Well, I'm ready to head to the
airport right now and to head to England and Scotland, and
I would love for you to come and go with me and to walk where
the great Reformers walked in the English Reformation and in
the Scottish Reformation. And there is something about
walking the land and standing where the martyrs shed their
blood for the gospel of Jesus Christ. and to stand in those
churches where the Word of God was so powerfully proclaimed,
and to see the beauty of the landscape. It is a life-changing
journey. And so I would invite you to
seriously consider and pray about coming with me, and you can go
to our website on onepassionministries.org. I want to invite you to take
God's Word and turn with me to the book of Romans. I want us
to look tonight at the beginning of the book of Romans, Romans
chapter 1. The title of my message tonight
is, The Reformation Was a Recovery of the Gospel. And I can think
of no better place for us to turn tonight to look into the
Word of God than Paul's letter to the Romans in which he laid
out his magnum opus on the gospel. The entire book of Romans is
really an exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But found here
at the beginning of the book of Romans in what we call the
prologue, the first seventeen verses of the book of Romans
is the entire book in nutshell. Here in this prologue is really
the entire forest in one small acorn. And the central truths
and the central themes that will be expounded throughout the rest
of the book of Romans are found here in concentrated,
concise form. And so tonight, in our time together,
I want to talk about the recovery of the gospel in the Reformation,
and I want this text to define for us what this gospel is. Five hundred years ago, in the
16th century, the gospel of Jesus Christ had become corrupted,
it had become twisted, it had become obscured, and it had become
lost. And the matter came to a dramatic
head in the year 1517. when Pope Leo X authorized that
indulgences would be sold through Europe, and specifically through
Saxony, Germany, in order to raise the money and raise the
funds to establish the church in Rome. An indulgence is the
payment of money for the forgiveness of sin. It is based upon the
religious superstition, nowhere taught in the Bible, that after
one would die, there would be a halfway house, purgatory, in
which you would spend a very long time having your sins purged
out of you if you did not have enough merit to go immediately
to heaven. behind this was the belief that
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was insufficient to remove the
entirety of the guilt and the pollution and the penalty of
our sin. And so, it was authorized that
John Tetzel would be the chief huckster who would go from town
to town in Germany and offer to sell on the open market the
forgiveness of sin. Tetzel would come marching into
a town with pomp and circumstance. There would be a pole in front
of him carried by one of his entourage, and at the top of
this pole would be the papal crest, and there would be trumpets
that would be blaring, and there would be A member of this entourage
carrying a velvet pillow, and on this pillow were indulgences. They were contracts, if you will,
to purchase your loved ones out of purgatory. And Tenzel was
a superb salesman, and he knew how to sell this godless product. He would say, as he would stand
to preach, And do not hear the voice of your wailing dead parents
and others crying out from purgatory. Have mercy upon me. Have mercy
upon me, because we are in severe punishment and pain. From this
you could redeem us with a small alm, and yet you do not want
to release us from purgatory. Open your ears, as the father
says to the son and the mother to the daughter, we created you. We fed you. We cared for you
and left you our temporal goods. Why are you so cruel to us? Why
are you so harsh to us that you do not want to save us out of
this place when it would only take so little money for you
to buy our forgiveness of sin? You let us lie in the flames
so that only slowly do we come to the promised glory. And then
Tetzel would deliver the knockout punch. Tetzel would say, as soon
as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. And so the forgiveness of sin
was being sold for a price, and the news of this was spreading
through Saxony, Germany, until it came to Wittenberg. And there
that professor of Bible, Martin Luther, caught ear of this dastardly
message, and his senses were aroused. And though he himself
was yet unconverted, he could smell a rat. And he knew that
this gospel, whenever it is, was being blasphemed. And this led Martin Luther, in
response, to go to the castle church and there to go to the
front door and to nail his 95 Theses to the front door of the
church at Wittenberg. They're demanding a public disputation. They're calling for a public
debate regarding this foul practice of selling what only God can
give. And this proved to be the tipping
point. This proved to be the pivotal
moment in church history And it set Luther on a course by
which he eventually came to understand the one true saving gospel of
Christ. And Luther preached it, and Luther
wrote on it, and the message was taken far and wide, and Europe
was turned upside down, and the monarchy of England was shaken,
and Scotland became a new land as a result of the recovery of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. what the Reformation was about. It was about the recovery of
the message, how holy God and sinful man can be brought into
a saving relationship with one another. And it is found in the
message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word gospel, euangelion,
You means good. A eulogy is something good that
is said at a funeral at about another person. Angelion, you
can hear angel, messenger. A euangelion is a good news. It is a good report. It's not
just good news, though. It is the greatest news that
you and I will ever hear in our entire life. And we must be crystal
clear regarding what is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the eternal
destiny of every man and every woman on every continent in every
generation hangs on a right relationship in understanding and responding
to this gospel message. And so, as tonight, I want us
to dig into these opening verses in Romans chapter 1. I want to
begin by reading the text. Romans 1, verse 1. I hope you
have your Bible out, because you're going to need it tonight.
