Good morning, good morning. Good
to see everybody. That song we just sung is an acid test. If you believe
the words that you sung, you cannot be anything but a follower
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It just doesn't That's why this religious world
in which we live is so divided. There is no compromise
able to bring the two together. One tells you that you're on
God and God can't do anything for you unless you let Him. And
we tell you that you belong to God. It's his to save us or to
damn us. And whichever he chooses is right.
But people who sing that song cannot be honest with themselves
or with their neighbors. There are some strong statements
that we just sung in that hymn. All right, our text and reading
comes out of Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Bible class
teachers, Romans chapter 1. We've got to get the message across
where we're going to be. Now, let's bow for prayer and
beg the Lord to presence Himself. here in this place. Lord God of heaven and earth, revealed in Christ Jesus the
Lord, who is indeed the revelation
of God to sinners. Without Christ we have no hope
and no salvation. If his death does not save us,
we shall forever perish. As we come together in this place
this morning, we delight to sing these hymns
such as we have just sung. Oh, we beg that you would open
our hearts and minds to see what it is that we are saying and
confessing, and how wonderful and majestic and glorious will
the Lord Jesus be to those poor sinners who know they cannot
help themselves. We cast ourselves upon your mercy
and your grace in Christ this very day. Lord, you have in this
very house saved a number of persons over the last thirty-some
years, and yet there are still unbelievers. We need your help and your aid
and your blessing, and without it we cannot possibly communicate
the message of this book called the Holy Bible. We beg that you
would come down, even this very hour, and bless this feeble attempt
by this feeble preacher to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help me God. We pray in Christ's name,
amen. Alright, first of all, a quick
reading, which doesn't always turn out to be quick. Now, I'm
sorry about that, but I'm hoping to leave myself plenty of time
to say what I think I'm supposed to say. Romans 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called, I'm going to leave out the italicized words to be, called
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. And if you know
anything at all about Saul of Tarsus in the Bible, now Paul
the apostle, you understand that it took a miraculous miracle
of grace to break and conquer this man to fall at the feet
of our Lord Jesus Christ and beg for mercy. And this gospel
that is spoken of in verse 1, we read in verse 2, which he
had promised before by his holy prophets in the holy scriptures. Who can read Isaiah chapter 53
and not see Christ and him crucified from verse 1 all the way through
verse 12? Because this gospel, verse number
3, is concerning his Son, God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. The human
nature of Christ came through the line of David, the King of
Israel. And so it says, made of the seed
of David. The same human flesh as David
wore and as you and I wear. according to the flesh. But the Lord Jesus has more than
one nature. He's only one person, but he's
got two distinct natures. The first one we've just read
about in regard to David and Christ, that's his humanity. That's his human nature. The
Bible speaks in language like this, the first man and the last
man, You ever read that? Try 1 Corinthians 15 sometimes. It tells us that this is who
the Lord Jesus is. And now we read in verse 4, of
his divine nature. Therefore we say that Christ
is both God and man in one person. Not two people, one person. Verse
4, And declared to be the Son of God with power, according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
And the scriptures speak of this resurrection of Christ as being
done by God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, but here it is decidedly
speaking of Christ raising himself from the dead. If somebody else
had to raise him, then this statement about him could not be true.
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," Paul referring now
to the persons to whom he writes, among whom are you also the called
of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, called saints, grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, First I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing
I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests
if by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you."
Paul has never been to Rome at this point, but he's going. I long to see you that you may
impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you may
be established." And then he restates that. That is, that
I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both
of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was not but was hindered up until
now, best way I know to put it, that I might have some fruit
among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise,
so as much as envy is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. This precious thing
called the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. You can be the best person who's
ever lived, the most admired, the most wondered at, and without
hearing this gospel, you're lost as lost can be. And no hope for
your soul unless that changes. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek or the Gentile. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just, the righteous, the holy shall live by faith. And that's
like saying, we shall live by Christ. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth. That word is probably better
rendered suppressed or hold down the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for
God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of the
world, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they are left without excuse." Now, we're
going back in this chapter to three verses, 16, 17, and 18. And the title of the message
is, What Does the Gospel Reveal? It is a revelation for sure.
