How about turning in your Bibles,
please, to Romans chapter 1. The book of Romans chapter 1. And I tell you honestly this
morning, I spent two or three days this
week working on a different passage that I thought I was going to
preach from this morning only to discover last night that it
had gone south and I was going to have to make a change. So if it appears to you that
I'm stumbling and fumbling, that's probably exactly what will be
taking place. But I could not find a better
passage of Scripture for us to consider this morning more so
than Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. Romans is one of the most powerful
books in all the Bible and clearly states and declares the gospel
as well as any other passage in all the Word of God. And Paul
covers virtually everything in the chapters that make up the
book of Romans. But here in the introduction,
he makes some statements that need our attention. So let's
just come right to the Scriptures themselves and see if we can
read this and if God will see fit to bless it to us, what a
blessing that will be. Let us pray and ask for His help
and aid. O Lord God, heaven and earth. Here we are, not so much as a
speck on this globe called earth. You're the infinite God whom the universe cannot contain. And I'm nothing and nobody. Why would you be interested in
saving a poor sinner like me? What on earth could I do to honor and glorify
your name? It must indeed be that in the
salvation of sinners who are in themselves worthless, yet
in that marvelous grace and mercy through your Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, you bring honor and glory to yourself, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit in the saving of poor ungodly, unrighteous, dead,
helpless, dumb, ignorant sinners. And I fit every word in that
statement. Lord, have mercy on us, we beg. Take this simple portion of your
Word this morning and bless it to us in this place. cause us to hear, maybe for the first time or for
the one thousandth time. But, O Lord, don't leave us alone. Please don't leave us to ourselves.
Speak with that voice that wakes the dead and make your people
hear. We beg for Christ's sake, your
honor and your glory. All right, Romans 1 verse 1,
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called the italicized words to
be, so I suppose you could read it either way, I prefer it without
the to be. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called an apostle, or if you insist, called to be an apostle.
Separated, set apart unto the gospel of God. I want you to
notice these titles that are given to the gospel in this one
passage alone. unto the gospel of God and the
servant of Jesus Christ." I tried to preach in a church once upon
a time. They didn't like that word, servant. They said, oh
no, now that we're Christ's friends, we're not His servants. Well,
do you think Paul was His friend? Oh, we just We pick our Bibles apart
and make them say what we want them to say. Let's just be honest.
That's what we do. Now concerning the gospel of
God, the second verse is a parenthetical statement. That doesn't mean
it's not important. It is telling us about the gospel
of God. So Paul is temporarily interrupting
himself so he can make this statement. The gospel of God which he had
promised afore, we would say before, by his prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. In other words, this gospel that
Paul is writing about was promised and set forth throughout the
whole of the Old Testament. It starts at the beginning of
time. As far as man is concerned, it starts a whole lot longer
ago than that in eternity past. There is no way to find its beginning. Which he had promised before
by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now this gospel of God, verse
3, has to do with a person. a person concerning God's Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says,
which was made, my margin renders that who was born, which was
made or who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. This right here, flesh and blood.
The flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the seed of David. That's his manhood. That's his
perfect humanity. That's his being conceived by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary without the aid of a man
so that he can be born with a human nature that is not fallen and
sinful. Because if he cannot be born
without sin, he cannot be a Savior, neither for himself nor others.
So this is absolutely essential, that the human nature of our
Lord Jesus Christ be holy, made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. And if that were all he was,
a good man even without sin, he would not be able to save
you and me. Only God can save. If this book
has one message from beginning to end, it is simply this. Salvation
is of who? The Lord. The Lord God. Only God can save. So it says in verse 4, notice
the language is altered. Verse 3, it's which was made
or who was born. Verse 4, it is simply a declaration. You can't say that God was made. Who could make Him? He's the
maker of all things. God has no beginning, therefore
no end. Declared to be the Son of God, with power, according to the
Spirit of holiness." How? By the resurrection from the
dead. Which simply means, don't have
time to set it all out for you, it simply means this. The Lord
Jesus, according to this statement, raised Himself from the dead. If not, then His resurrection
could not prove His deity. You follow me? Now, I'll tell
you plainly up front, the Bible says that the Father raised Him
from the dead, the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead, and
Christ raised Himself from the dead. The triune God raised Him
from the dead. But He is declared by virtue
of the fact that He raised Himself from the dead, He's declared
to be the Son of God. God, God. Went to a family reunion
yesterday, and you get in all kind of conversations. And I'm
at one little table, and there's more of this clan at another
table. And I was talking to my daughter
and her husband and Melody and her friend that was with us.
