Foundations of the Gospel Part 1 – Lawson Perdue

Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. And we are sharing on foundations of the gospel. We’re going to be talking about the subjects of grace, faith, and righteousness. And when you get a revelation of the gospel, it will literally transform your life. So tell your friends about the broadcast, invite them to tune in. And we’re so glad that you’re here today. Thanks so much and enjoy the Word of God today. Blessings.

 Open your Bible. I’m excited to get to the word today. The word is so good. I’m beginning a brand new series on Foundations of the Gospel, and we’re beginning from Romans 1:16 & 17. In Romans 1:16-17, Paul says, “For I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes it to the Jew first and also to the Greek or to the Gentile. For therein in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith.” According as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now there’s three things that we’re gonna talk about in this series. Today we’re gonna talk about what the gospel is. Amen? You need to know what the gospel is. Then the next message that I preach on this, we’re going to share on what it takes to receive the gospel. Notice it says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation.” The gospel releases the power of God to salvation. What is salvation? When you study this Greek word for salvation, it is the Greek word “Soteria.” And if you study it in the Strongs, it means forgiveness, healing, provision, peace and freedom. Get it again, forgiveness, healing, peace, provision or prosperity. People don’t like that word. I love the word prosperity. I am a very prosperous person. This is a very prosperous church. God has many promises in the Bible to prosper you. Religion has lied to people and told them that the message of prosperity is a lie. It’s part of the full gospel. I believe in the full gospel, not just 10% of the gospel or 20% of the gospel, or 50% of the gospel, or 70% of the gospel. But I believe in 100% of the gospel. And when we preach the gospel, the gospel empowers God to work, forgiveness, healing, freedom, peace and prosperity in our lives. Amen, He says to everyone who believes it, notice you gotta believe it to receive it. It’s not automatic. You don’t just get it because you show up. You gotta believe it to receive it. He says, for therein, in where? In the gospel, he’s talking about the gospel. What is the gospel? We’ll talk about that today. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed. The gospel ultimately is, we’ll share this in a later message, but it’s a revelation of righteousness from faith to faith, from the faith of the Jew, right? That goes with believing, right? So what is the gospel? That’s what we’re talking about today. What does it take to receive the gospel? It takes faith to receive the gospel. And then what does the gospel produce? Well, the first thing that you receive when you receive the gospel is you receive righteousness. And you know what, you’ve gotta receive righteousness, right? So you can, that’s right, standing before God so you can spend eternity with Jesus. But when you understand righteousness, righteousness also becomes a foundation to receive the benefits of the gospel. David said this, he said, “Bless the Lord, all my soul and all this within me, bless His Holy name and forget not all of His benefits.” There are benefits to receiving the gospel. Amen. But today, what is the gospel? Well, first of all, the gospel in its simplest form, when you study this word out, it means the good news. How of you glad that there’s some good news? Now, you know what? I don’t watch very much news today. I don’t watch very much news of any kind. I sure don’t like to watch the liberal media. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, yuck, why? Because I get mad because they lie so much. But I don’t even watch very much conservative news because all they got to do a lot of times is tell you all the bad news. And I just don’t wanna live my life depressed. So you know what I’m saying? So, I just spend a lot of time reading the good news. In fact, I’m reminded of a story by Lester Sumrall. The first time he went to meet Smith Wigglesworth in person, it was in England. He was riding a train on the subway, whatever he was riding to get there, probably a train in those days, he bought a newspaper. And so when he got to Smith Wigglesworth house, he knocked on the door and he said that Smith came to the door dressed in a like a blue suit. He said he wore the same thing every time. I like blue too. I just don’t vote blue. I vote red. Amen. All right, so anyway, Smith showed up and he said, “Smith, how you doing?” He said, “I’m doing great. I didn’t ask myself how I feel. I tell myself how I feel. I get up every morning and I dance 10 minutes before the Lord. I’m doing great”. And he said, “By the way, you leave that newspaper outside because I don’t have any bad news in my house. I only allow the good news in my house.” And most of the news is bad news. That’s why I don’t listen to most of it at all. I just keep focused on the