Well, I want to invite you to
take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Romans. I think
a conference on the gospel must have an exposition of the opening
verses of the book of Romans, and that's what I want to do
right now. Romans chapter 1, and I want to begin reading in
verse 1, and in this session I want us to look at verses 1
through 7. I want to first read our passage. Romans chapter 1, verse 1. Paul,
a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart
for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was born
of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared
the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead,
according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through
whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the
obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake,
among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are
beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you, and
peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." The greatest need that we have
in the world today is for the gospel of Jesus Christ to do
its work. Our greatest need is not political
or sociological. Neither is it financial or cultural
or racial. The greatest need confronting
us today is not fixing the economy or feeding the poor. And neither
is it creating jobs or reducing the unemployment problem. The
greatest crisis we face today is not keeping Iraq or Iran from
getting a nuclear bomb. Neither is it stopping ISIS and
terrorism. The number one greatest need
we face in the world today is for the power of the gospel of
Jesus Christ to explode in the hearts of men and women and to
change them and transform them from the inside out. And as that
comes to pass, all of these other issues in one way or another
will find its solution. This is precisely what Paul is
addressing in these opening verses of the book of Romans. The apostle
is affirming to the church in Rome that the gospel is the greatest
need to solve the problems of the empire. Rome was the capital
city of the entire empire. It was the most important city
in the known world. In Paul's day, Rome boasted a
population of over one million people. Rome boasted magnificent
buildings, such as Emperor's Palace, and Circus Maximus, and
the Roman Coliseum, and the Forum. Rome was where Caesar lived.
Rome was where the Senate sat. Rome was where the most powerful
army in the world was assembled. Rome was the seat of imperial
power, political power, military power. Yet Paul had a far greater
power that he desired to bring to Rome, and it was the power
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle was eager to come
to Rome and to put the gospel up in the marketplace of ideas
and to see the gospel of Christ perform His work. Paul's strategy
was not to petition Caesar. It was not to boycott the palace. It was not to lobby the Senate.
Paul's strategy was to preach the gospel and see it conquer
and capture the hearts of men and women in this, the mightiest
city in the world. The word gospel comes from a
Greek word, euangelion. It's a compound word. The prefix
is u-e-u, which means good. Someone will give a eulogy. It
is a good word that would be spoken to someone else. Angel
means a message. Euangelion means the good news
or the good message, or as William Tyndale first translated it,
the glad tidings. It is the good news, the salvation
that is in Jesus Christ. It is the good news that solves
the greatest dilemma facing this world. How can holy God be reconciled
to sinful man? And how can sinful man escape
the wrath that is to come on the last day? It is the good
news of God in salvation. It is the best news that anyone
will ever hear in their life. And that is what Paul sets about
to describe and to delineate in the book of Romans. And in
this opening prologue, he tells us about the power of the gospel. And as we look at these verses
tonight, I want you to note five things with me about this euangelion,
this good news, the gospel. Beginning in verse 1, I want
you to note first the source of the gospel. From whence does
the gospel come? Paul writes, look again in verse
1, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle,
set apart for the gospel of God. Paul wants us to know first and
foremost that he is only the messenger of the gospel. The gospel does not originate
with him. He is merely a servant of the
gospel. He is an ambassador for the gospel. He has been sent apart unto the
gospel, but this gospel does not come from Paul. Instead,
this is the gospel of God. You'll note that at the end of
verse 1. This does not mean the gospel about God. Though the gospel is about God. It is the revelation of the righteousness
of God. But that is not what this opening
verse is stating. When he says the gospel of God,
he means that it is the gospel from God. In other words, this
is God's gospel. This is God's good news. God is the author of this message. God is the architect of the gospel. He is the source of the gospel. He is the origin of this gospel. This gospel has come down from
the throne of God above. It is the product of the infinite
genius and sovereign will and unconditional love of God. The gospel was not invented by
the apostles. It was not the result of human
speculation. It is not one more man-contrived
