Romans chapter 1 and I'm going
to read from verse 15 to verse 17. Romans 1 verse 15. So as much as in me 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 believeth to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein in the gospel, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. 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. The power of God unto salvation. What do you know of this? What
do you know of the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Paul was not ashamed of the gospel
because he knew its power. And not only was he not ashamed,
he positively rejoiced in the gospel. He puts it in the negative.
Probably because he can't find the words to describe how positively
he feels about it. He absolutely rejoices and glories
in the gospel. Because it is the power of God
unto salvation. It transformed him. It's powerful. But do you know
it's power? You may have heard of it, you
may have heard the scriptures preached from, you may have read
the scriptures, you may know many things, you may be persuaded
of many things, you might be religious from your youth up.
I've always attended church. But have you ever felt the power
of the gospel? If you are blind, physically
blind, I could stand here and I could describe the colors of
a landscape, the trees, the beauty of it, the sky, but it's all
black to you. If you're deaf, I can speak,
I can raise my voice, I can be as descriptive as I like, and
you hear nothing. And maybe you're like that with
the gospel. You come each week, you hear
things said, you go away again. You see, but you see nothing. You hear, you hear nothing. You sit in a meeting, you look
to all around you like you're attentive. When your thoughts
are on school, on work, on the football, wherever, and you're
just waiting for the time that the clock says that you can leave. Perhaps though you are one that
say you believe the gospel, but you never speak of it when
the meeting's finished. You never speak of it outside
of the meeting, at work, to your peers. indeed you're ashamed of it. Well Paul wasn't. As I say he
rejoiced in the gospel he knew he knew it was the power of God
unto salvation and as such he couldn't keep quiet about it.
It didn't matter if men said they'd slay him if he told them
of this. It didn't matter if people said
don't preach to us Paul, keep your religion to yourself. He
could but not speak it because he'd been where they were, enslaved,
dead, blind and deaf and he knew what it was to hear this gospel.
and to be delivered, to have his eyes opened, his ears opened,
to be brought to life. He knew his power. You see this
gospel with Paul, with Saul took a dead man and made him live. It took Paul dead in trespasses
and sins and made him alive. It touches the eyes of a blind
man. and makes them see. It opens
the ears of deaf men and makes them hear. It is powerful, powerful
to save. But what do you know of that
power truly? Has it ever affected you? What do you know of the gospel?
You'll never know the power which is in this gospel until you hear
this gospel. Just what is the gospel? The gospel of Christ, of which
Paul speaks. Well, every church speaks of
the gospel, don't they? Every church with Christian above
the door, every professing Christian speaks of the gospel. But what
is it? There are, it would seem, as
many gospels as there are churches. There is a Catholic gospel and
a Protestant gospel. There is a Baptist gospel and
a Brethren gospel. There is a charismatic gospel
and a reformed gospel. They all say they have the gospel
and yet truly they all differ. then which is right? And how
do we know which is right? And how do we know what the gospel
truly is? When there are so many voices
all saying that they speak the truth, all using the word gospel,
and all speaking like Babel at variance with one another. Paul makes it plain in Galatians
1 that there are other gospels and that men come preaching other
gospels. And he says that it is another
gospel that came in a glacier which is not another. Its proponents
called it a gospel but it is not a gospel and it is not the
gospel. And what does he say of those
who taught it in Galatians chapter 1? He uses the strongest of terms. Let these that preach this other
gospel be accursed. So we don't want to be found
preaching like the Galatians another gospel. Or believing
another gospel. We want to hear the gospel. For only the gospel the power
of God unto salvation. Other Gospels may fill our mind,
they may fill our intellect, they may give us natural hope,
something to follow, but they'll never bring this power that takes
a hardened sinner lost in darkness, a rebel against God, and transforms him and puts a
new heart where there was a black heart and puts a new spirit within
him a new cry within him that cleanses his sins and makes him
righteous. They'll never do this. Religion is not the gospel. You
can hold the Old Testament as Paul did and never know Christ. You see this one writing who
speaks of the power of the gospel was a religious man, zealous in the things of God
as he saw them. A Pharisee of the Pharisee, a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised
the eighth day touching the Lord blameless an upright man what
you might look upon and say he's a godly man wasn't worldly and yet he was in darkness he
was blind and he was dead He knew not God. He knew not God's
Saviour. He knew not God's Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. When he heard of Christ, when
he heard of the followers of Christ, he sought to put them
