Romans chapter 1. The name of
the message is God's gospel. God's gospel. Now the gospel is good news for sinners. Good news for sinners. Romans chapter 1. We'll read
the first seven verses of this wonderful book. written by the
Apostle Paul under inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Now,
there are some portions in which we believers become
very familiar with. One is Psalm 23. Very familiar
portion of Scripture. And they're often quoted. There's
even certain portions of Scripture that are often quoted by preachers.
We often quote sometimes the same portions of scripture. And
they become familiar to we who are the hearers. Also, there are some verses which
we can read over. They're like a flyover verse. And it ought not to be so, but
it happens. And we can read that verse and
we can say, well, I already know that, right? We all do it. Well, yeah, I understand what's
being said there. But you know, God has gems within his scriptures. I remember Norm Wells telling
me that Bible studies is like mining. You gotta dig. And when you start digging, and
that's what I'm to do too as a preacher, is start digging,
right? Start digging. Well, these verses that we can
sometimes fly over, a verse like verse three here in Romans chapter
one, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh. We can read that
and go, well, I know what that's saying. And we can conclude that that's
pretty easy to understand. But remember, the only one who's
given us an understanding is the Holy Spirit of God, because
I've told you I read the scriptures before the Lord saved me, and
it was just paper and ink. And for a lot of people who read
the scriptures, it's just paper and ink. But for we who are the born-again,
blood-washed children of God, when we read the scriptures now,
it's like they're alive, eh? Sometimes we read a verse that
we've read 100 times, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit just
illuminates that verse. And we get an even greater understanding
of what it said. And again, only the Holy Spirit
can give us eyes to see and ears to hear what the scripture says.
So let's read verses one to seven here, to get the context again
of the message today. 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 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. Now we see in verse one
that Paul is the one who's penned this letter. He's the servant
of the Lord. Now servant there in the Greek
means bond slave. And he's a willing bond slave.
And that's what the Greek word brings forth, one who's a willing
servant. So Paul says, I'm a bond slave.
I'm a willing servant. He's had his ear bored, remember? The willing servant, if he wanted
to keep serving the master, get his ear bored. Well, Holy Spirit
does that for us, doesn't he? And we become willing bond-slavens.
Boy, I'm having a hard time. We become willing bond-slaves
for the Lord. And the definition, the Thayer
definition is a slave, a bondman, a man of servile condition. One
who is in permanent relation of servitude to another. So Paul
says, I am a permanent bond-slave of Christ. I'm a permanent servant
of his. And that's true of every believer. And generally one serving bound
to serve in bondage. Turn if you would to Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Just a few books over there. Philippians chapter 2. Look what it says here in the
scriptures, in verses six to eight. Speaking of Christ, who
being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant. Our Lord came here to serve God,
to fulfill his law, to be a perfect servant. and was made in the
likeness of man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
it says there. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. Think of the humility of the
Lord. He's in glory. Angels are worshiping him, and
he comes all the way down to this world, and they're spitting
on him, and they're cursing him. You talk about humility. The
one who has all power, has come and is a man, and put himself
in servitude to the Father. And think of who he's doing this
to. It's the Word of God. It's not just mere man. It's
the Word of God. We'll look at that later on.
It's the Word of God. He made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death. He was sent here to die. He was sent here by the Father
to die, wasn't he? To die in our place. And it says
he was obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross. My. Remember he said, Father,
be thy will, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my
will be done, but thy will be done. Obedient, right, to the
cross. Perfect. Perfect submission. And take note of the words there
in Philippians, it says, and took upon him the form of the
servant. Do you know this is the same Greek word which Paul
uses to speak of himself and we who are born again? Servant. Christ was a willing servant
of the Father. Having taken the form of a servant
means appearing in a humble and despised condition. This is what
our Lord did when he became a man. So marvel that the Word of God,
the second person of the Trinity, became a man. Let us be in awe of this. This
is a mystery. God himself became a man. The second person of the Trinity
became a man, took upon himself the form of a servant, a willing servant to save your
soul, if you're one of his people, and to save my soul. That's why
he did it. This is bringing it right home,
right? He did that for us. He was motivated by his great
love for his bride. And it is God in the day of his
power who's made Paul a willing bond slave. Paul was out there
trying to destroy Christianity, remember? Trying to destroy the
people of the way. What happened to Paul? He's born
again. He had a divine encounter, didn't
he? What happened to us? We were
at one time, we might not have been cursing God with our lips,
but we sure were by our actions. Right? By our sinful actions. We have to be honest with each
other. We're sinners just like everybody else. And so by our
actions and our natural state, we were saying, no, God. We were
saying, no, God, I don't want to follow you. What made us change? Nothing we've done, right? The
power of the Holy Spirit of God. By His regenerating power, He
made us will and bond slaves. Now we want to come and hear
the gospel preached. Now we want to come and hear
about our Savior. Now we want to read the scriptures.
