All right, take your Bibles,
turn with me to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. I've entitled this
message, The Heart, Authority, and Message of Romans. The heart,
the authority, and the message of the book of
Romans. Let's read this together in verse
1. The apostle says, Paul, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God. I'm just going to give you the
outline, there it is, the heart. What's the heart of the apostle
writing this book? He says, I'm a slave. I'm one slave writing to another. That's his heart. What's his
authority to write to you? An apostle of Jesus Christ. He says later, called to be an
apostle by the risen Christ. That's his authority. And thirdly,
what is the message? Here it is, the gospel of God. That's a message. Now, he's summed
up his heart and his authority and his message and now we're
going to expound on it. He's going to start from there
and from there he expounds. So we're going to start with
that. Now, I want us to get a sense of what was taking place in the
Church of Rome at this time. And the book of Romans, the book
of Romans is a blessing of God. It is one of the greatest blessings
God has bestowed upon his church, this book of Romans. Because
in this book is the most clear and exhaustive account of the
doctrines of God's gospel. It is the most exhaustive. It's
the largest. And so here we have the most
exhaustive doctrines concerning what? Our faith and practice. Our faith and practice. Now,
I'll give you a quick synopsis of this gospel. In chapter one
and down to verse 17, he's going to give you the reason why he's
writing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because in that is the righteousness
of God. What does man need? into righteousness
of God. So from verse 17 on to chapter
3, verse 20, I believe it's verse 20, the Apostle expounds the
depravity of man. The most exhaustive of, you know,
the Apostle in Ephesians says, and you at the quickened who
were dead and trespasses in sin. Well, that's a very short synopsis,
isn't it? Well, the Apostle is going to
show the depravity of the Gentiles as well as the depravity of the
Jews. You know, he comes to that famous conclusion. There's none
righteous, no, not one. So what, then, is the hope of
righteousness? It is by Jesus, the faith of Jesus Christ, that
Jesus Christ obtained it. And then we start talking about
at that point justification by faith. And from there, end of
chapter three to chapter four, he speaks on the justification
by faith. In chapter five, he speaks on
the representation. How are we justified? By representative. In chapter 6, he answers the
objection to those who say, well, if you're saved by grace, then
you say we can sin. So he answers that objection
in chapter 6. In chapter 7, the apostle expresses the experience
of every believer in the duality of our natures. In chapter 8, we are free from
condemnation. In chapter 8, the most beautiful
chapter I believe in the whole book, we see this, we're free
from condemnation and nobody can separate us from the love
of God. In chapter 9, the most exhaustive explanation of election. In chapter 9, in chapter 10,
a beautiful exposition of faith. In chapter 11, a warning against
boasting of the Gentiles over the Jews. In chapter 12 and through
the remaining, we begin then with the separation of this gospel
from the doctrinal to the practical. And so from chapter 12, chapter
16 talks about practical. You see how exhaustive this thing
is. And so as I began, you know how overwhelmed I was at the
beginning. So I just thought I'd take verse 1. I didn't think I'd swallow it
all in one sitting, but I gave you an outline to see how exhaustive
this is. Now, why? This epistle was written
by the Apostle Paul while he was at Corinth. Remember, he
spent so many years there at the church of Corinth, and it
was his desire to come to these people and preach the gospel.
And that's what he said, I desire to come to preach to you. But
I couldn't do it. God let me hitherto. And now
the time in which this church was formed, there was a great
division in the Church of Rome. There was a division between
the Jews and the Gentiles. Remember now this is the first
time Jew and Gentile had ever come together under one banner
of worship. And now they were confused as
to their place. The Jews always felt they had
the upper hand, that they were better. And so there was confusion
about that in the church. Well, this book answers that
confusion. And then they were surrounded
by those that hated them. The Greeks hated them and the
Jews hated them. Those on the outside of the church
were against them and opposed to them. So this was a mess. But this was the office of the
apostle is to set everything in order. And that's what he
does by this book of Romans. This epistle was purposed by
the Holy Spirit to instruct and settle the divisions within the
church and show us how then we are to conduct ourselves outside
the church. He sets forth the doctrine in
the church and then tells us how to conduct ourselves outside
the church. So now let's look at this as
he begins. As we look at this, we see the
mind of the apostle. So by introduction, he's going
to set forth the heart. He said, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ. When you think of servant, you
probably think of a butler. Somebody dressed up in a suit and answering
the door. That's not what he means. No. The word is slave. That's what
he means. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. This sets forth the tone of the
whole book. I am writing to you as a slave
of Jesus Christ. A slave. And this man, Paul, we know he
was a Jew. He expounds this in Philippians. I was in Hebrew of Hebrews. as touching the law of Pharisee.