And I want you to see this before your eyes. Paul, a bondservant
of Christ Jesus, called as an set apart for the gospel of God. Stop right there. At the very
outset of this book, Paul throws his cards down on the table.
We know exactly where he is going. We know exactly what will be
the central theme of the book of Romans. It is all about the
gospel of God. Verse 2, which he promised beforehand. through His prophets in the Holy
Scriptures concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant
of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God
with power by the resurrection from the dead. According to the
Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. through whom we also
receive grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience
of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom
you also are the called of Christ Jesus. I want us to walk through
this passage tonight, and I want us to be crystal clear in our
understanding what is the gospel? And were you to go back to your
hotel tonight or wherever it is you were staying, and if someone
was to ask you, what is the gospel? You must be able to speak with
clarity, what is the gospel? So I want to begin in verse 1,
and I want to give you several headings. And I want you to note
first the source of the gospel, the source of the gospel. At
the end of verse 1, Paul tells us, it is the gospel of God. This does not mean that the gospel
is about God. Though the gospel is about God,
every attribute of God from His holiness to His wrath and every
attribute in between are beautifully displayed in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. His love, His mercy, His righteousness,
His sovereignty, His immutability, His omnipotence, it's all on
full display in the gospel. But here, this does not mean
that the gospel is about God. This is saying that the gospel
is from God. that God is the author of this
gospel, that God is the source of this gospel, that God is the
origin of this gospel. And Paul wants us to know that
he is only the messenger of this gospel. He is not the originator
of this message. He is merely a servant of the
gospel, just like you and I are witnesses of the gospel, but
it is a message that has come down from above. This gospel
message has come down from the throne of God. It is a gospel
that is revealed to us. It is not from human speculation.
It is not one more man-contrived religion. It is not man's own
efforts to solve his problems. It is not conceived by any church
or any group of churches. It is not drafted by any denomination. It is not scripted by any seminary. It is not the creation of any
culture. It is not the result of the collective
genius of man. Instead, this gospel has come
down from the infinite genius of Almighty God. Only God could
have designed this gospel. If we met together for the next
10,000 years, and we divided up into little small groups,
and we pooled our insight, we could have never come up with
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only God could have designed
this gospel. Who but God could have designed
that the second person of the Trinity, God's only Son, would
be sent to come into this world, would be born of a virgin? Who
but God could have designed this? That He would be born under the
law, as we discussed last week, and that He would live in perfect
obedience to the very law that you and I have broken again and
again? Who but God could have designed this? and that by the
moral perfection of His life, He would be qualified to go to
the cross and there be lifted up to die, and that all the sins
of all the people who would ever live would be… and who would
ever believe upon Him would be transferred to Him, and He would
become the sin-bearer for His people. Who but God could have
designed this? And that by His death upon the
cross, He would satisfy the righteous anger of God towards those who
put their faith in Christ. And that by His death upon the
cross, He would take holy God in one hand, and sinful man in
the other, and reconcile the two through the blood of His
cross. Who but God could have designed this? And that in His
death, He would shed His blood and wash away our sins and give
to us His own perfect righteousness. That He would be taken down from
the cross. He would be buried in a borrowed tomb. And on the
third day, with all the authority that was invested in Him, He
raised Himself from the dead. He said, I have authority to
lay my life down, and I have authority to take it back up
again. Who but God could have designed this? And that He would
ascend to the right hand of God the Father, where He is now seated
with all power and all authority in heaven and earth. And that
every man's destiny and every woman's eternity is dependent
upon their relationship to this One. This is the gospel of God. Who but God could have designed
this? And that is why there is a zero-tolerance policy for any
tampering with this gospel. It's not yours to tamper with.
