Romans chapter 1. I'm going to read the first seven
verses of Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, this book of Romans is given
to us, this epistle, It says, The Epistle of Paul
the Apostle to the Romans. And an epistle is simply a letter. This was a letter written by
the Apostle Paul, and yet not from the Apostle Paul, but by
the Spirit of God, was given to him by God. And it is the first in the order
of the epistles that he has given us here in the New Testament. And without a doubt, it is a
book of doctrine. It is the doctrine of Christ. And it is that Word which is
given to the Lord's people. He sends out His Word. It is
read by multitudes. It is preached to multitudes. But it is really a letter to
His people. It is instruction and encouragement
to His people. I thought about it as I began
to look at this. And I examined what a lot of
people had to say about it, but I thought that an old preacher
by the name of John Gill kind of gave a good summing up of
what this book is about. He said, the chief design of
this epistle is to set in a clear light the doctrine of justification. showing against the Gentiles
that it is not by the light of nature, and works done in obedience
to that, and against the Jews that it is not by the law of
Moses and the deeds of that, which he clearly evidences by
observing the sinful and wretched estate both of Jews and Gentiles, but that it is by the righteousness
of Christ imputed through the grace of God and received by
faith, the effects of which are peace and joy in the soul, and
holiness in the life and conversation, He gives an account of the justified
ones as that they are not without sin, which he illustrates by
his own experience and case, and yet are possessed of various
privileges as freedom from condemnation, the blessing of adoption, and
a right to the heavenly inheritance, He treats in it concerning predestination,
the calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of the Jews, and
exhorts to the various duties incumbent on the saints with
respect to one another and to the world, to duties of a moral
and civil nature, and the use of things indifferent, and closes
it with the salutations of diverse persons." Now that really does,
if you know anything about the book of Romans, pretty well sum
it up. And what Paul gives us here,
if you look back in verse 1, he gives this instruction. He gives this encouragement as
one that is sent of God. Now, not everybody that claims
that God has sent them, or that God has spoken unto them, or
that God has told them to tell you something, and not everybody
that goes by this title of apostle, they are not all sent of God. But the Apostle Paul, as he says
here, is a servant of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, if you look
in a lot of his epistles, he identifies himself as a servant,
or as it literally means, a willing bond slave of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hold your place right there and
turn back to Exodus 21. Because when he says he is a
servant of Jesus Christ, as I said, he's talking about being a willing
bond slave of Christ, which we have represented here under the
law in the book of Exodus chapter 21. Here is what the instruction
is in verse 2. If thou buy an Hebrew servant,
six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out
free for nothing. Why? Because in the year, the
seventh year, the slave was to go forth free and be free and
could not be held any longer than that. All right, listen
to this. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him
a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly
say," now he's been set free this seventh year, if the servant shall plainly
say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go
out free. Then his master shall bring him
unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door or unto
the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with
an awl, and he shall serve him forever." Now, what is the difference of
his servant to his master for those seven years, and his servant
to his master the rest of his life? Well, here's the difference. During those seven years, he
served his master in a condition of servitude and slavery, not
because he wanted to, but because he had to. But when he went on
that seventh year and told his master that he didn't want to
leave He had that ear bored in with the awl, a hole punched
in his earlobe, which was the symbol and sign to everyone that
saw him working in his master's house, everyone that saw him
out on the street and knew his former condition, that he now
was a willing bondservant. He served his master. because
he loved him and because he wanted to. That's what Paul is expressing
here. That he is a servant, a willing
servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he also tells about
this office. If you notice, he is first. Irregardless
of what else he might be, he is first a willing servant of
Christ. And then it says he is called
an apostle. You notice those two words there,
to be, they're in italics. And that means that they are
not in the original. They're added by translators. Often it says for clarity, but
sometimes maybe not so clear, clearing. It says here, really,
that he is called an apostle. Did he take that name to himself? No. He is called an apostle by
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called by God, and he is
called to a particular work for God. He is called at a particular
time And he is sent to a particular people. As a matter of fact,
the name or the word apostle means one sent forth. And he is the apostle of God. And there have only been and
only will be twelve apostles. by the name of Judah, or a man
by the name of Judas, he appeared outwardly to be such, but he
was not. And Paul at a later date speaks
of himself in this light as one born out of due season. He said, I'm not worthy to be
numbered among them because I persecuted the Lord's people. But he is
that twelfth apostle. He is that one that they were
told to tarry and wait until the Lord made manifest who he
was, and yet rather the eleven chose Matthias instead, and he's
never heard of again. Paul, who was once Saul of Tarsus,
The Lord has not only been gracious to him, merciful to save his
soul, but he is also called of God an apostle. He is sent forth
by God. And he is, as it says here in
verse 1, separated unto the gospel of God. What did the work of the apostle
involve? It had something to do with the
gospel of God. The apostles were given special
gifts of God. They were never duplicated, as
I can see in Scripture. They were given power to heal. They were given power to do various
miraculous things. Not to everybody. But they were
given these abilities so that they might have witness from
God that the message that they were preaching was from God. That's it. When I read the book
