Romans chapter 1. I had been
thinking of bringing some messages on the Bible doctrine, the doctrines
of grace, and I've been thinking about that for a while, and I've
been doing some reading in the book of Romans, and I thought,
there's no better book. to come from and cover it all
than the book of Romans. We see right here in the first
chapter, we see a human depravity, we see the grace of God, and
going through this book, we will have an insight into the law
and sin and grace and mercy and Christ and substitution. I thought,
there's not a more complete book that I know in the Word of God
than the book of Romans that really covers the whole matter. Martin Luther praised the book
of Romans. He said this, it is the chief
part of the New Testament and the perfect gospel, the absolute
epitome of the gospel. And John Calvin said of Romans,
when anyone understands this epistle, he has a passage open
to him to the understanding of the whole scriptures. If God
gives you an understanding of what's being said here, it opens
up the whole Word of God to you. All of it. Now in verse 1, what do you see? What do you
say as you read that and as I read it to you? I know we will look at that and
say, well, that's Paul. That's his usual salutation. That's how he starts his letters. This morning, as I was going
back over this, what I could see in this first
verse is the power of God's grace. The power of grace. Don't underestimate
the power of God's grace. It can conquer anyone. The Apostle Paul, at one time,
did everything he could to stamp out the name of Jesus Christ.
You couldn't have called him a worse name back then before
God saved him than to charge him with being a Christian. Just
call him a Christian. Say, you act like a Christian. That would
be so offended. That'd be like calling you a
Judas. That's how much he hated, he
hated and despised Jesus Christ. And he did everything he could
to put out that name. In fact, he stood there by Stephen
as he was being stoned, holding the coats of those who were stoning
Stephen. He stood there and watched it
and consented to it. Consented to his death. He heard
Stephen cry out, Lord, receive my spirit. He heard Stephen speak
so graciously and kindly while they were stoning him to death.
Paul stood there and watched that and consented to it. And
he never forgot it. He never forgot it. His Hebrew
name was Saul. Saul of Tarsus, Hebrew of the
Hebrews, Pharisee. He had all the credentials. But
after God saved him, he didn't go by that name Saul no more.
He went by the name of Paul. That was his Greek name. He was
an apostle to the Gentiles. And he went by the name of Paul.
The name Paul means little. Little. Now, it may be because
he was little of stature. Some say that he was. That may
be why he took the name Paul. But I do know this. Paul, who
at one time held himself in high esteem. At one time, no one thought
more highly of Paul than Paul. But I know this, that after God
saved him, Paul became little in his own eyes. He said, I am
the least. I'm the least. And he meant it. He meant it. He felt it. He knew
he was the least of the apostles. He said he was like one born
out of due time. And he says this, he's a servant
of Jesus Christ. And here's what that literally
means. It literally means this, that I am a slave. of Jesus Christ. A willing bond slave, but I am
a slave of Jesus Christ. This is how Paul saw himself.
He knew that he was bought with a price. He knew he was not his
own. He knew that Jesus Christ owned
him lock, stock, and barrel. I tell you, when you really,
really see yourself as the property of Jesus Christ. He literally
owns you. It will change your attitude
in the way you live this life, the way you walk, the way you
talk. I'm His. I'm His. He owns me. Look over in 1 Corinthians 6. First Corinthians chapter 6,
look in verse 19. He says, what know you not that
your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God, and you are not your own? I can say with enthusiasm, I'm
glad I'm not my own. I am glad that I am the property
of Jesus Christ. I'm his and he is mine. Is that
not the way it's spoken of in the Song of Solomon? My beloved is mine and I'm his. I thank God I'm his. For you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's." That's why I said,
if you and I really get a hold of this, it'll change our whole
attitude and the way we live it throughout our days. I'm His. I'm His servant. If you notice, Paul put his title
as a servant, as a bond slave, ahead of his office as an apostle.
He counted that his chief glory. You know, there were certain
individuals I was reading in the Roman Empire. They were designated
slaves of the emperor. And this was a position that
was considered of the highest honor. Of the highest honor. At one time, Paul knew this.
Now listen, and I know this, and everyone whom God saves knows
this. At one time, you and I were slaves to sin. It had power over
us. It dominated us. We were slaves to sin and Satan.
No one is out there on an island by themselves. You're either under the control
of the spirit of darkness or the control of the Holy Spirit.
It's one or the other. But now I'm a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, a delicate. He said, I'm a delicate
from the Savior, an ambassador, represent Him. Paul was summoned, this is what
he's saying, he was summoned by God to be an apostle, an ambassador
of Christ, and he's our apostle. He's the apostle to the Gentiles,
he's our apostle. Listen, this is the power of
grace. As much as he hated Jesus Christ,
he hated us, the Gentiles, he hated us. And here he is, our
apostle. God took Paul, this man who had
so much hatred in him, and He took him, saved him by His grace,
and made him our apostle. He said, I was summoned by God. That's what he's talking about.
