Paul's epistle to Romans, Romans
chapter 1. I told Brother Todd, and this
is my intention, just to spend a very, very few minutes before
Brother Donnie comes. That's my intention. I want to
read verses 1 through verse 4. Romans chapter 1 and verse 1
through 4. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures
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." I do not remember the location.
If my memory serves me correctly, it was here in this pulpit several
years ago. Pastor David Pleasure made a
very encouraging statement. encouraging to the church of
all ages, but encouraging especially to preachers, to pastors. And he made this statement. He
said, the faith, the body of truth, the gospel, the knowledge
of the gospel does not evolve from one generation to the next.
Each generation must be taught the gospel. It was well that our forefathers
and our fathers believed the gospel. But you and I must start
all over again and teach our generation. This does not evolve. And I think the error and mistake
that's being made in religion today is to think that everybody
knows the gospel. Everybody has heard the gospel.
It's time to move on to something else. The apostle Paul makes this statement
here that he was separated unto the gospel of God. It's called the gospel of God
because it's God's gospel. It originated with him. It was in his heart, in his mind,
in his thoughts way back yonder in eternity. isn't an everlasting
gospel. And as far as I know, that means
it's as everlasting as God Himself is. If you could take the wings
of faith and go back to the foundation of the world and soar back, back,
back in eternity, there you would find God. And there you would
find the gospel in His heart. Brother Donnie was talking with
the church this morning, and he said, all the false Gospels
that you and I are hearing today. If you knew history well enough,
you can find out the year, the day and the person those false
Gospels came from. You can trace them back to where
they originated from. Well, it's the same way with
the Gospel of God. It originated with Him. It's not the Bible. It's not
the Baptist Gospel. Bless God for all the old Baptists
who believed it and preached it. But it's not the Baptist
gospel or the Presbyterian gospel. It's God's gospel. It's God's
gospel. It's not of men. It's not by
man. It's God's gospel. And Paul made
three statements here concerning this gospel, and I'll give these
to you. And this is an amazing statement that he makes here
in verse 1 when you consider this man. You consider who this
man was before the Lord saved him, before he knew the Lord
Jesus Christ, before he knew the gospel. He makes this marvelous statement.
He says, I'm separated unto the gospel. Now, why is that an amazing
statement? This man hated the gospel. He
sought all he could do to stamp it out. He sought to do all he
could against the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He persecuted
the Lord's people, shut them up in prison, killed them. He
hated the gospel. I thought to do many things contrary
to the name of Jesus Christ the Lord, which things I did." And
here he says now, this same man says now, I'm separated. I know nothing but this gospel. Everything he used to preach,
he was separated from that. He used to preach the law of
Moses. Every Sabbath you'd find this man preaching the law of
Moses. He said, I don't preach circumcision anymore. I preach
the gospel. He used to preach the gospel
of morality, and now he says it's not by works of righteousness
which we've done. He used to preach the wisdom
of men very eloquently too, I'll bet you. But now he said, when
I come to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony of God, I claim to know nothing,
I profess to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Ain't that a marvelous thing? That here was a man who hated
Christ, hated the gospel, and now here's a man that says, I
know nothing but this gospel. I deny all other gospels. There
is but one gospel I believe. There's but one gospel I cleave
to. There's but one gospel I believe. That's the gospel of God. And
you know something, brothers and sisters, he preached nothing
but this gospel. He preached Christian living,
didn't he? We want to hear about Christian living. I do. Paul
preached Christian living. He preached to us to be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another. But he preached it vitally
united to this gospel. Even as God hath loved us, Christ
loved us and gave himself for us. God hath forgiven us, forgive
one another for Christ's sake. Give, be a cheerful giver. Give as God hath prospered you. For you know the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sake He
become poor, that you might be rich. I heard you say a long
time ago, Brother Henry, you can't improve on the Lord Jesus
Christ as a motivating force. You just can't do it. If you
want Christians to live right, if you want Christians to love
one another and be kind and tender one to another, preach the gospel.
Preach the gospel. I'm separated unto the gospel
of God." He makes another statement here in verse 2. This is an amazing statement
too. Where do we find out about this gospel? Where do we learn about this
gospel? How do you and I know that we believe the gospel of
God? You know what the apostle Paul
says here in verse 2, which he promised afore by his prophets
in the holy scriptures. It's been revealed. This gospel
of God is not hid from us. It's revealed all through the
Old Testament scriptures. How do we know? How do we know
who Jesus Christ is? we go to the Old Testament Scriptures. That's all they had, wasn't it?