Now we want to pray. We desire to do those things,
don't we? Oh, what a great change God has
done by His power and by His will. It was His will that we're
born again. It was his will that Christ came
to die for us. And he humbled himself. And then
we see here in our text here that Paul is a called one, just
like every believer. He's separated unto the gospel
of God, just like we are. Look what it says here in verse
1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. That's
a calling of God. That's not just saying, oh, he's
Paul the Apostle. That's a calling by God. That's an effectual calling
of God. We saw that in the road to Damascus,
didn't we? And every one of us who are believers,
at one time or another, we're called unto the preaching of
the gospel. And we believe. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then it says, well, first of all, the word apostle
there means a delegate, an ambassador. We're called ambassadors for
Christ. But an apostle is, there's no
more apostles. If people say they're apostles,
they're lying. There are no more apostles. None at all. But he's a messenger. He's a
sent one. He's an ambassador. And you know what? The ambassador
can never be greater than the one who sends him. The ambassador can never be greater
than the one who sends him. We humans get puffed up, don't
we, so easily, filled with pride. Our master is lord of all. He's
the great one. And we confess that, don't we?
We confess that he's lord over all. The ambassador can never
be greater than the one who sends him. Listen to this verse. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord,
neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. That's an exhortation for us
to stay low. Never forget the rock we were
hewn from. Don't forget where you came from. I'm a son of a
trailer mechanic and the son of a housewife from a small town
in Canada. Don't forget where you came from,
boy. Don't forget the pit God took you out of. And that's for
all of us, right? Don't forget where we came from.
Like Donny Bell says, don't get bigger than your britches, right? It's true. We need to just know
where we came from. Know where we were when the Lord
found us. We were lost. We were dead. The gospel, it says here that
Paul separated unto the gospel. The gospel we preach is God's
gospel. It did not originate with man.
That's what it says right here, right? Separated unto the gospel
of who? God. The gospel you and I believe
did not originate with man. People say all the time, oh,
it's just a bunch of men wrote that. I was looking at some comments
on Yahoo the other day, and some guy says, oh, the Bible's a fable.
I'm thinking, yeah. But we were all there. We were all unbelievers at one
time. We might not have said that, but we're just as guilty
as that person. But the things that people say
about our God, God, I've mentioned this in Sunday
school. You know, God's the one who has the power to save and
the power to destroy. He's the one lawgiver. James
4.12 brings that forth. He is no one to be trifled with. He's all-powerful. And his gospel is nothing to
be trifled with. It's his gospel. It's his plan
of salvation. All we as men and women are receivers
of that. Mercy and grace. It's incredible. And the Greek word for it, listen
to this too, it says he was separated under the gospel. Do you know
the Greek word? It means to set a boundary. Separated. Separated from the
world. Separated from religion. separated to believe the gospel
of God's grace. I was thinking about that last
night and just how incredible it is that we
believe the gospel when we didn't at all before. And now we've been separated.
We know Paul's been separated from his mother's womb. He talks
about that in Galatians 1.15. He was separated to bear the
gospel to the Gentiles, which is Acts 9.15. And he was separated
by the Holy Ghost, which is Acts 13.2. We are all separated people
from the world. There's been a boundary, to set
off a boundary, to set off by boundary. Those of you who have gardens,
you've set a boundary, don't you, around the garden, right? There it is. Do you know the
scripture tells us that we're like a garden fenced? We're like
a fenced-in garden, protected, watched over by the great gardener.
He waters us. We're plants. And think of this.
I remember one preacher, I think it was Hawker, said that we're
plants of all different kinds of plants, personality-wise,
nationality-wise. from every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. Isn't that beautiful? One gardener. One gardener who plants the flowers, one gardener who keeps the flowers,
and one gardener who says, I'm going to take that to my house. And it's going to be in my house
forever. Oh, my. It's God's gospel. And Paul was separated under
that. But this is also in reference to his determination to preach
the gospel. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians is one book over. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul was determined to preach
nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Look at this in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Look what he says here. Now remember
who Paul is. He sat under one of the greatest
teachers of his time. So he's probably well-versed,
well-spoken. But he speaks where everybody
can understand. We preachers seek to speak in
common language. I'm not going to use many fancy
words when I preach. Some people like that. I'm not
like that. I want you to understand what
I'm saying. Because I'm just, like I said,
I'm just a normal guy who the Lord saved and called to preach.