Paul was a star in the Jewish religion. He was
an up-and-coming, rising star in the Jewish religion. And Paul
despised the gospel. As a matter of fact, in Galatians,
he expounds this. In Galatians chapter 1, And verse 13, he says this, he
says, for you have heard of my conversation in time passing
of Jews' religion, how beyond measure I persecuted the church,
wasted it, and profited in Jews' religion above many my equals
in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers. What does that mean? It means
he persecuted the church. He didn't just hate it, he acted
on it. A lot of people hated the church,
didn't act on it. The apostle acted on it as though
he was commissioned of God to destroy the church. That's what
he thought. He believed he was commissioned
to destroy the church. But listen to his language now. It's different, isn't it? He
said, no. He didn't say, Paul, a rising
star in the Christian community. Paul, the exceeding wise. Now that's how we would write
it, by nature. The exceeding knowledgeable.
You should listen to me, because I've got a lot of knowledge.
That's not how he starts it. Paul, a slave. A slave of Jesus
Christ. The one he sought to kill. The one he sought to destroy. He now confesses, I kneel to
his sovereignty as my king. Jesus Christ is my king. He is my master. And surely this is the heart
of every, of this letter. And we all had our conversation
like Paul, didn't we? We all had our conversation in
time past, walking according to lust of our flesh and desires
of our mind. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. We were haters of God. We were haters of God, despisers
of God. We sought our own way. Like Paul,
we sought our own righteousness. But like Paul, we saw the madness
of our way. I'll tell you this, when I was,
I grew up a Calvinist, man. My hope was this, I was a Calvinist. My hope was my knowledge, was
my understanding of scripture. That was my hope. But when Christ
came to me, He revealed the madness of that. There was no righteousness
in my knowledge of doctrine. There was no way I could be acceptable
with God based on what I understood or what I knew. It was madness. And so is it madness
for anyone to depend upon their own righteousness to make them
acceptable with God. If you are dependent upon your
own righteousness, you're mad. You're insane. But that's how
we were. We were like Paul. Paul thought
he was doing God a service by killing his people. That's madness,
isn't it? We were the same way. And God
showed us our rebellion. He knocked us off our high horse
of religion. He showed us the blindness of
our nature. He showed us what Paul's going
to talk about in Romans 3, that there is none righteous, no,
not one. Have you seen that? Have you
seen that? Listen, I'm not talking about
those outside. I'm talking about right here, us. We understand
this. There is none of us by nature
righteous. Not one. Not one. There's none
of us that understands. There's none of us that seek
after God. We are all together. You put all of our stuff together,
we know this. It's unprofitable. All our good
works, everything we've ever done, you pile it together and
it's nothing but a pile of dung. That's all it is. Then what? Christ was preached
to us. Just like the Apostle Paul. Christ
came down and declared the gospel to him. When I look, we didn't
have the same experience that Paul had, but we had the same
gospel preached to us. The gospel of Jesus Christ. And that ended our rebellion.
That day Paul was converted, that ended his rebellion. And
the day we were converted, that ended our rebellion. Why? Because we submit to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We bow to Him as King. Not only
acknowledge he's king, I just don't tip my hat to it. That's
not what we're talking about. We are totally 100% laid out
before him as all our hope in standing before God. I don't
have anything. We become his servants. We, like Paul, our unbelief was
turned to faith. Our righteousness was rejected
as filthy rags, and by grace we receive His righteousness.
We believe on His righteousness. We reject any offering we've
ever made, and we confess that His offering alone is all our
standing before God. That's it. If I need to be forgiven
of sins, it's only by His blood that God's going to forgive me.
