Alright, open back up to Romans
1. Romans 1, and let's read our
text one more time. The first seven verses. It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are you also the called of Jesus
Christ to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be
saints, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I want to begin this message
by giving you the title of it. The title. This message is called,
What is the Gospel of God? What is the Gospel of God? You know, people talk about the
gospel. Everybody talks about the gospel,
don't they? Everybody does. Everybody knows
that word. People say, I love gospel songs. I love gospel music. We're going
to go to a gospel singing. Meaning religious. Religion in general, right? But religion is not the gospel. Morality, sincerity, piety is
not the gospel. People hear a fact laid down.
Somebody stands up with a good personality and they lay the
fact down and somebody says, that's the gospel. And what they mean is, that's
the truth. That's the truth. But the truth
is not necessarily the gospel. The gospel is true. The gospel is the truth. But
not all truth is the gospel. Does that make sense? You and I are both dead, rotting,
stinking sinners. That's the sad truth. But that's
not the gospel. That's not the gospel. What is
the gospel of God? All right, let's look at this
text. See if it will tell us. Verse
1 says, Paul. Paul. Every time we start one
of the epistles, I'm going to say this every time, because
I just adore this. I adore this. Paul. Just Paul. Nothing fancy. Nothing special. It doesn't say
Paul, comma, D period, D period. Doctor of Divinity. It doesn't say Reverend Paul. It doesn't say Bishop Paul. Although Paul wrote, if a man
desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good thing. But
he didn't write Bishop Paul. It doesn't say Cardinal Paul.
It doesn't say Saint Paul. He did not even call himself
the Apostle Paul. Although he was. How could he, when he wrote in
1 Timothy 1.15 that he believes himself to be the greatest sinner
on earth, right? That's what he said about himself.
How could he write the Apostle Paul when he really believes
he is the biggest sinner on earth? He said, I'm just Paul, but he
does describe himself to us. He says three things about himself
here in verse one. He says, I'm a servant of Jesus
Christ. Those of you who know him, those
of you who know the Lord, is there any higher honor than that? Is there anything that you could
say about yourself that would give you more joy and honor than
to say, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ? If John the Baptist wasn't worthy
to touch his shoes, How honored was that woman who the Lord allowed
her to just cry on His feet and wash His beautiful feet with
her hair. You talk about honor. Can you imagine? That was the highest honor of
her life. I would imagine she spent the
rest of her life telling that story. Telling her children. Telling her grandchildren, I've
seen God. I have touched the Master's feet. I cried on His feet and they
smelled so good. And I washed His feet with my
hair and it's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. King David, the High King said,
if I could just be a doorkeeper in His house. That's all I want. I just wish I could be a doorkeeper
in His house. I want to quote a hymn to you. I love this hymn. You know the
song, Oh That Will Be Glory? It says, When all my labors and
trials are o'er, and I am safe on that beautiful shore, just
to be near the dear Lord I adore, will through the ages be glory
for me. That's all I want. When by the gift of His infinite
grace, I am accorded in heaven a place, just to be there and
to look on His face, will through the ages be glory for me. That's
all I want. Friends will be there I have
loved long ago. Joy like a river around me will
flow. Yet just a smile from my Savior
I know will through the ages be glory for me. That's all I
want. Paul says, I'm so thankful. I'm so grateful. I'm just so
happy to say I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. Every true believer
is grateful to say that same thing. Alright, the second thing
he says about himself is, I was called to be an apostle. I did not decide to be an apostle. I did not go to school to be
an apostle. I was not voted into being an
apostle. I was called. Every sinner whom the Lord has
revealed Himself to and done a work in him or her, done a
work for him or her, and called him to this knowledge, every
one of them was going to say, I am what I am by the grace of
God. That's all I am. I was just notified. I am what I am by the grace of
God and He just notified me of it. I was called. I was called. The third thing Paul says about
himself is, I was separated unto the gospel of God. Now Paul grew up in religion. He grew up in religion. He said,
I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. I was a preacher's preacher. I was in the church going circle. I was working my way to heaven.