We should all know that by now. It must be revealed. There is
no human mind except the mind of Christ that could possibly
understand this. Therefore, it must be It must
be revealed to us in order, and then we must be given an understanding
of it. So we're talking now about the
righteousness of God revealed. I need to make an opening statement
about the gospel itself. So if you'll turn to Matthew,
whatever you do, hang on to Romans chapter 1. If you'll go to Matthew
chapter 11, we'll need it in just a moment
or two. I wonder how much money it would
take to get some electronic Bibles. It would be a lot quicker, wouldn't
it? Here's my introductory question. Why is the gospel offensive? If the gospel is so wonderful, why does it offend? And there
are more reasons than this, but here are four of some of the
most powerful ones. The first reason that the gospel
offends is because it puts all people on the same level. It does not recognize superiority
in religion. We all start at the feet of Christ. And if that ain't where I started,
then I haven't even started. We must check ourselves in regard
to these things. Religion speaks of man's dignity,
of his high thoughts concerning himself, but it's all a pipe
dream. Ain't nothing to it. It's just air, and hot air at
that. It puts everybody on the same
level. The second offense is because
the gospel must be revealed. It cannot be known apart from
divine revelation. Now, did you find Matthew 11?
All right. Let me read you just a few verses. starting at verse 25 in Matthew
11. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and
has revealed them unto babes. Did what to these babes? Revealed
it. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in your sight. For all things are delivered
unto me of my Father, and no man knows the Son but the Father. Neither knows any man the Father
except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." The
gospel must be revealed. It must, must be revealed. Man is proud of his intelligence
and wisdom, but when it comes to knowing God, you can throw
it all out the window. You can have a Ph.D. in everything
from A to Z. You can win jeopardy or whatever
else you want to do. But that doesn't put you any
closer to God. God can only be known by revealing
himself in our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel. The third reason
that the gospel is offensive is because the message of the
gospel is a message of a finished and completed work. Everything's
already done. Preacher, what about my part?
You ain't got no part. All you can do is receive. You
can't bribe. You can't do anything. You can't
beg enough for God to come to you. If you're begging, He's
set you to begging, and He aims to answer that begging. This precious gospel is the gospel
of a completed work. And yet, the natural man, you
and me both, we'd rather have a different gospel. We want one
that's based on our good deeds and our works and our generosity
and our kindness and all the things that we do for people
through the course of a year. We want a law to keep, a duty
to perform, Just like old Naaman did when he went down to see
Elisha about getting rid of his leprosy. And he told him, simply
go bathe in that dirty Jordan River seven times and you'll
be healed. Oh, he said, that ain't for me.
I deserve better than that. The water in his home country
looked a whole lot prettier than the one in the Jordan. It stayed
muddy for the most part. And he would have none of God's
answer to his leprosy until his servants constrained him. Master, it's such a simple thing.
