I want to ask you to turn to
Romans chapter 2. We're going through a verse-by-verse
study through this epistle written by the Apostle Paul as he was
moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. And I've mentioned this before,
but let me say this again. The running theme through the
book of Romans is justification by faith. Justification by faith. Last week, we talked about the
righteous judgment of God. When he turns the wicked into
hell, it will be the righteous judgment of God. When he speaks
to his children, saying, Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. That will be right
for God to do that, even though we're as guilty as those who
will spend eternity in hell. God is just and a justifier of
those who believe. He will not pardon a sinner at
the expense of his holy justice. But Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,
satisfied the holy justice of God, and faith embraces that. so the judge of all the earth
shall do right and whatever God does is right he has a right
to do whatever he will with his own we read this in the scriptures
also our Lord tells us in Romans 9 18 that he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens people hate that
unregenerate people hate that truth But he said that to Moses
and Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, repeated
that for the benefit of the saints during his time and for the benefit
of all of God's enlightened children throughout the gospel age. People
who don't know the gospel, who do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in them, cry out against that, asking questions. We preach without
without any apologies, that it's not of him that willeth nor of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And people
say, well, that doesn't seem fair. Why would he yet find fault? Well, God answers that question.
We'll get to that, Lord willing, in our future studies. It's in
the 9th chapter of Romans. Shall a thing form, say to him
that formed it? Why have you made me this way?
Brethren, these are truths that God's children love. He's the
potter, we're the clay. He forms one vessel unto mercy. And the scripture says, He aforeprepared
this unto me. This is God's predestinating
plan. But some are vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction. We don't know who they are. We
preach the gospel to every creature. But if somebody embraces that
truth, comes out of darkness, gives reasons for us to believe
that they have genuine faith, we know they were dead in trespasses
and sins and God quickened them, gave them life. And this gives
God all the glory. Now last week, We left off in
verse 11 in Romans chapter 2 which says, for there is no respect
of persons with God. Pastor Henry Mahan said this
from that verse, The wrath of God will be poured out upon all
men who are guilty of sin, whether Jew or Gentile. And the mercy
of God will be upon all men in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile,
for there is no respect of persons with God. And I say, Amen. So
these scriptures we've been studying are designed to stop the mouths
of all men that they might see themselves guilty before God
and cry out to Him for mercy. Let's continue. In our study
of this book, verse 12 of Romans chapter 2 says, for as many as
have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as
many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Now
this verse is directed to the Gentiles and to the Jews. All men and women from different
nations who never had the law and the Israelites who had the
law committed unto them through the hand of Moses. All of us. This applies to all of us. All
of us have sinned. You, me, all of us. And we'll
be judged. Even though the law of Moses
was not committed to the Gentiles, we have no excuse for our sins.
None whatsoever. The light of nature reveals to
the conscious that which is right and that which is wrong. We know
when it's wrong when we do things. We don't have to have written
laws before us. There's a law in our conscience
and our minds to know the difference between right and wrong. And
the Jews who had the law of God given to them through the hand
of Moses sinned in the law. They shall be judged by the law. All are going to perish without
Christ. There's no respect of persons
with God. Now, Jesus Christ is God Almighty.
He's the righteous judge that all of us will stand before on
judgment day. And He will judge the secrets
of men according to His gospel. The Apostle Paul calls that glorious
gospel of God, my gospel. And I like that. We'll get to
that in just a moment. But look at verse 13. And this
down through verse 15 is an parenthesis. It's set apart from verses 12
and 16. But let me go through this. Verse
13 says, For not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. Now remember, the
running theme through the book of Romans, actually through the
whole Bible, is justification by faith. So our Lord tells us
in this very book, Romans 3.28, He says a man is justified by
faith without the deeds of the law. So verse 13 is telling all
men everywhere, especially the Jews who had the law, that you
can read the law, you can memorize the law, you can preach the law,
you can have the law hanging on your wall and read it every
day. You can put it on a piece of paper and hang it around your
neck and take it with you everywhere you go. But that's not going
to do you any good unless you keep the law perfectly
from your mother's womb to your dying breath. There's only one
man that did that. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord. And He's every believer's righteousness. So verse 13 is
telling us it's not the hearers of the law that are just before
God, but the doers of the law. And if you'll remember what I
brought before us last week, and lay this to heart, and I
hope we not only remember this during the worship services,
but 24-7, Jesus Christ, when He kept the
law, we were in Him. And what He did was for His people. It's the same as if we did it.
We didn't. We're sin from the top of our
head to the bottom of our feet. But He, in His perfect obedience
before His Heavenly Father, satisfied the law's lasting man. And that
was for us, for all of God's elect people. So, we've kept
the law in our substitute, in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit through these verses is shutting up all men. to this
very important truth that Christ is our only hope. We must look
to Him. Those who are called both Jew
and Gentile, the Gospel is both the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Now look at verse 14. It says,
for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature
the things contained in the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves. This verse just confirms what
we said earlier. It's not saying that the Gentiles
keep God's law perfectly, but it is saying that all men everywhere
know the difference between right and wrong. Even heathen nations,
they set down certain rules and regulations. And these laws,
in the aboriginal tribes, they have them. These laws are based
upon right and wrong. Men steal, Well they punish that
man that steals. A man commits murder, that man
is punished. And this goes right to what God
is teaching us, that those laws are in our minds. We know the
difference between right and wrong. Pastor Henry Mahan made
this statement from verse, well let me read verse 15. He said,
verse 15 says, Which show the work of the law written in our
hearts, the conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or excusing one another. This is what we're
talking about. It's in our conscience, in our minds. There has to be
a standard of right and wrong before someone can accuse another
and punish that person for doing something wrong, or excusing
that person, finding out that the accusations against him were
false. He did not commit a wrong. And
so, these laws are based upon God's laws. And Pastor Henry
Mahan made this statement from verse 15. This supposes a knowledge
of right and wrong. No man can accuse or condemn
another if he has no standard of right or wrong, and no man
can defend an action unless he has a similar standard. The Gentile
is not without law, although he is without the written law
of Moses, and he shall be judged and condemned according to light
and knowledge." And that's true. Now look at verse Well, let me
read verses 12 and 16 together. We read verse 12. Let me read
them together. They go together. Verse 12 says, For as many as
have sinned without law shall also perish without law. And
as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.
And verse 16, it says, In the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. Now,
Judgment Day is coming. We talked about this last week.
There's going to be a day when all of us will stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. God has committed all judgment
to His Son. God the Father has committed
all judgment to His Son. So it's the judgment seat of
Christ. And verse 16 is teaching us that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. He's the Judge. And He's omniscient. He knows everything. He knows
what we think. We read that in the scriptures
during His public ministry. He knew the thoughts of men.
Exposed their thoughts. So He's going to judge all men
according to the secrets of their heart. Those things that we ponder. Even the thought is sin. If it's wrong, And so these things
will be judged by our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the last part
of verse 16 again. Paul says, by my gospel. On the day of judgment, God will
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel,
the Apostle Paul says. I wonder, do we realize just
how important it is to know and believe the gospel? Let me give you these four thoughts
to ponder concerning the gospel of God's amazing grace. What
the gospel is not, first of all. And what the gospel is. What
the gospel is to those who don't believe. And what the gospel
is to every believer. Let me take you over to Galatians
1 first. What the gospel is not. The gospel is not of man. Not
in the planning, not in the execution, not in the administration. The
gospel is not of man. It's not walking to the front
of some building, repeating some words of one of the prophets
of Baal. have you to repeat after him. The gospel is not making
a decision for a phony Jesus who doesn't even remotely resemble
the God of Holy Scripture. Matter of fact, any doctrine,
listen to this, any doctrine that promotes any contribution
of man's doings in the matter of salvation is not the gospel. It is not the gospel. The gospel
is not Christ plus circumcision. The gospel is not Christ plus
baptism. The gospel is not Christ plus
church affiliation. It's not Christ plus anything.
The gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We must believe
Christ. We must believe on Him. And how
important is it? Well, listen to this. Starting
here in Galatians chapter 1 at verse 6, the Apostle Paul writing
to the churches in the Galatian area and they had allowed These
men and women who had heard the gospel from the lips of the Apostle
Paul had allowed some Judaizers, some Jews who claimed to be followers
of Jesus Christ to creep in and pervert the gospel by telling
them except you be circumcised, you cannot be after the man of
Moses, you cannot be saved. So Paul is writing to set the
record straight, to refute them. He said in verse 6, I marvel.
I marvel. He couldn't believe what he was
hearing. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. I have to share with you that
over the years that I have been here, I have seen and witnessed
people who embraced the truth. at least with a mental assent
to the truth. And be on fire for a while and
then drift to go back to another gospel. One of the elders that
was here when the Lord brought me here claimed to believe the
truth. And then I heard somebody say
something against the truth and decided that what we were preaching
was error. And he even tried to encourage
people to leave this church. But God dealt with that. So I
marvel at that. It's just a head knowledge or
they would never leave. But Paul says, I marvel that
you're so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel. Then he says this in verse 7,
which is not another. There's not another gospel. But
there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. Now here's how serious it is
to believe the true gospel. But though we, or an angel from
heaven, we read in verse 8, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. There's
a curse pronounced on those who would dare preach another gospel. And Paul says in verse 9, as
we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed. That's serious, wouldn't you
say? This is a curse from God, God Himself. In verse 10 he says,
for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Would I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man? Not man's
invention. Not of man. Not according to
man. This is God's Gospel. He planned it in all eternity.
He sent His Son to fulfill that which He had planned. Executing
all of that which is necessary to bring a sinner into relationship
with Him. Then administers that Gospel
as it pleases Him to His people when the Gospel is preached.
The Holy Spirit makes it effectual. So it's not of man. Now let me
take you over to 1 Corinthians 2. This second question. or statement rather, what the
gospel is. The gospel is more than right
doctrine. It is that. But a person can
have right doctrine and not be saved. The gospel is a person. The gospel is Jesus Christ. You
can have the gospel without Christ, but you cannot have Christ without
the gospel. Does that make sense? That's
exactly right. The gospel is Jesus Christ. The
gospel reveals three divine persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And these three divine persons
play a very important part in the salvation of God's elect.
And each one of them point us to Christ. God the Father chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And He has committed
all things in the hands of His Son. And if we don't honor His
Son, even as we honor the Father, we don't honor the One who sent
Him. So the Father points us to Christ. Our Lord Jesus came as a man,
fulfilled all of that which He was sent to do for me, for you,
for His people. And He Himself, while He was
here on this earth, pointed us to Himself. He said, Come, follow
Me. If you see Me, you've seen the
Father. We look to Christ. There's no other way to approach
God but through Christ. When we read back in the Old
Testament where God says, Look unto Me and be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. That's Christ speaking. And so, our Lord Jesus came directing
people to Himself. Come, follow Me. Take My yoke
upon you and learn of Me. We're to learn of Him. Then He
went to the cross, laying down His life for His people, redeeming
us with His own precious blood. And then ascended back to glory.
And the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, never
speaks of Himself. He's the one who quickens us,
gives us life. It is the Spirit that quickens
the flesh, profiteth nothing. And if the Spirit quickens us,
He will take the things of Christ and reveal them to us. So all
three persons in the garden point us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now listen to these words of Holy Scripture as we consider
what the Gospel is. In 1 Corinthians 2, starting
at verse 1, Paul says, And I, brethren, when I came to you,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." That's
what he said. I don't care how wealthy you
are. I don't care how poor you are. I don't care how educated
you are. I don't care how illiterate you
are. I don't care about any of your religious backgrounds. I
am determined not to know anything among you. Saint Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the Gospel. The Gospel
is a person. Read on. Look at verse 3. He
says, And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
What would cause Him to be in fear and tremble? He didn't tremble
man. He was preaching the gospel and
they took him out of the city and stoned him and left him for
dead. Then he got up on his feet and went to the next city and
started preaching the gospel again. He's a fear man. Well, what did
he fear? Well, read on. Verse 4 says,
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. Paul, I believe, had this fear
that he could talk somebody into being a Christian who just had
a mental assist to some facts that wouldn't be the Holy Spirit
working in it. I believe that's what he was trying to do. He
represented his Christ. And he was preaching my gospel,
he said. He was preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And he wanted people to be genuinely quickened by
the Holy Spirit. He wanted them to receive the
same Spirit that he received has the same joy that he had,
the same hope that he had, looking to Christ as his only hope. So, what the Gospel is? The Gospel
is Jesus Christ, a person. Well, what is the Gospel to those
who don't believe? Look, this same chapter, or this
same book of 1 Corinthians 1, Starting at verse 17, Paul said,
For Christ sent me not to baptize. Baptism is not the gospel. People
who think they're going to heaven by getting baptized, they need
to read this. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. He makes a distinction between
baptism and the gospel. We should get baptized. This
is a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. But baptism is for believers. The Ethiopian eunuch said to
Philip, what does it mean to be baptized? He said, the thou
believest. Babies and people who get baptized under these
false teachings, they just got wet. It's being identified with
Christ, believing on Him, so we should get baptized. But the
Gospel has to come. It has to come in power. It has
to come by the power of the Holy Spirit, revealing Jesus Christ
to us. Or baptism is meaningless. But
for those who know Christ, we want to be identified with Him.
We want to go into the waters of baptism, showing that our
faith is in Christ and only in Christ. But read on. He says
in that 17th verse, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. And our modern preachers today,
they've been around for a long time, not just today. They are
doing just that. They're making the cross of Christ
of none effect. It's meaningless to them. He
didn't do anything for anybody. He just made it possible. That's
what they're teaching. But Paul says in verse 18, for
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. This is what it is to those people
who don't believe. It's foolishness. Actually, it
offends. The Gospel offends the natural
man. Offends his pride. You mean to tell me I can't do
anything? I don't mean to tell you that.
God tells you that. Without me, the Lord Jesus said,
you can do nothing. What can a dead man do? That
offends a person that's walking around physically alive, saying,
I'm not dead. When you tell them that they
can't contribute anything to their salvation, that it's all
of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and even if you do believe
that's a gift from God, that's God giving us faith. They don't
like that. So, this is what the Gospel is to them that don't
believe. Foolishness. But it says in the last part
of verse 18, But unto us which are saved, it is the power of
God. It is the power of God. God Himself
has come to us in power and delivered us from that darkness that we
were in. So what the gospel is to those who don't believe, it's
foolishness, but unto us who do believe, it's the power of
God and the wisdom of God. Now let me take you over to Colossians
chapter 1, and we'll bring this to a close. Paul called the gospel,
my gospel. His gospel, because God had entrusted
him with it, yes, it was his. God gave him that gospel, gave
him the ability to preach that gospel. He said, woe is me if
I preach not the gospel. What he was saying is, if I preach,
I must preach the gospel. I must. And so it was his because
it was entrusted to him, but much more than that. Much more
than that. The gospel was not just a mental
ascent to some truths. The gospel was part of Paul. It was his innermost being. It
was Christ in him. Christ in him. The gospel and
Christ are one and the same. And so his gospel, when he says
it's my gospel, he's referring to the innermost being, his heart. Out of the heart proceed these
things that come forth from God who gives us a new heart. The
truth comes from way down into... I was just having a conversation
with Brother Mike Loveless, after our Bible study Friday night,
and this is not a direct quote, but close, almost. Mike said
I was steeped in religion. He didn't know Christ, but he
was steeped in religion. He said, I quit my job. Started selling
books that promoted a false doctrine, a false gospel. Then he went
on to tell me I almost starved to death doing that. That's how
steeped I was in religion. But after The truth came to him
by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, when I heard the truth,
that's all I could think about. That's all I could think about.
That's all I wanted to talk about. It was part of Him. The truth
wasn't just up here, it was down in His innermost being. The Word
of God, Christ Himself, was like, and it is, like a fountain of
living water just springing up within the soul. And that's what
the gospel is. It's a man. It's a person. It's
Christ Himself. The gospel was in brother Mike
because Christ was in him. And still is. I shouldn't say
was. It's not past tense. Still is. Because once the Holy
Spirit takes residence up here, He never leaves us. And what
you brought, brother John, promised never to leave us, nor to forsake
us. So the gospel is a person. The
Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Colossians 1, starting
at verse 21, we read this. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." Do you like that?
We were enemies of God. Hating God. Running from God.
Drinking iniquity like water. Even if we were moral, even if
we were religious, we were nothing but sin. Enmity. And we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul goes
on to say, if you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister. If we have received this Gospel,
we will not let anything Keep us from leaving until we're out
of this world and in the presence of our Savior. This gospel is
so important it comes first because it's Christ. Christ must have
the preeminence. He does have the preeminence
in the lives of his people. And so, Paul says he's going
to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight
if we continue in the gospel. Those who go out from us, they
never were of us. John says that. If they were
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. I'm not talking
about people who move to different locations, and continue on in
different... I'm talking about departing Christ,
denying Christ, embracing another gospel. They never were of us.