to death. And running along the Damascus
road, travelling towards Damascus where he intended to put Christians
into prison, his heart burnt against Christ. this religious
man. And it took more than mental
persuasion to turn Paul around. It took more than reasoning,
even out of the scriptures, to change Paul. He knew them but
he didn't know them. He knew them off by hand, off
by heart, but he never saw the one of whom they spake. In the
Old Testament he never saw that all the scriptures speak of Jesus
Christ. He never understood that this
one whom he persecuted and his followers whom he persecuted
was the Messiah that those scriptures speak of. He didn't see. And yet there was a day when
arrested on the road to Damascus, when a voice came out of heaven,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And for the first time Saul
heard the voice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, calling unto
him. And he heard the gospel. And
he heard a power the like of which the world does not know. And that power took that hard
heart of the chief of sinners and broke it. And that light
from heaven shone in and nothing that Paul might do would stop
it. all the burning which burnt within
him against Christ and his followers was melted and quenched. And
the love of God was set abroad in his heart. He knew the power,
he knew the gospel. What is the gospel? Well it's
defined. We might know the gospel, we
can come to know the gospel because God in his grace has laid it
down for us in the scriptures and specifically very much so
in a glorious summary of the gospel here in the first five
chapters of the epistle to the Romans. It's defined, it's not
for us to guess at, it's not for one church or denomination
to have their own particular stance on. If we want to know
the gospel and we want to compare what a man, a preacher might
say is the gospel with what God says is the gospel, if we want
to be sure of it, we can check. It's here, it's laid down, it's
defined. Romans sets down the gospel doctrinally
essentially from verse 18 of chapter 1 through to the end
of chapter 5. From the beginning of chapter
6 onwards Paul then goes on to ask various rhetorical questions
in the light of this truth to open it up and to examine it
further and to see the consequences and the effects of this gospel
upon us. And then he moves on to the latter parts of the epistle
where he applies this gospel to its effects upon the people
of God and our walk in this earth. But doctrinally the gospel, the
sum of the truth of it is in the first five chapters. Romans
opens with a prologue, an address. Essentially Paul is writing a
letter here so he says Paul to the people at Rome. But in that
prologue, in the first few verses of chapter one of Romans, Paul
very much sets down who this gospel concerns, who is its author,
who the message of God, the gospel, the good news, the good message,
who this message concerns, who's sending it, who's speaking, what's
it to do with, who is it to do with? Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God, the message
of God, which he had promised afore by the prophets in the
holy scriptures. It's not new. this gospel of
God 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.
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 Paul opens this epistle but he opens it by saying that
he's separated to preach the gospel of God concerning our
son Jesus Christ our Lord. That's whom the gospel concerns,
it's a message of Christ first and foremost. If what you call
the gospel does not center upon Jesus Christ, then it's not the
gospel. You may answer, well, surely
the gospel's about Jesus. Don't most people speak of Jesus?
Well, they give lip service to it, but if you hear them, so
much of their concentration is on so much else. So much is on
man. What we do, what we may do, what
we should do to be saved. Yet Paul's gospel is a declaration
of what God has done in Jesus Christ to save his people. First and foremost, that's the
message. It comes to a people who are lost in sin. And Paul
goes on to describe that people in the first few chapters of
Romans. He brings this message to his hearers and he has to
bring them where he finds them before he goes on to expound
what that message is. but the message is a message
of what God has done in Christ to save a people. His Son, the
Son of God, 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. Now there are many errors which
have crept up in Christendom from the beginning of time. Some
teach that Christ was Not truly God. Others teach that he was
never truly a man. Some teach that he was not eternally
God but that he was created when he was made a man. Various errors,
Arianism and so on. All of these errors, the majority
of these major errors on the person of Jesus Christ are swept
aside in these first few verses if you read and understand them
right. Christ is God's Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God, equal
with the Father, our Lord. He was made of the seed of David,
made a man. If made a man, then pre-existing
before he was made a man. He was eternal. He was not created
when he was born. He was always the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, always Christ. made a man, declared
to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. He truly died and he truly
rose again. And whoever preaches a gospel
and denies the resurrection denies the gospel and denies the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whoever teaches that Christ has
not truly come in the flesh denies Jesus Christ and the gospel.