I was racking up my good deeds. But God separated me from all
that. I was separated. Separated from
the pride of all that. I was separated from the arrogance
of all that. That's all it is. I was separated
from the flesh in all that. I was separated. Unto the gospel
of God, the glorious gospel of God. Okay, now, what is the gospel
of God? Let's start by looking at these
four words. The gospel of God. First of all,
It is THE. Silence is uncomfortable, isn't
it? It is not A. It is not one of. It is THE. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians 4, look at verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called, with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and
one spirit, even as you 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. This is THE Gospel
of God. Alright, now turn to Galatians
chapter 1. Galatians 1. Look at verse 6. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. There's
not another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that
which we have preached unto you, letting be accursed. If as we
said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I
now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
Servant of Christ. He said there's not another gospel.
He said, though an angel from heaven come. There was an angel
from heaven one time. An angel from heaven who was cast down to the earth
as a bolt of lightning. And he preached another gospel
to Eve. Right? Turn back two pages to
2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11, look at verse
3. But I fear lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he
that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received,
or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might
well bear with him." He said, I fear. He said, be careful. What he's saying is, if anybody
comes preaching, starting in this pulpit, anything other than
what is inside this book. Be careful. You might listen
to Him. You might believe Him. Be careful. There's only one true gospel
of God, and it's the gospel. The gospel, okay? The gospel means good news. It's good news. Hell, fire, and
brimstone is the truth. It's the truth. But it's not
the good news yet. I listen to people preach, and
turn on the radio, and we just started this broadcast, and I
hope the Lord will bless it and bless us. But I listen to people
preaching, they get on there and they holler and I can just
see the veins popping out in their neck. And they're hollering,
you got to do better! You got to do better! What you're
doing is not good enough. There's this woman that used
to preach in Rocky Mount. You better quit your drinking
and you better quit your smoking. You got to do better. When I hear that, I think, what
terrible news. That's terrible news. I can't
do any better. I can't. What I'm doing is as
good as it gets. This is as good as it gets. I'm
a sinner. I'm just a sinner. That's awful
news. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is good news. It's
the gospel of. Of means about and it means from. If I'm preaching the gospel to
you today, I have good news about God. I don't have much good news about
we sinners, but I have good news about God, and I have good news
from God. That's when I'm preaching the
gospel. It's the gospel of God, the Almighty,
the All-Powerful One. Now listen to this. He said,
And here's the sad truth, okay? Here's just the sad truth. With
man, it's impossible. Period. But here's the gospel
of God. With God, all things are possible. That's good news, isn't it? Well,
that seems impossible. Not with God. All things are
possible. Alright, our text back in Romans
chapter 1, verse 1 says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had
promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. What
verse 2 is saying is, this glorious gospel doesn't change. It won't change. The good news about God and the
good news from God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's good news. It's not going
to change. It's not going to change. He
said, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. That's why you're not consumed,
because I don't change. All right, now notice with me
that verse 2 is in parentheses, right? We had English class,
didn't we? So what that means is it was
interjected right into the middle of a thought. Stuck right in
the middle of a thought, right? All right, let's read verses
1 and 3 together. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." The gospel of God is concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gospel of God. He
is the good news about God. And He is the Good News from
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Gospel. If a person is preaching the
Gospel, he's preaching Christ. It's all about Him. It's who
He is and what He's done. Now listen, we're going to...
I think we are. No, we're not. We're changing
it. This song says, To God be the glory. Great things He hath
done. So loved He the world, that He
gave us His Son, who yielded His life in atonement for sin,
and opened the life gate, that all whom He opened it for may
go in." Praise the Lord. That's wonderful news. That's
the Gospel. It's who He is, and it's what
He's done. The minute our message leaves
the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are no longer preaching
the gospel. We're not. The minute I stand
up here and say, you gotta, and then put a blank right there.