And I trust in that blood. I trust in His righteousness. For by grace you are saved through
faith. You believe on the Son of God? I'm preaching a gospel to you,
and you're going to say, yep, that's it. When I preach Christ
to you, you say, yeah, that's Him. That's Him. You know him, and you're what? Slave. A happy slave. It's not one of those where you
see them in rags and tatters and, you know, they're all miserable,
grumpy against their master. That's not the kind of slave
we are. Joyful slave. Thankful to be his servant. Thankful
to be in his kingdom. Paul says, I'm a slave. So now that we hear the word
as it is, it is the word of God. So whatsoever then is written
in this book, whatever is penned in this book by the servant of
God, by Paul the servant of God, we as servants of God receive
it. We receive it. We believe it. Why? Because Paul said this,
he said, we are ambassadors of Christ. You know what an ambassador
is? It's one who receives the message
from the leader, king, or government, whatever, and he's sent to another
country, and he doesn't get to make up his own word. He don't
get to have an opinion about anything. An ambassador simply
communicates the will of the king to the people. And that's
what Paul's saying I'm doing. I as a servant am communicating
to you as a servant the words of the king. And this is it, as though God
did beseech you by us. Isn't that astounding? And so, You who are slaves, do you also
profess to be a subject? Who listening to me fully has
bowed to Jesus Christ as king? If you have bowed to him as king,
is it not reasonable then to receive his word as it is the
word of God? It's just reasonable. If the
king said it, if we are his slaves, we receive
it. Who doesn't receive this word?
Rebels, not slaves. So if you will not receive this
word, you're not a slave, you're a rebel. So Paul as a slave writes this
to other slaves. And so as we study this book
written by Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, we then should
set aside our own doctrine or our own thoughts of the gospel
if it contradicts the word of the king. Whatever we think,
whatever we feel, if it contradicts the word of the king, we should
abandon it. That's simple enough, isn't it? We are to in faith receive the
doctrine that is taught here as it is the word of our King
Jesus given to us by his servant. And it was given to his servant
to be the foundation then of all our faith and practice. Thus,
every true slave in Christ will and must receive it. And there
are often times I have been confronted with this word. And I had thought
something. Somebody had taught me something.
Somebody said something. And I thought it was great. It
sounded really good. And then all of a sudden, I'm
confronted with this book. What am I to do with that if
it goes against it? It's got to go. It's got to go. And so then as we study this
book, that's how the heart we should have it. This is the heart
we all should have, the same heart that it was given, a slave. But notice this, he's not just
a slave, this slave has authority. Look at that again, Paul a servant,
there's the heart of Jesus Christ, a servant called to be an apostle. Now, I just said that. He's one servant conveying this
message to another servant. One slave receiving the word,
giving it to another slave who receives the word. In other words, Paul was saved
by the same Christ. Saved in the same way. Paul wasn't
saved differently. He had a different experience,
but that doesn't mean his salvation was any different. We all have
different experiences. What good is experience? It doesn't
matter. You hear that all the time. I
hear somebody said, well, you know, I know exactly when the
Lord saved me. I felt this, I thought this.
And somebody says, well, man, I didn't have that. It don't
matter. That's an experience. But I'll
tell you this, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, What does it matter what experience
you have? I didn't have Paul's experience, did you? What if
Paul said you had to have that experience? None of us would
have any hope, would we? No. Different experience, same
salvation. Same salvation. He was just a
sinner. And that's what he tells us later
in verse 12. He said, I want to be comforted
together with you both in your faith and mine. You see, the
same faith. The apostles had the same faith
they did. Same Savior, same salvation. So why, then, is this book to
be received above other books written by other servants? Now,
you go in my office, and you should have seen my office before
when we had the other building. I had so many books that, man, I couldn't read them all. You
just can't. I think Don had a bigger book selection, and he did. He
read every one of them. I had tons in there that I never
even touched. You know what I did? I threw
them away. I did. Because there's no sense in it.
I just couldn't read them all. And some of them, I didn't agree
with anything or all the things that's said in them. Get rid
of them. But what makes this book authoritative? as opposed to those other books.
This is it, an apostle of Jesus Christ. This servant was given
a specific office which made his writings authoritative, an
apostle. So Paul was not only a servant,
he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now this office of apostle was
the highest office in the church, distinct in its calling, its
qualification, and its work. You remember he told them that
when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, he gave gifts to the church.