religion. It is not man's solutions to
man's problems. It was not conceived by any church
or group of churches. It was not drafted by any denomination. It was not scripted by any seminary. It was not the creation of any
culture. It is not the result of the collective
genius of man. Instead, the gospel has come
down from the mind and the genius of Almighty God Himself. This is God's message. This is
God's gospel. This is what Paul asserts in
Galatians 1 and verse 11 when Paul writes, For I would have
you no brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not
according to man. For I neither received it from
man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation
of Jesus Christ. Only God could have designed
this gospel. Who but God could have conceived
this plan? That the first person of the
Godhead, the Father, would commission the second person of the Godhead,
God the Son, to come into this world to be born of a virgin. Who but God could have designed
this? That He would be born under the law. That He would obey the
law at every point that you and I have broken. And that by His
active obedience, He would secure a perfect righteousness for us
that would be imputed to our account as though we have lived
a perfectly sinless life before God. Who but God could have designed
this? That Christ would live the life
for us that we could never live. that He would go to the cross,
be lifted up upon Calvary's cross, and the sins of all those who
would ever believe upon Him would be transferred to Christ, and
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that by this
death He would placate the righteous anger of God toward us, that
there would be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
that by the shedding of His blood He would reconcile holy God and
sinful man, That He would redeem us out of the slave market of
sin. That He would be taken down from that cross and buried. And
on the third day, He would rise from the dead. Who but God could
have conceived this? That He would ascend back to
the right hand of God the Father. And there be enthroned in the
place of highest authority and highest power. And whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Who but
God could have designed this plan of salvation? It has come
down to us from God above. And because it is God's message,
because it is God's gospel, none of us may tamper with this message. There is a zero-tolerance policy
for tampering with this gospel. We may not tweak it. We may not
twist it. We may not add to it. We may
not subtract from it. We may not reinterpret it. We
may not reconfigure it. Paul said in Galatians 1 verse
8, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to
you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is
to be accursed. That means he is to be damned.
He is to be consigned to the hottest part of hell itself. And Paul then follows up in the
very next verse, in Galatians 1 verse 9, and says, "...as we
have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching
to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed."
That means to be devoted to destruction. So first, Paul says, the source
of the gospel is God Himself. And it has come down to us, and
to receive this message is to receive God Himself. And to reject
this message is to reject God. But second, I want you to note,
not only the source of the gospel, but second, the exclusivity of
the gospel. Continue to look in verse 1,
if you will. Please note at the end of verse
1, Paul says that he is set apart for THE gospel of God. Please note the definite article,
THE. The gospel is not one of many
gospels. It is not one of many ways to
God. This is not read set apart for
a gospel. This is not one of many paths
that are leading upward to God. No, to the contrary, this is
the gospel. The one and only gospel. This is the only way of salvation. Jesus said in John 14, verse
6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father but through me. When Peter stood before the Sanhedrin
in Acts 4, verse 12, he said, there is salvation in no other
name. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And the Apostle
Paul said in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, the text we heard read earlier,
there is one God. and one mediator between God
and man, the man, Christ Jesus. There is only one God, and there
is only one mediator by which we may approach this God. Understand this, there are many
roads to hell. There is only one road to heaven,
and it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Proverbs 14, verse 12 says, there
is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is
the end of death. No, this gospel of which this
whole conference is about, is the one and only gospel that
will take us home to God. It is the only way to God, and
it is through the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is only one way of salvation, whether it be the Old Testament
or the New Testament. There was not an Old Testament
way to be saved, and then there is a different New Testament
way to be saved. There was not one way for the
Jew to be saved, and now there is a different way for the Gentile
to be saved. There is not one way for a Muslim
to be saved, and then a different way for a Christian to be saved.
