The Uniqueness of the Gospel

I want to focus in our attention to Romans chapter 1 verse 16. Romans chapter 1 verse 16 talking about the gospel and the importance as we start missions week. Uh it is our responsibility to get the gospel to the world. This morning I'd like to bring a simple message on the uniqueness of the gospel. Romans chapter 1 16 if you have your Bible with you. The Bible says this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now, you'll notice with me that Paul does not say, "I'm not ashamed of church."

He does not say, "I'm not ashamed of morals." He does not say, "I'm not ashamed of tradition." What he does say is, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ." In our day and age, uh there's plenty of pressure for you to be ashamed. The world will applaud you if you are quiet or private or non-confrontational about your faith. But the moment that you say there is one savior, there is one gospel, there is only one way of salvation, then the temperature starts to change. Now listen, I'm not trying to be controversial, but I do want to make it very clear this morning. There are not many roads to heaven.

There is only one way to get there, and it's only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, today I want to magnify one thing. The gospel is unique. It is not one message among many. It is not a religious option. It's not a self-help plan, but it is the gospel of Christ. And Paul says that it is this gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. And friend, listen, if you're here, there is no use to this life. If you could win the whole world but yet lose your own soul, everything would be lost. So this morning as we look, I would like to bring out just three simple points about the the uniqueness of the gospel.

First of all, it's unique because of its person. Second of all, it's unique because of its power. And thirdly, it's unique because of its propagation. Now, the outcome that I'm aiming for through this message is that at the end, every believer, well, first of all, if you're not saved, that you will understand about the gospel and be saved today. But that every believer here would be asking this question. What part, Lord, would you have me play this next year in getting the gospel to the world? So, let's begin. First of all, it's unique because of its person. Did you notice in our verse it says the gospel of Christ?

Paul calls it the gospel of Christ. This means the gospel is not uh first about what you do. It's about who he is and what Jesus Christ has already done. The gospel is anchored to a person. The gospel is anchored to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I asked you, what makes the gospel the gospel? No doubt some would say, well, it makes uh uh what makes it the gospel is repentance. What makes it the gospel is faith. Perhaps salvation, forgiveness would all be mentioned whenever the gospel was mentioned. But you know, everything centers around Jesus Christ. What is unique about the person of Jesus Christ?

And listen, I could stay here all morning just describing, but I've chosen three simple subpoints to bring out some uniqueness about Jesus Christ. First of all, he is God in flesh. The gospel is unique because Jesus Christ is not just a mere man. He is God that came in flesh. John 1:14 says, "And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth." The word was made flesh in Jesus Christ and dwelt among us. 1 Timothy 3:16 says, "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

That means that when Jesus touched the leopard, God in flesh was touching lepers. When Jesus wept at Lazarus tomb, God in flesh was weeping. When Jesus spoke peace to the storms, God in flesh through the person of Jesus Christ speaking peace. You see the gospel is not God sending a representative. It is God coming himself in the person of Jesus Christ. This matters not because we just need advice. We need a rescue. And friends, only God can rescue us from sin, death, and judgment. So we find it's unique and it's person because Jesus is God in flesh. He came as God in flesh. Not only that, he paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The gospel is unique because Jesus Christ didn't just come. Jesus stated this way. He didn't came He didn't come to be served. But he came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. 1 Peter 3:18 says this, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse or actually 5 21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." church. That is the heart of the gospel. The sinless one took the sinner's place. Now, I don't know about you, oftentimes whenever I consider sinners, I look at people that I I consider to be worse than me.

We kind of have the tendency to look at others and say, "Oh, they're this bad sinner and I'm, you know, hey, I was raised in church, so I mean, you know, but hey, can I say this? If you and it's impossible, but even if you had only committed one sin in your whole entire life, you would still be under the condemnation of death because sin separates us from God. Listen, there is no justification except for Jesus Christ who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Not a partial payment, an ultimate sacrifice, not a repeated offering once suffered for sins. Not an example, but a substitute. Hebrews chapter 10:12 says, "But this man," speaking of Jesus, "after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God."

Oh, what a precious savior. Not only is he God in flesh, the he paid the ultimate sacrifice, but can I also say that it's unique in the person because he is the resurrected savior. The gospel is unique because Jesus did not stay dead. Now we talk about all kinds of different religions and you know def different ones have been considered prophets and every single human prophet you can go to their tombstone and you can see if you dig them up you'll find the remains because they're human but guess what you go to the tomb of our savior Jesus Christ it's empty because he's not there he has risen first Corinthians and a lot of people and this is one of my pastor's favorite verses on a pastoral examination council.

He asks, "What is the gospel?" And this is a clear definition of what the gospel is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15:es 3 and 4. And it says, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Romans 4:2 says, "Who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification." The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's amen. Well, actually, the resurrection is God's amen to Christ's it is finished. The resurrection is the receipt and the re resurrection is the victory banner over death, hell, and the grave.