Gifts. Ephesians chapter 4, you look
it up later, Ephesians 4, 11, he said he gave some apostles. And, distinct from that, some
prophets. And, distinct from that, some
evangelists. And then distinct from that,
some pastors and teachers, which is not distinct, they're the
same thing. And so Paul, having given this authority of being
an apostle, it was given then to the apostles alone the infallible
spirit of God to establish the gospel of Christ in every church. You see, as a pastor and teacher,
I am commissioned God to declare unto you the Word of God. And I do this in this place. I'm called to this place, to
this people. The Apostle was not called to
a certain place or a certain people. It was to all the church. So then regardless of the local
church, where you are, and who's preaching the Gospel there, our
authority then is based on their Word. Their Word. It was given to them alone to
have this authority. Where do we get this? Well, Jesus
gave it to them. Go to Matthew. Go to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and look at
verse 18. Jesus said this. He said, I say
unto thee, thou art Peter. And we've been on this many times.
Little rock. Pebble. That's who you are. You're
a pebble. But upon this rock, and what
is he doing? He's pointing to himself. Upon
this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. So the salvation of the church
is dependent upon which rock? Peter or Christ? It's Christ. And if you want to study the
Old Testament concerning the rock, you'll always see the rock
is Christ. The rock is Christ. He's the
foundation of the church. And the gates of hell, death
shall not prevail against, is what he's saying. Isn't that
true? When a believer dies, does death
prevail? No. Death is just a passage. And then in the end it won't
prevail because he'll raise the body from the dead. But it also
means this, that all that God gave to Christ are going to be
built on Christ. The gates and bars of hell will
not prevail to keep their prey. I'm going to get my people. Now
how is he going to do it? Here's the means. Look at verse
19. And, listen, I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven. Some idiot has a picture of Peter
with a set of keys on his hip, thinking he's the one that opens
heaven and unlocks heaven for people. Oh, man. They have not read anything
in this book. Nothing. People like that just
have no clue. It's not what he means. What's
the key to heaven? Christ. Did he not say this? I am the
way, the truth, and the life. So what is he saying? I'm going
to give you the gospel. That's what he's talking to his
apostles. He said, I'm going to give you the key. I'm going
to give you the gospel. And I'm going to give it to you
so infallibly that what you bind on earth, what you write, is
already bound in heaven. What you write was already written
in heaven. And listen, what you loose shall
be loosed on earth and loosed in heaven. What does that mean?
Those who the gospel sets free, they are free on earth and they
are free in heaven. They're free from the law, free
from judgment, free from the guilt of sin, free from the power
of sin. They're let loose by what? By
their gospel that was given to them. This is what it was to
be an apostle, is that they were given the word of God to write
infallibly. Now, I want you to know that
their conduct was not infallible. Matter of fact, right after that,
he said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, right after that.
Their conduct was not infallible. The Apostle Paul wrote in the
book of Galatians, we're free from the law. And then several
years later, he goes to Jerusalem, shaves his head, and about to
offer a sacrifice. Wait, didn't you say, didn't you write Galatians? What are you doing? See, their
conduct was not infallible. They were sinners saved by grace.
But their word was. Their word, they had the key.
It was the gospel. Now then, what, what, How could
Paul claim to be an apostle? Well, there were qualifications
for it. There were qualifications. There were distinct things that
had to be done. First of all, this was one. You had to see
the risen Christ. Now, everyone since Paul is disqualified. No one has seen the risen Lord
Jesus Christ. Now you may eat too much chocolate.
You may have had a, you know, a dream or a vision or you may
whatever. You've not seen the risen Christ. Jesus said many of you will desire
to see one of the days of the son of man. Listen to what he
said. You will not see it. So that tells me you didn't see
it. I saw it! No, you didn't. No,
you didn't. Jesus said you wouldn't. That's
all right. And I get this from 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. If you look there, 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. I'm talking about the authority of this book. Where's
it come from? Why should we listen to it? Why
should we deny our own thoughts, deny our own feelings? We're
servants of God too. Why does our word not match their
word? Well, we've not seen the risen
Christ. Look at verse 6. He said, after that, he was seen
of above 500 brethren at once. Of the greater part remain unto
this present day, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he
was seen of James and of all the apostles. And last of all,
he was seen of me as one born out of due time, for I am the
least of the apostles, and not meet to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church. He said, I'm not worthy for this
office. Why are you an apostle? He said, but by the grace of
God, I am what I am. So what was the first qualification? They had to see the risen Christ.