Okay? Well, let me tell you what you
gotta do if you want to be saved. I'm about to lie to you. Right? But if I stand up here
and say, let me tell you what Christ did in order for you to
be saved, I'm about to tell you the truth. And I'm about to preach
the gospel. Turn over to 1 John chapter 5.
Turn towards Revelation. 1 John chapter 5. First John 5, look at verse 11.
This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Now look at verse
20. And we know that the Son of God
is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God. In His Son Jesus Christ, this
is the true God and eternal life. He's the true God. The Gospel
of God is all about Jesus Christ. Now let's go back to our text
and we'll see who He is and what He's done. Romans 1. Verse 3 says, The Gospel of God
is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lord. He's our Lord. He is God. He always has been,
He always will be. He's Lord. Lord of all. Verse 3 says, Which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh. One day for all of eternity,
when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the
sun, we don't have one less day to sing His praise than the very
first day we got there. Okay? And for all eternity, we're
going to be amazed at the fact that God was made the seed of
David. We're going to wonder at that.
We can't, we're dead, we're dead. And we can't enter into it right
now, can we? We hear it, but we're just, we can't do it. One of these days we're going
to enter into it. Now, this is holy. This is holy, holy, holy. He is God who made Himself to
be a man. A real man. I can't hardly enter
into that. I think He's the God-man, but
I can't hardly enter into the fact that He was a real man,
just like you and me. An actual flesh and blood man. With all of the weaknesses and
frailties that came with that. They said, Lord, take something
to eat. And as God, He said, I have bread
that you know not of. Bread of heaven. I don't need
to eat. But then as a man, he went to
that fig tree looking for fruit because it said he was hungry.
He was hungry. Right? He experienced hunger. As God, he traveled from the
third heaven all the way down to the lowest part of the earth.
The longest journey ever. And as a man, he traveled from
Judea to Samaria, and when he got there, he had to sit down
and rest on a well because he was weary with his journey, just
tired. Isn't that unbelievable? As God, he never succumbed to
sinful thoughts. Every woman he looked at, that
was like his sister. He never succumbed to sinful
thoughts, sinful actions, sinful feelings, the ones that we do,
never. When somebody did something wrong
to Him, He forgave them, immediately. He never held a grudge, not one
time. Isn't that something? But as a man, He was tempted
in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He never sinned
as a man. Can you imagine a man never sinning? That's this man. As God, He bore the sin and carried
the grief of every single sinner He chose to save. The government
was on His shoulders. The weight of the world, it was
pressing drops of blood out of His pores. But as a man, he didn't
have the strength to carry his own cross up to the top of the
hill. They had to get somebody to carry his cross for him. Isn't
that something? The truth is, this was God. The gospel is, this was a man. A real man. As God, he made intercession
to himself. As a man, he fulfilled the requirement
of himself. If man is going to make it up
to spiritual heaven, then you have to live perfectly. You cannot
disobey one law. You cannot have one bad thought.
You cannot say one bad thing. Nobody can do that. Christ did. That's the gospel. Jesus Christ the Lord was made
the seed of David according to the flesh. And verse 4 says,
He was declared to be the Son of God with power. Everything
our God does is with power. Turn to Isaiah 52. Isaiah chapter
52. The Scripture says the Lord is
the strength of my life. It says with a strong hand He'll
deliver us. Now when I was about five years
old, roughly, I mean for a while,
Isabella's age, I can remember saying something
over and over and over. Now, you all have met my dad,
right? He's not going to win any bodybuilding
competitions anytime soon. Alright? But he used to hang vinyl siding.
He worked construction. And when I was a kid, I asked
him this question all the time. I remember this just as plain
as day. He'd come home, he'd leave before I went to school,
kindergarten, and I'd wait all day on him to come home. He worked
long hours. And I'd always ask him, Dad, show me your muscle. Did you ever ask your dad that?