Called, that's summoned. That's what he means when he's
saying that. Summoned by God. Just like for
me to come to be a pastor here. You called me. God summoned me. I was summoned by God to move
to Spring Lake, North Carolina and be a pastor. Now when God
summons you, you're gonna show up. I might summon you, but you're
like, I got things to do. But when God summons you, it's
going to happen. I guarantee it's going to happen.
And he's saying here, God summoned me to be an apostle. God put
him in the ministry. He didn't go from just being
a learned and educated Pharisee. Now I'm going to switch. I'm
going to go to the other side. No, God first saved him. God first made him realize what
a wretched man he is. He said that, oh wretched man
that I am. And then God took him to the
backside of a desert, the Lord did, and for three years, for
three years, Jesus Christ taught him the gospel. He met the Lord
personally. He saw him personally. And then
he sent him out to preach the gospel. He humbled him, broke
him. Broke him, humbled him, put him
in the dust, And then he made him our apostle.
And he says, I'm ready. I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome. And he says here that God called
him, he summoned him and separated him. Separated him. Now, before God separated him,
to the gospel, he had to separate him from something. God separated
him from the service of sin. God had to separate him from
the Jewish traditions. He separated him from his superstitious
idea of things. He separated him from the empty
ceremonies. He separated him to one thing
and one thing only. the preaching of Christ, the
declaration, the heralding of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He was separated to it. Preaching was not a part-time
thing for Paul. It was an all-consuming matter
for Paul. And he was separated unto the
gospel, unto the glad tidings. I'm glad, you know, I'm glad
that the message I have to preach is good news. I have glad tidings. I have good news to tell. Now
listen, not to everybody, not to everybody. I have good news
to tell the sinners. I have good news to tell to the
ungodly. If you say, well, I'm not that,
I'm not, I'm not that, I'm not a sinner. I'm not that sinful.
I'm not ungodly. I don't have anything for you.
I only have it for sinners. I have good news for mercy beggars. People who need to be saved from
their sins, people who need to be saved from themselves, I have
good news for you. God came into this world to save
sinners. That's what Paul says in Romans.
We'll see it in Romans later on. He came to save sinners. and sinners are going to be saved.
And he says he separated them to the gospel, the glad tidings,
the one message that God sent from heaven. And notice here,
he said, "...unto the gospel of God." It was God that the gospel originated
with. It was God. This is God's gospel. This is good news from God. This
is good news from the creator of heaven and earth, with whom
everybody has to deal with, sooner or later. I don't have to deal
with many people in this earth. There's over 7 billion people in this
world. I mean, if it registered on a percentage, it'd be 0.00000.
I mean, you just keep on going to zero, then get to one. Everybody
has to deal with God. Everybody's got to deal with
Jesus Christ. All judgment, he said, has been
turned over to the Son. Every person in this world. When
I hear someone die, I always think, whether it be a believer
or unbeliever, I always think they've now met Jesus Christ. They met Him. Good or bad, they met Him. It's
of God, the gospel's of God, and Paul said, God separated
me to the gospel. Not a program director. I'm not
a program director. Not an entertainer. Separated
the priest the good news of the gospel, which he had promised
before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. He promised
this. Back in Genesis 3 and verse 15,
God says, He says to Satan in front of Adam and Eve, the seed
of the woman is going to bruise your head. You're going to bruise
his heel. He's going to bruise your head.
He's going to destroy your power. That seed is Jesus Christ. which He had promised to afford
by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Paul lets them know that the
good news, the gospel he's preaching, is not something new. It's not
something new. This is not something that just
sprang up 2,000 years ago. This is as old as creation. Actually,
it's older. It goes before creation. This
matter was settled, the gospel crisis called the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. This is settled before
God created the first thing. All of it was settled. Why do you think when Adam fell,
when Adam fell and he rebelled against God, there was not thunder
and lightning and storms and just, it was not like a tornado
going through the Garden of Eden. What happened? Here's what happened. Adam went and hid behind a tree.
Him and Eve, they sowed on some fig leaves, went and hid. And it says that Adam heard the
voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now does
that sound like thunder and lightning to you? That sounds so peaceful. That
sounds like they're just resting. It doesn't sound like somebody's
upset and tore up and just... You know why? Because this matter
had already been taken care of before creation. Now, here's
what's going to happen. Listen. Here's what's going to
happen. Now, the redemption is going to unfold. The purpose
of God the purpose of God before creation, the purpose of God
concerning Jesus Christ, the purpose of God of having a new
heaven and a new earth, and on that earth there's going to be
an innumerable company of men and women saved by the blood
and the righteousness of God's Son, and God's Son is going to
get all the glory. He's going to be the king. He's
the king of that new world. We're not voting on a president.
