This second message was Steve’s follow-up to his talk on ‘Humility and Pride’. It could have been subtitled: “How to Overcome Pride,” because this truly is the means to that end. Steve first read 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 which says:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

For Paul he DECIDED to know nothing except Christ crucified. This is before he begins to address all sorts of issues in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: incest, marriage, the Lord’ Supper, the role of women, the resurrection, lawsuits among Christians, etc. In other words, the answer to all of these issues would never be separated from the core of the Gospel, the cross of Christ. And so if Paul sees preaching the Gospel to yourself daily in all things important, we should also.

What does this mean?

We need to understand that the Gospel is absolutely counter-intuitive to ourselves. To think that God relates to us on the basis of someone else’s righteousness and not our righteousness goes against our inherent pride. Our minds and hearts are naturally inclined to head towards legalism and licentiousness.

So when we make the Gospel the central reference point of our lives, our nature screams out self-righteousness. When we arise in the morning, we want anything but the Gospel. We are thinking of what we need to get done for the day. We are feeling guilty of the dream we had. We are always feeling guilty. We need the Gospel’s truth. The Gospel is the sum total of the saving truth of Jesus Christ according to J. I. Packer. And every moment of every day we must remind ourselves of the truth of Calvary. Therefore, we must, like Paul, intentionally DECIDE to know nothing except Christ crucified.

Why is this so important?

1. The Gospel draws us away from ourselves and towards God.

Introspection is intuitive. We will do introspection whether we want to or not. But looking to God after introspection is counter-intuitive. We naturally look to ourselves for solutions and we do not look to God at all.

Ephesians 2:4-7 has these wondrous words:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

What is mind-boggling, as Steve observed, was the marvelous truth of verse 7. Because of the Gospel, the coming ages (eternity) will be an endless truth of the Gospel that will continually remind us of what God has done through His Son. This sense of wonder and awe of God will not cease in eternity. But no longer will preaching the Gospel to ourselves be counter-intuitive, but it will be perfectly intuitive and such wonder will be an everlasting delight!

2. The Gospel reveals accurately what God is like and keeps us thinking right thoughts about God.

3. The Gospel is the deepest and most profound truth we can reflect upon.

We need to preach the Gospel every day because guilt preaches to us every day and offers us a false salvation. We tend to think if we pray harder or read Scripture more or go on missions then we’ll be okay and washed of our guilt. But this never frees us from guilt.

4. The Gospel keeps us from temptation that preaches to us every day.

5. The Gospel keeps us from the sin that preaches to us every day.

6. The Gospel keeps us from the swirling circumstances of our lives that preach to us every day.

7. The Gospel keeps us from the many people that are also intuitively absorbed in sin and guilt that preaches to us every day.

All of these things are intuitive to us. We do this naturally, often times not even realizing that we are living this way. When Paul addresses the church in Galatia, he began this letter which was confronting intuitive legalism with the counter-intuitiveness of the Gospel:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Gal 1:3-5)

So how do we preach the Gospel to ourselves? WRITE

Write – God’s Word on Your Heart

We must ponder, memorize Scripture. We need to DECIDE to value the Bible, to meditate on it, to reflect, journal, and review it continually throughout the day. It must be written on our hearts.

Review – the Gospel

We must review each morning the Gospel to ourselves. We need to remember that we are great sinners but Christ is a great Savior. We need to remember that it is because of our sins that Jesus died on the cross. And so we are freed from the guilt and condemnation of our sins because of Him.

Interpret – Each Event Through the Lens of the Gospel

Throughout the day, we must intentionally consider everything that we hear, encounter, experience with what Christ has done for us. His work must be a part of the grid upon which we live life and view the world.

Text – Each Passage Reflects the Gospel

There is no passage of Scripture that does not shine forth the light of the Gospel. SLOW DOWN in reading Scripture. Look for places where the Gospel is being revealed. See where the Gospel is explained or anticipated.

Evaluate – Your Soul

Do you experience peace, assurance, confidence because of your understanding of the Gospel? These are the fruits of someone who is living in the light of the Gospel. If you are not experiencing such fruits, then you must go back to see if you done WRIT.

Steve also recommended this book by Octavius Winslow called, The Precious Things of God, which is now out of print, which speaks of the glories of the Gospel.  But you can download it and actually bind it yourslef and make it into your own book (I plan on doing this).

After drinking so deeply from the glorious well of the Gospel, we had to close with a song that praised God for such grace. So we closed with Vicki Cook’s rendition of “Before the Throne of God Above.” The words are:

Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong, a perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands,
No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there,
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the Risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I Am,
The King of glory and of grace,
One with Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God,
With Christ my Savior and my God.

One with Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God,
With Christ my Savior and my God.