It's not mine to tamper with. It is not any denominations to
tamper with. This is God's gospel. That is why in Galatians 1 and
verse 11, Paul writes, "'For I would have you know, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man,
for I received it, for I neither received it from man, nor was
I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus
Christ.'" Listen, this gospel has not come up from us. it has come down from God to
us. If you're to know God, you must
come to God through this gospel. If you are to spend eternity
with God, you must come to God through this gospel. If you're
to have your sins forgiven, if you are to receive the imputed
righteousness of Jesus Christ, then you must come to God through
this gospel. There is salvation in no other
name, for there is no other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. The source of the gospel. Second, I want you to note the
exclusivity of the gospel. Please note the word in front
of gospel. Large doors swing on small hinges,
and major doctrines can hinge on but a word. Please note that
Paul was set apart for the gospel of God, not a gospel, as if there
are many gospels Paul was set apart for the gospel, meaning
the one and only gospel. Here is the exclusivity of salvation
in this gospel. And every time in the Bible that
this gospel is presented, It is never presented as a gospel,
as if there are many roads going up the proverbial hill that lead
to God, and you just need to be sincere, and you just need
to be religious. No, this is always presented
as the gospel, the one and only gospel. Solomon said, there is
a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the end
of You need to understand there are many roads to hell. There
is only one road to heaven and only one road to God, and that
it is through the gospel. Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me. And Paul has written, there is
one God. and one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus. There are as many ways to God
as there are gods. There is only one God, and there
is only one mediator between God and man, and only one way
to this God, and it is through this gospel that has come down
from God. I mentioned last night, I want
to say it again, that there was not one way to be saved in the
Old Testament and a different way to be saved in the New Testament.
There was not one way for a Jew to be saved, an entirely different
way for a Gentile to be saved. There's only one gospel. And
no matter whether it is in Genesis, or it is in Revelation, or any
book, or any verse in between, there is only the gospel of God. That is why we send missionaries,
and that is why we must take this gospel to the ends of the
earth, because there is no other way of salvation. This is the
gospel. Anytime, anywhere, anyone has
ever been saved, whether it is Old Testament or New Testament,
they are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ
alone. In the Old Testament, they were
saved by looking ahead to Christ by grace through faith. We are
saved by looking back to the first coming of Christ by grace
through faith. But not only the exclusivity
of the gospel. I want you to note, third, the
antiquity of the gospel in verse 2, because this gospel is not
a new message that has only recently appeared on the scene in these
New Testament times. This is not a trendy message
to appear in these last days. In verse 2, it's crystal clear
that this gospel is as old as human history. that this gospel
in reality was created and crafted by God in ages past, in eternity
past. But here in verse 2, we see that
this gospel was proclaimed long ago at the very dawn of human
history, at the very outset and beginning of time. In verse 2,
we read, which He, the He refers to God. which He promised beforehand
through His prophets in the Holy Scripture. Long before Jesus
Christ ever came to this world, long before the apostles appeared
on this scene, this gospel was preached from Moses to Malachi
throughout the entirety of the Old Testament This gospel was
announced to Adam and Eve. It was believed by Abraham. It was recorded by Moses. It
was pictured in Levitical sacrifices and in the priesthood. It was
proclaimed by the prophets. This gospel is rooted and grounded
in the fertile soil of Old Testament Scripture. And so it is not a
theological novelty. It is not a plan B that God has
designed. It is not an appendix at the
end of the Old Testament. But this gospel was first preached
by none other than the greatest preacher that there is, God Himself. And the sanctuary was the Garden
of Eden, and the congregation was the serpent. And God, in
Genesis 3 and verse 15, God Himself preached this gospel that the
seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And
it is the euangelion, the first mention of the gospel in the
