Morning. Today we're gonna continue on
our second sermon in the Book of Romans, chapter one, verses
one through 17. Today's title is just a continuation
of the first one, which is, What is the Gospel? So let's begin. Reading from the King James Version,
Book of Romans, Chapter one, verses one through 17. Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had promised the four 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 saints. It says to be saints, but that's
in italics. Really, it's saints. He's talking
to the saints there. First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout
the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing,
I make mention of you always in my prayers. Making request,
if by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you that
I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you, that I might
have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to
the wise and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, I'm ready
to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first and also
to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word. We ask that you would bless it,
Lord, and help us to understand it as it applies to the work
of salvation done for your people, and we give you praise. In Jesus'
name, amen. All right, so I'm gonna recap
last week's sermon. And in it, I talked about what
the gospel is. And the gospel is, it's not an
offer, it's not a suggestion, it's a declaration. That means
it's a done deal. It's already been done. This
was accomplished by Christ before the world was formed. Scripture
says before the foundation of the world. And also at Calvary
in time for us, because everything we experience as people happens
in time to us. Although God sees the end from
the beginning and he speaks to those things that are not as
though they are. He declares them and he makes
everything happen. We don't see it. We see everything
in time. And just because you don't see
something doesn't mean it hasn't happened yet or it will happen.
I mean, for us, seeing is believing, right? But God tells us to take
him on faith. And that faith that he gives
us is a gift that we, That has to be given to us in order to
understand these things. That's why scripture says, the just
shall live by faith. So knowing that the gospel is
a declaration of an accomplished work for God's people, it's also
a promise because in the book of Genesis chapter three, verse
15, after the fall of Adam and Eve
in the garden, God came to them and they had already been deceived
by the serpent. And even though it said Eve was
deceived, Adam was the one who was made in the image of God
and Eve came from him. So in verse 15 it says, the Lord
told Adam and Eve, I will put enmity between thee and the woman.
and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is a prophecy about when
Christ was gonna come into the world and destroy what the devil
had basically done. The fall was obviously part of
something that God had purposed before he created the earth,
and then it happened in time, and Adam and Eve and all man
have suffered as a result of it. That's why we tell people
that all of us are sinners. Scripture says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God and that there's none righteous,
no not one. That's in Romans chapter three.
So as a result of being ruined in the fall, mankind needed a
savior. But the thing about the savior
is that Matthew 121, when Gabriel spoke to Mary before Christ was
born, He told her that His name shall be called Jesus, for He
shall save His people from their sins. So He doesn't save all
men, He saves His people alone. And just like we see Israel is
a type of His people in the Old Testament scriptures, it's the
same way in the New Testament. They're called the elect, they're
called chosen, they're called saints. Even in the beginning
of the reading of the book of Romans, we see that they're called
saints. So as a result of that, Jesus came to save his people
from their sins. That's Matthew 121. So we know
that we have a promise in the beginning in Genesis that the
serpent's gonna bruise his heel, but he's gonna crush his head.
But then at the same time, we also have a promise that he's
gonna crush his head. So we know that something's gonna
happen as a result of that. So as we dig in a little more
to the word, we find out For example, when we get to Matthew
1 21 that he's gonna save his people and that's good news That's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it and
that's in Romans 1 16 through 17. I'll read that real quick It says for I am NOT ashamed
of the gospel the gospel is the good news I of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Now there's a righteousness
that we have that's given to us. It's called imputed and it
is in the scriptures, that word, but that means it's given to
us. It's not something that we we do to get it, or like we work
for, or we have on our own, it's part of our character. Remember,
we're fallen. All have sinned, come short of
the glory of God, there's none righteous, no not one. That same chapter
in Romans even goes on to say that there's none that seek Him.
So if the scripture tells us nobody seeks after Him, He has
to come and seek His own. That's why Matthew, it declares
in Matthew, he shall save his people from his sins. He's the
good shepherd that goes out to find his lost sheep. Now we don't
know who his lost sheep are, but he does. That's why my wife
had correct me last week. Scripture says in 2 Timothy 2.19,
nevertheless the foundation of the Lord standeth sure. The Lord
knoweth them that are his. Okay, so we know that God knows
who his people are because he chose them in Christ before the
foundation of the world. So we're born in time, we have
to experience these things that have already been declared while
we're alive here on earth. So knowing that, to recap, we're
telling you what the gospel is, how man was ruined in the fall,
how the power of God, the gospel, the good news is about salvation.