If they were of us, they would have continued with us. But look
at verse 24. Paul says, Who now rejoices in my sufferings for
you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof
I am made a minister according to the stewardship or the dispensation
of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.
Then he says, even the mystery. Now let me just take a moment.
Let's stop right there. Brother Lance is bringing some
wonderful lessons from the book of Colossians on Wednesday night.
He has explained all of these scriptures. It's not my intent
to explain them. They're precious. I just want
to encourage you, if you want a better understanding of the
book of Colossians, join us on Wednesday night. But Paul says,
the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,
but is now made manifest to the saints. You know what that mystery
is? Well, read on. "...to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among you, among
the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
That's the Gospel. He is the Gospel. And He dwells
in the hearts of His people. And that Gospel is more precious
to us than anything in the world. The Old Testament saints, they
would rather die than deny the Gospel, and many of them did.
Many of them were martyred. But when God brought them out
of darkness into this marvelous light, They aligned themselves
with the church. They loved the church. They proved
their love for Christ by their love of the brethren. Their support
of the gospel. Wanting to be with the saints,
man. Wanting to be with those who love the gospel. And supporting
the gospel with their prayers, with their money, with their
attendance. These things are characteristic of God's children.
And this is the way it is with all of God's people. Throughout
any generation, when God does this work in us, when Christ
dwells in us, it's the gospel that we love. Because we love
Christ and we prove our love for Him. He dwells in our hearts.
Pastor Mahan said, and I'll use this in closing. On the inside
of today's bulletin, at the top of that page on the left, he
titled this article, Confessing Christ. Our Lord Jesus said,
Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess
also before My Father which is in heaven, but whosoever shall
deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father
which is in heaven. And Pastor Mahan said, Those
who believe in their hearts, believe that Christ is all that
God says He is. God is the only Redeemer and
Savior. They confess Christ in this way
and they are identified with the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They are identified with the things of Christ on this
earth. You see, we're pilgrims here, sojourners. We're just
walking through this world. We confess Christ every day.
We do this especially when we are identified with His people.
If Christ has a church on this earth, and if I am one of His
own, I want to be identified with Him. If the Lord Jesus Christ
has a people in my town, those who know Christ, preach Christ,
love Christ, and honor and glorify Christ, I want to be identified
with them. If they are persecuted, I want
to be persecuted. If they are blessed by God's
presence, I want to be there when God blesses them with His
presence. If God has a true preacher in town that is preaching the
gospel of God's grace, those who are confessing Christ will
be identified with that man. I am not confessing Christ if
I refuse to be identified with His true gospel, His true church,
and with His true people. And that is exactly right. Because
His people are identified with Christ. And if Christ is the
Gospel and He is, then that's where we want to be. We want
to be where He is preached, where He is exalted, where He is brought
before us, the God-Man. The One who redeemed us with
His own precious blood, yes, but is now in heaven on His sovereign
throne of power, doing all of those things that He is pleased
to do. And Paul says, when they please
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me. That gospel that God has
revealed to us as Jesus Christ and everything that points to
Him and His redeeming work and His exaltation in creation. Everything points to Jesus Christ. So those who Love the gospel. Love Christ. They love those
who love Christ. And they support the gospel where
Christ is preached, waiting for that day when faith will give
way to sight. and will be presented faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And Jude
says to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen? Amen. Well, let's sing to Him. Take
your hymn books, please, and turn to hymn number 277. Stand
with me as we sing the church's one foundation, 277. Then we'll
be dismissed in prayer. oh The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. He is blissful creation by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her to be With His holy blood, with His
own bloody water, And for her life He died, He left from every nation. Her chariot of salvation, One
Lord, one faith, one word. One holy name she presses, One
cage, one holy food, And to one home she presses, In joy and tribulation, in tumult
of her war, she breaks the consolation of peaceful men. And the great church victorious
shall be. Yet she on earth hath you, with
God the Three in One, And mystics she communes with those whose
rest is won. Thank you brother Dan, will you
please dismiss this?