entire Bible. This is where the first gospel
was proclaimed. Listen, if any message that you
hear is new, it is not true. We go back to old paths, and
there has been one immutable way of salvation, and it is in
this gospel. And it is interesting that later
in chapter 4 and in chapter 5, as Paul makes his case for justification
by faith, he will establish his teaching by pointing back to
the Old Testament to illustrate and support justification by
faith alone, and he points to Abraham, and he points to David
as the examples of how people in the New Testament are to be
right with God, the antiquity of the gospel. And as so many
churches are trying to be new and trendy and hip and cool,
if you want to have a contemporary church service, preach the gospel
because it is as old as human history. Now, number four, I
want you to note the subject of the gospel. This is very important. And as I read verses 3 and following,
I was preaching at a Shepherd's Conference a couple years ago
at Grace Community with John MacArthur, and I was doing a
radio interview with Todd Friel, who is with us here. And I was
doing it out in an open space, and there was an enormously large
gathering of people in the patio area surrounding us. And at the
end of the interview, he looked up at me and he said, all right,
Dr. Lawson, I want you to immediately preach the gospel to all these
people. And I spontaneously launched
on a 10-minute gospel proclamation. And without taking you through
all of it, I then left and went to the speaker's luncheon, and
John MacArthur was there, and Al Mohler was there, and a host
of others were there. And Dr. MacArthur said, where
have you been? And I told him, and he said, what did you say
the gospel is? It is a question that R.C. Sproul
has asked me. What is the gospel? And I said
the gospel is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ and
our right response to Him by repentance and faith. The gospel
focuses upon the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you leave Christ out of
the gospel. You have no gospel at all. Spurgeon said if you leave Christ
out of the gospel, you've left the sun out of the day. You've
left the moon out of the night. You've left waters out of the
river. You've left the harvest out of
the year. You've left the soul out of the body. You've left
everything out. because Christ is the sum and
the substance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when you give
the gospel, the gospel is not your testimony. It's not about
you. You can tell people how you came
to a saving relationship with God, but you talk about Jesus
Christ. He is the gospel. And so, notice
what Paul says in verses 3 and following. He does not start
talking about the Damascus Road and what happened to him. Beginning
in verse 3, Paul now says, concerning His Son. The gospel concerns
His Son. The antecedent is at the end
of verse 1, the gospel of God. The gospel is all about the person
of Christ, the provision of Christ, the work of Christ. And would you notice, He is presented
as the Son of God. He's not one of us in the sense
that He is on our level in His entirety. He is in reality the
Son of God, the eternal Son of the living God without beginning
and without end, the One who is co-equal and co-eternal with
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But go on to note, concerning
His Son, who was born of a descendant of David. Wait a minute. He is
the eternal Son of the living God, but He was born of a woman
of a descendant of David. He is the Son of God, and He
is the Son of David. And here you have, right here,
the deity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He
is truly God and truly man. He is fully God and fully man. He is the God-man. And there
is no one else like Him. He is monogamous. He is in a
class by himself. And it had to be this way if
Jesus was to stand in the middle between holy God and sinful man,
and to be our mediator, because a mediator is one who brings
together two parties who are in opposition against one another. And a mediator must be equal
to both sides in order to be an impartial and just mediator. So in order to represent God
to man, Jesus must be fully God. And in order to represent man
to God, He must be fully man. And no angel could have stood
between God and man. No prophet could have stood between
God and man. No apostle could have stood in
the gap between God and man. And to bring the two together,
only one who is eternally God and perfectly man could bring
the two together, and that is what Jesus has done in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Continue to read in verse 4, who, referring to Jesus Christ. It's a personal pronoun, who. He's not referring to a what,
but to a who. The gospel is about a who. It's
