Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Romans chapter 1 and reading for our text, verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans chapter 1 verse 16.

It's the word specifically on my spirit and what shall be a text really, not the whole verse, but the power of God. The apostle Paul called to be an apostle and to preach the gospel. He is not ashamed of the message that he is bringing throughout the world. And the reason why he is not ashamed of it, because it is the power of God unto salvation.

God uses the gospel to exert his almighty power upon a people that were not believers, but are made believers. And He sets it forth as to encompass both the Jew and the Greek. The Gospel was first sent to the Jews. When they rejected it, then they turned to the Gentiles. And our Lord had said that the fruits and blessings of the Gospel, that they should run as a river, and it should go some to the hinder seed, some to the former seed, In summer and winter shall it be, some shall be to the Jews, and some to the Gentiles.

Our Lord speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd, he says, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. That is not of the fold of the Jews, but of the Gentiles. And so we have the prophecies that were given in Isaiah, so fulfilled by our Lord and by the preaching of the gospel, to Jew and to the Greek, and the whole sending forth of the word, it is reliant not upon man exercising his own wisdom and his own free will, but in God, accompanying it with a divine power, the power of God.

Now we might think of our Lord, of our God, as the creator and the sustainer of all things. How that he spake and it was done and this world was brought into existence. We think of the mighty power that was exerted in the time of Noah and the destruction of the world that then was and then restoring of it to what it is today. We think of the Lord bringing Egypt to its knees with judgment after judgment and then bring the children of Israel out of Egypt and the Lord dividing the Red Sea by his power and bring them forth from the iron hand of Egypt and bondage through the Red Sea.

All the Lord's power in overcoming Jericho causing those walls to fall down flat. the power of the Lord is evidence right through the Word of God, is also evidence in creation round about us. Today we still see earthquakes, we still see the power of nature, the wind, we still see the sea and its power, we still see those things that the Lord does so gently like the Winter, taking the leaves off all of the trees. And then in springtime, putting all of those leaves back in fresh growth again. No noise, no effort, just a gentle, irresistible power. Power that can make even a slender plant pop up through tarmac. And you think, how has that had power to do that? And God is the one that sustains all things.

But especially His power is known in the conversion of sinners. In our Lord's time upon earth, He wrought the miracles with the mad Gadarene, one that no one could tame at all. And yet by the Lord's power, He ended up sitting at the feet of Jesus in His right mind, clothed in His right mind. And it is that power especially concerning the gospel, concerning converting of sinners, the power in the gospel that Paul is not ashamed of here. It is that power I want to speak of with the Lord's help this morning. We think of how the apostle introduced this power to those of the Ephesians. The Ephesians had believed but they did not really understand what power had made them believers, what had been done so that they would be brought out of nature's darkness, would be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Those who once did walk according to the course of this world, according to the prints of the power of the air, may we never underestimate the power of Satan, the power of sin, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, and yet there'd been a change with them. What had that change been? We read of this in the first chapter of Ephesians, and verse 19, or verse 18, he desired that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

And so the Apostle is saying, God wrought that mighty power to bring Christ from the dead. He who laid down his life, he who died upon the cross, he was buried, was raised again the third day by the mighty power of God. And the Apostle is saying, that same power is put forth to convert one sinner. It is the same mighty power of God that does this, not by the will of man, not by men, not by man's wisdom, but by the power of God.

And so it is that that I want to look at then with the Lord's help under three headings. Firstly, the ministers of the gospel and the power of God, beginning with our text. And then secondly, their message and its effect upon the hearers, thinking of Ephesians, but other passages as well. And then thirdly, the hope of God's people stands in the power of God.

But firstly, the ministers of the gospel and the power of God. In our text, the apostle is stating that the gospel or the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was not ashamed of this because of the power of God. What is the gospel? What is the gospel? The gospel is meaning good news. And if it is good news, it must be to those who need that good news.

And we think of how man is under the sentence of death, how that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. that we are dead in trespasses and sins. We have broken the law of God, and we have no power nor might to obey that law, to fulfil that law. We cannot redeem our own souls. We cannot get ourselves out from under the condemnation that we're under, that we have but a life which we do not know how long we have. And after that, we must die. and we must attend the judgment throne. And there must only be one sentence. If there is nothing done to change it, it is everlasting banishment from God and in the unspeakable terrors of hell forever and ever.

Our state is truly a most solemn state. of which we ourselves have no power to extricate ourselves, to find a way out from that. However much might be set before us, however much might be put within our grasp, we are not able to grasp it, we are not able to save ourselves. And so the Gospel of Christ is a good news because It brings what the Lord Jesus Christ has done at Calvary before us, and it is done on our behalf, on the behalf of those whom the Father gave to the Son to redeem. So what the law could not do, because we are sinners, because we are weak in the flesh, then God did by sending His beloved Son. He put him in our place as a substitute. He brought him to live a perfect life that we cannot live. He brought him as a spotless lamb of God to voluntarily lay down his life as a sacrifice to put away our sin.