good news. Then I can be like my granddaughter, Ada, they were going on vacation the other day and she woke up at 2:30 in the morning. Erin said they went in there, she had all the lights blazing. She was singing, ♪ This is the day, this is the day ♪ ♪ That the Lord has made. ♪ She’s rejoicing because she’s excited about going on vacation. So I can rejoice when I focus on the good news, because the bad news is wrong. And I don’t care what anybody tells you. I don’t care what your doctor says or your banker says, or your attorney says, what I care is what Jesus Christ said about me. Because the good news is the bad news is wrong, and God has the last word, and I agree with it, and I’m gonna have something to say about different things in my life. Amen? Hallelujah. Okay, I’ll talk more about that. Glory to God. So the gospel is the good news, and Paul talks about that in Roman 10:15. He quotes a scripture from Isaiah and he says in Romans 10:15, “How shall they preach except they be sent?” And he says this, “As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them who preach the gospel of peace?” The good news of peace? You can be at peace with God, you can be at peace with God because of what Jesus has already done. Jesus has already made peace between God and man. He did that in His death and resurrection. And when you believe the gospel, you can be at peace with God, the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings. Everyone say glad tidings of good things. See, the gospel is the good news of good things, plural. Jesus wants to save you, heal you, free you fill you, bless you in every air of your life. The gospel’s the good news of good things. I’m so glad we have good news of good things. Amen. Yesterday we had men’s fellowship. James Lecy shared a fantastic message on our authority in Christ and how we’re to use that and be a witness. I left men’s fellowship and I went down to Penrose Main to pray for a man in our church who just had a major surgery this week. And he just got moved out of ICU into a regular room. In fact, I went to ICU and he had just been moved. So they told me, you’ve gotta go to the seventh floor on the west side. So I went over and I got on the elevator to go to the seventh floor, and there was a young man in there, and he had a shirt. It said, “Faith over Fear”. I guess he was about 28 years old. But I looked at him and I said, “I like your shirt.” He was going to the 11th floor. He said, “Well, I’m here to get chemo treatment for cancer. I’ve got lymphoma and I’m getting chemo treatment.” And I said, “Well, I’m a pastor and I’ve prayed for people and I’ve seen them healed.” And I gave him a testimony about a woman that they gave less than six months to live from the Mayo Clinic, who was supernaturally healed in our ministry in 1990. And then I told him about Judy Paget. Judy, stand up right now, Judy, last year on March 1st, they told her that she has stage four cancer clear throughout her body that she only had less than 30 days to live. And that they told her that surgery won’t do anything for you. And they told her that, you know what? Chemo won’t do anything for you. You’re gonna die in 30 days or less. But I went to the hospital to pray for Judy, and Judy was believing and speaking the word, and Judy said, “I tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m not gonna do anything at all. I’m not gonna take surgery and I’m not gonna take chemo, and I’m just gonna believe God.” And I laid hands on her and prayed for her and agreed with her. I’m telling you, her belly was all blowed up. She was all gray, looked like death warmed over. But I noticed as she got outta the hospital and came back to church in about 30 days, her skin began to turn pink. And then her belly flattened out. And just a few months later, they declared that Judy was cancer free. I told him about Judy, and then I told him this. You see, he got off the elevator on the seventh floor when I got off because he wanted me to pray for him. Hallelujah, and I told him about Judy, and then I told him about Jesus. And I said, I wanna tell you one thing about Jesus. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Jesus Christ still heals sick people and He still heals people from cancer. And I said, the Bible says that by Jesus stripes that we were already healed. And at the same time that Jesus took our sins, He already took our sickness. So can I pray for you? He said, “Yes, please pray for me.” And I laid hands on him and I prayed for him. And I felt the power of God go into his body. There was a spirit of expectation I could see that he had, hallelujah. And then I said, I believe that that cancer is going into remission. I believe that you’re gonna be cancer free and that Jesus Christ is your healer. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been with us today. I’ve been sharing on the foundations of the gospel, and the gospel will change your life. We have these teachings available and many more free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com, downloadable audio and downloadable video. So go to that website and check it out. Blessings.