Now because he live, he lives. Salvation is not a wish. It is a certainty for every single believer. Now let me kind of illustrate this this way. Imagine yourself in a burning building. The smoke is thick. You can't find an exit. You're coughing. You're weakening. And then outside there are people shouting instructions. Go left. Get down. Follow the wall. Now, that could be helpful. But at that moment, instructions alone will not save you. But then someone does more than that than just give advice. Someone comes in, he enters the smoke, he takes the risk, and he finds you. He lifts you. He carries you out.

And he brings you to safety. Now friends, that's the difference between religion and the gospel. You see, God in flesh, he didn't stay outside shouting instructions. He came in the ultimate sacrifice. He didn't just guide you out or give you a system of rules to follow to haps perhaps order to obtain some kind of justification. He took your pain, your judgment, your sacrifice in your place. The resurrected Lord, he didn't perish in that rescue. You see, he rose victorious and now he lives to save completely. That's why the gospel is unique. It's unique because of its person. Now, because the person is unique, the gospel is not just a history lesson.

It does something. Paul says it is the power of God unto salvation. Which moves us to our second truth this morning. The gospel is unique because of its power. Look back with me. Romans chapter 1 16 it says the power of God unto salvation. Now church the gospel is not merely information. It's not just something that you you have knowledge of that you kind of nod at or recognize. It is God's power to save to change and to transform lives. Some people think Christianity is just a crutch. The truth is the gospel is a resurrection. It takes what was dead and makes it live. So let me uh present to you two very practical ways which this gospel power is shown.

First of all, it gives life to a dead soul. Do you remember when Jesus met with Nicodemus and boy, what a righteous man he was. But Jesus clearly to told him that he needed to be born again. Ephesians chapter 2 verse one says, "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sinned." Do you understand there's only two pe two types of people in this auditorium this morning and the teens watching down below? You understand that there's only dead people or living people here this morning? Is your brother Charlie, do you believe in the walking dead? No, no, no. We're not talking about some weird No.

No. Okay. We're talking spiritually either dead or living. And every person is not just merely sick. If you even though physically alive, if you have never come to a point in your life in which you understood that you are a sinner because of your sin, you deserve God's judgment, but that God loves you. And even though he is more than just to send all of us to eternal condemnation, in his love he sent Jesus Christ to die in our place so that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 5:4 states this way. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath passed from death unto life.

Now, the power of God, the power of the gospel is to quicken, to make alive. It brings the new birth. It creates conviction, repentance, faith, forgiveness, adoption, and eternal life. That's why we preach it. That's why we don't replace it with performance. We don't replace it with all kinds of tricks and no, we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power. It is the power that brings dead souls to life through the gospel. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 21 the apostle Paul states that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So the the gospel it is unique in its purpose.

It gives life to dead souls but also it gives purpose to a purposeless life. 2 Corinthians chapter 5:17 states, "Therefore, if any man," and another thing I love about the gospel, and I didn't mention this about Brazil, Brazil is an amazing country. Let me just put this in. Speaking of any man, I love about Brazil and I love about Ohana Church, Baptist Church. Boy, what a blessing to see the diversity. I love diversity. I love it. You know, Brazil, we have the highest population of Japanese outside of Japan is in Brazil. We've got a huge uh uh group of Europeans that migrated into southern Brazil.

So much so it's it's very common for southern Brazil Brazilians to be blondhaired, blue-eyed. I mean, you would mistake them for Europeans all day long, but yet they're Brazilians. They peak fluent Portuguese and they act like Brazilians. We had a group of Southerners, okay, after the Civil War. They refused to submit to the Union. Guess where they went? Down to Brazil. two cities down there established uh in the state of S. Paul Pablo that were established by rebel southerners that refused to sub they got cemeteries up to the late 90s they were still having annual southern balls. You say brother Charlie why do you mention that?

You know what it does not matter. The Bible clearly states, "Whosoever whosoever believeth in him, it matters not how you were before. If you come to Christ, you are made a new creature." In Mark 5 2-5, let me turn briefly here. Mark 5:es 2-5. I was reading this uh last week actually and uh just jumped out how an amazing story of a man whose life was completely destroyed but yet he found purpose in Jesus Christ. Notice here verse two, Mark 5:2. And when he came out of the ship, and speaking of Jesus, he went into the country of the gatherines, and immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains.

Because that he had been often bound with feathers and chains, and the chains had been plucked to sunder by him, and the feathers broke in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. If I were to ask anyone her who just read that, would you say this man had a purpose in life? Boy, what a an aimless life. There's nothing going on in this man's life other than torment, other just complete destruction. But you know what? when he met Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and we know that he had a legion and Jesus cast out the legion and they went into the swine and the pigs.

