Romans chapter 1, we know that the gospel, the
literal translation of that is good news. But what would happen
if a person walked into the service tonight and had no hope? And I mean desperate, desperately
not wanting to face God and judgment. Or if they're convicted of sin,
they're tormented day and night. and they're looking for hope.
What good news would we tell them? That could be a sinner
that's never heard of the Bible. They've never heard of who God
is. It could be someone that's walked
with Christ just a little while. They could be in despair. It
could be someone that's walked with Christ for a long time,
for the bulk of their life, and they could still be just miserable
and needing hope. What would we tell them? What
good news would we give them? That sinner facing eternity came
to listen to someone speak to them, to give them good news,
to give them hope. And a man stood here, and he
only told them more of what they need to do. That wouldn't be
good news, would it? What comfort would there be if a man stood
here and just gave them historical facts, or they had puppet shows,
or a basketball team? All of these things are so common
that we see. It wouldn't be the gospel. It
wouldn't be good news to them. It wouldn't be good news to me
if I'm needy. I have a desire to know the gospel. I have a desire to know that
good news. And I want to grow in knowledge. I want to grow
in grace and understanding. And I want to be able to preach
that good news to sinners. I pray the Lord give me ability
to speak to where people can understand me and He uses me. And I want to be kept. I want
to be kept looking to that promise of my hope. That's what I want. But what is that? gospel preaching. What is that good news? What's
the gospel? We hear that so many times that, oh, he's a gospel
preacher. They preach the full gospel.
A lot of people ask me if I preach the full gospel. And any time
I've experienced that, I'm sure not always, but there's one preset
that they're wanting to hear. There's one thing. They don't
want the full gospel. They want to know what the gospel
is. There's one detail they're honed in on. But I want to know
plainly what that good news is. Do you? I want to know where
to put all my hope. That's what I want. So let's
look at what Paul wrote here to the church in Rome. He had
never visited Rome, but he's still in Corinth when he wrote
this. And like many of the beginning of his epistles, his letters
to those other churches, it could seem that it begins the same.
And I know for me, it was easy for me to read over it, like,
well, that's the introduction. Paul, a servant of Christ, and
na, na, na. All right, let's get to the meat
and potatoes, you know. But there's so much there. As I began to
sit down and study through these epistles and look to go through
them in order and seek a message, I had to stop with only those
first seven verses. So in this brief greeting, Paul
introduces himself, but quickly he cuts to the chase, just like
he did there in Galatians. And he declares in plain, simple
terms what the gospel is. He shows us. We'll read that,
Romans, beginning in Romans 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel, 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 ye 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. So what is that gospel? The Gospel is the message of
all the Holy Scriptures concerning God's Son, concerning Christ
Jesus. This whole book, from beginning
to end, it's concerning Christ. It's about Christ. I've told
you before, it's a hymn book. It's H-I-M. It's all about Christ,
isn't it? But it's impossible to preach
from it. and to preach the gospel without preaching Christ, who
he is, and his person, and the work that he accomplished, what's
finished. And that doesn't mean sometimes,
it means all the time. And I pray, and I hope you pray
for me, that the Lord keeps me and enables me to consistently
preach Christ from his pulpit, and that this congregation consistently
is the light preaching Christ in this part of the country.
Going back to verse 1, we'll read the first three verses again.
It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God. Now he's going to tell us
what that is. In parenthesis it says, which he had promised
afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. That's the Old
Testament. All those prophets of old promised of Christ. Verse
3, "...concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh." That's the New
Testament. That's from Christ's birth and through His work on
this world. So Paul also wrote of this in
first Corinthians, he said, For I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received. How? That Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. And that He was buried and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He says that
twice, two quick sentences, according to the Scriptures. That's important,
isn't it? The Old Testament, it's been said the Old Testament
is the gospel concealed and the New Testament is the gospel revealed.
That's right. Christ Jesus is the message of
the Old Testament scriptures the same as he's the message
of this New Testament that we have. There in verse 2 Paul says,
which, speaking to God, which God had promised afore by his
prophets in the holy scriptures. All the Old Testament scriptures
were concerning Christ in either picture, in type, in ceremony,
or in prophecy. In Luke, Christ spoke to one
of those walking with Him to Emmaus, which we spoke of the
other day. He said, O fools, and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? Shouldn't these things
have happened? It says there in Luke 24-27,
"...and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
Wouldn't that have been miraculous? have our Savior, God in the flesh,
sit down with you, open the scriptures up, beginning in Moses, and say,
this all speaks of me and here's how. And tell us plainly and
truly. That's truth right there. That
would have been something. So how do we now see, do we now
understand that What the gospel is isn't what we're looking for.