of Acts and see what God did through the apostles, there are
a few things that are evident. One is that it was so they would
have a kind of credentials so men might know that the message
they preached, the Christ that they told men about, they were
sin of God to tell this. Not only that, but in the miracles
that they did, as a matter of fact, in the miracles that Christ
performed, He didn't heal every person in the world. He didn't
raise up every dead person in the world. He didn't do these
miracles to every person, even in that land. But He did them. And in doing
these miracles, He showed the works of His Father. And in doing
them, He showed what He does spiritually. to men. Men are spiritually dead, He
raises them to life. They're spiritually blind, He
gives them sight. They're spiritually sick, He
heals them. They're spiritually far off,
and He brings them nigh. All these things picture what
He does to a sinner that He saves spiritually. So Paul says, I'm
separated unto the gospel of God. That's the only gospel there
is. The gospel of God. The glad tidings. The good news, which is what
that word gospel means, of God. And men can call their gospel,
their beliefs, their doctrines, they can call them good news,
but if it doesn't come from God, it's not good news. It's bad
news. It's not truth, it's a lie. He says, I'm separated under
the gospel of God, that is, my gospel comes from God, it has
to do with God, it's the good news of God, and it comes with
the authority of God. Why should we believe the gospel? because of the faithfulness of
the One who gives it, God Himself. Faithful is He that hath promised. It is not from man, and it is
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Galatians,
the first chapter. And here is this same man, not
only writing to the Galatians, the church at Galatia, but also
bringing in his own experience in what God has done for him. Notice what he says, beginning
in verse 6. He says to them, I marvel that
ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel." Now, right there is an evident,
obvious proof that the grace of Christ, the grace of God in
Christ, that's the gospel. And everything else is another
gospel. It's not the gospel of grace.
And you know, it's kind of a shame in one sense of speaking that
we have to put names, or rather adjectives I guess you would
say, and attach them to grace in order to make clear what the
Scriptures make clear everywhere. We say, the free and sovereign
grace of God. Well, really, free and grace
means the same thing. But grace has been so polluted
in our day, it's so misunderstood. And it is grace which a thin
skin of a word stretched over what is really nothing but works. And so we have to say, free grace. and sovereign grace, which simply
means that the God of grace is gracious to whom he'll be gracious. Men are presented a God and a
salvation as if somehow God is bound to do something for them. All God has to do for us to go
to hell is leave us alone. We deserve it. We work toward
it. Shortly we'll be there. Grace
is God of His own will, for His own glory, saving a people in
Christ, rescuing them from their sins. He's separated unto the gospel
of God. All right? Verse 7 of Galatians
1, which is not another. Really not another gospel. But
there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But now you listen to this. But
though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him die the death." As a
matter of fact, Paul said, if I were to come to you and preach
another gospel other than the gospel that I already have preached
to you, let me die the death. And even if an angel, and the
thought here is not only an angel. An angel is a messenger. but
not only an angel, but those who appear, as Paul warns in
another place, as angels of light, but who are really the ministers
of Satan. Though they come unto you and
preach any other gospel, let them be accursed. As we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you, than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I
now seek, now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be a servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ." The Lord took Saul of Tarsus
on the backside of the desert And he was shut up to what Christ
would reveal and teach to him and send him forth to preach,
and he could not preach any other thing. He had a greater revelation
than all the other apostles, though they had spent more time
in the bodily presence of Christ than he did, but he clearly was given greater revelation,
so great that he said the Lord had given him a thorn in the
flesh. He had given him an infirmity
in the flesh so that he could not glory, could not glory in what he knew. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God, and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers, but when it pleased
God. who separated me from my mother's
womb, and call me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood." Now, the Lord's people most likely hear the gospel from
a man. They will hear the gospel from
a human instrument. He has to be a man, Son of God,
not a woman. A woman can't be the husband
of one wife. But the bishop, the preacher
of the gospel, is that man, Son of God, And when you hear him
even, you have to take this book and lay it down and compare what
he says with this book. And if it doesn't agree with
what God says in this book, you don't listen to it. I'm not talking
about a little bit here and a little bit there. I'm talking about
the whole of it. Because the Lord's people are
taught of God. But before they are, in most
cases, He's taught a man somewhere and sent him forth to preach
the gospel. Paul says, neither went I up
to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, But I went
into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three
years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with
him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw
I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not." I lie not. In that second verse, he speaks
of this gospel of God which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. You see, the gospel, that is,
the Word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, it was not new
in Paul's day. It was not even new in Christ's
day on the earth. He said these are the things
which God had promised long before and prophesied or foretold through
the Scriptures, the prophets. As a matter of fact, all the
references to the Scriptures that you find in the New Testament,
for the most part, are references to the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul says that this is the one
that God promised, that God pictured, that God prophesied through His
prophets that would come. And this is what He would do.