And look at what Paul says here. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech. Now, he could have
spoken with excellency of speech, obviously. He says, I didn't
come that way. or of wisdom. He didn't speak
of the supposed worldly wisdom that he'd learned. Declaring
unto you the testimony of God. So he's talking here about preaching,
about declaring the word of God. He said, for I'm determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ in him crucified
and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling
in my speech in my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power look
at this that your face should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God that's
the key I love reading theology. I love
it. But I'm not going to stand up
here and speak like I'm reading a book of theology. There's words
in there I've got to look up myself. Quite a few, actually. But why not articulate the gospel
in a way that we can all understand, right? That's what's important. That's
what Paul's bringing forth here, that he's separated to preach
the gospel And all he's determined to do is preach God's gospel,
which is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God's gospel. He's the author
of it. He's the executor of it. He's the subject of it. And he's
the revealer of it. And the gospel means glad tidings
of the kingdom of God. Glad tidings of salvation in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now we come to our next point.
Look at this. The God's gospel was promised
by God's sent prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Look at verse
2. Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
So God in his Holy Scriptures, of whom he is the true author,
promised by his prophets, those who he inspired to write down
these words, these sent men, that the Messiah is coming. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 53. The Lord Jesus Christ is the promised seed of the woman.
He's pictured in type and shadow all through the Old Testament. He was clearly spoken of here
in the book of Isaiah. We're just going to spend a little
bit of time on this, and then we're going to get to verse 3. Look at this, Isaiah 53, verse
3 to 6, speaking of Christ. He is despised and rejected of
man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. That's us in our natural state.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He's the sinless one. We're the
sinners. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
and we have turned every one in his own way, and the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Our sin was transferred
to Christ, placed upon Christ, right? The sinless one, bearing
the judgment of God, the wrath of God for the sins of all his
people, all the elect. Now I'd like us to consider verse
3. Again, this is one of these verses on the surface reading.
We can conclude, well, I know what it's saying. May God spur us to dig deeper
into the scriptures. You know, we have a wealth of
resources right now. available to us. There's a site I use often
called Bible Hub. Excellent site. If you get a
chance to use it, it's an excellent site. It's got commentaries.
You can go verse by verse. It's got sermons, old sermons
by old preachers. And I just like it because you
can really dig into the Greek there. And you can also bring
a bunch of commentaries up. So that's just something for
further study if you'd like to do something like that. It's
excellent. Let's read verse 3. And then we're unpacking it a
little more as we see several points of our study in this wonderful
verse of scriptures. Look at this, Romans 1, 3. Now
remember, we've already seen that the gospel's God's gospel.
It was promised in the prophets in the holy scriptures. Look
at this. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. So we see here that God's gospel
is concerning Jesus Christ, our Lord. And who is he? Well, he's God's son. So, so far we've seen that the
gospel of God originates with God, verse one. It was promised
by God in the Holy Scriptures. We see that in the second verse.
It was delivered by God through his prophets, man of his choosing.
by the Holy Spirit of God, we see that in verse two. The promise
of God is found in the holy inerrant word of God, again, verse two. And in here we see the gospel
of God is concerning his son who was God incarnate in the
flesh. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. So again, we see verse 3 that the gospel of God, God's
gospel, is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about
Him. Therefore we can conclude then
that the central theme of Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture
is all about Him. It's His story. History is his story of what
he's willed. So the central theme of the gospel,
God's gospel, is in regard to Christ. The Greek word there
for concern, concerning, means to regard. To regard. He is the central theme. He is
the hub of all the scriptures. And this is what Paul was bringing
forth when he said, 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 the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then note
in this verse, so the gospel of God is regarding who? His son. His Son. Now this speaks of the eternal
relationship between God the Father and God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's speaking of His deity. His Son. God's Son. The Word of God. Then we see
the words Jesus Christ. This speaks of who he is to his
people. He's the savior of sinners. Jesus. His name shall be Jesus. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So first we see a reference to
his deity, him being God's son. And now we see a reference to
who He is to us. He's our Savior. Thou shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Then we see
Christ brought forth here, too, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord. We see Christ here means Messiah
or Anointed One. And then we see concerning his
son Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord there in the Greek speaks
of one who has sovereign authority. So in this title right here that
we see, we see it speaks of his deity, his son. It speaks of who he is to his
people, he's our savior. It speaks that he's the Messiah,
the promised one in scripture. And it speaks of his supreme
authority and power. He's Lord. He's Lord. This is who the gospel of God
is concerning. It's not concerning 50 ways to
lead a better Christian life. Or how to have the best marriage
in the world. Those things will come, right?