A lot of people want to know what the gospel is. Our gospel
is who the gospel is. Our good news is a person, isn't
it? It's not a systematic theological doctrine or a set of steps or
a program we have to go through or something we have to attain
or stop doing or start doing. It's a person. That's the good
news. Now it's nothing in me, it's in Him. I want to briefly
just touch on some of the Old Testament pictures of Christ
so we can see what these scriptures are talking about when it keeps
saying according to the scriptures. We know after Adam He took this
entire humanity, the whole human race, and we went into sin and
despair. We were separated from God. God
promised Christ, didn't He? He said He would give the seed
to the woman. He was speaking to the serpent. He said, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. It was in Genesis 3. By Adam's sin, we came under
the power, the prince of the air. When Adam fell, we became
attached and ruled and governed by Satan, didn't we? But Christ, that seed of woman,
he came forth as a man, just as we are, like those he came
to save. He came made just as we are in
flesh. He knows the feeling of our infirmities. But He came
to deliver us from the devil by allowing the devil to bruise
His heel on the cross. But in doing so, the cross being
lifted up on that cross, He crushed the serpent's head, didn't He?
He was successful. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, that's us, he also himself likewise
took part of the same, Christ became flesh, that through death
he might destroy him that had power over death, that is the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. We were afraid. We were scared
of that bondage that we were trapped in, weren't we? But He
came and was made like us so that way He could bear that justice
and judgment that we deserve. We see that through Adam and
the seed of woman. And then in the garden, God gave
us a picture of Christ making a covering and covering our father
Adam, didn't He? He said unto Adam and Eve, unto
Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin
and clothed them. Not only did He give us our righteousness,
He provided that for His people through His Son. He clothed us
and brings us to faith in Christ's name. He makes it, and he puts
it on us. Isaiah 61 says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with jewels. The bridegroom does that. So
we see in that first animal slain to give us a covering. Me and
my pastor are talking a lot about that. How we come, how we dress,
that's our gospel. Whenever we approach the Lord,
the garments that we have on, do we wear our own, those filthy
rags? Or do we wear that coat of righteousness
of Christ that was put on us? It was made for us and put on
us. Then we come to Noah in the scriptures. What was so special
about Noah? People say, well, Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, didn't he? Well, Noah didn't do something
and then find grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord was gracious
to Noah and then Noah found out about it. We should read that
kind of backwards, shouldn't we? We see everything backwards.
But what happened with Noah? Every heart and mind on this
earth was imitated towards God. They hated God. They probably
didn't. Just like in our day now, no
one... You walk up and down the streets, most people would say,
well, no, I don't hate God. But in their own mind, not through
their actions and through their heart's desires, you know. And
so that punishment, that judgment from the Lord had to come down.
He says, I will not pardon sin. It has to be punished. He's just.
And so that rain came down and it flooded and it killed all
those deserving of death. And it killed Noah too, but Noah
was inside that ark. All that wrath came to Noah,
but it was all bore. That burden was held by that
ark and that ark was Christ, wasn't it? That's a whole picture
of Noah and Ark. It's not something to put on
walls for little children, and it's not a good time story to
entertain people. No, that's a picture of our Redeemer,
isn't it? Something to take seriously.
Then we get to Abraham. The Lord preached to Abraham,
and He said, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. And the Holy Spirit declares through Paul, Paul writes
this in Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, plural,
as to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ. Paul tells us plainly, doesn't
he? That seed that would come through Abraham, it wasn't all
the children of Abraham, it was that one seed. That one in the
lineage of him was Christ. Abraham went up that mountain
to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, his firstborn son, right?
From Sarah. We see Christ, that substitutionary
lamb, caught in that thorn bush. The rack of that ram was caught
in the thorns. What happened to Christ on the
cross? He had a crown of thorns, didn't He? There's just so many
small things that we just read right over. This is declaring
Christ is coming. And this is how He's going to
come. And then He came. I can say I'm going to do something.
I have a plan tomorrow. We're going to go do some paperwork
and I'm going to not be homeless anymore. I'm going to own a house
in California. I plan to do that. I may be there tomorrow morning.