The demands of the law were met by the Lord Jesus Christ on those demands that are made upon the people that the Father gave to him. It is what the Lord did and declared as finished upon Calvary that is to be proclaimed and set forth as the good news, the way of escape from the wrath to come, the way of deliverance from condemnation, The way of deliverance from the power and dominion of sin here below. The way of reconciliation between God and man is in the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the gospel is not just what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on Calvary. It is what he will do through the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who hear the Gospel preached. And this is why the Apostle, and really every minister of the Gospel, is not ashamed of the Gospel. If he was just setting the same before people as the law, and saying, here is something that you must obey. If you do, you'll be saved. If you don't, you'll be lost. Then it is no better than the law, because it is setting something before people who have no power to embrace it, who have no power to obey it. It's setting forth before people that which will not be good news at all. to sinners.

But when we have not just the letter of the Gospel, but the power of the Gospel, then that is what we are not ashamed of, because the poorest attempt at setting forth that Gospel, if it be attended with divine power, shall bring a soul out of nature's darkness into God's marvellous shall convert them, shall give them eternal life. And that is why the apostle, that is why we preach the gospel, are not ashamed of it. God himself has chosen to bless through that means, to attend with divine power.

And I would note in this that, remember, It is the gospel that is to be preached. We're not to think, well, God will just use his power to pick this one or that one off the streets and to change them. He uses means, he uses the words of the gospel, he uses the preaching of the gospel, and the power is put forth with that preaching. There is not the power in the minister, but there is the power of God that attends that preaching. And that is what Paul, that is what every minister is reliant upon and looking upon. It is God's commission, God's promise of attending power. And that power is sovereignly given. It is given by God.

And so, Paul, who you preach, are not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God.

The second thing I bring before you is that which is set forth by the Apostle in his second epistle to the Corinthians. And this is that ministers of the Gospel are approved as ministers by the power of God. In chapter 6, we have the Apostle speaking of himself and the other Apostles as ministers of God in all of their afflictions, their trials, in preaching of the Word. And he says this, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. And he is speaking of them as going forth as ministers of the Gospel.

in all their patience, afflictions, necessities, in all of those things that accompany them, in the midst of it, is by the power of God. He says of the ministers, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live as chastened and not killed. And he is setting forth really the trials, the difficulties, the picture of them as preaching the word. There's no great men, but those suffering many, many things. But they're going forth and they're approved as ministers.

So outwardly, you look upon them and the world would despise them. And the world says, well, you're hardly not known. You've got no honor. It's just dishonor. Evil report attends them. But there's one thing that proves them and marks them. God owns them. God owns their ministry, uses their ministry.

Later on in the same epistle in chapter 13, he draws a likeness to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 3, Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you, Ward, is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he, that is Christ, was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you."

And so he would draw this parallel and point out to them that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was crucified, he was crucified through weakness. He voluntarily humbled himself, obedient unto death. The Jews took him. He allowed them so to do. The Romans took him. He laid down his life. He was crucified. In all outward appearances, this despised Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth, was of the mercy of the Jews, of the Romans, and in weakness he was put to death. And the Apostle testifies this. But then he rose from the dead. He lived by the power of God, from that dead condition, from that lying in the grave, in the tomb. He rose, he lived by the power of God.

And so he says this, it is like this with us. We are also weak. In our ministry, people look upon us just the same as they looked upon Christ. They despise us, they see us as weak men. You say, the Corinthians said, that his bodily presence was weak and was contemptible. Letters were weighty and powerful, but they were despising him. And he says, but this is with us the same as with Christ. We also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

And so on one hand, they are weak vessels, earthen vessels, but on the other hand, God uses them. and blesses them. We think of the prophets of God before. It was said of Elijah, a man of like passions as we are, one moment strong and before Ahab, and next minute fleeing before Jezebel, wishing that he would die. And those prophets that went before, they were men. But God owned their word. He blessed their words. We think of David, and David's writings, and prophetic of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that power, that inspiration of the word, it sets forth they were true prophets. It truly set forth the Lord Jesus Christ. And so for the ministers of the gospel, however much they might be discouraged in themselves, in their weakness, their circumstances, their lives, Yet the gospel itself is with power, and when they see and hear of the effect of it, then it is a cause of rejoicing, a cause of strength.

Ministers of the gospel and the power of God. And also, another point that Paul sets before Timothy, in Timothy the second epistle to him, as the secret of how it is that they were able to endure the afflictions of the Gospel, and that also was by the power of God.

