Following Christ As A Saint & Sinner - Karlos Limtiaco - Session 5 - The Necessity of Gospel Grounding

OK, so, continuing on then, following Christ as saint and sinner, of course, the, the, the whole lesson, these several weeks of lessons are grounded in the great commission. we've talked about the need for an exalted view of God, the need for humility, the need for a magnificent view of Christ. Last week, we covered the need for genuine conversion and so today's topic is the necessity of gospel grounding or gospel centrality. let me go ahead and read off a few quotes before we jump into some points that I want to present.

the greatest need in the American church today is the recovery of the church's central message, the gospel. Far too often in evangelical churches, the gospel is simply assumed, and being so assumed, its voice is muffled, its entailments are ignored, and its power is drained. More significantly, when the gospel is assumed, it is in grave danger of being displaced. The church is therefore in great need of a thoroughgoing return to gospel centrality.

The measure of such centrality will be the extent to which the gospel is functional, determining the nature of the church's life, the substance of its teaching, the content of its worship, and the core of its proclamation. that is a quote coming from a book called The Gospel Centered Life, years ago by CJ Mahaney. I love that quote. next quote, from Timothy Keller.

The main problem then in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel. We have not used the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people's problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel, a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther Martin Luther says the truth of the gospel is the principal article of all Christian doctrine.

Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually. The gospel is not easily comprehended. Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all of its truth. All of us, to some degree, live around the truth of the gospel, but do not get it.

So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual rediscovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel, seeing more of its truth, and this is true for either an individual or a church. Mike Bulmore, a professor of homiletics, a local church is healthy to the degree that 1, its pastor teachers are able to accurately, effectively, and broadly bring the gospel to bear in the real lives of their people, and 2, its people have a deep personal understanding of and appreciation for the gospel so as to be able to live in the good of the gospel daily.

I call this the functional centrality of the gospel.

Walter Marshall, a quote from him in our day. However, this truth that the power for gospel or for growth comes from the gospel of grace seems to be long forgotten, relegated to the dusty rare book room of the church. Every generation of the church must discover afresh the sufficiency of the. The Gospel of grace and the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, both to save and to sanctify.

Now I don't want to be overly negative or overly critical. The fact of the matter is that there is a sense of renewal in this understanding of the gospel for daily living here at Cornerstone. We've experienced that way back a number of years ago and for Pastor Milton, he was on his own. journey of rediscovering or maybe even discovering for the first time just the necessity of gospel centrality or gospel grounding.

He's actually preaching on that topic today, so I feel like I could just stop and let, let's hear what Milton has to say, but we're going to go ahead and give the lesson and it'll be interesting to see whatever overlaps we hear today. But yes, the, the need for the gospel, Lord, help us to lay hold of the gospel. Let's continue the various reasons for gospel grounding and so the rest of the lesson is going to be dedicated to this. We're just looking at reasons for gospel grounding and then trying to tease out some of the applications of the gospel for daily living.

So the first reason for gospel grounding, number one, gospel grounding is biblically based. It is biblical, bottom line. I believe that for all of the writers of the New Testament, their starting point always was the gospel, and out of the overflow of their understanding of and appreciation for Christ, who He is and what He has done, i.e. the gospel, they ministered and so all of their, applications flowed from the proclamation of the gospel.

And so, as I've said. Here in the notes throughout the New Testament epistles, gospel indicatives are always presented ahead of gospel imperatives. the gospel is articulated before it is applied, and so it's very important to be able to articulate the gospel and then to see how it works in daily living. the apostle Paul presents the gospel for matters of salvation as well as sanctification, and so, yeah, the gospel is, is not just for salvation, but it's just as important that it is utilized as the primary tool for, for growth, for sanctification, and, if you, if you are doing the men's Bible study as we're working through Galatians, we're going to see that, like that truth will explode all over the place as we continue working our way through the, through Galatians.

I know you women, some of you are going through that with the ladies as well. Listen to what Paul to the Romans says. Now, mind you, he's speaking to believers, and he says to these believers who are at Rome, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Why, Paul?

Because I know that's what you need. As believers, you need to hear the preaching, the proclamation of the gospel, so I'm eager to give to you the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15:12, Paul says, I make known to you brethren_brethren, these are brothers in Christ, believers. I make known to you the gospel which I preached to you.

