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Welcome to All Things Reform Baptist. Now, today I want to talk about something very simple yet powerful. What is the gospel? Now, there's so many different ways that we could word this and say this. And so what I'm gonna what how what I'm gonna share is is one of those ways. And my goal here is to just be just be to the point. I want to be short, I want to be powerful, I want to be meaning not me powerful, but the gospel message is powerful, right? I want it to land well, and I want it to be backed up by scripture. And so let's be clear. The gospel is not a vague encouragement that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It is not primarily about fixing your marriage, healing your past, or helping you become a better version of yourself. The gospel is the good news of what the holy God has done in his son, Jesus Christ, to save sinners from his own righteous wrath and to bring them into eternal fellowship with himself. So let's start with God. The God of the Bible is holy, righteous, and just. Now, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 89, it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that what no one may boast. Faith is not a work, it is the empty hand that receives what Christ has done. So let's take a look at maybe a few voices from the past and one from the present said across church history. Today, you have a guy named Paul Washer, he's still alive, an excellent Bible teacher, by the way. He puts it with piercing clarity. The heart of the gospel is that we owed a debt to God because of our sin, the debt of eternal punishment. And on the cross, God himself took our place, bore our sin, and suffered the wrath we deserve. He extinguished it. We are not reconciled through our own virtue or merit, but through the virtue and merit of his son. Look at George Whitfield, the greatest evangelist who has ever lived. He preached the same truth with fire. You see, we stand in need of justification, he says, and there is no possibility of obtaining it except by the all-perfect obedience and precious death of Jesus Christ. We must be born again. Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Look at what John Calvin. John Calvin wrote that we are justified by faith alone. Not because faith is a meritorious work, but because it receives Christ, who is our righteousness. In Christ we are delivered from the wrath of God and accepted as righteous in his sight, solely on the basis of what another Christ has done for us. And then Vodhi Bakam, he reminds us that the good news is good because God did it all. All he chose, he redeemed, he forgave, he adopted, he sealed. The gospel is not assistance for the strong, it is life for the dead. It is not God helping sinners save themselves. It is God saving sinners who could not save themselves. This is the gospel. God is holy, we are simple and under wrath. Christ lived, died, and rose as a substitute for all who will believe. We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. The same gospel that saves us from the wrath to come also transforms us. Those who truly receive it are made new. They repent, they follow Christ, they grow in holiness. But the root is never their performance. The root is Christ and Him crucified. So don't settle for a smaller message. Do not trade the biblical gospel for a therapeutic one. The real gospel is better. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That's Romans chapter 1, verse 16. That's the gospel. There's only one gospel. It saves from wrath, it brings us to God. And it will hold us, it will hold us all the way to home where we are glorified. That is it for today. Look forward to seeing you on our next episode.