 As a preacher, a teacher, a student, a layman, a Christian, it's the one thing that you have to get right. It's the one thing that we live by. That's the gospel. So the question is, what is it? When you turn on social media, you turn on YouTube, Facebook, you name it. People are always misusing or in many cases just simply ignoring the gospel. You can go to conferences now. You can go to sermons. You can go to gatherings of Christians, professed Christians, and oftentimes not even hear the gospel. Especially disappointing is when people are wanting to place their faith in Christ, or you're telling them they should, but you never give them the gospel. So the question is, what actually is the gospel? Well, first off, the gospel is the Greek word you want to lean, which simply just means a good news or to give good news or good report. In a generic sense, there can be a lot of gospels, but when we say the gospel, we're speaking about the good news that Christ came to bring us. Paul says in Romans 1.16, he says, he's not ashamed of the gospel. Why? For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone, all those that are believing, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous or the just man shall live by faith. So that tells us something about it, but it doesn't really say what it actually is. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. Notice what he says here, 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse one. He says, now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel. Well, okay, what do you mean by the gospel, which I preach to you also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word, which I preach to you unless you believed in vain. Believe what? What he says before I deliver to you as a first importance, what I was also, what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. So it's important to understand the gospel is his death and his resurrection that brings about life. Why is this happening? Well, let's just step back a little bit and think about this. Under the old covenant in the Old Testament, there was this atonement that was brought about to the people that put them in right standing. If they afflicted their souls, humbled themselves, did no work and fasted and on that day of atonement, the high priest would bring about this slaughter of an animal whose blood would be the substitutionary atonement. In other words, would pay the debt in our place or the people's place and that guy would accept that also the sin of the people will be confessed on the head of the scapegoat to be sent away and this was done by a priest. However, now we have a different, a better atonement in the same way that that was. We've got a high priest who plays a part of Jesus. We have a sacrificial offering who also is played by Jesus. And then we have a scapegoat, the land who takes away sin from the world that's also played by Jesus. And so the good news is this, if you place your faith in that, John says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever that the one that's believing in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. And now here is the good news. The good news is that not that salvation has come to the world, nor that salvation has come to the Jews, but that salvation has come to the Jews and the world permanently. And so that if you place your faith in what he's done, you will never ever perish. That is the good news, not like the old news that we had before the cross. This is the good news. And the gospel needs to accompany why you need to be saved, why he died. Remember, Paul says in Romans 6, he says, the wages of sin is death. That's important. What do we say from? We are saved from death. But the gift, the free gift of God is eternal life. Is life into the ages? That's important. You are living now forever. That will never be taken away from you. And so all you've got to do, I don't know why this is so difficult for people because you see people who will get up and will do all these different things, have these different gimmicks as though those are the more important things for getting the most important thing. If you are a preacher, if you are a teacher, you've got one job, everything else is secondary. If you want to make that one job, if you want to yell it, if you want to sing it, if you want to say it in a monotone, serious voice, doesn't matter. Make sure you preach that one thing. That is the gospel. And that if people confess it, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus as Lord, not a Lord, but he is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised from the dead, you will be saved. So whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you notice, I was giving emphasis to certain words because he is the Lord. You must confess that he is the Lord and there is only one Lord. According to Moses in Deuteronomy 4, the Lord is God. That's vitally important. In John 1, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. That's pretty self-explanatory in the English. There will be those that will try to nullify what the clear implication is of this, that Jesus is God. But even in the Greek, it's obviously and totally clear that he is God. I won't take time to go into that right now. We've covered that in the past, but the fact is that is vitally important. Jesus says in John 8, 24, that you will die in your sins. If you do not believe that I am he, the I am he, the ego in me. If you do not believe that, then you cannot be saved. Now the good news is pun intended that there is a result, a positive result that by placing your faith in him, you don't have to worry about the heavy lifting. It's already done. And that is found in 1 Corinthians 15-54. He says, but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? And so because he has died, because he has paid a price in our place. The beauty of this good news is that you don't have to try to atone for yourself. He does it for you. He pays the price for you. It's what we call a substitutionary atonement. And in that way, his righteousness, the word that we've heard before is imputed to us. And then our unrighteousness is what he has to play, take the place up on the cross. He doesn't, he's not sinful, but he takes the place of the sin offering. And that's what it means. And so because of that, we can then fully appreciate what he's done. Again, this is the gospel. It's that easy. It's that simple. He died in the place that we should have been so that we could live with him forever. That's the good news. And if who you're listening to doesn't preach that, you might want to find someone else to listen to. Amen.