But the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God unto salvation,
declares the son of God, his message, his salvation, his eternal
sonship, his divinity, his manhood. And it is he who speaks. When
you hear the gospel preached, if you ever hear it preached
in power, as Paul heard it preached, then you are not listening to
the words of man. And if you go away from this
place and all you have in your head is the words that I've said,
that's of nothing worth. The gospel is the gospel of Christ. He preaches. He reigns on high
this day. He is alive this day. And wherever
the gospel is preached, He is speaking at that moment, at this
hour. And it is His words which are
conveyed by the Spirit of God in power through the message
of the gospel as spoken by those whom God sends to preach it,
which come to you in power by the Spirit of God in the heart.
Now you either hear that or you hear nothing. The Gospels defined if you want
to know it you'll find it in this book but you won't decipher
it just by reading the book you must hear that voice take the
words of this book and bring them to you in power. Do you want to know this gospel?
Do you care about the gospel? Do you care whether what you
know of it is true and not erroneous? Does it matter to you? Do you
want to learn things? Because in comparison nothing
else in this world matters and nothing else in your life matters
more than this. You'll put much care into cooking
your dinner and clothing and feeding the family but nothing
matters to your soul more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. You must hear. You must learn. You must know this. You must
experience this power of God. If you go to your grave and you've
never heard it and you've never known the power of God in the
gospel, then you go to a lost eternity. No wonder Paul rejoiced. And
no wonder every child of God who's heard this gospel rejoices
in the power of God. For it spared them that lost
eternity and taken them out of death and brought them into life. Well, what's the gospel then?
How does Paul set it forth for us? As I said, after the prologue,
he begins chapter one, verse 15, saying he wants to preach
this gospel at Rome. He's ready to preach it to them.
He declares that he's not ashamed of this gospel. He gives the
reason because it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first, to the Greek, to all men. For
therein, why is it the power of God? because in the gospel
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written the just shall live by faith. Now that
verse is vital to your understanding of the gospel and if your gospel
does not reveal unto you the righteousness of God from faith
to faith then you don't know the gospel. The gospel in its
primary facet is not the revelation of the love of God, though it
does reveal the love of God. It's not primarily the revelation
of the mercy of God, though it does reveal the mercy of God.
But that which gives it power is the fact that it is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. Now why is that so important
and why is that so powerful? because it is the righteousness
of God which we so desperately need by which we will be saved. No one enters glory except they
are righteous and no one enters glory except they have a righteousness
equal to the righteousness of God in his own being. We must
be made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ else we face
a lost eternity. having declared this statement
that he's not ashamed of this gospel Paul begins to expound
it. Where does he begin? This message has a beginning,
a middle and an end. It has parts and it is the sum
of its parts. Take any part away and it ceases
to be the gospel. But as a whole it is the power
of God unto salvation. rearrange the parts and it ceases
to be the gospel. Speak very little of the parts
you don't like and a lot about the parts you do like and it
is not the power of God unto salvation. There is an order
to the truth not just in Romans but throughout the scriptures
and I can prove that to you. This message begins in verse
18 following the prologue verse 18 where does it begin? For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God have showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him 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 without excuse. because that when they knew God
they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened
professing themselves to be wise they became fools. What a beginning
and what a place for the gospel to start. It doesn't start with
the love of God. In fact the love of God in Romans
is not mentioned until chapter 5 and that but in passing. It starts with the revelation
of the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Now that's a terrible terrible
thing. it's a terrible terrible thing
when you feel as a sinner that the wrath of God is burning against
you and your sins. When you come to experience the
reality of this revelation in your soul and come to realize
that before God you are corrupt all your ways are evil, that
your heart is evil, that you have an evil heart, you are desperately
wicked, you like all like sheep have gone astray, you have rebelled,
you have lied, you have sought your own end, you have not sought
God's glory. When God begins to reveal this
to you and teach you what you are before him and that his wrath
burns against such deeds. It will crush you. It will bring
you to your knees. It will and it should bring you
to tears. And unless you've come this way,
you've not really heard the gospel aright. And unless the gospel
that you speak of and hear and tell others begins here, it's
not the gospel of God concerning his son the Lord Jesus Christ.