In the first chapter, in that second epistle to Timothy, Paul says this in verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. The previous verse read, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

How is it that poor sinners could endure what they have over the years, the martyrs, the prophets, the preachers of the gospel, Paul suffering shipwreck three times, persecuted, chained, beaten, with wrongs. All of those things that he went through, how was it but by the power of God? He says, what I am, I am by the grace of God.

No man is able in a natural way to put himself in the ministry and to continue doing so faithfully, accept the power of God be with him. Accept he has that authority from heaven and his help to continue against discouragements, against afflictions, against many things that would seek to undermine it, destroy it. Many times that many of the Lord's servants have felt they preach their last sermon and that they cannot possibly go on. very low and very discouraged but they do go on because they are put into that ministry by God and he gives them the power and he gives them that help to continue.

So firstly then the ministers of the gospel and the power of God really before him Another soul is blessed and say they themselves know something of the power of God in themselves. And they know it as they see the ministry blessed.

So I want to look secondly at their message and its effect upon the hearers. I want to look under this heading firstly the preaching of the cross. is in the power of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18. It is where we began our second reading. The apostle says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

And remember, He's not saying, well, you've got to be saved first, and then the power of God will attend the preaching of the cross. It is the preaching of the cross that saves sinners, and then, like he did with the Ephesians, tells them that the reason why they are saved, the reason why they are brought from nature's darkness into God's marvelous light is by the power of God. in a natural way, the preaching, and he says how it is, how it is viewed, how it is viewed by the Greeks, how it is viewed by the Jews, how that the preaching of Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews. They didn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, they could not see, they were looking for Moses, they were looking for something else. Whereas the Greeks, who knew nothing of the prophecies of the Old Testament, to them it was a foolish thing. Speaking of a poor man of Nazareth, who was taken by the Romans, who was accused of being a imposter, even by his own nation, and they delivered him up, and that he died, and then he rose again, and that through that man is to be preached and declared eternal life, that if we believe on him, that we should not perish, but should have eternal life.

And the Greeks, naturally, they thought this was a foolish thing. And the Jews, they stumbled at it. We must never think that if we are to make the gospel effectual, we've got to dress it up in the world's language. We've got to make it that a natural man receives it. When the Word of God says, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

We are not to think that we are more wise than the Word of God and then our God who has sent us to preach, but we are to preach the same as the Apostle, the same as those who have gone before us, which the Apostle here states is preaching of the cross, preaching of Christ and Him crucified, the preaching of the cross. is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

In the next chapter, the Apostle says in verse 2, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He says this in verse 5, and I'll read through up to verse 5, I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

God's people, the effect upon them is to give them a faith that stands in the power of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And the apostle says, I'm not using my own speech, but I sing words of man's wisdom. My commission is, and same as commission of my commission here this morning, is to preach the Word, the holy, inspired, infallible Word of God, that same Word that Christ preached on the way to Emmaus with those two in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself, the same Word that Philip preached to Euna in his preaching Christ and Him crucified.

And the expectancy of the minister upon the warrant of God And really the expectancy of every hearer should be that under that preaching, God saves sinners. That God opens the eyes. God changes a message that was once despised and rejected and thought foolish to be a message of power, of sweetness, of loveliness, a message of hope, a message that gives the glory to God.

What a difference. The same person, the same hearer, but hearing differently. I believe every one of us that have been called can say that the Lord has changed how we've heard the same message of the gospel. Once it was nothing, once we didn't esteem it, once we hated it, but now it is different. The Lord has made it the power of God unto salvation.

We look for help, we look for sustenance, this is why we gather together regularly under the preaching of the word. This is why we obey the Lord in this, because this is how the Lord conveys that help, that strength, that blessing upon the hearers of the word. Again, it is sovereign. We read of those that under the first preaching of the gospel, some believe the word spoken and some believe not. And we read, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. That power is a sovereign power. We ought to think, well, it didn't affect that person, and didn't affect that person, didn't affect that whole congregation. It didn't affect that people. Year after year, they've sat under the preaching of the gospel for 40 years, and it hasn't affected them. That can't be true, that there's a power attending the gospel. God is sovereign in putting forth that power.

But you know we're not to be fatalistic in this, thinking, well, we're just going to let the Word of God wash over us until the power comes and then we'll be saved. We're to listen and seek to listen and hearken and hear the Word of God, asking for His blessing, seeking that he would bring us that power should cause us great concern if we do not feel ever the power upon the world. It does not ever affect what we do and what we say and how we act. It doesn't cause us to stop doing things. It doesn't cause us to start doing things.

