The Purpose of the Gospel (Part 1) - Belief of the Gospel is Not Necessary for Eternal Life

Watch the video of this sermon on YouTube: The Purpose of the Gospel (Part 1) - Belief of the Gospel is Not Necessary for Eternal Life. To learn more about Sovereign Grace, click here: Sovereign Grace To listen to or watch the previous sermon in the series, click here: He Shall Save His People From Their Sins To listen to or watch the next sermon in the series, click here: The Purpose of the Gospel (Part 2) The Purpose of the Gospel I. A common question which is often asked when someone first hears of the doctrine of sovereign grace is: "If God chose people to save before He even created the world, then what is the point of preaching the gospel?". II. The word "gospel" means "good tidings" or "good news" (Rom 10:15 c/w Isa 52:7; Nah 1:15). 1. Gospel - 1. a. ‘The glad tidings (of the kingdom of God)’ announced to the world by Jesus Christ. Hence, the body of religious doctrine taught by Christ and His apostles; the Christian revelation, religion or dispensation. 2. The gospel is the good news about what Jesus did. The gospel tells us that: A. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again three days later according to the scriptures (1Co 15:1-4). B. Jesus destroyed the devil who had the power of death (Heb 2:14). C. Jesus delivered us from the power of darkness (Col 1:13). D. Because Jesus rose from the dead, so will we (1Co 15:20-23). E. Jesus gave us eternal life (1Jo 5:11). III. The gospel, or the good news, is the declaration of an event that happened which brought salvation to men; but the gospel doesn't cause the event to happen, it just declares what already happened. 1. For example: your brother gets into an accident and is knocked unconscious and when he gets to the hospital the surgeon does a heart transplant to save his life. When he wakes up in the hospital, you tell him what happened and that the heart transplant saved his life. A. In this case, the good news (the gospel) is that the surgeon was able to give him a heart transplant which saved his life. B. The act of telling him the good news (the gospel) didn't give him the new heart and save his life. C. The act of him believing the good news (the gospel) didn't give him the new heart, it just allowed him to know it and to be thankful for it. D. Once he has heard and believed the good news (the gospel), he can thank the surgeon that did the transplant and tell others what a great job he did in saving his life. 2. The real gospel is the good news that Jesus died for our sins, saved us from eternal death, and gave us eternal life. A. The act of telling someone the gospel doesn't give him eternal life, it simply declares what Jesus did. B. The act of believing the gospel doesn't give the person eternal life, it just allows him to know that he has it and to be thankful for it. C. Once a person has heard the gospel and believed it, he can thank God who saved him and tell others what God did for him. IV. Is belief of the gospel necessary for a person to have eternal life? 1. Necessary - 1. a. Indispensable, requisite, essential, needful; that cannot be done without. 2. If belief of the gospel is necessary for a person to have eternal life, then every person who does not believe the gospel is going to hell. A. Babies can't believe the gospel. Therefore if belief of the gospel is necessary for a person to have eternal life, then all babies are going to hell. B. If at least some babies go to heaven when they die, and they don't believe the gospel, then belief of the gospel is not necessary to have eternal life. C. If it is believed that all babies go to heaven when they die because they have no sin (which is not true - Rom 5:12), then belief of the gospel is not necessary to have eternal life. 3. If belief of the gospel is necessary for a person to have eternal life, and it is first necessary to hear the word of God before one can believe the gospel (Rom 10:14-17), then every person who does not hear the gospel is going to hell. A. This would mean that every heathen in the jungles of Africa or South America who has never heard the gospel is going to hell. B. If all the heathen in the bush are going to hell because they were not fortunate enough to hear the gospel, and all the people who were fortunate enough to hear it are heaven-bound, but are too lazy to preach it to others, which will in turn cause them to go to hell; then what kind of God is that who would save in such a way? C. This also puts the power of eternal life in the hands of the believer: he would decide who goes to heaven or hell by deciding to share or withhold the gospel from a person. D. If it is believed that God will have mercy and save them which have never heard the gospel, then belief of the gospel is not necessary to have eternal life. i. If all those who have not heard the gospel are going to heaven because of God's mercy, then why send missionaries to preach the gospel to them? ii. If they are already going to heaven, and they hear the gospel and believe it, the gospel does nothing for them eternally speaking. iii. If they are going to heaven until they hear the gospel and reject it, then the gospel becomes an instrument of condemnation instead of salvation. iv. In such a case, the best thing we could do is stay at home and share the gospel with nobody because doing so will send men to hell that were headed to heaven. 4. The belief that people such as babies, the heathen, the mentally handicapped, etc. who cannot (or have not the opportunity to) believe the gospel will be saved by God's mercy and grace alone is partly right. A. This is how God saves all of His people, not just those who cannot believe -- by His mercy and grace (Tit 3:5; 2Ti 1:9). i. Our unbelief will not stop God from saving us if we be His elect children (Rom 3:3-4; 2Ti 2:13). ii. God even saves His elect who are enemies of the gospel (Rom 11:28-29; Psa 89:30-34). iii. Does this mean we should continue in sin? God forbid. (Rom 6:1-2; Rom 3:8) B. It is partly right because God does save some of those people (babies, heathen, handicapped) by His mercy and grace, but not all of them. C. God saves people out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, but not every person from a particular tribe just because the whole tribe never heard the gospel (Rev 5:9). D. God is not a respecter of persons (Rom 2:11) and He doesn't save people based on their circumstances, but only on His purpose according to election (Rom 9:11-13).