He's the promised one, and He's the one in whom all the promises
are yea and amen. In Luke 24, two times, first
with that group on the Emmaus Road, and a little bit later
to another group, Christ stood before them, and it says that
He opened the Scriptures to them. He opened their understanding
to show, first of all, that the prophets, Moses and the prophets,
were all talking about Him. all talking about the coming
Christ. John says when he sees Him in
the Revelation, I fell at His feet to worship Him. And he said
unto me, that is the angel that declares this message, he says,
See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren
that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." They were all talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament Scriptures
pictured how Christ would come and live and suffer and die the
death of the cross, and be raised from the dead." This book is
one revelation, and that of the Son of God and the Savior of
His people. Let me read you what Paul says
when he writes to the Corinthian church. He says, I declare unto you the
gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received,
and wherein you stand." He said, I don't have anything new. We
don't progress beyond the gospel of Jesus Christ. "...by which
also you are saved." If you keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless you believed in vain, unless you've got some kind of
superficial faith, not this faith that God gives as a gift. For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. He had to be talking about the
Old Testament Scriptures. And in those Old Testament Scriptures,
we have in all the pictures and types, the sacrifices and such,
we have how Christ would come and die for our sins. As a sacrifice, as that which
was appointed and ordained of God, as that which was successful
and received by God? He says, and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, the gospel is not simply
three little facts that you can entertain in your mind and say
you've heard the gospel. It's not that Christ is, or that
He died, or that he rose again the third day. But it's like Paul says, it's
how he died, was buried, and rose again the third day. Who died? Why did he die? What did he accomplish in his
death? Who did he die for? All those things are pictured
for us and shown to us and always have been as long as time has
stood in the Scriptures. All right, look down at verse
3. Verse 3, the gospel of God, if you notice verse 2, is in
parentheses. So the main thought goes on that
this is the gospel of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Now, the gospel, the gospel of
God is concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said, it's to the Lord's
people. Because he says, concerning Jesus
Christ our Lord, it concerns Christ and all His person and
work as His name reflects. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. What is He first? He's the Lord. Jehovah Jesus. He's the Lord,
the King, the Sovereign. You can't make Him Lord. He already
is Lord. He's the Lord Jesus, or Jehoshua's
anointed Christ, Savior, King, Christ. That's what Christ means,
anointed. And He's the anointed King. He's the anointed Prophet. And
He's the anointed Priest of God. Now, notice what it says. which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Now, that is very deliberate
there. So that you and I do not think
that the Son of God came into existence when He was born. Oh, no. Isaiah makes this distinction. That's why I say the prophets
all had it right. He said, for unto us a child
is born and the Son is given. He was always the Son of God. He was always the second person
of the Godhead, and He was made in this sense in the flesh, a
body prepared for him. He was Christ born in the flesh
as a Jew. Paul was anticipating in this
same book how that some would say, If Christ came and He died
for a people out of the Jews as well as the Gentiles, it looks
like He's a failure. And Paul says, oh no, oh no. He says, as a matter of fact,
these people are highly favored. One of the favors that they enjoy
as an earthly people, he says, whose are the fathers and of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. He came in the midst of this
earthly people, in the midst of whom Christ came, who is over
all, God-blessed forever. And he said, look at me. I'm
a Jew. He came to save me. And many
of the Jews believe. But not only that, He was born
as a man. He was made flesh in order to
accomplish what is necessary to save men. And that's to die. The wages of sin is death. And the only way we can be saved
is for Him to pay the wages of sin, which is to die. John says, And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In Galatians, Paul said, But
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. How? In that same book he said,
Christ redeemed us being made a curse for us, for cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. Paul to Timothy, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, priest
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory. And so vital is this, that the Apostle John is directed
by the Spirit of God to say this, Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof
you have heard that it should come, and even now already Is
it in the world? You see what John means there
is not only a confession that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh and is God, but that He also has done what the prophets
said that the Christ would do. It has to be that because James