And somebody called my name back
here at this other table and wanted to ask me a question.
And my daughter tried to get me not to even look that way.
She yanked on me, you know. And they were having a Bible
conversation or religious conversation, and she didn't want me to hear
it. So one of them had made the statement that the Lord Jesus,
there was something that he didn't know. I'd get it wrong if I tried
to tell you what it was. I don't remember exactly. So
he called my name and asked me, Isn't that so? And I said, only
if Jesus Christ has quit being God. Because God knows all things. And if Christ is God, there ain't
nothing he doesn't know. So he just sort of let that be
it. But that ain't hard to do, is
it? If there's something Christ doesn't know, pray tell me what
it is. You can't be God and not be omniscient. That's like saying God is not
sovereign. You can't be God and not be sovereign. So the Lord Jesus is set forth
in the Gospel of God as the Son of David and the Son of God,
two different natures in one single person. in absolute perfect
harmony and union. I do love what Scott Richardson
once said and made famous, he's as much God as if he were not
a man and as much a man as if he were not God. Declared to be The Son of God
with power. Now, how much power did the Lord
Jesus Himself tell us in the Gospels that He possessed? Now,
if you were raised a Southern Baptist, you've had this conked
over your head so many times, you ought not ever forget it. You remember the Great Commission
as we called it back in those days? Matthew 28, 18 through
20, all power, he said, is given unto me, where? In heaven and
in earth. That's pretty good, isn't it?
Who has all power? God has all power. He's all-powerful,
He's all-knowing, He's all-seeing and He's everywhere present.
I mean, that's just the basics of who God is. And He's far more
than that, of course. All right, verse 5. Y'all are
not ever going to finish this reading. Let's go. By whom we
have received grace and apostleship, by Christ, Paul said he received
grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations. Among whom, referring now to
the Romans, are you also the called Now, it doesn't say, you
are called. It says, you are what? The called. Our good friend Norm Wells, who
lives in Oregon, lives in a town, some people call it just Dow's. Oh no, it's got T-H-E in front
of it. The Dow's. And this says, the
called. The called. Therefore, the word
called is not a verb, is it, Bonnie? You don't know. You taught history. Boy, no,
it was geography. Oh, my goodness. This is a noun and not a verb.
The called of Jesus Christ. In other words, Christ called
these believers in Rome to faith in Himself. In Himself. And wherever a believer is found,
in whatever generation it is, this is exactly how we came to
Him. You remember in Matthew chapter
8, I think it is, when He passed Matthew at the tax collector's
booth. He looked at him, called him
by name. said, Matthew, follow me. Matthew
got up and followed him. Now that's what it means for
Christ to call us. If he calls, you're coming. One way or the other, we're coming. Among whom you also, are you
also the called of Jesus Christ? To all that be in Rome, to all
of these called that are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints
or called to be saints, just like it was back in verse 1,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the end of one sentence
from beginning to end. First, he said, I'll tell you
what let's do. Let's put our marker right here
and just come right back to this after we sing our hymn, shall
we? All right, if you would rejoin
me in Romans chapter 1. We got one sentence in a while
ago. Let's see if we can do better this time. Paul has told us some of the most gracious elements
That composed the gospel of God. It has to do with God's Son. Now he continues in verse 8.
By the way, we're headed, I think, through verse 17, so maybe we
can make that. Verse 8, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all. that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Speaking
of the faith of the Roman believers. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit. Spirit. Ain't much to this flesh, you
know. It's all sin and it ain't getting any better. God is worshipped, how? In spirit
and in truth. God is my witness whom I serve
with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, the
gospel of God is the gospel of God's Son. That without ceasing
I make mention of you in my prayers, making request, verse 10, if
by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come to you, for I long to see you They've
never seen Paul's face. I long to see you. That I may impart to you some
spiritual gift to the end that you may be established. And he
restates that in different language. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith mine and yours, both of
you and me. Now, I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, and the King
James says, but was let hitherto. The word let means hindered,
kept from, hindered. Hitherto simply means up until
now. That is to say, he's hoping to
come, and he will, but he'll get there in chains. He won't
even have to pay his own way, but he's going to Rome. But I
might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. Verse 14. Paul speaks now of his debt in
the gospel to all men. He's talking about a spiritual
debt concerning the proclamation of the gospel. I am debtor both
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise,
so as much as in me is. I am ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. Now look at verse 16. For I am
not ashamed, not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Ah, preacher, ain't nobody ashamed
of the gospel. Say what? You are joking, aren't
you? Apart from grace, we'd all be
embarrassed to let anybody know that I believe
this gospel. Paul said concerning himself,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. You see, the true
gospel has some elements in it that make us want to kind of
leave them But it can't be done. You have no gospel left if you
do. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. What is it about the
gospel? Here it is in this one statement.