In the New Testament, all they had was the Holy Scriptures.
But it tells us who He is. A virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, bear a child, and His name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with us. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and here is His name. Counselor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father. We know who He is from the Old
Testament Scriptures. How do we know that He satisfied
the law of God, that He was born unto it and fulfilled it when
He walked in the days of His? How do we know that? How do you
know that the Christ you believe in Fulfill all the law's demand. Because He said, Lo, I come to
do Thy will. Thy law is in my heart. It's preserved there. I love
it. I honor it. I magnify the law. He kept it perfectly. And in
His death, He meant it's just the man's death for sin. Did He not? How do we know He
did that? Our sins, our awful sins, must
be taken away. And this Gospel says they're
taken away. And you go to the Old Testament Scriptures and
you'll find out how our sins were taken away. Isaiah 53 tells
us that all we like sheep have gone astray. And God laid on
Him the iniquity on us all. And He owned them to be His.
Psalm 69, Thou knowest my sin, my foolishness. The Son of God
had no sin. He was not foolish. He is the
wisdom of God. But He took our sins in His own
body and said, This loathsome disease is in my loins. And what did He do with them? He bore them to His cross, didn't
He? God punished Him. How do we know that? The Scriptures
tell us that. He was smitten of God. He was
afflicted. And God looked upon his sufferings
and death, and here's what he said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. How do we know
he rose from the dead? Because he said, thou will not
leave my soul in hell, in the grave. You'll not suffer, thou
holy one, to see corruption. Three days and three nights.
He did not begin to decay. How do we know He raised from
the dead? He raised from the dead according to Scripture.
But did He ascend up into heaven? We never saw Him. How do we know
He did? God promised in the Old Testament
Scriptures, the prophets, Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors. Open those gates, and the Lord
of hosts shall come in. Jesus of Nazareth, raised from
the dead. And God said to him, My son,
sit on My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
We have these prophecies. We have these pictures. We have
these shadows all through the Scriptures that teaches us of
the gospel. Naaman going down there in that
muddy river of Jordan and coming up seven times and all that leprosy
being cleansed from him. What is that? That's the gospel.
That little baby laying out there in the open field, dead, polluted
in His own blood. Nobody could help her. And the
Lord comes along and saw her polluted in her blood and says,
Live! Live! What is that? That's the
gospel God promised in the Old Testament Scripture. Oh, I tell
you, brothers and sisters, if you want a faith, If you want
a faith in this gospel that devils or men can shake, then go to
the Scripture. I love our forefathers, and I
know you do too. I read that all the time. But
I tell you, if you want a faith devils cannot shake, go right
here. Go right here. Learn the gospel
from Scripture. Get it in your heart. See Christ. See the gospel as it's revealed
in the Word of God. That's where you'll find it. Let's hear a third lay of faith
in verse 3. What is this gospel? What is
this gospel? It's the gospel of God. It's
promised in the Old Testament Scripture, the Holy Scripture,
revealed in the New Testament. And here in verse 3, here's who
it's concerning. Concerning His Son. Concerning His Son. Now, we've
got to stop right there, haven't we? We've got to stop right there. Here's two different things.
Concerning His Son. That's the first thing. You know why so many people do
not believe in what Jesus Christ has done is effectual? You know
why they think so little of what He's done? They think so little
of Him. First and foremost, let's do
what the Apostle Paul did. Let's see who this gospel is
concerning. His Son. The Son of God. Now, why does the Apostle Paul
do this? Why does he begin there? Why doesn't he jump to the cross?
Why doesn't he jump to what the Son of God did first? Well, it
matters who did. what had to be done, doesn't
it? I'll give you three or four reasons
right quickly why the Apostle Paul, I think, follows this order.
There's many reasons. There's many reasons why he begins
with the Son of God, why he begins with the person before he goes
to his work. And I know you can't separate
things, but you've got to begin with a person. You've got to
begin with a person. Why does the Apostle Paul do
that? Let me give you three or four reasons. First of all, There
is something, Brother Scott Richardson said years ago, there is something
more glorious in Jesus Christ even than there is in that great
redemption which He accomplished. What could be more glorious than
the redemption that He accomplished? And you know what Scott said?
The glory of who He is. The glory of His person. I tell
you, brothers and sisters, before He ever created the world, the
world of humanity, to be ruled by His own finger, before He
ever came to this world and cut to Himself our likeness, before
He ever went to the cross, He was glorious. And if He had done
none of those things, He would have been glorious still. The
gospel reveals His redeeming glory. I know that. But oh, the
glory of His person, that essential glory. He's glorious. He's glorious. And you know something? That's
what makes what He did so effectual. It's because of who He is. Look
over here with me to 1 John. 1 John chapter 1. Look here how the apostle John
says this. I had a Jehovah witness. He worked
with some of the fellows there at the church and he wanted to
talk to me. He wanted to come over to my house and talk to
me. One time I said, yes, come on, come on. He came and he came
in the house and I told him, I said, now listen. I said, this
is my house and I'm going to lay the ground, I'm going to
lay the ground rules by which I'll talk to you. I'm not concerned
whether you believe in heaven or hell. I'm not concerned whether
you believe there's 144,000 saved or whoever. I'm not concerned
with any of that. One thing I'll talk to you about. If you'll
agree to talk with me about that, I'll talk with you. What think
ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? And he said,
I believe He's the Son of God. I said, how long do you believe
He's been the Son of God? He said, well, sometime before
the world was created, He became the Son of God. I said, so He's
a creature then. Yes, but He's a mighty, but He's
a creature. Yes, but He's a good creature.
But He's a creature. He's a creature. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
a creature ain't going to help us. We need the Creator. Huh? The Son of God. What Christ did means nothing
to that man because he has no idea who He is. Look here what
John says about it in verse 1, 1 John chapter 1. That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, we've heard him
with our ears. We have seen him with our eyes.
We've looked upon him. Our hands have physically handled
him. Who is it? The Word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness. and show unto you," look at this,
"...that eternal life which was with the Father." He has no beginning. As the Son of Mary, He had a
beginning. Coming in the flesh, He had that. But I tell you,
as the Son of God, He has no beginning. He is eternal. He
has been with the Father forever with Him, along beside Him. He
is the Son of God. And oh, ain't it amazing now?
Ain't that amazing? If you just thank the eternal
Son of God, that's who the gospel is concerned. Then, then, then
we realize something. We realize this, secondly, it's
going to take somebody like him to do for us what has to be done. I say the Apostle Paul began
here in the book of Romans in this third verse telling us of
the Son of God because he had some bad news for us as to who
we are. As we read over through the book
of Romans, you and I are under a broken covenant. We are under
the law of God that has been sinned against, that curses us. whatsoever things the law says,
it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped, and the world become guilty before God. How are you
and I to be saved from this curse of the law, this broken covenant? Somebody is going to have to
redeem us from it. Some able person, some mighty
person that is capable must come here. and have the merit and
the power to satisfy this broken law that you and I are living
under. And there's something else. What
about this matter of us being enemies of God? We're far off
from God. Brothers and sisters, we're not
what we used to be. We're not what we was when God
made us. We rebelled against God. We left
God. We are far off from God. We hate
God by nature. Somebody has to reconcile us
to God. Angels can't do it. Let them
get together and come up with the best plan they can find. They can't do it. What about this business of sin?
Forgiveness of sin? What about this business of God
being just and justifying? How can He do that? How to declare
you of your guilt and be just in doing so? Now, all those questions
are answered. Here is the Son of God. Here
is the Son of God. Who can redeem us from the curse
of this law? The Son of God can. Who can bear
our sins and atone for them? The Son of God can. Who can justify
us before God? The Son of God can. I think there's another reason
why the Apostle Paul would tell us this, too. And it's for this reason. Doesn't
knowing who he is first, doesn't that make it amazing that he
could come in the flesh? He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, the eternal Son of God. made flesh? How could that possibly be? That's
amazing. That He could come down. Oh, for an angel to do it would
be amazing. But for the Eternal Son of God
to become a man, to be born of a woman, to hang upon His mother's
breast. Mystery of mysteries. Mystery
of mysteries. I quit. I quit. I gave you something to crank
about. God bless you. God bless you.