Salvation is eternal life. Okay, I'm going to touch on calling
and servitude just a little bit today once I finish once I finish
recapping. Okay. So the next thing that
I talked about was what is grace and grace is Grace is something
that God does, you know, it's a we call it the sovereignty
of God and sovereignty means that he he controls everything,
you know, like I said last week we We heard this song when we
were little. He's got the whole world in his hands. So as a result
of that, he causes the sun to shine, the rain to fall. He brings
light and he brings darkness, life and death. They're all in
the power of his hands. So if he's gonna save a person,
he's already determined to save them. We don't know it. So we
just declare it, and that's why we preach the gospel. We go into
the whole world, we preach the gospel, and we know that as a
result of that, God will bring his people to him. That's just
it. He said, my word shall not go
void, but it will purpose that. it will accomplish that for what
I purposed it to do. So whatever God says he's gonna
do, he's gonna do it. We know that, but we don't always
understand it. It has to be defined so that
we don't pour a different meaning into it and say, well, it means
this. A lot of people say, well, God loves everybody in the world.
He loves the whole world. No, he doesn't love the whole
world. If you read through the book of John, because they take
John 3.16, people say that God loves everybody. But if you read
in John 17, when Jesus prays his high priestly prayer, he
tells them, I pray not for the world, I pray for them. So there's
a difference, just like the children of Israel, there was a difference
between them and Egypt when they were in bondage over there. God
brought plagues down upon Egypt. The Israelites weren't touched
by those plagues, whether it was fire, rain, lice, frogs,
darkness, none of that stuff happened to them. And it's the
same way with God's people. He keeps them and he preserves
them in spite of everything else going on around them. He keeps
us in a fallen world. So knowing that grace is a sovereign
choice of God, then what do we tell people? We tell people that
God's merciful and we plead with them, really, we tell them, You
know, like Paul says, you know, I plead with you, be reconciled
to Christ. So if you go to Exodus 33, verse
19, it tells us, you know, Moses was leading the children of Israel
out of Egypt, and they were somewhere in their wanderings, and he wanted
God's basically approval, and he wanted to make sure that they
were okay. And he also asked the Lord if
he could see his glory. And the Lord told him in Exodus
33, 19, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. So you can't tell the world that
God loves everybody and he's gonna be gracious to everybody.
If that's the case, what would you tell the people that died
in Noah's flood? Only eight souls were saved in
the ark, everyone else perished outside the ark. It's not because
they didn't Choose him. Noah was a preacher of righteousness
for 120 years, the scripture says. But no one came. No one came into the ark. The
animals came into the ark, because God called them into the ark.
Noah came into the ark, because God called him into the ark,
and even commanded him to build it. So he did what was commanded
of him. But God had to make him do these
things. And people don't like, as people,
we don't like being told what to do. I know I don't like being
told what to do. And I'm sure you don't either,
especially when it's something you don't wanna do. So we know
that God is the one who gives grace. And if he doesn't give
grace, what does that mean? That means we're under the wrath
of God. Scripture says that he makes,
in every house there's vessels, there's vessels. of gold and
there's vessels of silver. And as far as God is concerned,
he's made vessels of wrath and he's made vessels of mercy. In
the Proverbs it says he has made all things for his purpose, even
the wicked for the day of evil. So we know that there's people
here, we don't know who they are, just like we don't know
who the elect are, we don't know who the wicked are. But as natural
men, as people, when we see people do evil things, like killing
people, hurting children, bombing nations, poisoning, we say that
that's evil. But to be honest, all men after
the fall are evil. It says in Genesis chapter six,
and we'll go there real fast so I can share that with you. It says, and God saw, this is
verse five, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. That's us. That's me and you. That's our neighbor. That's the
people that we think are really cool and really nice. They're
like, well, how can he do something? I'd never do something like that.
And I tell people, man, I would. It's nothing but the grace of
God causing us to differ. And that's something we have
to understand. Nobody is any better than anybody. You know,
we might look at people and say, because someone's doing well,
that they're better or they're smarter. But like I said earlier,
there's nothing but the grace of God that causes us to differ.
And just because somebody is doing well, you know, financially
or in their life or their health is better, it doesn't matter
in the end. Because the scripture says, what
profit did a man to gain the world and to lose his soul? And
we think that What we live for in this life is everything and
it's being blessed. But there's another life that
we're going to experience once we die. That's eternal life. The scriptures say it's appointed
unto man to die and after that the judgment. And Jesus himself
said that some are going to be resurrected unto eternal life,
others unto eternal damnation. That's a truth of the word. So
going on to My next point to recap from last
week, I talked about what is faith. And faith is a gift. If you go to Ephesians chapter
2 verses 8 through 9, That says, for by grace, I already
partially explained what grace is. For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man boast. Now, I work every day,
five days a week. So as a result of the thing that
I do, my job and my employer pay me at the end of the week.