said the devils believe that there's a God and they fear and
tremble. But you see the Spirit of God
bears witness that that man, Jesus of Nazareth, he is the
Christ. Therefore, he did everything
that the prophet said that the Christ would do. And all who
say otherwise, he says, are Antichrist. Here
are a bunch of preachers in this world, and they're trying to
scare everybody to death that sometime way down the road, that
somebody called Antichrist is going to come. The Antichrist. But John said in his day, they
were already in the world denying the true gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and thereby showing themselves to be Antichrist. If the Bible
says that Christ is this one, that he did this, thus, and thus,
and thus, and men preach otherwise, that's the spirit of Antichrist. For many deceivers, he says,
are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is
a deceiver and an antichrist. That's the Apostle John saying
that. that in his day, as far as an
earthly human name was concerned, they just said he's Jesus of
Nazareth. And most men didn't say and didn't
believe that he's God's Christ. Because God's Christ, in their
understanding, which was purely natural understanding, was certainly
not what Jesus Christ appeared to be, nor was He to do what
Jesus of Nazareth appeared to their natural eye to do. Therefore, they said, He can't
be the Christ. But He did exactly. And He was
exactly who God in so many ways over so many hundreds of years,
and by so many prophets, said he'd be. He's the Christ. Oh, it says, Verily, he took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. What's the seed of Abraham? Believers. Not after the flesh, but by virtue
of their believing, being brought to believe on Christ like Abraham
did. They're said to be the seed of
Abraham, and he is the father of them that believe. He took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation with the sins of the people." Now look back at that verse 3, and I'll hush. concerning his
Son." This is the gospel concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. He's called the seed of David.
And you go back in his genealogy, in his human genealogy, and you'll
find out he is literally that. in the lineage of the house of
David. But, turn over to Matthew 22. Matthew 22. Now, the Pharisees
and the scribes, they thought that they knew about everything
about God and everything about His Christ. that was to come. They could quote a verse here.
They said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? They didn't
bother to inquire whether or not he was born in Bethlehem,
as the prophets said they would, in Bethlehem, Judah, and all
the other prophecies. They said, can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? And it says in Matthew 22, verse
41, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked
them. They were usually asking Him
a question. They had just asked Him a question.
So He asked them a question, saying, What think ye of Christ,
the Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto Him, the Son of
David. They were ready. Christ, He's
to be the Son of David. He saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call Him Lord? Saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him
any more questions." Now you think about that. Really, if we don't have some
understanding as to how Jesus Christ is both David's Lord and David's
Son, we don't really know Christ. He's David's Lord. because he
is and always was God. And he's David's son in the sense
that he was made so according to the flesh when he took on
himself a body. He's David's Lord and he's David's
son. And these Pharisees didn't know
that. And Paul, at one time being himself one of them, he didn't
know that. How did he find out? God in Christ
stopped him on the Damascus road and unhorsed him. So that he says in that hour,
Lord, who are you? I don't know who you are, but
whoever you are, you're the Lord. And our Lord said, I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. And he made known to Saul of
Tarsus who he was. He's David's Lord. and David's
son. And that's what he makes known
to his people. He's God manifest in the flesh. And he came to save his people
from their sins, and he did so. He's the Christ. And we'd never believe that,
and we'd never understand that, and we'd never confess to it
unless God brings us to bow at His feet
and believe His Word. Because the gospel is the gospel of God concerning
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why, the Lord being my
helper, for as much time as I've got on this earth, I desire to
preach Christ. I'm not going to spend my time
on all the stuff that a lot of people do. I'm going to preach
Christ. And when God brings His people
to see Christ and believe on Him, You don't have to beat them
every day over their head and do everything to make them feel
bad and such as that. He'll take care of them. Because
them that He loves, He chastens. And He keeps. And He knows them that are His.
And He says to them, Let everyone that names the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. Father, tonight we thank you
for your precious, glorious Word, the Word of Christ. We can't
say too much of Him. We can't talk too much about
who He is or what He accomplished. in this world, in our human nature,
sin excluded. We thank You, Lord, and we pray
that You'd bring us to know You, keep us by Your grace, and watch
over us, and enable us to live looking to You, and to do all
things to the glory and praise of Your name. For we pray in
Christ's name, Amen.