All the apostles saw the risen Christ. And he says, and His grace which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain. I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, doesn't matter which apostle you go to, me or them,
doesn't matter. So then what do we do? We preach
and then you receive it. You believe. That's the order
here. Well, I don't know if I'm going to
get to the next page or not. I don't know what happened. But as he says here, and I missed
that other page. I don't know why. It doesn't
matter. The point is this. Wait a second. He also said 500
other guys saw him. Well, that's not the only qualification.
You had to see him, that was one. So that just excludes all
of us. Excludes all of them after, I
say after John, not after Paul, but after John, when he saw him
on the Isle of Patmos. Of course, John saw him before.
That excludes us from being an apostle, but what about these
Father 500 men that saw Him? What excludes them is this, they
did not receive their word directly from Christ Himself. Because
to be an apostle, you could not receive your word from man. You did not learn this gospel
by somebody else. To prove this, go to Galatians
with me again. Galatians. Galatians chapter 1. Now remember,
the apostle wrote this letter and he says in verse 6, I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you under
the grace of Christ to another gospel. Which is not another. So what
is Paul saying? There's only one gospel. There's
only one gospel. Now to this generation that's
arrogant, isn't it? Well, that's what you believe. This is what
I believe. Now let's just get along. Nope.
One gospel, not two. There's one. And Paul said, listen,
if you are removed from this gospel, and what gospel is he
talking about? He says, which is not another,
but there'll be some of the trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven preach to
you another gospel unto you than that which we preach, let him
go to hell." That's a pretty bold statement. Look, Paul said,
I preach the gospel to you, and if anybody else comes to you,
and I don't care if it's an angel, you listen, let him go to hell. There's only one gospel, and
it's the gospel that I preach to you. Now how could he say
that? Well, look at verse 11. He says, But I certify to you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after
man. For neither I received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. You got that? He spent three
years in Arabia and the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching him
the gospel. So as we read Galatians or you read Romans or you read
Philippians or you read Colossians, anything the Apostle Paul or
any of the Apostles wrote, listen to me, it was not received of
man. Paul did not learn this from
Peter. He did not learn this from John.
The authority of the book of Romans is simply this, he received
his message directly from the king. Now can any other servant
of God say that? Every one of us learned this
through a preacher of the gospel. God sent a man. God sent a preacher,
and we heard it through a man. That was the means. Yes, we were
taught of the spirit of God, but Christ himself did not come
down and sit us down in a chair and teach us. He did Paul. So why should we
believe this book? Because the apostle was given
the authority and the message directly from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now then, so we see his heart. He's a servant. We see his authority
by which we should receive everything in this book. He's an apostle. So then what did Christ send
him to tell us? Look at that last part. Here's
the message. Separated unto the gospel of
God. The purpose of the apostle in
this book is to expound to us the gospel. We say gospel, we
keep using the word gospel, gospel. And I get the sense that we all
know it means good news. That's what it means. Good news.
You know, I know that many of you have, you know, good news
clubs, and you've raised under that vacation Bible school stuff,
little kids things, and good news, good news. Listen, you will never understand
it to be good news until God expounds it to you, until the
Spirit of God makes it applicable. Then we understand it is truly
the greatest news in the world. It is the best message in all
the world. Why? It is a good news message
from God to man. From God to man. It was ordained of God and now
proclaimed. And so then the apostle, getting
now to the root of his letter, He is now setting
the foundation of the whole book, the gospel, the good news of
God, glad tidings of good things. Glad tidings of good things. Namely what? The salvation of
sinners. There is no better news to a
sinner than the salvation of sinners. Now, if you're not a
sinner, this ain't gonna be any good news, regular old news,
I guess, or doesn't register on your good news scale. But
if you are a sinner, if you are in need of salvation, if you
are in need of acceptance with God, this is the message that
Christ gave his apostles, a message of good news concerning the perfect
person and perfect work of Jesus Christ. So what Paul was preaching
was a divine revelation of sovereign mercy. Man, is there anyone who needs
mercy? Anyone who needs mercy? I don't mean you skin your knee
and somebody comes and puts a band-aid on it kind of mercy. I'm talking about dead and dying
and someone come along and give you life that you don't deserve. I'm talking about a mercy not
of men, but a mercy from God. Do you need pardon for sin? Do
you need a salvation that you can by no means accomplish, no
means get? Do you understand that you cannot
earn your salvation? Do you understand that? That
there's no amount of determination that you can do to make God accept
you. This is what the whole book,
he spends almost three chapters, we're going to see it, describing
your depravity. and comes to the conclusion that
you're not righteous whatsoever. Man is absolutely depraved. He
can by no means merit the righteousness of God or make an acceptable
sacrifice for sin. So then what's the good news?