God has rewards for us. If you are willing to do a mild amount of suffering on his behalf, to love someone who no one else wants to love. It might be that that person comes to know Jesus. Maybe you don’t see these things happen here, but you know we’re doing it for Him. Amen.

You know what? Religion was afraid of the name of Jesus. I’m here to tell you that all roads don’t lead to the same place. There is only one name given under heaven whereby men must be saved. And that is the name of Jesus. In Acts chapter four, they beat Peter and John and they commanded them not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus. And when they left that religious crowd, they went to their own company and they begin to pray. God, would you grant signs and wanders and miracles in the name of Jesus, your son, and demonstrate his resurrection? And God did exactly what they prayed. Amen. And they continued to preach in the name of Jesus. They said, “How can we help but tell people about Jesus?” He saved us. He freed us. He delivered us. We gotta tell somebody what Jesus did for us. Glory to God, peace on earth, goodwill to all men. Amen, the gospel is the good news of what Jesus already did for you. The gospel is the message of Jesus. Now, John was the disciple Jesus loved, and John shared his story about Jesus in his gospel, he begins in John chapter one. “In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God. He was creating all things, all things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made in Him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” We’re carrying light today. We’re carrying the light of Jesus and the light of God. The light of Christ that is in us is greater than the darkness in this world. He goes on in verse nine that, “He was the true light who lights the way of every man who comes into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him.” He came into His own in verse 11, and his own did not receive Him. He’s talking now about the Jews. Jesus came as a Jew to the Jews, but the Jewish nation as a whole rejected Him. Paul tells us in Romans 9:10-11, why that happened. He said they rejected him so the Gentiles as wild olive branches could be grafted into the tree, but in the last days, God’s gonna graft them in again. And I believe He’s doing that. But to as many as received Him, notice this in verse 12. “To them gave he the power, the ability, the authority to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on His name, which were born not of the blood.” That’s not a physical birth. God doesn’t have any grandchildren. It doesn’t matter how saved your parents are. You’ve gotta believe Jesus to be saved yourself nor of the will of the flesh. It’s not by the works that we have done that were saved, but by His mercy that He saved us. Titus 3:5 says, “And washed us with the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, nor of the will of man.” It’s not about religion again, it’s not about how much you pray. Buddhism won’t save you because Buddha can’t save you. Islam won’t save you because Muhammad can’t save you. Only Jesus can save you because Jesus is the only one who was God, who became a man, born of a virgin, lived a sinless, holy, perfect, pure life died on the cross for your sins, and God raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord. And Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. And one day he’ll come again to receive all of those who believe on Him.

Congregation Amen.