I may not. Those people may have the paperwork
ready. They may not. When the Lord says, That's something of
His sovereignty and His majesty. He said, this is how I'm going
to do it. And then He executes it exactly the way He says He's
going to do it. He told Israel that. He said, here's all the
things I'm going to do for you. And they came to pass. He said,
but you're going to inquire of me. I'll have you ask me for
it. And we do, don't we? We pray
for the Lord's mercy. He'll be gracious to us. He'll
watch us. He'll keep us forever. But we
ask Him. Ask Him every day. When John the Baptist pointed
to Christ plainly, speaking of this Lamb, he said, Behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away sin of the world. Christ is that
Lamb. The Passover Lamb. That night
that God passed through Egypt, He slew the firstborn of every
household in Egypt. That was all the people in Egypt. That tribe of Israel, the people
of Israel, all of their firstborns died too. They just didn't pay
that death, that lamb that was provided. That was the death.
It died in their place. They put it on the doorpost.
The Lord came, He saw the blood, said, I'll pass by you. Christ
is our Passover lamb. Every sinner that comes on the
face of this earth, I don't know anybody that's died and still
alive, do you? I've never met anybody. As long
as I've been on this earth, people, you go through life, you get
old and you pass away, and you don't come back. Or you're young
and have an accident. Lord can take a life today. This
might be the last time we're allowed to be here. Might be
the last time I'm allowed to stand here. And I don't know anyone
that's come back, but everybody that's born on the face of this
earth will face the judgment of Christ, of God the Father,
and He will punish sin now. Either He'll punish it in you
and you'll bear that burden, you'll bear that payment for
eternity, or Christ's born in our place, in our room instead.
It's one or the other. There's only two people, two
ways that the Lord's going to deal with sin. He's going to
punish it both ways, but either He's going to punish it in us
or He's going to punish it in our substitute, won't He? So
we can go on and on through the Old Testament and look at all
these pictures, but the gospel of God, like Paul said there
in verse 2, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the
Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, their Lord. That's our gospel. Christ Jesus
the Lord is our gospel. That's our good news. Now, we
see who the gospel is and we saw what he will and shall accomplish. So, what happens to the child
of God when they hear that news? What happens? So, look there
in verse 4, Romans 1 verse 4. Paul writes, "...and declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead." We can kind of read that one
backwards too. We are resurrected from the dead.
We're given life according to that Spirit of holiness. The
Holy Spirit comes in. We're born again. We're quickened.
We're given a new heart, a new life in us, and then we see that
power of the Son of God, don't we? That's when we're able to
look and say, look how powerful Christ was when He came. When
He humbled Himself, He made Himself the least of all His brethren.
Just as Christ receives all the glory for establishing us in
righteousness, Christ receives the glory for putting us in a
new spirit. There's no guile in bringing
us to believe on Him. He gets the glory for all of
it. That's what happens whenever He gives us that life and we're
able to see what that good news is. Christ is our righteousness. He's our sanctification. We have
nothing to do with making ourselves either one of those. I can't
make myself righteous, and I can't sanctify myself. I can't set
myself apart. I can't make myself holy. That's
a dirty rag trying to wash another dirty rag. We mopped a lot of
floors, ain't we, Bob? You got dirty mop water, you
ain't gonna clean the floor. You can mop all day. Paul wrote
this, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. His faith's the
reason I'm alive. Who loved me and gave himself
for me. That is salvation. A lot of people
ask me, especially in the last year or so, when were you saved? And if they catch me on the right
day, I may respond and tell them, do you mean when did I begin
giving Christ all the glory and salvation? And that stops the
line of questioning quite often, especially if I'm out in public.
That ends it. But if you truly, in your heart, if you look to
Christ only for your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification,
your redemption, you say, what have you done? I've done nothing.
Look to Him. That's the required answer when we stand before God.
And God the Father says, where's your righteousness? Where's your
sanctification? Well, I did this and I studied hard and I woke
up early and I tithed a lot. Nope, you're in trouble, buddy.
You say, it's all in Him. It's all in Christ. That's it. And if I say, come, my good and
faithful servant, come in. But we learn who the Gospel is,
we experience that, what happens when we effectually hear it,
when the Lord quickens us and gives us life. And so lastly,
what's our charge when we've heard it? What's given to us?
Romans 1 verse 5 says, "...by whom we have received grace and
apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for
His name." Through the Gospel, Christ brings us down. He shows
us who Christ is. He shows His worth and His perfection. And just in turn, that shows
us what we are, don't it? That comes natural. You elevate
that, elevate Christ, and man is brought to the dirt. Most
people don't like to hear that, but that's the only hope we have.