The way a man and a woman act who are born again, truly born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, there'll be a better husband.
There'll be a better wife. You don't have to have these
things how you tell them to be that way. We have a hard enough
time just resting in Christ, don't we? And we know we can't
go out and go crazy. And no preacher would ever tell
you that. We grieve for our sin. We sin
more than we want to. Because we're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. Now we have a war within us.
So this gospel is concerning Christ. It's in regard to Christ. It's all about Him. Again, the
Greek word for Lord there speaks of God as the Supreme Lord, speaks
of Him as over all. So we see then that the name
Jesus refers to His saving His people. The name Christ designates
that He is the Messiah in His being anointed for that purpose.
And the name Lord speaks of His sovereign authority. Let's read the verse again. It
says, concerning his son, speaks of his deity, Jesus our Savior,
Christ the Messiah, our Lord the Sovereign One, which was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Now see those words
there, which was made? Listen to what Weiss, the Greek
scholar, says about this. He says, was made. in the second
arias percipitable, signifying entrance into a new condition. This was made as one word in
the Greek. It speaks of a new condition. It speaks entrance into a new
condition. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
1. We'll see it right here before us. because the same words there
was made of the seed of David. The same Greek word is mentioned
over in John chapter one, that Christ was made flesh, same Greek
word. Look at this, look at this in
John chapter one, verses one to three. We will see God the
word in his eternality. He is the word of God. And then
we will see him become something that he never was. That's a man. He was the word
of God before he came here. He wasn't a man. He was the word
of God in glory. This is the great marvel of the
fact that God became a man to save our souls. He did this willingly,
beloved. He did this willingly. Look at
this. In the beginning was the Word,
speaking of God the Son. There's God the Father, the God,
the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God. Look at that. He was with God
in eternity. He's God, because it says in
the Word was God. The scripture says there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit, and these three are one. They're one. The same was in the beginning
with God. So this is speaking of eternity. All things were
made by him. The word made all things. And
without him was not anything made that was made. Now look
at verse 14 here. The same Greek word that I said
signifies entrance into a new condition is used here. John 1.14, and the word was made
flesh. Entrance into a new condition. He wasn't a man before he came
down to this earth. He was the word of God in glory.
It says here that the word, the one spoken of in verses one to
three, became a man. Entered into a new state or condition,
how? By assuming a human body. And the word was what? Made flesh
and dwelt among us. He became a man. He put himself under human limitations. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He got tired. This is the word of God. Marvel
at this. He became something he never
was. And you know why he did that?
God can't die, can he? God can't die, but man can. So our great God becomes a man
to die in the Roman place of his people. Isn't that amazing? Wonder of
wonders. And this is God's gospel. This
is God's good news to sinners. It says, and the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. John's saying,
I saw him. He dwelt among us. He sat at
the table and ate with me. I laid my head upon his breast, bone of my bone and flesh of
my flesh. And he's full of grace and truth.
Flesh here refers to the corporal part of man, our physical bodies. The Word became flesh. In John 1, 1, we clearly see
that he was in eternity. The Word was in eternity. And
then became what he never was. He became a man, in verse 14.
And now, what is he in heaven? He's the God-man mediator right
now, isn't he? That's what he is in glory. Brother
Henry Mann said in one of his sermons, the Word of God became
what he never was, a man. when he left heaven to be born
in a body prepared by God. And he returned to heaven, he
returned to heaven as a man, the God-man mediator. Scripture
says this, for it was not possible, but the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. That's over in Hebrews chapter
10. We'll look at that quick. Hebrews
chapter 10. Do you know God prepared a body
for Christ? Isn't that amazing? It's what
it says right here. Hebrews chapter 10. The word
of God became a man. And he might die for you and
I as believers. And again. All we preachers are
doing is telling folks what Christ has already done for them. The
work's finished. It's accomplished. He did it
all. And God is the one who regenerates.
God's the one who gives us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this, though, in Hebrews
chapter 10, verses 4 to 7. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. All those Old
Testament sacrifices couldn't take away any sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not.