But it’s not by religion that were saved. It’s not by ideas of our mind, but you must be born of God. That’s why Jesus said in John three, you must be born again. He said in verse 14, in the word, “Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten, the only one of the Father.” Full now, notice what he says of grace and truth. The gospels, the message of Jesus. Jesus who is God became flesh and he lived among us. He was full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried, said, “This is He of whom I spoke. He who comes after me is preferred before me. For He was before me of His fullness. We have all received grace for grace.” How many of you know you received the grace of God so you can fulfill the grace of God on your life? Not only that, but He gives more grace. There was grace on us even before we were born. Paul says this in second Timothy chapter 1:8 He said that before the foundation of the world, God knew us and he called us and he saved us by his grace. That’s amazing grace. But as you study the Bible, we’re saved by grace. We’re to grow in grace. There’s gifts of grace. Amen. The Bible also says this, that there’s grace for eternity. That in eternity we might receive the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us, in the person of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter 2:7, grace upon grace, notice verse 17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Notice what he says, he says, “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Lemme show you a little gospel equation. Truth minus grace equals law. And if you read what Paul says about law in Romans chapter seven, Paul says that what should have been life to me brought death. But truth plus grace equals Jesus that brings life. And you know, it’s so easy to move from grace and truth to truth without grace. See, but you have to decide. Do you wanna minister grace to people? Do you wanna minister the gospel to people or do you just want to tell them the truth? ‘Cause times people got ahold of the truth, but they have literally no grace whatsoever. And you know what, truth minus grace equals law that produces death. Paul said that was supposed to bring life brought death. But truth plus grace equals Jesus that brings life. And we need to keep sharing the truth, enfolded in love, enfolded in the grace of God so we can bring people to know Jesus. So the gospel is the good news, amen. Of what Jesus already did for you. The gospel is the message of Jesus. But the gospel also ultimately is the message of grace. When I got a revelation of the message of grace, it was 1994, I’d been pastoring in Kit Carson, Colorado at that point in time for six years, and Andrew Wommack came and shared and it just burst through to me. It just became revelation and it really changed my life. But when I got that revelation of grace, I was sharing, I had a good friend in the town. He was a Lutheran pastor. He was born again. He loved us. His aunt and uncle were Pentecostal. And even though people in his church didn’t understand us, he understood us and we shared the gospel. And I was sharing with him about grace and he said, “Oh, we call that in the Lutheran church, the law and the gospel”, because the gospel ultimately is the message of grace. And we had great fellowship. Paul actually talked about this in the book of Acts chapter 20, when he was speaking to the Ephesians elders giving his departure message. And he said this in Acts 20:24, he said, he’s talking about every place that I go. People are prophesying to me and telling me that when I get to Jerusalem, that there are gonna be bonds, people are gonna, you know, there’s not good things gonna happen. But he said in verse 24, “None of these things move me neither account I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” He says, “This is my ministry to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Then he went on in this farewell sermon and said to these elders at Ephesus in verse 32, “Now brethren, I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified”, the word of God’s grace will build you up and give you an inheritance. Amen, you see what happens when we preach law is law causes people to have a sense of their own failure when we preach performance and it actually separates them from God instead of bringing them to God. So something may be true, but it may not bring them to Jesus. And we wanna preach Jesus. We wanna preach grace, right? We wanna preach the truth in folded in grace so that truth ultimately brings people to Jesus. Amen. And just doesn’t show them their shortcoming. In fact, if you go on in John chapter 1:18, John says this, “No man has seen God comprehended or understood who God is, but to only begotten son who’s in the bosom of the Father.” He has revealed him. Jesus came to show us God. In Jesus demonstrated grace. He was very gracious with worldly people. He was very gracious with sinners. He was very direct with people who were caught up in religion rather than true righteousness. When Jesus got angry, it was usually about religion. But if you study the Old Testament, the Old Testament first of all shows us who God is. Then it shows us what God’s promises are. But the third thing that happens when you get into the Old Testament is ultimately it will show you your shortcoming so that you won’t be able to receive from God, who God is and His promises are consistent. His promises come out of who He is. For instance, He says this, He said, “I am the Lord your provider”, and there’s promises of provision that come outta that. He said, “I’m the Lord your healer.” There’s promises of healing that come out of that. “I am the Lord. Your righteousness.” And there’s promises of righteousness that come out of that, right? So that’s what the Old Testament is. Friends, we have been sharing on foundations of the gospel, and primarily we’ve been talking about the grace of God. And grace doesn’t only make salvation available to us. Grace makes all of the promises of God a reality to us today. And we have a lot of teaching on this, a lot more teaching on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. Absolutely free of charge. It’s downloadable audio, downloadable video and many other things. And so if you want to get that, we want you to access that. And if you need prayer, give us a call today. Thank you so much and blessings.

Announcer Discover the life-changing power of the Gospel with Pastor Lawson’s “Foundations of the Gospel” series rooted in grace, faith, and righteousness. This teaching equips you to receive, live, and boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with your own digital copy of “Foundations of the Gospel”, a $15 value free of charge. Don’t wait, download your copy today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

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