Whenever He brings us down, He fills us with love, with love
for Christ. He fills us with love for our
brethren, Christ in them, don't it? It makes us not be ashamed
of this gospel. I get that way. There's times I'll clam up and
not... I don't want to talk on an elevator or grocery store
or anything. I don't know why. I should be on the streets declaring
it to anybody and listen. Come here, I've got good news.
I want to tell you something. If my favorite football team had
won the Super Bowl, I'd be telling people in line at the grocery
store. But why I wouldn't tell this good news. He makes us not
ashamed when people ask us. He gives us that faith and that
grace and ability when it's time to share the gospel. But we seek to spread that gospel.
It's the same way we received this ministry. The same way that
we were brought in the knowledge of Christ. That same method,
the same way He uses forever. And it's the reason we don't
faint when it's time to tell someone who Christ is. And we
decline any falsehood, any lie towards Him. And we preach the
truth. We preach the truth, don't we?
Together as a body. Turn over to 2 Corinthians. Excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we
faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully.
What does that mean? So many people, they take the
Word of God and they just take words and they try to make it
sound the way they want it to sound, to fit them. We don't
bend God to fit us. God bends us to be made the way
He wants us made, to conform us to the image of Christ, doesn't
He? We don't use it for our own glory or our own gain. Remember
verse 2, "...by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Verse 5, "...for
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ." He gave us that knowledge to see Christ's face. But we
have this treasure in earth and vessel. We have it in these flesh
and bones, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. If we understand this gospel
and we have the ability to look to Christ only, that's absolute
proof it's not of us, isn't it? When Christ had approached Paul
on that road to Damascus, we looked at last month, The Lord
said to Ananias in Acts chapter 9, He said, Go thy way, for he
is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how
great things he must suffer for my name's sake. These are for
the Lord's name. Paul bore Christ's name before
the Gentiles by preaching Christ to them. He carried it, he bore
it. That is what Christ has called
us to do, to bear His name. That demoniac in the country
of the Gordians, the Lord healed, there in Mark 5. He said, Pray
Him that He might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not,
but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed and began to
publish, in Decapolis, how great things Jesus hath done for him,
and all men did marvel." I wish I was able to do that
consistently, not just an hour a week standing up here and telling
you. I hope, pray that all day and every day in my conversations
be with you nothing but Christ and Him crucified, and just tell
you and to fellowship, be the fellows in the same ship. That
boat's Christ. That's our ship. And talk of
Him and publish Him. And I hope I can do it in a way
that men would marvel. Oh, it would be pleasing. I pray the
Lord would let me do that. When we tell those people, when
the Lord does enable us here and there to profess Christ to
someone, what do we tell them? Back there in our text, let's
look in Romans 1 verse 7. We have some good news now to
tell them. If the Lord teaches you what that gospel is, you
experience it effectually, you have new life in you, and He
puts it in your heart to bear His name, to go out and spread
this gospel forth. Here in Romans 1 verse 7, here's
what Paul tells these believers he's never met. He says, 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. Grace
and peace. He's asking, may the Lord be
gracious to you. May He give you something you
don't deserve. And if He does that, if the Lord's gracious
to someone, you're going to have peace. You come in, you're in
despair, and you don't have any hope, and you don't know what
to do with yourself, and you're miserable, and you're tormented,
you have no hope. Where's the peace from the grace
of God? He gives us that grace in Christ
and His Son, and we have peace. We can go home and sleep well
at night with that. Look to Christ if you've never looked to Him,
and you'll have peace. If you've just begun looking
to Christ, keep looking to Christ. If you've looked to Christ for
years and years and decades, remember your first love as He
commands us, and continue in Him. And I promise, He has promised
He'll keep us, and He shall be faithful. And throughout, as
proof to that, if it was a logical debate, the Lord had the entire
Old Testament to tell us, here's what I'm going to do. And this
is exactly how I'm going to do it. They're going to cast lots
on His coat. They're going to make a sign
above Him. He's going to be born here. Everything. Everything's done. He said, that's
exactly how I'm going to do it. And then it come to pass. If
all that happened, And I can look at that, I have just a mountain
of history with him, seeing the Lord work and his providence
and his power. And he says, little old me, if
he controlled all those things throughout the history of time,
and he said, Kevin, I'm going to keep you. I think he could
do it, couldn't he? You think he can do it? Look
to him. Keep looking to him. If you're
happy, especially then, look to him. If you're sad, look to
him. If you have no hope, come here,
look to him. I pray as a blessing to you all.