Look at this. But a body hast thou prepared
me. And burn offerings and sacrifices
for sin. Thou hast said, No pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume. Excuse me. In the volume
of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He's
a willing bond slave, isn't he? He's a willing bond slave of
Christ. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
has returned to heaven as the God-man mediator. He's the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. And now he mediates
for you and I as believers. So Christ, again, is the central
theme of the gospel. It's all about him. He's the
head. that gives life to the members. The root, which renders
the branches fruitful. Cut off a branch off a tree,
it's going to wither and die. It must be attached to the trunk
or the vine. It must be. In order to be fruitful,
it must be attached to the vine. Must be. We can't do nothing
without him. He told us that, too. We can
do nothing without our king. And believers are the workmanship
of God created in Christ Jesus under good works. Christ is the
end and object of our obedience. Why? Why do we obey God? That
God might be glorifying. That the sun might be glorifying. And accordingly, the scriptures
speak of the beginning and the continuation of the life of believers
all being derived from Christ. He is our life. We live and breathe and have
our being in Him. Never forget that. He's the holder
of all we have and all we are. So we see in the first part of
this verse the deity of Christ, the word of God, brought forth,
and the fact that he's called his son. Let's go back there
to Romans chapter 1. We'll read verse 3 again. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. So we see again his son in reference to his deity. He's
the eternal son of God, right? He's the eternal word of God.
Then we see his humanity brought forth with the statement that
he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Now here
we see the wisdom of God displayed in the whole dispensation that
was related to the Messiah, who in his human nature was prophesied
and promised, which we see in verse two in the Holy Scriptures.
Do you know that modern day Jews cannot tell which tribe they
came from? They can't. They cannot tell. Remember Henry
saying that one time in a message, he said, they cannot tell what
tribe they came from. God in his providence, though,
had our Savior born in a time when they were still able to
trace the lineage. You ever think of that? He had
him born in a time when they could still trace the lineage
of each tribe. And it was prophesized, right,
that the Messiah would descend from David, king of Israel. Turn,
if you would, to Psalm 89. And I'll read Isaiah 714, which
says that he, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call
his name Immanuel. So he was to be born of a virgin.
And we'll see over here in Psalm 89, 3 and 4, that he was to be
of the seed of David. Look at this, Psalm 89 verses
3 and 4. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish
forever and build up thy throne to all generations, Selah. Christ
was of the seed of David. To Abraham it was promised that
the Messiah should spring from him. It says, in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. The promise was still general
then. And then it was limited to the tribe of Judah. Scripture
says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come. Then David, the servant
of the Lord, look at this in Psalm, turn if you would to Psalm
132. Look at this. I did not see this until I did
this study. Look at this. This is amazing. I had one of those moments where
I'm checking to see if the ink's still dry in my Bible. This is
incredible. Psalm 132, verses 10 and 11. For thy servant David's sake,
turn not away thy face of thine anointed. The Lord hath sworn
in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, or of the fruit
of thy body will I set upon thy throne. Robert Haldane brings
forth that As the period of his birth approached, the promises
concerning him were more particular and more restricted. The wisdom
of God was pleased in this manner to designate the family in which
the Messiah would spring from, which was David's. And David's great, great, great, great granddaughter
was married. Oh, my. The seed of the woman. The seed of David. My, oh, my. And our Lord was
sent. He came into this world at a
time when the Jews could still identify which tribes they came
from. Isn't that incredible? And in AD 70, when the temple
was destroyed, it was all lost. My, oh my. We see divine providence
at work, don't we? We see his sovereign hand at
work. Christ came at the exact time,
all according to our great God's eternal purpose. I want you to
think about something here. The Greeks. before the Romans
were a mighty empire. And they conquered large swaths
of land, all the way to India. Large swaths of land. And the
Greek language became a universal language. Kind of like what English
is today. And then God, in his providence,
rises up the Roman Empire. Now, the Roman Empire, they extended
their empire even further. than the Greeks did, all the
way to England, up into Germany, fighting the Gauls, Spain, down
into Carthage, down into the Middle East. Huge swaths of land,
but they kept the Greek language. So much so that historians say
the Greeks conquered intellectually and the Romans conquered militarily. But that Greek language was kept.
Why did they not just implement their own language? Because that
wasn't part of God's plan. Then Christ comes into the world
during that time when that empire is vast. And the New Testament's
written in Greek. And that gospel spreads like
wildfire. Oh, the mighty providence of
God. See, we don't always understand
what he's doing. But there, he had all that set
up so that his gospel might just spread right across that empire.
And it did. And then it went even further,
beloved. Oh my, isn't it wonderful how God works? So Christ came
into the world at the exact appointed time. Wonder of wonders. Let us marvel at how much truth
is contained in this little verse concerning His Son, regarding
that God's gospel is regarding His Son. The Word of God. Our Savior, Jesus. The Messiah,
Christ. who is Lord, sovereign over all,
who was made, became something he never was. He became a man.
Why? To die for you and I. To die in our room and place. All his people, all his elect
of all the ages. Why? That we might be with him
forever. What motivated that? His love
for us. His great love, his mercy, his
grace. Let us marvel at this this week.
Let us rejoice that God has sent mercy upon we who are in Christ
Jesus.