We're not going to vote on anybody. He's the king. He's both Lord
and Christ. And that's the purpose of God.
Adam did not fall. God's trying to have a rescue
plan. Jesus Christ is not a rescue
plan. He's the Lord and Savior of sinners. and there's gonna be a whole
multitude. I mean a multitude that by the
grace of God are gonna be saved and they're gonna be on that
new earth and Jesus Christ is gonna be our king. He's king
now and he's gonna be king then. He's gonna be king. And then
Paul in saying this in verse two, he does this so wisely,
the Holy Spirit, you can't stump the Holy Spirit. You know, you're
not going to get one up on the Holy Spirit. He's God. So what the Holy Spirit does,
He moves Paul to write for this in verse 2, for this to be put
in there, to let the Jews know, to let them know that the gospel
is not some strange doctrine. This is not some strange doctrine
that Paul was preaching. It has been preached since the
fall. It has been preached since Genesis. Genesis right all the
way through, all the way through to Malachi. Because that's the scripture
he's talking about, the Old Testament. The gospel I'm preaching that
I've been separated into is an old, old story told out and picture
and types back in the Old Testament. You know, God took Paul and he
sat under the feet of Gamaliel, the most renowned teacher of
his day. He learned and he was highly
educated. He understood the law in the
letter. He didn't understand the spiritual
application of it, but he knew that, all those ceremonies and
all those types. And then God saved him and he
was able to see them. fulfilled in Christ. And he was
able to write to me and you about all these types and all these
pictures and all the Old Testament. He had such an understanding
of it. And God took this very educated man, broke him, put
him in the dust, and made him our teacher. That's the wisdom
of God. And Paul said, he was separated
unto the gospel of God which he had promised He promised that
back there in Genesis 3, he promised it to Abraham. Remember that
he said, through your seed, all the nations of the earth will
be blessed. And it's all written about. Paul
didn't preach anything that wasn't written. I don't have any liberty to preach
anything from this pulpit, but what's written? What's written? And then he said, this gospel
that he separated to is concerning his son. He didn't say concerning
Jesus Christ. He points out the fact that Jesus
Christ first is his son. What was it that Philip said,
if you believe you can be baptized, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God. That's where it starts. That's
where it has to start because from that point, you understand
that He being God cannot fail. That's why He says over in Isaiah
42, My servant shall not fail. He can't fail. He is God. The gospel is concerning a person. The gospel is not, it is not
do's and don'ts. It's not to do this, do this,
do this, don't do that, don't do that, don't go here, don't
drink this, don't drink that. It has to do with a person, Jesus
Christ. It has to do with his deity as
God and his humanity as a man. He's God, as the old writers
would say, he's God, very God, and he's a man. He had a human
soul. He was a man, someone said this,
and I understand this and you'll understand this. He's as much
God as if he were not a man, and he's as much man as if he
were not God. And yet, listen, he's still just one person. He's
the God-man. Paul preached about his deity,
he preached, he didn't preach about it, he preached his deity.
He preached his offices as prophet, priest, and king. He's that prophet
Moses said should come. He's it. He's the high priest
of the church spoken of there in Hebrews. He's the high priest. And all those other priests represented,
he's it. He's the one they represented. He's the king. Paul preached his kingship. We
have a king. I've said that so many times
in this pulpit. I'm going to say it a lot more. We have a
king. He preached His substitutionary
work, His resurrection from the dead, His reign as a mediator,
He preached His second coming, and He preached His eternal reign
on that new earth. Jesus Christ is my subject. He
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of Me. Do you think you
can exhaust Jesus Christ? He's God, can you exhaust knowing
God? Can you exhaust, who by searching can find out God? No
one. If God does not make himself
known to you, you will not know him. And God has to make himself
known to you for you to really know him. And no man knows a
father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal
him. So it's Christ who makes the father known to us. And then he says here, I'm not
going to do all these 17 verses I've read. Which was made, in verse 3, which
was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh. Isaiah 9, 6 says, unto us a child
is born. A son is given. Is he making
a play on words? A child is born. The humanity
of Christ, the human nature of Christ, which knew no sin, was
made. That word made means to become
what he was not. He was made, the scripture says,
to be sin. He was made to be what he was
not. You see, as God, he's God, but he was not flesh. He was not human. Not like us.