The good news is salvation already accomplished. Finished. Salvation done. by someone who is impeccable,
perfect, a salvation that God himself approves. And notice this in verse 2. He
says, the apostle says, this gospel is not new. It's good
news, but it's not new. Look at this, "...which he had
promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures." Now,
the gospel is not new and novel. See, he's now speaking to these
Jews in the congregation who thought that the gospel was something
new, something just novel. He said, no, it's not new or
novel. This gospel that we are preaching is the same promises
that God promised to the prophets in the Old Testament. So the
gospel of this book is not opposed to the Old Testament. In fact,
it just reveals it. That's all the New Testament
does. The New Testament just reveals the truth of the Old.
What was hid in types and shadows and pictures is now revealed. So they did the Passover every
year. They didn't really understand
why they were doing it. They knew it couldn't take away
sin because they had to do it again. The Great Day of Atonement. They knew that it couldn't, it
obviously, we're doing this because God said to. And somehow this
pictures Christ, who's coming, but I don't fully understand
it. But when Christ came, what? All of that was made plain and
simple, right? Great Day of Atonement. Who's the priest? Who's the priest
picture? Christ! Who's the scapegoat picture? Christ! Who's the offering? The blood sacrifice picture.
Christ. Who's the mercy seat picture?
Christ. Who does the veil between the
temple picture? Christ, you see? It's all now revealed. Why? Because Christ who was promised
has come. What is the sum of our message?
What is the theme of our message? Salvation by Jesus Christ alone. Us is glorious. You know, the
only part I play in my salvation is the sinner. That's who I am. I'm the one
who needs a high priest. I'm the one who needs an offering.
I'm the one who needs a scapegoat. I'm the one who needs someone
to intercede between me and God and make me acceptable with God.
That's the part I play. The helpless, worthless, sinful
sinner who needs mercy. That's what I am. The book expounds
this truth that that's all we are. And therefore, the promise
of God in the Old Testament was the coming of Jesus Christ. Nobody
said, look, in verse three, he tells us what it is. What is
the whole Bible concerning? He tells us, one pastor told
me this. He said, when you go through
the book of Romans, the hardest thing is it's so simple. The whole scripture and promises
of God concerning who? His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection of the dead, concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ. So what is the message? The message
is Jesus Christ. Listen, listen, the message is
who is He? Who is He? Very God, that's who he is. You realize that if you don't
believe Jesus is God, you'll die in your sins. There are many
who don't believe he's God. Now, where in the world would
I get such a notion? Again, I don't want to make this
stuff up. It's all right there. John chapter 8, Jesus said you'll
die in your sins. Why? Because if you believe not
that I am, you shall die in your sins. What does he mean by that,
I am? Well, in the following verses he explains it. I love
it because the scriptures don't leave you to guess. If you just
read it, they don't leave you to guess. He said before Abraham
was, I am. If you believe not I am, you
shall die in your sins. If you don't believe I'm God,
you'll die in your sins. Why is it necessary to know that? Listen, you need righteousness
and only God can provide it. Remember, a man tried that, his
name was Adam, and he failed. He was the best of us, and he
failed. Why? Because man cannot obtain
the righteousness of God no matter how perfect he's created. He
just can't do it. Only God can provide the righteousness
we need. But the thing about that is,
God deals with man in a representative. And we're going to see that in
chapter 5. You're going to see that in chapter 5. God only deals
with us in a representative. He dealt with us in Adam and
we all died. Even so, this is how God's going
to deal with us. If we are in Christ, all that
Christ has accomplished becomes ours. So what did Christ accomplish
as God? Righteousness. Righteousness.
But notice this, it wasn't just God, he was man. Look at that,
made of the seed of David. I declare to you he was made
of the seed of David. Why is that important? Because I need
a representative. I need a man to represent me
before God. And Paul says, Jesus Christ is
that man. He says that in another book,
there is one mediator between God and man. Boy, I just love
how Religions are destroyed by one word of God, isn't it so?