Why don't you at least go try it? Bathe in the river Jordan
seven times, and when you come up, you'll have no leprosy. And
here's the fourth offense of the gospel. Because the gospel
is a message of sovereign mercy and free grace. And there is
no in-between. None whatsoever. I bet you could
ride the state of North Carolina and find two or three hundred
churches with the name Grace Baptist Church on them. And I'd
also bet you that with some minor exceptions, the vast majority
of those wouldn't even know what grace is. We'll turn now back to Romans,
and don't stop at chapter 1 for the moment. Hang on to chapter
1, but I want you to go to Romans 9. Romans 9, verses 15, 16, 17,
and 18. Verse 17, Romans chapter 5, for
if by one man's offense death reigned by one, and if you're
familiar with this chapter, if you'll go back to the earlier
part of it, you'll find out who this one is. This one is Adam. You remember the man that was
born in the Garden of Eden? God took a rib out of his side
to make him a wife. They had paradise, I mean, every
which way you can imagine. Ah, but Satan comes along with
a tempting tune, and things all of a sudden change. Verse 17, for if by one man's
offense, death reigned by one. And much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ." I've said this so much I just
hate to repeat it, but I think I've got to. Our government in
this country is a government of representation. We have a
whole lot of muckety-mucks up there doing what they want to
do without doing anything we want them to do for the most
part. But the fact is, whatever they do, we do it whether we
like it or not. Because they are representing
this part of the universe, therefore it is their prerogative to do
these things. Verse 18, Therefore, by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. When Adam
sinned, every descendant of Adam sinned. Do you follow me? We are born dead
in trespasses and sins. Not born to find out what we're
going to be. That's who we are when we come from our mother's
womb. But, look at the next thing. What verse am I on? 18? Romans 5.18, is that right? Okay. Y'all could be a little bit You
could speak up a little bit. Verse 18. Therefore, as by the
offense of one, that's Adam, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift, the gift of God's grace, the gift of eternal
life, came upon all men unto justification of life. Now, that's
not all men without exception. That's talking about all people
who are in Christ, all believers, all of his bride, all of his
church. We move to verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, that's Adam again, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, that as sin has reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord." Alright, that takes care of the
introduction. Now we proceed to deal with chapter
1, verses 16, 17, and 18. Now the first point is this.
This precious gospel of which we've been reading and speaking
is said in our Bibles to be the power of God unto salvation. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation. Now, I cannot and you cannot
fathom what it would be to capture all the power of God, and yet
it is all present in this precious gospel of Christ. Verse 16 calls
it I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew as
well as to the Greek. So this gospel then, and this
power of God unto salvation, has to do with the satisfaction
of God's holy law and his divine justice. God cannot be unjust. He cannot do anything to change
what He is. You understand? He's all-knowing,
He's ever-present, He's all-powerful. All of these things can have
no interruption whatsoever. They must be in perfect continuation. Perfect. This satisfaction of law and
justice is also related to the new birth, and particularly to
the life that is communicated to the soul that is dead in trespasses
and sins. Now, I have to rely on your memory,
and I know that's not maybe a good idea all the time, and mine ain't
a good idea all the time either. But you remember in Ezekiel chapter
16? When the prophet Ezekiel is speaking
to the Jewish nation, and he talks about this infant that
is born and thrown out into an open field, and there dies. And then he goes to speak about
God's love, and God's mercy, and God's grace. And God says it is the time of
love. And he passes by this infant
and says with the same voice that created this universe, I
say unto you, live. Yea, I say unto you, live. And that's how it is. I know
it's mysterious. I know you can't fathom it. If
we could, it would be man-made. But this is the glory of God
in His power unto salvation. Alright, in verse 17 of Romans
chapter 1, we have a statement regarding the righteousness of
God revealed. Verse 17. For therein, in this
same gospel of Christ, therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just, the righteous,
the converted, the regenerated shall live by faith." Now, I
can't count over the last many years how many people have been here for a short, some
a longer time. And they finally hear something
that they don't like. And in many cases, it has to
do with our faith. Faith is not of our own making. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And if God is not the author
of our faith, then we only have a pretended faith, a professed
faith, but not genuine faith. Let me read you a statement. I first noticed this whenever
we got to Hawker Commentaries. I don't know when that was. And I had a set of the New Testament
even before that, because Doug and Bill Meyer rode with me to
Raleigh to find it in a used bookshop. I think I paid the
guy right at $600 for three books. But I was bound and determined
I was going to have them. And after I started reading them,
I was bound and determined we were going to get these things
printed again. And God has blessed us to do that. We're privileged
to have a part in it. I don't know anything else to
do but read it. So I'll try to read it as carefully as I can.
This righteousness of God revealed. is from faith to faith, it is
revealed to faith, in order to show that it is not obtained
by faith. The whole and sole cause of justification
is Christ. Faith is no more than the hand
to receive it by, and faith does not give the least title to it. Genuine faith does not speak
of our faith as being worthy of being commended to life with
God. No, so far from that. Faith is produced by the complete
work of Christ's righteousness, so that as faith has no hand
in the work, neither has faith any merit in the performance.