And notice in verse number 15, the Bible says, "And they came to Jesus and see him, they come, I'm sorry, to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind." The Bible says, "And they were afraid." Now friends, this is true transformation. Not just a bandage, a bandage, not a temporary adjustment. Because of Jesus Christ, we find this man completely transformed. You say, "Brother Charlie, isn't your point a purpose to a purpose purposeless life?" It is. Say, "Well, I see him sitting with Jesus." Well, a couple of verses down, he wants to go with Jesus.

But you know what Jesus tells him in verse number 19? How be it Jesus suffered him not but saith unto him? Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. You see Jesus had something for him to do. the same thing that he has for you and I to do and that is to go and tell this man who just hours before, days before was a complete total wreck when he met Jesus, Jesus transformed his life and said, "Hey, you know what? I got something for you to do. I want you to go back. I want you to go back and tell your family, tell your friends about Jesus."

And you know what he did in verse number 20? The Bible says, "And he departed and he began to publish in Decapus how great things Jesus had done for him." Boy, what a beautiful story. You know the when the gospel saves you, it doesn't just change your destination. It changes your direction. It gives you a new master, a new identity, a new calling. life stops being about self and starts being about Jesus Christ. It's where you stop before salvation. You ask, "What can I get out of life?" But after salvation, like the Apostle Paul, you say, "Lord, what would you have me to do?" You know, a lot of times we challenge the young people, hey, put yourself before the Lord.

Can I challenge every single person in here this morning, it matters not your age. For you see, I believe with all my heart, no matter how much experience you have, and I'll use the word experience, if you're still breathing, God still has something for you to do. He still has a message if you're a child of God to share. He's got a purpose for your life. The gospel gives a person a reason to get up, a reason to live clean, a reason to endure, a reason to love, a reason to serve, a reason to go. But now here is the question. If this gospel is so unique in its person, so powerful in its effect, how does God intend the gospel to be spread?

Which brings us to my third uniqueness this morning. It's unique because of its propagation. You see, God ordained that the gospel be preached. You know how. Now, how many of you believe that God could have ordained the gospel to be written in the skies? Do you believe that? I believe God could do it. How many of you believe that God could ordain thunder and lightning to preach the gospel? I believe God's powerful enough to ordain that thunder and lightning preach the gospel. But guess what? He didn't choose that the gospel be preached by angels, by thunder, lightning. He didn't write it in the sky.

You know who he chose to do that? Well, first of all, we find our personal responsibility. Mark 16:15 says this, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Who is ye? Us. So, brother Charlie, within the context, he's speaking to his disciples. I know that, but it's applicable to us. And he challenged his discip. Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you're a Christian, you should be. And if you're a disciple, it is our challenge. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Acts 1:8 states it this way. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in now it's not one at a time.

It's simultaneously both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And I love faith promise giving. Listen, we practice it. We're missionary. We practice faith promise missions. Not only that, we teach our people in Brazil to practice faith promise missions. You say, "Why in the world I can't be in two places at once?" But you know what? I'm responsible to send the gospel around the world. How do we do that? Well, first of all, we do that through personal responsibility. That doesn't mean that everyone's a pastor. It means that every believer is a witness.

Now, I have uh throughout my ministry been called upon to be a witness a couple of times and uh had a police officer in our our church years and years ago. Uh he called me up said, "Pastor, can you come and be a witness to a case?" I said, "Sure." So I go and this young man had u had taken his father's life, killed his father with a hammer. That was not one of my better experiences listening to him describe that it had just happened. And anyway, he's he's going on non-repentant and that I was called to be a witness of that situation. Now a witness is not a salesman. Okay? And as sharers or preachers of the gospel, we we don't have anything that we sell.

But you know what a witness is? A witness is simply someone who tells what they know is true. Here's what I was. Here's what Christ did. Here's how you can be saved. How difficult is that? How hard is that? You say, "Brother Charlie, I'm kind of bashful." Well, you're looking at somebody that was extremely bashful. First time, remember 14 years old. My dad said, "Son, you're going to preach next Saturday." Dad, so I have an older brother. I'm the second of seven kids. And uh true true fact also, Lord willing, on Friday, you'll be able to meet my mother. Okay? My mom's coming in and she's excited to come.

First time in Hawaii. She's like, "Son, I want to get over and and uh meet everybody and can can I head over and talk with pastor and talk with and uh sure, that'd be awesome." She's coming in. Love for you to meet her. But here's the thing. Okay, speaking of and I I remember I just got so excited about mentioning that fact I lost my train of thought here. But anyway, uh she's coming over. You'll meet her. So, I'm excited about that. But um when I was 14, going back to my preaching thing and thank you kind of kickstart that that thought back up. Okay, so here we go. Mom and dad believed that, you know, God called them to the ministry, but the kids were to be involved.