I say this is what I, I delivered this to you when I first came to you. I'd already preached it to you, he says, which also you received, so you did receive it by faith, he says, and which also you. Stand like you now stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. So you've got to continue to hold fast to the word that was preached.

You've got to continue to hold fast to the gospel word. And so here Paul is to the Corinthians, after already having given them the gospel when he first went to Corinth, he's now writing to them and saying, I'm giving it to you again. OK, so again, the necessity of the gospel, one reason, to constantly proclaim the gospel because this is, it's biblically based, in Romans 12:1, I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. That's just another way of saying by the gospel.

Because the gospel is the place whereby we see the mercy of God displayed in its grandest form, in its most unmistakable form. You want to understand the mercy of God, then you go straight to the foot of the cross, you see Christ's suffering, and that is it. And so, Paul, again, I urge you by the mercies of God, by the gospel to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Why should we surrender our lives to him, even as believers constantly seeking to surrender to him because of the gospel, right?

Because of Christ, because of who he is and what he has done. He describes it as your accept, it's your spiritual service of worship. Other translations say reasonable act of service. And, and, to, to underscore this point, you could go to Ephesians gospel.

Chapter 4, verse 1. I therefore urge you to walk. You could go to Colossians, I'm giving you Christ, this is Christ. We proclaim Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man that we might present every man complete in Christ, like Christ, he knew that's what you needed and, and through Christ, you can become made complete and in him, in fact, you are complete, but practically, functionally in terms of actual spiritual living, you can be made more complete.

in Christ, through Christ, and you can go on and on like 2 Peter chapter one, there's, he says, add to your faith, and he gives a list of things to add, right? Add to your faith, and it's a call to holiness, it's a call to being set apart. It's a call to godliness and he, many things that he says, adding to your faith. And the monks him he says brotherly kindness and love and so on.

He says these are yours in increasing measure, they will neither, they will render you neither, unfruitful, they will render you not unfruitful, you won't be unfruitful. Then he says like if you are unfruitful, he says it's because, and, and you can track this down in 2 Peter chapter one, because you have forgotten. What have you forgotten, Peter? Your purification from your former sins.

You have forgotten the gospel. When you want to grow, you want to add to your faith, you want to be more of what God, you want to be conformed into the image of Christ, it's gonna happen through a continual reme remembering of the gospel, you have been forgiven. That's the fuel for the fire. Again, the gospel grounding is biblically based.

Number 2, the gospel is the basis for walking by the Spirit. We see that all over the place, but we're going to be seeing it in Galatians for those of us who are engaged in the men's and women's study. but the bottom line is this, what are the Galatians doing? They're deviating from the gospel.

what are they doing? They're, they're, they're, they're looking to the law or being duped and look to the law as the instrument through which they can grow or be made spiritual and like, and like Paul in Galatians, he says, you fools who has bewitched you after beginning by the Spirit, right? And, and, and, and, and that is in concert with beginning by the gospel. After beginning by the Spirit through faith in Christ, beginning with him being sealed with the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, having heard the gospel of God's grace, you, the Spirit, Spirit's alive and active and moving in and amongst you, and, and you are accomplishing great things for God by that, but now you're deviating from it, taking your eyes off of it, look to the law, and guess what, you're dying.

You are dying. And so like Galatians is an example that, one book that you can go to, to, to try to further your understanding that walking by the Spirit is in concert with gospel belief. So you omit gospel, you omit walking by the Spirit, you're walking by the flesh. Number 3, the gospel is powerful.

It is powerful. So when you're counseling, when you're discipling, right? You, you, you start from the standpoint that God is powerful. So you have every reason to believe, every reason to have confidence as you come alongside and helping people to grow in Christ, that they can in fact grow.

Why? Because they've got it in them. Well, not so much, but God has it in him and if they have come to, to him in faith and they're embracing the gospel, guess what? They've got the fuel for the fire that they need to be what God calls them to be, right?

At the very end of chapter three of Ephesians, to him who is able to do. Well, look at the context of that statement, that declaration. Paul just gets done praying for the Ephesians, he's praying for them inner strength and dwelling Christ, the, the love of Christ and, and being filled with all of the fullness. That's what he wants for them.

It's just to him who is able. But look at the context, not just the prayer, but the larger context of the first three chapters, he's giving them gospel truth. Right? And so having proclaimed to them gospel truth and praying for them that the gospel would grab hold of them, he makes this declaration, he's able to do way above what you could ever hope for, ask or think.