It may seem hard, it may seem fearsome, you may say with human
wisdom and reason but if we tell people that God is angry with
them, that the wrath of God burns against them, that should they
die in such a state that an eternity in hell awaits them, you'll scare
them all away but you're wrong because the
message which begins such is not the power of God unto damnation
It's not the power of God under condemnation. It's not a ministry
of condemnation as the law of God is described in 2 Corinthians
3. It may begin there, it may find
out its hearers there, but it's not to leave them there. And
it's not to hit them over the back with a rod just to condemn
them. It's to make known to them what
their state really is, how things really are, how bad it is, how
bad man is before a holy God and bring them to that point
where they cry out to that God to save them. For you'll never
know salvation unless you know you need to be saved. You'll
never know the power of God in salvation unless you know that
you are a lost sinner, dead in trespasses and sins and you'll
never rejoice in the salvation of Christ and never behold him
with the wonder and praise and glory that a saved sinner like
Paul did until you've trodden this pathway. It has to find
us where we are and that's where we are. We're lost. Our forefather Adam rebelled
in the garden and we all rebelled in him. We've all gone astray. We've all shaken our fist at
our maker. The invisible things of God are
clearly seen in the creation and yet man says there is no
God. Just listen to the media today. And the fools of men that write
their books, their atheistic books to try to lead the people
astray, there is no God. What fools! The creation around,
your own body, your own self, witnesses to the existence of
God. And yet you speak like that because
you are dead in trespasses and sins. Professing yourself to
be wise, you've become a fool. From chapter 1 verse 18 through
essentially to the middle of chapter 3, Paul spends the rest
of his time proving that all men are sinners. Not just the
world outside who go down the nightclub and never read a Bible,
but all men, religious and irreligious, we're all lost in sin, we're
all dead. We're all in need of salvation. You may say, well isn't that
just in Romans? What about Christ? What about
Christ in the Gospels? Does he speak in this way? Do
the Gospels begin in this way? Yes, they do. Yes, they do. They begin with the ministry
of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was that voice
crying in the wilderness to prove us that we are dead in the wilderness
of sin. Repent. Repent. Mark opens with the beginning
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God as
it is written in the prophets. Behold I send my messenger before
thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee the voice
of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord
make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. That's
the beginning but it's certainly not the end. I hope you've come
that way and if you haven't and if you've tried to jump in on
the gospel halfway through if you've heard that Jesus loves
you by some person on the streets or some mock preacher who likes
to give you the carrot before the stick then you've not heard the gospel
because Jesus does not love indiscriminately in such a manner. And he does
not declare his gospel in such a wanton manner. He comes to
declare unto his people what they are by nature, to show them
their need and to bring them to call upon him who has answered
that need. That's the beginning. Do you have a need? Do you know
your needs? Because your need in such a state
is a need of righteousness, you're unrighteous. Doesn't matter how
religious you are. Paul was religious but he was
unrighteous. He held the truth in unrighteousness. That could be read two ways,
he held it, he knew it, but it was in unrighteousness, he didn't
really know it. And he also resisted it, he held it back. Because
he thought he knew the truth but he didn't. He's unrighteous,
you're unrighteous by nature, you're wicked. You have an evil
heart and you need righteousness, we have a need. Because we have
no righteousness. It's not simply that we don't
have enough righteousness to enter heaven, we have no righteousness. Our righteousness is as we may
look upon them, those good deeds, that kindness to our neighbor,
that love we show to one another. are in God's eyes filthy rags. They're all done with a selfish
motive in the end. We have no righteousness, but
we have a need. We have a need of the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. We may not know it, the window
salesman often ring me. They ring me up constantly saying,
do you want new windows? And I despairingly tell them
I've got lots of windows, they're in good condition, no thank you.