Not like we are. But then he became a man. He
became a man. And he became a man. God formed
his body. He said, a body has thou prepared
me. God formed that man, his body, his soul, the whole man. He formed him in the womb of
a virgin. Adam was formed from the dust
of the ground. Jesus Christ was formed. His body and soul, his
humanity was formed by the Spirit of God. Nothing of Adam entered
into His nature. Nothing of this humanity entered
into His nature. That's why it could be written,
He knew no sin. You and I can't say that. That
can never be said of us. Because David said, I was born
in sin, shaped in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Not that he's saying it was a
sinful act. He's saying the seed I was conceived
was a sinful seed. And that's what my nature is.
My nature is sin. The nature of Jesus Christ was
holy. Holy. Mine's sin. And he was made of
the seed of David. God promised David a seed. He
said, he's gonna sit upon your throne. And God is that seed. What a mystery. What a mystery. If you go back and read the genealogy
there in Matthew, and you go read it in Luke chapter 3, it
runs all the way back, all the way back to David. Actually,
in Luke, it runs it all the way back to Adam. It runs Joseph,
which was his stepfather, it runs his genealogy all the way
back to Adam. Four thousand years. Now they
kept records. But listen, and he's declared,
that word means marked out by sure signs. Marked out by sure
signs. Declared to be the son of God
with power. Declared, did you hear that?
Not made. You see, he was made flesh, but he wasn't made the son of
God. He's declared to be the son.
This is my son. God spoke from heaven. God said,
this is my son. Hear ye him. This is my son,
my only begotten son. He's declared, he's not made
to be the son of God. He's declared to be the son of
God. He's equal with the father. And God declared Him to be His
Son with power when He raised Him from the dead. And He rose
and went on high and sat, and right now is seated at the right
hand of God. There's a man in glory. There
is a man in glory, seated at God's right hand, right now,
that God has turned everything over to. Everything. And he says here, I'm only going
to go down to verse 6 and I'll close. By whom we have received
grace and apostleship. You know which is first? Grace. Grace. Grace upon grace. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. By whom? It is by Jesus Christ. Through
Jesus Christ we have received grace and apostleship. God made me an apostle for obedience
to the faith among all nations for His name. By the mercy of
the Lord Jesus Christ, He received grace in conversion and then
an office as an apostle. Among whom also? Among whom? Are you also the called of Jesus
Christ? Now, he was talking earlier about
being called, summoned to an office in the church, an apostle. Here he's talking about being
called by the grace of God to salvation. Among all the people of the Roman
Empire, and you just go read the history of Rome at that time,
how my soul what it was like at that time. And God has called you out. He has effectually drawn you
out, separated you from among the rest of the Romans. God did
this. God did this. You know, when
you really Well, and you do, if God has saved you, you realize
God called you effectually, God drew you out, God lifted you
out like you lift a brand out of the fire. God pulled you out. You know, nobody, the gospel
is preached, no one's interested, not a soul is interested, and
all of a sudden you have an interest. You have an interest. Why? God, by His grace, is gonna have
you. Now listen, God doesn't owe salvation
to any of us sitting here. If He saves us, He saves us by
His grace. It's by His grace. God Almighty
can leave every last one of us alone and be a just God. God Almighty, God is going to
get the glory. Now listen, God is going to get
the glory. If He saves me, it'll be to the
praise and glory of His grace. If He damns me, it'll be to the
praise and glory of His justice. God's going to be glorified.
He's going to get the glory. I want grace. I want grace. Lord, have mercy on me. Save
this wretch. That's what I want. Save this
wretch. And the Scripture says, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, I'm
a whosoever. That's my name. My name's whosoever.
That just fits me. All ye that labor and heavy laden,
come to me. Lord, that fits me. That's how you know when God
has called you, when He's called you, Those scriptures fit you. I mean, they speak to you, don't
they? They reach into your heart. It's not just something you're
hearing me say. They reach into your heart. You feel it pulling
you. Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden. He that
cometh to me, I will and no wise cast out. That pulls you like
a cord is tied around you, and it's just pulling you to Him. That's what it is to be
called. effectually. He draws you just
like you got a rope tied to you. It's a rope of grace. And he's
pulling you right to himself. He's pulling you to Jesus Christ.
Because in Christ, God can be a just God and save a wretch
like me and you. It's written in John 540, the
Lord said, He said, You will not come to me that you might
have life. You will not come. Now listen, that fits everybody
in the human race. Now, that fits everyone in the
human race. But you know who will come? Psalm
110, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. When
God makes you willing, when God gets a hold of you, I believe
it's Scott Richardson said, he saved me against my will with
my full consent. I love that.