He's powerful. And then he says, chapter 4, verse 1, I therefore urge you, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, like you walk on the other side of being grounded in the gospel. Paul knows the gospel is necessary. He knows it's powerful, right?

Romans 1:16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. There is no other place where people can access power for salvation, except through the gospel. And it's not just power for salvation, I submit, it's power for sanctification as well. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and to the Greeks.

1 Corinthians 1:18, we read the word of the cross, right? The gospel is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So like when you're discipling someone, no matter what it is that they're dealing with, you always want to point them to the good news, point them to Christ, point them to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and utilize that as the tool to help them in whatever they're dealing with, in whatever area of life where they need growth, you want to help them to just lay hold of Christ, right?

The gospel.

I love what Pastor Milton says in his Gospel primer, and, and that little book is a huge help to, to understand the primacy of the gospel and the application of the gospel, for our growth. Outside of heaven, the power of God is In its highest density is found inside the gospel. This must be so, for the Bible twice describes the gospel as the power of God. Nothing else in all of Scripture is ever described in this way, except for the person of Jesus Christ.

Such a description indicates that the gospel is not only powerful, but that it is the ultimate entity in which God. God's power resides and does its greatest work. Indeed, God's power is seen in erupting volcanoes, in the unimaginably hot boil of a massive sun, and in the lightning speed of a recently discovered star scene streaking through the heavens at 1.5 million MPH. Yet in Scripture such wonders are never labeled the power of God.

How powerful then must the gospel be that it would merit such a title, and how great is the salvation it could accomplish in my life if I would only embrace it by faith and give it a central place in my thoughts. Moving on to number 4, the gospel reveals the heart and character of God. The gospel reveals the heart and the character of God. And again, we could spend, days, weeks trying to mine the jewels of this statement and trying to unpack how it is that this is a true statement, right?

The gospel reveals the heart and character of God. You want to know God, you want to know his heart, his character, then you lay hold of the gospel. You lay hold of the good news, you fix your gaze on Christ, you think about who he is, what he has done, and therein you will have the very heart and character of Almighty God Himself. You want to know God, then it's through the gospel that you get to know Him.

Now, I, I've got a statement here to be understood against the backdrop of the Old Testament. OK, if we get into our Old Testament and think through Old Testament history, right, we understand from the Old Testament that because of sin, death entered into the world through Adam and Eve. Sin must be punished by death. Again, this is supported through the Old Testament.

Injustice, God punishes sin. In mercy, God promises a savior. God presents types that point to the savior. How God to do that.

And God institutes a sacrificial system that points to the savior, the Levitical law points to the savior, right? We know from the New Testament that the Old Testament is a shadow of the reality. OK, it's not the reality, it's not the substance, it's a shadow of the reality. The reality is Christ and so in Christ, we see the fulfillment of God's promise.

Promises made all the way back immediately on the other side of the fall. I will put enmity between, between the, the, the, the seed of the devil and the woman's seed, right? There's this promise, Genesis 3:15, the savior's gonna come, the promised seed is on its way, it's gonna come, you, and, and it does, he does it, he, Christ comes, in, in God fulfilling his promise to, to, that was given in the Old Testament. In Christ we see the fulfillment.

At the cross, God's justice is satisfied and His mercy is poured out. The cross is the greatest demonstration of the love of God for sinners. So you just take time and you look at, you, you look at Christ on the cross. What, what's happening?

When you're discipling, when you're counseling, you're gonna do that. You, you bring them to the foot of the cross, you get them to lay hold of him at the cross. What's going on? What does that reveal?

God is holy. Beyond comprehension. So holy that on the other side of our sin death is demanded. And so Christ goes to the cross on our behalf.

God is merciful and gracious and kind. that he would send his son into this world to die on the cross so that our sins would be atoned for. That is incomprehensible kindness. We will never be able to, to, to fully comprehend the, the immeasurable love of God, right?

John, he talks a lot about the love of God. God is love and in John 3:16, famous passage, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. So, so how, how do we know if the love of God? It's through Christ at the cross dying for us.

And so a lot of times what you do, you're just pointing people to that. You don't stop at the cross though, right? You don't stop there. He was buried, he was raised up, seated at the right hand, intercedes, we're not just taking a piece of gospel truth, we're, we're trying to, the whole gospel.