Dad said, "Son, you're going to preach this Saturday." I'm like, "Dad, so I'm the second of seven." Anyway, my older brother, he was outgoing, you know, he's dynamic and man, what a personality he had. And I was the guy that if you look at me, I just go bright red. I mean, I'm like, "Don't even look at So dad said, "You're going to preach." Dad's bad idea. It's like, "Son, once you get ready," he helped me get up an outline. We prayed about it and Saturday comes and you know, we sing and we get all the teens together sing and go through announcements and we're getting ready and he said, "Now Charlie's going to come up and he's going to bring the message."

And so I come up and I I got my outline here and I lay it down. I got the Bible and I I Okay, turn your Bibles and read the text. Okay, let's pray in Jesus name. Amen. I look up. Guess what I did? You know, it'd be bad if you just freeze for a couple seconds and you say nothing. But you know what I did as a 14-year-old young man? I cried my eyes out and could not say one word. I had to sit down. You talk about a flop. That was a flop. I'm very grateful for that. He said, "Son, you're up next Saturday." Dad. Okay, let's do it. You know, sometimes it's intimidating, but if Christ did something for you, aved your soul, you can tell somebody, "This is what I was.

This is what Christ has done for me." And you can do it humbly, kindly, clearly, and boldly because it's a personal Not only do we have a personal responsibility in sharing, but we also share the gospel through partnership. You see, prayer and giving are ways that we partner with the gospel in getting it out. God also spreads the gospel through partnership. Praying and giving so that others can go where you personally cannot. Colossians chapter 4:3 says this with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance. And the verse continues, but there the Apostle Paul was was asking, brethren, listen, pray for us.

Boy, what a blessing to have our Lord and Savior. And and he knows exactly what we need. People have asked, "Preacher, what's the greatest thing we can do for you to support you on the field?" We've got some prayer cards. True fact, I left the prayer cards. I will have them tonight by God's grace, but I do have five on me. So, if five people need a prayer card this morning, but then I have prayer cards throughout the week, okay? So, come back tonight if you want a prayer card and uh I'll make sure to have enough for anyone who But prayer is the greatest way you can help a missionary. Why? God supplies finances.

But you know, sometimes you're faced with situations that it's only prayer that resolves. Let me just share a brief brief testimony that I love. There was a a doctor by the name of Helen Rosenvir that she was a Christian English doctor, lived uh born in 1925, died in in 2016, but she served for decades in the former Belgian Congo. She worked with children at a mission station and she tells a true a true story about a young mother who came to her station and ended up passing away with a premature baby and another little baby girl. And so as she passed away, she leaves these two children. Well, Dr.

uh Rosenir, she worked at an orphanage there. And so the story goes that they had no incubator, only a box and a lamp. and the one hot water bottle they had owned had burst. There was no store, no Walmart, nothing that they could run and get a water bottle to heat that baby, that newborn baby. So, Dr. Rosenir gathered the children together and said, "Children, let's pray." The story goes that there was a young girl by the name of Ruth, approximately 10 years of age and she was the one who voiced the prayer and she said, "Lord, send us a hot water bottle today. It won't help if it comes tomorrow."

Then she added, "And please send a doll for the little sister so she'll know that you love her." The story goes that that exact afternoon, a package arrived from believers back home. They opened it with the children around and guess what? They found inside a brand new water bottle. And the children are excited and all of a sudden one remembered and they started digging through the box and down in the bottle of the bottom of the box, guess what else? They found a baby doll. Now friends, God didn't just answer. He answered specifically, personally, and on time. Why? Because months before Dr. Helen's Sunday school at her church in England, the Lord had burdened their heart to put that package together and send it.

Listen, God knows and he works. And you and I can have a part in works all around the field by praying fervently and faithfully for missionaries. But not only by praying, but also giving. In Philippians 4:15-17, and we'll not take time to read all the verses, but uh the Apostle Paul states this, "No church communicated with me, but ye only once and again under my necessity, not that I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account." Church, prayer is not the extra. Prayer is part of the engine. Giving is not money talk. Giving is gospel partnership. When a church prays and gives, they're not buying God's favor.

They are simply fulfilling the advancement of the gospel. Now, personal responsibility, we need to pray. We must go into the field and speak to the lost face to face partnership. We must hold the ropes praying and giving so the gospel can go further than any one person can ever reach. Now in conclusion, let me challenge you with this thought. Don't neglect this unique gospel. Church, we can't neglect the gospel. Hebrews chapter 2:3 says, "How shall we neglect escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" You know, neglect happens quietly. Neglect happens when we get so busy with this life that we forget eternity. Neglect happens when we talk about everything else under the sun except for Jesus Christ. Neglect happens when we ay somebody should but never say Lord I