So I've earned, I've earned what I've earned something as a result
of my work. When it comes to salvation, scripture
tells us it's by grace that you are saved. For by grace are you
saved through faith. And even that faith that we're
given is a gift. And that happens to us in regeneration. When we're born again, Jesus
told John, not John, but Nicodemus, in chapter three of the book
of John, getting everything all goofed up here, He says, John
was asking him, Nicodemus came to him at night and asked him
a few questions. And then the Lord told Nicodemus
in chapter three, verse three, Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus was like,
well, how can these things happen? And can he enter his mother's
womb again? He didn't understand it. So Jesus
went on to say, except the man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit. So everything that we do in our body, that's our flesh. That's the flesh, and people
say, You know, when we do things in the flesh, that we're not
believers, but... That's a struggle we're gonna
have until we go back to be with God, because we still have a
fleshly body. So we serve him in our flesh,
but we're in the spirit of God because we're born again. Jesus
said right there in verse three, unless a man be born again, he
can't see. Once you're born again, that's it, you're in Christ,
nothing, Paul says in Romans eight, nothing can separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. That means the
things that we do, if we tell somebody their sins are forgiven,
right? Past, present, and future. That
Christ died for the sins of his people, then it's a done deal. You can't tell somebody that,
oh yeah, you know, you're saved, but if you sin, you're not saved.
No, your sins are covered for, and you really shouldn't sin
anyways. You should try to live a holy
life. There's nothing wrong with living
a holy life, you know, to honoring God with your body, with your
mind, the things that you do, what you say, where you go, but
that's not a condition of salvation. The condition that saves a man
is Christ shedding his blood. That's why we tell people, look
to the cross. When Christ shed his blood, his blood was shed
before the foundation of the world, the scripture says in
Revelations. So we tell people these things and We can't convince
people by telling these things or arguing with them. We just
declare what the Word of God says. That Word has authority
in it when we declare it. It's not up to us to convince
somebody. It's not up to us to fight with somebody. And believe
me, I've fought with people my whole life. And especially since
the Lord saved me, the one that brings it to my attention the
most is my wife. She said, you can't fight with people. And
like a dummy, I don't listen to her. But she's right. If you're kind to people, and
you're nice to people, and you tell them the truth, and you
pray to God and ask them to open these people's eyes, their ears,
their minds to the truth, that's what God does. If salvation is
of the Lord, as it says in Jonah 2.9, and it also says in Hebrews
that he's the author and finisher of our faith, then he's gonna
be the one that's gonna do it. Like I said earlier in the beginning
in Matthew 1.21, He shall save His people from their sins. We
just believe that. We believe it by faith. We believe
that all of God's Word is true. And so we preach it to the whole
world, knowing that He's gonna save His people. We don't worry
like, oh no, I don't know if He's gonna save all of His people.
Is it really gonna happen? Kind of like a dramatic movie
where the hero is fighting the villain and it looks like the
hero's gonna die and in the end, the villain's gonna win, Of course,
the hero wins. I mean, that's how movies turn
out a lot of times, okay? So moving to my last point of
the recap, when I talked about faith, faith is something that
God gives. And if God doesn't give you faith,
because the scripture tells us, let's go to Ephesians chapter
four really fast, verses four through five. I was just talking with a friend,
the other day we were on messenger and we were chatting with each
other and I love my friends and even though we disagree with
things like about the gospel we can still be kind to each
other and loving because that's what friends do I mean I don't
hate somebody or not like them just because we disagree we just
disagree you know so going to Ephesians 4 verses 4 through
5 it says well actually let's start in verse 3 Paul says, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body
and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. Now he's in his
people, he's not in everybody. And I can't overstress that point
that people think God's in everybody. And I was talking to a friend
recently and I'm like, how come that every time you read about
anybody dying, no matter who they are, that they're in heaven?
That's not the case. And it's hard to be honest with
somebody when they're grieving, it really is. But the truth is
what the truth is. Because if, If everybody went
to heaven, God didn't die for everybody, and not everybody's
gonna go to heaven. He tells us that many are called,
but few are chosen. And the reason why many are called
is when we preach the gospel, whoever hears it, they're part
of the many, just like the parable of the dragnet in the New Testament.