Wherever the gospel has come, it's made a change, it's made a difference. The new creatures in Christ Jesus Where that has been so with us, we are to be really encouraged and strengthened that this was not just a change brought by man, but a change brought by God and by God's power to take us and make us what we were not. I am, says Paul, what I am, by the grace of God.

The message where the power attends will always affect hearers. God's people, they find as well the sovereign power of God. Sometimes they will have times when the gospel leaves them unimpressed and cold, and they do not feel the power. And then they mourn. Sometimes they've really tried, but they've never known the power. But in that, they're proving that they are not in control of the power. They cannot exert it at will. It is not in their hands, it is in God's hands, and that is a blessed lesson to learn.

I've seen it in dear aged saints over in Australia that have well known that sovereign power of God. I've seen them go from one blessing to another blessing, some months in between, and with such a confidence that the Lord would come again, the Lord would bless them again. They mourned his absence. But they knew His power. They knew He wouldn't forsake them. He would visit them again. And they were distressed. They were waiting for Him to come. But they knew they had no power to bring that about. But they were a living soul, a living soul even feeling their deadness, even feeling their inability. Their expectation was to the power of God.

And we may ask, Ourselves, how much do we value the power of God? How much do we need the power of God? How much does our experience impress upon us that without the power of God we must perish, that we in ourselves are weak? We have no power even to keep alive our own soul. No man, the Word declares, can keep alive his own soul. We can't keep alive our prayer. But it is the Lord, the power of God. that does that.

I want to look thirdly at the hope of God's people stands in the power of God. When Peter writes the epistles that are meant to feed the people of God, are meant to establish and strengthen his brethren. He writes to them in the first chapter of his first epistle of a people that are kept and the keeping of them is by the power of God and this is the hope of God's people that they will be kept. When we see what the world does, and Satan does, and our own wicked heart, we can have much fear that we will go away. The Lord had many that went away under his preaching. He said, will ye also go away? Peter says, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

We read in verse 5 of this first chapter of the first epistle of Peter, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And on to notice how that power of God is actually bestowed upon a sinner. It is through faith, the power of God through faith.

We read that it was by faith that the walls of Jericho fell down. What were they doing? They were obeying the word of the Lord. What a foolish thing, you might think, to go around that city once, and to do that for six days, and then the seventh day, go about it seven times. But they obeyed. And in obeying, they walked by faith. And we are told that the walls fell down by faith.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. That is how God puts forth his power. As we read the word in our homes, as we have it preached before us, God seals that word, uses it to instruct us, teach us, to be a means for the power of God, to move us to do things, to stop us from doing things, to feed us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, to help us, and it's through those things that we are kept from service to service, from occasion to occasion, to continue going.

We might think, however can we endure, however can we get through to the end? Well, the Lord is doing it by His almighty power, and yet we might not recognise it. might be looking over the blessing of gathering together or hearing his word or the blessing of faith through the word of God. But the hope of God's people, I hope it is my hope, your hope this morning, that we shall endure not because of our strength, not because of our wisdom, but because of the power of God.

He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it. and to the day of Jesus Christ. He is greater than our heart, greater than this world, greater than Satan, and it is by his power alone that we stand.

But then there is another hope and another expectation that we have, and that is in the power of God. to raise these, our bodies, to give us an inheritance amongst the people of God. You know, the Jews, they stumbled at the idea of the resurrection. They brought before the Lord those situations where a woman, she had seven husbands, and they said, therefore, in the resurrection, Whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err not, knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angel of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God? saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

And so the hope of God's people is that when this mortal body shall be taken down, when it shall lie in the grave, then at the last day, the power of God, whether that body is reduced to ashes, to dust, to be not seen or even known by man, yet God will raise it up again. What a power, what a might is that! Job said in his afflictions, he says, though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom shall I see for myself and not another.

Martha, she says, I know shall rise again at the last day." They were persuaded of that, and I hope this is our hope as well. How can it be that we have a hope like that, but then we don't have a hope in the power of God in this life, in our quickening, in our keeping, in all the help that we need here below.

We prove the power of God in these lesser things, and at last we shall prove Him. When we have no power at all, when our body is in the grave, our spirit back with the Lord, and with the Lord, it shall be that His voice, the dead shall arise. They have known Him by grace, that His voice be brought to life from spiritual death, and at last brought to life again, given a new body, a celestial body, to be with the Lord forever.

how we need the power of God. May this word remain with us, the power of God and what it means, what it means to us in the ministry, what it is in the effect upon the hearers, and what it is in the hope of God's people, that it stands in the power of God.

May the Lord bless us and make us to know what it is to have the power to be able to say with the hymn writer, my heart will move at God's command and that we might know that power that shall bring us at last to be with our Lord in heaven. Amen.