## **Introduction – A Message That Endures**
Video Ill.: Sermon Bumper 3
In our families, we all have things that we would consider timeless treasures.
Some of these may hold great monetary worth, while others are valuable for a much deeper reason — the memories attached to them.
For instance, I have an old clock radio that belonged to my great aunt. Monetarily, it is probably not worth much at all — especially after I dropped it the day she gave it to me. The case is cracked, the corner is missing, and I had to glue parts of it back together. It still works, though. Despite its flaws, that old clock radio sits in a place of honor on my desk. It is a timeless treasure because of the memories and meaning it carries.
If you look around your own home, you probably have timeless treasures, too — maybe not an old beat up radio, but maybe an old photograph, a set of books, a trinket from your grandparents, or a worn family Bible filled with notes and names written in the margins.
Their value is not measured in dollars and cents. They are treasures because their worth increases as they are passed down — generation to generation — each one attaching new memories, new meaning, and new gratitude. Their value is not constrained by the ebb and flow of opinions, ideas, and ever fluctuations in the stock market. They are valuable because they are constant and never changing. Their meaning grows as time passes.
The Bible Treasure
By Robert Leroe
(Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith)
Copied from Sermon Central
Kathleen Norris tells the story of a South Dakota rancher and his bride who received a leather-bound Bible as a wedding gift from the groom's grandfather. They wrote a thank-you note and stowed the Bible away on a closet shelf, out of the way.
As time passed, the grandfather repeatedly asked the couple how they liked the Bible. The rancher was confused as to how to respond. Hadn't they already expressed their appreciation? But the grandfather persisted. Eventually the young man dug out the gift; as he leafed through it, $20 bills fluttered out, 66 in all — one at the beginning of Genesis and in each succeeding book.
The Bible certainly became a treasure because of the money that was found within. But the Scriptures, the truth, contained in that Bible are the real treasure.
Billy Graham, "truth Is Timeless. Truth Does Not ...
By Sermon Central
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Billy Graham once said, “Truth is timeless. Truth does not change from one age to another, from one people to another, from one geographical location to another. Men’s ideas may differ, men’s custom’s may change, men’s moral codes may vary, but the great all prevailing truth stands for time and eternity.”
And, that is the heart of our study today: The truth of the gospel is timeless, in spite of how much and how fast the world changes.
You can almost measure time by how fast the world changes.
The way we communicate, the way we travel, the way we shop — it all looks completely different than it did just a few weeks, a few months, a few years ago.
Trends fade. Technology advances. What was “cutting edge” yesterday is “outdated” tomorrow.
But in a world where everything changes so quickly, there is one message that has not lost its power, its purpose, or its truth — the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In this season of fall, we are reminded that everything changes. And while everything else fades, God and His truth remain constant.
Two weeks ago, we began our study, “Unchanging”, learning that the Word of God endures forever. God’s Word stands unshaken — it is living, active and eternal.
Last week, we saw the God who never changes. We saw that God’s character, His goodness, and His Son remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.
This morning, we turn to the unchanging message the flows from both: the gospel never fails.
If God’s Word endures and His nature never changes, then the message of salvation through His Son must also remain true, powerful, and relevant — no matter the age, culture, or trend.
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ still saves, still transforms, and still stands as the power of God in every generation!
## **1. The Gospel Is Still the Power of God**
Paul wrote in Romans 1:?
16 … I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1, NKJV)
Notice here that Paul does not say that the gospel was the power of God. Paul choose to say that the gospel IS the power of God.
That little word is carries more weight than we might realize. In the original language, the word translated “it is” is in the present tense. Present tense in the original language, though, means more than just the right now. It describes a fact that is continually true.
Paul isn’t saying the gospel was the power of God back then, or that it will be someday in the future—he’s saying it is right now and always will be the power of God unto salvation.
We could very well translate this verse “The gospel is — and always remains — God’s power to save.”
The gospel keeps on being the power of God to save. Its truth never expires. Its strength never weakens. Its impact never stops. The same gospel that broke the chains of sin in the first century still changes hearts today.
### **Illustration - Lives transformed across the centuries**
Think about this: in the earliest days of the church, it was the gospel that transformed one of Christianity’s fiercest enemies into its greatest missionary — the one who wrote the very words about the power of the gospel.