Right, at the very center of it is Christ died for sinners, but beyond that, the gospel includes the fact that he's there, he's interceding, he's returning again someday. Like we have this hope and we want to just feed that hope into people we're ministering to so that they can, no matter what they might be going through at the end of the day, breathe a sigh of relief. That's good news. I'm facing death, I'm facing cancer.

I'm facing trials. I'm going through tribulations. I'm, I'm being misunderstood and persecuted, but what? At the end of the day, my future is absolutely secure.

He said he's going to set up his kingdom, return again, all of that, we've got this gospel to give us the encouragement and the help that we need. The gospel reveals the heart and character of God, His holiness, His wrath, His perfection, His demands for a sacrifice, His mercy, His love, His kindness, His compassion, and even the sovereignty is displayed there and how he uses evil to accomplish his good purposes. There's, there's so much about God's grandeur that is displayed in the cross.

Number 5, the, the gospel puts forth the example that believers are to follow.

Right? We don't just believe in Christ and understand that through his death, there's atonement, there's propitiation, there's forgiveness, we are complete, and all of that is true and, and we lay hold of that, but also inside of the gospel, inside of Christ, there is the example. We are called to walk in his steps and so I reference 1 Peter chapter 2, 21 to 25. Peter says, and, and I love Peter because he's the guy that was probably thinking about death his whole life.

Well, since Christ says you're gonna die for me. He's got that at the forefront of his thinking, right? He's thinking. martyrdom, and so his whole theology of suffering is being developed and you can read through first Peter and then first Peter, you've got the development of this theology of suffering, but notice what Peter says, you have been called for this very purpose, talking about unjust suffering, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example.

An example for you to follow in his steps, and he unpacks it to some degree. This isn't a thorough unpacking, but he's, he's touching the surface here, who committed no sin. Nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return.

While suffering, he uttered no threats. But he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Right?

When you're sinned against, you don't get angry. When you're sinned against, you don't wish evil on your enemy. And if you do, you're sinning, and Christ died on the cross to protect you from that sin, right? And so he He bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you're healed, for you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

But I, I, I, I direct you to, he's, he's, he's an example, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. And think about Christ and how he lived his life. Think about what happened to him when he was taken up, to the cross to be crucified. Think about what he did while on the cross, hanging on the cross, praying as the example.

When someone hurt your feelings, OK, what do you do about that? You pray for, you love, you wish the best for those people that hurt your feelings. Someone persecuting you, someone slandering you behind your back, someone nailing you to a cross. What do you do?

He is the example that we are to follow in the steps, so like in discipleship, we wanna help people to understand this. This is important. Why? Because there's a lot of places where in so-called churches that stuff isn't being taught.

Right? It isn't. This is very important, and we're gonna touch upon more of what I did I'm talking about here in number 6. The gospel communicates.

A theology of suffering that is often difficult to embrace. OK. Don't have enough time to thoroughly unpack everything. I'm just gonna throw some thoughts your way.

Yeah, the gospel communicates a theology of suffering that is often difficult to embrace. That's why we've got to present the gospel because it communicates a theology of suffering that is, it's counterintuitive in many ways. It's difficult to embrace. And so let's go ahead and present some of these subpoints here.

One, the righteous are not immune to suffering. That's what the gospel teaches us. The righteous are not immune to suffering. We can go to the Old Testament.

We've got examples. Abel, Cain and Abel. Abel was righteous, did nothing wrong, and yet he suffered for righteousness' sake under the hand of his wicked brother Cain. Cain, Cain slew him.

We've got Job. Have you considered my righteous servant Job, and the story of what happened to Job. he, he went through the wringer, and, and some people would point to Job as a type of Christ, OK, you can make of that whatever you want, but you've got the example of Job, a righteous man, and God gives Satan permission to go after him. It's almost like God is being a show-off.

Have you considered Go ahead, go, go after him. We'll see what happens. Right. And, and, and, and Job, he, he did unbelievably well.

Perhaps at some point, somewhere along the way he crossed the line. But he, he, he did for the most part maintain integrity, before the Lord, even when his wife, curse God and died. The Lord gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

his best buddies come along and accuse him falsely of sin. the reason you're suffering is because there's sin in your life. If you're discipling and counseling, don't assume that. Sometimes God, he wants to take a righteous person and allow them to go through the wringer.

And there's purpose behind that. Well, anyway, we could, Jesus lived a perfect life, and what was the end of it? He died on the cross. He was punished, right?