about a person. It's about Jesus Christ, who
was declared not whispered to be, not mumbled to be, was declared
the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Listen, the ultimate apologetic
is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And Jesus
Christ, by being raised from the dead, it is the authentication
and the validation that the saving death of Jesus Christ upon the
cross and the sinless life that He lived in perfect obedience
to the law of God has been accepted by the Father in heaven as a
full and perfect atonement for our sins. If it had been a blemished
atonement, then Jesus would have remained in the grave. And what
the resurrection was, was the amen of God Himself from heaven,
declaring that He is exactly who He claimed to be, and that
His atonement was fully sufficient. He says, according to the spirit
of holiness, and that is a Hebraism for the Holy Spirit. And the
truth is, all three persons of the Godhead were involved in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. God the Father
raised His Son. God the Holy Spirit raised the
Son. Jesus Christ raised Himself. All three persons of the Godhead
were inseparably at work in the resurrection, and they raised
Him from the dead. Now notice the end of verse 4,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul uses all three names so
that there will be no mistaken identity, so that there will
be no misunderstanding. regarding who it is who is the
Son of God and the Son of Man, regarding who it is who is the
mediator between God and man, and regarding who it is who has
been raised from the dead, is Jesus Christ our Lord. In the Bible, names mean something,
and all three names are very important. Jesus is His saving
name. Yeshua. Yeshua. Matthew 1, verse 21, you shall
call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Jesus means Jehovah saves. He was the Savior of the world. He has come to deliver us from
our sins. R.C. Sproul has talked about
when he was a college student, after he had first become a Christian,
and he was walking across campus, and a rather deranged fellow
student came up to him and said, brother, are you saved?" And
it so startled him and scared him, he just immediately said,
yes, and hurried on to his dorm room, locked the door, sat down,
and began to think, I know I'm saved, but saved from what? Well, we're not saved from loneliness.
Jesus did not die upon the cross to deliver you from loneliness. And we're not saved from insecurity,
and we're not saved from a bad job. The fact of the matter is,
we are saved from the wrath of God Almighty. Look at verse 18,
a few verses later in chapter 1, verse 18, for the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. The wrath of God is the fierce,
righteous anger of God against sinners. And God is angry with
the wicked every day. And God has demonstrated His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And so there is a love-hate dynamic
here. But let there be no mistake,
the wrath of God now, this moment, abides upon every unbeliever
outside of Christ. And were they to die that very
moment, they would plunge down into the lake of fire and brimstone. Every one of us
needs to be saved. The word save means to be delivered
from danger, to be rescued from ruin. And every person outside
of Christ is under the vengeance and the fury of God. There's a lot more to the story
than smile, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. You're under the fierce anger of God outside of Christ. But Jesus, who is Savior, has
come to rescue us and deliver us through His sinless life and
His substitutionary death. The second name here is Christ.
That is His strong name. It means the Anointed One. It
is Messiah in the Old Testament, Meshua. It is Christ or Christos
in the New Testament. It means that He has come in
the anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out
His saving mission and His saving enterprise here upon the earth.
that He was endued with the power of heaven upon Him by the Holy
Spirit when He was baptized in the river Jordan, and the Spirit
of God descended upon Him, and He went into Nazareth, and He
took the scroll of Isaiah, and He turned it to what is Isaiah
61, verse 1, for us, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He is the Christ. He is the anointed
and the empowered One. He cannot fail in His saving
mission. And then third, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, that is His sovereign name. Kyrios, Lord, the One who
has all authority in heaven and earth. the One who is seated
at the right hand of the Father, the One who presides over the
entire universe, the One who is the sovereign of history,
and the One who has the first and the last say on every matter
that there is, the One who but speaks and it comes to pass.