There's not one way for a Buddhist to be saved, and then a different
way for a Christian to be saved. No, there is only one way to
be saved, and it is through the gospel of God in Jesus Christ. Anytime, anywhere, anyone has
ever been saved, from the Garden of Eden all the way until the
last person is converted, everyone who is saved is saved by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. In the Old Testament,
They were saved by looking ahead to the coming of Christ, just
as we are saved by looking back to the coming of Christ. But
it is one gospel and one way of salvation. And we're not just
dogmatic about this, we're bulldogmatic about this. The source of the gospel is God
Himself. The exclusivity of the gospel,
it is THE gospel. Now third, I want you to note
the antiquity of the gospel. That is found in verse 2. And what we will discover is
the gospel is not a new message that has only recently appeared
in New Testament times. The gospel is not a trendy message
to appear in these last days. The gospel is as old as the world
itself. The gospel goes back to the dawn
of human civilization. In fact, the gospel goes back
to eternity past. But notice verse 2. It reads,
which, which is a reference to the gospel, which He, God the
Father, promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. God, long ago, promised and proclaimed
the gospel through His Old Testament prophets as recorded in the Holy
Scriptures. From Moses to Malachi, there
is one continuous record of the gospel in the Old Testament before
the coming of Christ and the apostles. The gospel was announced
to Adam and Eve. It was believed by Abraham. It
was recorded by Moses. It was pictured in the Levitical
sacrificial system. It was proclaimed by the prophets. It is rooted and grounded in
the Old Testament Scripture. And what Paul wants the Roman
church to know is what he wants us to know here tonight, that
the gospel is not a theological novelty to recently appear. It is not a newly conceived message. It is not a departure from the
old way of salvation. It is not plan B that is augmented
to plan A. It is not an appendix to what
went before. It is the old message of salvation
that is recorded in the Scripture itself, beginning in Genesis
3 and verse 15, where God is the preacher, And the congregation
is Satan, and God preaches the gospel to the serpent. And God
said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head,
and you will bruise him on the heel. That was the Proto-Evangelion,
the first mention of the gospel. This gospel is recorded in Old
Testament Scripture. Notice verse 2 again. What Paul
is saying is the gospel is written in a book. He says that God promised
the gospel beforehand through His prophets. in the Holy Scriptures. The prophets were the human instruments
by which the Word was recorded. Each Old Testament passage had
two authors. There was a primary author. There
was a secondary author. The secondary author is the human
author. There is one primary author,
capital A, and it is God Himself. And what the prophets recorded
What Paul notes is the Holy Scriptures. The word holy means that what
they wrote is without error, that it is flawless, it is without
blemish, it is a perfect record of all that God desired to be
recorded. Notice it is the scriptures,
not singular, but plural. Speaking of the entire Old Testament
canon, the height, the depth, the breadth, the length of it,
the word scripture means the writings. These prophets recorded
objective, cognitive truth in words that came out of the mouth
of God that they wrote and recorded. And what can we say about this
Old Testament record of the gospel? Well, I want to tell you several
things, just parenthetically, while we're parked at verse 2.
That this Old Testament record of the gospel is divinely inspired. Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, "...man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word," listen to
this, "...that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Every word
recorded in the Old Testament has come from the mouth of God. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. But not only is it divinely inspired,
it is perfectly inerrant. Psalm 12, verse 6, the words
of the Lord are pure words. That is to say, they are undefiled
by human speculations or any religious superstitions. They
are pure words, holy words, that come from holy God above. Psalm
19, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect. Also, they are absolutely
authoritative. What is recorded in the Old Testament
comes with the supreme authority of God Himself. Psalm 19, verse
7, refers to the Old Testament as the law of the Lord. Not the opinions of the Lord,
not the options of the Lord, not the suggestions of the Lord,
but the binding law of God. And also, it is intrinsically
clear. That is to say, the Old Testament
is understandable, it is lucid, it is clear. Psalm 19, verse
8 says, the commandment of the Lord is pure. Like pure water. It's not murky when you look
into it. It's not muddy. It does not obscure
what is in it. It is pure and clean, and you
can see into it. It's the perspicuity of the Scripture. It is also entirely sufficient. The Old Testament, the gospel
contained in it, is entirely capable of carrying out all of
God's redemptive purposes here upon the earth. Isaiah 55 verse
10, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do
not return to it without watering the earth and making it flourish
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that comes forth from my mouth It will not return
to me void, but will accomplish all that I desire and achieve
the purpose for which I sin it. It is sufficient to save. It
is sufficient to sanctify. It is sufficient to strengthen.