Almost because he was perfect, he was punished. You could almost make that leap. He's the only one that was perfectly perfect and therefore the only one that could qualify to receive upon himself the punishment that we deserve for our sins so that through his blood we could be saved. And it was his pleasure to do so.

2, suffering can involve various types of pain, and just, just looking at Jesus alone. He experiences physical, emotional, relational, spiritual pain. And what? OK.

This is what happens to the people of God from time to time. They undergo these difficulties in a fallen world. Life is not always easy. It can be challenging.

It can be hard, but Christ Himself suffered. Number 3, suffering can produce thankfulness in the heart of a believer. What? Yeah, God can use the suffering you go through to cause you to grow in thankfulness.

how the suffering believer is better able to identify with the Lord's suffering and therefore able to appreciate what the Lord endured for sinners. Right, think that one through. OK. sometimes when a child of God goes through difficulties, it enables them through the difficulties they are experiencing to look to Christ and, and to meditate upon the difficulties Christ went through and as a result, they can appreciate Christ.

Like the story that I used to, to illustrate this. I remember years ago, many years ago, my back went out. And like I was all by myself trying to put together Christmas tree lights for the Christmas tree and I'm on the ground like two straight. I was just trying to get the lights to work, just how irritating was that just, that thing, how it is and and so, so I'm, I'm like, I'm like in this position on my knees on the ground for like 2 hours and next thing I know I tried to get up and I just fell to the ground.

I could not get up, like my back completely went out. After a couple of hours, my wife comes home, and, and so she's trying to help me up and I'm trying to get up and, and finally I'm able to pull myself up by, we used to have this half wall in our house, this, and so I pull myself up, she's helping me up and it's, just, and, and, and then, and so she, she's, she's encouraging, she's trying to get me to get to, to the back room, to, to the bedroom so I could lay down. I, I, I can't, I can't.

And she, she, she quotes this verse, right?

She says, you can, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength and my I, I went from focusing on myself and my little bit of pain, it was painful. My inner and, and, she directed me to Christ. And I thought about what he went through on the day that he was taken to the cross and his own pain and suffering, and I was just like overwhelmed at the moment. I just started crying like a baby.

And, and my tears were because I was reminded by my wife of what Christ did for me. Though I couldn't walk, I couldn't get myself, I thought about Christ and what, as painful as that day would have been for him, he persevered in making sure he got his tail end to the cross for us. What determination. So what, I look back, I'm thankful my back went out because it helped me just a little bit more to appreciate Christ and what he did for me.

And when you go through difficulties, it could be physical, it could be emotional, it could be psychological, it could be spiritual attack, whatever it is, guess what? Look to Christ and in Christ, see the example and, and, and, and allow God to use what you're going through to help you to love Him more and to praise Him. Well, he did that for me. And so in a very real sense, when you go through sufferings, you can be like the early church and consider it an honor to be able to share to some degree in the sufferings of Christ.

Right, 1 Peter 4:13, to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. So that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. It's going to result in greater exaltation. When you go through sufferings and you honor the Lord, when you're going through difficulties, then guess what?

When that day comes and you enter into His immediate presence, your heart will explode with joy. OK, there is that dynamic where that will happen. number 4. Responding to suffering in the gospel manner, it's pleasing to God.

Right, we read in 1 Corinthians 1:21, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Right, God was well pleased with the crucifixion of His own Son to save. That pleased God, the sufferings, right? that Christ endured for our benefit was something that, and Christ Himself who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

So there's a joy that's connected with it, suffering can produce good stuff, and you can rejoice in that. Isaiah 53:10-11, it says the Lord was pleased to crush him. So there was something about crushing his son. God was pleased to crush his son, putting him to grief.

If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand as a result of the anguish of his soul. He will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will here, heal, I believe it's supposed to be, it's a mistype, heal their iniquities.

Please God to crush His Son so that on the other side of the death of His Son that we might have eternal life. Right? And sometimes God has a good thing to accomplish through suffering, and it, and, and, and there's something about that, that brings pleasure to God, that he gets exalted through that. First Peter 2:19-20, this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience towards God, the man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly, like when you're going through difficulties and you honor the Lord in the midst of the difficulties you're going through, it, it, it brings pleasure to God that finds favor with him.

It honors him So we move on. Number 5. Suffering is useful to accomplish God's purposes. Job is an example.