But should someone come to my house and open my eyes and show
me the condition of my windows and point out that they are in
fact all rotten and the glass is cracking and they're not going
to last very much longer Mr. Potts, then I won't need the
window salesman to ring me I'll be on the phone to them getting
some quotes because then I recognize I've got a need. And until you know your need
of righteousness you'll never call upon the Lord God for salvation. Do you know? Do you know your
need? Well the gospel is not a ministry
of condemnation like I said, it's a ministry of righteousness. It answers the need, it's the
power of God unto salvation. And in chapter 3, Paul has this
hinge in his message, having proved all men that they are
sinners. He says in verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. He's shown that all the world
is guilty before God. And yet he says in verse 21,
glorious, wonderful words. But now, there's a change, something's
happened, that's where you are, but now, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. those who come to know the righteousness
of God are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus whom God have set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. Wonderful words but now there's
a change, this message is a glorious message, it's a powerful message
of grace. God knows that man has fallen
and rebelled, he could send the whole of his creation into an
eternity in hell and be just and be good. Rightly so, praise
God if he does. But he doesn't. for my sake and
I hope for your sake I thank him that he hasn't and he doesn't
because I fear that but I love what he's made known in Christ
in his gospel that now the righteousness of God is revealed. He's answered
our sin We're sinners, we can't cleanse ourselves, we need to
be cleaned and what can we do? We try to live right, but what
can we do? We've already got a record of
sin on our books. We can't get rid of that, however
much new right that we do. And every time we try to do right,
everything we do is tainted by sin. And rather than it being
a rising path where we're climbing up steps, we seem to be climbing
down steps deeper and deeper. Our trouble gets worse. And from
such a state we can do but one thing, cry out to God for mercy. For I have a salvation by the
mercy and the grace of God. Well there's no salvation. If
it depends on me getting better I'm lost. it depends on me in
my natural state deciding to follow God I'm lost because I
don't. I followed my own way. It's only
when this gospel came by the Spirit of God and proved to me
that I'm a sinner and lost that I began to call and that was
God's work. It must be by grace and it is
by grace and the answer by grace is tremendous for God looking
upon his people purpose to save them he loved them from all eternity. The father gave unto the son
a people a named people from all eternity and that son made
a man entered this world with the names of every individual
for whom he would die written upon his heart. He had my name
on his heart when he lived a man. He had my name on his heart when
he went to the cross. If you know him, if you know
this salvation, your name was on his heart and when he was
nailed to a tree by wicked men he suffered for your sins, if
your name was on his heart. He came to bring in the righteousness
of God for a people that had none. How did he do so? By taking away their sin, by
taking away their sins and the only way he could do that was
if he, the son of God, God himself made man, laid down his life
for that people. and if his father looked upon
him and took their sins and laid them upon him and took their
sin and made him to be it and poured out that wrath which burned
against those sins and that sin and destroyed it in him that
the judgment might be answered and that his wrath might be propitiated. A long word, but a word essentially
that describes the quenching of that fury of God against the
sin. It was answered, it was quenched. Christ died, he suffered for
every last sin of all of his people. And when he cried out,
it is finished, it was finished and there was no more to be done.
because he had judged their sins according to a standard that
could be no higher, according to the very righteousness of
God. And having judged them according
to that righteousness, they were blotted out. And that righteousness
is made known to that people, it's imputed to them, it's theirs,
theirs in Christ, in him who died in their place, they are
righteous. He died, he died he brought in
this righteousness by faith, by the faith of Jesus Christ. When Christ died he looked unto
his father knowing that his father would judge all those sins in
him. knowing that he would rise again from the dead, knowing
that all that was promised in that eternal covenant would come
to pass, he believed it, he knew it, he rested in it and that
faith of Christ himself, that faith was answered because he
did rise, he did conquer sins and he did rise with that people
victorious, that people washed in his blood, that people cleansed
and saved by his almighty power, made the righteousness of God
in him. Have you looked upon that Savior
crucified upon the tree? Have you seen a need answered
in him? Is the righteousness of God yours
in Jesus Christ? Did he love you with an eternal
love? Essentially in chapter 3, 4,
5 this has expounded the death of Christ, the reconciliation
of his people. Chapter 5 verse 21 concludes,
As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, because
that's the consequence. Righteousness was wrought by
Christ, it was brought in for his people with the effect of
eternal life, salvation. rest of Romans speaks of the
consequences of this that as a result our sin is removed never
to be brought back again, as a result we're delivered from
the law and its condemnation, as a result we're adopted as
the sons of God, the children of God, As a result we have the
Spirit of God within us that causes us to cry out to God our
Father, Abba Father. As a result there is no condemnation
that can be laid to our charge because in Christ we are perfect. As a result we are made one people
in Christ. All Israel, Israel of old and
Israel today, the New Testament, His people, all Israel shall
be saved. And as a result, all Israel shall
go to be with Christ in eternal glory on that last day, never
to be condemned, to live and reign with him forevermore. Have
you come there? I've gone over my time, I'm sorry,
so I'll wrap up quickly. Have you come there? Have you
heard the power of God in Jesus Christ, the power of God in the
gospel? Have you been shown your need?
Have you ever come to experience this? Have you been brought to
see what you are by nature, how ungodly you are? What state you're
in? Adorofo, God burns against that
sin. And has God brought you? If he does,
if he does, if he brings you here, has he brought you to the
cross? For if you're brought to the
cross in such a state to cry out, to call upon God for salvation,
to look and to behold that son who died in your place, to see
the revelation of God in Christ made yours, then you too, with
Paul, will say of a truth, I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every
one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Praise God. Amen.