He is Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the Savior, empowered by
the Spirit, who is invested at the right hand of the Father
with all authority in heaven and earth. This gospel is rooted
and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as we bear witness
to others, we talk about Christ. As we preach the gospel, we proclaim
Christ. That's why Paul said, we preach
Christ and Him crucified. Paul said to the Colossians,
we proclaim Him. This is the subject of the gospel. And would you please note in
verse 5, at the beginning of verse 5, through whom, not through
what, but through whom. We're still talking about the
person of Jesus Christ, through whom we, all who believe in Jesus
Christ, have received grace. Here is sola gratia. Grace here represents the saving
grace of God through Christ. For by grace you have been saved
through through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God, not as a result of works. Grace here represents
the entire free provision of Christ to us without cost, without
payment, offered to those who are unworthy and undeserving,
who have no merit of their own, who have no spiritual capital
by which they may purchase this righteousness and this forgiveness.
It is given to us without charge. It is by grace. Now, please note
the preposition in verse 5, through whom we have received grace. All grace is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is not one drop of grace
outside of Jesus Christ. and any and all grace you will
ever experience in your life, any saving grace, it will all
come through Jesus Christ. He is the only channel. He is
the only means. He is the only way by which this
grace comes from God the Father to any one of us. This is the subject of the gospel. The gospel is Christ, and Christ
is the gospel. Please note the reception of
the gospel. Continue to look at verse 5.
I want you to note the reception of the gospel. It says, to bring
about the obedience of faith. We receive this grace by faith. And note the outcome of the gospel,
the obedience of faith. All true faith is an obedient
faith. A disobedient faith is no faith. And everyone who has truly been
granted the gift of saving faith has been given the gift of obedient
faith. And the moment you believe in
Jesus Christ, that is a step of obedience because the gospel
is more than an offer. It is more than an invitation.
It is a command that you repent and that you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And to refuse to repent and to
believe is to be in disobedience to the gospel. But to repent
of your sins and to put your faith and your trust in Jesus
Christ is to take the first step of the obedience of faith. But it's not over, it's just
the beginning. And it launches us now on a new path and on a
new journey of following Jesus Christ. And we now are in humble
submission to the Lord, to our Master, Jesus Christ. And though we do not perfectly
obey, we nevertheless have a new lifestyle and habitual life direction
of pursuing obedience And when we disobey, we are convicted
about it, and we are sorrowful about it, and we confess it and
turn back to God. The gospel produces changed lives. The gospel produces obedience
of faith. And anyone who has ever genuinely
committed their life to Jesus Christ is now walking in the
obedience of faith. And if one's lifestyle is not
characterized by obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,
it is serious cause to call into question the validity and the
authenticity of your supposed conversion to Jesus Christ. This is huge in the middle of
verse 5. It is the gospel that produces
the obedience of faith. Please note next the scope of
the gospel in verse 5 still, and we're just slicing this very
thinly as we move through these first six verses. But the scope
of the gospel is worldwide. He goes on to say, among all
the Gentiles. And this is not saying that every
person in the world will be saved by this gospel, but what this
is saying is that around the world This gospel is to be preached,
and those who believe in this gospel will be brought into saving
relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And this also speaks
to the exclusivity of salvation in Jesus Christ, that no matter
where a man is, where a woman is, on the earth, whatever continent,
whatever country, whatever nation, whatever language you speak,
The gospel is for you, and there's no other way to know God. That
is why the one who is a Buddhist living on another part of the
world does not know God. That a Muslim, no matter where
they are, does not know God. That one who is caught up in
any other religion, be it a world religion or a tiny little cult,
The only way for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews to come
into right relationship with God is through the gospel of
God. And then I want you to note the
purpose of the gospel. At the end of verse 5, four words. This is soli deo
gloria. for His namesake. The ultimate purpose for the
gospel is to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ. that His
bride would be a full bride, and that there would be those
around the throne of God in heaven singing the praises of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that there would be more voices in the hallelujah
chorus forever singing the praises and the anthems of the Lamb who
is worthy to be praised. It is almost secondary that we
are delivered out from underneath the wrath of God and rescued
from hell. What is ultimate and what is
primary is that Jesus Christ receives the honor and the glory
throughout all the ages to come. This is the ultimate purpose.
