contend.

There's some other things I could find I, I, I didn't put down here. We have fellowship in the gospel. There are other people that have obeyed the gospel and that just naturally draws us together. We share common salvation. We share common Savior. We took of the Lord's Supper. We're in communion with one another, the Lord.

So we, we have communion in the gospel. And, and maybe if you look through all these, I think it's 79 passages in the New Testament that has the word gospel in 75 verses, if I remember correctly. But if you look through all those, you'll probably find some more that I haven't got up here. But this is kind of a deal of where we are.

And so the question is, are you doing all you should do with the gospel? You can't take the attitude of, well, the gospel is the gospel and I don't have anything to do. You've got some responsibilities, obligations, and you can't take the idea that, well, you know, I heard it, I believed it, and that's it.

We've got to stand, we've got to defend it, we've got to preach it, we've got to live it. If we don't do that, it's not going to do us any good. And so we ought to realize the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that has believed it, to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed, I think.

My question is, will you do what you need to do with the gospel? You've heard it, hopefully you've been listening, you've heard it. Will you receive it? And obey it? You know, we stand oftentimes in an audience like this, and most of the time there's somebody, some people that haven't obeyed the gospel. Now I can't make you obey.

I remember a long time ago, I was still young And I'd heard a preacher preach, and it just pricked my heart that I was already a Christian. But I thought, how can people hear this and just not be compelled to obey? And so I was talking to the preacher later. Again, I was maybe in high school, and I'm not even sure I was in high school.

But he said, well, the problem is, you're in tune to it. But some people just will not allow themselves to be in tune to it. And I don't know why people can come and hear the gospel preached and not obey. But it's important, and it's truth, and I just appeal to you if you're here and you haven't obeyed, think about it.

We're talking about eternity, and where you spend it either in heaven or hell, and I can't make you obey it. All I can do is say, here's what the gospel says, and encourage you to obey it, and I'd do that for you today. And then there's others that come, and, and their life is not becoming of the gospel.

Amen. They're here, but then they go and do whatever they want to do and live however they live.

That ought not be. Those people need to repent and get right with the Lord and live according to the gospel. And I trust I'm talking to a whole lot of people that have heard the gospel, have obeyed the gospel, love the gospel as much or less. It's possible more than I do, but if you're one of those that haven't or aren't living it, just think about it.

You've got a responsibility to this great gospel. If we can help you in any way, we'd invite you to come as Together We Stand to sing.