It is able to carry out all of God's purposes here upon the
earth. And everything that God is doing
of a redemptive nature here upon the earth, He is doing it in
partnership with His Word. This Word is immutable. Psalm
119, verse 89. Forever, O Lord, Your Word is
settled in heaven. This Word never changes. It is
forever the same. Isaiah 40, verse 8, the grass
withers, the flower fades away, but the Word of our God abides
forever. Society changes. Culture changes. But right is forever right, and
wrong is forever wrong. The Word of God is truth. Psalm
119, verse 160, every one of your righteous ordinances is
everlasting. This is the antiquity of the
gospel. This ancient book, these 39 books
of the Old Testament canon, they record the gospel. It is not
a new message. If it's new, it's not true. It
is as old as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But I want you to note fourth,
concerning this gospel. I want you to note the subject
of the gospel. We see this in verse 3. The substance
and the subject of the gospel is the person of Jesus Christ. Notice what verse 3 says. Concerning
His Son. The gospel concerns the Son of
God. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and
the Omega of the gospel. He is the sum and the substance
of the gospel. The gospel is all about a person. The Lord Jesus Christ The Son
of God, it says at the beginning of verse 3, this speaks of His
deity, that He was fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with
God the Father. He is a Son in the sense that
He assumes the role of submission to carry out the will of the
Father in the mission of salvation. It says, concerning His Son,
verse 3, who was born of the descendant of David, according
to the flesh. The eternal Son of God, who has
never been created. There has never been a time in
which He did not exist. entered the human race at a point
in time. He was born of a virgin. He was born of a descendant of
David. We could not lift ourselves up
to God. God had to come all the way down
to us. Jesus Christ stepped into our
skin. He stepped into our place in
order that He would live the life that we could never live
and die the death that we should die. He was born of a descendant
of David, a rightful heir to the throne of David. And when
he was born, he was the earthly son of a heavenly father and
the heavenly son of an earthly mother. When he was born, he
was as old as his father and older than his mother. Fully God, fully man, the God-man. And it had to be so if he is
to be a mediator and stand between God and man. What does the mediator
do? He stands between two parties
who are at enmity with one another. Who are at conflict with one
another. And the mediator steps in between
to bring about reconciliation. To bring about peace. And man
is at enmity with God, and God is angry with the wicked every
day. A mediator must stand in the
gap, stand in the middle. But he must be equal to both
sides in order to bring about mediation impartially. That is
why he had to be fully God in order to represent God to man. But he also must be fully man
to represent man to God. No one else could stand between
God and man except the God-man. And that is what Jesus did in
His sinless life and in His substitutionary death. Jesus took holy God by
one hand and sinful man in the other. And through the blood
of His cross, He has brought about reconciliation and has
brought has brought about peace between God and man, who puts
his faith and her faith in Jesus Christ. That is why the subject
of the gospel is none other than the Son of God, who became the
Son of Man. He came to earth that we might
go to heaven. He became the Son of Man that
we might become sons of God. He was born of a virgin that
we might be born again. He did what no one else could
have done as the perfect God-Man. Notice what verse 4 says. who,
a personal pronoun to indicate that the subject of the gospel
is found not in a program and not in a policy, but in a person
who was declared, and not merely whispered, not merely mumbled,
but declared the Son of God with power How? By the resurrection from the
dead. This is the ultimate apologetic
for the Christian faith. That the tomb is empty and that
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and came walking out
of that tomb, a risen, living, victorious Savior. And in His
hands He has the keys of death and Hades. It is the ultimate
apologetic. Jesus said at the beginning of
His ministry in John 2, verse 19, "...destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it." Speaking of His body, in
Matthew 12, they asked for a sign, and Jesus said, "...no sign will
be given to this sinful and adulterous generation, except for the sign
of Jonah the prophet, that just as he was three days and three
nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man
be in the earth." The resurrection is God's validation that this
is my beloved Son. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power, note it says, according to the Spirit of holiness.