It's not about us. It's all about Him. It's not
so that your church will be bigger. It's not so that your denomination
will be larger. It's not so that your Sunday
class will have more people or you'll have to go into a building
program. That's all fine and good. That's secondary. That's
way secondary. What is primary is that Jesus
Christ is worshiped and that all the glory goes to Him. Finally, I want you to note the
success of the gospel. And Paul, now in verse 6, gives
us a strong word of encouragement, that it is impossible for this
gospel to fail, that this gospel will triumph, that Christ will
not die in vain. He will see His seed, and He
will prosper. There will be a bride for the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the sovereign grace of God that
guarantees the success of the gospel. Notice what he says in
verse 6. among whom you also," meaning
this isn't just true for the believers in Rome. This is true
for all believers wherever they are, whether they be in Ephesus
or Philippi or Colossae, wherever they are, among whom you also,
note this, are the called of Jesus Christ. As it relates to
salvation, there are two calls, and a good theologian makes distinctions There is the outward external
call, and there is the internal effectual call. And we must make
this distinction. The outward external call is
the call of the preacher, is the call of the Sunday school
teacher. It's the call of the parent to their children to share
the gospel with them and to tell them about Christ and to call
them to faith in Jesus Christ. That is the outward external
call. In Matthew 22, verse 14 says,
many are called. Not all are called because not
all hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And no one will ever
be saved who does not receive this outward effectual call. This outward effectual call can
only go to the ear, and it can go no deeper. It must stop at
the ear. That is why there must be this
second call. It is a call far more powerful
than the call of the preacher's voice. It is a call far more
powerful than a mother or a father urging their children to believe
upon Jesus Christ. This call of God, or this call
of Jesus Christ, is the call that comes from Jesus Christ. just as the gospel of God is
the gospel that comes from God, this call of Jesus Christ, verse
6, is the call that comes from Jesus Christ. And it goes beyond
the ear. And this call is so powerful
that it reaches down into the very deepest recesses of the
heart and of the soul. And it is so powerful that He
makes us willing in the day of His power. And it is this call
that actually lays hold of us and draws us to faith in Jesus
Christ. Paul will go on later to talk
about this call in Romans 8 and verse 29 and 30, and he says,
those whom He foreknew, He predestined, and whom He predestined, He called,
and whom He called, He justified, and whom He justified, He glorified. God's golden chain of salvation,
it begins in eternity past. It consummates in eternity future.
There is no one who drops out along the way. There is no one
who is added along the way. Those whom God chosen eternity
past are those who will be around His throne in eternity future.
And those whom He foreknew, meaning whom He forechose and foreloved,
He predestined. And where the eternal predestinating
purposes of God touch down in time and activate, faith in the
sinner is with this effectual call. It is called effectual
because it is always effective. It always secures its result.
There is a cause and an effect, and God's call will always produce
the effect of drawing these whom He calls. My sheep, Jesus said,
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them from My hand, for My Father who has given them
to Me is greater than all, and no man shall pluck them from
his hand. I and the Father are one. All
whom Jesus calls, follow Him." Jesus and the Father and the
Spirit guarantee the success of the gospel. This is why Jesus
can say, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
prevail against it. It will be a successful enterprise
because Jesus Himself will build His church. You will not build
His church. I will not build His church.
Jesus said that He and He alone will build His church, and Jesus
said He would not build My church, and He'll not build your church.