He drags a net full of fish. Afterwards, they pull it up in
the boat. They get rid of the bad fish, or the fish they don't
wanna keep. But in reference to the gospel,
when you put a spiritual meaning on it, God, it's a little different
because God, He doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't pull in
something and throw it back out. He pulls His out from amongst
them. You know, like there's a, in the one story where He
said that, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. He
goes to get them. I believe that's in John. But
anyways, so now going to my next point that I said I wanted to
touch on, I wanted to talk about calling. All right, so let's
go to Isaiah chapter 65. You having fun down there? All right, chapter
65 and verse one. This is God speaking through
his prophet Isaiah. And he says, thus saith the Lord,
the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you built for me? And where is the place? Oh,
I'm sorry, that's, that's, that's chapter 66. My bad. He says, he says in 65, chapter
65, verse one, I am sought of them that asked not for me. I
have found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name. So like I
was taught, in the church that Israel was the chosen of God. Because we see them in the Old
Testament, how he chose Abraham, he brought him out of Ur of the
Chaldees, and then they were called Hebrews later on down
the road. Then you have the patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, all of
those guys, and the 12 tribes of Israel. So people used to
always say, well, no, the Jews are God's chosen people. No,
God's chosen people, are his people from every nation, kindred,
tribe and tongue. And that's Revelation 7, 9. So
when we talk about a calling, God calls his people to himself. And the way that that happens
is it's from the preaching of the gospel. The scripture says
in Romans 10, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. And how are people gonna hear
unless a preacher sent? So when a preacher preaches the
gospel, which is the true word of God, it's not something that
we pour a different meaning into. We have to always look to see
Christ in all the scriptures when we declare them, you know,
what he did for his people. That's when God calls his people.
He causes them to believe and that's something that we We can't
really explain because it's a work of God. How can you explain something
that God does? It's supernatural and it's miraculous. So God's calling is to his people.
And the next thing that I wanted to talk about was being chosen,
as well as being chosen for servitude. Because Paul said in Romans 1, He said he was called to be an
apostle and that he was separated unto the gospel of God. Separated,
really another kind of fancy word for that is sanctified.
And a lot of people say sanctification is a process, but it's not because
salvation's of the Lord. And when Christ died on the cross,
you can read that in John, the later chapters, I can't remember
if it's 20, but he says it's finished. And what that means
is that the work he did on behalf of his people's salvation, It's
done. That's why the scripture goes
on to say that we're complete in Christ. So Paul is telling
us in Romans 1 that he's called to be an apostle and separated
unto the gospel of God. So he was chosen for servitude.
Paul lived his life and gave his life after conversion to
build up the body of Christ, whether it was teaching and preaching,
ministering to people. He did what he was called to
do. And the reason why he did those
things was because God worked it all in him. That's why it
says that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Christ Jesus. A lot of people say, well, you
know, I did all these things or, you know, it's not the fact
that we do them. If we told people like in the
beginning of this sermon that God's in charge of everything,
right? The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He turns
it wherever he wants. Don't you think that he does that with
everybody else as well? You know, he's got the whole world in his
hands, right? The earth is the Lord's and it's his footstool. So we have to understand that
all things are of God, the Bible tells us. If it's a tornado and
people die, that's something he's done. If it's a newborn
baby, he does that too. light and darkness, death and
life, all of these things are in His hands. They're not in
our hands. We do not have any power. When Jesus came back to
His disciples, He told them, all power has been given unto
me by the Father. All power is in His hands, right?
And we know that He's God the Son. So going back to servitude,
when you're chosen and you're called, it's to a life of service. You're not gonna look back at coulda, shoulda, woulda, or what
you've done in the past, you keep moving forward. Jesus gave
a parable about a man plowing. He said, no man is fit for the
plow if he turns back. If you plow in a field, like
I like to mow lawns, I love mowing lawns. And I mow them in like
a 45 degree angle, a line. So what I do when I mow is I
pick the point that I'm going to and I follow it all the way.
If I look back, the lines are crooked. Well, that's what Christ
is saying. No man is fit for the plow if
he turns back. So we don't look back. We press on. That's why
Paul said, I press towards the mark of the high calling, which
is in Christ Jesus. So that's what we do. And as
a servant, you're gonna do this until Christ calls you back.
There's no retirement plan as far as, oh yeah, I'm gonna preach
for a few years. and then I'm going to retire.