That is a Hebrew-ism for the Holy Spirit. All three persons
of the Godhead were involved in the resurrection. God the
Father raised His Son. God the Holy Spirit raised the
Lord Jesus. But Jesus also raised Himself
from the dead. Jesus said, I have authority
to lay my life down. I have authority to take it back
up again. This commandment I received from
my Father. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
all powerfully involved in the resurrection. And then Paul writes
at the end of verse 4, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul wants to emphasize the one
who has been raised from the dead. He wants to underscore
and bring to our attention, without any question, the subject of
the gospel, the substance of the gospel. It is not just Jesus,
but Jesus Christ, but not just Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Our
Lord. All three of those names are
important to the gospel. Jesus means Jehovah saves. Jesus is His saving name. Matthew 1, verse 21, You shall
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Christ is his strong name. It means the anointed one. The
one who is anointed and endued with power from on high by the
Holy Spirit of God to carry out his saving mission. And Lord
is his sovereign name. Kyrios. It means one who has
supreme authority. It means despot. Ruler. King over all. This is the one who is the subject
of the gospel, and he has been raised from the dead. Thousands
were crucified upon crosses in Jerusalem and the surrounding
area. Josephus said, so many crucifixions, that there were
not enough trees upon which to hang men. But only one was raised
from the dead. And it was God's guarantee and
validation that this is my beloved Son. He then adds in verse 5,
through whom, please note, he continues to talk about a person. It's a personal pronoun. Through
whom we have received grace. All grace is from the Father. Through the Son, applied by the
Spirit, there is not one drop of grace outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All grace is found in Christ. And that is why Paul makes such
strong emphasis here at the beginning of the book of Romans. He is
pointing to Christ and saying that the gospel is found in the
person and work and terms of Christ. There is no gospel without
Christ. The more we make of Christ, the
more gospel we have to share. And the less we make of Christ,
the less gospel we have to share. Charles Hedden Spurgeon said,
if you leave out Christ, You have left the sun out of the
day, the moon out of the night. If you leave out Christ from
the gospel, you have left the waters out of the sea, and the
floods out of the river. You have left the harvest out
of the year, the soul out of the body. You have left joy out
of heaven." Close quote. Without Christ, There is no gospel. And as you would share the gospel
with others, as you would bear witness of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, we must speak of Christ, who is mighty to save. Christ
in His virgin birth. Christ in His sinless life. Christ
in His substitutionary death. Christ in His bodily resurrection. Christ in His present enthronement
at the right hand of God the Father. But the last thing that
I want you to note about the gospel, here in Romans 1, is
not only the subject of the gospel, but I want you to note in verse
6, the success of the gospel Paul wants the church at Rome
to know that the gospel cannot fail. Christ will not die in
vain. God himself guarantees the success
of his own gospel. And so in verse 6, Paul writes,
among whom you also." And the word also is important, meaning
there are believers all over the Middle East. There are believers
in many different cities as the gospel is already spreading.
Among whom you also are, notice what he says, the called of Jesus
Christ. This speaks of the sovereign
call of God to the elect of God that draws them irresistibly
to faith in Jesus Christ. This call, in reality, is a divine
summons. This call is a divine subpoena
that apprehends the elect of God And brings them overcoming
their resistance. And brings them into saving faith
with Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, there are
two calls regarding salvation. There is the external call, and
there is the internal call. There is the external call, which
is the call of the preacher. Which is the call of the one
who bears a witness for Christ. that extends the free offer of
the gospel. But this call can only go as
far as the ear. It can go no further. There must
be, second, the internal call. which is the powerful, effectual
call of the Holy Spirit of God that lays hold of the one who
is called and brings them and ushers them into saving relationship
with Jesus Christ. And later Paul will say in the
book of Romans, That those whom the Father foreknew, He predestined. And those whom He predestined,
He called. And those whom He called, He
justified. And those whom He justified,
He glorified. Paul begins in eternity past.