How many of you Have not been encouraged as you've read through Job's account. Job is a key character I go to when I'm counseling people that are going through difficulties. I point them to Job and there's encouragement to be found in Job. Joseph.

the story of Joseph, right, forsaken by his brothers. Left to die, basically. He went through the wringer, right? And then at the very end of the day, he says to his brothers, when they finally realized who he was and whatnot, Father dies, and now they're afraid of him.

He says, guys, y'all meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God's sovereign over these things. God used it for good. Why?

So that God could through me save Israel. It's just part of his plan. That's just amazing to think that, that Joseph was able to have that mindset. God uses evil to accomplish his good, really.

He did it at the cross. God used evil, right? Christ suffered under the hands of evil men, and it was for God's glory and for our good. God uses like he's, he's sovereign over evil.

He's master over evil. He can utilize the evil that happens to accomplish great good. And what? That's, that's a God to worship.

You mean you can take the evil that's happened even in my own life to accomplish good? God would respond by saying, yes, I can, and I will, I will. And so we just need to understand and trust and believe and as we help people that we're discipling with this worldview as well. you got the sufferings of Jesus, the martyrdom of Stephen.

who knows all of what God did the day Stephen died, but we do know that Paul got saved eventually, and I'm pretty sure that Paul did not soon forget what he did when he gave orders for Stephen to be killed. After the death of Stephen, at some point, God would knock Paul off of his horse on the road to Damascus and cause him to be born again. And I'm sure he looked back and it's like, man, what have I done? What have I done But it was all to accomplish God's purposes.

I'm sure Paul was fired up to proclaim Christ the way he did because his many sins were forgiven, just incomprehensible. Why would God forgive me? Why would God save me after I persecuted the church and he would call me out and cause me to be born again and use me as a preacher of the grace of God to the Gentiles, why in the world would he do that? He was fueled with a fire that is unmatched to go about the empire and to make Christ known.

God used the sufferings of Stephen, I think, to some degree to accomplish that. I'm trying guys. Let me just blast through it. You've got, I'm gonna go to number 6.

Responding to suffering in the gospel manner results in witnessing opportunity. Again, Steven's martyrdom an example. But, and you can, you can chase down these passages, but God will use our sufferings, to cause people to ask us to give a reason for the hope that we have. Number 7, suffering is temporary.

Momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comprehension. Number 8, suffering may result in or end with physical death. people may, may, their sufferings may come to an end or it may not, the sight of glory, they may end up dying suffering, but at the end of the day, as they enter into eternity, there is reward with God in heaven. Number 9, suffering ultimately gives way to eternal reward.

I just said that, and you can track down those verses. Number 7. The gospel serves as the basis for humility that must mark the believer's life. Let me just give you the answers, and I might come back to this next week, spend a little bit of time here.

Number 8, the gospel lays the foundation for forgiveness that must be embraced by one who has been sinned against. 9. The gospel lays the foundation for submission. that God's people are called to embrace.

And there's all kinds of applications there, right? Number 10, the gospel is counterintuitive. It is counterintuitive and therefore must be brought to bear in the life of a believer. It is counterintuitive.

So I'm gonna touch upon some of that again next week before we jump into the new stuff, but, Lord willing, Pastor Milton will help us to further unpack. Guys, there is so, so much to be learned in terms of how we can bring the gospel to bear in the life of people. That is your tool. Christ is the ultimate resource, the only resource to accomplish eternal good in the life of anyone.

No Christ, no good. Right, that's Christ. Who is he? What has he done?

What are the implications of that? And you're trying to help. And the thing is, is, you don't have it all figured out. You, you, you, a little bit, and what, when you're discipling someone or say when you're counseling someone, then what's gonna happen is God is gonna give you the nugget you need to give to them to help them every step of the way.

Right, as you're seeking the Lord and seeking and asking Him for wisdom, He will give wisdom, and the wisdom, I believe, is always rooted in gospel truth, and you bring that to bear. God is gonna show Himself to you to be faithful, to use you as you come alongside and help people to grow in Christ, not to mention the fact that God's gonna cause you yourself as you behold Him to grow as well. The gospel. Right?

The absolute need for the gospel in ministering council, it is powerful, it can accomplish much and don't let anyone tell you differently. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the gospel. Lord, help us to understand and to believe and to experience the power of the gospel being unleashed in our lives, through our lives, and in the lives of those that we relate with.

In our family In our care group in this church and beyond the Lord. Let us be ambassadors for Christ, proclaiming the glories of Calvary. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.