Gospel Joy!

John Piper says “you never,never,never,never,never,never,never, never ever lose your need for the gospel”.

He’s right. Paul tells us that we have received the gospel, we stand in the gospel, and we are being saved by the gospel. What a wonderful truth of God’s Word.

Tomorrow I will be preaching on remembering the gospel. Specifically what the Gospel is, and what the Jesus did when we received the gospel. Do you remember the joy of receiving the Gospel? I will end my sermon with Buyan’s famous story of Pilgrim and his conversion. Here it is. Read it and remember the joy of first receiving the gospel!

"Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go,   was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called   Salvation. Isaiah 26:1. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian   run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.   He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that   place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So   I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his   burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and   began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of   the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.   Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, "He   hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he stood   still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him   that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He   looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in   his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Zech. 12:10. Now as he stood   looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and   saluted him with, "Peace be to thee." So the first said to him, "Thy   sins be forgiven thee," Mark 2:5; the second stripped him of his rags,   and clothed him with change of raiment, Zech. 3:4; the third also set a   mark on his forehead, Eph. 1:13, and gave him a roll with a seal upon   it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went their way. Then Christian gave   three leaps for joy, and went on singing,

    "Thus far did I come laden with my sin,

   Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
   Till I came hither. What a place is this!
   Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
   Must here the burden fall from off my back?
   Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
   Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
   The Man that there was put to shame for me!"