Whole religions are destroyed. Anybody says there's two mediators? Laugh at them. They just deny the plain
word of God. There's one mediator between
God and men, who? The man, Christ Jesus, who is
God And He who is man represented us, the Son of God." Look at
that, declared to be the Son of God. With power. Isn't that true?
He's declared. When He came into this world,
who declared to be the Son of God with power? God did. This
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Christ declared
Himself to be God in the flesh. He said, I am. And now the Apostle
declares it. So as servants of God, what are
we to do with this? Receive it. See, I know whom I have believed.
Do you? Back in the Old Testament, he
said, a virgin shall conceive and now shall call his name Emmanuel,
God with us. God, one with us. And so then,
as we as believers, we hold fast to this. This is my salvation
I'm talking about. This is your salvation I'm speaking
of. It is a salvation done by a perfect
Savior, Jesus Christ. Look at this. Declared to be
the Son of God with the spirit of holiness. Oh, He was so holy. What was He doing being holy?
Why was He obeying the law? He's doing it in our stead. And
look, by the resurrection of the dead. What does that mean?
He's declared to be the Son of God by His holy perfection and
His resurrection. As a believer in Christ, how
do you know this thing is sure? Do you doubt? Do you have fears? Do circumstances seem in opposition
to what this book says? The wicked prosper and you suffer.
Doesn't that seem in opposition to what he said? It does. We
doubt, we fear. How do we know by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ we have proof that God has accepted his offering? The apostle says later in Hebrews,
he said, by this, but this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice
for sin, what did he do different than those other priests? He
sat down. Why, He hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. This is the message of the Apostle. And what do the servants of God
do? He says in verse 5, By whom we
have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of the faith
among all the nations for His name. That's why we're apostles,
to tell this word to you. Among whom you also are the called
of Jesus Christ. Who are the cult of Jesus Christ?
Those who believe the gospel of this book. Those who believe. Do you believe on Jesus Christ?
What's your foundation? What's the foundation of your
faith and practice? What is it? Is it your opinion? The apostle says we are built
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And what did they
all speak about? The chief cornerstone, Jesus
Christ, whom the whole building is fitly, squarely framed together. Grow it to a holy temple in the
Lord. So you that are born again of
the son of God, how then, as we go through this, are you to
receive this this word? with the same heart it was given
as a servant, casting aside your will, your thoughts, your feelings,
and clinging solely to the word of God. Which is concerning what? What's the whole word concerning?
Jesus Christ. Don't get confused on the Old
Testament. There's no confusion here. The Apostle was speaking
to those Jews and the Gentiles. Listen, no confusion. You Gentiles
hardly ever heard of the Old Testament. You Jews, you're indoctrinated
in the Old Testament. Don't worry about it. It all
speaks of Christ. It all speaks of Christ. And so as we go through this
book, what's going to be our focus? The Son of God, our Savior. And I like this. He said, you
at Rome, Be loved of God. That's the word of God, isn't
it? You that believe, listen to me. You are loved with an
everlasting love. Later on he's going to tell us
that that love's inseparable, isn't it, in Romans 8. He's going
to tell us nothing can separate you from the love of God that's
in Christ Jesus. You see how this is the seed of expounding
this whole book? I'm excited. I hope I preached
the gospel to you this morning, but I'm excited to preach it
again. There's so much more to expound on, to glory in the person
and the work of Jesus Christ. And as we go through this, ask
God to give you a servant's heart, a slave's heart, I didn't think that's right. As a slave, I should cast away
what I thought, what I felt, what I've been taught, and bow
to this as it is the word of the living God. Aren't you glad I missed a page? I miss more than that. I skipped
through a bunch of pages. So that's all right. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. I pray God will bless this to
your hearts. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your blessing and spirit. And as we go through this book,
I pray for the grace and power of thy spirit to give me the
words for your people and by the grace and power of the spirit
to expound them Oh, that the grace and power of the Spirit
point thee, as they hear, to Jesus Christ, away from ourselves,
not unto us, not unto us, but in thy name be glory, dominion,
and power forever and ever. I ask this in the name of Jesus,
our Savior, and for his sake.