Jesus said, I will build My church. And the way that Jesus built
His church is that He laid down His life for His sheep, and by
the power of the Holy Spirit, He calls to Himself all whom
the Father gave to Him in eternity past, and all for whom He laid
down His life. And when He calls, they shall
come. This is the glory of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And so the church will stand
strong throughout the ages, and the church will stand strong
throughout time and throughout all eternity because of this
sacred, strong, saving, powerful call. And he adds in verse 7,
to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called That does not
mean that He names them saints, that He calls them saints. You know what the word church
means? Ekklesia? The called-out ones. And that is what we are in the
true church of God. We are those who have been called
out of the world. and out of darkness, and out
of a life of sin, and out of a pursuit of self-righteousness,
we have been effectually called of Jesus Christ Himself into
a saving relationship with Him. And it brings greatest glory
to God to call those who are predominantly the leftovers of
this world. not many mighty, not many noble,
but God has chosen the base things of this world to confound the
wise and the wicked. And God delights in reaching
all the way to the bottom of the barrel and saving the chief
of sinners and calling them into His church and enlisting them
into His service and changing and radically transforming their
life. so that He receives all the glory
and all the honor. And yes, there are a few who
are noble and a few who are mighty, but they are the exception and
not the rule. And for the most part, He delights
in calling ordinary fishermen and tax collectors and the nobodies
of this world and drawing them to Himself to go back into the
world to preach this gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what was
recovered in the Reformation, nothing less than what we have
just heard. What was recovered were the solas. In verse 2 is sola Scriptura.
In verse 5 is sola gratia. In verse 5 is sola fide. In verses
3 and 4 is sola Christos. And in verse 5 is sola Deo gloria. Here you have the entire Reformation
in but a few clustered verses. And as we bring this to conclusion,
I want to ask you, have you believed the message of the gospel of
Jesus Christ? The message of the gospel is
first an indictment. It is an indictment of you and
your sin, that you cannot save yourself that your efforts of
self-righteousness are filthy rags in His sight, that you have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that the wages
of your sin is death. The good news begins with the
bad news. It begins with an indictment
of you and me in our own sin. But it does not leave us there.
The gospel is the good news that God has sent His only begotten
Son into this world on a mission of salvation, born of a virgin,
lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death, was raised from the dead,
is ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There is
no way we could gather this many people here tonight, and for
every one of us to be born again, for every one of us to be genuinely
converted. And tonight, if God is convicting
your heart that you're lost, that you're separated from God,
and that you have never come to faith in Jesus Christ, I call
you tonight to give your life to Christ, to repent of your
sin, and to believe upon the Lord Jesus. Hear Him as He says,
if anyone thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of
his innermost being shall flow rivers of water. Hear Him say,
come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn
of Me. for I meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest for your souls, for my burden is easy
and my yoke is light." He's calling you tonight to come to Him, to
leave behind your sin, to leave behind your life of death and
enter into life and come to the light and to believe upon Him. He says, enter through the narrow
gate. For the gate is wide and the
way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it.
But the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life,
and few are those who find it. Not everyone who says to Me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that
day, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in Your name and cast out many
demons and do many wondrous works? And I will say unto you in that
day, depart from Me, you who work iniquity. He who hears these
words of Mine and acts upon them is like a very wise man who built
his house upon the rock, and when the rains came and the winds
blew and beat against the house, it did not fall because it was
built upon the rock. He who hears these words of Mine
and does not act upon them is like a very foolish man who built
his house upon the sand. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, great was its fall, because
it was built upon the sand. If you've never come to the rock
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by faith taken your stand upon
Christ, I call you tonight to take that step of faith and to
give your life to Jesus Christ, because the day is coming when
that gathering storm will be unleashed upon humanity, and
the wrath of God will be poured out upon sinners and swept into
the bowels of hell. And there is only one way of
salvation, and it is through Christ who is offered and this
gospel that has come down from God above. Let us pray.