He concludes in eternity future. The first two concern eternity
past. The middle two concern time. And the last fifth refers to
eternity future. The group that God begins with
in eternity past is the group that is found in heaven throughout
all of the ages to come. And those whom God foreknew,
which does not mean those whom He foresaw would believe in Christ. First of all, God has never learned
anything. God has never looked down the
tunnel of time to learn anything. That is a pagan myth. That is
a religious superstition. I'm trying to. As best I can. Foreknowledge means whom God
foreloved. with a distinguishing love. The
word knowledge simply means to choose to love. Adam knew his
wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a to a son. Those whom God foreknew means
those whom God set His heart upon with distinguishing love. It is those whom God predestined. And when God predestined something,
it is irrevocable. It will surely come to pass long
before the event ever arrives. It is those whom God foreknew
and foreordained and predestined. These are the very ones, no more,
no less, that God calls. And those whom He calls, He justifies
and imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to their account. And
then He will surely glorify them in heaven one day. What Paul
is saying to the Romans is that we are to give the free offer
to the gospel to all the nations. But as we do, it will be God
who will call out a bride for His Son. And God will bring them
to faith in Christ. And what an encouragement that
was for those in Rome, as they are under the shadow of the Roman
Empire. There could not have been a more
difficult place on planet earth to preach the gospel. And Paul
wants to encourage them that no matter how difficult the city
is and how dark the culture, you preach the gospel and God
will call out the elect and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ. And there are not enough demons
in hell or out of hell that will prevent their coming. Jesus said,
I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it. This is the success of the gospel. And as we find ourselves in a
Neo-Roman Empire, as we find ourselves in a day that would
make Sodom and Gomorrah blush, as we find ourselves now in a
post-Christian era, Let us have mounting confidence in the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is God's message that has
come down from heaven. It is the only way that leads
back to God. It is concerning His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it was recorded long ago
in the Old Testament. And God will call out His elect,
and they will believe in the gospel, and they will receive
Christ as Lord and Savior. Charles Haddon Spurgeon summed
it up this way, and I close, Oh, I love God's shalls and wills. There is nothing compared to
them. Let a man say, shall, and what is it good for? A man says,
I will, and he never performs. A man says, I shall, and he breaks
his promise. But it is never so with God's
shalls. If God says, shall, it shall
be. And when God says, I will, it
will be. Now, he has said, many shall
come to Christ. The devil says, they will not
come. But God says, they shall come.
You yourselves may say, we will not come. God says, you shall
come. There are some here who are laughing
at salvation, who scoff at Christ and mock at the gospel. But I
tell you, some of you shall come. You say, what? Can God make me
become a Christian? I tell you, yes! For herein rests
the power of the gospel. It does not ask for your consent,
it gives it. It does not say, will you have
it? It makes you willing in the day
of His power. Spurgeon then said, they shall
come to Christ, they shall come, they shall come. You may laugh,
you may despise this, but Jesus Christ shall not die for nothing. He shall see His seed. They shall
come and not in heaven nor on earth can stop them from coming
to Christ. This is the glorious triumph
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us go into the
highways and byways. Let us compel them to come to
Christ. Let us shout it from the housetops. Let us go to the nations and
say, the Lord reigns. Let us preach the gospel. Let
us share the gospel of Christ. And God shall call to himself
those for whom it has been appointed from before the foundation of
the world. This is the success of the gospel. Let us have great confidence
in its power to save. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
how we thank you for the good news of salvation that is in
your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would
enlarge our faith and our confidence in this gospel to extinguish
the darkness, to shine the light of truth into the hearts of men
and women, to capture them, and to bring them to faith in Jesus
Christ. I pray that your Holy Spirit
will continue to carry out His work of convicting the world
of sin and righteousness and judgment, and granting repentance
and faith, and bringing about the new birth, a sovereign act
that He alone can perform. And may we in these days preach
and proclaim this gospel far and wide. We pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen.