Turn with me again, if you would,
to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. This week we'll begin reading
in verse 16 and look at verses 16 and 17. Paul writes here,
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. The first thing here that I notice
is Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel. The gospel
concerning Jesus Christ. The scripture clearly and plainly
declares that the gospel is concerning Him. What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? This is all
about Him. It's the gospel of Christ. It's called that because that's
what it is. It's the good news of what Christ
did for sinners by grace alone. The apostle says, with no reluctance,
no hesitation, that he was not ashamed. of the gospel of Christ. You see, the meat of salvation
is the substitution of Christ in the place of chosen sinners.
Our message begins and it ends and everything in the middle
is Christ and Him alone. Christ is all and in all, the
apostle says. The perfectly righteous and holy
one was taken. Killed. Sacrificed. Slain by crucifixion in the place
of depraved. Oh, depraved. I don't even know
that that word depraved truly, truly enters into the depths
of our fallen nature before God. Depraved. Worthless, good-for-nothing
sinners. perfectly. He made us perfect
in the eyes of God. And we've looked in times past
at Acts 2.23 where it says, He was delivered up by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. God did it. God delivered
Him up. Now we have taken Him and by
our wicked hands have crucified and slain, but God delivered
Him up. God by His determined counsel
and foreknowledge of God. And folks, there is no other
gospel than that. He's the first cause of everything.
I wish I could truly learn that. God's the first cause of everything. In the beginning, God. That should have been a clear
indication of what this book was going to be about, shouldn't
it? About God and what He's done for no good sinners. Oh, the
message of the gospel shares its glory with no other, with
no one, no act, any one other than God. He gets all the glory. I hear messages preached by other
men that doesn't give God all the glory. And I would be quick
to say that it's not the gospel, because the gospel always, always
gives God the glory and none else. Matter of fact, He says
in the word, He will not share His glory with another. If you
would turn with me to 1 Corinthians real quick, chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. And
we'll read through verses 31. Here the same Apostle, the beloved
Apostle Paul says in verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified. Is there any other message? It's
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks its foolishness,
but unto them that are called." Oh, it's a different story. Both
Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than man. And the weakness of God is stronger
than man. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. And as I said I think last week,
Brother Maurice wrote this. Thank God for that little hymn
there. It doesn't say not any, it says not many. Not many, but
God hath chosen, verse 27, the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are. Why? Why does God do it
that way? Verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. One thing that the children and
the elect of God are going to understand is that God is the
first cause of everything. All things work together for
good. Why? Because God is in control of
all things. All things, not some things, not a few things, not
most things, all things. God help me to believe it more.
In verse 30, but of Him, but of God, God did it. Are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that is according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He gets all the
glory. And I'll tell you without reservation
that if you believe, that if what you believe allows you to
glory, brag, or take credit in any shape
or form, to the minute detail, then you do not believe the true
gospel of God. Paul's not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ because it's the work of a sovereign God. He doeth
all things well. What's there to be ashamed of?
His mercy and grace towards sinners is something to be adored, something
to be excited and thankful of. It's a divine work that's done
in purpose and on purpose and by the purpose of the Almighty
God. No, we're not ashamed of that. We glory in what Christ has done
for us, not in what we've done for Him. We've done nothing for
God. Nothing. Oh, I wish people could
see that. No believer, dear friends, will
ever be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. You know why? It's
the power of God unto salvation. We rejoice to know that God brought
salvation to us. It wasn't anything that we earned,
merited, found. He crossed our path. He came
our way. I must need to go to New Caney. That's right. That's right. When God allows us to see Him,
oh, they're beaten beyond recognition. Didn't even resemble a man. The
power of God shows us that it should have been us hanging there.
That song, I should have been crucified. I should have. I should
have suffered and died. I should have hung on that cross
in disgrace. But Jesus God's Son took my place. Oh dear friends, that should
have been me. That should have been me. It
was not only the power of God that put His beloved Son upon
that cross, but I'm going to tell you something and I know
you know it. It's the power of God that causes me to see it.
I wouldn't see it if He didn't show me. I went about in this
life for years and never saw the glory. Oh, I saw the pictures
of Christ hanging on a cross. I saw the little necklaces. I
even wore one at one time, but I didn't see it. I didn't see
it until God gave me eyes to see. Oh, I heard the message
about how He was crucified on the cross, but I didn't truly
hear it until He gave me ears to hear. And I, like everyone
else, I said, well, I believe that Jesus died for our sins,
but I didn't really believe it. I didn't believe it until God
took out this wicked heart, this heart of stone and put in a heart
of flesh. God did it all. He gets all the
glory. No, it's the power of God that
raised him from the grave. It's the power of God that causes
me to believe. And that's why Paul says in verse
16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power, power
of God unto salvation. The same power that spoke the
worlds into existence. The same power is the same power
that spoke into my heart and said, believe, believe. Oh, it's a powerful, powerful
thing. Ezekiel 12, 2, let me read it
to you. Son of man, thou dwellest in
the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see
not. They have ears to hear, and hear
not. For they are a rebellious house."
That's where God delivered me from. A rebellious house. Oh, I heard, but I didn't hear. I saw, but I didn't see. And
I said I believed, but I didn't believe. God spoke to my heart
like He did to the world. And He said, let there be light. And there was light. When God
speaks to something, it's for sure. It's the power of God and
the salvation. Could you turn with me to Luke
chapter 4? Turn just quickly. Look at this with me. This is
a very, very familiar passage of Scripture. Let's look at it
together. Luke chapter 4. Hold your place
in Romans, if you would. Let's read these few verses together. Actually, I believe just one
verse, verse 18. Our Lord here speaks and he says,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. Now, are you poor? Are you poor in spirit? Are you
bankrupt before God Almighty? If you are, then this is for
you, the gospel to the poor. Christ preaches it. He's anointed
me, He says, to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me Oh, do
no good to send me, dear friends. Do you no good to send a preacher. But when Christ is sent, He sent
me to heal. Who? The broken heart. Are you
broken hearted? Is your heart all broken? Have
you seen that it's desperately wicked, deceitful above all things? If you have, He sent Christ to
you. The broken hearted. Christ said
to preach deliverance to the captives. Are you a slave? Are
you a slave to sin? I know before Christ came to you,
you were. But He's come to bring deliverance
to the captive, to those who are captive by sin. And recovering
of sight to the blind. Are you blind? Oh, I can enter
in with John and I was blind. But now I see. Why is it that
we now see? Because Christ brings recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Are you bruised? Are you bruised? Oh, sin has done more than bruise
us, hasn't it? Well, Christ came to set you
at liberty, to make you free. He preaches to the poor, He heals
the brokenhearted, He delivers the captive, He recovers sight
to the blind, and He gives liberty to the bruised. All those things
describe us, do they not? Many men are ashamed of God's
gospel. They choose to believe in a God
who loves everybody. They speak of a Jesus who died
so that salvation might be made possible. It's been made possible
now. All you have to do is believe, if you want to. To leave salvation in the hands
of a sinner, that's not the power of God unto salvation, I'll tell
you that. To say that Christ only made
salvation possible, that's not the power of God, is it? No,
it's not at all. Those for whom Christ hung on
that cross will be saved. They shall be saved. Not a one
will be lost. Not a one. Christ did not die
in vain. And that's what men say when
they say that He's made salvation possible. And it's up to you
whether or not you accept it. Now I tell you, there is an acceptance,
but God made me willing in the day of His power. Oh, friends, God sent His Son
into the world and to the cross and He killed Him there for the
sins of His chosen people. Salvation is just not made available. It's finished. It's accomplished.
And it's for the people that God chose and loved before the
foundation of the world. Is He not the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world? Why would He be slain before
the foundation of the world? Because God chose you and I before
this world was ever made. And He said, I'm giving them
to you, my son. And He said, Father, I won't
lose a woman. That's as good as done. That's as good as done. But he was perfectly innocent.
But I wasn't. And he died in my place and he
died in my stead. By the power of God. He was made
to be sinned and knew no sin. All my sin, your sin, the sin
of all God's people throughout all time was put on Him. It wasn't
just pasted on. He was made to be sin and because
of that, you and I are made to be righteous. Perfectly righteous. It's not a pasted on righteousness
either. It's perfect, holy. It is righteousness. It's Christ's
righteousness. And it was all by the power of
God. And we've, according to Isaiah 40, now I read several
people on this, but I really feel as though when the Lord
says, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her, tell
her that her warfare is accomplished. The war has been won. that her
iniquities pardoned. And that she's received of the Lord's
hand. That's what makes the difference.
This is received from the Lord's hand. Not a man's hand. The Lord's hand. Tell her that
she's received double for all her sins. Now, I honestly believe,
and I don't believe I'm stretching it a bit to say, that not only
do we receive the forgiveness of our sins, but that double
means we have His perfect righteousness. I believe that with all my heart.
Thank God that He gave me all that He required of me. That's
grace, isn't it? That's grace. We're not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's our life. It's our treasure. It's our desire. All the days
of our life. But notice that the power of
God, back in Romans 1, it's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that what? Believeth. Do you believe the gospel? Well, sometimes I don't think
I believe it like I should. I don't act like I believe it. But I do believe it. By God's
grace, I've seen the sun hanging on Calvary's mountain on the
cross. And I've seen that it should
have been me. Do you see Him suffering in your
place? Dying for your sin? Well, if
you do, it's been by the power of God. And it's to you that
believeth that this truth is made known. It's the power of
God that made it so. No believer, now listen, no true
believer can ever be truly ashamed. It's impossible. Why? He is the
gospel. He is our message. He is our
hope. He is our salvation. We sing that little chorus, Jesus
Christ has made to me all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power.
Holiness forevermore. Perfect righteousness forever
mine. Oh, unbelievers may look at the
cross and consider Christ dying there a defeat, but not believers. It's the one thing that gives
us hope, isn't it? It's the one thing that comforts our souls,
that gives us life. If my hope of life everlastingly,
listen, has anything, anything at all to do with me, my works,
even my feelings. Friends, feelings come and go.
Feelings ain't, better not bank on feelings. I'll never forget, and you've
heard me say this, I've told a guy one time, well I feel like,
he said, whoa, whoa, that may just be gas. It don't matter
about feelings. Feelings come and feelings go.
What does God say? That's what matters. That's what
matters. My hope of an everlasting life
has nothing to do with me, my works, or my feelings. If so,
I'm doomed. And I'm damned to die if it does. But it has everything to do with
what God says in His Word. It's the power of God unto salvation. For him that believeth. Do you
believe? Do you believe? Okay, verse 17,
and I'll be brief. as it is written, the just shall
live by faith. The chief issue, dear friends,
between God and man is man's sin and his void of righteousness. He's bankrupt of any righteousness,
any holiness before God. Before a man can be reconciled
to God, he must have a perfect righteousness. He must be perfectly
holy. Our dilemma is found in Isaiah
64 verse 6, it says, but we're all as an unclean thing. It doesn't
just say that there, it says it all through the scriptures.
We're as an unclean thing. And all our righteousness is
filthy, filthy rags. And we all, we all do fade as
a leaf. And our iniquities like the wind
have taken us away. Perfect righteousness, beloved
of God, is impossible through the works and the goodness of
a sinful dead man. He can do no good work, he's
dead. He can't do, if he were alive, he can't do a good work
because he's evil. Continually our minds are on
evil. Paul makes that very clear. Are you back in Romans with me?
Look at chapter 3 real quick. Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. It's the righteousness of God
by faith in Christ. Look at verse 26. To declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness. There's no other righteousness
to speak of. His righteousness, that He might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
You know how God is both just and justifier? He gave me Christ's
perfect righteousness. He poured out His wrath on Him
that I deserved and gave me His perfect righteousness, which
I didn't deserve. That sounds like grace to me,
doesn't it? Oh, Paul says, I declare at this
time His righteousness. Don't talk about ours. We don't
have any. It's filthy, filthy rags. Look over at chapter 4,
verse 3. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace,
but of debt. We talk about sin debt? Oh, we
have a sin debt. Oh, let me tell you, but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him, that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Look at chapter 5, Romans 5,
look at verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Because
of our father Adam as our representative head, we all fell desperately
far, far, far in him. But even so, what? By the righteousness of one. The free gift came upon all men,
all that God called, all His chosen unto justification of
life. Look at verse 21. That as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's talking about His righteousness,
isn't it? And look at chapter 6, verse
20. This is all in the same letter
to the church, dear friends, when we were the servants of
sin. And we were. And unfortunately,
to a big degree, still are. But not in God's eyes. Not in
His eyes, we're not. You were free from righteousness. You know what that means? We
didn't have any. We were free from it. Void of it. Didn't have
any. There's absolutely one thing
that we're free and void of in ourselves and that's righteousness,
goodness, holiness. We don't have it. Incapable unless
God give it to us by His free gift. And you can read on in
Romans 9, well, shall we say that the Gentiles which follow
not after righteousness have attained righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith? Chapter 10, verse 3 and 4, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. It takes a power of God for us
to submit ourselves unto His righteousness. Isn't that amazing? Something so wonderful, so free,
so needful. And if God didn't cause us to
bow to it, we wouldn't. That's how messed up we are.
We've made Him to be sin for us. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, Paul says, but according to His mercy He
saved us. Tell me again about mercy. Tell
me more about grace. Tell me about my Lord and how
He died for a wretch like me. And verse 17 says, it's from
faith to faith. Now that can mean many things,
but from the... I know this, it's from the faith
of God to the faith of men. Faith to faith. It's from the
faith of preachers to the faith of hearers. It's the same God
that gave the both. Nothing special about the preacher.
His faith came the same place yours does, from God. From the
faith of the old to the faith of the New Testament saints.
The Old Testament was Christ revealed, the New Testament Christ
fulfilled. But those that were saved in
the Old Testament, what did they do? They looked to Christ by
faith. They saw Him. From faith in believers
now to faith in future believers. I don't know for sure what faith
to faith means, but I believe it means all those things. I know this, it's not faith in
and of ourselves. You're saved by grace through
faith and that's not of yourselves. That's what it says, isn't it?
So it's not of us. It's the gift of God. Salvation
comes by believing. believing just anything, believing
Christ, trusting Christ, acknowledging Him as your only hope. He did
for you what you couldn't do for yourself. His blood was shed
to wash away your sin. Faith is a conviction that God
is sovereign, a creator, a control of all things, a provider and
the bestower of eternal salvation through Christ. How do the just
live? Now, I'll be the first to tell you
my faith ain't much to brag about or talk about. It's not. But I tell you this, it's the
gift of God. Therefore, it's enough. Oh, my faith is weak at best,
but my Savior's not. My Savior's not. God help us. Trust Him.