It is not revealed from works to faith, but from faith to faith. And as Christ is the great object
of faith, So all the life and actings of faith are completely,
entirely, and solely upon his person, upon his blood, and upon
his righteousness. Therefore, we love these words,
do we not? Christ is all. He's all there is. He's all we
need. And there ain't nothing else.
That can take its place. Now we come to verse 18 in chapter
1. Romans 1.18, For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who hold or suppress the truth in
unrighteousness. So let's look at this third point.
Here we have Adam in the garden. A genius. He's the only being, the only
human being on this planet. And it's all his. And it's all
perfect. And there's nothing amiss. But alas, the devils tempted
Eve, and Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. And when God
came to speak to them in the garden, they had fixed fig leaves
to make themselves aprons to hide their nakedness. And this man, Adam, died spiritually. Therefore, all of his offspring,
from the time of the Garden of Eden to the end of time, all
of his offspring are like their first father, and that is, we
are fallen In Adam, we're dead in trespasses and in sin. And there's another occasion
when this matter of the wrath of God being revealed, it's revealed
first of all to Adam and Eve in the garden, but it's revealed
secondly in Noah's generation when the flood came. And I know
there's a lot of smart people that can tell you what took place
ten million years ago, and I doubt they can tell you what took place
yesterday. That's my assessment of them. They're nothing but
fools. But they're getting high paid, so you know, let them get
some benefit while they're going through life. If they don't ever
come to Christ, they'll burn in hell, regardless of their
intellect and knowledge. So this flood came, and that
ark is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're in
the ark, you're safe, and if you're not, You're not safe. And this wasn't some local flood. This is a universal earth flood. And then thirdly, we have another
strong example for us in the scriptures. We have the fires
that burned up Sodom and Gomorrah and a few other villages of the
plain. that had turned the natural use
of men and women to men with men and women with women. And
you can't pick up a newspaper this day and not find that garbage
all over it. And that's all it is. It's people
who now can legally be sinners without getting punished. Ah,
but there's another day coming. A judgment day coming. Creatures are mealy-mouthed on
the subject of homosexuality. But I'll tell you where the wrath
of God is really revealed. You want to know it? It's revealed
on Calvary's cross. when our precious Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, died on that cross and shed his blood on that
cross, and was bold enough to say at the very end, it is finished. Redemption is finished. Salvation
is finished. Everything is finished. For therein, in the gospel of
Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed. So what does
this mean? In Christ alone, God the Father
is well pleased. And if you're in him, he's well
pleased with you as well, though we still have many sins And we're
ashamed of them and wish we had none of them. God is well pleased with his
Son, the Lord Jesus. If he were not, you'd have to rewrite a considerable
portion of our Bibles. This book says that Christ is
seated at God's right hand, and that in Psalm 2 it tells us that
whatever Christ wants, the Father says it's yours. Ask of me and
I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. And he has. Because we're part of that heathen. Praise God for that. Secondly,
this righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Christ alone we are justified,
acquitted from guilt, and accepted into favor with God through Christ's
merit and mediation. And that alone, our worship and
service are made acceptable. Without the blood of Christ,
you and I could not be alive. This world would no longer be
standing. He's bought it and paid for it as well as created
it. And his people belong to him. Finally, by Christ alone, we
have right and title to a heavenly inheritance. I want to read that
to you. You don't have to turn if you
don't want to, but I'm going to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In fact, I'm already there if
you want to just let me read it to you. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, "...for
God has made Christ," leave out the 2B, that's italicized, it
was added by the King James translators, "...He has made Him sin for us,
Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made, what? The righteousness of God in Him. The only way for a sinner to
be righteous is to be in Christ. And you can't ever be unrighteous
again. This ain't a revolving door. Not at all. Well, for whatever it's worth,
there it is.