Show me your muscle. I hadn't seen too many muscles,
you know, at five. And every time, he never turned
me down. Never, never did he say, no,
I'm not going to do it. Every time, he'd grab his sleeve
and he'd pull that sleeve all the way up and he'd get it all
the way up on his shoulder, all the way up. And he'd hold that
arm up and I'd lay my little hands on that muscle and I'd
think, that's the biggest muscle I've ever seen in my life. Nobody can touch me as long as
this man loves me. All right, now, look at Isaiah
52 verse 10. The Lord hath made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Lord, show me Your muscle. Right on. Turn over to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1, look at verse 1. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,
whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high." He did it by Himself
with power. all the sins of his people by
himself. He purged our sins. That's power. That's real. That's not fairy
tale. That's real. He said, I, even
I am the Lord and beside me, there is no savior. There's not
another one. There is no other gospel. There's
only one. There's only one good news about
God, and there's only one good news from God, and it's Jesus
Christ is able to deliver you. It's all power. Back to our text, Romans 1, look
at verse 4. He's declared to be the Son of
God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. God the
Father sent the Holy Spirit to him as a man, as a man. And the Spirit descended on him
like a dove. And the Father said, This is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Meaning, everything
he did on this earth as a man, as a real man. The Father said,
I'm well pleased with him. I'm well pleased with it. He's
done no wrong. No sin. He was declared to be
perfect. He was declared to be righteous.
He was declared to be holy. And how do we know all this?
He arose from the dead. He arose from the dead. Verse
4 says, "...declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead."
There's one faith, right? All of our faith in the Gospel
of God is built on the fact that Jesus Christ arose from the dead. That's it. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15 and look at verse
12. Now if Christ be preached that
He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain? Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God, that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is Christ not raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain." You're getting your sins. Then they also, which
are falling asleep in Christ, are perished. Everybody who's
died before us and we think they've gone to heaven, no, they just
died. Verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. What he's saying is we're missing
out on a lot of football games. We're missing out on a lot of
NASCAR races. This is all we got. Verse 20,
but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first
fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That's the
gospel. The sad truth is in Adam all
die. Every person born in Adam is
going to die in their sins. But every person born in Christ
is going to live. That's the gospel. In Christ, if a sinner is in
Christ, if you are in Christ, He came for you. He lived for
you. He died for you. And your sins
are gone. They're gone. You don't have
to do better. The work is finished. Rest. Just rest. When He arose from
the grave, He sealed your salvation for all eternity. When He got
up, that was it. Done. Our text in Romans 1 verse
5 says, By whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for His name, among whom are you also the called of Jesus
Christ. The gospel of God is a notification. That's what it is. That call,
he said, among you are also the call. That call is a notification
of what's already been done for you. It's finished. Notify. Now, so far we have been
reading one sentence. Did you know that? Verses 1-7
is one sentence. And Paul closes this first sentence
with the result of this good news. Because of Jesus Christ,
because of who He is and what He's done, verse 7 says, to all
that be in Rome. I've never been to Rome. Oh well, never mind, that doesn't
apply to me. Have you ever been to Rome? To all that be in Rome, you know
he said the exact same thing to all that be in Corinth. He
said the exact same thing to all that be in Galatia. to all
that be in Ephesus, to all that be in Philippi, to all that be
in Colossae, to all that be in Thessalonica, to all that be
in Christ, to all that be in Kingsport. Verse 7 says, Beloved of God,
all whom God has chosen to be loved, loved of God, Verse 7
says, called to be saints, called to be followers of Christ, called
to be the bride of Christ, called to be the children of God the
Father, it says, grace to you. The gift of God to you. For God
so loved the world, what did He give? His Son. Christ to you. Verse 7 says,
and peace, peace with God to you. You're not gonna die in
your sins. Peace, peace within, peace without. And every bit of this wonderful
news is from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the gospel of God. That's the only gospel there
is. All right, let's stand together.