Like this that I'm doing now, I've always wanted to preach,
but in the beginning I had the wrong message because it was
something that was based on works, which tells people if you do
these things, like for example, if you come down to the altar,
you say the sinner's prayer, you're going to be saved. That's
not the case. It's not by something I do. Remember
Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, it's not of works, lest any man boast.
So it's by God's grace that he calls a person. That comes by
the gospel. I can't raise my hand, come to
an altar, say a prayer, and then say, hey, I'm saved. No. There's
false conversions out there, just like there's false gospels
and there's false worship. And we have to make sure that
people know that. That's why people like false
prophets and false teachers. They make everything comfortable,
but the gospel is offensive because it tells the truth to people
that, hey, we're all sinners, we're all depraved, we're all
fallen, there's none of us that are good, and that there's nothing
we can do. I mean, by nature, we want to do something. What
can I do? What did the Philippian jailer say to Paul and Silas?
What must I do to be saved? The rich young ruler that came
to Christ, he said, hey, all of these things I've done since
I was a child, what do I need to do? Jesus told him, sell everything
you have, come and follow me. Dude left. So when you're chosen
of God, you're going to be saved. He'll move heaven and hell. And nothing can stop him from
saving his sheep, because you're his, he's God. He's got all power,
he's omnipotent, right? All powerful, he's omnipresent,
he's everywhere, and he's omnipotent. So if he's gonna determine to
save his people, he's gonna save them. And we thank him for that,
and we declare that. And then we tell people at the
same time, hey, not everybody's saved. And one of the best ways
you know if a person really believes the gospel, the true gospel,
is by the words they profess. You know, if they tell you God
loves the whole world, no, that's not the gospel. They tell you
Jesus loves everybody, He died to save everybody, you know,
all you have to do is live a, He lived a perfect life, now
all you have to do is live that perfect life, that's a work,
and that's not the gospel. And I have family members and
friends and loved ones, acquaintances, associates, co-workers, who believe
a false gospel. You know, and as painful as it
is to tell them that, hey, that's a false gospel you believe, I
have to tell them. You know, I don't expect them
to agree with me or to believe me. I just pray for them. And
if God has decided to save that person, he will. So going on
to end this, I wanna go to John chapter one, verse 13, and it's
gonna piggyback on what I've been talking about the last few
minutes. And it says, we'll start out in, Verse 10,
and I'll read through verse 14. Let's go with verse nine, my
bad. This is talking of Jesus, John
1, 9. That was the true light, which light of every man that
cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him. Yeah, Jesus is God, he made the
world. Look at Hebrews 1, okay? And the world knew him not. Now
that's the whole world right there, okay? He came unto his
own, and his own received him not. He came to the children
of Israel. They didn't believe who he was, who he was. But then
it goes on to say, but as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. But it's not that they had power to believe on
him. He has to cause them to believe on him. Paul already
said, hey, none seek him, none righteous, none good. None seek
after him. So he has to save his sheep. Remember, he's a good
shepherd. He has to save his sheep. And sheep are dumb. Believe
me, they are. And then it goes on to say in
verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man. but of God, okay? 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. And that last part
is in italics as far as we beheld His glory, but it does end with
full of grace and truth. We know that the Lord's full
of grace and truth. So, in closing, like I said,
I went over a recap, the end, and then I touched just a little
bit on calling and servitude. And it's important that we know
these things. And later on today, if you wanna go over this and
take the time to read these things, I would hope that it makes sense
to you. So I pray that the Lord blesses this sermon to you guys
hearing. And I'm just glad to be able
to serve the city that I live in here in Los Banos, California. And I pray for my brothers all
over the world. So let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you,
Lord, for your word. Your word is true. It's full
of light and of life. And you have given it to us,
your people, that we might declare it to the whole world, knowing
that amongst the people of the world, that your people are there
in the midst of them. And you draw them out by your
irresistible grace. I pray for your people all over
the world. And for those in this town as
well, Lord, that we would be able to have a healthy, vibrant
gospel church that would serve one another and proclaim your
truth to a dying world that we live in. And then I pray for
the body of Christ all over the world, Lord, that we would be
strong in you and the power of your might, that we grow in the
knowledge and grace of you. And I pray for your servants,
Lord, your people that are serving you and that are serving one
another. Help them, Lord, not to be weary in doing well, for
in due season they'll reap a harvest if they faint not. And we give
you praise, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Till next week, guys, I'll see ya.