Saul of Tarsus was determined to destroy the followers of Jesus and the heresy they were spreading. He dragged believers from their homes, approved of Stephen’s stoning, and hunted Christians from city to city. But on the road to Damascus, everything changed.
The light of Christ blinded him — and the truth of the gospel opened his eyes.
The man who once persecuted the church began proclaiming Jesus Christ is Lord.
That transformation became one of history’s greatest testaments to the gospel’s power — turning hatred into hope, a persecutor into a preacher and evangelist, he himself proclaiming the enduring power of the Gospel.
Fast forward to the 18th century. John Newton was the captain of a slave ship, profiting from human misery. But during a violent storm at sea, he cried out to God for mercy, and found it in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
John Newton left the slave trade behind, became a preacher, and wrote hymns that proclaimed God’s grace, including the most famous of all: Amazing Grace.
He once said: “I am not the man I ought to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I was.”
The gospel didn’t just save his soul; it reshaped his entire life.
The same gospel that changed Saul changed John Newton — across oceans, cultures and centuries.
In our time, the gospel is still changing lives.
Consider the story of Brian “Head” Welch, the former lead guitarist of the heavy-metal band Korn. He was famous, wealthy and addicted — living a life of excess that was destroying him and his family.
In 2005, at the end of himself, he opened a Bible someone had given him and encountered the truth of Jesus. He said that as he prayed, “the love of God came over me and I felt peace for the first time in years.”
He left the band, got clean, began serving others, and now uses his story to share the hope he found in Jesus.
The same gospel that changed Saul to Paul, redeemed and set John Newton free, is still transforming lives in the 21st century.
From the dusty roads of Damascus to the decks of a slave ship to the stage of a rock concert — the message has never changed, and neither has its power.
The gospel is still “the power of God unto salvation” — yesterday, today, and always!
### **Illustration – Fire That Still Burns**
Think about something as old as fire.
We’ve had it since the beginning of time. It’s been used to warm homes, light darkness, and bring life to cold places.
No one ever said, “We need to update fire.”
We might package it differently — candles, stoves, campfires, furnaces — but the fire itself has not changed.
It still burns.
It still gives light.
It still brings life.
The gospel is like that.
It doesn’t need to be improved, updated, or redesigned.
It just needs to be shared — because its power still burns bright in a dark world.
### **Application**
This morning, we do not have to make the gospel more appealing. We just need to make it available.
We do not have to defend its relevance. We just need to live out its reality.
The gospel does not lose its power — only our confidence in it does.
When we share Jesus with a friend, when we pray with someone hurting, when we invite someone to church — we are unleashing the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
The gospel still works.
## **2. The Gospel Is Not to Be Distorted**
Paul writes this in Galatians 1:
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want || to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If || anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1, ESV)
What a shame that so quickly the Galatians had turned to a “different” gospel. Paul had spent time preaching and teaching them that salvation comes through Jesus and only Jesus. The gospel is the good news of God’s grace and mercy. Nothing else. Plain and simple.
Yet there were those who came in behind Paul and began teaching that you could not be a Christian unless you first became a Jew. If you are going to please God, you have to follow all of the rules of the Old Testament. They were teaching that you had to earn God’s love.
They were trying to “improve” on the already perfect message of the gospel — a message of hope and grace.
They wanted to add their own requirements.
But Paul here proclaims that the moment you change the message — the moment you add to it, take away from it, or modify it in any way — it is no longer the gospel. It immediately loses its power to save!
Jesus plus anything isn’t the gospel.
The gospel is salvation through faith in Christ alone — by grace alone.
### **Illustration – The Recipe That Changed Everything**
Imagine you have a favorite recipe that’s been passed down for generations — a family treasure.
But someone decides to tweak it.
A little less sugar here, a little more salt there.
Maybe they even swap an ingredient to “modernize” it.
It might still look similar, but when you taste it — it’s just not the same.
That’s what has happened in our world today — “religious” people in our time have altered the gospel.
Sin is no longer sin.
Lifestyles forbidden in Scripture are tolerated, even celebrated.
We still use the right words — grace, love, faith — but the ingredients have changed.
Our Favorite Heresies
Source: Editor, “Our Favorite Heresies,” CT magazine (November, 2016), p. 19
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/july/our-favorite-heresies.html
Copied from Preaching Today
LifeWay Research and Ligonier Ministries have recently examined the theological awareness, or lack thereof, of American evangelicals. Here are the areas where “believers” have most gone astray in their theology:
82% of “evangelicals” believe that people have the ability to turn to God on their own initiative — on their own terms.