For it is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is God's
power unto salvation. to everyone that believes. This
gospel of God is a gospel of almighty power. And that is precisely
what it takes to save a sinner. And according to this, it is
to everyone that believes. There is no such thing as one
person being easier to save than another. My goodness. Some of them come out of the
ditch And some of them come out of the pulpit. Don't tell me
the one in the pulpit is easier than the one in the ditch. Uh-uh. No, indeed. I'm 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. For therein,
in that gospel, therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just, the
righteous, shall live by faith. Believing and trusting Christ
makes a poor sinner as righteous as Christ himself. Because in
that transaction, in that conversion, and in that salvation, God not
only takes away our sin, but He imputes to us the perfect
obedience of the Lord Jesus, making us perfectly righteous
in His sight. And it does not fluctuate. Righteousness does not go up
and down. And if it did, It would be the
exact opposite of what we think it should be. When we say we're
up, we'd be down, and vice versa. That's just the nature of things. The just shall live by faith,
live in Christ, who is our life, our all, our everything. just shall live by faith." Alright,
let me remind you. I was going to actually read
a second passage in Galatians, but I've got sense enough to
know I can't do it. This gospel is described in our
Bibles in various ways. It's given various titles. Already
in this chapter, we have it in verse 1 as the gospel of God. And in verse 9, the gospel of His Son. We've already got two of these
names. And it is also called the gospel
of God's glory. Christ is the glory of God. God reveals Himself through His
Son in His grace and mercy in Him. So this Gospel is altogether
about God's Son from start to finish. It ain't about us, it's
about Him. And this Gospel we read in verse
number 16 called the Gospel of Christ and in verse 16, again, it is the power of God. So the gospel of Christ is the
gospel of God's power, the power of His grace. Therefore, it's called in Acts
chapter 20, it's called the gospel of the grace of God. The gospel
is all grace from start to finish. There's no meriting, there's
no deserving, and there's no earning. And there's no ifs and
ands and buts. None. Every condition rests squarely
on the shoulders of our Redeemer. And the work of redemption is
already done. There's no question about the
work being done. It's finished. It's completed. It's done. That's enough. All right, I want to do five
things. I don't know if I can or not,
but I'm going to try. Everybody claims to have a gospel. As far as I know, about everybody
I know claims to have the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ. But let's find out about us.
We're not responsible about them. Other men can believe and teach
and preach whatever they please. Would to God it were not so,
but we cannot stoop to any physical, earthly means whatsoever to keep
those people from believing or teaching or preaching what they
believe. Can't do it. We're not interested in calling
the law. If God lets it exist, We'll have
to just leave her where she is. How do we know that the gospel
that we preach in this place is truly the gospel of God? Easiest and first answer to that
question is always this. Does it give God all the glory? If it does, it's His gospel because
it's called in this book the gospel of God's glory. If it
does not render to God all the glory, it is not the gospel of
this book. It just flat is not. How about looking at Psalms 115? Psalm 115. Here is a statement that is memorable,
simple, and yet one of the most urgent for our generation to
hear of any in all the Holy Scriptures. Psalm 115, verse 1. Here it is. Not unto us. Not unto us. But unto your name give glory
for your mercy and for your truth's sake, not unto us. Anybody that says man deserves
part of the honor and part of the glory doesn't know the message
of this book. I know. I've been in those shoes
and preached from this book while doing so. After a whole lot of struggle
and a lot of years of misery and suffering and stupidity,
God opened my eyes to see. Now I can't see anything else. The gospel is the gospel of God's
glory. All right, the second thing.
If you still have a hold of Psalms, just slip on over to Isaiah. And everybody in Bible class
this morning has already had a good sword drill, so you ought
to be ready. Isaiah chapter 8. The second thing is this, is
our gospel, is my gospel, is yours, is it true? to the Holy Scriptures, Old Testament
and New Testament. Is it true to the Bible, the
Word of God? If it's not, it's not the right
gospel. Verse 20 of Isaiah chapter 8.
Here's the rule of thumb. To the law and to the testimony
If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there
is no light in them." Listen, if it was just the difference
between one man and another man, it ain't a hill of beans of difference
between any of us. A smart man and a dumb man can
make mistakes of equal stupidity. But God has a people and when
He saves them, He saves them using the truth and only the
truth. Our Lord Jesus, who is Himself
the truth, He said, the truth shall make you free. The people that were hearing
him on that particular occasion, that stung. They said, what do
you mean free? He said, we are free. We've never
been anything but free. Our Lord was talking about their
souls, and they were talking about their bodies, but they
were lying even then. They were subject to the Roman
Empire. Rome had soldiers in that very city at that exact
second. They sent taxis to Rome whether
they wanted to or not. You see, we like to play games
with ourselves. If this gospel is true to the
Holy Scriptures, it sets men free. Free in Christ. Free in grace. All right, let's go back the
other way and look over at Colossians chapter 1 or 2. Let's see, we'll
do 2 to start with and that might be enough. Colossians, let's see, that's
on beyond Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and then Colossians
chapter 2 and verses 9 and 10. Colossians 2, 9, speaking of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus, in Him dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. That's like yesterday I was trying
to answer this guy's question about, doesn't the Bible say
Jesus doesn't know so and so? No, Frank. If He's not God, You
can take that statement, I won't say another word. But I said
if He's God, that ain't so. In Him, in Christ, dwells. I don't mean it comes for a little
while and then it's gone. It remains. It's ever been there,
it'll ever be there. The Lord Jesus Christ has never
been anything except God until He married That wonderful union
of a perfect human nature in taking on our nature so that
we would have a Savior. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead. And the most difficult word in
that verse to believe is the last one. What is it? Bodily. God in a human body. nature, the God-man, the God-man. Now verse 10, and you are complete
in him who is the head of all principality
and power, and so forth. Here's the point. Does my gospel
depend entirely, altogether and completely on the person and
the blessed work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, alone. Now, today's gospel depends part
on God and mostly on man, even though we used to say and people
still say that, well, man just has a little part. Yes, but it's
his little part that keeps God from having his part. You see
what I'm saying? If salvation is of the Lord and
yet man has to add one little tiny ingredient, then if God's
got 99%, it ain't any good until man gives the magic word. All of a sudden it works. That's
crazy, isn't it? That's crazy. The gospel of God is all Christ. from start to finish. That's
about as simple as I know how to say it. Simple indeed. Yet it is profound. Fourth question. Is our gospel
the gospel of God? Is it good news to honest-to-goodness
real sinners? Or does it have ifs in it? Ifs. If I do this, God will do
that. If it has ifs, it ain't His gospel. Now, don't get me wrong. There
was a time when the gospel of God had ifs. And they were. If Christ does, He will. Christ has. The price is paid. The work is done. Salvation is
finished. Therefore, there's no longer
any room for any doubt, any ifs, or ands, or buts, or maybes.
There's no room for that stuff. It doesn't work. Salvation is
of the Lord. This is God's gospel, and it
is His gospel in His Son. Alright, one more scripture. John chapter 6. Here's another key element to
the true gospel. Does our gospel not just save a sinner, but does
it keep him saved? Does our gospel keep a sinner
saved? Or can he lose it? Can he do
something so bad that God takes it back? Hey, don't look at me so strange.
Right this morning, somebody's telling somebody this. I mean,
folks dressed a whole lot nicer than you and me. Preacher's probably
even got a robe on. All right, John 6. Did you find
it? Verses 37 and 39, and I'll just read all three
while we're at it. I want you to recognize in John
6 that our Savior is saying this because of the unbelief of these
persons that had been so impressed with Him the previous day for
the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. In verse 15 of this chapter,
they even said, well, you know, he's not going to be our king
voluntarily. They'd already tried, I think, to make him, you know,
take the office. They said, we'll take him by
force and make him our king. Boy, that'll really work, won't
it? Take God and make him our king, whether he wants to be
or not. So they become exasperated, and our Lord speaks to them there
in verses following verse 22 all the way down to verse 36,
which ends and it says, But I said unto you that you also have seen
Me, and believe not. Now is the Lord Jesus worried
that people that He came to save won't let Him save them? Not
hardly. Let's read on. Verse 37. All
that the Father gives Me shall come to Me. not may, not can,
shall come to me, and him that comes to me." He's talking about being saved and
then lost. That ain't what this says. All the Father gives me shall
come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise, under
no circumstances whatsoever cast him out. where I came down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me." What? What is the Father's will concerning
Christ coming to this earth? This is the Father's will that
sent me? That of all which He's given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. The question answered, and the
answer is, Does this gospel promise to keep a poor sinner saved?
If that doesn't say yes, I don't know what yes is. Amen.