74% believe that we have to contribute to our own salvation.
71% believe that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.
65% believe that God knows all that happens, but doesn’t determine all that happens.
56% believe that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being, leading, guiding, and indwelling in our hearts.
48% of “evangelicals” believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
39% believe what the false teachers were teaching to the Galatian church: that our good deeds help to earn our place in heaven.
And finally, 37% of evangelical believers believe that God will always reward faith with material blessings.
In 2025, our world has changed the ingredients. It’s no longer the same truth. And the power has lost its effectiveness.
### **Application**
This morning, our world has gone astray.
As the church, as followers of Jesus, we need to:
Guard the gospel.
Keep it pure and simple.
Not let the world reshape it to fit its values or preferences.
Folks, the gospel is not ours to edit — it’s ours to proclaim.
Change Men, Not Christ
Source: Dorothy Sayers, Leadership, Vol. 3, no. 4.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1996/december/441.html
Copied from Preaching Today
Another way of saying it is: It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.
Let’s keep it that way!
## **3. The Gospel Is Still the Only Way**
In John 14, Jesus said:
6 …“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14, ESV)
Better One Safe and Sure Way
By Sermon Central
(From a sermon by Reggie Corfield, Hurry, The Door Is Still Open! 8/21/2010)
Copied from Sermon Central
There is a story about a Fox boasting to a Cat about his clever tactics for escaping his enemies. "I have a whole bag of tricks," he said, "which contains a hundred different ways of escaping from my enemies."
"I have only one," said the Cat; "but I can generally manage with that."
Just at that moment they heard a pack of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid herself in the branches. "This is my plan," said the Cat. "What are you going to do?"
The Fox thought first of one way and then of another. But while he was debating and thinking which route to take, it was too late — the hounds got him. The Cat, who had been looking on, said, "Better one safe and sure way than a hundred upon which you cannot decide."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups
You know, every day it seems our world comes up with yet another way that it claims leads to eternal life. By one count, there are over 4,000 different religions in our world. And ultimately all of them are claiming a way to reach the afterlife.
But friends, there is only one sure way to get there and it is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone which is better than ten thousand ways that are not going to work!
Jesus didn’t say He was one of many ways to God — He said He was the way.
Not one truth among many, but the truth.
Not a path to a better life, but the life itself.
That truth has not changed — and never will.
### **Application**
This morning, the gospel is not just one truth among many — it is the only truth that saves.
We do not apologize for its exclusivity; we rejoice in its sufficiency.
Every person still needs Jesus, and Jesus is still enough.
## **Conclusion – A Treasure to Be Shared**
This morning, when we began, I mentioned timeless treasures — things passed down through generations, not because of their monetary value, but because of what they mean.
On old cracked clock radio, a photograph, an heirloom, a family Bible — each one becomes more valuable with time because it carries the story of those who came before.
And when you think about it, that is exactly what the gospel is — a timeless treasure, unchanging, handed down through centuries of faith, preserved by God’s people, and entrusted now to us.
The gospel is not just to be admired, displayed, or remembered — it is meant to be shared.
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13–14:
13 Hold on to the example of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Protect, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1, NASB)
In other words, Paul was saying: Guard the gospel — and give it away.
What do we do with timeless treasures? We pass them on.
We make sure the next generation knows their worth.
We make sure they understand the story behind them.
Because the gospel is not meant to stop with us — it is meant to go on through us.
The same gospel that transformed Saul the persecutor into Paul the apostle still turns sinners into saints today.
The same cross that stood on Calvary still stands bridging the gap between death and life.
The same empty tomb that declared victory over sin and death still proclaims hope for all who believe.
So as we close today — let us not bury this treasure.
Let us not hide it on a shelf, or lock it away in silence.
Let us be the generation that keeps the flame burning bright.
Let us pass on what we have received — the truth that still saves, still heals, still transforms.
### **Closing Challenge**
This week, look for one person — just one — with whom we can share this timeless treasure.
Someone who needs to hear that God still saves, that grace still redeems, and that the gospel still works.
You may be the link between generations — the voice that keeps the story alive.
So let us hold fast to the truth.
May we live out its power.
Let us pass it on with joy.
Because while everything else fades, the gospel is unchanging and never fails — and our world still needs to hear it.
